Alchemy Flintlocks

As one of the few Extraordinary beings on Paradise Island to have reached the middle sequence, Abigail was as renowned for his strength as he was for his name. As soon as he stepped out of the carriage, many Extraordinary beings greeted him.

Abigail truly had no airs about him. With a big pipe clenched between his teeth, he answered them heartily.

Ian and Lia followed behind him, presented their admission tickets, and entered the lavishly decorated auction house without trouble.

The auction house had a foyer just inside the entrance. It was a waiting area for those attending the auction in the main hall.

As one of the powerful forces in Paradise Port, the Whaling Group had a private, semi-open room on the second floor.

The open side faced the auction hall, and the entire wall was fitted with curtains that gave off a faint magical-energy fluctuation.

From inside the curtains, it was easy to see the hall and the auction stage below, but no one outside could see in. It ensured the privacy of the VIPs on the second and third floors.

With an attendant leading the way, Abigail and the others entered the second-floor room. Five members of the Whaling Group were already waiting inside.

Ian had met four of them before: Damir, Greg, Jill, and Uma.

The one he hadn't met was a bald man named Warren, who captained a whaling ship and had only recently returned to Paradise Port.

The atmosphere in the room was quite relaxed. Everyone shared the latest news and joked around now and then. Even the stern Damir wore a smile.

Ian could tell that Uma really was guileless and loved to fool around. She was practically the group's cheerleader.

Damir sat behind Abigail and usually just listened, rarely voicing an opinion.

Greg, Jill, and Warren were clearly not fully focused on the conversation. Their minds were obviously on other things.

Warren in particular had pretended to be nonchalant while sizing Ian up several times.

Ian's keen spiritual senses let him notice any gaze fixed on him. He couldn't tell whether Warren was simply curious or had another reason, so he quietly kept an eye on him.

As a loud burst of music rang through the hall, the doors opened and a large crowd streamed inside.

Even with his spiritual senses reined in, Ian could feel the powerful spiritual fluctuations mingling below.

The hall, which could seat three hundred, was packed. Including the dozen or so rooms on the second and third floors, nearly half of those attending were Extraordinary beings.

More than ten of them were middle-sequence powerhouses. They made no effort to conceal their spiritual fluctuations, keeping the attendees in the hall below on their best behavior.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to today's auction. I'm Ryan, an auctioneer with the Royal Auction House..."

"Today's auction is unprecedented in scale, with many distinguished guests in attendance. It's my honor to introduce them to everyone..."

Idres, Paradise Island's archbishop of the God of Truth and Justice; Saleh, Paradise Island's archbishop of the God of the Sea...

Andymion, president of the Alchemist Fellowship's Paradise Island branch; Abigail, head of the Whaling Group...

Demos Poldoria, Crown Prince of the Poldoria Kingdom; Alanisse, daughter of the Emerald Duke...

The names of archbishops of the seven orthodox gods, nobles from the various kingdoms, and middle-sequence Extraordinary beings made everyone in attendance's hearts pound.

Ian noticed that nobles from the Bema Duchy and the Winter Kingdom were there too. How strange. Had they made peace?!

"Once again, I'd like to thank all of our distinguished guests for attending today's auction. And now, the auction officially begins..."

"The first lot is an alchemical weapon made by an Alchemist: the Explosive Flintlock."

At the auctioneer's signal, the first lot was brought onto the stage.

Inside a delicate metal case lay an Alchemy Flintlock about a meter long, its barrel covered in intricate patterns.

Beside it were two small boxes. One held twenty specially made bullets, neatly arranged; the other contained Alchemy Gunpowder.

This flintlock could fire specially made explosive bullets, as well as ordinary ones. However, it required Alchemy Gunpowder, or its power would be greatly diminished.

Alchemical equipment was different from Magic Equipment, though many ordinary people confused the two. That could be extremely dangerous.

Magic Equipment, Spiritual Equipment, curios, and even sealed objects of taboo all possessed spiritual traits and could only be used by Extraordinary beings.

Alchemical equipment, on the other hand, was ordinary equipment made by Alchemists. Drawing on their extraordinary perception and understanding of material properties, they used alchemical methods to forcefully combine or restructure materials.

It had no spiritual traits and was just like conventional equipment used by ordinary people. The difference was that it was far more powerful.

Great power could sometimes be a drawback. This Alchemy Flintlock, for instance, had such strong recoil that ordinary people couldn't use it at all.

An Alchemy Flintlock like this was usually kept as a backup weapon by an Extraordinary being, or used as a substitute when no suitable Magic Weapon was available.

The auctioneer briefly went over the flintlock's specifications, then picked it up and showed it off in detail.

"The bidding starts at 100 gold coins. Each bid must be at least 10 gold higher. Please place your bids—"

"200 gold—"

"210 gold—"

"..."

"600 gold, going once..."

"600 gold, going three times. Sold!"

This was just an opening act. It hadn't drawn many bidders, and the lot was quickly removed after the auctioneer brought down his gavel.

The very first lot had sold for 600 gold. An ordinary farmhand couldn't afford that even after working his entire life. Ian couldn't help thinking that the gap between rich and poor was staggering in any world.

In a Sherlock Holmes story from his previous life, "The Hound of the Baskervilles," the deceased left an estate worth 740,000 pounds. At the time, a low-paid worker could earn only 10 pounds a year, meaning it would take seventy-four thousand years of continuous work to earn that much.

Even in the modern age of his previous life, working people thought three-yuan buns were too expensive for breakfast, while a rich man's daughter could eat buns costing 400 yuan and be praised for her "frugality."

On the third floor of the auction house, Alanisse lounged half-reclined in her chair, utterly lacking in decorum. She propped her delicate face on her right hand, her green eyes gazing blankly at the ceiling decorations.

Her snow-white chin, long neck, and delicate collarbones formed a gentle curve that made one want to bury oneself in it.

As the Emerald Duke's daughter, she had been raised from birth to become a duchess in her own right. She had attended countless banquets and auctions over the years and simply couldn't muster any interest.

Only after she had a clever younger brother did she finally escape those tedious lessons.

She had begged to come to Paradise Island for a long time before her father finally agreed to let her lead the delegation.

Several more lots were sold after the Alchemy Flintlock, and the atmosphere in the hall gradually heated up.

"The next lot is a curio: an Activated Rope."

Two attendants carried a box onto the stage, straining under its weight.

Inside was a large coil of seemingly ordinary yellow hemp rope, as thick as a thumb and neatly coiled in the box.

"This Activated Rope came from a ghost ship. Without any help from sailors, it can automatically handle a small sailing ship's sails, including raising and lowering them, as well as tacking with or against the wind."

"It can also quickly bind or drag objects at its owner's command."

"It knows nearly all the knots and binding techniques commonly used by sailors, and can even learn every rope-handling trick it sees."