Suren emptied his savings to bid on the Eight-Armed Spider God Spear Implant Blueprint.
Though he was delighted, he also found it strange.
This Alchemical Implant Blueprint seemed like a custom-made exclusive blueprint for his Abomination Puppeteer profession. Whether it was the stringent usage requirements or its effects, it fit him almost perfectly.
There had always been the concept of "profession-exclusive implant blueprints" in this world. They were blueprints refined and perfected through countless generations of alchemists to achieve the greatest possible compatibility between Augment Armor and profession.
But generally speaking, only the great families of the Inner City were particular enough to pair professionals with exclusive Augment Armor.
For Outer City residents, successfully changing professions already made someone one in ten thousand. Finding a reasonably compatible Alchemical Implant was good enough; who would dare hope for an exclusive blueprint?
Besides, a Golden Blueprint might not appear in the Black Market even once every few months, yet he had happened upon one. Wasn't that too much of a coincidence?
Before long, however, he realized it was not because he was lucky, but because this Black Market auction had truly brought in a large batch of astonishing treasures.
The Golden Blueprint he had purchased, which others considered utterly useless, was merely an appetizer.
Suren was still aching over his eight hundred thousand when the next auction item appeared in the projection on the rock wall.
It was a pitch-black hand bone.
The item description stated that it was Flamedeer's Hand Bone, a Cursed Object of outstanding Silver Quality and a Job Advancement Material for the rare spellcasting profession, Dark Fire Sorcerer. It was likewise a newly unearthed Ancient Relic.
The moment it appeared, it sparked a fierce bidding war among the Black Market crowd. In the end, it went to a mysterious buyer for more than four million.
Yet the climax did not end there.
The next item was another Gold Grade blueprint: the Diamond Skeleton Implant Blueprint for the Melee Type. Starting price: 1.9 million.
The next item was an Alchemy Grimoire excavated from an Ancient Relic. Its contents had yet to be deciphered, but it was suspected to record Second Tier and above Elemental Conversion Techniques and Seal Methods. Starting price: 2.1 million.
The next item was an antique Alchemical Scroll made of beast hide. It too remained undeciphered, but appraisal suggested it recorded High Tier Rune Knowledge. Final price: 1.3 million.
One rare treasure after another appeared, and the prices climbed ever higher.
The atmosphere in the dim underground Black Market auction house was whipped into a feverish frenzy.
It seemed some wealthy big shots had received advance word and prepared vast amounts of cash for this batch of fine goods. They spent lavishly, bidding without hesitation whenever they saw an item they liked.
While marveling that the Outer City had so many hidden tycoons, Suren also realized that most of today's treasures were products of wilderness hunting from the same relic.
He immediately realized that a brand-new large-scale relic must have been discovered.
Obviously, the truth was exactly as he had guessed. Suren was not the only one with that thought.
With so many Ancient Relics appearing at this Black Market auction, everyone guessed that a large relic had been discovered. Soft murmurs of people whispering to one another drifted through the Black Market streets.
"A large Ancient Relic?"
For some reason, Suren suddenly thought of the city relic shrouded in mist that he had seen deep underground when he first arrived in this world.
Could that city have been discovered?
Although the auction had not revealed where this batch of items came from, and Suren had no way to verify his suspicions, the Outer City lacked no influential figures with immense connections. Since they were Ancient Relics, they had surely been brought back by a Wilderness Hunter Group. There were no secrets that could stay hidden forever. After this auction, a great many people would become rich overnight, and information would probably emerge soon enough.
This was a rare auction. Even the Black Market shop owners watched in amazement.
If he went out now, the drifters waiting outside the Black Market would definitely tail him like he was a fat sheep.
So after winning the blueprint, Suren did not rush to leave.
Most Black Market shop owners had information channels far more reliable than ordinary people's.
Perhaps because he had made a small profit from selling materials earlier, the owner of Gerson Alchemy Shop offered Suren a piece of information for free.
The old man said, "Rumor has it this batch of goods was brought out from an Ancient Relic discovered underground in the D33 Wasteland Zone by the Inner City's Crimson Halberd Wilderness Hunter Group. But that hunter group was ambushed by a group of mysterious raiders before entering the city and was wiped out entirely. Naturally, the goods are stolen loot. That's why they couldn't be listed for auction at an Inner City auction house."
"Raiders" were essentially professional bandits who chose to ambush Wilderness Hunters returning to the city.
Usually, those people might be professionals, mercenaries, gang members, or even other Wilderness Hunters.
When Suren heard the old man say this, a look of realization appeared on his face.
Of course. These items could clearly have fetched better prices in the Inner City, yet they had appeared in the Outer City Black Market. Only stolen goods that could not see the light of day explained it.
Still, when Suren heard that, he frowned slightly and thought, D33 Wasteland Zone? If it's nearby, these really could be items from that relic city.
After hearing this news, he even felt that the Eight-Armed Spider God Spear Implant Blueprint might truly be the profession-exclusive Alchemical Implant Blueprint for his Abomination Puppeteer profession.
If his guess was right, then the place where this blueprint had been found was very likely Storm Manor.
Could it be that after he left, some Wilderness Hunters had gone and cleared out the Cursed Space at Storm Manor?
No, that could not be right. Pestoya was clearly very strong.
In Suren's view, she possessed at least officer-level combat power and was also an extremely troublesome Phantom Species. An ordinary wilderness hunting party could not possibly do anything to her.
He had heard the shop owner mention that Crimson Halberd Wilderness Hunter Group. It seemed to have only a few veteran Tier 1 Professionals and not even one Second Tier professional. Otherwise, they would not have been intercepted so easily and wiped out completely.
Perhaps the items had been found somewhere else?
Had those people gone into the city?
Suren's thoughts drifted, but then he felt that was even less likely.
He still clearly remembered the even more terrifying Mutated Monsters wandering through that ruined city relic.
At that moment, the shop owner spoke again. "Although news of the relic's exact location hasn't spread yet, before long, Old Lindun will probably see a wave of wilderness hunting fever. Business will be good again for a while."
After saying that, the little old man added in what sounded like a sigh, "But sadly, plenty of people will die too."
"..."
Listening to him, Suren's thoughts raced.
The more he learned about this world, the less he felt he understood it. Instead, it only seemed increasingly mysterious.
The relic had left behind so many treasures, which meant the underground city must once have possessed an exceptionally glorious civilization and very powerful alchemists.
If it had possessed such a powerful civilization, how exactly had that city been destroyed?
The transition of civilizations was always accompanied by great disasters.
Suren's instincts told him that the ancient city relic was far from simple.
Something feels wrong. Why does it seem like someone deliberately spread news of the relic through this auction to lure people into searching for it?
A conspiracy theory instinctively surfaced in Suren's mind.
But he did not dwell on it.
If someone truly used such a deadly "bait," then even knowing the death rate was high, Wilderness Hunters would still rush toward it one after another.
In Old Lindun, human lives were not worth much.
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