Book 10: Chapter 67: Coincidental Encounter

“Ghost Kid” Casey, a High-Rank Apostle from the Apostle City “Heaven’s Edge,” belonged to the Nirvana team. He had a brief encounter with Qin Lun in the Nals World.

Back then, Casey, along with two other High-Rank Apostles from the Nirvana team, had plotted to assassinate the legendary Grand Druid, Master Vima. Their scheme was thwarted by Qin Lun, Hill, and others. Qin Lun narrowly survived that battle, ultimately learning his first A+ rank magic skill, Tree World Descent. However, his Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross was seized by the Forest Goddess and Moon Goddess while he was vulnerable.

Seriously speaking, Qin Lun held no personal grudge against Casey. Sometimes Apostles faced opposing plotlines, guaranteeing that one side would suffer and lose. Besides, back then, Qin Lun hadn’t even undergone his Class Change when Casey, a High-Rank Apostle, sincerely invited him. They actually held a bit of mutual goodwill.

“You are…” Casey looked hesitant, recalling something but not daring to confirm.

“Nars!” Qin Lun raised his glass with a smile and nodded towards him.

“No way, is it really you, kid?” Casey’s large eyes widened in astonishment on his baby-face. “You’ve reached High Rank?”

“Not yet. Second Order, came with someone else.” Qin Lun replied with a reserved smile.

“Oh!” Casey visibly let out a long breath, then gave a bitter laugh and shook his head. “Still fast. I remember you were just starting to touch the edge of your profession… how many Quest Worlds to reach Second Order? Twelve? Thirteen? At most less than fifteen?”

Casey’s large eyes rolled playfully, a hint of sly mischief flashing between his brows.

“Stop guessing. It’s just Second Order, not worth your obsession!” Qin Lun gave a wry smile. He dared not underestimate the man before him. Truthfully, strategically, they hadn’t won that conflict back then. If the Forest Goddess hadn’t coveted his Iron Cross Medal, he would have died.

“Haha, that’s still pretty great!” Casey slapped his shoulder familiarly, grinning broadly. “First time at the club? Come on, let me introduce you to some friends.”

Casey led Qin Lun through the crowd, stopping and moving. It was clear this “Ghost Kid” possessed exceptional wisdom and seemed quite popular. After strolling around, Casey had connected Qin Lun with at least seven or eight major teams.

“Having a handsome face sure gives you an advantage!” Qin Lun watched Casey acting playful and cute beside two female Apostles, making them giggle like blooming flowers, and couldn’t help but rub his chin with an amused smirk. Unfortunately, styles differed. Even if Qin Lun had a similarly youthful face, he probably couldn’t ‘play young’ as excellently.

After spending quite some time with Casey, Qin Lun finally took his leave. More Apostles were arriving at the club, but the flow of people to and from the rear garden was stabilizing. Most had already listed potential auction items on their lists; it was almost time to get down to business.

Qin Lun returned to the castle’s rear garden, catching an auction flyer and slowly reviewing the auction list.

The club convened every two months. Due to the expensive entrance fee and transaction taxes, most High-Rank Apostles didn’t attend every time, so attendance usually hovered around two hundred per event.

However, the Shattered Starry Sky had just fought a major battle against the Superstring Space, causing turbulence in every Apostle City. Consequently, this auction was livelier. Qin Lun roughly estimated that over five hundred Apostles were already in the manor.

“These auction items are truly impressive!” Qin Lun browsed the list, his eyes frequently gleaming with interest.

Nearly a thousand items were already listed. Qin Lun was interested in seventy to eighty percent of them—worthy of a high-end auction. Yet, their prices were terrifyingly high. The cheapest starting bid he’d seen so far was 250,000 Shattered Crystal for a Purple Gold Wand.

As for World Treasures level recovery items and high-tier Magic Scrolls, these weren’t sold individually. Most were sold in bundles of two or three, with high-demand scrolls often bundled with more obscure, niche scrolls.

This approach was novel to Qin Lun, yet it showed the highly refined auction process, minimizing risks for both buyers and sellers while discouraging speculators.

The auction list was broadly divided into Equipment, Skill Scrolls, Consumables, and Bloodline Items. Qin Lun first focused on Consumables. Following the plan discussed with his fellow murderous companions, his priority was acquiring High-tier Magic Scrolls to enhance his survival capabilities in the Toril World.

This was one advantage of possessing a World Token. For other Quest Worlds, you never knew if a Magic Scroll would be usable, so naturally, nobody paid exorbitant prices for high-tier scrolls.

Qin Lun tapped rapidly on the flyer, selecting five sets of bundled Magic Scrolls. Since he couldn’t guarantee winning any specific bundle, he needed to make multiple selections as fallbacks, but not too many. Once selected, the funds for those items would be frozen by the Star Void. Unless he relinquished the bid, he couldn’t touch that money again.

Among these five bundled Magic Scroll sets, four were hybrid types – meaning each bundle contained one offensive, one defensive, and one support scroll, though the focus varied. While the bundled Magic Scrolls typically grouped popular and obscure ones together, the sellers paid attention to synergy, trying to maximize the bundle’s utility.

For example: The most expensive bundle Qin Lun chose consisted of the Ninth-tier fire magic Meteor Fall, the Seventh-tier light magic Divine Light’s Healing, and the Seventh-tier earth magic Earth Cage.

Meteor Fall, this large-scale offensive fire magic, was extremely popular. Divine Light’s Healing and Earth Cage, however, were less so. The Divine Light affinity was fantastic against curses and black magic damage, but its pure healing effect wasn’t as good as water magic. Earth Cage, as a defensive magic, was practical, unfortunately it being Seventh-tier made it somewhat awkward. Its function wasn’t much different from the Sixth-tier Earthen Wall.

One offered all-around protection, the other was single-sided. The single-sided Earthen Wall could also block enemies, while Earth Cage was really only useful when surrounded. Moreover, a Seventh-tier scroll cost twice as much as a Sixth-tier scroll – not really worth it.

Apart from these four hybrid scroll bundles, the last one Qin Lun chose was somewhat peculiar. It was a set of scrolls for special purposes: Eighth-tier Death Ray and two Seventh-tier Eye Tyrant’s Will.

Seeing the description of this bundle even surprised Qin Lun. These scrolls weren’t standard magics; they were the innate spells of the Beholder race.

According to the spell description, Death Ray was incredibly potent, not inferior to some Ninth-tier spells or even Forbidden Spells. Its only drawback was being single-target.

When this scroll was activated, it would unleash a Death Ray equivalent to one shot by a Beholder Tyrant. The ray forced an immediate Mental Will contest upon the target. Anyone with a mental strength less than the Beholder Tyrant would have their Soul extinguished instantly – terrifyingly ruthless.

Generally, non-Apostles and non-Legendary Profession NPCs had no resistance against this spell. The mental upper limit of a Beholder Tyrant rivaled that of gods. If it weren’t for Legendary Professions having unique defenses against mental assaults, even they could easily fall victim.

Even if the Mental Will contest was passed, Death Ray would still unleash an additional mental shock, causing effects like paralysis or hallucinations based on the target’s degree of resistance.

However, Qin Lun’s primary interest in this bundle wasn’t the Death Ray scroll, but the two Seventh-tier Eye Tyrant’s Will scrolls. Beholders themselves possessed incredibly high Mental Willpower; even gods found it hard to enslave them. They typically ruled alone over pockets of Underdark creatures, with little interaction even with their own kind.

The Seventh-tier Eye Tyrant’s Will scroll temporarily boosted the user’s Mental Willpower by nearly 30 points, with no other side effects. The catch was that the Apostle’s base Mental Willpower (without equipment) had to be at least 60 points.

Qin Lun’s base Mental Willpower was 73 points; with his gear, it hit 99. His goal for these spells was to facilitate casting the A+ rank, Ninth-tier wood magic – Tree World Descent. For him, the two Seventh-tier Eye Tyrant’s Will scrolls were essentially substitutes for two Tree World Descent casts – a very high bargain price for him.

Yet, for the High-Rank Apostles present, their base attributes had long peaked. Skills suitable for their Professions usually faced no casting barriers. Consequently, this Magic Scroll was extremely niche, largely ignored, acting merely as filler for the Death Ray scroll.

Indeed, when Qin Lun spotted this bundle, it was completely neglected. Death Ray was good, but not good enough to justify paying for two useless scrolls. He felt confident he could win this bundle at the starting bid.

After reviewing the Magic Scrolls, Qin Lun shifted his attention to other categories within Consumables. He soon selected two World Treasures: a Gargoyle Statue and Construct Beetles.

The Gargoyle Statue needed no introduction; Qin Lun wanted it as a scout. The seller bundled five Statues, enough for his upcoming expedition needs.

The Construct Beetles, however, were more precious. These were Construct creatures powered by Magic Crystals, each no bigger than a fingernail, with razor-sharp teeth effective against anything, plus capabilities for burrowing and short-range flight. Releasing the two large vats of beetles the seller was offering would likely startle even a Legendary Profession bearer.

Still, both items were outrageously pricey. The five Gargoyles started at 150,000 Shattered Crystal; the winning bid would likely not fall below 200,000. The Construct Beetles’ starting bid alone was a hefty 350,000; the final price probably wouldn’t fall below 500,000, equivalent to a piece of Sub-Legendary Equipment.

Qin Lun pondered for a moment and selected several similar backup items, such as Griffin Summoning Stones and Construct Hummingbirds.

After reviewing Consumables, Qin Lun checked his actual Shattered Crystals and gave a bitter smile – less than half of 4 million remained. Thankfully, most of the things he selected had alternatives, meaning he’d get back at least half the funds.

“Seems things are unexpected. I probably won’t get many Legendary Equipment pieces,” Qin Lun thought to himself. His focus then shifted to Bloodline Items.