Ning's eyes fell on Truven the moment he entered. He had seen the man before, so recognition came easily. They seemed stunned by the size of the shop as anyone else would have.
Even Rova and Laila couldn't stop gawking around the shop every now and then, and they had been let in yesterday.
Hadden had been the only one to rein in his surprise the fastest, but that young man had been through so much the past month. He had seen too many illogical things for one more illogical thing to keep his surprise for long enough.
The line in front of him was split into 5 this time around, with all 5 lines having more and more people added to it each time. The people in that queue filled the sheet for the bid, but they didn't immediately leave.
People stayed around to tour the shop, and with so many new items displayed, they hung around for longer than just an hour or two.
Rova roamed through a large shop, struggling to get to people who wanted to learn more about the items they were viewing or to just simply buy them.
He felt a little guilty watching her work so hard. The shop was too big for her to handle all by herself. Still, she did her best. After all, each sale here meant more earnings for her.
With a 5% income on all sales, she was going to make damn sure that she sold anything and everything she could.
The items on sale this time were far better than the last time, so the sales were going to be higher too.
Truven appeared before Ning and held the paper in his hand. "We meet again, lord Ning," he said.
Ning looked at him with a smile. "I'm no lord," he said. "But it is good to see you again, Lord Truven."
The last time he had met the man, he had shown him two of his cores and explained neither. It was fun.
"Have you come for the Shadow Scythes? You better bid a lot. People end up bidding quite a bit, and this artifact has a skill attached to it," Ning said.
"I heard," Truven said. "I'm sorry, but I find that a little difficult to believe. Would you mind showing it to me?"
"Sure," Ning said and reached behind him to the wall where the scythes lay hung. He only had to grab one and he could activate the skill in the sword.
Truven felt Ning pour Essence into the scythes, but the essence he felt was so much more than Shadow Essence. Shadow essence, while rare, was still easy to be found if searched for.
But this was something else.
The skill in the scythe activated, and Ning disappeared in a black puddle beneath him. He remained there for a while before appearing back outside.
Sounds of gasps rang through the room from everyone who saw it happen up close. Truven showed signs of surprise too.
"Will that do?" Ning asked.
The man nodded. "That will do," he said. Upon the urging of people behind him, he quickly filled the bid and walked to the side, but he still talked with Ning.
"I suppose it's not possible to directly sell to the nobles what you've made. Instead of doing all this, I mean," the man said.
"I can," Ning said. "But I would like to use this opportunity to improve my shop's name more than anything."
"But it's not your shop," Truven said. "It doesn't belong to you, right?"
"Oh," Ning gave a somewhat surprised look. "You know about the arrangement? No, it's technically not my shop, but it will be for as long as I stay here."
"What about afterward?" Truven asked. "You need to make a name for yourself."
Ning couldn't help but chuckle. "Do you think I would have any problems with that?" he asked. "I came to this city less than a month ago and see what I've done. I don't need a name to make a name."
Truven's stunned expression remained for a while. "I see," he said. "I wish you good luck then."
"Thank you," Ning said.
"I'm having a party for my daughter's acceptance to the institute in 3 days. Will you come?" the man asked.
Ning thought for a bit. "If I have the time, sure. I don't see why I couldn't," he said. "But only because it's you."
He added the last part for the others that were eavesdropping on their conversation. If he accepted a request without adding that, there would've been a whole new heap of invitations to reject.
"Thank you," Truven said. "I will send a formal invite later."
The man left after that, along with the bald man he had come in with.
A few hours later, Ning put in the final deadline for the auction and stopped letting people from adding to the queues. After that, all that was left was to announce the highest bidder.
After talking the 5 large boxes out through the backdoors, Ning quickly asked the system who the highest bidder was and got a rather surprising answer.
"20 thousand Fire Coins?" Even Ning was unable to hide his shock at the amount. "Are you sure?"
<Yes>
There was nothing more to ask. The piece of paper where the bid was written floated out, and along with it the name of the person who had bid.
'They should have known the last bid was no more than 5000, why did they bid so high?' Ning thought. 'Well, I can't understand the thought process of a rich guy, I suppose.'
He announced the winner like he had last time.
"The highest bid was 20 thousand Fire Coins. If you wish to come get the item right away, come. Or you can come anytime within the next 3 days and tell me your name to get it."
Ning's announcement sent a shock through the crowd, as expected.
"As for my next artifact reveal, it will happen in a week from now, but my shop will start holding higher-grade artifacts starting tomorrow," Ning shouted. "Please come visit when you have the time."
