"What are you staring at, boy? Are you going to pay or what?" The old man asked when he saw Max staring at him.
Max could only blame himself for falling for his trick and proceeded to take out 600,000 Mana stones. However, before he could give them to the old man, an arrogant voice sounded, "Wait!"
The old man's eyes shined brightly when he saw Max take out so many Mana stones and when he heard someone stopping Max pay, he immediately became angry, and shouted, "Which bastard is stopping us from doing business? Are you tired of living?"
When Max heard the voice, he found it somewhat familiar and turned to see who it was.
A well-built and handsome man, with an arrogant look on his face, was walking toward them with a beautiful golden-haired woman walking by his side. Three people were following after them like bodyguards.
"Mm?" Max's brows shot up when he saw the woman. Belen and others shared the same reaction. Leticia murmured, "Is it only me or does this woman really resemble that Flavia girl?"
The two people coming were Jack and Janice. Jack's expression became sullen when he noticed everyone's attention on Janice when he was the one who spoke before.
Janice also felt a little weird being stared at and from the looks they were giving her, it seemed they knew her but she was certain that she had never seen them before.
Suddenly, she realized something and her expression became ugly, 'Are they that bitch's friends?'
However, when her gaze fell on Max, she fell into a momentary daze and almost blurted out, 'What a charming man!'
After she regained her senses and she noticed that the look in Max's eyes was slightly different than others, her eyes glinted coldly as she thought, 'Is he in love with that bitch? How can she have everything good when I'm stuck with this loser? No, I can't let her have him.'
Thinking this, she put on an enchanting smile on her face and maintained a meter distance from Jack. Jack noticed this and could immediately guess the reason behind the sudden change in her attitude. He then looked at Max as if he was his mortal enemy.
A moment later they arrived near them. Janice smiled at him and took a step forward to greet him. When Jack saw this, he sneered and looked at Max threateningly.
Max completely disregard his warning gaze and continued looking at Janice. Meanwhile, the old, seeing both Jack and Janice ignore him, snapped, "Are you guys deaf? Didn't you hear me? Why are you interrupting my business?"
Janice stopped in her tracks upon hearing the old man and struggled to keep her calm expression.
On contrary, Jack seemed a little happy that Janice didn't get to do what she had in mind. He glanced at the old man and politely said, "Old sir, you misunderstand us. We aren't here to interrupt but give you more business instead."
"Oh? If that's the case, you are welcome." The old man immediately calmed down and smiled, "However, you've to wait for a moment, let him make the payment before I'll come to you."
He then looked at Max and said, "Don't keep those stones hanging in the air, hurry and pay up."
Hearing him, Max moved his gaze away from Janice and prepared to give the Mana stones to the old man. However, he was interrupted once again by Jack.
"There is no need for him to pay because I'll be buying that beauty pill," Jack said.
The old man's eyes glowed when he heard this and shouted jubilantly in his mind, 'This is perfect! They both want the beauty pill. If they compete for it, I will be able to earn more Mana stones.'
After a moment, he calmed down, looked at Jack, and said, "This boy here is buying it for 600,000 low-grade Mana stones. If you are willing to cough up... I mean pay more than him, I'll sell it to you."
Max and the ladies frowned when they heard the old man. Max narrowed his eyes and unhappily said, "Old man, that's not right. You've already sold the pill to me. How can you sell it to him now?"
The old man scoffed, "You still haven't paid for it. So, the pill is still my property. It's up to me to decide who I want to sell it to." He then smiled slyly, "However, no worries, If he can't pay more than you, I'll sell it to you."
Hearing how shameless, the old man was acting, Max's expression darkened and the flames of fury started burning in the depths of his eyes. Ever since he opened his eyes in this world, he rarely became angry if we exclude the time when he lost his mind in anger when Rima was almost killed.
However, he suppressed his anger since what he said was technically true and waited for Jack's response. If he didn't raise the price, it was well and good and but if he did raise the price, he wouldn't mind spending some more Mana stones for it.
All in all, he was determined to get it today and he didn't believe that Jack, even though seemed quite wealthy from the clothing and accessories he was wearing, would be able outbid him now that he had 15 million Mana stones. So, he patiently waited.
Jack had already expected the old shopkeeper to act this way. After leaving the auction house, he went around the market to find the beauty pill which his cousin asked him to buy if he found one and came to know that only this shop has a beauty pill available and the shopkeeper was a money grubber old man which was especially true now that he didn't have any money left.
When he arrived, he heard the conversation between the old shopkeeper and Max, and hearing that the old man was selling it for 600,000 Mana stones, he wanted to turn around and leave since he wasn't willing to spend so many Mana stones for a mere beauty pill which he could easily buy in 100,000 elsewhere, if available, that is.
However, he found Max's voice somewhat familiar and when he recalled where he had heard it, he became his anger which he had suppressed after the auction, flared up.
Moreover, when he noticed Max was keen on buying the pill even at this ridiculous price, he decided to prevent him from obtaining it or at least make him spend more Mana stones as his revenge. As for his cousin's request, he could just tell him that he couldn't find the pill in Ninam city.
When he heard the old shopkeeper, he glanced at Max and laughed, "Let's see if he can pay more than me then."
"Shopkeeper, I'll pay 1 million Mana stones for it," Jack said, resolutely as if he really wanted it.
The old man was immediately delighted and turned his head toward Max and said, smiling ear to ear, "Boy, this customer here is willing to pay 1 million Mana stones, if you can't pay more than him, I would have to sell the pill to him."
Max glanced at Jack and seeing him looking at him provocatively, he shook his head which gave Jack's heart a jolt. He thought Max was backing down.
'Damn it! Even though it was Dalton who asked me to buy this pill, the Elders would kill me if they find that I spend a million for this.' Jack sweated when he thought of this.
He glanced at Max and laughed, "Ha... haha kid. It's good that you know you ca... can't compete with me in wealth. Since you can't pay more than me, just get lost."
Seeing him stuttering and sweating while he made the obvious tries to goad Max, Max and the ladies couldn't help but laugh.
"Hehe, who are you trying to fool, chump? It's obvious you can't pay 1 million for the pill and is only trying to make Max spend more Mana stones." Leticia contemptuously said.
Hearing this, Jack's face flushed red in embarrassment while Janice took a few steps away from him and looked at him disdainfully. 'This fool!'
When the old shopkeeper heard Leticia's words and saw the expression on Jack's face, his happy grin vanished and he released a terrifying aura, "You can pay the price you just stated, right?"
