Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 371 (Patreon)

Chapter 371: Struck it Rich

A bearded local man was running the stall.

There were many items on the stall, all jumbled together without any particular organization: knives, coins, pottery, copper decorations, masks, stone carvings...

These seemingly valuable items were casually spread out on a red cloth for people to choose from.

The two targets Luo identified were a sheathed dagger and a poorly made copper ring.

"Boss, how much for this ring?"

Luo squatted in front of the stall, picked up the ring, and secretly activated the White Smoke Font ability, absorbing the nen wrapped around it.

"1.6 million jeni."

The stall owner glanced at the young Luo and quoted a price offhandedly.

"Isn't this just an ordinary copper ring? Plain and without any patterns, and you want to sell it for 1.6 million?" Luo looked surprised, but he had already assessed the ring's value with the White Smoke Font: 3 million.

The stall owner was displeased and said, "This is a burial item from Princess Shior's tomb. Its appearance might not be impressive, but the association with Princess Shior makes it worth this price."

You're exaggerating. It's just a ring carried by a famous ascetic, but you're linking it to Princess Shior from seven hundred years ago.

"How about 200,000? My sand sledge is just missing a nut," Luo said, holding the ring with a smile.

The stall owner laughed, then quickly put on a stern face, saying, "I bought this for 1.2 million, and you want to take it for 200,000? There's no such cheap deal in the world."

"Then forget it."

Luo straightforwardly put the ring back on the red cloth. The stall owner had clearly stated he bought it for 1.2 million, so no amount of haggling would bring it down to hundreds of thousands.

In terms of profit, buying it could earn him 2 million, but Luo thought it was too little and gave up.

The nen on the ring was quite thin. After absorbing it, it only increased his single system by 0.2%, a pitiful amount. Perhaps it was because the nen was too thin, or maybe the difficulty of improvement increased after 60%.

After putting down the ring, Luo picked up the sheathed dagger and activated the White Smoke Font, absorbing the nen into his body, which immediately increased his single system by 0.4%. Adding the ring's amount, it increased the average by 0.1%.

At the same time, the White Smoke Font provided specific information and estimated a price: 65 million.

Luo's heart skipped a beat, but his face remained calm as he casually tossed the dagger and asked, "Boss, how much for this dagger?"

The haggling over the ring made the stall owner aware of Luo's ridiculous bargaining tactics, so he directly said, "2 million. Take it or leave it. If you want to haggle, put it down."

"Wow, is that how you do business?" Luo used his thumb to flick open the sheath, revealing a bit of the cold blade.

"Do you want it or not?" The stall owner, perhaps due to Luo's young age, appeared impatient.

Seeing the stall owner's reaction, Luo knew there was no room for bargaining. He first acted hesitant, then after a few seconds, gritted his teeth and said, "I'll buy it!"

A hint of joy flashed in the stall owner's eyes, but he didn't show it on his face, maintaining an indifferent look and said, "2 million."

Luo immediately took out a 50-gram gold nugget from his pocket and handed it to the stall owner. The latter inspected it carefully and weighed it, then smiled broadly and made a gesture to Luo, saying, "Elba bless you!"

This gesture indicated the completion of the transaction. A 50-gram gold nugget was worth 2 million jeni, with slight variations in conversion rates, but neither party would quibble over minor differences.

There were only two items with nen on the stall, though there could be other valuable things, but Luo didn't have the time to touch each one. He left with the dagger.

As Luo walked away, the stall owner inwardly praised the foolish foreigner. He had bought the dagger for 200,000 jeni and sold it for ten times that amount. Little did he know the dagger was worth at least 65 million.

Luo put away the valuable dagger and continued to browse Vulture Street.

The White Smoke Font's estimate of 65 million was akin to a "market price," not an exact figure.

Listing the dagger for sale online might fetch a price below 65 million, but taking it to the Yorknew auction could potentially break a hundred million, depending on the environment and buyers.

Luo intended to take the dagger to the Yorknew auction, which is why he didn't care for the low-profit ring.

Two hours passed quickly.

The central stage of Vulture Street remained busy, with no signs of the crowd thinning.

After browsing for most of the circle, Luo had collected quite a haul but was still amazed by the sheer volume of items in Vulture Street. Even the large antique street in Yorknew City was only a tenth of Vulture Street.

Disregarding the numerous fakes, the genuine items alone were just the tip of the iceberg in the Kendia Desert.

The thought of the treasures buried beneath the endless yellow sand explained why so many people risked their lives to come here.

Gold prospecting has always been something that excites people.

After collecting ten ancient items, Luo stopped because the black cat hadn't returned, and he had no place to store these things. Continuing would result in his hands being too full.

Although he only collected ten items, he absorbed nen from seventy items, with each one increasing his single system by 0.1% to 0.5%, a very small amount.

By the time Luo stopped, he had only increased the average value of his six systems by about 1%, equivalent to a year's hard training, and still had nearly 18% to go before reaching the next level of 80%.

Using two hours to achieve the results of a year's hard training seemed miraculous, but places like Vulture Street were rare, and the nen absorbed from ancient items wasn't high, relying entirely on quantity.

The nen left on ancient items was bright and clean, like the gentle spring sunshine, but its effect was minimal compared to the strong resentment left by the dead.

After all, clean nen barely affects ordinary people and continuously weakens over time, while resentment does the opposite, affecting ordinary people when weak and killing them when strong, only growing stronger over time.

Thus, the results from absorbing resentment were far more efficient than those from food and ancient items.

"Compared to clean nen, resentment's energy is indeed higher. To quickly improve my strength, I might consider expanding my exorcist business."

Luo walked into an alley between buildings, sorting out the ten ancient items he had collected. Each item had a profit margin of tens of millions, and it shouldn't be hard to accumulate five hundred million when sold at Yorknew.

In two hours, he had increased his average value by 1%, and he was quite satisfied, looking forward to seeing what level his nen abilities would reach at 80%.

Before breaking through 60%, it was hard to implement the emission-based teleportation theory that Jin had mentioned, but after breaking through 60%, the difficulty greatly reduced. Now he could easily use that technique, though he was still far from mastering it. Reaching 80% might bring some improvement.

Luo thought that to go to the Dark Continent, his nen ability values should reach 100%, which would be a long journey, potentially taking ten or twenty years.

If it was already challenging to increase from 60% to 80%, how much harder would it be to go from 80% to 100%?

As Luo's mind immersed in these thoughts, he unexpectedly had a whimsical idea: to absorb the Ant King.

This thought quickly passed, and he shook his head to dispel it.

After about ten minutes, the black cat arrived in the alley to meet Luo.

"Too slow," Luo said.

The black cat spat out several ancient items and said, "I waited for over two hours to find the right opportunity, but it wasn't in vain."

Including the Greed Pot, there were a total of five items.

"They were a group, and I got them all in one go when they met."

• Please take a moment to rate this novel at Novelupdate.

Table of content - Next Chapter >>>