Magician of Insa-Dong

Chapter 7

Prev List Next

Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Secret Auction 2

Han JinHo left his house, wearing a luxurious tuxedo. He had prepared eye-catchingly expensive clothes and accessories so that he could use them in situations like this.

If Jung SangPil actually had some skill in recognising high cla.s.s goods, he wouldn’t have just stolen the counterfeit of Chusa’s work when he had the chance; he would have also stolen the watch that Han JinHo was currently wearing.

“How did things span out, I wonder? There’s no way Chaiman Choi NamHee still doesn’t know. Maybe I should ask Manager Che MinYoung?”

[TLN: He starts calling Che MinYoung a manager here]

After some thinking, he shook his head and dropped the thought. Right now, he didn’t have any time to waste for someone like Jung SangPil. He made sure he had the invitation card on his person, then touched the small jewellery box in his pocket.

Inside the jewellery box was the coin he took from Jung SangPil as compensation.

What Han JinHo had planned to do today was to first, bring back some useful relics from the auction, and the second, to find a method to sell the coin on the auction.

“Shall I go now?”

He walked with excited steps, towards the bas.e.m.e.nt parking lot to drive a car which he didn’t use very often.

In the bas.e.m.e.nt parking area, Han JinHo had three cars. From them, he chose an expensive sports car which stood out the most.

He had to stand out today. There was no worry of getting found out, since the car was under a corporate’s name and he would be wearing a mask before entering the auction.

Vroooooom.

The orange sports car roared through and exited the parking area. Whenever his car pa.s.sed by, it caught the pedestrians’ attention. The design as well as the colour made it stand out wherever it went.

And if it was a person that knew a bit about cars, they’d realise and be frightened by how expensive the car was.

While somewhat enjoying their reactions, he raced down the road. The destination was a large building in the central area of Seoul.

After entering the bas.e.m.e.nt parking lot of the building, Han JinHo remembered the numbers and arrows attached to the invitation card. They conveyed a direction for him to head to once inside the parking area. The number referred to the numbers written on the pillars, and the arrows marked the direction he had to go in, in relation to those numbers.

Accurately following the arrows, Han JinHo arrived at a wide parking area. Seeing the cars parked there, he gave a nod.

“It seems I came to the right place.”

All the cars there were on the same level as Han JinHo’s, if not higher. They were cars of the partic.i.p.ants of the auction.

He took a mask from the pa.s.senger’s seat and wore it. It was a goblin mask.

It wasn’t a normal mask; it was a special mask he made using his powers. On the inner surface that touched his face were countless runes densely written.

Han JinHo left the car and closed the door. Three people that resembled bodyguards quickly approached. When he showed them the invitation card, they politely spoke to him.

“Please come this way, and take good care of your invitation card.”

After nodding his head, he put his card away, and followed the security guards inside. They headed to a metal door near the end of the parking lot, then took out a large key to open it.

Clank.

When the door opened, a wide corridor appeared. At the end of the corridor was an elevator.

They guided Han JinHo to the elevator. When he boarded it, two security guards boarded it with him.

‘It’s thoroughly done.’

If the elevator headed down, he would have been even more impressed but the lift headed up. There were on

ly two b.u.t.tons above the parking lot, and the b.u.t.ton they pressed was the one on the top.

The elevator climbed and climbed. It seemed to be going to the highest floor.

Ding.

Along with a clear sound, the elevator stopped.

“You can get off here.”

After the elevator door opened, there was a small area with an information desk. A beautiful female employee with neat clothes politely bent her back and greeted.

The two securities took the elevator and went back down. Han JinHo walked up to the female worker.

“Please show your invitation card.”

When he pa.s.sed the card over from his person, the employee took out a tool that resembled a barcode scanner.

Jing.

When she scanned the card, a clean sound came out.

“Please enter through this door.”

The lady spoke while returning the invitation card. Han JinHo entered the door that was on the left side of the female employee.

Behind the door was an enormous hall. Quite a large amount of people was loitering around. Everyone was wearing unique masks, so it looked like a masquerade.

‘Is Luina’s auction also like this?’

On one side of the hall was a stage, high enough to be visible from all around the room.

Han JinHo slowly observed the hall, and also carefully looked at the people wearing masks. Just from their stature and atmosphere, he could locate some people he could recognise.

‘All the rich people I know came.’

Chairman Choi NamHee wasn’t the only one who requested appraisal to Jung SangPil. Many rich people around his level gave out requests. It was a result of Jung SangPil’s networking and Han JinHo’s abilities.

All the rich people he saw back then were here.

Not everyone in the hall wore masks. There were some that didn’t wear one here and there. Most of them were bodyguards, and some were employees to entertain the guests.

Han JinHo walked to a crowded area. He was curious what they were talking about, so he listened to their conversations.

Everyone was talking about relics. There was not a single word about private matters.

There are blah blah relics being auctioned today, there’s an unidentified relic, that relic was postponed to a later auction – these were the main points of their conversations.

Some of them seemed to know each other but pretended to be oblivious as they talked. Perhaps they would meet privately at a later date and revisit their old memories.

“Please give me your full attention. We will now start the auction.”

A tall man with a well-proportioned body was standing on the stage. He too was wearing a mask so there was no way of identifying him.

“There are in total, 20 relics readied. They are fewer than expected, right? But I still believe that you would be satisfied with them. Let’s first see the relics!”

As soon as the man said that, people each carrying a relic walked in one by one. They carried a plate with a cushion on top and the relic above that. Perhaps there was a designated path, they paced around the room following an ‘S’ shape.

He checked the floor. As he had expected, there was a thick line which marked their path.

If they stood near the line, they could all see those relics from up close.

Han JinHo patiently waited for the relics to pa.s.s by him. He didn’t have an opportunity to inspect them slowly so he had to be well prepared.

He sharpened his magic senses and activated all the mana inside his body so that he could use magic at any time.

Everyone’s eyes gathered at the line of relics. And soon after, the relics went past him in an orderly manner.

The people carrying the relics slowed their pace down as much as they could. They were giving the guests time to examine the items.

Of course, they had already gone through an appraisal, so the current show also had the purpose of highlighting and boasting of their relics. However, this may have been so for others, but to Han JinHo it was different.

He carefully inspected every one of the relics.

The magic circle embedded on the relics, its reaction when coming contact to mana, and the magic pathway that appeared as a result; he took note of everything.

A terrible heat came forth. He overworked the brain and was thus overloaded.

However, he didn’t care at all, and continued his appraisal. While doing that, he also sent a stream of mana into his brain. If it was his first time feeling his brain heat up, he might’ve been shocked into stopping, but he had already experienced similar happenings before.

Every time he did it, his brain’s capability increased by an extraordinary amount. This was no doubt thanks to mana.

A stream of mana washed his brain, making it clearer and cooler again.

But as he was still overworking his brain, it once again became hot.

Cooling it down with mana when it gets hot, and cooling it down again when it gets heated up again; this process was repeated over and over.

Like that, all 20 relics pa.s.sed by, and Han JinHo could save all their information in his brain.

“Fuu, it’s not easy.”

Consecutively appraising 20 relics with such speed was something even he had never done before. He, as a result, crossed his limits many times, and that would probably become important nutrients that would help him grow.

“Now, we will officially begin our event!”

After the workers carrying the relics exited, the man on the stage looked around the audience as he spoke. His voice had a special power in it, and this made it easier for him to gather their attention.

“You’re all busy people so let’s hurry with the event. This is the first item!”

An employee carrying the first relic walked up the stage. He then carefully placed it down on the display stand. Lights came down from the ceiling and highlighted the relic.

It was a blood-coloured dagger.

“We introduce to you, the Hand of Vampire!”

The highlighted dagger seemed to emit b.l.o.o.d.y colours from within itself. It was an extremely ominous dagger.

“It looks amazing from just looking, right? This is an extremely special knife: it absorbs the opponent’s blood and gives you power.”

The host looked at the audience and smiled.

“Details can be found in the pamphlet. I believe no-one would commit crimes with this!”

A light laughter flowed in the audience.

“We will start from 50 million won. Is there anyone, 50 million?”

A person raised their hand up.

“We have 50 million! Is there anyone going for 51 million? Yes, we have 51 million!”

The auction continued in that manner. The Hand of Vampire was ultimately sold at 150 million won.

Han JinHo received a pamphlet from a wandering employee and checked the list. The results of the appraisals of the items up for auction were written in detail.

Han JinHo gleamed his eyes while going through it.

‘This is a bit different!’

Three items in the auction had different details to what Han JinHo saw. In other words, they couldn’t discover the true hidden abilities within those relics.

‘This is interesting.’

Since this was his first time attending an auction like this, he had no idea that there would be cases like this where their appraisals would be wrong by this much.

‘No, maybe this is natural?’

To do a proper relic appraisal, they need to first control mana. But how many in the world can freely control mana?

Maybe no one could.

Controlling mana meant one could use magic. Of course, they would need proper grimoires to study and learn. Those grimoires could only be found through ruins.

One must be able to control mana, obtain a grimoire, and has to properly a.n.a.lyse and understand the information.

‘Would there be anyone like that other than me?’

Han JinHo watched the auction while thinking as such.

And finally, the first item he wanted came out.

Prev List Next