"Five hundred thousand won. Any higher bids? No? Unsold. We'll move on to the next item."
The auctioneer's dry voice echoed through the spacious hall.
A broken helmet was brought onto the stage, but the audience's response was lukewarm at best. Plenty of people rested their chins on their hands and yawned, while others did not even bother looking up from their phones. Even when someone occasionally raised a bidding paddle, the price rarely climbed more than a hundred thousand won above the opening bid.
This was the Dungeon Salvage Auction House operated by the Appraisers' Association.
As its name suggested, most of the items brought here had been recovered from dungeons but deemed impossible to restore due to severe damage or complete mana depletion.
Even entry was strictly limited to licensed appraisers, yet most renowned appraisers had long since lost interest, dismissing the place as a pointless waste of time.
Empty seats were scattered throughout the auction hall.
Sitting comfortably near the back and watching the stage, Taehu wore a faint smile.
'Everyone's so eager to throw things away based on appearances alone. For me, there couldn't be a better place.'
To Taehu, this place was practically a treasure vault laid bare before him.
There was no need to watch his coworkers' reactions at the Iljin Appraisal Center or invent excuses to take discarded items home.
Here, he could legally and openly sweep up valuable items to his heart's content.
His bank balance had grown considerably after his recent transactions, and he had even bought his father a new car, giving his parents a gift they would never forget.
Now it was time for the next step.
Investing in practical equipment that would increase his combat capability as a Hunter.
He could not spend the rest of his life hiding behind porters and lingering only in safe areas.
Only by becoming stronger himself could he enter the deeper, more dangerous dungeons monopolized by high-ranking Hunters and personally uncover the hidden relics within.
After a while, the auctioneer set down the microphone.
There was a brief intermission before the second half of the auction, giving participants a chance to examine the remaining lots up close.
Taehu rose from his seat and headed toward the long display tables arranged along one side of the hall.
The discarded items scheduled to appear later in the auction were laid out there, each bearing its own number tag.
Taehu casually passed crumbling staffs that had completely lost their mana and armor crushed beyond recognition.
Then his footsteps abruptly stopped in front of one particular item.
Item No. 112.
It was an old longsword with nearly half its blade broken away.
Dark red rust covered its surface in thick patches, and it looked so lifeless that not even the faintest mana reaction seemed likely to emerge from it.
To anyone else, it was nothing more than a lump of scrap iron that belonged in a junkyard.
Taehu briefly checked his surroundings before lightly gripping the hilt with his gloved hand.
That was when it happened.
Brilliant golden text poured into the air before his eyes like a waterfall.
[Sword of the Fallen Knight Commander]
-Current Rank: D
-Special Property: Growth Potential
-Rank After First Restoration: A
-Further Evolution Possible Upon Meeting Specific Conditions.
The information nearly stopped his breath.
Taehu swallowed the exclamation threatening to escape and bit the inside of his lip.
He could feel his heartbeat turning erratic.
It was not merely a weapon capable of leaping from D-rank all the way to A-rank.
It was a growth-type weapon with the potential for further evolution under specific conditions.
For Taehu, who needed to break through his own limits and continue climbing higher, there could hardly have been a more suitable piece of equipment.
And an item with this much potential was sitting in a corner of the auction house gathering dust, treated as nothing more than scrap metal.
'I'm getting this. No matter what.'
Taehu naturally released the hilt, inwardly celebrating his discovery.
Just then—
"Tsk, tsk. I suppose the standards for the Association's licensing exam have really fallen these days."
An openly mocking voice came from behind him.
Taehu turned his head.
A man in an immaculately pressed luxury suit stood there with his arms crossed.
A silver Senior Appraiser badge gleamed like a medal on his chest beside the logo of another appraisal center.
The man glanced at the worn C-rank badge on Taehu's chest with undisguised contempt.
"I say that because you seem interested in a lump of metal like that. Even at a salvage auction, an appraiser should at least have the eye to distinguish a gem from a stone, wouldn't you agree?"
Taehu faced him with an expressionless look, showing no sign of offense.
"A gem from a stone? I suppose that looks like nothing but scrap metal to you, Senior Appraiser."
"Why ask something so obvious? Its Mana Circuit is completely destroyed. It doesn't even emit a trace of a mana wave. It's garbage. Anyone foolish enough to spend money on something like that should return their appraiser's license to the Association immediately and go find manual labor instead."
The man raised his chin stiffly, as though he had just bestowed some profound lesson upon Taehu.
Several appraisers browsing the nearby displays chuckled in agreement and looked at Taehu with amused interest.
But far from shrinking back, Taehu had to suppress an incredulous laugh.
If a supposedly experienced Senior Appraiser was volunteering to eliminate himself from the competition, Taehu saw no reason to stop him.
"Well, everyone has a different eye for these things. Thank you for the valuable advice."
Taehu gave a slight nod and stepped away from the display.
Apparently disappointed that Taehu had not argued back, the man snorted loudly and turned away.
Before long, the intermission ended and the auction resumed.
The auctioneer brought the broken sword bearing the No. 112 tag onto the stage.
"Our next item is a damaged longsword. As you can see, more than half of the blade has been lost, and its mana response has almost completely disappeared. Its value is low even as a decorative piece, so we're starting the bidding very low. Three million won."
The moment the auctioneer finished speaking, the hall fell deathly silent.
Not a single person raised a paddle.
The Senior Appraiser who had lectured Taehu earlier sat in the front row with his legs crossed, staring at the stage with a mocking expression.
"Three million won. No bidders? I'll ask once more. Three million won."
Just as the auctioneer picked up his wooden gavel, preparing to declare the item unsold—
Taehu quietly raised his paddle.
"Ah, the C-rank appraiser in the back. We have three million won."
Every gaze in the hall turned toward Taehu.
Murmurs spread through the audience, accompanied by several clicks of the tongue from people who clearly thought him pathetic.
"Seven million two hundred thousand won."
The hall erupted into even louder commotion at the amount Taehu called out.
He had immediately raised the bid to more than twice the opening price, making it clear that no one should bother joining in merely out of curiosity.
"Seven million two hundred thousand won has been offered. Does anyone wish to bid higher?"
A trace of bewilderment entered the auctioneer's voice.
Of course, there was no competition.
No one there was foolish enough to pay even more for an item everyone had already written off as scrap metal.
"If there are no further bids, I'll begin the count."
The auctioneer struck the wooden gavel briskly.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Item No. 112, sold for 7.2 million won!"
The corners of Taehu's mouth slowly rose as he sat at the back of the auction hall.
Immediately after the winning bid—
Under auction-house regulations, discarded items sold for unusually high prices were subjected to a detailed verification scan before being released to the buyer.
Ordinarily, the enormous number of salvage items meant only their surface mana responses were checked before auction.
But exceptionally high-value winning bids were scanned internally as well to prevent later disputes.
The broken sword was moved to a verification station beside the stage.
The Senior Appraiser who had mocked Taehu uncrossed his arms and sneered.
"No need to even check. Its mana reading will be practically zero. Since you've bought yourself a 7.2-million-won paperweight, make sure to hang it somewhere nice when you get home. At least it'll serve as an expensive lesson."
The employee in charge of verification powered on the precision scanner and carefully placed the broken sword onto the scanning pad.
WHIRRR!
The machine activated, and blue light meticulously swept from the shattered blade all the way down to the hilt.
Then, only three seconds later—
BEEP! BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
A shrill alarm erupted through the auction hall.
It was the emergency warning emitted when the precision scanner detected energy far beyond its preset threshold.
"W-What? What is this?!"
The employee recoiled and pointed at the monitor.
A cross-sectional scan of the broken blade had appeared on the screen.
Unlike the hideously damaged exterior, a perfectly preserved, high-density Mana Core lay deep within the sword's center, emitting powerful blue waves without a single defect.
The mana reading on the machine's display continued climbing without pause.
"M-Mana Wave Reading at A-rank or higher! The Mana Core preserved inside has strongly activated!"
At the employee's sharp cry, a heavy silence fell over the hall as though someone had poured cold water over the entire audience.
The appraisers who had been yawning with their chins propped on their hands and those who had been playing with their phones all stared wide-eyed and leaned toward the stage.
An intact A-rank-or-higher Mana Core had just been discovered inside what everyone thought was worthless scrap metal.
Even if the Mana Core alone were extracted and sold on the market, it would be worth dozens—no, possibly hundreds—of times the 7.2 million won Taehu had just paid.
And if the sword itself could eventually be properly restored, its value would be nearly impossible to estimate.
"H-How is that possible? There wasn't any mana wave on the surface!"
"The thick layers of rusted metal were completely blocking the mana. How could anyone have noticed that just from looking at the outside?"
Gasps and exclamations erupted throughout the auction hall.
The Senior Appraiser who had lectured Taehu turned bright red in an instant.
The very item he had confidently declared to be garbage only moments earlier had suddenly revealed itself as an A-rank relic.
His trembling eyes darted aimlessly, and his lips quivered with humiliation.
Taehu slowly rose from his seat.
As he walked toward the stage, he casually passed the frozen Senior Appraiser.
"You said an appraiser needed the eye to distinguish a gem from a stone, didn't you?"
Taehu stopped and gave him a slight nod.
"Your advice helped me make up my mind. Thank you again."
The Senior Appraiser merely opened and closed his mouth like a fish, unable to utter a single word.
His face was now so red that he could barely raise his head.
Leaving the man's devastated expression behind, Taehu leisurely stepped onto the stage.
He picked up the broken sword from the verification machine.
The heavy sensation of cold metal transmitted through his fingertips felt completely different from before.
Now there was an unmistakable certainty to it.
This sword belonged to him.
He could feel the envious gazes of countless appraisers boring into the back of his head, along with the Senior Appraiser's furious breathing behind him.
Taehu did not bother looking back.
Carrying the weapon that would climb to greater heights alongside him, Taehu walked out of the auction house with lighter steps than ever before.