Chapter 30: Black Horn Auction

But the young Alchemist clearly had no idea that he had narrowly avoided a calamity. After hearing Lin Yun’s refusal, his face turned unsightly. “Are you afraid of me tricking you? Truly laughable, I have compounded more potions than you would ever see in your lifetime, how could your two potions be worthy of me scheming against you?”

“I truly am in no hurry…” Lin Yun took a deep breath and just repeated what he had said.

“Good then…” Seeing Lin Yun persist, the young Alchemist could only nod angrily. “But I don’t have much time. I still have an important experiment waiting for me, so I can only give you three minutes.”

Lin Yun smiled and put the two potions on the table.

The two potions were green, and they carried a dense, irritating smell. After just one whiff, the young Alchemist couldn’t help frowning.

“Two inferior Healing Potions, valued at 300 gold.” It took only thirty seconds for the young Alchemist to issue his appraisal. When he put the two potions back on the table, he muttered under his breath, “Trash…”

This time, Lin Yun didn’t say anything and picked up the two potions as he turned to leave. ‘Such a joke, you appraised my Ghost Potion and my Volcano Potion as Healing Potions, and with an estimated value of only 300 gold. Do you think I’m a fool?’

But just as Lin Yun was heading for the exit, the door to the reception room was pushed open from the other side.

The person coming in was an old man. He was easily over sixty, with wrinkles, white hair and a white beard. He was wearing a wrinkled, gray gown and was panting as he came in, as if he had run the whole way over.

“Did Mage Merlin come in?”

“You are…?” Lin Yun stopped as he looked at the old man, feeling puzzled. Whether it was in his own memories or Mafa Merlin’s memories, there was no memory of that person at all. Why did this person seem to recognize him?

“You are Mage Merlin?” The old man looked at Lin Yun and immediately smiled cordially. “Welcome, Mage Merlin. Let me introduce myself, I am Cadgar, Black Horn Auction House’s Chief Appraiser.”

“Greetings…” Lin Yun politely greeted him while pondering what he knew about this person. He had actually heard the name of Black Horn Auction House’s Chief Appraiser, Cadgar, quite a few times.

He could even be considered a person worthy of being on the same level as Sage Tower’s Thorpe, as he was also a High Mage and a Great Alchemist. But like the rest of the Black Horn Auction House, he had always been low-key, to the point that many people knew of Thorpe, but not of Cadgar.

“Oh right, I heard someone outside saying that Mage Merlin came today to have two potions taken care of.”

“That originally was the case, but I just changed my plans…”

“Eh?” Cadgar looked at Lin Yun in surprise, and then he glanced at the young Alchemist sitting on the other side of the table, considering their expressions and the circumstances. ‘Could it be that Mage Merlin was offended by this fellow?’

Judging that this might be the case, Cadgar’s expression grew unsightly as he looked at the young Alchemist…

This wasn’t some minor matter… Last time, a bottle of Spectrum Potion was delivered to the Black Horn Auction House and even Master Wilhelm couldn’t stop praising it, saying that this was the most imaginative potion he had ever seen and that some of the techniques used on it were simply unheard of.

Before Master Wilhelm left Thousand Sails City, he kept reminding Cadgar that he absolutely had to find the Alchemist who had compounded this potion.

Although the Black Horn Auction House hadn’t been in contact with Lin Yun for the past few months, it had secretly been making countless investigations. After all, the Black Horn Auction House was supported by a first-rate force, the Black Horn chamber of commerce. Its formidable information-gathering abilities surpassed the other forces of Thousand Sails City by far. It could be said that as long as the Black Horn Auction House wanted, anything happening in Thousand Sails City couldn’t be hidden from them.

This, of course, included information on the true Alchemist behind the Spectrum Potion.

Naturally, the process of the investigation wasn’t that simple, and this was with the Black Horn Auction House putting large portions of their forces into the search, toward Locke Merlin, toward the Gilded Rose, toward the Flashing Gold chamber of commerce, and toward all of the related clues. Everything had undergone a detailed investigation.

Ultimately, they came to a shocking conclusion.

That Spectrum Potion that received high praise from Master Wilhelm was most likely compounded by a young Alchemist in his twenties.

That young Alchemist’s name was Mafa Merlin.

Cadgar was relatively proud of this conclusion. Compared to the Sage Tower, which was known to be the number one power of Thousand Sails City, even though they both got the Spectrum Potion at the same time, Solomon and his people still believed that a mysterious Great Alchemist stood behind this young Mage, while the Black Horn Auction House chose to believe in the conclusions drawn by their investigators.

Thinking of this, Cadgar smiled.

After all, Mage Merlin even stayed in the Sage Tower’s library for a very long time. During that time, the Sage Tower had many chances to get in touch with him. But unfortunately, these countless opportunities had been missed by the Sage Tower.

Cadgar thought that Solomon was probably still having a headache, trying to figure out how to get in touch with the mysterious Alchemist behind that young Mage.

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But the current situation that he had just walked in on…

What had happened while he was on his way?

“Don’t worry, Mage Merlin, our Black Horn Auction House sincerely wishes to cooperate with you. How about you listen to our offer first before making your decision?”

“That’s fine, let’s talk about it.” For someone of Cadgar’s status to speak like this, he definitely meant his words, so Lin Yun wouldn’t refuse him. Moreover, if it hadn’t been for the young Alchemist’s trash talk, Lin Yun would indeed have sold the two potions in the Black Horn Auction House.

Thus, due Cadgar’s request, Lin Yun took the opportunity offered.

As he listened to the discussion between the two of them, the lifeless young Alchemist gulped with some difficulty. Ever since Cadgar appeared in the reception room, the young Alchemist had suspected that he was dreaming. Otherwise, how could this situation be explained?

This was too frightening…

The Chief Appraiser of the Black Horn Auction House, Cadgar, was actually being so welcoming to a twenty-year-old Mage!

That’s right, very welcoming!

The young Alchemist had worked for ten years in the Black Horn Auction House and had never seen Cadgar being so polite. Regardless of whether he was facing Solomon of the Sage Tower or Monchi of the Twin Moons chamber of commerce, Cadgar had never been as polite as he was today.

‘Who is this young Mage…’

Thinking about it, the young Alchemist couldn’t help swallowing nervously again. At this time, his throat felt terribly dry, as if there was something stuck inside.

After all, he hadn’t really had a good attitude earlier, and he had muttered audibly that the two potions were trash. He couldn’t have thought that something like this would ensue. On one hand, he truly was very busy and didn’t have much time to spend here, and on the other hand, he disliked the attitude of this young mage, who had visibly shown that he felt uneasy with the interaction.

Thus, when evaluating those two potions, he skimped on the work.

Normally, nothing would come of it, but now, the problem was far too grave…

This was a person that even Chief Appraiser Cadgar was treating very politely, and he had recklessly offended him. He even felt like dying now, considering how much importance Cadgar was paying the two potions, even assuring that the Black Horn Auction House sincerely wanted to cooperate.

‘What is this…’

From the young Alchemist’s understanding of Cadgar, how could he not understand what these words meant? Cadgar had already decided that he would spare nothing to get the two potions into the Black Horn Auction House’s possession.

With this realization, the young Alchemist couldn’t help becoming pale.

But fortunately for him, neither Lin Yun nor Cadgar paid any attention to the deathly pale Alchemist on the side.

When Lin Yun changed his mind, Cadgar immediately felt happy. He hurried to explain his offer. “Mage Merlin, I wonder if you’ve heard that the Black Horn Auction House holds an auction every three months?”

“I have, of course,” Lin Yun replied as he nodded. The Black Horn Auction was a grand occasion in the whole eastern part of the kingdom, and that was the reason that Lin Yun had come today.

“Then, Mage Merlin, if you are willing, I hope that you are willing to bring your two potions to the Black Horn Auction that will happen in a few hours, what do you think?”

Cadgar didn’t brag much about the Black Horn Auction and also didn’t explain what kind of benefits such an auction would bring because he believed that the young mage certainly wouldn’t refuse such an offer.

Even a Great Mage couldn’t easily climb on to the stage of the Black Horn Auction. After all, it was a grand event of the whole eastern part of the kingdom. To be able to climb on that stage was like receiving the recognition of the entire east. Even a Great Alchemist wouldn’t be able to resist such a temptation.

Thus, Cadgar hadn’t elaborated on his offer, only squinting his eyes to see the young mage’s reaction.

“This…” He hadn’t expected that the originally relaxed Lin Yun would suddenly have an awkward expression after hearing the offer.

Cadgar froze and didn’t manage to react for a long time. He even wondered if his words hadn’t been clear enough.

In fact, let alone Cadgar, even the young Alchemist, who had previously inwardly collapsed due to his previous interaction with Lin Yun, couldn’t help cursing to himself. ‘You are kidding, this is an event that is attended by the greatest powers of the whole eastern part of the kingdom, any Alchemist getting on that stage would have their social status increase a hundredfold. Even if you aren’t moved by the offer, how could it feel awkward to you?’

“I’m very sorry. High Mage Cadgar, I think I won’t be able to leave these two potions to the Black Horn Auction House.”

“…”

After Lin Yun said this, the reception room went dead silent.