7 Moonlight Slash
Since the minimum bid was 10 silvers, Eisen highly doubted that most average players could afford such an item. Instead, his competition was going to be mainly the rich young masters with more wealth than they knew what to do with, and the representatives of large gaming companies.
The auction had started a couple minutes ago, and the price had risen from 10 silvers to 13 silvers and 50 coppers.
Eisen quickly raised the price up to 15 silvers.
Several people gawked at the increase in price, questioning the wealth of the anonymous bidder.
'Pathetic fools. Little do they know, I have more where that came from,' he cackled internally.
Most of the average players turned their attention to other things, realizing that they wouldn't be able to purchase the Skill book and giving up. However, there was still plenty of competition for Eisen; it wasn't often that such a good Skill appeared for sale.
The price soared once again, jumping all the way to 19 silver and 75 copper.
More and more people gave up on bidding, while more and more people watched the auction with interested looks on their faces. Many of them wondered how high the price would go.
Eisen was getting rather impatient with one individual in particular, who kept calling out higher prices. A Guardian sat beside him, a raven-haired girl who looked about eighteen with her hands folded in her lap.
'Who the hell is this rich motherfucker?' he thought as he gnashed his teeth.
The "rich motherfucker" was a young man who looked about twenty years old. He had a charming smile, and his face was sculpted and manly. His brown hair had a dyed streak of blonde which framed his flawless face. He was wearing exquisite-looking armor that complement his clear, blue eyes.
The "rich motherfucker" was handsome.
Eisen grit his teeth in anger and jealousy. Your virtual reality avatar could make several minor changes, but could not completely change your appearance.
Rich, handsome, and with a beautiful lady by his side, the wealthy young master was the antithesis of Eisen.
The man was nothing but an inconvenience compared to Eisen's in-game wealth, and he feared spending too much money for just one Skill. However, the man was irritating, handsome, and rich.
Eisen detested that man.
He promptly raised his bid to 30 silvers. While Eisen was planning on saving his money, he just wanted this to be over with.
The man did not stand up again, simply calmly staring at the auction panel. Internally, the man was raging. 'Who was the damned fool who outbid me!?' he cursed darkly in his head.
"Going once… going twice… gone! Thank you, benefactor, for buying the Moonlight Slash Skill book for 30 silvers."
Eisen's heart ached as he watched his wealth flow from his account.
Once he confirmed that the Skill book appeared in his inventory, he quickly left the imposing building with mixed emotions.
He ducked into the shadowed alley between a few shops, pulling out the Skill book, and opened the leather-bound pages.
The pages felt like soft velvet from age, with water-marks on the edges. The book was slightly warped and the pages bookmarked and dog-eared. The writing on the book was indecipherable for Eisen, written in a completely fantastical language.
[Would you like to learn Moonlight Slash?]
[Y/N]
He tapped the screen, confirming his choice. A rush of silvery light seeped through the book's pages and swirled around Eisen's body. His body burned hot and cold simultaneously, his skin feeling tingly.
The light quickly dissipated and disappeared.
Eisen eyed the homeless people also in the alley, before turning and leaving. He feared one of them would attack him for his bulging purse, completely ignoring the fact that he was just as poor as them in the real world.
He breathed a sigh of relief once he was in broad daylight, feeling much safer.
"Let's try out my new Skill," he said to himself, grinning as he thought about how he could massacre wolves even faster. Maybe he could even fight one of the Elite-ranked direwolves now.
He quickly ran towards the forest once more.
Instead of calculating and strategic movements, Eisen charged straight into the first pack of wolves he saw.
The wolves, caught off-guard, yelped as he slashed them repeatedly. Their health bar dropped rapidly. Their defense was nothing compared to his attack power.
He itched to try out his new skill.
'Moonlight Slash!'
His blade began vibrating in his hands. Unlike Power Strike, which caused his blade to glow faintly, Moonlight Slash made his sword gleam like a wicked slice of the moon.
The sword seemed almost alive, and Eisen grinned maliciously as he swung the blade.
He rushed forward in a flash of movement. Before he could even process what had happened, he was 15 meters away from where he was standing just a second ago.
He turned around, and saw the bleeding corpses of six wolves lying on the ground.
"Hahaha! This Skill is just too good!" he laughed, a mocking look on his face as he looked at the dead wolves.
One by one, the dead beasts exploded into shards of light, leaving nothing behind but their pelts and some coins.
He quickly collected the drops, before continuing to fight more wolves. He fought weaker enemies as he adjusted to incorporating the Skill into his fighting style.
Eisen decided that he should consider practicing kendo or fencing. Learning sword fighting in the real world would greatly improve his sword skills and benefit him in the future.
Checking his forum post which advertised his sale of Common-ranked gear in Mudbrick Town, he felt that he could make enough money to last him for the rest of the month, as well as afford him some classes.
"Maybe I'll get some muscles," he daydreamed aloud.
He proceeded to reply to as many of the comments as possible.
Surprisingly, his post had turned into somewhat of an auction, with different players offering higher and higher prices to get their hands on rare Common-ranked equipment.
Eisen picked several posters to sell to, and made arrangements to meet up.
After an hour or so, he had completed four different deals, and made a total of around 600 urks.
'Indeed,' he thought happily to himself as he checked his bank account. 'Video games are very profitable.'
However, Eisen had an unfair advantage; he was an unemployed, lazy runabout. He had more time on his hands than most players, and was incredibly lucky. While he had decent combat skill, most of his success was attributed to the market prices leaning his way and random fortunate encounters.
Eisen was an arrogant piece of trash.
'Truly, my incredible skill and scheming separates me from the rest of the rabble,' he thought, proudly puffing up his chest like an uglier cousin of a bullfrog.
He continued navigating through Mudbrick Town. The task turned out to be surprisingly difficult, despite the town being rather small. There were dozens of small, cramped alleyways between the shoddy, squat buildings and shops, while most of the time, the main roads were far too crowded for convenient travel. Just as the name of the town suggests, many of the buildings were made of mud bricks; apparently, there was a swamp on the other side of town.
Eisen decided that he would go to the swamp to kill some crocodiles the next day.
Finally, he arrived at the designated meeting place, a small inn on the shabbier side of town. The building itself was nothing special, but it stood out from the other drab buildings due to its relative cleanliness.
Eisen walked towards the door, dreaming about further profits.
However, when he entered the building, a blur of black dashed towards him and a flash of silver stabbed towards his heart.
