71. Scrolls of fire gathering (above)
After nearly five months of cold winters, the orcs can finally dig in the frozen earth again, and dig in the wild corn fields to find the leftover food of the guinea pigs that have been the nightmare of all the orcs on the Pai plateau. This spring, when everything is coming to life, seems to be so late. In the autumn of last year, the Shaman Priest of Kulbolos issued a call for a third of the winter stores of the orc tribes on the Pai Plateau to be collected from the Gurudin tribe, and 1,200 thunder rhinoceroses were mobilised to ship 20,000 gold coins worth of supplies to the Grimm Empire to pay off their debts. This time, almost all the orc tribes were on the edge of the food line last winter. Normally, only in the last month did they have to eat some ground potatoes to satisfy their hunger, but last winter, the orcs ate ground potatoes until their mouths faded. One word, poverty, for all. In such a poor year, the depressed town of Yemen finally picked up this spring and was flooded with beasts who wanted to trade for supplies, with grain, meat and essential items becoming the most sought-after goods in the market.
The black market and private auctions in the town of Yemen are not a way to evade taxes, but to avoid the eyes of the lowest class of beasts. There are also some transactions that are destined to be grey, hidden from the eyes of the higher levels of the Orcs. The items traded in the auction house are not only magical equipment, rare magical metals, magical herbs and so on, which are not commonly traded in the market, but also food and slaves, which have attracted the attention of the tribal orc hierarchy this spring.
With the number of weak orcs starving and freezing to death during the winter, food became the most precious commodity last winter, and when the Council of Orc Elders issued a decree to close the warehouse, food trading became a serious crime punishable by beheading in the Pai Highlands orc territory. But there is no absolute equality in any society, and the powerful Orc chiefs still try to make themselves more comfortable by any means possible, so black markets and private auctions have been popular since last winter, and are even growing in popularity.
The auction hall was filling up with people, most of them orc warriors in fancy armour, tall, muscular men with dreadlocks of all colours, spears on their backs and axes at their waists, sitting on chairs like mountains. This way, no matter how tall the orcs sitting in front of me were, they would not interfere with the view of those behind me. The female orc warriors were not as physically imposing as the male orc warriors, but their toned bodies were full of wildness and explosive power.
Of course there were also some orc shamans in wizard's robes, and these drained old orcs with their faces painted and tattooed with all sorts of designs tended to have more status and were given seats closer to the stands, even if there were already other people sitting there, and whoever walked past them would move aside. I even saw a group of merchants from the Human Chamber of Commerce retreat to the back row without a pale face, and I thought to myself that the shamans had such a high status here!
Seeing that my persuasion was having no effect, Sister Gogo ignored me and turned to whisper in Strongbach's ear, the two of them looking more in tune with each other lately, their every move seeming very natural and taciturn. I sighed inwardly: once a woman falls in love, she forgets all about everyone around her and only seems to have eyes for one person.
Looking at me with a teasing look on her face, Kiger asked me, "Shall I switch seats with Katrina and let her comfort you?"
I glared at her in disgust and was about to fight with her. She seemed to enjoy it because she was surrounded by people who were usually her subordinates and probably had few friends to talk to in the way that I did. I swallowed the words that were about to come out of my mouth and looked into the room with bated breath to see the orc auctioneer, Koro, dressed in a suit, striding in, followed by a line of orc waiters carrying various items. .
As the auctioneer of this event, I would like to reiterate the rules of our auction. If an item is not paid in cash on the spot, it will be considered a failed transaction and a fine of 10% of the value of the item will be imposed, which will be recovered by the Chamber of Commerce. In addition, the free auction will have an asking price of no less than one silver per order, and the official auction will have an asking price of no less than ten silver per order."
"Due to the large number of items up for auction recently, I will not speak too much, so we will move on to the free bidding session, where everyone in the room will have the right to display their goods once and have one minute to introduce their goods and quote a low price. The first item to be shown to you will be the item that you have entrusted to the Merchant's Union for free auction.
Koro did not speak slowly, but his voice was very recognisable, and there was a long enough pause between each sentence that it was clear he was a professional auctioneer. He stepped forward and greeted an orc attendant who entered the square platform and lifted the black cloth from the covered tray to reveal three vials of wound medicine neatly lined up on a wooden tray, and Korro gestured for the attendant to walk around the square platform in a circle.
"Three bottles of wound medicine, nothing more to present, essential first aid magic medicine for hunting in the wilderness, three bottles for a base price of fifty silver! Now the bidding begins!" Koro waved a large hand and his voice stopped as said was falling.
I'm afraid the crowd in the auction hall hadn't expected such a hot commodity to appear at the start of the free auction, wound medicine belonged to the category of magical potions, which could significantly increase the user's vitality for a short period of time, and it was one of the essential medicines for solo travelers in the wilderness. Most wound medicines are sold on the market for 15 to 20 silver coins a bottle, and most of them are not available if the price is too high. The price of these three bottles of wound medicine is not low, and it is not a bargain to buy them, but it is not much more expensive than what is sold on the market.
I had never seen such an auction before, but this time it was an eye-opener, and it was in an orc town where the central bidder was an orc, and most of the bidders were orcs. I bid fifty silver coins."
The atmosphere was instantly heated, and with such exuberant enthusiasm for buying right from the start, Koro certainly wasn't going to let such an awkward scene arise, only to stand on the square stand clutching a bottle of wound medicine in one hand, turn to look at the stand opposite me, and then say in a low voice, "The offer from the second from the left in the third row ahead is valid, please continue to raise your bid."
"Fifty-two."
"Fifty-five."
"Fifty-six."
In the end, the three bottles of wound medicine were bought by a minotaur off the stage for fifty-six silver, whose mountainous body made me smack my lips. He must have been over three metres tall and his fist alone was bigger than my head, if he slapped me down, he would have swatted me to death like a fly. When I saw such a strong orc warrior, I thought he was probably preparing for his journey into the wilderness. At that moment, I saw Kurtz looking over at me with a look that seemed to say, "Look, our orc warriors, are they strong enough?
The next items that Koro had the attendants bring up were the most common, ordinary weapons and armour, and these well-kept items were precisely the least purchased items in the room, such as the double-bladed axe forged in black iron, which went untouched and was embarrassingly aborted. Like a never-ending player, Koro stood in the middle of the square platform and talked without even taking a sip of water.
When a female orc attendant finally came up with a wooden tray, Koro lifted the black cloth to reveal rolls of magical scrolls stacked on top of each other, only these were much smaller than the usual magical scrolls, more like pocket-sized scrolls. And not just one, but a whole pallet of them. The appearance of such magical items at the free auction would have made it seem that this item was not of a higher grade than the wound medicine or the black iron finely forged moon axe that had just been bought for sixty-three silver dimes. The auction room was finally noisy once more, after all it was the appearance of magical items, and so many at once.
The orc, Koro, placed a scroll in his palm, the thumb-thin, ten-centimetre long scroll looked small in Koro's palm, but he introduced it carefully, "This is a magic scroll with a fire gathering spell engraved on it, the designer had the unique idea of turning it into a wilderness survival item, but of course if you are a wizard you won't be able to use it. The purpose of this scroll is portable wilderness cooking and heating. The clever designer of this scroll has designed it specifically for this spring hunt in the northern wilderness, so I won't give you a price for the scroll, it will be the last item up for bid in our free auction. Please ask the waiters to bring up a fire bowl!"
Immediately, a waiter came up with a charcoal fire pit with an iron stand, and Koro the orc reached down and untied the scroll's marabou clasp, spreading it into a palm-sized piece of parchment in his hand. , and the next moment flames came out from the entire fire bowl upwards.
"According to the owner of the scroll: this magic scroll of gathering fire can release magic flames, the exact burning time is unknown. So, let's let this scroll burn out all the time. The free auction items sold by the United Merchants Union are all finished, so if any of you want to sell or exchange items, please come to the stage in order." Koro stood on the square platform near the steps and said to everyone.
The magic spell in the scroll released the energy from the magical ink, which ran along the lines in the magic spell, eventually forming a burning red flame with a pale yellow flame core that didn't look like it should be very hot. The flame filled the entire charnel bowl, and the glow of the magical fire shone on the shadowy faces of everyone in the room.
It is not uncommon for magic to be used in everyday life, and many expensive luxury items seem to require small magic spells to be engraved on them to make them stand out as high class. The problem lies in the price of these scrolls. Once such a simplified version of the fire gathering scroll appears, it will significantly improve the conditions of camping in the wilderness.
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