Ryu was directly bought to a display room.
It was large and had about a dozen individuals glancing around with the barest levels of interest. The items were kept in glass cases that enveloped pedestals that were a bit over a meter tall. Various leading prices could already be seen attached as well.
"How does verification work?" Ryu asked.
"Replying to young master, since I'm here, I can verify your bids with my personal stamp. This will save sir from having to deal with a long, convoluted process."
Of course, this wasn't how things were normally done. To even be allowed into this room, one needed to prove they had a certain amount of money. In addition, some form of identity or collateral was needed to ensure that individuals didn't write random bids they couldn't account for and screw up the proceedings.
That said, these measures became meaningless long ago. No one dared to do such things in a Major City these days. You'd be asking for death. The name Valor wasn't just for show either. The Mayor of their city definitely wouldn't fall below the top three City Lords.
Ryu nodded. "Is this truly the best display room you have?"
"Unfortunately." The manager responded quickly. "The best items are usually left for large and well publicized auctions. Although I can skirt the rules a bit for sir in this regard, I can't break the rules protecting those items.
"The only method young master can use to see them is by being granted our highest membership card. In addition, even with this card, the items will be far more expensive than they would otherwise be during a public auction. This is in order to protect our auction house from any losses… So, they'll be three times more expensive than the best-case scenario price of our yearly auctions."
Ryu of course understood this. An auction house definitely wouldn't take a loss. As such, if an individual wanted to buy an item set for auction ahead of time, they'd be forced to pay three times what the highest estimated price of the auction would be. Luckily, money wasn't something Ryu cared about. He just didn't want to waste any time. As soon as he saw that the method of payment here was actually gold coins, he realized that he had overestimated the Pedestal Plane a bit too much. At least the Outer Ring, anyway.
"What is the method for earning the highest membership card?"
"Replying to young master, Valor Auction House is intertwined with many ventures including our Blacksmith, Alchemist, Formation and Ruin Master Associations. Aside from this, there is also our mercenary guild that might appeal to young master as well.
"In order to earn the highest membership card, there are a few methods. Either become an Earth Grade Master of any of our Associations, a Fourth Order Mercenary of our Valor Guild, or spend a total of ten million gold coins in total between our intertwined ventures.
"In addition, young master should also note that this highest-ranking membership card is the only level of membership that is universal for all nine Major Cities. Meaning, lower ranking cards are useless in other cities not directly under our city's control, but this membership card, the Valor Honor Card, is universal."
"Is that so?" Ryu nodded. This was definitely useful to him. "What method do you suggest?"
"If young master has talent enough to join any of our Associations, this will likely be the easiest method. Though it is impossible for a youth to meet the Earth Grade requirement, it is lowered to Black Grade for those below twenty-five years of age like young master. The only issue with this method is that assessments do not occur often. They're more infrequent than our auctions.
"Since young master is in a rush, your best bet is to spend ten million gold coins. But, this is a purposely obscene amount because City Lord prefers talents over riches. Ten million gold coins is the equivalent revenue of the whole of Valor City in a quarter."
Ryu noticed that the manager purposely avoided the topic of the Valor Guild. But, that only made him more curious.
"And what of the Valor Guild?"
The manager coughed awkwardly. "Replying to young master, please forgive me for my rudeness but the Orders of our mercenary guild are incredibly difficult to climb. As you know, Orders correspond to beast grade. In order to earn an Order, one must hunt ten such beasts alone. These hunts must also be monitored by an administrator, so even if young master wasn't so young, an appointment would take even more time to set up than even the other available methods because an administrator capable of overseeing such a high level assessment would be incredibly busy.
"And, although the requirements are lowered for your age as well – to the Third Order – it's not easy to find an individual to administer that level of test either. At the very least, it'll take more time than either the public auction, or the Association Exams."
Time. It seemed this was what everything boiled down to.
In a test that relied on beasts as a testing measure, Ryu definitely had an advantage. However, he didn't dare to use his Ice Crystal Jade Body while being monitored. That would only bring him trouble. Though, it wasn't as though he needed it to defeat Third Order beasts.
Ryu also had a sneaking suspicion that the manager was getting at something else. He was likely thinking that the time needed to defeat ten Third Order beasts was large. After all, beasts were always more powerful than their human counterparts on average. He probably believed that Ryu would be injured and need to account for time to recover.
If Ryu was certain that he could find an administrator today, he was also certain he'd be able to complete the assessment today as well. Unlike the thoughts of the manager, he knew his current strength enough to know that it would be a simple matter. Unfortunately, it seemed like that wasn't in the cards.
"Hm. I see." Ryu nodded. "In that case, I'll be going to the Alchemy Association. I assume they have an Herbology Department which deals in selling Spiritual Herbs?"
At first, the manager was caught off-guard by the question. But, in the next instant, he understood. Instead of wasting gold on useless auction items here, Ryu planned on spending the ten million necessary gold on Spiritual Herbs. Wait! That wasn't the most shocking part. This youth actually had ten million gold to spend?! Even Valor City only made forty to fifty million gold a year, would even the City Lord spend so much in a single sitting?!
The manager could only awkwardly laugh and bow as he saw Ryu out.