Now that the young master of the Ironheart clan, family, or whatever they were, had been carried away, Eik saw no reason to continue he really rather petty game of stealing every item up for grabs.

Instead, he only bid on the stuff he was actually interested in getting his hands on, and before the auction resumed he made every customer there aware that he would be willing to resell any items he had won, that he didn't actually want, for whatever price the highest bid had been that wasn't from him or young master Ironheart. No questions asked. That also seemed to calm many down considerably.

Perhaps this Eik Magnasen guy wasn't such a murderous bastard after all. And the young master had been a whiny bitch all night, is what Eik assumed they were thinking.

In the end he got more than few materials eligible to try out for crucial ingredient in his grade six Potion of Mighty Strength. In the end he aimed to create grade six versions of all the primary booster potions, such as Potion of the Metal Body and Potion of Magical Empowerment, but Potion of Mighty Strength was by far the easiest to sell and pulled in the highest price per unit so it was a perfect place to start, not to mention how much stronger it would make him.

And strength was a quality he had become painfully aware of needing more of after failing to prevent the summoning of the Lord of the Moon and meeting Chop. The faster he could grow, the safer everybody would be. Growth could simply not happen too quickly.

As the auction came to a close, Eik felt a pull at the skin of his forearm. Whenever he suppressed the atmospheric Ak'ki's attempt to write out messages on him, it would frequently try again. And he could feel it every time it did.

Curious, he allowed it, making sure that the text was only visible to his own eyes. Whether Chop saw or not didn't matter much at this point since the guy had already figured out he was a Worldbreaker and hadn't murdered him for it.

Eik's second biggest secret after that was the recipe for traditional Danish cinnamon rolls that his mom had taught him and that he had now improved on, but… No, actually, Chop might really kill him to get his hands on that but Eik seriously doubted whatever notification the Ak'ki wanted to send him had anything to do with that.

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 324]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 325]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 32…]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 337]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 338]

Wait… huh? What the hell was going on here? The levels were pouring in like crazy. Sure, he had made the Ironheart heir piss his pants and torn off a couple of his limbs, but fourteen levels in Profound Toxin? He had barely even used the ability at all.

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 283]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 284]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 28…]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 302]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 303]

[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution: Monarch's Will]

[Choose one]

[Monarch's Will — Toxic Initiation]

[Monarch's Will — Admittance to the Realm]

Holy shit… Twenty levels in Monarch's Will? And a trait evolution! Just where in the world was this coming from? It didn't make any sense. Not even fighting multiple S-rankers at the same time had earned him this much. Besides crushing the young master and firing his sweet Big Ass Rail Gun, the only other thing he had really done was… He glanced at Chop as he swallowed hard.

The evolution would have to wait until later.

Another message announced its arrival with the now negligible pain that always followed.

[Reached Monarch of Toxin — III]

[Reached Monarch of Toxin — IV]

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"Idunn's fuckin' tits…" Eik muttered under his breath. Stunned, all he could do was stare at his arm.

"What? What is it?" Chop asked and leaned in to read along, fully aware that Eik was looking at his status. "Hey, I want to read too. Uncensor it for a second, will you?"

Manipulating his aura slightly, he included Chop as a person allowed to view the writing. "See that?" he asked.

"Hehah! Yeah, that's awesome, kiddo!" Chop laughed.

"But how the hell does this make sense? All I did was, well, not get killed by you."

"You did a lot more than that, if I remember correctly," Chop said. "You aura assaulted me to begin with, knowing full well that I was much stronger than you but without knowing whether I would kill you for it. And when my aura struck you, you fought back from the first second to the last. Of course you're rewarded for that."

"But I got twenty levels in one of my primary abilities. And two increases to my grade? I didn't even think that was possible…" Even to Eik's own ears it almost sounded like a complaint. That was about as far from what it was as anything could be, but he just couldn't help but question the reality of it.

Frowning, Chop gestured to himself with an air of indignation. "Hello? X-ranker here. Very powerful guy."

"But…" Eik began but found himself unable to think of what to say. Was this simply how great the difference between them truly was? It felt utterly insurmountable.

"But nothing," Chop said. "Just like the jump to S-rank from X-rank can barely be compared to the previous rank jumps, S-rank and X-rank are worlds apart."

"But I also destroyed a mountain. I know you held back a bit and did it more easily but still…"

"Sorry to say, but I held back more than a little. I wasn't about to show my true strength in front of that many scouts."

"Why not? You're an X-ranker. What are they going to do?"

The old man shrugged. "Never reveal everything you can do. It's a principle. Maybe I'll show you another time when there are fewer eyes on us. My full strength also comes with a certain risk of… collateral damage. I can control it, but it's still dangerous. You'd probably be all right, though. What you managed to pull off back there was impressive."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm serious," Chop said with a sincerity that Eik wasn't sure he had heard from the man before.

"Actually, shouldn't I have gotten these levels for going up against you earlier? I did check my levels back then."

The old man just shrugged. "It happens. Especially at higher ranks, the System just isn't always as straightforward as you might expect. There can be a number of reasons for it. Anyway, should we get something to eat on the way back?"

Eik narrowed his eyes at the suddenly change of topic. "… On the way back to where?"

"Where? Your house, of course. We can't stay up all night after all, now can we?"

"You're not sleeping at my house?"

Eik could feel the shocked expression through Chop's magical mask. "What? Then where am I supposed to sleep?"

"You're an almighty X-ranker, aren't you? Use some of your unimaginable wealth to get a luxury suite at a five-star hotel or something?"

"If that's the problem, then I'll just pay you that money to let me stay in your house."

"You could kill my kids by accident if you so much as farted in your sleep, man. No way!"

"Oh, come on. They might stink, but my farts are as gentle as a mother's palm on her son's cheek after he comes home from war."

Eik chewed on his cheek. This damned geezer… "All right, you know what? I'll let you stay in my garden shed. How about that?"

Grumbling, Chop stood from his chair. "Fine, but I'm only paying half price if that's all I'm getting."

Eik snorted. "You don't have to pay me anything. I'm already a rich motherfucker, and I don't think my dad would like it if I let it get to my head."

"You're a stand up guy, aren't you?" the X-ranker said and thumped Eik on the back, making him almost spit up the pastries he had eaten half an hour earlier.

They made up the tail end of the departing customers as they filed through the double doors leading to the entrance hall. A handful of people, clearly more than a little nervous after the events of the evening, approached Eik, hoping to purchase some of their lost bids off him as he'd promised.

Naturally, he made good on it and even threw in a muffin and a handful of cookies for each of them. Although he was fully aware of how that confrontation must have made him look in the eyes of these people who spent their whole life in the safety of a large city like Gimleh, he would do his best to not carry the image of some arrogant, irritable asshole.

He was just a dude who had stumbled into some luck that he probably didn't even deserve.

Afterward, a sheepish manager of the auction house shuffled up to him with an expression that said that if he had been wearing a hat, he would have clutched it in both hands in front of his chest like some poor beggar hoping to get another ration at the soup kitchen for his sick son.

He was backed by the rest of the staff who had been present but unable to intervene properly.

"I am terribly, terribly sorry for the terrible experience you've had this evening. Absolutely unforgivable, and downright terrible! Is there anything I can do, Mr. Magnasen? Anything!"

"Yes, actually," he said and reached into his bag of holding, narrowed eyes never leaving the manager's.

"Ye… Yes?" came the stuttered reply.

Eik whipped his hand back out at super sonic speed. "You can eat this!" he commanded as he stuffed a cinnamon roll into the shocked man's mouth, cutting off anything else he might have wanted to say. "And here!" he said and slapped another four into the man's open palms. "You can bring those back to your family!"

"Whaf'f goi o—"

"The rest of you, line up," he ordered and beckoned for the staff to come closer. They did, while the manager backed away with an expression of mind-slowing confusion.

"Th-Thank you very much," the auction host said as she got hers. "I'm very sorry for what happened tonight."

"Don't be," he answered with a smile, pouring pastries into the arms of one of the room staff. "I'm the one who should apologize. There were tons of better ways I could have handled it, it's just that he threatened my kids and, well… you know…"

"I would have done that too," a man suddenly piped up, spurred by a moment of boldness. He was one of the guys who had been responsible for replacing the items on the stage between each auction.

"Pardon?"

"I said I would have done the same if my kids were threatened like that. At least I would if I had that kind of power. Most of us can only bite back the acid and beg for mercy against someone like an Ironheart."

"Huh…" Eik muttered and went silent for a few seconds. "You get a triple portion!" Eik announced, holding back a tear of manly dadness.

The man grinned and accepted.

"I'll have to go to the Alchemist Guild of Gimleh tomorrow. I think I might be able to get alchemists better than myself to help me figure out what goes into a grade six Potion of Mighty Strength," Eik said. "If I bring them all the materials I have and a couple grade 6 potions from the market, they might be able to reverse engineer one for me. So long as I pay enough."

"Why not just go now?"

"Because I want to go home to my family, and I'm sure all those expert alchemists want to do the same." And he also had to check his new evolution.