"The auction house huh...? Well, you are not wrong there. Binary City has the biggest auction in the region and even in the neighboring ones. This is the reason why Binary City is recognized as among the biggest economical city in the Empire.
"The biggest auction takes place once every month and you are just in luck because the auction is tomorrow. It is yet to close and you can go submit your goods and their details so that they can be gauged whether they can be auctioned. The auction house is right next to the Mayor's mansion which is at the central part of the city.
"Do you need a guide? I won't ask for more from you. Just a few Origin Stones will be enough. What do you think Mr Charles, is my deal good?" Diego asked but Alaric was cautious as he shook his head.
Without much contemplating, he ignored Diego completely and started walking away ignoring Diego's voice trying to convince him. He had strayed to the periphery of the city and he was glad a blabber mouth like Diego had appeared.
Alaric walked with steady and hurried steps. It was then one could note that there were less people in this region and a Cryptic Plane kid kid was just so eye-catching. Still, Alaric was unfazed by this as he walked past alleyways that appeared every now and then.
The sun had already sunk and darkness had risen. He had just walked past a dark alleyway as he was following the footpath along the main road. Even the street lights in these regions were not working.
He was barely ten meters away when he heard footsteps behind him. He looked back and saw a trio emerge from the alleyway. From their shaggy hair to their haggard looks though barely perceptible, anyone could guess they had no good intentions.
The trio walked with uniform steps and their back slightly crouched forward facing their ground and not looking at Alaric. It was as though they were only focusing on their footsteps.
Alaric hurried his steps and the group seemed to match his speed such that they were an even distance no matter how fast he walked. Things only appeared to get worse when further ahead, one could see a trio walking in their direction.
Alaric ignored the warning signs as he continued forward with the same steady speed. He reached an alleyway and he stopped. In front him, the trio had spread and blocked the path forward. He turned to walk away but to his dismay, the trio behind him had stopped too and spread behind him blocking his path.
There was only one path left and that was the alleyway. Alaric, without second thoughts, dashed through the alleyway as the group followed after him. The alleyway was ten meters wide and almost 200 meters long.
It was only a short distance run to the other side maybe ten seconds at most without activating his element. Alaric ran at the fastest speed he could summon without the elements and did not look back at the group of six chasing behind him.
It was obvious they were slowing themselves down and were five meters behind him no matter how fast Alaric ran. Alaric could see the opening of the alleyway to the other side. But just when he was steps away from exiting, he came to an abrupt stop.
Ahead of him at the opening, another trio appeared. They spread out completely blocking the entrance. Alaric looked back as the others stopped five meters away from him. It was obvious they had planned this from the beginning so that they could corner him like this.
Alaric turned to look at the trio ahead and a character appeared from the other side behind them. Alaric's look could not help but turn serious at this moment. It appeared he was scared. The person made his way between the trio ahead and his face was recognizable.
It was none other than Diego. He had put on his hat and he walked with slow deliberate steps towards Alaric.
"What is the meaning of this?" Alaric asked obviously pissed.
"Mr Charles, here we meet again. It appears that our fate is not over yet," Diego said his voice calm.
"I thought that you wanted no one else to ever go through what you went through?" Alaric countered with a raised brow.
"Haha! How naive of you. You still don't understand your situation. What makes you think you have the right to ask questions?" Diego said with a laugh as the others laughed too.
"You are going to regret this," Alaric warned but this brought their laughter to a new level.
"You? Make us regret?" A guy behind Alaric could not hold it in and spoke mid laugh.
"I hope you know what you are doing," Alaric said with his eyes narrowed to slits.
"What we are doing huh? We are robbing you..." Diego said the last part louder and broke into another fit of laughter. Just which country bumpkin was he?
"I have nothing worthy of your attention," Alaric said.
"Aiyaa," Diego sighed. "What we want is the treasure you are going to auction."
Hearing this, Alaric's eyes narrowed even further.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Alaric countered.
"You disappoint me. You have two options. The first one is you giving us the treaure and leaving with minor injuries or, resist and you shall end up handing it over to us with broken bones or even death. What do you think?" Diego said. His eyes appeared to flash his killing intent.
Alaric was taken aback. Just because they thought he had a treasure, they even planned on killing him. It appeared that they even had no intentions of leaving him alive. They did not even care that he had treasure or not.
They were just mad men who found pleasure in killing those weaker than them. Taking the treasure was just a bonus for them. This could only fuel his rage.
They had trapped him. Just how ridiculous was that even? After all, he had Perception. Just what was Perception? It enabled him have a visual of whatever was around one kilometer radius around him.
It would be very shameful if Alaric was caught offguard by a bunch of trash who he had noticed the moment he entered the city gates. When he entred the city, he had increased his range to 500 meters.
What did this mean, the group that kept trailing behind him maintaining a distance of not more than 50 meters, could they possibly be missed by his Perception? Had he wanted, they would have lost him a long time ago yet he allowed them to follow him.
He had encountered Diego many times during the day and it was only when it got dark did he appear and start a conversation. Alaric had even left the hotel for the purpose of teaching these guys a lesson but who could have thought that they had the intentions of Killiing him in the first place.
He had told Diego about the treasure just so that he could lure them to come after him but who could have thought they were more focused on his life? Even picking to run into this alleyway was already in his calculations.
But trapping him? This though was even funny beyond compare. He was the mouse in the arena but how were they sure that he had not trapped them. To this point, he could not control his laughter.
The group was caught offguard at first but in the next instant, they broke out to a fit of laughter.
"Is the kid nuts?" A guy behind asked. This was way too abnormal of reaction for someone who had been cornered. After all this was not their first time doing this.
In their time doing this, they had seen many reaction whereby the victim either peeid themselves, others cried while others fell off their feet having fainted. But this reaction was ridiculous. Did he not understand his situation?
"Jack, this is your chance. You have yet to taste the feeling of killing a human. You are the only one left in our gang to have their first human kill. We found you a decent one. You should finish him with a single blow or you can just chop him into pieces," Diego said and a guy behind Diego stepped forward.
Brandishing a dagger, he walked past Diego and licked the dagger at the sharp edge. If one could see his eyes, he appeared intoxicated.
It would be a joke if they all attacked Alaric. After all, their formation itself was an overkill to a Cryptic Plane kid. It appeared their purpose was to have Jack taste his first kill. They were all maniacs.
Alaric stopped laughing as he looked up to the guy coming forward. Just how could they! Alaric was not one to care too much about what they did but the fact they dared to target him and try to have thoughts of killing him... The last person who dared was still healing her injuries. What did a bunch of Master Plane trash mean to him?
Maybe only Alaric could call a group of Master Plane as trash. If they heard him, they would obviously rash out. After all, cultivating without a backer was hard. The fact they reached the master plane was proof to the effort they placed in their cultivation.
The effort was probably robbery and murder. Jack flashed forward, his dagger in his right hand and he instantly appeared before Alaric slicing at his neck.