"Ha!"
Pyria stormed forward with a fierce look, her eyes burning with determination. Lokan nearly burst out laughing at the sight, but he forced himself to stay focused and finish the job.
'I can't tell if this is courage or just reckless bravado… but either way, she's pouring an absurd amount of money into this.'
Even as she signed the contract, the price—35 gold per month—was outrageous. With that much, a guild could rent a two-story house for two or even three months outright. Yet the moment the words "final property" were announced, Pyria had jumped in with a desperate bid.
'You'll be kicking yourself later, fool!'
Lokan couldn't help but imagine the scene that might play out in the near future.
Thirty-five gold every single month—roughly seven million won in cash. What would happen if the MP Guild collapsed under that crushing debt?
In The Lord, guild contracts were ironclad. If the guild disbanded, all financial responsibility automatically fell to the guild master who signed the agreement. If the MP Guild imploded, Pyria would be left holding the entire bill. The thought alone was delicious.
After finalizing the contract with Pyria, Lokan surveyed the hall again. In the eyes of the remaining guild masters, he could see the same unquenchable hunger.
They might have lost the two-story houses, but none of them intended to miss out on the next prize.
"Alright then," Lokan announced smoothly. "Next up is a three-room house. It's only one story, but you already know that a single-floor layout offers more space than a standard two-story. We'll start the bidding at 16 gold per month."
Bang!
The starting price was four times higher than a normal rental, but no one dared complain. The fever of competition had already burned away reason.
The auction for the remaining ten three-room houses erupted into a fierce bidding war.
"Heh… heh heh!"
When every contract was finally sealed, Lokan—back in his true appearance—couldn't suppress his laughter as he opened his inventory.
[Funds Acquired: 335 Gold 68 Silver 17 Copper]
A staggering 334 gold had come from real-estate deals alone.
And this total didn't even include the valuable loot he'd taken from the Blood Chaser. Once those items hit the regional auction house, his earnings would easily break 350 gold.
In cash, that was roughly 70 million won, but considering the game was still in its early stages, the real-world value was far greater.
"The price of gold in The Lord depends entirely on who controls the supply," he mused.
Gold prices had held steady for months because cross-region trade was nearly impossible. Transactions required meeting in person, and regional auction houses weren't yet linked to the future metropolitan network. Even then, the auction fee was only two percent—barely worth exploiting.
For now, however, nearly all of the currency circulating through Trinsic rested in the hands of a single player.
"Let's see who tries to buy first. MP Guild? Steel Troop? Heh, they'll all come crawling soon enough."
While hunting would continue to generate some income for other players, most of it would be consumed by repair fees and consumables. On top of that, fifteen guilds were now locked into monthly payments just to keep their newly purchased guild houses.
With liquid funds in short supply, any large cash transaction would have to flow through Lokan, the region's sole gold monopolist.
Gold monopoly.
It meant the local exchange rate would skyrocket—and so would Lokan's bank account.
Naturally, he had no intention of dumping all his gold onto the market at once. Instead, he slipped away to safety.
Stealth followed by escape. Lokan moved like a phantom, chaining skills with the precision of a master thief.
'Dash.'
A burst of speed carried him forward. Dash didn't cancel stealth, making it perfect for quick retreats.
"Uh—!"
"Where did he go?"
"It's the Cloak of Stealth!"
"His movement range is limited! Predict his path and fire!"
Assassins. They had tracked him all the way here. Lokan knew they were calculating his position; stealth reduced his movement speed to 70% of normal, which meant a clever opponent could estimate his likely escape route.
That was exactly why he'd used Dash—to break free of their predicted perimeter before they could close in.
"Hunter's Torch!"
A bright flare ignited the area where he had been seconds earlier. Hunter's Torch revealed hidden enemies within a narrow radius, but it was useless if they guessed the wrong spot.
"Fireball!"
"Arrow Barrage!"
Spells and arrows rained down blindly. Stealth would cancel if he took damage, so they were trying to catch him in a wide-area attack.
'Not bad. They know the basics.'
Lokan gave them a mental score of fifty points for effort. At least they understood the mechanics.
But it wasn't enough. They were still firing at where he had been, not where he was now.
Then he spotted something on the ground—faint, glimmering outlines around their feet.
'Oh? A trap? Looks like they put some real thought into this.'
It was a hunter/thief trap, designed to immobilize a target rather than deal damage. A clever precaution in case Lokan tried a direct assault.
'Too bad for them I can see it.'
Monster AI might have charged straight in, but Lokan was no fool.
"Throwing Weapon!"
Clang!
The hatchet spun from his hand, striking the trap and bouncing violently. The recoil sent the weapon flying toward one of the would-be ambushers, clipping his shoulder.
"Ugh!"
The impact wasn't lethal, but it disrupted their formation—exactly what Lokan wanted.
The moment their attention flicked toward the rebounding hatchet, he was already on top of them.
"Shoulder Charge!"
BOOM!
The unstoppable force of his charge slammed into the nearest enemy like a speeding car, combining sheer mass with explosive speed.
"Urgh… wh-what—!"
The victim's health bar plummeted in a single hit, leaving him barely conscious and stunned.
"One down."
Lokan grinned coldly. He could have swung his battle-axe in a wide arc to hit them all, but experience told him the surest way to win an outnumbered fight in The Lord was simple:
Take them one by one.
Eliminate each target completely before moving to the next—especially when priests were present who could resurrect fallen allies.