That day, only one item was listed on the awakener-exclusive auction site. It was a single katana. And just from that, several people gave up on bidding—it was a weapon mainly used by jobs like Samurai. Handling was tricky, and in many cases it was faster to just use a regular sword.
Katana existed as one of the more “niche” weapon types, but they always held a certain level of popularity.
“Wow… amazing. I want it…”
Ichijou Shizuna—one of Servant Uniform Workshop’s maids, known as Shizuna—muttered to herself in front of her home computer. Her job, Samurai Master, favored katana. Niche weapons always had dedicated jobs that matched them, and for katana that was the Samurai line. Shizuna was always on the lookout for a good blade.
And now, the weapon up for auction was this,
“Demonic Sword: Kurozasa…? Incredible. Intermediate rank…!? That’s definitely a ranker-class weapon…!”
There were weapons called “first-line” in the world—if you had one, you could survive anywhere. And even higher than those were ranker-class weapons. Just the recognition alone was rare enough, but what astonished Shizuna was the ability it carried.
It came with innate dark-element magic. That meant, regardless of the user’s magical aptitude, the weapon itself enabled attacks with magical properties. In practice, such weapons added a fixed amount of magical damage on top of physical strikes.
A normal sword strike was physical. Cast magic, and it was magical. If you used a skill to add an element to a normal sword, the result was physical damage plus the elemental power. It was addition, not replacement.
And in Kurozasa’s case, dark-element power was already present, so even without using any mana, the wielder was guaranteed extra magic damage with every strike. This meant far greater versatility in battle. A treasure worth having at any cost.
“The current bid is… huh? One hundred million…?”
Only five minutes had passed, yet the price was climbing rapidly. The intermediate rank alone justified it. On top of that, Kurozasa was beautiful. Its artistic value alone was high. In short, it looked cool. And that was reason enough for countless bidders to want it, especially those aiming to become rankers. Even if katana were niche, there were plenty who vowed to master them—and plenty of such people stockpiled fortunes waiting for this very kind of chance.
“Ah—already at one hundred and forty million!? No way, how high is it going to go? How much did I even have right now…?”
The truth was, Shizuna herself was already a ranker. She had accumulated a fair amount of money. But weapons always drained her savings, and katana even more so. Even if she bought Kurozasa, maintenance costs would be outrageous, and she couldn’t entrust such a blade to just any craftsman. Meaning she’d bleed even more money.
And yet, she wanted it. Desperately. She wanted to swing it freely, to test it in battle. That thought alone made her restless.
“No. If I buy this, my finances this month will be a disaster…! So I mustn’t bid. Calm down, me! Summon the maid’s iron will, now is the time…!”
Her fingers typed swiftly. Bid placed: 211,110,000.
“Ahhh! I did it—ah, a three hundred million bid just went in! Y-you…!”
That was the danger of auctions. Once emotions got heated, you were dragged into a bidding war. Of course, auctions themselves were a perfectly fair system—connecting supply and demand. That aside—
There were many who wanted Kurozasa. Shizuna watched the numbers climb. 310 million, 350 million, 400 million… still rising.
“…Alright. I’ll give up. No way I can keep up…”
The final price would probably be at least five hundred million. Far out of reach. Though she had regrets, her funds were hopelessly insufficient. She thought to forget about it, take a bath, and head to bed—when one question struck her.
“…Wait. Who even put this up for auction?”
Something so incredible wouldn’t just appear from nowhere. Every awakener auction item was submitted through the Association, so the seller couldn’t be directly traced. But the “real thing” certainly existed.
And to sell it… meant they already had gear so good they could call even this unnecessary. It also meant they had been delving into dungeons deep enough to drop such treasures. Was it from loot, or a reward chest? If a chest—silver, or perhaps gold? Maybe even copper, though unlikely.
She didn’t know. Couldn’t know. But there was one thing she could say for certain.
“They must be incredible. What rank are they, I wonder… I want to reach that level too…”
The world of the truly wealthy still felt far away. By ordinary standards, Shizuna was already a winner. But today, she was reminded again: there were always those above.
Of course, she could never imagine that the “mysterious seller,” living that unreachable, glamorous life, was right now happily eating a simple bowl of rice sprinkled with furikake.