After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

The two guides were called in and explained the situation. At this point, although things were "too convenient", they were too desperate and thought it was "lucky" instead.

Ironically, the people who might've been more inclined to suspect…were currently half-dead. Look, one was still twitching on the floor right now.

Anyway, they escorted the potential buyer to the meeting hall after cleaning up the mess, including all the blood and the indisposed elders.

"Hello, my name is Enok Appa," Otto said with a smile. "I come from a territory in the East, gathering slaves when I heard of the auction happening here. I hope I was not too late."

"Ah, no, we still have a few available—if the price is right."

Otto smiled. "I, Enok, agree wholeheartedly."

Mafo looked at his panel and found the name Enok. It wasn't an uncommon name, so there were a few, but he mentioned his last name, so he did find it.

Level 39, Spearman.

Sadly, even the Lords could not see a person's territory of residency, so he could only take things as the other claimed for now.

Then he saw his wallet, and his eyes sparkled a bit.

Otto smiled, knowing the Lord was looking at his panel at this time. Fortunately, there was no accident and the mercenary had arrived on time.

Enok was a mercenary he hired from the Takoda Mercenary Team, one of their allied mercenary teams from Avel City.

They met in Bleulle when they escorted Helios there. The mercenary approached, introducing themselves well, and Otto took his details, especially knowing he was from a City as well.

And now, a few days before leaving Alterra, Otto sent the team a post asking them to hang around Voumi Town as a placeholder. He paid a lot of money of course, especially since Voumi was not a Level 2 Town and therefore didn't have a Mercenary Hall, so they had to go on a beast car for a good portion of the way.

Anyway, the information in the panel did not include place of origin, and it was common to have the same names, so it was a fairly safe strategy even for Enok.

On the other hand, people could tell other people's levels by their aura. It wasn't something that could easily be quantified. It's more of an instinctual thing.

However, while a weaker person could not fake being stronger, a stronger one—assuming they had enough control of their powers and the aether—could appear to have lower levels. For Otto, this was practically an effortless thing.

Back to the present, Otto appeared classy and rich, but at the same time showed just enough desperation, as he told his story.

"I am in need of hundreds, if not thousands of slaves, to be honest," he said. "The orc territory is not weak…and we received information that they are making alliances now."

"The Lord wants thousands. If it's too few, then there is no point. We might as well use the money to find a way to relocate and rebuild."

"Then you can pay—"

"However, as you can imagine, living in such conditions is difficult and our budget is limited," he said. "I can only pay 5,000 gold," he said. "I'm hoping to buy some 2000 slaves from it."

"What?"

Mafo flinched. He had seen the man's wallet, so he knew how much money he had. However, he never would've thought this bastard would have the audacity to ask for two thousand!!

Although he got the slaves for cheap from his subsidiaries, it didn't mean he'd be fine with one or two gold per slave as profit!

"Is it not possible?"

"Of course not!"

"I see…" Otto sighed. "That is indeed too bad."

It wasn't that he didn't have more in his wallet. He had, in fact, a few thousand more hidden elsewhere so the Lord wouldn't see it, given by Alterra Bank at the order of the Elders.

However, in his experience, shelling out so much in one go could flag them as suspicious and would derail the entire plan.

He turned around. "I will be excusing myself—"

"What?" Mafo and the other elders flinched. "Are you going already?"

He slammed the table in anger, both because he was annoyed and also to intimidate. He even let out a bit of aura.

"You dare play around with me—"

He was cut off by another, more solid, aura heading his way.

This was Otto's. As a level 43 man, he was a few levels stronger than Mafo. "We fight against orcs often, Milord, please do not test me."

Although he was pretending to have a lower level, his stronger aura could be construed as better quality instead. "Like I said, it can only be 2000 or nothing."

Mafo gritted his teeth.

"That's too low!" he said. "These slaves had been trained! And they are not normal humans!"

It was a lie, of course. Most of the slaves he was selling were the weak, abandoned ones. Otto knew this, but he wasn't supposed to, so he did not point it out.

"A thousand!" Mafo yelled in the end. "I can only give 1000 slaves for that!"

"I also know you have 7000 in your wallet!"

Otto flinched, as if forgetting about this fact. Seeing his opponent lose cool even for a few seconds felt good to Mafo.

"1500 for 7000 gold," Otto spat out. "And each one must be an elementalist."

Mafo tutted, and met the eyes of an elder.

"Milord…" This was the Elder in charge of the slaves. During the meeting, he asked him to check up on the status of the slaves to see their conditions. Now, he had to make sure selling them off at this juncture would still be worth it.

"Their… conditions. It is as we discussed."

Mafo paled, but he tried to control his expression. He just coolly nodded and turned to "Enok". "Would you like to sign the contract now?"

Otto smiled, though externally he looked reluctant, as if careful. "I have to report this to our Lord first—"

Mafo took a deep breath. "To be honest… my person here just told me that there is another buyer," he said. "I received word that they are willing to buy 1000 elementalists for 20,000 gold. It's just that they're still travelling."

"You still have that amount of slaves left," he said, considering they weren't selling him more than a thousand.

Mafo smirked at him. "They opened to buying more if I confirm it."

"What?" Otto said, as if afraid. He closed his eyes as if in ponder, and this made Mafo feel like he was winning the discussion.

Otto's shoulder slumped, appearing defeated. "Very well."

Mafo smiled and led Otto downstairs to make the oath.

"You won't regret it," he said, showing off his ugly teeth. "And if you can procure a few thousand more, I can give you a few hundred more. How about it?"

"I will contact my Lord later," he said. "Hopefully, they'd be able to send more funds to me, so I hope you can hold a few thousand more for a bit longer."

At this, Mafo grinned, feeling victorious for the first time in a while. "I will consider it."