As they continued exploring the stalls at the Sea Market, the two discovered so unusual products related to the ocean. It seed like you could find just about anything connected to the sea here.
Among all the stalls, Larry found two particular ways of playing the most interesting. These stalls didn’t just sell items, they offered unique gambling gas.
There were mainly two types: opening treasure chests and gambling on shells. Both were essentially gas of chance, betting on the value of what might be inside.
The treasure chests all looked the sa from the outside, and you’d pick one that caught your eye. Each cost 50,000 rings.
What you found inside depended entirely on luck, you might get C-level or even B-level ingredients that could multiply your investnt many tis over, or you might end up with a broken white stone or so rotten seaweed. The items varied greatly in value, but one thing was certain: everything inside was sourced from this sea.
Gambling on shells was a bit easier to understand. It worked like gambling on stones back on Blue Star.
You paid for a shell you liked, pried it open, and hoped to find valuable pearls inside. Compared to opening treasure chests, gambling on shells was usually more expensive, you could easily spend tens of millions of rings on a single shell. But with higher risk ca the chance for a huge reward, and many people had struck it rich by finding top-quality pearls worth tens of millions.
These two gas were the most popular ways to play at the Sea Market. While gambling on shells always yielded pearls, Larry was more intrigued by opening treasure chests, where the contents were a complete mystery.
A middle-aged woman sat quietly in front of a treasure chest stall, perched on a small stool and wearing a straw hat similar to nchi’s. Her head was slightly bowed, as if she were dozing off. Scattered across the stall were treasure chests, originally arranged in nurical order, but after so sales, only about fifty remained. As Larry scanned past several chests, his eyes finally settled on one that gave him an uneasy feeling, he sensed a dark aura surrounding it.
“Auntie, I’ll take treasure chest No. 66,” Larry said.
The woman snapped out of her daze, accepted his 50,000 rings, and handed him the key matching chest No. 66. There were a total of 100 treasure chests, each with its own numbered key.
When a custor bought a chest, Auntie gave them the key so they could open it right there. After the buyer took the contents, Auntie would restock the chest and continue selling. The chests themselves couldn’t be taken away, only their items.
With a soft “click,” Larry opened the chest. The humid seaside air had caused so rust inside, making the opening sound slightly different. Curious, nchi leaned in, her eyes shining with anticipation. She wondered what Larry would find in his very first treasure chest.
As Larry looked inside, his breath caught slightly, his instincts had been right. The item inside was steeped in a deathly aura, exuding a dark breath that confird his suspicions.
It matched the information he had gotten. All signs pointed to one thing, the dark sonata was likely connected to this.
Fully opening the chest, the two of them saw the treasure clearly. “Is this… a pearl?” nchi whispered in disbelief.
A pearl rested quietly inside the dark brown treasure chest, its appearance far from perfect.
If you want to sell a pearl for a high price, it has to et certain standards, like shape, color, and size. The pearl inside the treasure chest wasn’t big, and its shape was pretty rough, covered with tiny pits all over.
The only good thing about it was its color. It was a pure white with a slight shimr, definitely top quality in terms of color. But aside from that, it wasn’t impressive at all.
Clearly, Larry had spent 50,000 rings to buy this flawed white pearl. However, he wasn’t bothered by its worn-out look. What really caught his attention was the faint presence of death aura lingering on its surface.
This strange aura looked like a little black snake, twisting and floating on the pearl’s surface. The sharp contrast between the bright white and the dark death aura was striking.
Larry’s instincts were right. Casually, he took out the pearl and tossed it into the shadows nearby. The calm shadow suddenly rippled like a stone dropped into a pond, and the pearl sank fast, disappearing as if it had been thrown into deep water.
After handing the empty treasure chest and the key back to the woman, Larry asked, “Aunt, where did this pearl co from? If we know where it was found, we might be able to pinpoint the location of the Dark Sonata.”
She replied, “I picked this pearl up right here on the beach. It probably washed ashore with the waves.”
‘Picking it up on the beach... could it an the Dark Sonata lies sowhere deep in the ocean?’ Larry frowned, a troubling thought crossing his mind.
If it’s deep underwater, finding it would be much harder. He scanned the other treasure chests but couldn’t sense any trace of death aura. It seed the influence was limited, only a few items here had been affected.
“Young man, the stuff here isn’t very good. You should check out the auction house,” the woman kindly suggested when she noticed Larry wasn’t buying any more treasure chests.
Compared to the Sea Market, which catered to everyday people, the auction house dealt with more rare items. There, you could find high-grade ingredients favored by gourt hunters or antiques salvaged from the ocean, many of which contained aura.
Since this place is close to the Dark Continent, unusual things sotis show up here. So bring hope and benefits to people, while others bring danger and disaster. Of course, nothing that appears here is as serious as the legendary Five Great Disasters, if it were, the V5 would have blocked it long ago.
One of the most famous oddities to surface a few years back was a blood-colored pearl that appeared at an auction house. Unlike regular pearls, which are usually white, purple, or other soft colors, this pearl looked like it was filled with blood, glowing with a deep red color.
So people found it creepy and unsettling, while others were fascinated and thought it was incredibly beautiful. The pearl was enormous, about the size of a fist, truly a giant among pearls. Based on its size, the shell that produced it had to be huge, and indeed, the discoverer found a massive, beautifully patterned shell from which the pearl was taken.
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