Right before Zich’s eyes, the number of viewers climbed past six hundred.

Zich watched the viewer count with the same quiet expression, though inside his chest was beating with tremendous excitement.

[00:09:59]

The moment the countdown appeared above the Silverback Grunt listing, the entire marketplace lobby erupted again. Messages flooded upward so quickly that half of them became unreadable before fully appearing.

People were genuinely losing their minds over a dead ape.

[Anonymous01 has bid 12 Soul Stones.]

Then the second came three seconds later.

[VelhariBlade has bid 14 Soul Stones.]

[Crestfall_99 has bid 15 Soul Stones.]

[Anonymous01 has bid 17 Soul Stones.]

Zich leaned back against the wall and watched with a wide grin.

’Seventeen already. That’s more than what I need for the Blink skill already,’ he thought to himself, but of course he did not stop them, allowing them to continue their bidding.

---

At that moment, while the screen was filled with bids, Helen placed her bid at eighteen.

She did not use her real account name. The alias she had registered before entering the mountain was old and clean, without a single transaction attached to it, and she had kept it that way specifically for moments like this.

Seeing that she had been overtaken without hesitation, she raised the bid to twenty and waited.

---

On the marketplace, the chat had not calmed down at all.

If anything, removing the junk listings had simply freed everyone’s attention for more focused arguments, and since the bids were now public, players had begun commentating on each other’s spending decisions like spectators at a fight.

"Whoever is bidding under Anonymous01 has money to burn."

"VelhariBlade raised again. How rich are the lizards?"

"The new bid at twenty is suspicious. No username shown."

"Anonymous bidding is legal. Read the rules."

"Since when do the rules matter inside the mountain?"

"Master Shady strikes again. He probably made the anonymous feature himself."

Zich had not made the anonymous feature. It was a standard marketplace function available to any registered seller, but correcting them would have required opening the chat and typing, so he just let it be and decided to watch.

[Crestfall has bid twenty-two soul stones.]

[VelhariBlade has bid twenty-five soul stones.]

[Anonymous account has bid twenty-seven...]

Observing the screen, Zich noticed the anonymous buyer was careful.

They never overbid by large jumps. Every increase was small and deliberate, the kind of incremental pressure that suggested the person behind it was more patient than desperate.

Most people bidding tonight were emotional. Watching them spend was easy.

However, this one was different.

’Either someone experienced, or someone with a specific reason to want this summon,’ he thought, his eyes flashing sharply.

...

Meanwhile, several floors above Layer One, inside a dim settlement illuminated by pale blue crystals, a tall red-skinned Velhari male stared coldly at the auction screen floating before him.

Behind him stood several armored figures waiting silently.

"Thirty-five soul stones for a low-level undead beast," one subordinate muttered carefully. "This seems excessive."

The Velhari’s slit pupils narrowed slightly as he spoke with an indifferent look on his face. "For what we would use it for, it’s worth it."

The subordinate lowered his head immediately, realizing that his master was indeed right. They were about to take on a powerful monster, and their party consisted of close friends, so none of them wanted to sacrifice themselves as bait for the creature.

But the Silverback Grunt could be used both as bait and a distraction.

As long as they succeeded in killing the monster, they would gain far more than what they lost.

The tall Velhari reopened the auction panel and then raised the bid again without hesitation.

[VelhariBlade has bid 42 Soul Stones.]

When this notification rang out, the marketplace nearly exploded from outrage.

"FORTY-TWO?!"

"What kind of rich monster are we fighting?!"

"Layer Two bastards are ruining everything."

"I sold my spare armor for eight soul stones yesterday..."

Even Zich blinked once after seeing the number.

For the first time since the auction began, genuine surprise crossed his face. Forty-two soul stones was enough for several players to survive comfortably for months inside the shelter if managed properly.

And yet someone spent it casually on temporary summon access.

A dangerous realization settled slowly into his mind.

The higher layers were wealthier than he originally estimated.

Far wealthier.

If Layer Two players could casually push prices this high, then the future value of rare summons might become monstrous later. The Silverback Grunt was only a normal-ranked Level Three. What would happen if he eventually displayed something stronger?

What would people pay for a resurrecting elite monster?

What about a boss?

His thoughts shifted briefly toward the graveyard.

Toward the massive tombstone containing the Mother of All Dragons.

’If I auction that, I could make hundreds of thousands of soul stones within a month!’

This was actually a very lucrative business.

He could potentially become very wealthy both in the Ascension Mountain and the real world.

The more Zich thought about it, the more ridiculous the possibilities became inside his head.

Right now, he only had a single Silverback ape, whom he had even considered discarding, being fought over like starving wolves battling over scraps.

But later?

What happened when he began controlling entire squads?

A group of armored skeleton soldiers alone could completely change how small parties explored dangerous zones. Disposable frontline troops. Scouts that never complained. Shields that did not fear death.

And that was only the beginning.

Flying summons could help players map hidden regions safely from the sky. Fast undead beasts could be rented for transportation between settlements. Defensive monsters could guard shelters during wave events. Some players would pay simply to survive one extra night.

His breathing slowed slightly as the idea expanded further.

If he truly developed the graveyard properly, then eventually he would not just be selling summons anymore, but temporary armies for those wealthy enough.

And the truly terrifying part was that as long as he had mana, his summons would be unkillable, making them the bane of his enemies.

It was quite absurd to say, but with his unique class, Zich could see an extremely bright future ahead of him... a future where he would become a peak powerhouse that not even the Player Association, guilds, or clans could hold back.

He exhaled slowly before forcing his thoughts back toward the auction. While he was greedily thinking about all the wealth he could make, he suddenly received a notification.

[Private Request from VelhariBlade]