Chapter 494 Collector, Appraiser

The [Blood-Vein Rock Comprehensive Operating Table] from Twin Canyon was one of the Blade of Vengeance Squad's main spoils from this mission.

Discovered by the Halfling Alton, it had been loaded onto the ship at Xia Nan's suggestion and brought back to Barracuda Bay.

To keep his Attribute Panel Golden Finger a secret, Xia Nan hadn't revealed much about the item's specific attributes. He had only briefly pointed out its special features during the mission so his teammates would know it was no ordinary object.

Since everyone knew his Perception was outstanding, this wouldn't arouse any unnecessary suspicion.

Hein, who had taken the Druid class, had also confirmed its uniqueness through her special abilities as a Spellcaster, noticing the unnatural flow of magic particles in the air around the operating table.

At first, the members of the Blade of Vengeance Squad hadn't even known the operating table's specific function. Going off their initial impressions, they had simply treated it as some sort of ancient torture device.

But they were veteran Adventurers who had sailed the seas for years and seen countless bizarre things. Over the many days of their return voyage from Twin Canyon to Barracuda Bay, they had tinkered with the table and roughly confirmed it was a healing-type item.

Looking at it that way, it was truly a bit macabre. An "operating table" and an "execution platform"... to some extent, their functions really did overlap.

Now, the [Blood-Vein Rock Comprehensive Operating Table] had been safely brought back to Barracuda Bay from Twin Canyon by the Blade of Vengeance Squad.

Because the item was so massive and heavy, even moving it was difficult, let alone carrying it around on their persons. Coupled with the fact that the group couldn't figure out its exact functions, they obviously couldn't keep it for their own use.

After a collective discussion among the core members, they decided to sell the operating table to subsidize the members of the entire fleet.

Therefore, the moment they returned to Barracuda Bay, general information about the operating table was posted through the channels of the Adventurers' Association and other relevant venues, just waiting for interested buyers to appear.

Exotic items like this had always been highly sought after in the Southern Archipelagos.

Just a few days after it was listed, many people had already inquired about the price.

Of course, the vast majority of them were opportunists hoping to score a cheap find or middlemen making a living buying low and selling high. Most were filtered out right from the start.

The rest were buyers with a genuine desire to purchase, capable of communicating reasonably and moving the process forward.

The person they were meeting today was the one with the best reputation among them.

"Adventurer squad name: 'Blade of Vengeance,' correct? The large conference room and item transportation services you reserved the day before yesterday are ready. Please follow me, you two."

Xia Nan's regular receptionist, Mar, was on leave today. The person leading him and Hein down the hallway of the Adventurers' Association was a young staff member who looked somewhat familiar, though Xia Nan couldn't name him.

In truth, Xia Nan could have stayed completely out of matters concerning the [Blood-Vein Rock Comprehensive Operating Table].

After all, this item was a spoil of war from their time in Twin Canyon. Having obtained the [White Flask], Xia Nan had long since voluntarily withdrawn from the profit distribution of the spoils found there.

Whether it sold for a lot or a little theoretically had nothing to do with him.

But as an officially recognized member of the squad, and more importantly as one of the item's discoverers, he had decided to come and support them out of a strong sense of responsibility. After hearing Lorraine mention in the tavern a few days ago that a buyer had been found, he wanted to prevent his teammates from suffering any unnecessary losses.

Since he possessed the Attribute Panel and could see the complete attributes of this equipment, it was impossible for anyone to score a cheap find right in front of him.

When the receptionist led Xia Nan and Hein into the conference room the Blade of Vengeance Squad had reserved in advance, several core members of the fleet, including Lorraine, Sasha, Aken, the twin brothers, and Alton, were already present.

Unlike their severely injured appearance when they had just returned to the docks a few days ago, the natural recovery power of their Class Grade bodies, coupled with the aid of various potions, meant seven days was enough to turn severe injuries into minor ones, and for minor injuries to heal completely.

Although the people present hadn't yet recovered to their peak combat state from before they set sail, they no longer had that previous feeling of weakness. At the very least, the bandages wrapping their bodies and peeking out from their collars and sleeves were no longer visible.

"You're here?"

Turning her head to look at Xia Nan and Hein as they walked into the room, Lorraine nodded slightly in greeting.

Somewhat surprisingly, she seemed to be deliberately keeping her voice low. The expected scene of her jokingly scolding them for being late never happened; she just threw them a glance and a greeting before looking away, casting her gaze back to the other side of the conference room.

Over there, the marble operating table from Twin Canyon lay quietly on the floor, with a tall figure standing beside it.

Xia Nan's gaze focused slightly, locking onto the operating table in the center of the room.

The next second, translucent characters quietly surfaced in the empty air before his eyes.

...

[Blood-Vein Rock Comprehensive Operating Table]

Type: Operating Table

Level: /

Effects:

1. +3% precision operation success rate;

2. +15% operator arm stability;

3. -10% patient blood loss;

4. +5% hand-eye coordination;

5. -15% surgical infection rate.

Description:

An elite operating table made from precious Blood-Vein Rock. Only Golden Circle Grade experts are qualified to apply for its provision from the Medical Association. It can increase the success rate of surgeries to a certain extent.

Note:

"What we prolong is life, not suffering."

— Medical Association, Ethics Research Office

...

The data on the Attribute Panel was identical to what Xia Nan had seen before. It hadn't lost its original efficacy just because it was moved out of Twin Canyon, or because he had touched the core of the Secret Realm and taken the [White Flask].

Breathing a slight sigh of relief, Xia Nan looked beside the operating table.

A slender, tall figure was observing the details of the operating table with utmost concentration.

The man wore a well-tailored, fine-textured high-end suit, looking like a nobleman attending an important banquet.

His facial features were sharp and his skin pale, with a face as youthful as a young man's, yet the sideburns of his neatly slicked-back short blonde hair were already completely silver-white.

His eyes were an impure silver-gray. From a distance, his ears looked no different from an ordinary person's, but up close, one could see the tips were slightly pointed.

He possessed one-eighth high elf bloodline; strictly speaking, he also belonged to the Half-Elf race.

Of course, Xia Nan hadn't deduced this on the spot himself. While his Perception was good, his knowledge reserve was far from reaching the level where he could accurately discern the exact ratio of various races within a mixed-blood just by glancing at them. He also couldn't say he had much understanding of the facial features of the various races under the broad category of elves.

The only reason he knew it in such detail was because he had done his homework before coming.

Auriel Silverheart, a famous collector, merchant, and appraiser in the Southern Archipelagos.

He wasn't the sort of figure who had appeared out of nowhere and barged into the bay like Xia Nan, but rather someone with a clear, widely known history.

Auriel's great-grandfather had been a high elf scholar, while his great-grandmother was an ordinary human. The two had managed a grocery store together in Barracuda Bay.

Business was fairly good. Because of his great-grandfather's status as a scholar, he could even occasionally take on private jobs using his professional knowledge to earn some extra income.

The two had a complete family and lived a happy life, but... unions between different races sometimes meant facing objective problems that were simply impossible to solve.

Lifespan was the most critical and suffocating one among them.

Especially for elves, whose lifespans were so long that they could barely be considered adults even after passing a hundred years of age.

Auriel's great-grandfather could only watch as his beloved wife grew older day by day, while his own body bore not the slightest trace left by time.

In that prolonged agony that gradually marched toward an irreversible end, after watching his wife pass away, he decided to pour his energy into the crystallization of their love.

Thus, Auriel's grandmother inherited the profound family knowledge passed down from the previous generation. She married a wealthy human merchant in Barracuda Bay and developed the original grocery store into a famous pawnshop.

Although the lifespan of a Half-Elf was much longer than that of an ordinary human, it still fell far short compared to proper, pureblood elves.

Because of this, Auriel's great-grandfather was once again forced to watch his own daughter grow old—and even die—before him.

Fortunately, his daughter had also left behind a crystallization of her own love—namely, Auriel's father.

As time flowed on, the grocery store that originally could only hunker down in the corner of an alley managed to climb into the upper echelons through the generational efforts of Auriel's family, developing into one of the most famous auction houses in all of Barracuda Bay.

Influenced by what he saw and heard since childhood, the time Auriel spent idling in the auction house during his early years laid the foundation for him to become a collector.

After growing up, he became even more deeply immersed in those treasures filled with the marks of time and cultural history, unable to extricate himself.

Just three years ago, after the passing of his great-grandfather—the source of his one-eighth high elf bloodline—Auriel immediately resigned from his position as the auction house boss. Trading it for massive funds and countless treasures, he formally became a collector and an appraiser.

His family's turbulent history, combined with his own rebellious yet understandable personality and style, made Auriel quite famous in certain circles of Barracuda Bay.

Furthermore, the profound family knowledge he had inherited made his professional appraisal abilities exceptionally outstanding, ranking among the very best in all of Barracuda Bay.

Right now, the one who had taken a fancy to the [Blood-Vein Rock Comprehensive Operating Table] was precisely this Half-Elf expert renowned in the fields of collecting and appraisal.

His silver-gray eyes reflected the cold white marble of the operating table before him, and the tip of his right index finger gently brushed across the natural blood-colored veins on its surface.

Xia Nan had just entered the room, so he didn't know how long the other party had been observing it beforehand.

But this extremely experienced appraiser with an auction house background directly pointed out the operating table's origins with his very first sentence.

"This thing isn't an item that should appear in the Southern Archipelagos. Strange marble with red veins like this doesn't exist anywhere in the entire Upstream Coast Province."

Without waiting for the others to reply, he continued to explain his findings to the group.

"The number of times this item has been used... well, or rather, the number of times it was used in the past is very high. Blood has deeply seeped into the stone, merging with it."

"Multiple times, in the same areas, over a time span of at least thirty years."

Having no intention of hiding the operating table's origins, Lorraine spoke up to add after hearing Auriel's words.

"We found this item in Twin Canyon. There might be signs of an ancient ruin resurfacing there. A member of the team felt this thing might be useful, so my companions and I brought it back."

"An ancient ruin!?"

Auriel abruptly raised his head, seeming surprised and excited about the possible ruin in Twin Canyon, but immediately after, he unconsciously frowned.

Given how perfectly preserved the item in front of him was, it didn't look like a relic left behind from the ancient era countless years ago.

Perhaps... it possessed some special preservation technique?

Planning to have a detailed discussion about the ruin with the Blade of Vengeance Squad later, Auriel's attention returned to the operating table.

He straightened up from his leaned-forward posture and even took two steps back to look down from above, bringing the entire operating table into his field of vision.

"The metal rings on both sides of the table surface, with leather sheathing them, look like restraining devices, but they can also serve a protective function. They're more like some kind of compulsory safety apparatus—used for securing a person."

"The smoothly polished circular copper disc—is it for lighting or reflection? Hmm, this tray underneath should be for temporarily storing things. The mechanical arms are also very flexible."

"The style is unique. The forged connections have no showy techniques whatsoever, without even the most basic decorative embellishments. It places an extreme emphasis on practicality."

"The craftsmanship, however, is a bit strange. It looks perfectly seamless, without a single flaw, like a master's work, but in reality, you can't feel the soul from when it was made. It's like some kind of standardized mass-produced item."

His lips moved, murmuring as if talking to himself.

Auriel suddenly turned his head, looking toward Lorraine not far behind him in the conference room.

"You guessed correctly. There is a high probability that this thing isn't some execution device. Quite the opposite; it might have been made to save people."

It was only at this moment that his highly focused attention noticed that there were two more people in the conference room than before.

His gaze swept past seemingly casually, but his eyes quietly lingered on the [Practice Staff] hanging at Hein's waist, as well as the two longswords on Xia Nan's back, his armor, Arm Shield, greaves... wait, why were there so many!?

Auriel's expression couldn't help but freeze, unconsciously showing a hint of indescribable weirdness.

As a highly experienced collector and appraiser who prided himself on his outstanding professional abilities, how could he possibly overlook the pieces of equipment worn by the black-haired youth before him—each one definitely Fine grade, if not suspected enchanted quality?

But... weren't there a bit too many?

It wasn't that he hadn't seen higher-level Class Holders before. Although the vast majority of them were also fully armed and well-equipped, the density of their suspected enchanted equipment could rarely compare to the youth in front of him.

Auriel's train of thought quietly came to a halt.

Setting aside the marble operating table in front of him for a moment, he turned around and took the initiative to greet Xia Nan.

"First time meeting you. You... must be the famous 'Sea Fang,' right?"