Chapter 165: Selling points

In the end, after hesitating for several seconds, the lion-headed Beastkin opened his storage space. He took out thirty boxes of Rank B Energy Crystals, each containing one hundred crystals, with the boxes separated by different attributes. Some emitted blue light, some were yellow-brown, while others were dark red and carried fire-element energy. Ethan raised an eyebrow slightly as soon as he saw the quantity. He already knew that anyone capable of entering the Challenge Gate had an extraordinary background, but he still had not expected the other party to be able to directly take out so many Rank B Energy Crystals.

"Three thousand points," the lion-headed Beastkin said. "I want to trade for three thousand points."

"All right," Ethan replied immediately.

As soon as the second transaction was completed, the others could no longer remain still. They had originally been afraid that Ethan would force them to accept an outrageous price, but after seeing someone genuinely obtain points, they instead began worrying that the others would buy up all the remaining points before they could. One Dark Elf traded for five hundred points, two Harpies traded for eight hundred points, then a stone-skinned nonhuman brought out a bag of Energy Crystals so large that Ruo Yan had to personally inspect them one by one.

Before long, Ethan’s fishing area had turned into a bizarre trading post. Laira was responsible for continuing to pull targets out of the Lava Sea, Ethan recorded the transactions and distributed points, while Ruo Yan sat beside a large rock and used Soul Threads to sort the crystals according to their attributes. Mumu was assigned the task of running back and forth between the two sides. Whenever a new crystal was brought over, it would hug the crystal with its two short arms, then bounce over to Ruo Yan with an extremely proud expression.

At first, Ruo Yan was worried that Mumu would drop them, but after discovering several times that the Slime could temporarily swallow the crystals into its body and spit them back out completely intact, she could only let it do as it pleased. The more Mumu was praised, the more enthusiastic it became. Once, it hugged a crystal larger than its own head, only to tumble onto the ground after bouncing two steps, yet it still clung tightly to the crystal and refused to let go. Laira laughed so hard when she saw it that she nearly pulled the fishing rod off course, while Ethan could only remind Ruo Yan not to let Mumu accidentally accept lower-rank crystals.

Ruo Yan glanced at him. "You are still worried it might take the wrong one?"

"I am worried the person trading might deliberately give us the wrong one," Ethan said.

Hearing that, Mumu immediately turned toward the nonhumans. Its large round golden eyes slowly narrowed. The halo above its head flashed, and a faint gray light came from nowhere and fell onto a nonhuman who was hiding a Rank C crystal inside his sleeve. Before the man could even step forward, he slipped, causing the crystal to roll out and strike the stone with a very clear sound.

Ethan looked at the crystal on the ground, then at the other party. "Rank C?"

The nonhuman’s face turned red. He hurriedly lowered his head and picked the crystal back up. He wanted to explain, but after seeing Mumu still staring at him, he could only silently replace it with a genuine Rank B crystal.

The people standing behind him who had witnessed the scene quietly abandoned any thoughts of trying to cheat. They had no idea what that Slime had just done, but it was clearly not the kind of Partner that only knew how to bounce around happily.

Only the Undead Mage was the busiest one without receiving any reward whatsoever. It was thrown into the deepest layer of lava, caught fish, then got pulled back up, and before it could even regain its footing, Laira had already hooked it onto the fishing line again. The crystalline membrane around its body had turned dark red from absorbing too much fire-element energy, while its originally dark cloak had been scorched in several places.

If it could truly speak, Ethan believed it would already be cursing all of its ancestors, Laira’s ancestors, and even the ancestors of every fish beneath the sea. Its only fortunate point was that the Undead Mage was just a puppet, so in reality, all it could do was stare at Ruo Yan using the blue flames inside its eye sockets.

Ruo Yan could no longer endure being stared at like that. The moment Laira pulled it up again, she bent down and whispered, "Hold on a little longer. I will repair your armor afterward."

The blue flames inside the Undead Mage’s eyes flickered twice, then it very slowly turned its head toward Ethan.

Ethan pretended not to see anything and merely lowered his head to check the number of crystals inside his storage space.

After more than an hour of trading, the Rank B Energy Crystals had piled up into several large groups, while energy of many different attributes caused his storage space to glow brightly. Ethan had originally intended to use the Lava Crystals to protect the Undead Mage, but now he had obtained resources many times more abundant.

These nonhumans were indeed much wealthier than he had imagined. Some people even carried crystals that were nearly at the threshold of Rank A, all just to exchange for a few more points and secure their position.

Meanwhile, behind the stone island, the nonhumans who had decided to trade had gathered into a small group. On the surface, they were still lining up to purchase points, but their voices had been lowered as much as possible.

The horned nonhuman watched the crystals continuously falling into Ethan’s hands, barely concealing the killing intent in his eyes.

"Just let him keep them for us," he said. "After this challenge layer, the rule prohibiting combat may not still exist. When that time comes, the five races will use the Five-Race Absolute Killing Array passed down by our elders."

"So what if Ethan has Laira, Ruo Yan, and that Slime? As long as we kill him, all the crystals from today, the items on his body, even the points and Fortuitous Encounters in the later layers will all return to our hands."

A Harpy hesitated and said, "What if he is stronger than we expected?"

"Then we have even more reason to buy points," the horned nonhuman replied coldly. "We have to continue onward. As long as we enter the next layer, more people will be able to cooperate with us, and the array will also be able to display its full power."

The others looked at one another before finally nodding.

In their eyes, the current transactions were merely allowing Ethan to temporarily hold onto their crystals. They would endure this humiliation once in exchange for the opportunity to continue deeper into the ruins, then wait until the moment when the rules no longer protected that human.

After reaching an agreement, the speed at which the nonhumans purchased points immediately increased.

Those who had initially remained outside watching also began to grow anxious, especially when the ranking announcement reminded them that the rewards from the challenge would prioritize the top three participants.

Several nonhumans who had previously left immediately returned.

They saw others continuously increasing their points and watched as the top three positions on the ranking board gradually became unstable. In the end, they could no longer endure it.

One person gritted his teeth and threw out ten crystals. Another directly took an entire box of crystals from his storage space.

Ethan barely had time to rest.

He continuously transferred points, Ruo Yan inspected and sorted the crystals, Mumu handled transportation, while Laira steadily continued catching more fish from the depths to replenish the points available for trade.

By the time less than three minutes remained in the challenge, Ethan suddenly closed the trading interface.

He lightly tapped the sign and said, "No more fish. I am not selling anymore."

A nonhuman who had just rushed over immediately changed expression. "I still have crystals. Why can I not trade?"

"Because the remaining points already have owners," Ethan replied. "I gave you plenty of time to buy."

"You..."

The man was so furious that the muscles in his face twitched continuously, but in the end, he still did not dare do anything.

The rules of the Lava Sea had not ended yet, and Ethan was still standing beside Laira and Ruo Yan.

He could only carry his box of crystals back, both hating Ethan and worrying that he would not have enough points to maintain his position.

The nonhumans who had already exchanged for large amounts of points began to feel relieved.

The two who temporarily occupied second and third place even stood near each other, looking at those returning empty-handed with somewhat disdainful expressions.

They believed that they had surpassed Ethan in the ranking competition, while that human, even if he possessed the most points, could only occupy one position.

As long as time ran out, the top three would receive the rewards.

After that, the five races’ plan would truly begin.

When the countdown reached fifteen seconds, Ethan suddenly opened the trading interface one final time.

He did not look at the nonhumans.

Instead, he called Laira and Ruo Yan over.

Laira had just pulled the Undead Mage out of the lava, while Ruo Yan was still holding a pile of crystals she had not yet stored away.

The two looked at Ethan, then almost simultaneously understood what he intended to do.

Ethan transferred most of the points he still held to Laira and Ruo Yan.

The names on the ranking board immediately began changing continuously.

The two nonhumans who had originally been in second and third place only frowned slightly at first.

But when the light in the sky stabilized again, the entire stone island fell silent.

[Rank 1: Ethan Ashford.]

[Rank 2: Laira.]

[Rank 3: Ruo Yan.]

The expressions of the two nonhumans who had just been happily staring at the ranking board froze at the same time.

One opened his mouth, but he was too furious to say anything.

The other clenched the crystal in his hand so tightly that it made a cracking sound, then spat a mouthful of blood directly onto the stone.

Ethan looked at the scene and only then slowly stored the trading sign back into his storage space.

Beside him, Mumu hugged a Rank B crystal and tilted its head at the two people trembling with rage before happily crying out.

"Mumu!"