Level 1 to Apex: My Monster Templates Defy Reality!
Chapter 81: Bidding war

Chapter 81: Bidding war

Forsyx scrolls through the monster list in frustration.

All these exaggerated prices remind him of his past life’s helplessness.

Even small, common monsters were going for half a gold coin to a couple of gold coins.

As for the elite monsters, they were all above 5 gold. He knew this was the inflated price set by the trade network.

He didn’t bother to look at anything above a common monster.

The problem was that all the common monsters in his village were small prey creatures. They were good for food, but not worth wasting additional resources on.

In his last life, he chose to invest in canines as his go-to templates. They were a decent choice, but not the best one.

This time, he wanted his first series of templates to be more aggressive and more humanoid.

As he continued scrolling, he saw multiple sub-variants of different humanoid creatures—from mountain orcs to dark elves, even black goblins.

They were within his budget, but they weren’t of much use to him. What he wanted was a base version of these creatures. After all, as common creatures, their value didn’t lie in their current strength.

A few of these variants were much stronger than others and even had pretty good skills. A perfect type for creating templates, but that would mean chasing instant gain while ignoring long-term potential.

There were many things he did wrong in his past life, but each of them taught him a lesson.

One such lesson was that his class wasn’t just about creating a couple of individual templates. No, it was about building a system.

At that moment, something flashed across his eyes that made him freeze.

He scrolled back a bit—and there it was. A batch of 20 green goblins was available on the trade network.

These goblins fit all his requirements. This was exactly the type of creature he was looking for.

As he looked at the auction timer and saw barely two minutes left on this trade, a wide smile formed on his face.

He wasted no time increasing the current bid from 55 silver to 60 silver.

He just stared at the trade interface with excitement, but that excitement was short-lived. The price, which had remained still for days, suddenly jumped to 65 silver.

He looked at the seller’s ID—it was unknown. Not thinking much of it, he increased the bid again to 70.

Not even a second later, someone raised it to 90 silver.

’Fck, don’t tell me I’ve already encountered a manipulator on my first trade.’

Not backing down, he increased the bid to 95 silver.

The current price for green goblins had already surpassed the best variant of common goblins, but he knew it was still subpar.

In his past life, these creatures would sell for far beyond elite monster prices—sometimes even into double-digit gold coins.

But that didn’t mean he was enjoying this bidding war. Not even ten seconds later, the other guy raised the price to 1 gold, 20 silver.

Forsyx took a deep breath and checked his funds. He had only 1 gold, 50 silver, and then looked at the timer.

Less than 40 seconds left. He knew he couldn’t win against the other guy with just his funds, so he typed in 1 gold, 50 silver, and waited.

Less than 10 seconds left.

He was sure the other guy must’ve done the same and was just waiting to increase the bid.

All Forsyx could do now was to try his luck with one last bid.

Four seconds left. Three... two...

Right at that moment, he submitted his bid.

The bid amount began increasing as the auction timer reached zero.

Finally, it stopped right at 1 gold, 50 silver, and a notification popped up in front of him:

[Congratulations, Template Wilder! You have purchased a batch of 20 Green Goblins.

Seller ID: Unknown (Light_pie)

Product: 20 Green Goblins

Buyer ID: Black_Scrouge

]

Forsyx dropped to the ground and started laughing. "Haha, fck yeah!"

This pulled Weyril out of his mental space, and he looked at Forsyx in confusion. "What happened, Master?"

Forsyx shook his head. "Nothing, I just bought some green goblins for our lab."

Weyril rubbed his chin. "Oh, goblins. New prey, huh? Will they be strong enough to be hunted later?"

Forsyx smiled. "Not prey, but warriors."

Weyril tilted his head, intrigued. "Ah, goblins as warriors? Well, then I look forward to them becoming stronger. "

His lab assistant didn’t react much, but Forsyx was happy to gain his first core-series monster for the space lab.

He looked at the trade interface—too bad there wasn’t a chat feature here.

He could imagine the manipulator’s frustration from afar.

It was a classic last-bid trick from his past life.

Instead of trying to outbid a manipulator, you wait until the last second to place a bid that’s higher than the manipulator’s likely next bid.

He was sure the manipulator must’ve bid in the last second too—but didn’t expect the sudden spike of 30 silver.

The last bid the manipulator had planned must’ve been lower than his. By the time he could change the bidding amount, it was too late. freewēbnoveℓ.com

This was another loophole, where a person couldn’t outbid themselves. Many normal players used this tactic against manipulators.

Though it wouldn’t work against super-rich players. After all, if the opponent had been one of those, then the second bid would’ve already been over 2 gold.

The size of the price increase helped you determine whether you were up against a manipulator or a rich player.

Usually, manipulators in his past life increased bids in the 20 to 30 silver range.

That’s why he chose to bid 1 gold, 50 silver—it gave him a good chance to win, as long as the other guy followed the same patterns he had seen before.

Sure enough, he won this time—but he knew the success rate of this method would drop in the future.

Not thinking too much, he closed the trade interface and opened his inventory.

There, in the very first slot, he saw the goblin group. As he tapped on it, a notification popped up.

[20 Common-grade Green Goblins detected.

Do you want to summon them now? (Yes/No)]

Forsyx wasted no time and tapped Yes with a wide smile on his face.