The Achievement Junkie

Jack made the exchange as usual, without saying a word to the manager who came to see him. He then transferred the beast from the auction house's bestial ring to his own with a smile on his face.

The others in his room weren't as surprised this time. Slowly, they were becoming desensitized to Jack's seemingly insane spending.

Looking at his system, Jack chuckled.

[Unfair Exchange: completed]

[Be a part of a completely one-sided exchange of goods and willingly be on the losing side. Unique reward: 100 skill points.]

Also, Jack looked at two of the other money related achievements he found and sighed.

[Millionaire!: in progress]

[Spend a total of one million gold coins. Reward: 100 skill points]

[Billionaire!: in progress]

[Spend a total of one billion gold coins. Reward: 500 skill points.]

Though he had enough to earn [Millionaire!] a few times over, Jack was trying to think of how he could possibly get a special or unique reward. If he were to use the auction, he would have to do it before the second day ends, because the entire third day is trade based. Or he could…

"Hey, Argyle," Jack suddenly spoke up and came out of his trance, "Do you have any accessories or a dress that Lina might like?"

"Sure, I've got just about anything. Why do you ask?"

"Do you have one on you right now?"

"Yeah…" He took out a dress with a necklace without batting an eye. The dress wasn't anything special but Argyle proudly held up the necklace. "This would be perfect for her because--"

"Do you have any regular necklaces? You know, the kind that is purely aesthetic and has no other value?"

"Sure… like this?" Argyle switched the necklaces, now showing one with a regular sapphire inside. It was beautiful and quite expensive for the common folk.

"Perfect! Can I buy those off you?" asked Jack, startling not ARgyle but the women of his party.

"You don't have to, consider them a--"

"No, I need to buy them! Name your price," stated Jack.

"Umm… It'll cost one hundred gold for the two together, but--"

"Okay, here's the money." Jack tossed Argyle a ring as he quickly took the dress and necklace over to Lina. "Here you go, just for you!"

"Oh! I love them!"

Jack put the necklace around Lina's neck and handed her the dress to try later, making the other girls a bit jealous.

Argyle, on the other hand, was shaking as he held up the storage ring Jack had given him. "Impossible! I can't accept this!"

"That's my payment, just consider the rest as a tip," joked Jack nonchalantly.

"I'm serious Jack! There's no way I can--"

"I'm also serious, Father-in-law. I need to do this, so if you don't take it then I'll go offer it to Hurmot."

"I…" Argyle sighed, noting the serious glare Jack was giving him. Though it was way too much, after everything Jack had done so far, it was believable that he really would go and offer it to Hurmot.

"Father, what's wrong?" asked Eliza?

"You can tell them, that doesn't matter. What matters is that you accept that payment and offer me nothing more in return for it," stated Jack, not letting Argyle offer anything else.

"But… Fine." Argyle looked at the others and opened his mouth but struggled to admit the truth. "He… This is way too much for those items… I--"

"Father, we all know that he paid you way too much. But how much is too much?"

"... Seventy thousand platinum…" muttered Argyle, still struggling to understand what Jack was up to.

"Seventy thousand platinum!? Isn't that the same as seven hundred thousand gold?!" Eliza had never seen platinum before, but she knew of its value. She guessed that Jack might have some with his vast wealth, but she never guessed that he had that much platinum, let alone enough to spend it all on a simple dress.

Looking back to Jack, Eliza glared at him. "After this, you're taking me and the other's shopping and you're getting us whatever we want!"

"Eliza, I had a reason to do this. I--"

"No excuses! You have WAY more money than you let on yet you spent so much on a dress for Lina, yet you struggle to spend one hundred gold on your wives?" stated Eliza, not backing down at all. "It's the least you could do, otherwise we'll be jealous and won't want to sleep with you."

"I'm okay with that…" chuckled Jack.

"Then no massages."

"And I'll just have to keep Lina with me from now on," added Maura, also feeling jealous. How could she not when he spent that absurd amount of money without batting an eye, but only for Lina.

To the side, Lina tilted her head in thought. She then gasped as an idea flashed through her head. "How about we all go shopping? I like to see the big sisters in pretty dresses."

"A great idea, Lina!" shouted Eliza. She went over and patted Lina's head. "Now we only have to convince your big brother to take us."

"I'm sure we can some time, but we--"

"Big Brother, can't we go shopping? If you have so much, then it's easy! Let's go find pretty dresses for all the big sisters," cheered Lina, weakening Jack's defenses.

"I could always just give you some more since you've paid so much--"

"NO!" shouted Jack, insistent to not take anything else.

"Jack, if you won't take us shopping, then at least let my father give us some more," reasoned Eliza.

"... Fine… Before we leave, I'll buy each of you a dress," agreed Jack.

"And accessories!" added Keela.

"... And accessories."

"Yay! Thanks, Big Brother!" Lina ran up and hugged Jack.

Jack sighed, defeated. He didn't mind spending the money, but he also didn't want to spoil the girls and let them think that he would buy them whatever they wanted.

Looking to Maynard and Rydel, Jack asked, "Is there anything you two would want?"

"Nope," Maynard shook his head. "Ya already got me new katanas so I'm not missing anything."

As Rydel also shook his head, Jack was relieved. At least someone understood his intentions and agreed with him.

"Still… Why so much, Jack?"

Argyle couldn't get over the exchange. He had seen that much gold before, but not that much platinum. But that was in the auction house treasury, not in the hands of a young man who gave it away like it was a paltry sum.

"I have my reasons…" Jack started smiling again. He had opened his achievement list and was reading his newest achievement.

[Millionaire!: completed]

[Spend a total of one million gold, over three-quarters of which was overspending. Unique reward: 300 skill points.]

Jack didn't dare try and rush the [Billionaire!] achievement, as Jack was unsure that he had enough and he also didn't dare waste so much.

Now, thanks to the auction, Jack had a total of seven hundred and twenty skill points.

He was ecstatic, but he also understood that this wouldn't be repeatable. Most of the time, Jack won't find an easy target to exploit for unique rewards, like the annual auction. Jack had no clue when the next time he could get unique rewards would be.

During all of this, the auction continued selling lv. 55 peak-tier items. They were now selling the final items of the day, lv. 55 holy items.

But Jack only watched. He had no desire for those and had already spent more money than he had planned. And with day three coming up, Jack knew that the best still was to come.

The bids for those holy items were fierce because only three of them were available. Of the three, the most expensive one was a lv. 55 holy halberd that thirteen royal families fought for. In the end, it was given away for a lv. 70 high-tier item.

Once the second day's break started, Maura began cooking with Lina, teaching her gradually how to prepare vegetables.

Eliza scooted closer to Jack. "Would you like a massage?"

"I would, but not if it's only because you want to spend more money later," replied Jack, giving her a strange look.

"Why would I do it just for that?" argued Eliza. "Can't a wife treat her husband to a massage without some underlying reason?"

"Isn't it because you're my wife that I should expect an underlying reason?" Jack joked, getting everyone but Eliza to laugh with him. "So long as I don't hear about this while we're shopping, then I'll gladly take the massage."

"Good, then lay down."

Watching his daughter and the man he forced to become her husband, Argyle chuckled to himself. He knew that Jack wouldn't be like most people and just accept his daughter, which was why he was willing to force Jack in the first place.

Also, he knew how stubborn and determined his daughter was. She got that from her mother, so Argyle was confident that Eliza could sway Jack over time.

It made him happy to see that his guess was the correct one.