Chapter 126: The auction

Chapter 126: The auctionThe auction room was a large hall on one of the floors of the Union building. It had a floor section where countless seats were neatly arranged and an upper section where several private booths were located. One could look down at what was happening on the platform below from their private booths but those in the floor section could not see those in the private booths because of the dark glass blocking it.

These booths were the VIP and VVIP rooms reserved for important figures such as the representatives of big families, leaders of various large explorer groups, and influential figures with large wealth or strength.

The room that Alex was assigned was a VVIP booth. It was very spacious and well decorated with an elegant appeal. A large, soft couch was placed in front of the black glass while a tray stand stood beside the couch.

This was for Alex to enjoy himself while watching the auction. On the tray stand was a plaque with a number written on it, the number on it would be how he would be addressed during the auction.

Alex’s plaque had the number "1" written on it. Seems like Clint and the others were treating him with utmost importance.

A sort of magic item was also placed inside the room that made the temperature inside to become cool. Along with this, an attendant was also assigned to him, this person would follow all of his orders if he needed anything.

Alex sat on the couch and his body sank in slightly.

Comfortable.

Alex thought to himself as he looked down at the platform below, the stage where the auction would be happening was just a few meters away from the first row of seats.

People were already starting to pour in and occupying the seats. They were all dressed in rich and exquisite clothes, clearly people with some level of wealth.

The auction will be starting soon. While he waited, Alex turned his gaze and stared at the other private booths. He could easily see through the dark glass that was supposed to make them ’private’.



Alex saw that some of the private booths had to or more people occupying them, this didn’t include the attendants that were assigned to them. And the ranks of some of them were surprisingly high. Many of them were at the Master mage rank and one was even at the Archmage rank!

An Archmage rank in Balon City?

Alex’s eyes narrowed behind his mask as he stared at this person. It was a man who looked to be in his early fifties but still had a fit appearance, his face didn’t have any sign of old age, but many strands of his hair had turned grey.

He wore a formal suit and played with a small marble in his hand. Alex could feel the coldness coming from the small marble; it was a magic item.

This person wasn’t alone. There were two other people aside from the attendant with him in the booth, they were two young people in casual clothes. A young man and a lady, both of them were at the Expert mage rank

Alex was surprised by this, those two didn’t look older than 25 years old.

Alex decided to pay attention to this group until they left Balon City, he could already tell that they were guests who came to Balon City most likely because of the tournament.

Retracting his gaze, Alex’s focus returned to the platform below as he waited for the auction to start.

More people came in and soon, Alex was able to spot some familiar faces like Aunt Mia and some members of the Rising Wave group. He also saw the blond-haired Lucas.

After a few minutes had passed, the auction started.

All of the seats on the floor platform had been occupied and the guests for the private booths had all arrived as well.

The host for this auction walked up the platform in front, it was Silvia!

Dressed in a beautiful long evening dress that clung to her figure, with light makeup on her face, and her hair styled into a single braid that rested over her left shoulder. Silvia looked so beautiful that even Alex, who had seen her once, was stunned.

She held a paper in one of her hands as she walked to the platform. She faced the audience and gave a brief introduction of herself before welcoming everyone to the annual auction of the Balon City Union branch.

A round of applause was generated from the audience before the auction officially started, the first item was brought on stage and Silvia started to speak.

The first item for the auction was a storage ring that contained a hundred grade one mana cores. Silvia explained that the starting bid amount was 500,000 Zen and the next bid must be 50 Zen higher.

Immediately after her words, the audience started the bidding war. They raised their plaques and shouted their offer for the mana cores.

Alex watched with interest. This was his first time participating in an auction; he had seen it in movies and read about such events in books before, but seeing it in person had a very different feel.



Especially since he was someone with a lot of money, he found it funny to watch as many people struggled over who would acquire the mana cores.

None of the people in the VIP and VVIP booths called out to bid for this round, they all watched.

Not long after, someone finally won the bidding war for the mana cores. It was an aged man in a grand robe, he had gotten the mana cores for 790,000 Zen.

Silvia announced the end of that bidding war, the storage ring was taken away to be prepared and sent to the aged man while the next time was brought up.

Silvia informed everyone of the next item, which was another storage ring containing fifty grade two mana cores. The starting price was 600,000 Zen and every bid had to be a thousand Zen higher.

A bidding war started again.

Time quickly passed as items were brought up one after another for the audience to compete for. Most of the items brought first were mana cores and valuable beast parts like claws, wings, teeth, and bones.

After more than an hour had passed, high-level items were starting to appear.

The first one was a spell book. The spell book contained the Core rank spell of the fire element, fiery fist.

The starting price for it was five million Zen and every new bid had to be a hundred thousand Zen higher.

"Six million Zen!" Someone thrust their plaque into the air and roared.

"Six million and a hundred thousand Zen!"

The voice of the first person had barely faded before another person called out a higher price. Just like that, it was a fierce battle of who would get the spell book.

Alex watched in surprise. A Core rank spell book was so expensive? The price had reached 8 million Zen in less than a minute!

While watching the war over the spell book, Alex’s ears caught words from the other VVIP booth, which was where the Archmage was, and he immediately began to listen.

"Look at them fighting over a mere Core rank spell book, these types of things are useless at the university." The one who spoke was the young lady among the three.

"Don’t be like that, spell books can be used automatically without needing to connect the stars yourself and one isn’t required to have that particular element. It can be very useful when you’re outside in the wild." The young man lectured.

The middle-aged man didn’t bother with the two and continued to pay attention to what was going on below.



Alex lifted an eyebrow after listening to the exchange between the two young people. So they were from a magic university!

’They must be from a very powerful magic university, then, to be able to send out an Archmage.’ Alex thought to himself before returning his focus to the auction.

The spell book was soon acquired by someone who had won with a bid of 9 million and 8 hundred thousand Zen.

The next item that came was an egg. Silvia gave an explanation while the egg was being carried over. It was the egg of a winged magic beast known as the yellow-winged sky king. It could be raised to be a fine, contracted beast companion for summoning mages.

The starting bid price was ten million Zen and an increase of five hundred thousand Zen in every new bid.

A flying magic beast, how useful was that?! They didn’t even need Silvia to save much after calling its name. For those who knew about the yellow-winged sky king, they were shocked to see its egg here.

After all, it was a magic beast that could reach the strength of a transformed rank beast before reaching adulthood and could fly extremely fast, crossing hundreds of kilometres in less than a minute!

"The egg of a sky king? How lucky, I want it!" The young lady in the other VVIP booth exclaimed, it appeared that she had the rare summoning element.

"Then bid for it." The Archmage glanced at her and said expressionlessly.

The young lady nodded excitedly and picked up the plaque that was given to them before calling out.

"Fifty million Zen!"

The entire auction "..."