Chapter 118: Hymn of Death

"Lady Seraphine, please explain the condition."

"We know it's not your fault but we need an explanation for the Scarlet family's conduct."

"Yeah, we're no fools that would spend our spirit stones on defective items."

The crowd continued to complain to Lady Seraphine for the grimoire being auctioned off right now.

There were zero bidders as they have no information on how to learn the spell or if it is even possible to learn in the first place.

Lady Seraphine smiled bitterly as she took a few moments before explaining. "The Hymn of Death is confirmed to be authentic, that I can guarantee with our reputation. The only problem is the condition which… requires a person to experience d-death first."

It was like a bomb had just dropped into the crowd when they heard the ridiculous condition needed.

Experience death?

That was like telling them to go kill themselves just to be able to learn it and there was no guarantee they could survive.

The crowd became fuming mad as they yelled out at the same time, "Screw the Scarlet family. We didn't attend this annual auction house to experience death in order to learn the item we purchased."

Meanwhile, Zen was chuckling when he heard the ridiculous condition.

'Experience death first to be able to learn the Hymn of Death. Isn't that spell tailor-made for me?' 

He has already experienced death once when he jumped out from a skyscraper so he knew exactly what it felt to be in a near-death state.

Since the crowd was too heated and mind-blown to think right now, Zen decided to take advantage of this situation.

Standing up, Zen shouted to Lady Seraphine who is currently having trouble calming the crowd's anger, "Lady Seraphine, I would use 1 million spirit stones to buy the grimoire."

Zen's voice stunned the crowd slightly before they start sneering inwardly for his dumb brain.

"Did he think he could learn it when the Scarlet family clearly failed to do so?"

"Sigh, ignorant and arrogant youth is always like this. Wasting money without care."

"Whatever, I have zero interest in bidding for a defective item. Our family would be in a crisis if we lose both money and items at the same time."

As the crowd continued to chatter loudly on Zen's decision to buy the grimoire, Lady Seraphine gave him a graceful look.

If no one bid for the grimoire then the Scarlet family would definitely pin this onto her failure in the job to provoke the people into buying it.

When that happens, she will lose all her commission and jobs. She was only a mage with some beautiful features so without the backing of the Scarlet family, her fate can easily be deducted.

"Thank you," Lady Seraphine sent a mental transmission to Zen as she bowed slightly.

Zen kindly smiled back as he wasn't really helping her out but that he wanted to see if he could learn the Hymn of Death.

Money wasn't a concern for him so gambling one time is not a big deal.

You win some and you lose some. The question is if you have the courage in betting on the impossible.

"Zen has bid 1 million spirit stones for the Hymn of Death. Are there any other bidders?" Lady Seraphine announced shortly after thanking Zen.

However, it was a given that the crowd remained silent and they were just waiting for Lady Seraphine to finish the countdown to move on.

As much as she wanted to just say Zen has obtained the grimoire, she must still count down because of her job.

"1 million spirit stones going once!"

"1 million spirit stones going twice!"

"Sold to Zen with the price of 1 million spirit stones," Lady Seraphine bangs the hammer on the desk to finalize the bidding.

Zen smiled evilly when he used only a million spirit stones on a possibly overpowered spell that could change this world.

Lady Seraphine was embarrassed to be forced into this kind of situation but she kept a blissful appearance as she glanced at Zen.

Zen understood her meaning as he said, "I would pay right now so please bring the grimoire to my VIP room."

Given how he has been suspicious about some hidden plot in the shadow, he wanted to grab every item he won in his pocket right away.

He was not willing to risk losing all of them in the end because of some cliche.

"I understand, a servant would bring the item right away to complete the transaction." Lady Seraphine said as she waved her hand at a servant.

The servant nodded slightly as she walked up to hold the grimoire before bringing it up to Zen.

Zen gladly handed over the money to the servant as he retrieved the grimoire back into his spatial ring.

The servant calculated the price with her magic sense and confirmed the money to be correct so she bowed slightly before leaving the room.

At the same time, Lady Seraphine continued, "For the next item, we have a magic device that creates an area of effect that boosts your ally's power by 25%."

Lady Seraphine unveiled the cloth on a sphere-looking orb as she activated the spell.

The orb activated and started blinking bright red as it started changing the environment around her.

The ground starts to erupt in flame on the right side and ice on the left side, creating a beautiful landscape.

Lady Seraphine smirked as she held her wand out before casting a spell, Icicle Lancelot.

The Icicle Lancelot appeared and the crowd could see the power was increased by at least 25% when they witnessed the mana concentrated in the Lancelot.

A servant placed a dummy puppet made of steel with a damage absorption formation in it for Lady Seraphine to demonstrate. 

With a light shout, the Icicle Lancelot fired at the dummy target, causing it to explode into many pieces.

The crowd stood up in disbelief when an intermediate spell easily demolished a dummy puppet that can absorb all the damages from any intermediate spell.

A prideful look appeared on Lady Seraphine's face as she exclaimed inwardly, 'Hmph, a bunch of country bumpkin that has never seen an amplifying power orb at this caliber.'