Everyone was born with a certain level of connection with nature, and it had to be at a certain level before they would be able to qualify for beast taming classes.
Researchers haven't found a reason for this or how to increase one's connection to nature, but they had discovered how to measure the level of connection. After a lot of research was carried out on multiple people, they had noticed that those who had awakened the light or plant element always had a high connection with nature.
With this limitation and the fact that most people preferred a direct approach to power, there weren't many beast tamers.
In the case of the Nystrom Demigod, he had awakened both the plant and light element, making his connection to nature the highest in the city, thus easily making him the best beast tamer in Calton city.
Oliver Nystrom was a brown-haired man who stood at 5'6. If not for the fact that dwarves were extinct, his brown bushy eyebrow and goatee would make many mistake him for a dwarf.
To make matters worse, his quick rise to fame, coupled with his elements that didn't need him to move during combat and his tamed beasts that did almost all the work for him, caused him to develop a potbelly. At this point, if not that he wasn't a forger he would have been tagged the last dwarf alive.
"If I get my hands on the Master seal, my power will double and I would be able to surpass those cocky brats in the main family." Oliver Nystrom thought as his eyes were glued on the whip handle on the stage.
Apart from the other abilities of the artifact, the amplification of beast tamer spells alone would significantly boost his demigod powers.
"Bidding starts for 2 million gold coins!" Chief appraiser Langford announced, and without wasting time Oliver made a bid.
"3 million gold coins!" Oliver bided.
He knew a lot of beast tamers present in the auction had their eyes on the Master Seal, so he wanted to quickly eliminate all the small fries and know who was his real opponents.
"3.5 million gold coins!" A beast tamer from the Winchester family placed a bid.
"4.5 million gold coins!" Oliver Nystrom raised the price by another million, causing many to turn to his location.
"5 million gold coins!" This time it wasn't from the Winchester family but the Ulrik family.
"6 million gold coins!" Oliver bided with an unchanging expression.
"6.5 million gold coins!" The beast tamer raised the price by half a million, as he gritted his teeth on the inside, but remained calm on the outside.
'A bidding war isn't a direct approach, 60% is the amount of gold coins one has, 10% was luck while the remaining was psychological.' The Ulrik beast tamer thought to himself as he was hoping Oliver would fall for his bluff.
"I am getting tired of this. 8 million gold coins!" Oliver bided with a bored expression written all over his face.
At this point, everyone in the auction turned to Oliver with shocked expressions. He had been making increments of 1 million gold coins, and they had thought it would reduce as time went on, but it only seemed to be increasing.
The auction hall had turned silent, and even the beast tamer from the Ulrik family was left astonished. He hadn't expected it at all, he had thought that Oliver was putting up the façade of being unbothered because he was nearing his limit, but it seemed he didn't even see him as competition.
Having only 8 million gold coins, the beast tamer from the Ulrik family couldn't raise the price, causing him to watch as Langford began the count down.
"Going once!"
"Going twice!"
"9 million gold coins!" A voice that was surely not that of Oliver Nystrom placed a bid. This caused everyone to turn to the source of the voice.
"That bastard!" On seeing the person that placed the bid, the calm and unchanging expression of Oliver quickly changed to a bitter one. It was none other than his 'rival', Xavier, the genius of the Karius family.
Xavier was the eldest son of the Karius family leader of Calton city and the blood brother of both Serhan and Camilla. He had brown eyes, but unlike those of his siblings, his lacked emotion. He had a slick jet black hair and a muscular physique that made him irresistible to the ladies.
'He isn't even a beast tamer, so what is he using the Master seal for?' Oliver Nystrom was cursing Xavier in all the languages he knew. "10 million gold coins!"
"10 million gold coins? Is the artifact even worth it?" this was the question on the minds of all those in the auction hall. From a starting price of 2 million gold coins, it had skyrocketed to 10 million, they were talking about millions of gold coins here!
"11 million gold coins!" Xavier Karius placed a bid while looking in Oliver's direction with an indifferent expression, but Oliver had seen it as a taunt because of the so-called 'rivalry' between them.
Looking at the 2, Xavier was still in his late-twenties, while Oliver who was in his early 30's but looked like he was in his early 40's instead. So one will ask, what sort of rivalry could be between the 2 because they were both in 2 completely different fields?
The truth of the matter was that the rivalry was in Oliver's head. He was jealous of Xavier because he had a perfect body, a lot of charisma and most importantly he had taken over his place as the talk of the city.
As the best beast tamer in the city, Oliver Nystrom had once been the talk of the town, but it didn't last long because Xavier's popularity had over shadowed that of his by being the youngest noble to become a demigod in the entire Calton city.