Chapter 59 - Making Plans

Daylight was already thinning, the darkness have began to gain dominance once more, it was evening…

Barely able to contain his excitement behind a small smile, Aziel together with Lydia and another pair came to Purple Cloud Auction venue. The action was held by the docks, deep in the center of the famous and famed Harbour District of Greytop City, at a large Business Conference Center.

From his absorbed memories, Aziel found it odd that the human traffickers' warehouse that they were strangely granted by the major's office was only a couple of blocks away…

Still, he decided to not bother with it for the time being. Whilst he would need to eventually pay them a visit, for now, they weren't too high on his list of tasks.

The Center was a tall glass building with more than twenty floors peaking high above the district, looking over it light a proud and slightly arrogant giant.

The venue for the auction was huge. Encompassing the entire 10th and even the 11th floor, there were over a thousand tables and chairs placed out, with more than half of them already occupied, with more people taking their scheduled seats as the time passed.

Yet, it was only a fleeting amusement for Aziel, as their group had taken over one of the 10 VIP boxes prepared at the floor above. It had a protective shielding, with a one-sided see-through special window, only allowing vision from the inside.

The group of four casually took their seats and sat down as the auction venue's attendants presented them with a brochure that held the list of items that would be scheduled to be auctioned and had already been prepared in advance.

Aziel sat in his chair as he skimmed over the items that were scheduled for tonight's auction. The brochure had several dozen items listed, with each of them taking up a full page, showing an image of it (if possible) with some detail.

Flipping through the pages, Aziel's face gradually soured, he was growing more and more disappointed with each item he skimmed through. Quickly flipping through more than two-thirds of the contents, he found nothing worthy of his interest. Although the items were good objects, he simply had no use for them.

However, as he entered the last third of the little pamphlet of a book and looked over the items, his vision suddenly froze on a particular page.

A chunk of dark stone with a faint purple hue sat atop a crimson satin cushion atop a small pillar. From the picture, albeit it wasn't of the best of quality, he could still recognize it is exactly what he was looking for.

Although it was listed as 'Unidentified Mysterious Alloy', he knew what it clearly was!

It was clearly a chunk of Void Stone! The very material he would need to craft a space storage artifact!

Though from the data it seems that only this small singular chunk of ore was listed and planned to be sold, and by itself, it wouldn't be nearly enough for even a smaller ring.

Still, if the photo was true, then this was definitely the main material to refining a Spatial Ring.

In that instant, Aziel's heart accelerated and beat faster as a determined expression could be seen settling on his face. Though he wanted to be hopeful, and said otherwise, in truth he wasn't too hopeful in finding any of the most important magical artifacts in creation.

This world was unlike his old home. Here, whilst he was now sure that the true powers lurked behind the surface, for some strange reason none of them came forward to the light.

He couldn't see powerful cultivators sailing the skies or any of the magical beasts reminiscent of Nova shaking the realm with their ferocious cries. Spells of the Arcane and the elements weren't thrown around.

Noticing his excitement, Lydia turned to take a peek at the book in Aziel's hand, only to sigh when she saw the item.

"Aziel dear, I can see you are excited, but please keep in mind that we only have 30 million to spend. The item you are looking at starts at 2 by itself with 500 thousand increments for each bid."

Aziel pondered over Lydia's words for a moment. Calculating over the funds and all the potential artifacts he had found interesting so far, he frowned as realization hit him.

"D-don't worry, honey!" Noticing his Master's rapidly souring mood, Lydia suddenly felt worried. Would he be angry at her for failing to meet his expectations? Should he have prepared more?

"I-if you really need it, I can take out more before we go and pay at the end!" She hurriedly offered.

"Hmm… Alright." Looking up from his thoughts, Aziel nodded, his thoughts once again racing at the amazing claim he had just found.

Taking a note, he flipped the page looking at the very last item officially offered in this venue.

Instantly his face grew wide again, Aziel's heart was struck with surprise again as his eyes then fell on the list below as he found another useful thing, century-old wild ginseng. A special herb used mostly in concoctions of mostly spirit-enhancing elixirs.

Although they were based around Nova's [Mana], by now Aziel was fairly certain it would work just as fine with this world's [Aether]. Even if that weren't the case, the experiment would still be beneficial, as its secondary effect would still enhance his spiritual body.

"I need to buy this as well!" He exclaimed with confidence brimming in his eyes.

However, as he looked at the price listed below the image, his excitement quickly flipped over to disbelief.

"20 million just as starting bid with 1 million increments?!"

Scanning through the entire brochure, whilst he found some other items scheduled earlier in the event that would be of some use, he wouldn't be too bothered missing out on them.

He had two items that sparked his desire, the rest didn't matter. Even if they did, just these two items, by their base, starting prices would almost the amount of money Lydia had prepared.

Though he was of another world originally where money wasn't just some printed paper but the actual mineral they represented, Aziel, from the many memories he had taken for himself have understood their worth.

He knew that these numbers were of tremendous amounts of wealth. A single million would be enough to fill up the needs of an average family of four's needs for almost an entire year! At the very least they could live a carefree life for half a year! With just a single million, a chunk of dark rock and old wild ginseng cost more than 22 just to start!

"Mr. Vor'thega, what objects have your eyes set onto?" The woman of the second pair that came with them, Lydia's acquaintances asked as she placed the brochure she was provided with down after reading it through.

Without care, Aziel pointed at the chunk of Void Stone and the page behind it as he said.

"I want these two items. I need them at all costs!"

The woman, Sandra Vago looked at the dark purple stone, going with the strange name of 'Unidentified Mysterious Alloy' with some astonishment. It was because she didn't know what this stone was. The brochure only described that the ore was rare and extremely hard, and suspected that it was from a meteorite from space.

However, for the second item the young man was pointing at, the century-old wild ginseng, she couldn't help but look wryly at him, as she herself was planning to go for it.

Such remarkable treasures, with wild herbs reaching such almost magical ages, whilst withstanding and surviving the many challenges that the passage of time and the wildlife offered… such items never had a fixed market price.

Their worth was practically limitless, even if someone wanted to spend a large amount of money, they would have to be extremely lucky to even find one offered at any venue. Let alone a 100 years, even decade-old herbs were incredibly rare to see being placed at any venue.

She heard stories about the wondrous effects of such items held for one's health. Wanting to try it out as well as having some money to waste, Sandra planned to fight for it, at least a bit. However now, that the young man, Lydia's mysterious man was planning to go for it, she decided to let it go.

"Ah, I will just forget it then…"

Sandra secretly sighed inside as she turned to look at her husband who was looking at some antiques offered at the first half. Leaning over his ears, she whispered the items Lydia and her partner have planned to fight for.

Listening to Sandra, the man only nodded all the way through, only to show a slight frown at the end, catching Aziel off guard.

As their gazes met, he felt some hostility…