Chapter 207 Elemental Affinity

"And an elemental affinity with [Comprehension]... I need that…"

When Mathias realized that there was an Elemental affinity crystal that was being auctioned, there was no way for him to calm down.

This was even more apparent when he realized that it was an [Comprehension] Elemental affinity. They were extremely rare and thus very expensive.

Many Originals would pay a lot for an [Comprehension] Elemental affinity because the affinity's strength would always be strong as long as one had a high enough understanding of the ability.

For Mathias, whose Innate ability was [Elemental Comprehension], Elemental affinities with the [Comprehension] tag were the most important. His strength would elevate manifold the moment he bound a new affinity to his mana core and he would continuously become stronger the more affinities he got his hands on.

'If I can bind a new Elemental affinity to my mana core the moment I reach the Prym rank, I'll definitely be stronger than Nial!'

Excitement coursed through Mathias' body at the thought of becoming stronger than Nial. Simultaneously, he knew that finding another Elemental affinity with the [Comprehension] tag might be quite difficult. It could take years to find another one if he was unlucky.

That was why all three of them understood how important it was for Mathias to purchase the [Water affinity(Comprehension)] crystal.

Earth and Water were quite compatible with each other and Mathias were already able to visualize numerous possible ways to attack and defend against opponents by using a mixture of both Elements.

"I will support you with my funds to purchase the affinity crystal. Just pay me back later. But I'm not sure if there is someone else who is as eager to get their hands on the [Water affinity(Comprehension)] crystal as you.

I might be amongst the richest Originals if we only consider wealthy individuals but the government, the military and many powerhouses present have their own ways to make great fortunes…so don't be too hopeful!"

Miranda wanted to support Mathias because she could tell that the affinity crystal was perfect for him. It would make things a lot easier, and if her wealth was able to help her disciple, she would readily support him.

But even then, she wouldn't go into bankruptcy for her disciple's sake. They were still in need of money to purchase all kinds of goods, materials, and other things to create runic armaments and so on.

"Thank you…" Mathias mumbled quietly before raising his hand the moment he heard that the bidding had started.

"100,000,000$!" He shouted, his excitement overwhelming his usual timidness.

The young female attendant looked at Mathias for a moment before her head flicked to the Witch of the South, who nodded her head faintly.

"100,000,000$ from the Witch of the South." She said out loud while looking through the rows of powerhouses.

Until now, Miranda hadn't bothered bidding for a single item. Yet, the affinity crystal seemed to have gained her interest.

Nonetheless, she had increased the initial price of 10 million dollars to 100 million in an instant.

Was she insane?

"150,000,000$!"

While everyone was still wondering why Miranda would quote such a high bid that was 10 times the starting price, another baffling bid came from the left side of the auction hall.

It was Kirlia Maverick, who bid 150,000,000$ without blinking her eyes.

She was agitated because it hadn't been possible for her to purchase the ancient manual called [Basic Runic Armaments].

As such, she wanted to get her hands on everything else that had even the slightest use for her, her disciple and the Heaven's Gates organization.

150 Million dollars might exceed the value of the [Water affinity(Comprehension)] crystal even under normal circumstances, but Kirlia didn't think highly of money.

It could be earned easily and had no value for her and her organization. Most of them would have to spend hundreds of thousand dollars in a day as long as they were to absorb and annex mana from high-ranked Origin crystal for just a few hours.

"160,000,000$!" Mathias shouted all of a sudden, not allowing the young attendant to announce the price Kirlia had mentioned.

"170,000,000$!" Kirlia tried to one-up him without hesitation.

At that moment, Mathias wanted to shout again but Nial pulled his friend back to the chair he had just jumped off.

"Calm down. They have more money than we have. Don't act recklessly or you will turn into a poor beggar even if you get your hands on the water affinity crystal. Let me handle it!"

Nial sounded confident about being able to handle the situation. This attracted Miranda's interest. She didn't plan on intervening in Mathias' bidding before, even after seeing how recklessly impatient he was being.

Miranda had planned to teach Mathias a lesson, and force him to be indebted to her for decades if he kept acting in the same manner.

Simultaneously, she also knew that Mathias was unlikely to get his hand on the Water affinity crystal as long as Kirlia was willing to sacrifice some of her own assets.

But even then, Miranda didn't expect Nial to have figured that Kirlia was richer than her. Was it so obvious? Actually not, so how did he arrive at this conclusion?

"Why should they have more money than we have? Don't you know that we have Tier-2 runic armaments, numerous other things to sell and that we're rich?" Mathias looked at him, slightly angry that Nial wanted to intervene in his betting.

He wanted to get his hands on the affinity crystal and he wouldn't hold back from emptying his pockets to get what he wanted.

However, Nial averted his attention to Miranda before he asked a doubt,

"Isn't Kirlia from the Heaven's Gates organization? If that's not the case we might have more money, but if it's true, she should have more."

Nial sounded quite calm but his heart was beating fast. He was guessing that Kirlia belonged to the Heaven's Gates organization.

His conclusion was partially derived on the basis of the fact that Kirlia's strength was higher than everyone else present.

Nial was not even able to fathom it since she had decided to conceal her strength for the majority of the time.

Fortunately, he had noticed her hidden strength the moment she had released her entire power to suppress him and teach him a lesson.

But this was not the only reason why he had guessed that Kirlia was a member of the Heaven's Gates. Nial almost desperately hoped that Kirlia belonged to the Heaven's Gates because he had yet to give up that the veiled woman was someone he knew…very well at that.

"How do you know?" Miranda merely asked, slightly baffled. She didn't expect Nial to connect the dots and conclude that Kirlia was from the Heaven's Gates organization.

Miranda wanted to tell Nial about it once they returned to her mansion from the Gier auction to prevent her disciple from doing something reckless.

However, it seemed as if Nial had already gotten his hands on more information than she had expected.

"I just guessed," Nial shrugged his shoulder before lifting his hand, not bothering about revealing more of his conclusion to Miranda.

"190,000,000$"

After he increased the price to 190 Million dollars, Nial excused himself for a moment and accessed his spatial ring.

A book appeared in his hand as he stood up from his chair.

He tried to crouch behind the chairs and hide before moving through the rows of the auction house, and approaching a specific direction.

"What is he doing?" Mathias suddenly mumbled in confusion.

He was not the only one confused but many others as well, including a handful of powerhouses, who asked themselves the same question as Mathias.

Their curiosity about Nial's sudden actions increased even further when Nial ended up in the large seating area that belonged to the Heaven's Gates organization.

? 'Does he plan to get attacked once again? Is he suicidal??' A few powerhouses wondered while watching his actions in interest.

They were quite interested in the young man's plan. However, when nothing happened to Nial, they were quite disappointed.

He didn't even stay in the Heaven's Gates area for an entire minute. Yet, astonishingly enough, there was no further bidding for the [Water affinity (Comprehension)] crystal.

Kirlia retreated from her bid and the auction hammer hit the wooden block, completing the bidding for the [Water affinity (Comprehension)] crystal!

"Congratulations to the Witch of the South for winning the bid for the Water affinity crystal. The final bid was at which the object was sold is 190,000,000$!"

No one understood what was going on, not even Miranda.

She hadn't seen the manual Nial had been holding and was slightly worried that her disciple would do something stupid.

However, the moment she saw Kirlia's radiant expression, Miranda's worries disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Just what did he do?!" Miranda mumbled, while her gaze followed Nial who returned unscathed from their seating area. He smiled slyly at his friend.

"It's nice to make a deal where you don't lose anything. Mathias, how about you thank my genius intelligence for helping you save a few hundred million dollars?"

Nial knew that the price for the Water affinity crystal would have increased to several hundred million dollars if Kirlia Maverick wouldn't have backed off.

Mathias would have simply kept on bidding without thinking rationally, at all.

That was why Nial had made a small sacrifice and had approached the powerhouses seated in the area designated for Heaven's Gate organization.

"What did you do?" Miranda asked, her voice full of curiosity. She looked at Nial with gleaming eyes and expected an immediate answer.

But Nial merely smiled and dramatically waited for a few seconds before he unveiled the truth.

"Well, I gave her one of the few 'Originals' we have of the [Basic Runic Armaments] manual. Fortunately, I didn't auction them off now, otherwise, Miss Maverick would have continued bidding." Nial could only call them Originals because they weren't able to copy them.

Thus each of them could be considered an Original, even if that sounded completely illogical.

To Nial and Mathias, the [Basic Runic Armaments] manual was not actually worth a lot. They had a total of five 'Originals' of this manual in their hands.

However, they didn't actually plan on selling them yet because they had planned to show everyone how terrific even ungraded runic armaments were before selling the duplicates from some of the manuals they had.

Simultaneously, they wanted runic armaments to remain scarce, which was another reason for them to be still considering what exactly they wanted to do with the various books both Nial and Mathias had in their possession.

"You're a genius, Nial! I would have never thought about buying off our only competitor!" Mathias laughed loudly.

Nobody from outside their space could hear them but everyone could clearly see Mathias' hearty laughter. He was still standing and visibly happy, which caused some powerhouses to frown deeply.

'What happened there?' A few men and women asked themselves after seeing Mathias' appearance.

But their dumbfoundedness only increased the moment their head flicked toward Kirlia Maverick as they were trying to get to know more information.

What they didn't expect to see was a radiant smile on the woman's face. This was extremely weird and not natural because Kirlia Maverick never smiled…never!