Chapter 238: Start of the Auction

Chapter 238: Start of the Auction

There are multiple rooms where the items are previewed, and there are already plenty of people in this rooms inspecting the items for one last time before the auction. A few guards are in each room, while the items are in glass boxes with circuits etched into them.

Armors, amulets, rings, some weird eggs, and bottles that are hundreds of years old. Some expensive meats that are also apparently hundreds of years old and perfectly stored. This meat can be smelt even through the glass and is from high-level monsters.

Mana stones with information stored on them and even plenty of items people don't know what they are for or that are straight up broken.

We pass through multiple rooms like that and even though some items are good, they don't catch my interest that much. Sure, I will buy anything that seems useful, yet they don't excite me, so we pass into a room with more and more valuable items.

Soon the rooms have much fewer people in them and there needs to be an invitation to even be able to enter them, something Obelia has so we can enter.

I notice a few rare armors of the upper tier, mana batteries that are hard to find anywhere else, and encrypted mana stones. Old manuals inscribed into mana stones containing information on classes.

Finally, this is getting better.

“This is the last room,” Obelia says, and this time the confirming of her identity takes longer and when we enter, there are barely ten people inside and two lynthari guards.

There are only ten items in there and I recognize a few of them.

First, the epic spear Obelia got from the old capital and that has most people around it. The plan is to buy it for Tess so she can use it as a projectile. Might be overkill, but with the amount of money we got from scamm... from leveraging our epic items to the lynthari, we should be capable of buying this.

Plus, we got more money from Sophie and her... well, her ability to make people cooperative as well from me selling some inscribed mana stones.

We are not a scammers.

“Oh, feral angry kitten!” I hear the voice and can only sigh as Isola rushes towards us.

One of the strongest humans in the city has a smile on her face and is wearing a black dress that reveals a big chunk of her belly, “You are quite handsome if you dress up, but I still prefer you with some normal clothes,” she complains and also greets other people.

“Is there anything you want to buy, Isola?” Obelia asks her.

Isola scratches her head, “Not really, just a few members of my guild want me to buy some mana stone,” she gestures towards one of the glass boxes, “Apparently it has some amazing inscriptions on it made by some upcoming genius enchanter.”

She then pauses for a moment, “Oh, and did you notice lynthari saying ‘nya’ after every other sentence? Lately, more and more of them do that, do you think they are trying to mess with us?”

“Oh? You noticed it too? Maybe it's some trend from their youngsters?” Obelia answers, and they get into a conversation and I use the opportunity to move around the room.

One after another, I check all the items and as expected, the mana stone Isola talked about is the one inscribed by me. As for why it's here among the most valuable items, I don't know. Well, it's probably the old man selling it here, but I don't know why it's considered so valuable to be next to an epic spear.

None of the items look more interesting than the heavy chest without any holes we got from the old capital.

Yes, even after all these months and dozens of attempts, we were unable to open it. Not me, not Lily, not even Biscuit after I told him there is the best food stored inside of it. At this point, I might give it to Min-Jae or Tess to use as a heavy projectile as they did during the first floor with heavy chunks of iron.

“Some items here are really nice, the best rare items I saw, and probably close to stepping into the epic grade,” Hadwin joins my side and I notice that he is playing with the ring he has on his finger. The epic rarity one.

“We will buy most of them and you guys can take them,” I shrug my shoulders.

“Nothing caught your eyes?”

“Nothing here, but in one of the first rooms, I noticed a few broken items and mana stones that I really want to get,” I answer him.

I'm not even lying. More than these highest rare-grade items and even more than the epic spear, I saw a mana stone that had such dense and weird inscriptions that they seemed like cracks and made the organizers put it into the trash items they want to get rid of.

There was also a bracelet that was twisted and broken, yet the metal it was made of was reacting extremely weirdly to my primordial energies. To be honest, it made me so curious I almost tried to steal it right there.

I spend the remaining time there talking with Hadwin and Lily, who sneaks closer to us while Tess deals with other people in the room.

All the guild masters are here, even Lorven, who looks at me so lovingly, and Thalen, the redheaded guild master of the Luminous Order. The healer tries to get into a talk with Lily, but she just straight up tells him that she is not interested, whatever she meant by it.

As for me, I still plan to make Lily a stronger healer than him so I can show off.

Now that we are here, I wonder if I should introduce Hadwin to Isola; both of them have a similar fighting style. I don't trust the woman, but Haddy could learn a thing or two from her.

Jewel Stone: $100

Crest Stone: $500

Mirage Stone: $1,000

Heart Stone: $5,000

Gem Stone: $10,000

Moon Stone: $50,000

Star Stone: $100,000

Sun Stone: $500,000

Eclipse Stone: $1,000,000

There are probably some even more expensive ones, but that's not something you are usually able to see as a human.

I also quickly forget the names of cheaper mana stones and try to remember the names of the more expensive ones. I don't think I will need this information outside of this auction.

In the end, I also ask, “So, how rich am I?”

“I could tell you that we have a few Sun Stones in the bank and you would have to believe me,” Tess teases.

“That's true. Tess, are you stealing my money and building yourself a villa near the sea?”

“Just one? With how much we have, I could build multiple of them and you wouldn't even notice,” she snorts and smiles, glancing to the side at our healer, “But to quickly answer, before Lily gets even more jealous. In the bank, we have well over one hundred Eclipse Stones.”

Huh, what?

“Come again?”

“Yes, Nat, you are rich, disgustingly rich,” Tess shakes her head, “It could be double that, but the loans you got against epic items were extremely predatory and you guys could get much more. So next time, please take me as well.”

“Tess, do we really have over a hundred million dollars' worth of mana stones?” I decide to ignore that it could be twice that.

“Yes. I'm still in a bit of shock that you didn’t even realize it.”

For a moment, I think about it, and then my eyes move down and I look at the cute corgi that lies by my legs.

How much are you worth? Surely more than some useless epic item, right?

Biscuit senses my look and lifts his head, tilting it a bit, surprised I stare at him so intensely, (Food?) he asks.

No! I can't!

I quickly pet him and tell him that he is a good boy and cancel the isolation field around us, the voice of the auctioneer getting to our ears once more.

That's when I feel goosebumps on my skin, and looking around, I identify the source of it: a little lynthari girl staring at me from one of the balconies. She is there alone and when her eyes meet mine, a big smile appears on her face.

I just give up and prepare my [Perception], and as the rift appears next to me, I observe it, how it is created, how it interacts with space around it, and how mana moves inside of it.

“Underling!” the redheaded girl smiles, totally ignoring the other people in the room.

Obelia's eyes are so wide open that for a moment I think they might fall out, and Jenna seems like she is about to bow or kneel.

“It's good you are here, I was getting bored, nya!” she stops next to me, “Let's watch the auction together.”

Things have become more... interesting.