Auction
Souta, Amanda, Yenxa, and Gragas went to the auction site.
The Crimson Auction.
This was a famous underground auction in the whole city. It attracted a lot of wealthy and powerful people because of their rare treasures.
The group wore masks to conceal their appearance. They could use their parasites but they didn't do so because the people from the hidden base witness their parasite ability.
Although those people wouldn't recognize the parasite if they just used it to cover their face, it's still better to be careful.
Also, most of the people in the auction were wearing a mask to prevent some risk of other people knowing their identity. It was one of the written rules in this auction.
The outside appearance of the auction was dull and it looked like a normal passage. But the space inside the passage was like a giant maze. It lives up to its reputation as the largest auction house in the city.
"We are here,"
Gragas said as he took a seat on the back rows. They weren't VIPs so they couldn't get a private room.
Entering the auction house was easy thanks to Gragas. Gragas was a regular and he had a pass. He could easily get Souta and the rest some pass so that they could enter the auction without paying.
After all, an S-rank expert was still a powerhouse even if he didn't have an organization. People would respect him for his strength.
That's the privilege of a powerhouse.
Souta, Amanda, and Yenxa sat on the seats beside him.
Souta smiled under the mask while glancing at Gragas. He didn't tell Gragas about Amanda as it was still too dangerous.
"This is pretty big..."
He muttered while looking at the people around the place.
Thousands of people were waiting for the auction to start. It definitely lives up to its reputation.
So what kind of items will appear here aside from the soul weapon?
He was quite interested in what he will find.
While he was deep in his thoughts, he heard Gragas' cold voice.
"Hey, don't use your monster energy here? It would be dangerous if people discovered that you're a monster. Thousands of guards would surround us and most of their strength are Disaster Realm and Extermination Realm."
Gragas said while looking at him with fierce eyes. He had to avoid that situation no matter what happens. His strength wasn't enough to fight hundreds of Extermination Realm.
"I know. You don't have to worry about me. If someone discovered me then you can quickly attack me to clear your name."
Souta replied to Gragas.
Amanda just listened to their conversation.
Soon, the auctioneer appeared on the stage and the whole place turned silent. Everyone knew that the auction will start so they focused their attention on the stage.
The auctioneer gave a welcome speech for a minute before he started the auction by bringing the first item on the stage.
The first item was just a rare blue grade whip.
The second item was a spell book that contained a tier 1 spell.
The third item was an orange grade gauntlet.
The fourth item was another spell book but this time the spell that can be learned from it was a low grade tier 2.
What surprised Souta was the ninth item. The ninth item was a monster orb of a third evolution stage monster.
It was sold for five thousand platinum coins.
The auction continued and various materials, spellbooks, combat arts, potions, armors, and weapons appeared before Souta's eyes.
Soon, the soul weapon appeared as the second to the last item.
"Here
"Oh? So that's the soul weapon..."
Souta muttered with an amused look. The soul weapon was a piece of a white handkerchief. It looks ordinary and dull but it was within his expectation as the owner of this handkerchief was dead.
Other than the owner no one would be able to use the soul weapon. So it's pretty much useless for every people in this place but they would still buy it for collection or study it.
A soul weapon was a super rare item, after all.
Wealthy people would display it in their houses and show it off to their peers.
"Let's start it for 1,000 platinum coins."
The auctioneer said as he fully displayed the soul weapon in front of everyone's eyes.
Souta turned his head and saw that Gragas had a determined look on his face. His passion to create equipment similar to soul weapons never left his body. He wanted to accomplish it no matter what happens.
"You can go all out. You have my money so don't worry. Tactics... You don't need it."
He said with a faint smile on his face.
"I owe you one," Gragas said before he shouted, "Ten thousand platinum coins!"
Everyone turned their heads when they heard Gragas' words. They didn't expect that someone would instantly raise the price of the item this much.
Before they could regain their posture, someone from the VIP room raise the price.
"Eleven thousand platinum coins!"
Gragas narrowed his eyes as he glanced at the VIP room.
"Twenty five thousand platinum coins!"
He gritted his teeth as he knew that this amount of coins was huge. It would be enough for him to buy tons of rare materials to forge high grade weapons and armors.
'That's all the money that I brought in this continent. It already exceeded the market price of a soul weapon by several times.' Souta said inwardly.
He didn't expect this at all.
He thought that Gragas would be able to buy a soul weapon for five thousand coins. The price of a soul weapon from an Annihilation Realm shouldn't be higher than the price of a monster orb from a third evolution stage monster.
Luckily, the person in the VIP room gave up. The twenty five thousand platinum coins were a huge amount even for wealthy people.
Souta glanced around and found that most of the people were paying attention to their group. But their gaze immediately disappeared as soon as the last item was brought out.
The last item was the main event.
It was a spirit fruit called High Phaseless Fruit. It looks like an apple but its color was unusual. It was black but it will turn into white the next second. Then, it will turn black once again.
Souta raised his eyebrows when he saw this fruit. It was outside of his expectations to find a super rare spirit fruit in this land. Even in Imperium, various noble families would mobilize their forces just to get their hands on this fruit.
The High Phaseless Fruit could only be found in a place where light and darkness blend together. It was an extreme environment where light attribute and darkness attribute collided creating a unique place.
Only people above B-rank could handle the extreme energy of this fruit. This fruit was one of the fruits that could give light and darkness attribute to the person that ate it. If the person has light and darkness attributes then that person will gain an innate body.
But Souta didn't have a plan to acquire it. He doesn't have any money in his pocket. Also, he already has High Phaseless Fruit in his collection.
He had 79 spirit fruits and herbs that he acquired from the legacy and High Phaseless Fruit was one of them. But acquiring another wasn't a bad thing.
Unfortunately, he didn't bring enough money with him.
Sigh...
He should've investigated the items before coming here.
Souta could only watch as the High Phaseless Fruit was sold for fifty thousand platinum coins and three sets of orange grade armor.
"I wanted it for myself..."
He muttered as he glanced at Gragas. They will return after they retrieve the item that they bought. This auction was pretty interesting.
"Let's go."
Gragas stood up and said to Souta's group.
"Okay."
Souta nodded and he followed Gragas. Amanda and Yenxa simply followed him without saying anything. The auction this time widened Amanda's worldview. She didn't think that she would be able to see rare treasures in an auction.
The group arrived on the backstage to find the auctioneer. They stated their identity to one of the guards and the guard led them to a room.
Suddenly, the ground shook heavily and the sound of explosions erupted. The mana in the air also got heavier.
Boom! Boom!
"What's happening?!" Amanda quickly stood up.
Yenxa quickly stood beside Souta and her mana oozed out of her body.
Souta looked up and felt the explosions caused by mana. He also felt that a strong barrier has enclosed the whole area.
"It seems that someone has started a fight." He said to Gragas. He was curious as Gragas still had a calm expression. It seems that he wasn't bothered by those explosions above them.
"This always happened after the auction but don't worry the guards will handle it," Gragas explained.
Then, cracks appeared on the door as flames burst fort in their room like a tsunami wave.
Boom!