Chapter 629: Michael’s bid
After creating a shock wave, the armor returned to its initial color, losing all its glow. Unlike the audience, nobles and cultivators such as Michael noticed several runes dimly glowing on the ground. They suppressed the explosion so Rickston wouldn't get hurt by the shock wave. After landing on his feet, Rickston wiped off the blood oozing down the corner of his mouth. Rickston leaped into the air before landing beside the armored man.
"As you have all witnessed, the armor stores the force of hits it receives and fires a powerful shock wave to knock out or even kill the opponents. The best thing about the armor is, its power grows with the wearer. For example, it will create a stronger and more powerful shock wave when a Fusion stage cultivator wears the armor than a Soul Refiner. This slave is only at the Core Formation stage. Still, the armor created a shock wave powerful enough to send me, a Soul Refiner flying," said Rickston.
Countless people gasped and murmured among themselves. Many craved the armor as sparkles could be seen in their eyes.
"I won't waste any more of your precious time. The starting price of this armor is twenty million," Rickston amplified his voice to sound louder. He wanted every single possible bidder to hear his words loud and clear. There was no doubt in his mind that the armor would fetch the Aqua Palace at least a hundred million.
"Twenty-five million," Eve bid as soon as Rickston's voice died down. Michael tilted his head slightly. His entire wealth contained twenty-five million yet for Eve, twenty-five million was a small price.
"Thirty-five million," The golden prince's voice resonated from his VIP room. With a single bid, the golden prince raised the price by ten million.
"Fifty million," Michael heard a raspy voice resonate from the Hunt family room.
"Fifty-five million," Eve calmly raised the bid.
"Sixty-five million," said the raspy voice elder of the Hunt family.
Michael noticed that no one bid for the armor except for Eve, the elder of the Hunt family and the golden prince. When Michael looked at the THusian VIP room, he could only see a silhouette of two women. He did not expect Lailah and Edith to stay in the Aqua Palace instead of returning to Thusia. Although the three were raising bids one after another, Rickston regretted what had happened to Valrens and the Thusians.
The Aqua Palace did its best to contain the news of what transpired last night. But the news spread like wildfire throughout the kingdom. Fear struck the entire city of Allen Alari. Rickston knew as they were speaking, soldiers from Sill Alari's capital were on their way to Allen Alari. It was just a fruitless action. Everyone knew the Dark Lord was long gone.
Even if the empress appeared in Allen Alari, Rickston doubted they could find the Dark Lord or figure out how he managed to kill Tanulia Valren and Reidar on the same day, unless the Dark Lord was really a god as some people claim him to be. Due to the Dark Lord's sudden appearance, several nobles had left the Aqua Palace. They all wanted to be surrounded by their own soldiers in their castles.
Several minutes passed but the bidding for the armor remained strong. Inside the VOldigard VIP room, Eve showed no signs of slowing down.
"Ninety million," Eve's calm voice reverberated through the arena.
The golden prince and the elder of the Hunt family did not use their family background to sway the auction to their side. They knew the other party would not give them any face even if they used their family name. So they just bid with coins, not with their family names. As they were bidding for the armor, Michael noticed a silhouette enter the Hunt family room. The Hunt family members immediately stood up from their seats. Although Michael couldn't see their faces, it was apparent the figure had a higher status than the elders.
"Hun-"
"Don't," Gaya's words cut Eve's sentence short.
"The armor is of no use if you can't build your family to its previous state. Buying this armor will only put a bigger target on your back. Let the golden prince have it,"
"She is right. Crossing someone like the golden prince at this point doesn't seem like a good idea,' Nightmare raised his concern over Eve's desire to get the armor.
"Hundred million," The golden prince bid. The entire arena looked startled. Even Michael felt a tinge of jealousy towards the golden prince. If a single man could fork out a hundred million like it was nothing, Michael could only imagine how wealthy his family was. Michael was sure the empress was at least worth several billion.
"I want to be like her one day," Michael vowed to himself.
The people fixed their gazes at the Hunt family and Voldigards VIP rooms, waiting for either of them to raise the bid. But, contrary to their expectation, none uttered a word.
"Hundred million one time, two time…" Rickston dragged his words as though he was expecting someone else to raise the bid.
"Hundred million three times. Sold to the golden prince!" Rickston's thunderous shout swept across the arena.
"Thank you, Lady Eve and the elders of the Hunt family," The golden prince's dominant clear voice resonated from the room and reverberated through the arena.
Michael and Eve sighed. The latter desired an armor and the other wanted to forge a better armor than the one they just auctioned. Despite their wishes, they both had to control their desires. Eve had enough coins to go up to two hundred million, but as Gaya said, buying the armor would only put a bigger target on her back. She felt grateful for Gaya for reminding her of the looming threat. If it wasn't for Ghost wiping out the Rottgards, the Voldigards would have been long gone from the world. However, Eve knew it was just a temporary solution. With time, the rival families would come at her family like a pack of hyenas. There was no doubt in her mind. Sooner or later, she had to fight for her survival.
After auctioning the armor, Rickston dismissed the slave. The armor on the other hand, disappeared from the pillar. Everyone waited for Rickston to bring out the next item. They all looked curious to see what powerful item they would see next.
Under their curious gazes, the iron pillar emerged from the ground yet again, lifting an orb of ice. The orb was the size of a cricket ball. Despite its size, as soon as the orb appeared, the temperature in the arena dropped several degrees down. All of them felt the chill as they could see their breaths. Unlike before, Rickston stood several meters away from the orb of ice. To Michael's astonishment, the orb of ice created a mist around the arena. Many of the onlookers were forced to use their arch energy to keep their bodies warm. The orb of ice drew Michael's full attention.
He leaned forward, waiting for Rickston to explain everything about the orb of ice.
"Ladies and gentlemen. This is an Ancient Ice Core, retrieved from the deepest pit in the Cold mountain also known as the lonely mountain,"
The lonely mountain was a place where cultivators headed towards to enter secluded cultivation for decades or even centuries. The harsh cold environment of the mountain would push the cultivators to their limit and make them break through to the higher levels of cultivation. Before Gaya met Michael, she planned to rule Nagaland to her heart's content before heading for the lonely mountain. The lonely mountain occupied a large area in the Awor continent. Due to its extremely cold weather, there were no living beings except cultivators in seclusion.
Judging by the bone-chilling coldness emanating from a single core, Michael could imagine how cold the mountain would be.
"Doombringer," Michael immediately remembered the required materials to upgrade his weapon. He needed a 3-star Blacksmith, 3-star Runemaster, Ostium ore, the blood of a forest dragon, Underworld Fire Core, or Ancient Ice Core. Among the six, Michael already possessed three items. He had Elidyr as the runemaster, Nightmare to get the blood, and had a large pouch of Ostium ore thanks to his treacherous ocean visit. So only the blacksmith and one of the Underworld Fire Core or Ancient Ice Core remained.
Once he could get his hands on the ancient ice core, he would be one step closer to upgrading the Doombringer. Michael would have let go of the item if it was Underworld Fire Core. According to the system, the fire core would give the Doombringer to conjure flames while the ice core would give the Doombringer to summon and control the bone-chilling frost. Since Michael already had the Dark Flames, he desired to have the first under his control rather than fire. As long as he controls all the elements somehow, he could become an unstoppable force of nature on a battlefield.
Hence, Michael decided to bid for the ancient ice core. The only concern he had was the price.
"The ancient ice cores can be used in various arrays, and only the sky's the limit for a talented blacksmith who could handle this ice core. The starting price of the ice core is three million,"
To Michael's surprise, the starting bid was way lower than he initially expected. However, it made sense since there was no immediate use for the ice core. Anyone who buys it had to find either a runemaster or a blacksmith. Even then, there was no certainty that they could make use of the ice core.
"So it's a glorified ice ball?" Someone from a VIP room was ridiculed as the crowd burst into laughter. Rickston had no words to rebuke because it was the truth. Simply put, except for Michael, the ice core had little to no value to the rest. Even if a 6-star blacksmith or a runemaster got their hands on the ice core, they could only imbue a part of its chillness to whatever they forge or create. But they could achieve the same effects with much simpler means. The nobles knew this. After all, they all brought experts along with them.
"Three point five million," The golden prince bid for the item, making Michale frown.
"Four million," Michael bid for the ice core for the first time. But unlike the rest, he didn't immediately raise the bid by a million. Rather, Michael raised it by five hundred thousand.
"Five million," However, the other party had raised the bid by a million. Michael hated it. Still, he had no intention of backing down until the bid went beyond twenty-five million.
"Five point two million," Michael bid.
"Six million," The Hunt family joined the bid.
"Six point one million," Michael bid again. This time, he decreased the bid further. His way of bidding caused several murmurs among the crowd. But Michael couldn't care less. Unlike the nobles, Michael knew the value of gold coins. When he first came to this world, he had zero coins to his name. Every coin Michael possessed was earned through hard work. Thus, Michael hated spending it lavishly. Granted Michael wasn't stingy, but he wasn't a lavish spender either.
"Seven million," The golden prince raised the bid to seven million. Michael furrowed his brows.
"Seven point one million,"
"Are you kidding me?" Eve rolled her eyes. For a man of his status, Ghost was stingy as hell. She wanted to slap the back of his head for raising the bid by a hundred thousand every single time.
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