The auction for the Phoenix Tear ended with a final bid of 1,205 Mana Stones.
The bidder was an Elder of the Five Elements Sect with an Array puppet acting as a servant. He was brought to a back room where the exchange for the Phoenix Tear was made successfully, and the Elder returned to his seat with a wide smile. The tear was exactly what he needed for his next experiment. It didn't matter that he paid a bit over market price for it.
William and the others watched as item after item were brought to the Auction, stunning the audience and making William's group feel incredibly poor. At first, William thought his savings of 138 Mana Stones were enough for at least one item, but time proved that the old man who died in the Livingwood Forest was actually quite poor. That or he didn't carry all his valuables with him.
The cheapest item at the Auction was a pair of gauntlets that would increase ones physical strength by up to thirty percent. Tia was drooling over such a treasure, but the item sold for 250 Mana Stones, well over her budget of 10 Mana Stones.
Rodger displayed the last item of the Auction, revealing a green scale the size of a human. "For our last item, we have the scale of a Soul Formation Realm Forest Dragon. The bid starts at five thousand Mana Stones, begin!"
The room was dead silent for a moment, as the bidders' eyes widened in surprise at the Dragon Scale.
"Th-that's a real Forest Dragon Scale!! How does Rodger always get his hands on such rare items?!?" an Elder exclaimed in shock.
The bids climbed sharply until the price was at a whopping nine thousand Mana Stones. William did the math, That's nine million Gold Coins!
He felt extremely poor. How can one person have such wealth, much less over a dozen people?
William watched as the bidders were reduced to two Elders from different Sects, each raising the other by five hundred Mana Stones at a time.
"Eleven thousand!" one Elder suddenly raised the price. The other Elder seemed reluctant to bid more, so Rodger began counting down.
"Sold for eleven thousand Mana Stones!" Rodger announced with a voice filled with delight. He loved earning money, probably even more so than William did.
Like the others before him, the Elder was taken to a back room for the exchange, however he did not return to the seating area and immediately left the building. It would be risky for him to remain at the auction, someone might try to tail him and steal the Forest Dragon Scale.
With the Auction over, the Cultivators got up from their seats and began exiting the Night Market through their respective portals. A few stayed to shop at some stalls, but the number of people remaining was less than a hundred.
William decided to spend some Mana Stones on the throwing knife set he saw earlier, then also left the Night Market with his group. Gunther and Tia both looked depressed, as neither of them were expecting the Auction to go this way.
Gunther had been to the Night Market before, but the Auction wasn't held that day, so he wasn't aware of the intense competition or the steep prices and only had fifteen Mana Stones with him.
Once they exited the portal, Tia spoke first. "Well guys, that was fun but it's late and we all still have our assignments tomorrow. I'm going to head back to my residence." she peeked at Gunther as she said the last portion.
"I'll go with you! I mean...I'll walk you back." Gunther said hurriedly.
Tia nodded, "Have a good night, William."
William returned the nod and bade the two farewell. He was also very tired, since the time was close to midnight now. He needed to be up in less than eight hours if he wanted to reach the Alchemy Hall in time in the morning.
As he walked back to his residence, William pondered on the functions of the items he saw at the Auction. He didn't spend any Potential Points asking the System, since his supply was already limited.
He arrived at his room and was about to go to bed when his stomach began to growl. Thankfully he had some common groceries, so William made four sandwiches similar to bologna and cheese.
He returned to his bed with a full stomach and spent some time getting some bread unstuck from the roof of his mouth. After a few minutes of unsuccessful attempts, William finally managed to finish off his meal and went straight to sleep.
Of course, that's what would have happened if William wasn't rudely awoken by an odd clicking and some scratching sounds coming from the lock on his bedroom door.
Did someone get inside my house?
William panicked. The only thing separating him from the unknown intruder was a flimsy door that could be kicked open by even a normal person, much less a Cultivator.
There wasn't much time to react. William got up from the bed and immediately asked Atticus to use Illusion Magic to conceal them both. He carefully stepped into the opposite corner of the room from the door, hoping to figure out who had broken in. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on ⓝovelFire.net
The door was unlocked. William watched the doorknob slowly twist, then the door was slowly pushed open without any creaking noises.
A pair of green eyes appeared on the other end and peeked inside William's room, but the figure was masked, and he couldn't make out any specific facial features. As the door was opened further, William could tell that they were a female with a thin, cat-like body, perfectly suited for theft and assassination.
The female assassin's clothes were just as undistinguishable, but William could see a slight bulge near where her left pocket should be. He remembered this information for later.
At this point, the assassin had fully entered William's room. She looked around, surprised to see that Will was not present like she expected.
"I swear I saw him making food from the window, where is he?" she mumbled in a low voice. She peeked under the bed and behind the window curtains, but there was no sign that William had left.
He must still be here. the assassin thought. She didn't know what method William used, but she was one hundred percent confident that he hadn't left. She had already prepared over a dozen detection Arrays that would notify her the moment someone entered or exited the building.
William tried to keep his breathing calm as the assassin came within three meters of him while checking the walls for hidden doorways that she might have missed. She completed her search of the room but didn't bother to check the other rooms.
Instead, William watched as she slid under William's bed and used a special skill to turn herself almost completely invisible. William could only see a slight difference in the shade of the flooring, but otherwise her disguise was perfect. Anyone would be caught off guard by this technique.
She's a real expert. I probably can't fight with her, but I need to do something!