“It’s just Leo. I don’t have a last name,” Leo said.
Max turned toward him with a shocked face. He had no idea that Leo was not from a prominent family. He expected everyone participating in the auction to be from a rich family, even if they were commoners.
Meanwhile, Max’s father was very interested in Leo. He was interested in the young boy who was able to amass 1 million Starcoins without being from a family with a family name. It would mean he was an orphan, so it was incredibly difficult to actually achieve that feat.
Leo stopped their trains of thought. “You are?” He asked Max’s father.
“Oh, I am Ian Somerhald. I am Max’s father. I manage the Somerhald Chamber of Commerce. We operate in Solhaven but our goods come from Eldridge.” Ian said.
“I wish I could talk more, but the auction is starting soon,” Leo said. He quickly went into the auction hall. He was interested in seeing what kind of items were going to appear in the auction that day.
He went to the same seat he sat in the previous day and waited for the auction to start. The old auctioneer entered quickly and started the first session of the day. Like the first and third sessions, they started with boring items that only mages could buy.
As Leo was getting bored, the auctioneer announced something that made Leo pay attention.
“This next item is a mysterious seed that our adventurers uncovered in an ancient village. The seed was regarded as an heirloom and stored in an antique box made of gold and diamonds. We don’t know the exact name of this seed nor what it will sprout, but we know it will give birth to a magical plant! The bidding starts at 1 million Starcoins!” He said.
If it was just a normal seed that gave a magical tree, Leo wouldn’t be as interested. This wasn’t the first magical seed in this auction. There were two of them that went for 2 million each. However, the reason that Leo was paying attention was because of the tattoo of the tome on his wrist.
The minute the attendants brought the seed onto the stage, he started feeling the tome react to the seed. It started becoming warm as if telling him to somehow get his hands on the seed.
He knew one thing that worked in his life – trust the tome. So now he needed to get his hands on the seed. He raised his pallet.
“I see 1 million! Do I see 1.1 million? 1.1 million!” The auctioneer started calling out the bids.
Fortunately for Leo, even though a lot of people were intrigued by the seed, they weren’t putting too much money to buy it. Normally, magical trees went for upwards of 2 million for even the most basic ones. But that was because they were guaranteed to get a tree that gave magical fruits and herbs consistently.
The problem with this seed was that the environment to grow the seed and the fruit it would produce were completely unknown. There was no guarantee that a tree would actually grow from the seed, and even if it somehow did, no one knew what kind of fruit would come out.
The bidding came to a halt at 1.5 million Starcoins with Leo as the winner. With this, his bank account was basically demolished, but he got what he wanted. He smiled happily, pleased with his purchases.
He sat back for the rest of the auction, just observing. At each break, he would talk to Max and then go back to the auction after. Time passed and the time came to unveil the final item for auction.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, we have had a fabulous two days here at the Thousand Treasure Tower. Today, we are going to see an item that has never appeared here at Solhaven. This item will definitely be incredibly useful for anyone. Our final item for auction is…”
As the auctioneer announced the item’s information, the attendants brought in a small cage that was veiled by a cloth. They set it on the stage and were ready to take the cloth off when the item was announced.
“A Purple Moon Wolf typically becomes a 3rd Circle Magical Beast when it reaches adulthood. There is a very small chance that it might even become a 4th Circle Magical Beast. This cub will take only 5 years to reach adolescence and 7 years for adulthood. This cub was found in our very own Valkyr’s Woods. The bidding starts at 15 million Starcoins.” He said.
Leo immediately looked toward the VIP boxes. He could sense from the previous day that there were a lot of powerful people there. He could sense 4 3rd Circle Mages there, all from different noble families. He realized what a potential Magical Beast that was in the 3rd Circle meant immediately.
It would upset the power balance and one family would become more powerful than everyone else. Except for the magistrate, but the magistrate was always supposed to be neutral.
The other thing that this meant which was more imminent to him was where the cub came from. If a potential 3rd Circle Magical Beast came from Valkyr’s Woods, that meant that the parent or parents of the cub were still there. Since they were probably adult wolves, they were at least 3rd Circle Magical Beasts.
He knew that the city was going to experience a Beast Wave in a few months. His experience in the forest showed signs of it. But if the leader of the Beast Wave suddenly lost their child to the settlement they were going to attack anyway, the only possible outcome would be that the timeline would be changed completely.
Now he was going to have to prepare for an attack that could happen anytime. He no longer had any chance to goof around and slowly experiment. He was going to increase his strength as quickly as possible.
As he was talking, the first bid came up. He recognized the person. It was the person who was guarding Aurora. The bid didn’t stay for long as someone else immediately raised their pallet.
In a few minutes, the price went from 15 million to 25 million Starcoins. Leo saw this happen and smiled. He didn’t think that a beast cub could be worth this much. The next highest item in the entire auction was the first one which went for 7 million Starcoins.
As he was thinking that, he heard a voice come from the VIP rooms. Till now, he didn’t hear or see anything happen in the four VIP rooms that had 3rd Circle Mages. Only the other rooms acted on any items. But now he heard one of them speak instead of raise their pallets. The voice was very clear even though it was soft. The entire auction hall could hear it.
“Why waste time? 50 million Starcoins.”