171 Auction Part 1

"Thank you. It's been a while, senior."

Wallace greeted Vanessa in return.

"I'm also here, you see?" Tristan said pointing his fingers to himself.

"Haha... Of course, Tristan. Thank you for inviting me here."

Vanessa and Tristan were very welcoming to him as they chatted for a moment. They then led Wallace to a VIP entrance as they accompanied him to the fifth floor of the building.

Since the crowd was not able to hear their conversations, this made them create their own assumptions about Wallace's identity.

"Did you see that? They escorted him!"

"Yes... He doesn't look that important at the first glance."

"Who was that guy? Anyone recognized him?"

"He wasn't even in presentable clothes."

"He's young, maybe he was Miss Vanessa's classmate?"

"Mostly likely or maybe a relative... Anyway, it shouldn't be necessary to escort him like that unless he's an important individual."

After hearing this, they realized that although Wallace wore simple clothes, it wasn't to the point of looking like a poor or being out of class. It just look inappropriate as everyone attending the auction were businessmen, reputable individuals, representatives of large companies, high level magicians, and even some politicians. They normally wear business suits or anything that would make them appear professionals.

After all, aside from bidding for the items in the auction, they might encounter opportunity to meet those high ranking individuals and they need to make an impression. And as for this high ranking individuals, they have to take care of their image and keep their appearance presentable.

But Wallace doesn't really care with all of these. His quality products or brand would speak for him.

***

There's still 10 minutes before the auction starts.

Wallace arrived at the fifth floor and noticed that the hall can accomodate a thousand people. The auction hall seems to combine 5th to 7th floor making it wide and higher.

There were around 50 small rooms probably for VIP as Wallace surmised.

"Right, Tristan gave you Silver Membership Card, you're allowed to rent a small room if there's a vacant but Tristan mentioned to your friends that you'll be attending here as well. So they asked me to tell you to join them in their room if your interested."

"Oh. my friends? Who were they?"

"Tracy Guilford and Ross Schien. I met them in TMAC so I remember them."

Vanessa smiled after answering to Wallace. She then mentioned their room to Wallace and excused herself. It seems that she had to meet someone. As the daughter of the White Clan's Head, she was busy in this type of gathering of influential people. Meeting and escorting him here was already a huge show of hospitality. They seem to value him or his identity as Slaine Allusia's apprentice.

Tristan on the other hand whispered to Wallace before leaving.

"She'll be meeting with Miss Lacus, they know each other. Hehe! Your senior apprentice is in room number 7. Be sure not to fight her in an item."

"Why not?"

"Because you have the same master and she's your senior. You'll also meet her frequently. It's better for you to befriend her." Tristan chuckled before leaving together with his sister.

Wallace thought about it and it somehow made sense. Anyway, it's not like he'll be very interested to something to the point of outbidding his senior apprentice. First of all, she'll definitely by richer than him. Then, he was also not looking for anything specific so something that would interest him would be difficult to find.

His plans of strengthening his power, creating his envisioned machines and spreading knowledge to improve the world's standard only requires time and resources.

Attending this auction, learning about the mysteries of the northern continent, or even studying potion brewing was mostly due to his curiousity.

He then looked for an usher to lead him to room number 27 where Tracy and Ross were in.

He knocked on the door and was soon greeted by Ross Schien who was wearing a formal attire.

For someone bearing the name of Schien, he must appear respectable in every ways. Especially Tracy who wore an elegant purple dress, a daughter of a business tycoon owning Guilford Tradings must be presentable in all types of occasions.

After getting in, he realized that the room wasn't that small compared to looking from the outside.

The room can fit eight people without making the place feel crowded. He also noticed that there's also another lady around 25 years old behind Tracy. Her attire and bearing made Wallace conclude that she's a bodyguard.

"Wallace! I heard from Senior Vanessa's little brother that you've been accepted as an apprentice by Sir Slaine."

"I should've been in the test as well but my uncle sent different magicians..." Ross paused as he remembered that it's not appropriate to rant about his uncle right here. "Oh... Congratulations, by the way."

"Haha... Thank you, I just got lucky. So you should've competed, huh. It would've been nice if you're accepted as well. How about you Tracy?"

"Er... It's not appropriate to join the Cloud Hawk Manor's side right now. So my father didn't allow me to participate."

"The Manor's side?"

"Don't mind it. You'll learn soon about that Manor's political standing in this country. Anyway, that's not important for now. Do you have an eye to a specific item about to be auctioned?"

"Well, if you say so... Right, I'm not even aware of the things that will be auctioned."

The three classmates chatted for a while and discussed about their transfer to Skywalker Academy. This made Wallace a bit emotional as he only had few friends at the academy. Now, two of them or three including Kazimir will transferring out.

After few minutes had passed, it was now time to start the auction. The auctioneer came to the stage which caught everyone's attention.

"Welcome to everyone attending this Special Auction. Thank you for coming here even with a short notice. I'm Sylvia Hazelrink and I will be presiding over the whole duration of the auction.

"Before the auction begins, I'll explain the rules of this auction for the sake of the new participants. There will be 50 items, each and every one of them are items of high rarity. Before a single item is auctioned off, the next item will not be released."

Sylvia made sure to pause in her speech to make sure that everyone can follow.

"Every item will have a base price, and the next bid will be no less than 1000 credits. Apart from that, to increase the excitement of this auction, each item will have a buyout price which is seven times or more of the base price."

About half of the participants here were new to this, so murmurs from them can be heard. But Sylvia wasn't finished yet.

"In the entire process, everyone could choose to buy out the item. The blue sign is to raise the price, you can easily change the numbers to the amount you like to bid, but without changing it, your bid will automatically be considered as 1000 credits higher than the previous bid and for the white sign, it is used to buyout the item. Everyone please remember this."

As she finished speaking, she didn't care about the discussion of other participants and started the event.

"Now for the first item."

At the center of the stage, two helper brought and unveiled a glass bottle containing blue liquid.

"A perfected Cryptic Link Serum distributed by the Congress of Zairus Magician and made by the one and only Chester Cornfield. It was obtained through legal channels so you can rest assured. This serum can help those Magic Engineers or Battle Mages breakthrough without Arcane Baptism! A different power comparable to Arcane Link! More information about this can be found at the official website of the Congress. The base price is 7 million credits and buyout price is 49 million credits."

"8 million!" Someone from the hall immediately bid after Sylvia announced the starting price.

"9 million!"

"9.5 million!"

"9.6 million!"

...

"12 million!"

...

"16 million!"

After reaching this number, everyone became more careful and started to weigh their choices. In the end, the serum was sold for 16.8 million credits.

Within the room number 27, Tracy and Ross were discussing about the serum.

"So, it's the first item to be sold, huh." Tracy muttered after seeing the Cryptic Link Serum. Although they have information about the items to be sold, they were not aware of the sequence.

"Tracy, aren't you interested in that?"

"No, maybe my father have a use for it and not me. But this single bottle won't do much. It's only here probably to feel out the market."

Wallace was silent not because he don't want to join the conversation but because he wasn't aware about it's details. He checked the official website and learned how precious this materials is. Unfortunately, there's only one being sold.

Sylvia revealed the second item.

"Incomplete Secret Arts: Resonance Palm. This is a technique where once it's mastered, the user will be capable of inflicting internal damage through the palm.

Mastering this can easily inflict damage to the brain of an opponent even by it's touch. Unfortunately, only second and third stage part of the Art is present. The first, fourth and fifth were missing. But this can still be used as a reference. The base price is 10 million and the buyout priced is 70 million."