Chapter 132 - Auction 2

The flame-source magic stone was quickly auctioned away to someone on the same floor as Lucia and Aurellia's booth.

It went for as high as 500,000 credits, much more than the previous Frost Wyrm's Egg. This caused Lucia to frown a bit since something like a Mid-grade flame source magic stone was something she had in abundance on hand. Not to mention the ones that her other party members had.

"Hmm...Maybe I should sell a couple..." she mumbled.

On the side, Aurellia who was constantly listening in on her mumblings had thought it be best if she spoke up.

"Uhm, Lucia?"

"Mhm?"

"If you really do have an abundance of those mid-grade source stones, don't sell them. You'll attract unwanted attention if you do so... not to mention that those mid-grade source stones are rare materials that could be used in artifact crafting, smelting, or even rune engraving."

"Yeah, I know... but you're right. I don't want to attract any attention to our party... that'd be really bad and Cel would scold me..."

Aurellia giggled at her reason. The auction continued until it was already deep into the evening. Lucia hadn't bid for anything after the first auction article, the Frost Wyrm's egg. She planned on giving that to either Fina or Ainz, whichever one wanted it.

From its name she could tell that it was a water-elemental monster that one of those 2 could tame and contract as a battle pet. Of course, she could use it as well, but Lucia thought it'd be best if their mages had some extra protection. She was a magic swordswoman so she didn't really need that extra protection.

She was just about tell Aurellia that she was going to go back to the academy, but then the lights of the entire auction hall lit up brightly and the MC now had a very serious look on his face.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Thank you for staying with us until this evening! Now it's time for our main article, the highlight of this private auction!"

After some fanfare and nonsense, 4 strong men came up on stage pushing in a large covered-up cart. The cart was constantly shaking and low angry roars could be heard from beneath the cloth. It was obviously some live monster, but what kind of monster could actually be the highlight item of the auction?

Whatever it was that was trapped inside the cloth covered cart was definitely angry. It kept bashing against the side of the cart that the 4 strongmen that were pushing. They had to take precautions and make sure that the cart itself didn't topple over.

The low roars began turning into louder more ferocious ones. It was a little unsettling for the audience on the ground floor, but many people on the higher floors were showing more and more interest in the beast hidden under the cloth.

Once the cart was finally pushed to the middle of the stage, the men withdrew a couple of feet away from the cart and surrounded it on all four sides. The bashing and thrashing immediately stopped once the men took a distance.

The MC once again opened his mouth and loudly exclaimed, "Here it is Ladies and Gentlemen! A creature caught by the Royal Family's Royal Army! We have not found any sort of reference to this rare monster! It is one of a kind and we are not even sure of its race! I present to you..."

One of the men immediately pulled away the cloth and the monster inside the cage was finally made visible to the audience.

"The legendary Serpent Dragon!!!"

"...serpent dragon... what the heck?" Lucia said pensively. She eyed the creature that was inside the cage and mumbled, "Isn't that just a sea serpent?"

The creature inside the cage had the characteristics of a sea serpent. It had azure colored scales and a long, thick serpentine body. It was currently being restrained by specially crafted monster suppressing chains, which caused it's aura to weaken considerably, but the intimidation it gave off as it swept its golden eyes across everyone in the room caused the atmosphere to palpitate oppressively.

Lucia continued observing the 'serpent dragon' and saw that it had 4 short limbs on what she thought was the monster's upper and lower bodies. It had 5 claws on each limb and now that she took a closer look at it, the azure scales on its body was much more prominent than the ones on a typical sea serpent, actually sea serpents don't even have scales, and their bodies were just sleek and smooth.

The monster's head also had antlers on top of it not something a sea serpent would have. It had long whiskers growing near its snout as well, something that was also not characteristic of a sea serpent.

The peculiar looking sea serpent greatly piqued her interest.

"I want that!" Lucia abruptly exclaimed. Aurellia was surprised at her sudden exclamation.

"Eh??"

Lucia finally remembered where she heard about such a creature. It was from Cecil!

One day when the two were traveling towards the Anglaria Kingdom's capital city, Cecil had asked her about what kind of family ruled the Kingdom. Lucia simply explained that it was the Arks royal family consisting of dragonkin.

There were many dragons on the Urrugdrasil Continent, but only one family had taken up a ruling role on the continent, and that was the dragonkin's Arks Family. But it had to be known that the dragon's Lucia described to Cecil were like the western dragons from Earth.

Cecil told Lucia that on Earth there were two types of dragons, according to legends, there were the Western Dragons and the Eastern Oriental Dragons. The Western Dragons were just like the dragons on Urrugdrasil, they had large bodies with huge wings on their backs, a long thick neck and a head that had large curved or straight horns on it. They also all had a breath attack according to their elemental affinity.

The Eastern Oriental Dragons were different. They had long slender serpentine bodies, 4 short limbs with 3-5 claws, depending on how pure their bloodlines were. Then there were the characteristic long antlers on their heads and the long whiskers near their snouts.

The 'serpent dragon' in front of her perfectly described the oriental dragons that Cecil had told her about. Naturally, she only thought that it was an 'Earth Dragon', something that originated from Cecil's world, so no matter what, she had to have it!

"The starting bid will begin with 1,000,000 gold credits! With each increment no lower than 100,000!"

"1,100,000!"

"1,200,000!"

"1,500,000!"

"1,600,000!"

Right after the MC finished his words, the bidding war immediately began. No one on the ground floor said anything and only those from the 2nd floor were currently participating in the bids.

The 3rd floor remained silent and it was until the price went up to 2,000,000 gold credits that the 3rd floor occupants finally started participating in the bids.

"2,500,000." A middle aged voice echoed from booth A01

"2,600,000." Another voice came from a booth on the 3rd floor.

Even with the 3rd floor occupants joining in on the bid, the participants from the 2nd floor didn't back down and the auction became much livelier.

Lucia had kept her silence. It wasn't that she didn't want to speak up, but before she could speak, another person would have already stolen the words right from her mouth. Lucia began pouting in her seat.

She decided to wait until only a few people dared to bid before she started hers. She took a look at the money in her bank card and smiled.

"Cecil never cared about such monetary gains, so he gave most of the reward money from quests to me... this should be easy... I hope."

For the past quests even before they enrolled in the academy, Cecil would always give Lucia the bulk of the reward, since most of the time she was the one going out buying their daily necessities. It was especially so since they departed from the Magic City and Lucia began using her quick-casts.

Those were money eating expendables and Cecil thought that she needed money more than him, so even until now, most of Cecil's reward money from quests or from the materials they sold were given to Lucia.

Ever since Lucia no longer had the need to use quick-casts anymore, the girl would always save up the money inside her bank card. Cecil could have started keeping his reward money to himself, but it had become a habit to just give most of his up to Lucia.

Before enrolling in the academy, Cecil and Lucia didn't have any spatial rings to store their belongings. So, on their journey they would have to carry whatever stuff they got on hand.

This included the rare materials and monster materials they got from their quests. Cecil would only keep a high-grade piece to himself as a memento for their adventure, and thankfully, they had Silver, so it was easy for them to move about, but because they couldn't store the excess materials they just wound up selling most of it off.

And because of that, Lucia had a little more than 11 million gold credits inside her bank card. She would have had more if they sold off many of their treasures, but now they would store any excess materials into their convenient little spatial rings.

The bids finally entered the 4 million ranges and Lucia was growing impatient. It's just some unique, never-before-seen monster, why all the fuss? The bidding finally entered 5 million credits and Lucia could no longer wait.

"5.5 million!" She immediately yelled out.

The abrupt jump from 5 million to 5.5 million caused everyone on the 3rd floor to lag a bit, but then a young female voice echoed from booth A05 just next to them.

"5.6 million."

"6 million," Lucia countered immediately.

"..."

It was clear to the others that whoever it was inside booth A06 wanted the beast no matter what the price.

Down below on the second floor, the arrogant boy from Booth B02 immediately recognized the voice that had just increased the bid. It was the girl who snatched the Frost Wyrm Egg from him. He smiled slyly and called out,

"6.1 million!"

The middle aged man next to the boy stared incredulously at his son. "What are you doing, you fool?!"

"What? I'm just getting a little revenge... that wretch dared to steal something that belongs to me!"

"Idiot! What happens if the girl stops her bid right now?! How're we going to pay that bid you just thoughtlessly shouted out?!"

"Uh..."

Thankfully for him Lucia was only a little pissed. She clearly heard the bid coming from the second floor booth B02 and knew that whoever it was that just bid was messing with her.

Aurellia who was on the side tried to calm Lucia down, but the girl only loudly said, "8 million!!"

"..."

"..."

The huge jump immediately caused everyone in the venue to quiet down. Some of the masters from the clans in the booths started chuckling.

"Whoever's daughter this is must be spoiled beyond belief."

"It's just some unique looking sea serpent, why so serious?"

"The little one must not be that experienced, at least she's rich enough to throw money around. Just whose prominent daughter is this?"

While the a.d.u.l.ts were laughing, the youngsters were curious at who it was that threw around such a large amount of money. Other than this large bid, adding with the previous bid that the girl from A06 made, the total amount of money she spent was already over 8 million gold credits.

Not even a year's worth of allowance was enough for them to rack up that many gold credits. When people began paying closer attention to the booth, they were reminded that the person inside was supposed to be from the Golden Fox Clan.

"...were they always that rich?"

"The Golden Foxes sure have hidden themselves deeply. Do they perhaps know a thing or two about that monster?"

"..."

Thanks to Lucia's reckless spending, many began to turn a curious eye towards the Golden Fox Clan's private booth.

"Uh oh... uhm... sorry... Aurel..." Lucia apologized after she realized her impulsive action had done something unfavorable for her new friend.

"Ahaha~ it's okay. Well, I guess this should wrap up today's auction, yes?"

With the third and final knock from the MC, Lucia had successfully won the auction for the last article, the Oriental Dragon. The MC announced the conclusion of the auction and asked for the successful bidders to come to the rear hall to pay and pick up their items.

Lucia was just about to stand up, but suddenly Aurellia grabbed her hand.

"Wait, Lucia... here, put this on."

Aurellia took out a black hooded cloak and handed it over to Lucia. The girl immediately got what Aurellia was hinting at and dr.a.p.ed the cloak over her. She pulled on the hood and covered her face. She picked up Silver and stuffed him underneath the cloak as well.

Once she was finished, Aurellia led the girl out of the booth. The hallway was already filled with people coming out of their booths. Aurellia could make out many of the prominent clans based in the Anglaria Kingdom at a glance.

They too eyed the girl and then shifted their gazes to the cloaked person behind her. They were naturally curious, but they knew that it was better not to pry. Although the Golden Fox Clan had some ups and downs in the past couple of years, they were still among the top 5 family clans in the Kingdom.

No one dared to mess with them and since the girl in the cloak was a guest or member of the clan; it would be disrespectful of them to probe. Of course, this was only on the surface. In the dark, they would without a doubt try to figure out this person's identity.

It was obvious that the cloaked person was a female and she was still very young, considering her height and the youthful voice they had heard earlier when Lucia was bidding.

They needed to figure out whose daughter this was since she could easily throw around such a large amount of money. It was obvious that the girl wasn't part of the Golden Fox Clan, because if she was, then there was no need for her to hide her identity under a cloak.

She had to have come from some other prominent family outside of the Kingdom.

Lucia and Aurellia wordlessly, but confidently made their way down towards the back hall.

Lucia quickly flashed her bank card and easily paid the 8.4 million gold credits that she owed the auction house. She picked up the Frost Wyrm Egg and weighed it on her hand. From afar, a jealous gaze was eyeing Lucia who was holding the egg.