Everyone quieted down. No one in the general section had close to enough money to afford 50 million Starcoins. They weren't going to be able to compete with the people in the VIP boxes.
Moreover, they knew exactly who it was in the box. They knew that since the voice was so clear throughout the hall, it was a sound transmission technique that 3rd Circle Mages could execute.
"Stop scaring away the juniors. If they can't play with you, I will. 55 million." Another voice came from the box right beside.
"60 million," a lady from the third VIP box pitched in.
The auctioneer let the voices bid among themselves without trying to announce the bids. He didn't want to involve himself in the mages that could easily outpower him.
Leo watched as the price quickly shot up. When it hit 92 million Starcoins, the bidding stopped. The person with the last bid was also the person who started the bidding with 50 million. One of the other people in the VIP boxes commented.
"The Silvershade family will definitely see a huge hole in their finances after this purchase. How will you feed the cub?"
Even though a lot of the audience members were thinking that none of them dared to voice it out like him. Meanwhile, Leo was concentrating on how the Silvershade family was the one who bought the cub. It was better to know who he should avoid in the future.
"That marks the end of this auction! Everyone who has made a purchase can claim their items anytime in the next week. If they fail to claim and pay for their items, there will be a penalty of 1 million Starcoins exacted from your Treasure Tower account. Thank you, and have a great day!"
Leo got up from his seat at the same time as everyone else. He had all of his money with him in his dimensional ring so he did not have to wait to go get the money. Some people would have to quickly liquify their assets to pay for their purchases. The Silvershade family was definitely one of them. There was no way they had 90 million Starcoins lying around to use.
Leo went downstairs to see if there was a huge line. There wasn't. He was right in that no one carried their money to the auction. The people who did have dimensional rings made huge purchases so they wouldn't have all that money in there.
He quickly went to the counter and showed his paddle number.
"Paddle Number 44. You made two purchases, totaling 2.4 million Starcoins. With a 5% processing fee, your total comes to 2.5 million Starcoins." The receptionist said.
"Can you also give me 5 Aura Gathering Pills?" He asked her. She nodded.
He took out the money from his dimensional ring and handed it to her.
"Take the rest from my account," he said. She nodded and went to the back.
She came back with the two items and the pills.
"These items are both safe to put in the dimensional ring, sir," She said. He nodded and headed back.
The reason she said that was because living things weren't going to survive inside the dimensional ring. He placed the items inside and headed back to his house. He bought the pills for Daphne since they no longer affected him. He would have to see after his breakthrough, but until then he would give them to her.
He needed her to get stronger too for the Beast Wave. Once he reached the house, he talked to Daphne first.
"Where did you go?" She asked him. He showed her the pills.
"I went to buy some pills for you," he said. She was surprised.
"Why? I thought I was going to buy my own from now on," she asked him.
He started explaining to her about the Beast Wave. He didn't tell her that he went to the auction because he would have to explain where he got the money for what he bought. He would also have to hide what he bought and all of that would be too much work.
He just told her about how there was going to be a Beast Wave and that they would have to be ready to face an enormous number of beasts pouring out of the forest.
She took a moment to process this information.
"So do we just have to get stronger?" She asked. He nodded. She would already fare better than defenseless people who didn't know how to use aura.
The problem with aura was that even though everyone had access to it, none of them had the talent to learn it. Daphne was lucky that she was very talented in learning aura by herself in such a short time frame.
"Fine, what about you?" She asked.
"I am also going to get stronger. I have my own pills," he said. He handed the pills over to her and left. He told her all she needed to know. Now it was in her hands.
He went to his room and took out everything he bought. He was going to see what each item is and prepare before using everything.
The first thing he took out was the seed. The moment he took it out, he could feel his tome react again. He touched it for the first time. He brought it closer to take a better look at it. The seed initially appeared as a small, obsidian-like orb.
However, when he touched it, it shined for a second and changed to become an orb with a mesmerizing, ever-shifting pattern of intricate silver runes etched across its surface. It emanated an aura of ancient energy. He was able to sense that the seed had a small amount of innate magic in it. There wasn't much, but it was deeply concentrated into a small dot.
He didn't know if the people who sold the seed knew about this transformation or if it was just unique to him. If it was unique, then it was probable because of his tome which was also the reason he bought the seed in the first place.
When he held it in his hand, the seed pulsed with a gentle, ethereal light, casting intricate shadows that dance with ancient symbols. Its touch evoked a profound sensation in him. He felt that he could suddenly connect to the natural world a lot better than before and that if he trained his magic at that moment, he would be able to train twice as fast.
As he held it for a few seconds, the tome on his wrist started shining like the seed. It was as if it was beckoning the seed to it. He didn't offer it immediately because he still wanted to look at it. His eyes were glued to the moving runes that seemed like they spelled something out.
He didn't understand at first but still stared at it. As time passed, he suddenly realized that something changed. He didn't notice at first, but he was starting to lose magic in his body. The magic was slowly being drained by the seed in his hands.
