"Wait… what?" Listening to the words Sirius had said to the audience, a look of surprise appeared on Valyr's face as he did not expect the item to have such an effect. After all, from the perspective of a production class, the fact that the fruit could increase one's affinity with almost everything already seemed too good to be true.
But the fact that it could solidify one's comprehension from an Intent Seed to an Intent in an instant?
Even he was quite tempted to get his hands on it at that point.
"Excuse me… does the fruit also help those without an Intent to comprehend their own Intent?" Fortunately, just as a question related to the fruit's capabilities popped up in his mind, a young woman in the audience decided to ask Sirius the question he wanted to ask the man first.
"As far as the appraisers have checked, it indeed does." In response to the question, Sirius gave a firm nod, increasing the audience's desire to get the fruit for themselves to its utmost limits.
"However, unlike its initial effect, wherein an Intent Seed would be fully comprehended into an Intent after eating the fruit, those without an Intent only have a considerable chance in comprehending their own Intent Seed after eating the fruit," said the man, prompting another person in the audience to ask what the chances of successfully comprehending an Intent Seed were.
"Around 50% or so. It could possibly be higher than that since we haven't really checked that effect that thoroughly. Perhaps, it could even be a guaranteed effect." Unsurprisingly, Sirius responded to the question with a teasing smile, firming up the decisions in people's minds to get the fruit no matter what, with Valyr having made up his mind as well.
"Well, with that out of the way, the bid is now open for the World Resonance Fruit." Allowing the item on stage to do most of the advertising, Sirius opened up the floor for bidding. "Note that the initial bidding price starts at 50 platinum cards. Any bid after the previous must be higher by at least 5 platinum cards."
"Hiss…" Hearing the price that he would have to fork out for the item, Valyr sucked in a deep breath of cold air. However, such a price did not deter other people in the audience, bidding for the fruit in a mad frenzy.
"60 platinum cards!"
"75 platinum cards here!"
"I bid 85 platinum cards! Those who bid after me can't satisfy their wives in bed!"
"100 platinum cards! I hope the one who bid before me can't satisfy their wife in bed!"
"I guess I'll skip on this one…" Scratching the back of his head as he wondered whether or not to join in on the bidding for the fruit, Valyr eventually made up his mind as he let out a defeated sigh. Though Julian had told him that he was free to bid on five items at most, he had a feeling that there was a limit to the total price…
Until Julian asked him, that is.
"Why aren't you bidding?" Julian looked at Valyr with a hint of confusion, taking note of the young man's desire to obtain the fruit for himself. "You do know you can still bid on three more items, right?"
"I do…" Valyr softly nodded with a bitter smile. "Though, don't you think the final price for this item would reach an incredibly high amount? I'm not the only one who has a great need for it, after all."
"That's already a given after Sirius mentioned it could give one a high chance at comprehending an Intent Seed." Julian nodded, taking in a deep breath once he heard the price reach 300 platinum cards. "Even if the people in the audience don't have a great need for such an item, they can still give it to those that have promising talent in their younger generation."
"After all, for those with talent, there's a great chance that forming the Intent Seed is the only thing stopping them from fully comprehending an Intent."
"In any case…" Witnessing the price for the fruit continuing to drastically increase, Julian rubbed his chin for a bit before giving Valyr a firm go signal. "I'd say bid for the item until the price reaches 700 platinum cards. If it exceeds that, give up."
"Are you sure?" Though Valyr already wanted to go ahead and bid on the item, he still stopped himself since he was spending another person's money. Aside from that, 700 platinum cards was already an amount of money even he could not wrap his head around in his current level of strength, thus he was somewhat afraid of making the wrong move.
"You know what?" Rubbing his chin for a bit more, Julian eventually looked at Valyr with a smile. "Make it 800 platinum cards."
"Go wild."
"…I bid 350 platinum cards!" With the man reassuring him that it was fine to bid such a high amount, by the time the price for the fruit had reached 300 platinum cards, it was only then did Valyr place an offer for the fruit, leaving quite a few in the audience at a slight loss for words.
However…
"Fuck whoever increased the price that much! 400 platinum cards!" Rather than discourage others who wanted to obtain the fruit themselves, it instead stimulated them to bid more for the fruit than they initially intended, surpassing 600 platinum cards within a few more minutes.
Unfortunately, after a couple more minutes, the price for the World Resonance Fruit had gone beyond 800 platinum cards, leaving Valyr with the bitter taste of defeat as he looked at Julian with a low sigh.
"Well, I guess this outcome isn't that surprising." Seeing the glum expression on the man's face, Julian let out a bit of laughter as he cheered the young man up. "Even I would be willing to bid over 800 platinum cards on such a fruit like that. Fortunately for the others, I've already comprehended my own Intent."
"Then again, having a fruit like that in hand would only expedite the process of you comprehending an Intent at most," the man continued, showing his great belief in the young man's strength through his words. "With how monstrously strong you are for your class rank, I'm certain that you'd comprehend your Intent at Rank 3 in no time."
"And… if it's any consolation, that just means you can bid higher on the final item," added Julian with a grin, prompting Valyr to take in a few deep breaths as the bidding for the fruit eventually closed, ending up with a final price of 1,085 platinum cards.
…
"To those who have been waiting for the final item of this auction to reveal itself, I must say that your determination to not spend on any item before it is quite astounding." Watching as the final item of the auction was being wheeled onto stage with a curtain draped over it, a proud smile appeared on Sirius' face as he bantered with the audience.
"As for those who have spent a bit of money on a couple things here and there, but leaving most of it for this final item, let me assure you that this item will definitely make such a decision more than worth it." Continuing to talk for a bit more about how not spending on any item in the auction beforehand was a smart choice, the man eventually gave the audience more information about the item, parts of which gave a few quite the surprise.
"Before I introduce the item to all of you, I must mention that this item has come from the Imperial Alchemist of the Meltierre Empire personally," said Sirius, swiftly garnering everyone's interest as to what kind of item it was. "Though she did not specify as to why she had sent over an item for this auction at the very last minute, she did mention that the item would definitely be a great boon for those who gets their hands on it, especially for those at the lower class ranks."
"Anyways, without a further ado…"
Whoosh!
Feeling that he had given enough background information on the item, Sirius went ahead and removed the curtain covering the item, allowing the item's aura to spread throughout the auction house in an instant.
"Woah…" Unexpectedly, almost everyone in the audience felt a great sense of intimidation from the aura radiated by the item, as if it were telling them that it could only be consumed by one person. Though, as more time passed, this aura gradually disappeared, being replaced with an aura that seemed to be one with its surroundings.
"According to the Imperial Alchemist herself, this item is known as the Nascent Rebirth Pill," said Sirius as everyone in the audience listened to his words. "As for what it is capable of, it compresses one's mana and enhances one's vitality to an astounding degree…"
"As well as increases one's stats by 50 points each."
…
…
…
"Let us open the bidding for this item, shall we?"
