While Vicente and all the other auction participants were reading the report of the first items, the auctioneer finished explaining the rules.
"Very well, now that the rules have been established, we'll start bidding on the first item in 5 minutes. In the meantime, I'll show you the first item." Joshua said as he motioned with one hand to the left side of the stage.
As he did so, the lighting changed, and a portion of the stage was illuminated, showing everyone in the theater a box larger than an adult human, covered in a white cloth with the crest of House Seidel.
A mechanical sound rang out, and the cloth was subtly but quickly removed, revealing a glass box containing a puppet in armor.
This set of armor has a squared helm with a face guard shaped in the face of a demon. Attached to the forehead area are snake fang shaped ornaments.
The shoulders are fairly squared, very wide and large in size. They're decorated with several snakes on each side, they're one entangled mess of snake bodies and snake heads.
The upper arms are protected by squared, fully covering rerebraces, which sit nicely under the shoulderplates. The lower arms are covered by vambraces which have a masterfully crafted upper skeleton jaw attached on the outer sides.
The breastplate is made from many layers of smaller metal pieces, mimicking the scales of a reptile. It covers only the front, the back is where the attachment straps are and they offer no real protection.
The upper legs are covered by a skirt of several layered metal sheets reaching just below the groin. The lower legs are protected by greaves, which have a large sharkfin-like spike attached to each outer side.
Joshua introduced. "This is the Second Reptilian Skin, a 2nd-grade armor found in the depths of Barktara Isle. It is said to be able to protect its wearer from a full attack by a level 5 Acolyte, regardless of the wearer's power.
According to our evaluators, it can even dissipate much of the attack power of a Mage's blow, possibly saving its wearer's life..."
The auctioneer explained as he stood in the center of the stage, sometimes looking at the armor as he gestured, sometimes looking at the audience, mostly in the common seats.
That was a 2nd-grade armor, useful for those up to 2nd stage. As such, the Mages and their companions in the VIP lounges would have little interest in such a thing, and their chances of bidding would be low.
But this item could be of tremendous value to the people in the common area.
It must be said that not every item in this world is only for people of the same class. In other words, a 2nd-grade weapon could be used by people at any magic stage, from the 1st stage to the 4th stage.
Of course, it wouldn't make sense for a Sovereign to use a weapon limited to the Acolyte stage, but if someone wanted to, using such weapons wouldn't be a problem as long as they were careful with the amount of mana they used. As for a lesser magician using a higher level item, the big problem with that would be that they wouldn't be able to use 100% of the features of that particular item.
But while this might be bad for weapons, it wasn't necessarily a problem for defensive items!
Having a defensive item rated higher than your stage was like having super-efficient life insurance!
But there were some exceptions, and it wasn't always possible for someone to use something of a higher class than what was recommended for their magical stage.
That wasn't the case with the Second Reptilian Skin, so when the auctioneer announced the starting price, the people in the common area soon became excited, and many thought about bidding.
With each round of the auction, the auctioneer would present the item and give the participants a few moments to assess how much they wanted it and think about their limits. That's why he didn't start bidding as soon as he finished speaking, giving people time.
But soon, the five minutes he had promised were up, and the bids came in one by one.
"60 gold coins!"
"61!"
"62!"
...
"78 gold coins!"
"80!"
...
"88 coins!"
In just one minute, the price of the first item of the evening had reached almost double the price of 2nd-grade armor in ordinary shops.
But this was no ordinary armor. Its market value was 105 gold coins, and outside of auctions like this, one would never find it for a lower price.
The participants continued to compete fiercely for the armor until the highest bid reached 100 coins, and new bids became less frequent.
But the armor there was still below the fair price, and even if you had the coins, it wouldn't be easy to find a 2nd-grade item with 100% efficiency like this set.
So, there were people in this theater who were willing to pay even more than the fair price for the armor!
"115 gold coins!" Someone in the common area said more excitedly, arriving at a price that few were willing to pay.
Or rather, it wasn't that there weren't people willing to pay the fair price, but some were interested in other items, and if they promised higher bids, they might run out of coins to compete. Others simply didn't have as many gold coins on hand.
Not everyone was as wealthy as Vicente, who had thousands of gold coins on him!
"Since no one will bid higher for the Second Reptilian Skin, it will be auctioned off at the price of 115 gold coins to bidder 325!" The auctioneer announced, concluding the first sale of the night!
The winning bidder celebrated with his friends in the common areas while an attendant went to collect the coins.
At the same time, conversations swirled around as the event took its first break of the evening.
Between the end of a dispute and the presentation of the next item, there was a brief pause to ensure that the highest bidder would be honored. If not, the auctioneer would pass the item on to the second-highest bidder.
But nothing would go wrong with the sale of the first item of the evening, and soon, the second item, a formation, was auctioned off for 129 coins before Joshua finally presented Vicente's plant of interest.
"Now we'll move on to the third item of the evening..." He said as he motioned for the audience to quiet down and gestured to his right, where a small box on a stand was covered with a white cloth.
