"160 gold coins!" Vicente raised his bid even higher, speaking in a louder, more insistent tone.
The man arguing with Vicente, someone from outside Millfall, clenched his fists when he heard this and looked towards the third floor of the theater, where the young man's room was.
'Wretch!' This person cursed the masked man but couldn't continue bidding since he only had 158 gold coins for this auction.
Many other people there, including members of the Millfall Awakening Temple, were interested in the plant in question. But since Cesar was so interested in this item, no one from this city wanted to get involved in the dispute with him.
'That wretch is already at the end of the 2nd-stage! I don't know how he's doing it, but his mana is growing really fast!' A local nobleman who wanted such a plant also cursed Cesar, unhappy with the rapid growth of such a local mercenary.
The auctioneer didn't care about the local disputes and why so many people stopped bidding after Vicente joined the dispute. When he saw that no one else was raising their bids, he counted to three, ending the dispute over the Filipendula Jaburan.
"The winning bid in this contest belongs to Mister and Miss from room 33. For 160 gold coins, I close the sale of lot 3!" He banged his gavel on a small table in front of him.
With that, a few comments were made as the auction staff made their way back to the VIP rooms, carrying the reports for the next 3 items to be auctioned.
When a woman dressed very nicely in a black and white dress entered his VIP room, Vicente soon heard her demand the coins promised for the previous item.
"Here are the 160 gold coins." He gave them to her when he received a piece of paper that he had to sign indicating his responsibilities and rights regarding this purchase.
That would remain with the auction organization as proof, and if anything went wrong, it could be used against him in the future.
But this was all bureaucracy, and as soon as the woman confirmed the 160 gold coins, she closed the deal with Vicente and left, leaving the document with the reports on the next three items to be auctioned.
Upon reading the report, Vicente and Layla saw that the following 3 items were still 2nd-grade ones, this time with a green rating spell, a sword, and a pill.
What was a green rating? Well, some resources could be classified in two ways. In fact, all artificial items could be classified in two ways.
The first was the one that told you what kind of magician it was best suited for. For example, something of the 3rd grade would always be more suitable for a 3rd-stage magician. Some items of this classification might be useful for those who are weaker or stronger, but in general, their use by people other than those indicated would be a waste.
That was the usual classification of artificial items.
However, there was a second tier related to the item's quality within the first classification. This rank was the same as the talent class, from the lowest, red, to the highest, purple.
This ranking served to indicate what type of item was appropriate for each talent range. For example, a red spell was more appropriate for someone with a red talent. Green spells were more appropriate for people with green talents.
The higher the level, the more complex and powerful the tools, spells, and resources were.
But this complexity also meant that they were more difficult to learn. As amazing as it was to have something of a high level, it wasn't realistic for most people to have, let's say, a spell of a higher level than their talent because they wouldn't be able to understand it.
On the other hand, it was usually difficult to find good spells for sale or for free. As a result, more talented magicians often had several spells of lower quality than their talent.
However, some items didn't follow this classification because it didn't make sense in all cases. That was the case with items made by blacksmiths and resources made by alchemists.
In these two cases, the item with the highest EFFICIENCY or PURITY was almost always the best choice.
In the case of pills and potions, this was even more extreme. Highly talented people usually didn't need very challenging resources, while low-talent people needed the best resources to advance.
Because of exceptions like this, this second artificial item classification was not used for every type of resource or item.
But this classification served its purpose well in the case of spells.
Anyway, looking at the next items, Layla asked Vicente. "Are you going to keep buying things? This spell looks very nice. Since you've already bought something of value, it makes no difference whether you continue or stop."
"You're really annoying, Layla," Vicente muttered. "But I'm not participating in the next three disputes. As interesting as these items are, I have no urgent need.
And some of them will end up in our possession later..."
"Really?" She looked at him sideways as the auctioneer returned with the third item.
The auctioneer spoke again. "All right, now..."
...
After another 20 minutes, the next three 2nd-grade items would be auctioned off for between 150 and 190 gold coins each until the auction staff once again handed out the reports for the following 3 items.
This time, the first two 3rd-grade items to be auctioned that night appeared on the auctioneers' reports, including the Colored Tuna Brain that Nova's brothers had told Vicente about.
The last auction of the 2nd-grade item went relatively quickly, and hardly any of the VIP areas bothered to pay attention to the item being auctioned off for 195 gold coins. Several groups stopped to focus on the first 3rd-grade items, and some individuals even began to negotiate with each other in case the bids for these items got too high.
There were resources that could be shared among several people. That was the case with plants, beast parts, minerals, and so on.
Even though it was an auction where everyone had to bid and only one person could take the item, it was still possible for groups to get together and take something together.
When the bidding for the last 2nd-grade item ended, auctioneer Joshua soon presented everyone in the theater with a huge box containing a pink gelatinous brain, the item of interest to the Bain family.
"This is the Brain of the Colored Tuna, a beast at its 3rd stage when it was hunted 50 kilometers off the coast of Ironcrest.
The brain of this beast can be considered a 3rd-grade resource, useful for producing pills, potions, special dishes, and bait for high-level aquatic beasts." Joshua made the initial presentation of the item up for auction.
