"900 gold coins!" Miss Death's emissary said in a louder tone, making Sim tremble with anger.
"910!"
"1,000 gold coins!" She shouted as she stopped herself from standing up.
"1,010!"
"1,100!" She yelled.
"Since you want Fear Anise so much, keep it. It's not that important to us." Assistant Temple Master Sim said after receiving the night's highest bid so far, forcing the woman to pay 40% more than Fear Anise's fair value.
There was silence after his words as the auctioneer finally banged his gavel, securing Fear Anise to Miss Death's representative for the trifling sum of 1,100 gold coins.
What were 1,100 gold coins? It was 1.1 million bronze coins, enough for an ordinary 1st-stage human to pay their basic bills for a thousand years!
Even with special resources, such a person could live for 200 years at most. That would be enough for a weak family to pay their bills for at least 5 different generations!
But even ordinary Mages could take 2-3 years to collect that amount of gold coins, which is impressive to spend in one night.
The weaker ones in that theater started talking about it after the fight over Fear Anise ended, appreciating the ability to spend coins that some of them had.
Meanwhile, the woman shrouded in darkness made the payment, guaranteeing her possession of such a resource.
And so the next item, the Seal of Spirits, was soon presented by auctioneer Joshua.
When he showed this item, the bidders fell silent again, as they saw a special device that would be very useful in 3rd-stage battles.
Sir Joshua showed the item to his left, a metal plate with various inscriptions and magic circles embedded in it.
"This is the Seal of Spirits, a highly complex magical device created by engineers and enchanters.
Its name is very descriptive of its properties. Its primary use is to seal spirits. However, this doesn't only apply to ghosts and other types of spirits that have separated from their physical bodies. This item can be used in battle to destroy the soul of an opponent weaker than the item or even to hinder someone of a similar or slightly higher level.
For example, a Mid-level Mage could use this tool to weaken his powers by more than 35% and not be able to use their third pentagram.
"As you can see, this is a very valuable item that has the potential to imbalance a heated battle or even take away an opponent's advantage and give it to the Seal of Spirits user.
Therefore, the starting price for this item is 600 gold coins, with a minimum increase of 20 coins!"
Shelby heard this and clenched her fists when she saw the item she wanted to buy that night.
She was originally there to determine how the city would fare after the auction. Her mission was to know who had what, who was going after whom, and from there, to move with her allies as efficiently as possible at the end of the night.
But when she saw an item that could give its owner a huge advantage, she couldn't help but get interested.
Whoever had it at the end of the auction would have an advantage that would be difficult to overcome. All the competitors in the auction would find it harder to compete against the owner of such an item or even harder to keep their possessions against the owner of such an item.
As soon as the bids were released, she joined more than 15 competitors for the Seal of Spirits to bid on this artifact.
"600 gold coins!"
"620 coins!"
"640!"
...
"890 gold coins!"
Not only Shelby joined the dispute, but also Livia, Vicente, Viscount Symons, and Assistant Temple Master Sim.
But the moment he saw that Shelby wanted the item, Vicente decided to give up and let his ally fight for it alone.
'If she buys this artifact, I can borrow it and trick our competitors into thinking it's with her.' He thought to himself.
The bidding continued.
"990 gold coins!" Shelby said as several of the interested parties remained in the competition.
That was especially true of Livia, who said with a smile. "1,020 gold pieces!"
Viscount Symons shouted. "1,100 coins!"
"1,120!" Another competitor raised the price again.
...
"1320 gold coins!" Shelby shouted, seeing that she would have to spend a large part of her reserves if she wanted to secure this magical artifact.
Marcus looked at his fiancée intently, not understanding why she wanted to spend so much on this tool.
Meanwhile, Shelby's father watched wide-eyed as his daughter made an absurd promise that not even he could make so casually.
'Where did she get those coins?' He wondered.
Shelby had her allowance as Baron Staples' daughter. She also worked at a local academy and occasionally went on missions as a mercenary. But she was only an Acolyte, and her wages were not high.
If it took a Mage two or three years to collect a thousand gold coins, it could take an Acolyte three times as long to collect the same amount.
But Shelby had less time since her Awakening than it would have taken for her to collect that many coins!
'I'll talk to that girl tomorrow.' He thought, as the highest bid for the Seal of Spirits reached 1,500 gold coins.
At this point, only Livia and Shelby were competing, and even Viscount Symons had dropped out because the cost of the item had already become too high.
'I'll have Shelby buy it for us. Marcus will use this artifact in the future.' The Viscount thought to himself while Livia's advisor broke into a cold sweat.
"Miss... Please stop. We can't risk so much! What if the Staples girl doesn't make a bid that beats yours? What will we do then? Don't forget the auction rules!" The man next to Livia and Nicolas said.
Nicolas was very supportive of his fiancée, but at this point, he had to stop her. "Livia, don't bid anymore. If Shelby doesn't raise the last bid, I'll cover the rest of the coins. But if she does, you have to forfeit."
"Okay." She said, not quite satisfied but imagining that Shelby would bleed enough from what she had done.
"1,600 gold coins!" Shelby shouted as Molly and Mira watched her shake with rage at the green woman.
If it hadn't been for Livia, she could have taken the artifact for less than 1,400 gold coins!
But nothing could be done about it, and soon, the auctioneer banged his gavel, ending the dispute over the Seal of Spirits and guaranteeing it to Shelby for 1,600 coins!
