In the blink of an eye, the first two hours of the auction had passed, and most of the auctioned items had been sold.
After Seal of Spirits, the fights for the following two resources calmed down a bit, and the 12th and 13th items sold for 1,000 and 1,100 gold coins, respectively.
The values were lower than the items auctioned in previous rounds, but this was because there were more disputes than usual over some of the 3rd-grade items that went first in the auction.
In these rounds, Viscount Symons won another valuable item for his family. In contrast, the members of the Millfall Awakening Temple won their first item of the night.
After rounds 14 and 15, Livia had taken the item that had brought her to Millfall, Blister Avens, after paying 1,400 coins, having suffered from Shelby's entry into the fray.
After seeing Livia bidding on that item in succession, Shelby entered the dispute only to raise the cost of acquiring that resource for her rival.
In doing so, she had succeeded, and Livia had paid more than she should have because of what she had done earlier.
In the 15th round, the item had sold for 1,300 gold coins, purchased by a visitor from Millfall, a provincial nobleman who was there only to participate in the auction that evening.
Then, in the 16th round, the competition had gotten a little tougher, with an item capable of manipulating the minds of even High-level Mages raising the bar for the auction and practically everyone in the VIP rooms bidding.
The winning bid for Draught of Mind Control was 1,800 coins from a Mid-level Mage passing through Millfall for the event.
After his win, many groups ignored the 17th round and began gathering to talk about the post-auction.
Some didn't have enough coins to bid on the 17th item of the night, which had a starting price of over a thousand gold coins.
Looking ahead to the end of the event in a few tens of minutes, those who hadn't won anything yet were more focused on forming alliances than participating in the final rounds.
Only the strongest and richest continued to bid, resulting in the 17th item being auctioned off for 1,700 gold coins to Viscount Symons, who had finished his purchases for the evening.
The items at the end of the auction were definitely better than those at the beginning, as they were arranged according to their market value.
The first item was the one with the lowest market value, while the last item of the night was the one with the highest market value.
But between the lowest and highest values, some features could be more or less attractive to the audience present, and disputes like Livia and Shelby's could occur.
That's why some items could have much higher final auction values than those with higher market value.
Finally, auctioneer Joshua had just announced the result of the 18th dispute of the evening, a special fluid sold for 1,900 gold coins to a group of nobles from Millfall.
That brought us to the final part of the auction, where the last two items of the night, the most valuable of all, were up for sale.
In the midst of this, Shelby, Vicente, Layla, and the members of The Faceless Ones faction were more anxious than ever, knowing that the event would soon be over and it would be time for them to act.
In the VIP room where Sarah Mercer was, she clenched her fists and said to her companion. "In 20 minutes at the most, the auction will be over. After that, the winners of the rounds will go to the collection area of this building, where everyone should receive their items in no more than 20 minutes. Tell our men to get ready to start our operation in 40 minutes.
I want them to entertain the 3rd-stage basilisk and the rest of the Mazzanti family to force Cesar to act alone. If he tries to join the post-auction adventure, he'll have to do it alone!"
"What if he has no interest in doing so?"
"That is unlikely. He has a lot to gain by trying to act against local or external powers tonight." She replied to this Low-level Mage. "But if that happens, we'll take care of him before he gets to his property."
"Okay."
"But I believe he will move against the Viscount. They have too much history for him not to do something tonight. And considering the number of items Viscount Symons has bought, it's quite likely that several of those present here will try to attack him tonight."
The man looked around and saw that many of the balconies of the VIP rooms were empty, a sign that the many competitors were probably meeting there to discuss the post-auction.
"If he does what I expect, we'll wait for him to fight and tire before we act!"
...
Meanwhile, Vicente was in his VIP room with Layla, talking about something similar to the enemies he didn't even know he'd be facing tonight.
"We're going to watch Viscount Symons after he leaves the auction," Vicente said to Leyla. "I think other auction participants will attack him, so it would be a good idea to let the first of our 'invisible allies' act against him first.
Let them wear each other down before we join the 'fun.'" Vicente told Layla, who had already agreed to participate in his plans for the evening, so that he would be free to deal with Jasmine's situation more quickly.
Layla knew that the Viscount would continue to prevent Cesar from solving Jasmine's problem as long as he was alive. So she had agreed to join this man in attacking the Viscount and his family that night.
She wasn't there to fight side by side with Vicente against the strongest man in town. Her goal was to increase the chaos around the Viscount and the Symons family in order to help Vice and Shelby with their plans.
She obviously didn't know about Shelby's involvement with him. Still, she was aware that other associates of Cesar would be involved in the action against the Symons family tonight.
When she heard Vicente's words, she said. "I will try to raise the flames around the Symons family and make the exchanges you have asked me to make. But if I realize that I'm in danger of being recognized or losing my life, I'll run away no matter what."
"Don't worry, I don't expect you to do more than that." Vicente agreed when he saw Shelby looking in his direction.
He nodded to her, indicating that he was ready for the post-auction.
As Shelby understood Vicente's silent message, the auctioneer started the penultimate round of today's event!
