Chapter 119: The Auction

Early the next morning, Old Xie got up to exercise. In an open space he specially arranged, Old Xie would practice hard every morning. After boxing for two hours continuously, Old Xie went to eat. After the meal, he excitedly took a carriage out. It turned out that today was the day the Thunder Sword was auctioned, and naturally, he, the main person involved, could not be absent from the excitement.

The Auction House of the Stephen Family had its own venue, located in the bustling trade district. Actually, this place was originally very famous, but in recent years business started to decline, and the limelight was stolen by the Auction House of the Augustus Family. So funds were tight, and even the decorations inside became old.

And now, in order to make a name for itself with the Thunder Sword, the Manager also racked his brains. Besides spending a lot of money on advertising, he even persuaded Fatty to add an investment, renovating all the decorations inside to the extreme luxury, giving people a pleasing feeling just looking at it.

There were originally 32 VIP private rooms in the venue, all on the 2nd floor, overlooking from above, and one could bid without revealing their identity. Such good positions were naturally the most popular, but unfortunately, they were long snatched up empty by a bunch of nobles using various methods. Even Old Xie couldn’t get one; originally he planned to coerce and lure to get one, but the Manager refused to agree no matter what, almost kneeling down to Old Xie. Helplessly, Old Xie ultimately could only sit in the 200 ordinary seats below.

At about 8 am, the auction officially started. More than 200 seats were occupied by various nobles, and as for the private rooms, there were none left. Old Xie didn’t see the Elf Prince Arthas outside; obviously, that guy surely had a private room. Thinking that he, the owner, didn’t have a private room, while that pretty boy did, Old Xie felt a wave of depression in his heart, and secretly cursed the Manager here again.

Such a grand auction naturally wouldn’t only sell one Thunder Sword; that would simply be wasting such a good opportunity. The shrewd Manager certainly wouldn’t make such a low-level mistake, so he also prepared some other good auction items as a warm-up.

To build up his own reputation, the Manager certainly wouldn’t use some trash to make up the numbers. The things he got this time also took some effort; the cheapest could sell for a few thousand Gold Coins. And the most eye-catching ones were still two works of the Old Mage. One was his new work, the Shield Guardian, the one Old Xie saw last time, with a low price of 20,000 Gold Coins, and finally sold for 58,000.

But this wasn’t the most expensive. This time, the Old Mage was obviously determined to win glory for his family’s Auction House, so he even took out an Imp. Although this was just a work he practiced 30 years ago and couldn’t be called a masterpiece, it still attracted everyone’s attention. After all, the Old Mage was famous, and the Grandmaster of Puppet Alchemy wasn’t called that for nothing. Take this Imp for example, there were only a few people on the Continent capable of making it, and among them, the Old Mage had the highest achievement. The Imp he made was a grade higher than others. After all, the Old Mage’s craftsmanship was passed down for generations, naturally much stronger than others fumbling on their own.

Moreover, for things like Imps, many materials required couldn’t be bought even with money, and were very rare. So the quantity was pitifully small. Anyone who owned an Imp would treat it like a baby; the opportunity to put it up for auction wasn’t much. Anyway, on the Continent, only about one Imp would flow into the market every 5 years, showing how precious it was.

Anyway, after this thing came out, it immediately caused a sensation. Although the starting price of 50,000 scared away a group of nobles with not-so-strong financial resources, those rich guys didn’t care at all. They all scrambled, shouting themselves hoarse, afraid that others would snatch it away. That posture was as if he wasn’t spending Gold Coins, but stones.

In the end, this Imp was sold for the sky-high price of 97,000 Gold Coins. You know, its normal price was only 50,000 to 60,000. It showed how crazy these guys were.

Next, after a small climax, everyone finally welcomed the grand finale, the auction of the Thunder Sword.

This time, the Manager personally went out to act as the auctioneer. He came to the stage, first excitedly bowed to the crowd, and then said with agitation: “First of all, thank you all for coming from all corners of the Continent, traveling thousands of miles to support us. This is our incomparable honor. What we can repay you all is to make your trip worthwhile!”

The Manager’s words caused a round of warm applause. After the applause died down, the Manager directly said: “Thank you for your support. Alright, I guess you are all anxious, so I won’t talk nonsense. Now, please welcome our specially invited appraiser, the Grandmaster Smith of the Dwarves, Your Excellency Piritz, to show you this Thunder Sword, which can be called a Legendary Item!”

Subsequently, everyone applauded warmly again to show their respect for the Grandmaster Smith Piritz.

Amidst the applause of the crowd, Piritz walked onto the front stage holding a long strip package. He first bowed slightly to express his gratitude for the applause. After everyone quieted down, he slowly said in a slightly hoarse voice: “It has been seven days since I came here. During these seven days, I have been studying this sword, and I didn’t even go to the welcome banquet of His Majesty the Emperor of the Griffin Kingdom. I am very sorry for this.” Saying that, he slightly bowed towards a direction on the 2nd floor, obviously apologizing to the Emperor for his rudeness.

From that direction, the Emperor’s steady voice quickly came, “Master, you are too polite, this junior dares not accept it!”

“Hehe!” Piritz smiled slightly at that side, and then went straight to the topic: “Everyone, after seven days of research, I can only ashamedly give you such an evaluation. This sword does not use the forging method of this Continent, but looks like a forging method spread from another world.”

“Oh~” Everyone couldn’t help but let out a sigh of amazement upon hearing this.

You know, there are many places on this Continent with Spatial Cracks, and people from other worlds often come here. The most famous are the Burning Legion among the Three Great Disasters; these people are all visitors from other worlds. Besides the Burning Legion, many other alien races have appeared in history. These alien races, whether in appearance or other habits, are different from the Continent, and they occasionally brought some remarkable instruments. So after people heard that the Thunder Sword was an object from another world, although surprised, they were not completely ignorant.

Piritz then continued: “However, although the casting method of this sword is completely different from the Continent, the Magic Array on its surface is absolutely from this Continent. Observing its subtle characteristics, this looks very much like the style of the Stephen Family. Could it be that this sword was forged in another world, then fell into this Continent, and had a Magic Array added by the Lightning Magic Saint?”

Old Xie heard this and couldn’t help but feel great admiration for Piritz; the other party was almost exactly right. This sword was indeed forged by Old Xie using the method of refining artifacts, without going through the process of hammering, so there were no forging marks on the sword body. Piritz judged that Old Xie’s forging technique came from another world through this, which was correct. Actually, this point wasn’t too hard, but the key was the second point; he could see that the Magic Array had the characteristics of the Stephen Family, that wasn’t easy.

You know, although the Magic Array is complex, the required precision is very high, and it must be drawn to meet the standard, just like a kind of writing, it must be recognizable to others. Therefore, there are very few changes in the Magic Array. The same Magic Array drawn by ten Mages is almost exactly the same, with only extremely small differences. Being able to see this difference and infer the origin of the Magic Array from it is really rare. I’m afraid professional Mages don’t have this ability. And for Piritz as a Warrior to recognize it, that was naturally quite not easy.

And when Piritz said this, his doubtful eyes also looked towards the Manager, obviously wanting to get an answer from him. Others also looked over, wanting to get an answer.

The Manager smiled bitterly with helplessness and said: “I’m sorry, I can’t say the origin of this sword, this is the rule!”

“Is that so, then that’s a pity!” Piritz said with a hint of disappointment.

Others were also somewhat depressed. Just then, an impatient guy couldn’t help asking anxiously: “Master, you should quickly say, does this Thunder Sword count as a good thing of Legend Rank?”

“Okay!” Piritz nodded, then slowly unwrapped the package in his hand, while saying full of admiration: “This sword is the most perfect weapon I have ever seen. If it has a good master, it can definitely become a Legendary Item, and even go a step further, it is not impossible!”

“Ah! Ah?” After hearing Piritz’s words, everyone first exclaimed in excitement, but after seeing the miserable appearance of the Thunder Sword covered in rust, they couldn’t help but let out a chorus of questioning sounds.

“Master, did you take the wrong sword?” A guy couldn’t help smiling bitterly: “This, this rusty broken thing, can also be considered a perfect Legendary Item?”

“What do you know?” Piritz immediately said disdainfully upon hearing someone question: “Although the appearance of this sword is not good-looking, it is one of my favorite points!”