Chapter 114 - DawnTree Leaf
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I assume that all of you had read the auction rules before entering, correct?"
The Queen monotonous voice resounded in the massive auditorium, that had neither stage nor open seats. The entire auditorium resembled a closed-off cylinder, that had on its walls, large glass windows cl.u.s.tered near each other. There were hundreds of those windows on the walls, stretching to the sky. Each window represented a bidder's room. Felix was currently sitting in room number 44 right in the middle of the packed windows.
"I will not explain the rules as they will take too long. So, for the newcomers who didn't read them or ask me properly. It's better if you just watched the first bids and act the same."
Surprisingly, Queen AI was the one going to auction the items. But at the same time, it wasn't really that surprising. After all, The Queen was the only entity who was trusted wholeheartedly by the masses.
Heck, the majority trusted her more than they trust their own parents, and for a good reason. She was the only autonomous authoritative entity that bows to no one. Not even her race. This meant she was unbiased in all of the judgments and ruling.
In this kind of activity, she was always requested to lead and act as the host.
No one would complain in her presence about the prices of the items auctioned or would doubt the legitimacy of them. Even if there was a problem with an item, she would make sure that it was clearly highlighted in her presentation.
"Let's begin."
Without further ado, she displayed the first item in the air rotating it silently. The item was a bottle filled with a greyish liquid substance. It was put right in the middle of the auditorium. No one could miss it.
"This is an epic rank tier 6 Spectrum butterfly Bloodline. The Starting Bid is 500 million SC." She followed with, "Its full details are on your screens. You have 2 minutes to read them properly before we begin bidding."
This was one of the rules of the auction. The Queen merely displays the item and leave them to read its details. From the advantages to disadvantages of the bloodline without promoting it with fake information.
Her way of Auctioning was completely different from other human auctioneers. She neither spoke more than necessary nor tried to hype the auction with yells, making it resemble a noisy market.
She simply played soothing music and left them to read the details of their bid in concentration.
Two minutes later exactly, she informed them to begin bidding.
"520 million SC from room 12."
"530 million SC from room 37."
"570 million SC from room 140."
She kept calling the bids clearly, even though not a single person spoke or raised a number panel.
...
"660 million SC from room 3."
"660 million SC from room 3 going once...twice...Sold."
BAM!
The Virtual gavel sound echoed in the auction auditorium. Immediately after, polite claps followed. Felix and the girls clapped politely as well. However, Natalia was having difficulty doing so, as her neck was being licked by Stella.
"Stop it! Felix is going to notice." Natalia begged softly with red ears. But Stella didn't even pause. She kept kissing her back neck and licking it playfully.
'Sigh, I wish I could trade necks right now.'
Envious, Felix kept peeking at Natalia who was being eaten. She assumed that Felix didn't see them playing, but how could they escape his eyes?
She was as red as a tomato, even Molly noticed something weird going on between those two. However, she was too embarrassed to scold them.
Aurgh
Suddenly, a soft m.o.a.n escaped from Natalia's lips. She clasped her mouth tightly while looking at Felix and Molly giving her awkward glances.
"Hahaha!!"
Tears threatened to drop after seeing their looks. Stella removed her fingers from Natalia's chest while laughing in a delightful manner. Her revenge had been achieved.
"Natalia come sit on my lap." Molly offered gently after not being able to handle seeing Natalia watery eyes.
Sniff, Sniff
Natalia went to her while sniffing softly. She sat on Molly's lap and buried her head on Molly's shoulder, not daring to look at Felix any more.
Molly squinted her eyes at Stella, giving her a menacing look. Stella shrugged her shoulders carelessly and blew a kiss back at her.
'Tsk, Felix you really invited a fox in your room this time.' Asna clicked her tongue mockingly after seeing him sweat from his forehead at those beauties interactions. They were truly testing his patience.
'Heh, are you taking one of them home tonight or all?' She teased him, knowing that he couldn't do so.
'F*ck! leave me alone. you are the last thing I need right now.' Felix shooed her away while wiping his sweat discreetly.
Only now did he know that meeting his stars was not always a good thing. Their pure and angelic image instantly shattered after hearing Natalia's m.o.a.n.
Fortunately, they behaved properly after splitting them apart from Stella, leaving him to focus on the latest auctioned item that the Queen had just displayed.
"This is a leaf of a DawnTree. The Starting Bid is 280 million SC."
A square-shaped milky white leaf was rotating slowly for everyone to see. Felix's eyes shone with delight after seeing it.
'Didn't think they would put it so soon.'
He quickly controlled the screen in front of him to show him the leaf details. He didn't have time to read the details of the items properly before.
Soon, the milky white leaf was displayed with its details in front of him and the ladies.
// Name: DawnTree Leaf.
Starting Bid: 280 million SC
History: The DawnTree is one of the few remaining light elemental spirit trees in the universe after the spirits mass extinction during the dark ages. It grows one leaf for each year until it reaches a hundred leaves in a century. Afterward, it drops one leaf for each year until a century passes again. This cycle keeps repeating for eternity.
Uses: Firstly, It can heal an individual of any illness, disease, curses, poison, condition, and more. Secondly, it can be used to resist incoming curses by having it in a 1-meter diameter around the owner. Thirdly, it can be used as material to create potions, substances, artifacts, talismans, weapons, and more. Such as the elemental potion or curse resistance talisman.
Drawbacks: Firstly, it must be kept in a cold environment 24/7. Otherwise, it will lose its properties gradually until it becomes null. Secondly, it can only survive for one year before it turns to ash.//
...
The beauties didn't bother Felix after seeing him concentrating on the leaf's details. They figured out that he was interested in obtaining it. So, they behaved themselves and let him focus on the upcoming bidding struggle.
As always, the Queen informed them to begin bidding immediately after two minutes passed.
Felix decided to test the water first and bid low.
"Queen, 290 million SC please."
He didn't click anything. He merely called his bid softly.
"290 million SC from room 44." Simultaneously, the Queen called his bid out loud for others. A few moments later, the bid increased by 30 million.
"320 million SC from room 1."
"Tsk." Felix clicked his tongue and stopped bidding, for now, wanting to see how far the price would reach.
"360 million..."
"390 million..."
...
"480 million.."
"485 million from room 1."
The bids carried on until they surpassed half a billion. But they still didn't stop coming. Though, not as fast as earlier.
Felix decided to act now as he increased the bid by 20 million at once, hoping that it might turn off room 1 owner's eagerness.
Sadly, it backfired on Felix, as that person increased the price again by a whopping 50 million! He clearly was showing his desperation for the item, telling Felix he would not leave without it.
This was the only way they could communicate their feelings inside the auction, as speaking or knowing the bidder's name inside a room was forbidden.
Do you want to bid? Simply call it in your room and the Queen will handle the rest.
This rule was added to stop those who try to increase the bid simply to spite their enemies. In addition, to those who beg other bidders to not contest with them to save their face water.
However, the true aim of this rule was to stop those bidders, who threaten their competitors publicly to drop their bid or face the consequences of offending their backgrounds.
This childish method of bidding was completely uprooted by the Queen after it received multiple complaints from the abused bidders about it.
Now, you either bid silently or go play in the corner and let those with coins do so peacefully.
Those rules were accepted by all auctions, as they were quite beneficial to their business. Even though hyping prices was not allowed anymore, still, those who lower the prices further using their background were even more plentiful than them. Hence, the only ones who were butt hurt about those new changes were the bullies.
That's why Felix never cared about who was in room 1. He could be the governor of the empire capital city and he still wouldn't give a shit about it.
So, he kept counter-bidding each time nonchalantly. The beauties with him held their breath at the staggering amount of the current bid.
"510 million from room 1."
"540 million from room 44."
"545 million from room 1."
"600 million from room 44."
sssss!
Awestruck, Natalia drew a deep breath after hearing Felix call 600 million indifferently. An amount she could never reach even if she combined all of her albums sales since her debut.
Molly and Stella didn't react as excessive as her but their eyes still widened from such a large amount. After all, they were simply invited in the auction as eye candy during the hall and the after banquet, not as true bidders.
If they had such a large capital in the first place to bid here, they wouldn't even need Felix to pay such a pity termination fees.
This was the difference between the commoners' world and the bloodliners. Felix could spend 600 million casually for just one material needed to concoct a potion. But in their eyes, that's an amount they could reach only if they slaved their entire lives.
After waiting for a while, the person from room 1 didn't increase anymore.
"600 million SC from room 44, going once...twice...Sold."
Bam!
The Queen struck the gavel faithfully without delaying for even a second to buy time for Felix's contender to consider.
The beauties clapped their hands cheerfully after Felix emerged victoriously. He accepted their claps with a harmless smile. Meanwhile, he was cursing the mother of the person in room 1 for being such a desperate f*ck.
'Piece of shit, 200 million increase on one material! When did I offend you to treat me like this?'
Felix could only whine in his mind after losing 200 million, due to being unlucky and meeting a desperate soul like him.
After all, the known market price of the DawnTree leaf was only 400 million.
However, there was no supply at all to the public. Those resources were being traded between the upper echelons of the empire discreetly. And if some of those materials managed to bypass their clutches, they get sold in those kinds of auctions. Ones that Felix didn't even have the reputation necessary to join.
So, he could only bite the bullet and spend that amount on the leaf, lest he regrets later and ends up not finding it.
Coins could be earned back just as fast by using his memories. But those treasures; could only be obtained from the high ranks SG prize pool or by joining the upper class of the empire.
This meant, reaching a high rank in SG was a must in order to obtain the rest of the materials. However, to reach high ranks in the SG, Felix needed to have enough strength backing him up.
The only way to increase it was by getting the elemental potion and making a breakthrough into the replacement realm.
In other words, he needed to find a 3rd option to get those materials as fast as possible. Felix already had in mind a way to do so. However, it depended on his luck in the 2nd game.