It was the 16th day of the Month of Looming Frost. The auction held at Remnant Coast was about to commence.
It was supposed to be a conventional monthly auction, which usually didn’t have many participants. But for some reason, there were way more people than expected attending.
Theron stood on the ceiling of the inverted pyramid-shaped auction building and observed the Remnant Coast from above.
The weather was... terrible, considering how the whole place was troubled by a sandstorm. But this was pretty common since Remnant Coast was located in the middle of a desert. Besides, the sandstorm wasn’t a big problem for supernatural individuals.
As the auctioneer, Theron had taken on the habit of observing participants before the auction started. He remained on the windy rooftop and gazed at the approaching crowds. However, he wasn’t really interested in the apprentices. He meant to keep an eye out for the coming wizards and prepare accordingly.
He suddenly heard something roaring, which was followed by a wizard in a yellow robe, who was riding on a giant sand bear.
“‘Sand Bear’ Ryne from Moxa Westland... Let me see. He must have come for the Fortune Bear Cub, which will help him summon more powerful creatures. It seems there will be one less unsold item.”
A faint smell of perfume suddenly penetrated the sandstorm and reached his nose. He looked in another direction and saw a witch covered inside a barrier made from rose petals flying toward the building.
“Huh? That’s ‘Rose Crown’ Leona from Brute Cavern. But why? Does she want the ‘Vine of Bitter Mandrake’? But that thing’s not a decent perfume component...” Theron shook his head and failed to figure out what Leona came for.
Next was another charming witch in luxurious clothes who closely followed behind Leona. She was holding an adorable lantern that helped her see better in the sandstorm.
“‘Light Carrier’ Lady Kate from Foreboding Forest... a recently acknowledged genius. Nice. We can check what she wants and promote some items to her later.”
Kate did not show up in the public much since she became a wizard several years ago. For now, Theron had nothing to predict what she would buy.
“A slave, maybe? New wizards always need slaves to do their chores.”
In fact, Theron’s great experience as an auctioneer already got him the right answer. At this very moment, Kate and Leona were discussing how to choose proper slaves.
Next, Theron observed several more wizards and almost deduced their purposes. However, he still failed to ascertain the intention of someone such as “Mythril Innovator” Jellal, from Tower of Hurricane. As far as Theron could remember, Jellal was a master alchemist who studied the art of Tooling, while the auction this month didn’t have anything related to this subject.
Still, it was not rare for a wizard to suddenly buy something irrelevant to their profession.
In Theron’s view, it was okay to have wizards with unknown motives coming to the auction. It was impossible to predict everyone’s action after all.
However, he was VERY confused to see the next visitor.
“Is that Mister Magus?? But ‘Magus’ Shildeen never attended auctions before, or so did the records say. That man always sent his avatars when buying something. He came personally this time?”
Shildeen was not the end of the surprise yet.
“Whisperer of Underworld” Duncan, “Raging Thorns” Madelyne, “Miniature Creator” Dumartin... That was two “nerdy” wizards who barely left the grounds of Brute Cavern plus a witch who just joined Brute Cavern not long ago.
“Why would these people attend the auction?” Theron felt his confidence as a “professional predictor” crumbling. “Did we just receive something that attracted everyone from Brute Cavern? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
As he tried to get over the bewilderment, the sandstorm in the sky suddenly moved apart and gave way to another young man.
This new visitor looked around the age of 25. He had a white suit, a green waistband, and several delicate-looking charms around his wrist. His pale yellow hair was bound behind his head by a green hairband, and only a thin fringe was left dangling over his left eye.
He didn’t look very outstanding, but he had a particularly friendly temperament, which was betrayed by the trace of unyielding ambition shown in his eyes.
Theron failed to recognize this man until he saw all the other passing wizards showing respect. Then he suddenly remembered a piece of shocking news mentioned by people recently.
“That’s Sumesh, Sunders’ first student, a truth-finder... And he’s from Brute Cavern as well. But how come? Is there something going on at Brute Cavern, and they need something from the auction to solve the problem?”
Again, he completely had no idea what Sumesh wanted from the auction, and it made him worried.
Another man in a servitor suit suddenly climbed onto the roof and joined him.
“Mister Theron, we have ten minutes before the commencement of the auction. Master Chalon asked you to prepare.”
Chalon Yamesh, clan master of Oasis Coast and the supreme leader of Remnant Coast as well as the auction.
Theron nodded subconsciously. “Understood. I’ll be there right away.”
He spent another minute on the rooftop, wondering what was going on that completely defied his predictions that used to be pretty accurate before an auction started.
The auction today was a minor, monthly round that didn’t have anything too valuable. Whatever drew so many important figures here?
Without having an answer, Theron went downstairs, frustrated.
He came to the chamber of Master Chalon first, who was enjoying the service of three alluring ladies.
A bit embarrassed, Theron bowed politely. “Master Chalon.”
“What do you want? Get down there, the auction is almost starting!” Chalon waved him off impatiently.
“But Master, I found some problems while observing the guests. I believe I should report to you.”
“Are you doing your ‘tell their intent before the auction starts’ again? You’re wasting your time!”
Even so, Chalon wouldn’t scold his most loyal clan member too harshly. “Fine. Tell me, what problems?”
“I saw many strange individuals, and we have too many people from Brute Cavern coming. But as I remember, we aren’t offering any important items today.”
Unamused, Chalon put his hand on the breast area of one of the ladies. “Who knows? Maybe they had a social gathering somewhere around here and decided to drop by the auction for fun. Good for us. They’ll bring more guests to us in the future.”
“But...”
“Stop it. They’re all well-known wizards. Are you perhaps worried that they’ll cause harm to us? I tell you, your ‘prediction’ is useless, and you should spend more time figuring out how to improve our gains. By the way, I checked the auction schedule earlier, and I want some adjustments.”
“Adjustments?”
“There’s this music box thing. Sell it during the first half. I’ve seen it at other markets, and it’s nothing too valuable. People will consider it a joke if we show them a toy around the end,” Chalon said as he tapped at the files on his desk, while his other hand wormed around a lady’s waist.
“Music box? Oh...” Theron remembered the item to be delivered by an apprentice. When he checked the item, he found the music and illusion to be quite amusing, and they seemed to be carrying a very strange power. As an experienced appraiser, his instincts told him that the music box was not a simple plaything, so he decided to sell it during the second half of the auction.
“Master, I’ve seen the said music box, and I think it’s a rather good invention. You’re right that it doesn’t deserve to be a highlighted selection, but it has some masterful enchantment features that even our alchemists failed to recognize. Surely it won’t be—”
Chalon lifted a hand and interrupted, “Don’t give me that. I saw the exact same thing half a year ago and bought it at 100 crystals. Now look at your schedule, starting bid 300 crystals? Nobody’s going to buy it!”
“But Master, did you check the item yet?” Theron frowned.
“Do you think I’m lying?!” Chalon lost patience. “I DEMAND you to change the schedule and get rid of that junk earlier! Let’s start with... 50! Well, it should have been lower if not for its alchemy designs.”
Theron was the auctioneer but not the decision-maker, so he had no choice but to accept the order. “Understood, sir. I’ll swap it with the 37th lot.”
“That’s still too late. Sell it among the first five.”
Theron’s movement froze. Using his knowledge of an appraiser, he believed that the music box was far from being “junk”. The first five items to be sold during the auction should be relatively valueless, non-tiered materials or potions. Yet the music box was way beyond that.
“Sir, are you sure you know what the music box is?”
“How about you get to work rather than questioning my decisions?!” Chalon bellowed.
Theron quickly stepped out of the room. Chalon was not a liar, which meant he did check the music box before.
“But why are we having different opinions? Is my intuition faulty today?”