"Now, as for the rules of this auction, anyone who bids while not having the lump sum whether in gold pieces or items to exchange, there will be a small fine. Those who wish to bid, must at the very least increase each higher bid by the minimum of one hundred gold pieces at a time. A friendly reminder, the treasures will continue to increase in price and rarity as the auction goes on, so those with a smaller budget should focus more on the lower tier treasures while those of you who do not have a small budget should continue accordingly." the announcer told everyone before finally beginning the auction.
As one would expect from a presenter at an auction house, the woman began to oversell each treasure that had appeared while trying to use her beautiful looks and body to make all of the onlookers focus on the items. If it were not for his good temperament, Timothy felt that he would easily get lost in her words and purchase everything that he could regardless of the price.
The first several items that were presented, were elixirs that specialized in raising one's cultivation level if used correctly. Timothy felt that they would be worth purchasing, but his goal was not to find a way to increase his cultivation, but instead to purchase items which he could clone and earn a hefty profit from.
Finally after selling ten elixirs, the attendant who was in charge of bringing each item out carried over a nice and solid looking combat vest. The vest looked to be both light and able to wear under normal clothes so that no one knew that the expert wearing it had it on until it would be too late.
"This is the Crescent Moon Vest which is capable of protecting someone from a deadly attack by an Intermediate stage expert. When it comes to an Intermediate stage expert's normal attacks, this armor could take upwards of one hundred of them before finally breaking. The starting price will be one thousand gold pieces!" the presenter shouted out while having a big smile on her face.
Without the slightest of hesitation, Timothy raised his hand and shouted down which caused almost the entire building to look over. "One thousand and one hundred gold pieces!" hearing a bid on a low tier item which was only a combat vest confused everyone since it came from the VIP area of the building.
Hearing the bid, the presenter asked if anyone else was willing to continue bidding for the item before counting down. Not only did those in the VIP area not want it, but hearing someone from the area bidding on the item caused no one from the ground floor to want to offend an expert. Therefore, Timothy was able to accept the item for a very low price with any resistance.
"If you needed such a low ranked vest, I could have just gifted you one." Jack told Timothy with a smile on his face. "If there is anything else of that rank that you need, please let me know so I can help you out."
After Jack had said this, the others around the table had said the same thing while two of them actually withdrew storage rings and casually passed them over to Timothy. Looking inside, Timothy could not help but to shake inwardly. Inside of each ring, were at least twelve different low ranked pieces of equipment! Timothy could not decline such gifts so he could just tell the two who had done this that he was thankful and that they were now considered his brothers in arms.
The next moment, every other person except for George pulled out storage rings and passed them over to Timothy. All of them had done this before stating that they hope that Timothy would not choose to treat them any differently from the other two even though they were the first to act. Many stated that they wanted to assist him in purchasing a treasure for himself as a gift, and that is why they hesitated.
"It is a good thing that you all know how to treat my brother here nicely. I will be keeping this in mind in the future." George told everyone at the table, loud enough for those nearby who were hesitating to make their way over originally to publicly show their connection with him could hear. Instead of making a misplaced comment about Timothy receiving so many gifts in such a short period of time, George actually used it as an opportunity to make others feel the need to work harder for his acceptance whether it be as a simple friend or just a casual connection.
But since he chose to do it in this way, it showed that he looked at Timothy as his own brother even though it was clear that he was an only child. This meant that even if they could not gain his support personally, gaining Timothy's would be equivalent! George took advantage of Timothy, so it was only right for him to reward him for giving him such a good opportunity!
"Actually, Chris, when I originally made my way over to the city, one of my goals was to look for a good mercenary group to hire some personal guards from. Since you have given me so many gifts, I hope that we could do business before I leave the city tomorrow?" Timothy asked one of the individuals present.
"I can absolutely help you with these simple matters!" he replied as others began to talk to Timothy while flat out ignoring the auction which was still happening. However, once the higher valued treasures began making an appearance, the table once more began paying attention to it and some even began to bid on some of those treasures.
Around this time, George noticed the other small groups on the VIP floor who were considered his enemies and made sure that the group understood that they may try to cause them trouble during the auction and to make sure that they were prepared for the worst. Everyone nodded and agreed after looking over to size their competition up for the auction.
