The next item on the list was a shield. And from the information Soren had received, this was one of the items that a Family surnamed Derosa was aiming for. He didn’t know what was so special about this shield; its description didn’t explain much about it. But when the host announced its initial price and the minimum increment, Soren knew for sure that this item was not common.
“The starting price of this item is set at 2500 Mana Crystals and the minimum increment is set at 200 Mana Crystals.” The host pointed at the big screen and said.
And the bidding war for this item started.
The first bid went up just 2 seconds after the start—3000 Mana Crystals.
The host was also aware that this item was expected to be sold for a large amount so he was excitedly anticipating the big jumps in the bids. And his expectations were met perfectly as the bids on the screen started jumping every second.
By the time Soren decided to take part in this bidding war, the price of the item had gone up to 6000 Mana Crystals. From what was happening in front of him, he could tell that he was not the only one who was planning on spiking the price of the items. Clearly, the other people who had bought the information about those Families were not planning on backing out. This fact became Soren’s advantage; as now, he didn’t have to take on those Families all alone. Given that, he was obviously not going to sit around and do nothing. And so, he also put up a bid without thinking too much.
His bid went up—6500 Mana Crystals.
It would be a lie if he said that he was not worried after seeing his bid on the big screen. His heart rate had increased a lot as he inputted his bid on his screen panel. The fact that his bid could become the final bid was something he had already taken into account when deciding on doing this. But even if he was prepared for it, he was still not immune to the uneasiness it brought him. Of course, this was not the only concern he had; the expected Family’s retribution was something that constantly lingered on his mind as he continued on with his plan.
But just after Soren put up his bid, the next bid went up as if washing all his concerns away.
Next bid—7100 Mana Crystals.
And then the next bid soon after that—7500 Mana Crystals.
But just as this bid went up on the screen, a huge pressure suddenly covered the hall and the people sitting in there like a mountain over their heads. The Non-Initiators in the hall started gasping for breath as they felt the huge pressure pushing them in their seats. The Rank 0 Initiators fared better than them but were still unable to move their body freely. Soren also felt this suffocating pressure pushing him down as he resisted against it. He was all too familiar with this kind of experience; this pressure was created by the aura released by a Rank 1 Initiator. And most probably, this Initiator was much stronger than Faron, or he likely had Earth as his main attribute.
As Soren was trying hard to adjust and fight back against this pressure, another pressure suddenly came like a wave and spread throughout the hall. This sea waves like aura washed away the previous pressure like it was nothing. The next moment, everything went back to normal like what happened before was just a dream.
But the people sitting in the hall knew that it was not a dream. Everything that happened was a reality. And many people, including Soren, also knew the reason behind what happened; it was a warning.
…
After everything went back to normal, the auction started once again. Of course, the timer on the screen for the bids hadn’t stopped just because of what happened. So, by the time people once again paid attention to the item on sale, the timer had already gone down to 3 seconds. This time though, no one increased the bid rashly anymore. As time went down to 1 second, the bid changed once more; seemingly from the Family that wanted to buy it.
New bid—7700 Mana Crystals.
The pressure from before had made the audience quite hesitant and afraid. They knew they were not in any immediate danger, yet they were reluctant to fight against the Family for this item. This was what that person had intended for when she released her aura and pressured everyone in the hall. Sure, she was pushed back violently by someone stronger than her from the ‘Myriad Items’, but she had already achieved her purpose.
And as she had expected, no one came forward to fight for the bid as the timer went down to 0.
“Congratulations to the one who won this bid. Now, let’s move on to the next item on the list.” The host repeated his words like what had just happened was of no concern to him. Of course, as someone who was much stronger than any of the Initiators present there, he really didn’t put these small fights in his eyes.
…….
The next few items were auctioned off without any unexpected happenings. Although one of the items being sold was something that a Family wanted, this time, very few came forward to spike its price; Soren was one of those few. Soren was willing to do it not because he was fearless, but because from what happened before, he had realized some things about the situation with the ‘Myriad Items’ and the Families.
He could tell that the Initiator from the ‘Myriad Items’ was much stronger than the ones affiliated with the Families around here. So, he was pretty sure that they were completely safe, at least till the auction was over; of course, unless they somehow pissed off the Initiator from the ‘Myriad Items’ side. And as for what would happen once he got out of there, that part hadn’t changed from before. He was already prepared for it once he had decided to take actions against the Families. It didn’t matter if he backed off now, they would still come after him; given they buy his information from the ‘Myriad Items’ first, of course.
As time went by and more items were sold, the rest of the people also realized this fact, and soon, everything had gone back to how it was. Every item that a Family wanted was spiked by many people. They kept this up in a consistent manner and didn’t back off no matter what. They had realized that they had already messed with the hornet’s nest; now, all they could do was to keep it up till the end.
..……
“Congratulations to the one who won this bid. Now, let’s move on to the next item on the list.” The host repeated his words once again as if completely oblivious to the bidding fight going on between the Families and the Rogue Initiators.
“The starting price of this item is set at 1000 Mana Crystals and the minimum increment is set at 300 Mana Crystals.” The host continued with the auction as the new item’s image came up on the big screen.
It was a Spell Vessel.
Its details were up on everyone’s screen panel and were also present up there on the big screen. The spell contained in it was a Defense Spell; something that Soren was aiming to buy in this auction. This item was one of the targets he had chosen. He didn’t have the details of this spell before but now that he knew what it was; his desire for it went up another level.
The spell’s name was ‘Withering Wood’; it was a Wood Element Spell.
The basic description given was: ‘A Defense Spell of the Wood Element. This spell can also act as a substitute for a Healing Spell.’
Although the description didn’t explain everything about it, it was enough for Soren to know that it was a powerful spell.
A Defense Spell that could act as a Healing Spell.
That fact alone was enough for many Initiators to fight hard for this. Of course, Soren was also amongst those who were ready to fight for this Spell Vessel. This spell was the only good Defense Spell that he had found after looking for it in the stores. Not only that, but it also fulfilled his need for a Healing Spell; maybe it could not beat a proper Healing Spell in pure efficiency, but this was all that Soren could use for now, given his attributes.
Healing Spells were mainly of the Light Element, which was something that went against his attributes. They also came in Water Element, Wood Element, and even Darkness Element, but those were quite rare and were not sold in the stores so easily; especially in this backwater area.
This Spell Vessel was of Wood Element; an Element which didn’t conflict with his attributes. Of course, it didn’t compliment his attributes either; it was in a neutral relationship with his Elements.
Given these facts, Soren was even willing to use all the Mana Crystals he had just to buy this.
…
The first bid went up on the screen a second after the bidding started—1500 Mana Crystals.
Then the next one—2000 Mana Crystals.
And the next one—2500 Mana Crystals.
The bids appeared one after another on the screen, beating the previous one with a margin. Soren also participated in it but he wasn’t able to put up a decisive bid no matter what; his bid was beaten every time he placed it.
……
After continuing for a while, everything slowed down as the people participating in this bidding war kept pulling out. By now, only the ones determined to buy this Spell Vessel were in the game.
The recent bid went up on the screen—4300 Mana Crystals.
Every new bid knocked out some of the participants from this bidding war. But there were still a few people left that were willing to increase the bid once again to get this item. Soren, of course, was one of them.
A few seconds after this bid was placed, a new bid, Soren’s bid, went up on the screen—4600 Mana Crystals.
Soren’s heart rate had increased quite a bit by now from the rush that he was feeling from these bidding wars; especially when the item to be auctioned was something he needed.
He kept staring intently at the big screen in the middle of the hall, waiting for a new bid to come up. The timer went down one second after another. But in Soren’s mind, those seconds felt more like minutes. He wanted it to become zero instantly, but it was not listening to Soren’s wishes at all and just kept going down at its own pace.
As it reached 3 seconds, a new bid went up on the screen, crushing the excitement that was starting to build up in Soren’s mind—5000 Mana Crystals.
Soren looked at the new bid as he gritted his teeth in frustration. But this was not enough to stop him; he had already decided to buy this Spell Vessel even if he had to use all the Mana Crystals that he had. This new increase in the bid had only irritated him; it didn’t stop him from putting up his own bid to beat the current one.
The new bid, Soren’s bid, went up—5600 Mana Crystals.
The timer was once again reset to its starting position and started going down, second by second. This time, Soren fared a little better than before as he was slowly getting used to this feeling; he was slowly learning how to cope with these kinds of feelings. He patiently waited for the timer to go down while checking out the remaining Mana Crystals he had. He had already planned to use most of it, if not all, in this auction. Using those Crystals to buy something that would increase his strength was much better than just keeping them with him.
After this item, there were two more things that he wanted to buy from this auction. One was a sensing type of spell, and the other one was actually a skill; a movement type skill. The thing that attracted him to that skill was that it was one of those uncommon skills that needed only Mana. Unlike other skills which used Stamina, or Stamina and Mana combined, this one only needed Mana. It was a very suitable skill for a Spellcaster. Moreover, what made Soren want it, even more, was the fact that this skill was of Darkness Element; an Element which he was very ‘familiar’ with.
By the time these thoughts made one round in Soren’s mind, the timer had gone down to 2 seconds. Very soon, it went down to 0 and Soren became the winner of the Spell Vessel without any problem. After paying for this item, he would be finally left with 13300 Low-Grade Mana Crystals.
“Congratulations to the one who won this bid. Now, let’s move on to the next item on the list.” The host’s voice once again resounded in the hall with the same words.
………..
The bidding war went on as the items on the auction list were sold off one after another. Soren did take part in some of them to spike the price of the items that any Family wanted, but he kept it to a very minimum. He only bid against them once or twice and then gave up. This was because as the items were being sold off one after another, more and more people stopped bidding against the Families; the most likely reason behind this was that they got what they wanted, so they stopped going against the Families. Soren was also planning to do the same but he still had two more items that he wanted to buy, so he had to keep this up for a little longer. On the other hand, he had used this chance to pay for the Spell Vessel with his ‘Myriad Item’s’ card secretly so that was one thing done.
…
“Congratulations to the one who won this bid. Now, let’s move on to the next item on the list.”
…
“Congratulations to the one who won this bid. Now, let’s move on to the next item on the list.”
…
“Congratulations to the one who won this bid. Now, let’s move on to the next item on the list.”
…
…
…
And finally, the item that Soren wanted was up for auction.
This was also a Spell Vessel. The spell contained in this was a sensing type spell which fell into the Support Spells category, same with any healing type spell. This spell’s name, as written in the description, was Elemental Sense.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------XXXXX-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status: Healthy |
||
Rank 0: Layer 9 [CP - 20%] |
||
Name: Soren Farrow |
Species: Human |
Attribute: Darkness & Ice |
Health: 100% |
Stamina: 100% |
Mana: 100% |
Strength: 3.26 |
Agility: 4.00 |
Vitality: 6.91 |
Intelligence: 8.35 (+3.40) |
Spirit: 8.02 (+3.40) |
Resistance: 3.75 |
Spells: |
||
Spell Vessels: 2/5 |
Innate Spells: |
Innate Skills: |
Create Undead: Low Tier [3/3] – Level 10/15. Mana Cost – Average. [Rank 0] ------------ Dark Gravity [3/3] – Level 1/10. Mana Cost – Extremely High. [Rank 1] ------------ |
Dark Bolt – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0] ------------ Ice Arrow – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0] ------------ Dead Rising – Level 3/10. Mana Cost – Low. [Rank 0] ------------ Acid Needles – Level 1/10. Mana Cost – Very High. [Rank 1] ------------ Shadow Chain – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0] ------------ Cold Touch – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Very Low. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0] ------------ Spark – Level 10/10. Mana cost – Negligible. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0] ------------ Fireball – Level 10/10. Mana Cost – Average. [Evolution Available] [Rank 0] ------------ |
Mana Manipulation – Level 3/15. ------------
|
Equipment: Common Clothes; Common Staff; Spirit-Pendant; Survival Kit; Sidearm Gun [GX 100]; Snake-Earring. |
||
Items: Common Clothes; Memory Sphere-Vornea; Soul Recovery Potion; Hunter I.D. |
||
Mana Crystals: 0 [Low-Grade]; Myriad Items—Card [Value-13,300] |
he really didn’t put these small fights in his eyes.
A powerful auction house that doesn't care if the buyers scare/threaten each other to stop bidding? A more proper response here would be to instantly kill the offender and then punish their family/clan heavily enough to make an example.
Also what auction house would post such bad descriptions of the items? They seem to be trying too hard to say "Please don't give us any more money!".
And it feels a bit strange to bother with the whole auction hall thing when everything about the auction is in online format. They don't even use the stage to showcase the items.
Why is he raising the prices against the families other than just being stupid. Seriously where is the benefit? This is more cutting his nose to spite his face type of thing. Even if it is him overestimating his worth to the Liston familiy and trying to get all the other families to come at him so the Listons would have to protect them there are vastly smarter ways to go about it. This plan is really really not well thought out.
Really mate, why even read if u have so many complaints. And all of them are based on preference. Its already mentioned why is he doing this. And how it affects him. Benefit part, thats also mentioned. You seem to be skimming stuff. I would suggest you to not continue. Because my story is clearly not to your taste.
@Aleth08 Non most of his actions are nonsensical and you dont address why he does the bidding war until next chapter. It is less about preference but more motivation and such that breaks immersion. If you dont care thats fine though.
@Fafulin I see, I'll try to make it clear in my rewrite then. Thought u were just dissing the character, thats y the minor lash out. I apologize, please continue.
@Aleth08 No I might have been a little hard on the MC because he has a lot of contradictions that you may solve later. One was his combat experience he is firing a gun in a combat situation and taking out weak enemies pretty easily. Well firing a gun under duress is no easy feat, hell in a combat situation with a handgun most people miss hitting the target at anything over 3 meters. When he had Issac check Draco's blood how would he know enough both about his own blood and chemical makeup and Dracos species chemical makeup to come to any conclusion. That is why I asked if there is another source for information for Issac, because if it is just a secondary brain that stores indexes and references what Soren knows and learns in real time then unless Soren is a Virologist at 19 and a former Child soldier then it makes no sense.
The virologist thing can be covered by making one of his assignation targets one of Dracos species and he experiments on it like he did the goblin. You have to think each species is so different that he would not be able to one size fit all.
Some of these might be addressed later, Soren might have been that child soldier he might come from a Barren world where it was common, maybe the familiy he thinks of back where he is from is just his minds way of protecting himself from all the f*cked up sh*t he had to do and it does not exist. Hell I saw a movie recently where a serial killer lost his memory so cops made him stay in his old place and bombard him with his supposed crimes until he remembered what he did. So maybe being in this world is like that and kinda ripping the mental band aid off. That would also explain the supposed control he has on emotions and his cold calculating persona.
Only real other thing is ypu put him as intelligent but he does some real off the wall things, like not finding put who's who in the city. I do kinda understand because hell magic but under cold calculus magic will be there finding out where I am and the lay of the land is more important. If he did that then when the Linton daughter came he would have understood the ramifications of missing the dinner. The better option would have been to hightail it to the nearest town. He has a few options to do this before he leaves on his first hunt and after since he does not meet Farron until that dinner. Now if he was intercepted when he is trying to leave town and brought to heel that way it would make more sense story wise.
@Fafulin Well, to address your first few points, it will indeed be solved later. His abilities that you spoke of is tied to the main plot[it will mostly be revealed in vol 2]. I could've foreshadowed it better tho, I'll work on it in the next draft. As for the information, it was from the library. He had Isaac record it in his database when he visited there. I thnk that can allow Isaac to discover any problem with the blood without any experiments.
As for him being intelligent, I wouldnt comment so. I did mention he learns things quickly but he's not wise yet. Thats y many of his decisions seem so naive and dumb. I intended to transition him into a wise and calculating person through this vol. Through the stuff and problems he faces. He makes naive decisions, it bites him back, he learns from it. That was my intention. I think I kinda achieved it, but would need feedback to be sure.
@Aleth08 Cool thats good then. Thanks for some clarification.