"Thank you all for joining us today at the Cairosa Auction! Since we have quite the stock of items to sell today, especially since we even got a few last-minute surprises, I'll cut the small talk and introduce to you the first item!" The auctioneer shouted out as Shiro opened her eyes.
With an auction in a city this big, she should be able to find quite a few useful items.
"The first item to kick of this auction is a Skill Stone! Yes! You heard me right. The fabled skill stone that grants you whichever skill is hidden inside the skill stone! Not only that, but we have a total of 3 skill stones to auction!"
Shiro widened her eyes the moment she heard that.
'Skill Stone already??!!'
Even for a big city like Cairosa, a skill stone should still be extremely rare and yet, there were three skill stones being auctioned.
"The first skill stone has the skill Warden's Protection. A tanker skill that increases the defences of your teammates. The increase is equal to half of your own defence, plus, it also gives them a barrier that is equal to 20% of your HP! The bidding starts at 50 million! With no less than 1 million increments!"
"I bid 60 million!"
"65 million!"
"80 million!"
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Shouts for the prices could be heard as Shiro thought about the item. From what the auctioneer had described, a skill like this was a god send. But naturally, there had to be downsides to the skill as well.
With bonuses like that, the downside would probably something along the lines of weakening the caster.
Glancing over at her own income, Shiro could only shake her head. Right now she had a balance of 59 million. And yet, the first bet had already put her out of the bidding competition.
'Welp robbing it is.' Shiro thought to herself and glanced at the current highest bidder.
However, they were soon replaced by someone on the second floor.
*BING!
An astronomical value of 150 million appeared on the balcony of one of the rooms.
The bidder was a young man with short black hair. Besides him, were two body guards that looked almost identical. They both wore a suit and black shades that hid their eyes.
"Oh my, seems like you are rather intent on buying this item huh? Enough that you'll pay 150 million to get it." A woman called out. She was also on the second floor and wore a dress of red that gave the feeling of elegance.
Paired with her blond hair and alluring aura, it was hard to take one's eyes off her.
"Hmph, naturally I have a use for this skill." The man scoffed.
"Well if that's the case, I'll play along with you. 200 million!"
*BING!
Along with her call, the man's bid was overridden by her bid.
Seeing what she had done, he only narrowed his eyes before increasing the bid to 250 million.
"Oh my, bravo young master, bravo." The woman clapped her hands before increasing the bid to 300 million.
"Does your Casaden Family want to oppose me!" He shouted out as he increased it to 400 million.
"Hahaha, of course not. I'm just here for a friendly bid. Since young master Lox wants this item so much, I'll naturally concede it to you." The woman laughed gently before giving up the bid.
Shiro only raised an eyebrow when she saw all of this.
'The woman had no intention to buy the stone to begin with. Seems like a little feud is going on between the two.'
"400 million once! 400 million twice! Three times! Sold to young master Lox!" The auctioneer said whilst hitting his hammer down. He had a grin on his face as the estimated value was around 150 million since the skill would heavily weaken the tank with the defenceless debuff. Yet, the conflict between the two families propelled the price to 400 million.
Young master Lox only grumbled slightly before sitting back down with a frown on his face. The conflict between his family and the Casaden Family had been going on for quite some time now. It was to the point that only one could remain in the city and he was going to make sure that it was his family.
"The second skill stone contains the skill Combust. A simple fire skill that when paired with a strong sense of visualisation, will become extremely deadly. Bidding starts at 10 million! With an increment no less than 1 million!"
"10 million!"
"11 million!"
Compared to the last skill stone, this one was rather tame.
'Perhaps I should get it as well.' Shiro thought to herself and decided to bid.
*BING!
A value of 15 million appeared on her balcony.
The reason to why she wanted to bid was due to the fact that Lyrica could probably make use of it. That being said, she could also make something interesting with it as well. Ignoring that fact that she's a snow girl and that this could probably injure her as well, she had a theory that she wanted to test out.
But rather than a theory, she wanted to see if she could recreate the Cold Fire.
Fire is a plasma and it is hot. That is an obvious fact.
However, if she just changed the gas that was being supplied to create the fire through controlling her mana, she would be able to decrease the temperature of the fire. Not only that, but if she cooled the gas to a low enough temperature, the fire would even start to freeze the things that it came into contact with.
The gas in question was Helium. Helium had the property of being able to dissipate the heat quickly whilst also meeting the requirements of creating the plasma/fire.
With Helium being able to dissipate the heat quickly, if she lowered the temperature of the Helium, she would then be able to create cold fire.
(Author's Comment: This is true by the way. If you go on youtube and search up the video -How to make a cold fire torch- by The Action Lab, you'll see that cold fire is a real thing. There is also a part 2 where he lowers the temperature so low that it starts to freeze things.)
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"Little Yin, I think I've just thought of what my next spell for the Frozen Hell Series is going to be." Shiro smiled as she rubbed Yin's head.
Yin only gave her a side glance before shrugging her shoulders.
Shiro smiled wearily as Yin was rather lazy most of the time.
'Really makes you wonder where she gets it from.' Shiro thought to herself. There were hardly anyone around her that was lazy so she couldn't have copied her behaviour from the surrounding influences. That means it's probably in her genes to be this lazy.
The bidding continued for a short moment before Shiro won the skill stone for a grand total of 21 million USD.
"And last but not least, the third Skill Stone contains the high level fire spell Hell Fire Bombardment!"
"What!!"
"Hell Fire Bombardment!"
"They're selling Hell Fire Bombardment!"
A ruckus was instantly stirred when they heard of the skill's name.
Even Shiro was shocked at the fact that they were auctioning the skill bombardment.
The skill Hell Fire Bombardment was a tier down version of the Tier 4 destruction spell, Meteor Shower. The skill would summon out a sky full of fire balls that would simultaneously combust upon impact with the target. Not only that, the skill would also increase the fire damage of your teammates whilst also giving the boss a debuff that weakened their defences.
Such an outrageous skill had a high requirement for learning and yet, it was here in the form of a skill stone. This alone would make the high level adventurers in the area disregard the auction house rules of no fighting inside the premises and kill whoever got their hands on the skill. They couldn't risk the skill being learnt after all.
Without even waiting for the auctioneer to call out the starting price, a few of the second floor guests had began calling out the prices.
"500 million!"
"600 million!"
"800 million! I'd like to see who dares fight me for this!" Lox shouted out.
"1 billion!! My Casadan Family isn't afraid of your Sermak Family!"
"ALURA CASADAN! You want me to kill you right here and now! 1.1 billion!" Lox shouted out with rage.
"Who's afraid of who! 1.3 billion!" She shouted back as fire erupted around her to signify her intent to battle right here and now.
"ENOUGH!" A dominating voice boomed out as a crushing pressure enveloped the entire auction hall.
Lox and Alura who were the target of the pressure quietened down instantly.
Hearing the clambering around the auction hall, Shiro understood that this man was the branch master of the auction house.
He wore a suit that was slightly stretched due to his muscles. He looked like he was in his early 30's with slight signs of age on his face. His overall visage gave him a heroic handsome type of aura.
"As the current branch master of the auction house, I will not tolerate any fighting inside the hall. Either bid like civilized people or you can scram the f.u.c.k out of my building!" He glared at the two.
Feeling his pressure, the two of them sat down.
"1.5 billion!" Lox called out after taking a deep breath.
"1.7 billion!" Alura followed up.
Giving her a side glance, he narrowed his eyes.
"2 billion!"
"2.1 billion!"
"2.2 billion!"
Eventually, the bidding ended at an astonishing 2.5 billion with Alura Casadan winning the final bid.
Lox only clutched his hand as his gaze became cold.
"Go tell the family that Alura has won the skill Hell Fire Bombardment. We're going to kill her tonight!" He said with a low voice.
One of the bodyguards nodded and left the building.
While Lox was planning on killing Alura, she wasn't idle either.
"Tell my father to bring some more reinforcements. We never expected the auction house to sell Hell Fire bombardment." She said to her bodyguard.
Meanwhile, Shiro who had watched everything happen, knew that the city was going to experience a lot of bloodshed tonight.
[Shiro: Lyrica, tell everyone to avoid entering the city. There's going to be a war between two families.]
[Lyrica: Alright.]
Putting away her phone, she waited for the next few items.
The items didn't cause as much of a ruckus as the Bombardment skill, but they were impressive items by themselves.
However, Shiro didn't have much use for them since all of her current equipment were good enough as it is.
"The next item is a little special since it is the permission to enter a certain holy ground." The auctioneer said mysteriously which caused a few ears to perk up at the mention of holy ground.
"The holy ground in question is the Mana Springs. Guarded by one of our city's most powerful family, the Ospar family, the Mana Springs is a place where you are able to reinforce and increase your mana storage. Just a single dip in these springs can increase your fighting potential by many folds. Bidding starts at 5 million with an increment of at least 500 thousand."
Hearing what the auctioneer had said, Shiro was rather curious about the Mana Springs. This was something she had never heard about back in her old life so she didn't know if it would help with fixing her Mana Links.
However, just in case, she was willing to see if she could bid a spot for herself. Unfortunately, before she could even place her bid down, the price had already reached 10 million causing her lips to twitch slightly.
After buying the skill stone, she only had a balance of 38 million.
'Hmm… I can probably spend more on this since the other items can just be stolen.' Shiro thought whilst placing a bid of 12 million.
The price continued to climb and only slowed down when it reached 20 million. In the end, Shiro won the bid with a total of 21 million leaving her with only 17 million left in her balance.
Shaking her head, Shiro couldn't help but sigh at the cost of items.
The following items were all out of her reach since she didn't have the balance to bid for any of them. But, even if she did have the balance, she wouldn't have bid anyways since she had no use for them.
She would occasionally glance at the people on the second floor to remember their appearance. Especially since most of the people on the second floor had pretty large influences in this city.
Pulling out her phone she researched a little on both families and were quite surprised by what she had found out.
Both families were quite big in the industry of being hired bodyguards for sh.i.p.s that sailed out to sea. Not only that, but they were also rivals in other markets such as weapon's production and potion production.
However, even though they were both powerhouses, the Ospar family had always been number one and couldn't be toppled. While the main reason wasn't known, there were a few ideas floating around. From their connection to larger cities, high level experts and their Mana Spring to the fact that they dabbled in every market and were essentially the core foundation to city of Cairosa. Should the Ospar family ever disappear, the city would be in grave danger.
While she was researching about the three families, the auction continued without stopping and it neared the end of the auction.
Watching the auction, Shiro only smiled when she saw that her requirementless items caused quite the stir amongst the lower level adventurers.
Overall, including her purple grade items that were put on auction, she had earned herself over 150 million USD. Naturally, she needed to wait until the auction ended to claim her money and items.
Soon it was time for the final three items that were supposedly the highlight of this auction. However, Shiro didn't know how they could topple the appeal of the skill stones.