147 -) The Golden Spree (1)
“Thank you all, dear customers, for attending so far,” Afrasiab said with a bit of a tired face. “The whole auction is close to the end, so we will now present you with our last three items that are the final bids of today.”
After he finished his sentence, a female staff member came in with a cart. After she placed the cart beside Afrasiab, he looked around to see the expectant eyes of the audience. They must be waiting to see what the main three items of the auction of this caliber will be.”
The whole auction was filled with various items. Starting from the long-texting tool called distant scribble, other magical tools like coolers, warmers, diggers, and long-term illuminators were shown. There were some antiques too, as they served as art or collection items.
There were also weapons made by famous blacksmiths, family heirlooms, finely crafted equipment, accessories, and more. Their values were clearly lower than the other items of the auction, but on the other hand, they were the ones with the most attention, maybe because there were more people who could afford them, or simply because people were naturally interested in arms.
Among various unique and valuable items shown, aside from the first item that I bought with 2,400 gold coins, the ones that attracted me most were the potions, poisons, and antidotes. Not like I wanted to buy them, but the point was that my horizon was broadened.
I already knew that there were 4 levels for both potions and poisons: low, medium, high, and unique. The higher the level, the more effective they would become—except for the unique level.
Depending on the effect, a unique poison could deal more damage than a high-level poison to an enemy or just heal them instead. It could just give them a headache, stomachache, dizziness, or make them enjoy the pain, so ignoring the poison that results in death.
There are countless more scenarios, and there are different kinds of potions, like HP potions, stat potions, MP potions, and so on. However, the main point is that alchemy has so much it can put forth. I need to invest in alchemy and new alchemists more.
Regardless of what the item was, there were always a few people who were willing to pay extraordinary amounts and compete with others over them. The whole auction was transactions of dozens of thousands of coins.
“The first item of three will be a sovereign land patent. As you know, a land patent’s value greatly changes whether it is a sovereign or not, with its location and size, which is the most important part.” He presented a parchment that stretched over a wooden plate as he explained.
“With this land patent, you will have a land the size of one-tenth of the castle of the capital. The land has intact walls, as it was formerly used as a caravanserai with a manor house. However, the roof and interior are in ruins. There is a natural water source that could supply the caravans, and the surrounding area has a large, flat plot of land where a manor house or warehouse could be built.” He continued to explain, and the audience listened with neither excitement nor uninterested gazes. “You have to build the interior completely if you want to buy the land.”
“Finally, the most important part, the location of the land.” He said as he saw the expectant gazes of the audience.
As Afrasiab said, the most important part was the location. They were thinking the previous information was a secondary concern as they were waiting for the reveal of the position. Since it was near the end of the auction, they knew that it would be in a good location, as it should be valuable.
“As you know, the biggest trade route of the Union starts from the Estamar ports, passes various cities and towns, and uses Vanore as the trade node before fully committing to going toward the capital.” He started to explain a trade route, and people started to murmur in excitement. It was clearly related to this land patent. “This land is located less than a day before Vanore, on the main road, around a valley.” He said, and that resulted in the murmur intensifying.
“If you have connections with the caravans going between the capital and eastern ports, or you have a way of making money through passing caravans, you will want to buy this land no matter what.” He said confidently. “As everyone knows the value of the item, I will be starting the bid. The starting bid is 100,000 gold coins, so we will conduct the count using platinum coins. It will start with 1,000 platinum coins, and you can increase the bid by 10 platinum coins each.”
The people were already excited before Afrasiab could finish his speech. So as soon as he opened the bidding, the audience flocked like they were hungry wolves.
“1,100” “1,150” “1,200”
“1,220” “1,300” “1,400”
They increased the amount, low and high. Not until the price reached one and a half times the starting bid did the bidders start to dwindle. However, this time, VIPs started to show interest.
“Her Highness is bidding 1,500 Hazaroth platinum coins. Thank you for your grace.” Afrasiab said respectfully. Everyone is respectful toward her; however, being respectful and doing business are completely different things. “Room 4 is bidding 1,600 platinum coins.” Another VVVIP made a bid.
As soon as the princess made her intention of buying known, most of the sounds ceased to exist. However, this is the Hazaroth Union. The business comes first here. Even though they were clashing against the royalty, being a business rival is normal here, especially in the capital. As for the royals’ opinion about it, they surprisingly welcome it. Competition is a good thing for both sides after all, in the long run in particular.
“Her Highness expresses her willingness to bid 1,700 platinum coins.”
“This time, Room 5 is bidding 1,800 platinum coins.”
“Her Highness increases the bid again to 1,850.”
“Room 4 is bidding 1,870.”
As VVVIPs are clashing, everyone below floor 3 has turned silent. The price has also gone up so much.
“Her Highness topped the bid to 1,900 platinum coins.”
“Room 4 increases it to 1,950 platinum coins.”
“Her Highness decides to bid 2,000 platinum coins.”
When it hit 2,000 platinum coins, there were no new bids for a few seconds. So Afrasiab started to count, “Is there any more bids? Is there none?” He looked around to confirm, then said, “Then, the land patent is sold to Her Highness for 2,000 Hazaroth platinum coins.”
2,000 platinum coins are a very big sum. I am sure that it is big even for a princess. If we were on Earth, I would try calculating the 10 years' worth of profit to see if it could return her investment. If so, she would need to earn 55 gold coins daily once the land became fully operational just to recoup her investment within a decade.
However, it is different from Earth. It should be hard for the main trade route to change, even if the Grand Prince wishes for it. And even if it did, the current route still functions enough to profit. So she will have to make quite a big profit in the long run. Aside from that, it is in a position like a checkpoint where its value exceeds the monetary value.
When Afrasiab announced the winner, the audience applauded briefly. Then it turned to a murmur as the cart was being lifted and the new item was getting ready to be sold. I was expecting that the items I brought might be the ones to be presented, as it would be either this one or the next.
Then, the venue turned silent again with a few gestures of Afrasiab. Everyone was focused on him again, and 3 new carts entered from the curtains. They were put left, right, and behind him, respectively.
The one on the left of him was wider than the one on the right. It seemed like there was a long but thin item and two short but wide 2 items under the veil. The one on the right was longer, but it looked thinner as there did not seem to be another item under it. And the one at his back seemed both long and wide as a whole.
“This is the lot right before the final one. We were also surprised when the seller reached out to us with such goods. The reason that there is more than one cart here is that we are presenting a set of equipment.” He started to explain the items and why they were served with multiple carts, as I understood that they were the equipment I brought.
“Please allow me to present the items.” He said and started to unveil the covers.
When he opened the veil on his left, an unsheathed sword and a greenish silvery shield appeared. Then he unveiled the one at his right, and a silver-colored spear appeared. And when he opened the last cover, an armor stand appeared.
4 pieces of equipment were dressed on it. There was a helmet, a pair of gloves, a pair of footwear, and a wide plate armor. All of them looked detailed in a greenish silvery color as if they came from the hands of a master craftsman.
When all of the veils’ covers were undone, Afrasiab turned toward the audience once again as he started his presentation: “These 7 pieces of equipment were brought to us as a set. They are made by a master blacksmith named Thrain Coldhammer, who is famous in Yargan.”
“As you can see, there is a sword that can be used as a two-handed sword or as a one-handed sword with the shield beside it. Its length is suitable for both uses. Aside from that, there is a spear that is also suitable to be used with the same shield.” He started to get into more details one by one. “And at the back, you can see all the equipment on the armour stand. All four pieces of equipment: helmet, gloves, footwear, and plate armor, are designed as a set for a knight to wear.”
“You can all see that they are some quality bunch of equipment, but you must be wondering about what is so special about them.” He said and scanned the surroundings as if looking for an answer before adding, “The selling point of this set is that all seven pieces of equipment here are imbued with four skill crystals… without exception.”
When he said that, the silent crowd started to murmur at once.