Chapter 42: Auction
After the girls took their dresses and left the mansion, Philip and Sam sat in the living room.
"Sam, can I ask you something?" Philip asked he hesitated for a while.
Sam just looked at him and nodded without replying. Philip took a deep breath and said.
"I want to you to teach something for me."
"What would that be?" Sam was surprised for a second and asked with an amusing smile.
"I want to become an Artisan. I once wanted to try my luck with the Artisan tower head, but you came. What attracted me, is the different techniques you are using. Different things you are making. And you can make things that are beyond what your cultivation rank allows. I want you to teach me how to become an Artisan." Philip said as he let go of his hesitation.
"Why do you want to become an Artisan?" Sam asked as he looked at Philip with a faint smile. He really does know that there would be someone who wants his techniques. But he really didn't think that the first one to come after his techniques is the first friend he made after rebirth. Even though, they aren't that close, he really didn't have any bad impression of Philip. But there is one thing that bothers him is that Philip is not as simple as he portrayed himself to be, there is definitely a veil of mystery.
Philip thought deep and hard about the question Sam asked him. He understood that Sam felt something was off about him, but he didn't really bother as he himself made it known to Sam by unsealing his cultivation.
"Because, I like to create something." Philip finally came up with an answer.
"Make yourself clear. You want to make something or create something?" Sam asked again.
"What is the difference?" Philip was left confused. 'Isn't it same in both cases?' He inwardly thought as he asked.
"Even though the meaning of both words is same, in real life they are different. That difference is also so thin like a cicada wing but making a large variation between a maker and a creator. If you want to make something, all you need is to know is the answer for a question 'how?' for whatever you want to make.
Creation is different. You need to know answers of more questions other than 'how?', you have to know the answer for 'why?' and 'what?' also." Speaking up to this point, Sam looked at Philip who was confused and pondering. "If you have to clarity on what I asked, meet me again and ask? As I am your friend, I will teach you. But there will be certain price to pay." Then he walked towards his room leaving Philip alone to think things over.
At night. Evergreen Pavilion. The place is filled with people as guests are streaming in. The monthly auction is going to take place after all. Sam and his friends are already inside the private room, they sat before as they are looking at the guests filling the auction house. The attendants of the Evergreen family are greeting everyone as they guided them to the seats. Soon, the auction house is filled up and only private rooms are yet to be filled.
All the spectators are waiting for the auction to start. Soon, the crowd fell into an uproar as they saw who is coming to the auction house. The head of the Crimson flame family head could be seen. They were shocked beyond belief. Even though the monthly auction is a grand event and the other noble families also had to show some face to the Evergreen family, but the head of the families would never come to the monthly auction, only they would come to the yearly auction. But now, the Crimson flame family head has come to the auction this time and everyone felt that there is something special in the auction this time.
The Crimson flame family head was greeted by the Evergreen family head and then made his way to the private room reserved for his family. He looked at the Private room, Sam previously sat in and felt reassured that the room is occupied.
Soon, when audience were about to come out of their shocked states, the people from the other families arrived. And the situation is same as the Crimson flame family and their heads also arrived. Even city lord and the tower heads also arrived at the auction. The spectators were totally convinced that there is definitely some special item in today's auction.
Even though, their thoughts are correct, they don't know that all the bigshots have varying reasons for that. Crimson flame family head came to make it up, for the past. The rest of the family heads and city lord on the other hand thought that the Crimson flame family head has sniffed something valuable in the auction that he needs to come to the auction personally. So, they didn't want to miss out on the treasure and made their way here. As for the tower heads, they only came because they want to see what Sam had put in the auction.
Soon, auction began. The beautiful elder sister of Philip is still the auctioneer. She enthusiastically started auctioning the items one by one. The finale came.
"Now, the auction has come to the finale. This time I won't explain or describe the product. You can see the demonstration yourselves." Eva said with an alluring smile and left the stage.
Crimson flame family head also knew the time has come. Even though, he didn't know initially what item Sam is going to sell, he pulled some strings and finally got the answer. The item is the finale. He immediately became attentive. Although, he prepared to bid whatever the item is, he still wants to see, what kind of item did Sam has to sell in the auction and that too worthy of finale.
Everyone, immediately became serious and watched the stage, then an acolyte mage came to the stage wearing the red robe. This is precisely the robe that Sam wore this afternoon. While demonstrating the product. Then another acolyte and a Novice entered the stage and demonstration has proceeded in the same way as Sam did in the afternoon.
The guests are already in awe of the robe. Even though, the armours will do, if opponent is really too powerful, he will definitely deal a major damage. So, they will have to maintain high quality armours which are costly but clearly not good looking either and might even look bulky. But when they saw the exquisite robe, they were completely thrilled of its capabilities.
Just as they thought that the demonstration is over another six people with almost same attire entered the stage and this time a middle stage novice also entered as their opponent. This time the crowd became even more shocked to see. There are only seven Acolyte and the opponent is a Novice. They can't possibly deal with him. Or so they thought.
When the Novice made a move, the seven people also made their move at the same time. One of them went directly to the opponent head on, while the remaining six people surrounded in and took a certain position. Suddenly, the robes of them started glowing and a binding formation appeared, stopping the movements of the Novice for a split second in which he was dealt with a blow from the remaining seventh person. They then immediately took a step back and immediately took another battle formation as Novice attacked them. Their robes glowed dimly again and then a barrier appeared fending the attack off. This is a pure defensive formation. Finally, they took another position and this time their robes glowed brighter and as the energy of the six people gathered towards the centre person as a huge fire ball appeared. The fire ball immediately shot towards the Novice almost getting him off the stage.
The demonstration was finished. But the audience were completely dumbstruck and were still in daze. They understood the first two formations but they didn't understand the third attack at all. Even the big shots like family heads and tower heads, didn't understand.
Of course, how could they understand. It is the result of Sam's continuous research and experiments. The robe set is filled with various inscriptions he created. He used the inscriptions he modified by the experiment and then used them as the energy nodes by the position of the members of the squad creating the instantaneous formations. As for the third attack, it is combination of the formation and the attack inscription. Basically, there are both consumable and permanent inscriptions that are inscribed. But the attack inscriptions are almost all consumable. So, Sam used his understanding of the behaviour of the runes and combined the formation knowledge he had and created the last attack, which can deal a blow even to a middle-stage Novice. The energy of the all the six will be condensed towards the seventh one where it converts into the fire type energy and form a fire ball,
All the noble family heads and even city lord feel completely determined. They should obtain these robes. If they could train a batch of these Acolytes specially, they can be of great advantage. Even though there seemed to be quite a few numbers of Novices in the city. Everyone knew, that the fighting force of the city or even nobles are mainly dependent on Acolytes. This is backward place after all. So, they were quite determined to get this.
Eva came back to the stage and a set of the seven robes was neatly displayed on the mannequins. Sam made two sets of fire and ice type. So, the Evergreen family reached an agreement to get one set on each type. So, the other two sets will be displayed.
As soon as they saw the robes, they just wanted to snatch them away. They saw a notebook was also displayed along with the robes and felt confused. Then Eva came to the stage.
"Dear guests, this is the set created by the special guest and is provided with the notebook filled with instructions on how to use it properly. The starting bid of the set is 50,000 spirit stones. The minimum increment will be of 5000 spirit stones."
As soon as she finished the audience became agitated and then started bidding.
"50000"
"55000"
"65000"
"70000"
"85000"
Some rich merchants started bidding. Even though they are not that rich, if they could fork out some money, they can sell it to a higher city and can make some profit out of it and thus they are trying their luck.
"120000" suddenly a voice silenced everyone. The city lord bid his price and the merchants came to their senses. The noble families still have to bid. Soon, they started bidding.
"125000"
"135000"
"140000" All the noble families started competing, but there is still someone who is silent, it is the Crimson flame family head. That didn't mean he is giving up. But he is even more determined since he knew who the seller is and he has come especially for that. He is merely waiting for time.
"200000" finally the bid came to this and it is still the city lord. Everybody became silent. They didn't want to pay more than that. Eva looked around and just as she was about to announce. Another bid came.
"250000" this is crimson flame family head. He raised the bid by 50000 making even city lord grit his teeth and stayed silent. He didn't expect that there is still competition.
"250000. Once, twice and sold." Eva confirmed the purchase and a lot of people were extremely disappointed. There are only two people who were grinning. They were Sam and the Crimson flame family head. One for the money and the other for resolving the grudges.
Just as the auction house was silent and gloomy. Another set of blue colour robes came making all the other noble families to see hope. They immediately became alert and started bidding. This time Crimson flame family head completely stayed out of situation and then the price of the robes reached the same 250000 and this time the city lord really bid it as their family has many ice type Acolytes. The remaining noble families felt indignant and they pulled strings to get their hands on the maker of the robe set. But the Evergreen pavilion gave them the answer, they immediately dismissed the ideas.
They clearly understood, why Crimson flame family head came and bid so much even going against the City lord. He is not only after the product; he is also resolving the grudges. They understood it because, they clearly knew about his visit to Sam. They immediately connected the dots and regretted not paying the visit themselves to come to an agreement. But it was too late.
Sam was grinning ear to ear in his private room. Philip said from the side. "Sam, you are filthy rich. The Noble families you have sold had been sucked dry and your money now can be equal to half of the savings of a noble family. We should squeeze out some benefits from you."
"Yes, I heard that you gave gifts to the girls. How is that fair? You can't be that biased. Why don't you give some gifts too?" Marvin said from the side.
"Don't involve our dresses in this. Marvin, do you have any shame? You can even be petty at that? If you try using my dress as leverage, I will beat you up. Moreover, we paid for it." Freya immediately lost her cool. This time even Haley didn't stop her.
"Hmph. Freya, how can be so shameless? You can even call that payment. Did you see the demo earlier? Ordinary robes can be so formidable, if made by Sam and I heard from Philip that the dresses are 10 times more exquisite than the robes and from Sam's character he would have made even more formidable tricks to them. Yet, you can shamelessly say that you paid for that by just giving 10 spirit stones. You might as well not pay it. Are you really from a noble family?" Marvin immediately shot back.
"Alright, you guys better stay silent. I will also give you guys sell you something later. Don't be irritating." Sam said as he saw situation going out of hand as they are starting to argue. He is almost regretting not selling something to Marvin and others. He almost judged their EQ by his standards and forgot that unlike him, they are actual teenagers.