“…” Taking in a few deep breaths in response to the immense shock Julian’s action had given him, it took a while for the young man to fully recover his thoughts, hearing some of the audience continue to increase the price even further.

Though the momentum of bidding on the item had considerably slowed down due to both the Spearman Guild and the Blacksmith Guild bidding on it, the price had still increased, now reaching a total of 22 platinum cards and 50 platinum coins.

“I’ll bid 24 platinum cards.” Just as Sirius was about to begin counting to three to move onto the next item, Noel’s voice resounded throughout the auction house one more time, prompting almost all of the audience to give up bidding on the spear.

“I’ll bid 25 platinum cards.” However, even though Noel had placed the bid in the hopes of deterring everyone else in the audience from bidding higher than him, there was still one person who had no fear in doing so, even going so far as to taunt the old man into bidding more.

“I’d suggest you give up on this spear, Noel. This one’s going to belong to the Blacksmith Guild.”

“It would be ironic if the Spearman Guild did not get their hands on a spear,” replied Noel with a scoff, only to give a counteroffer soon after. “27 platinum cards. I wonder if you could beat that, Julian.”

“28 platinum cards!” Julian responded back with a slight chuckle. At this point, everyone in the audience was silent, wondering who among the two would be the eventual winner of the spear. “Such a price is only a drop in the bucket for the Blacksmith Guild. I wonder if the Spearman Guild has such financial assets on hand.”

“Grr…” Letting out a low growl in anger, Noel eventually let out a low sigh as he gave what would be his final counteroffer. “30 platinum cards! If you bid any higher than this, Julian, then I’ll give up on the spear altogether.”

Unfortunately for the old man, his counteroffer would also be the final offer on the spear.

“30 platinum cards, huh…” Saying these words, Julian let out a bit of teasing laughter. “Yeah, I guess that’s more than enough for a spear of that quality. You win, Noel!”

“Grr… damn you, Julian!” Of course, it did not take long for Noel to realize what Julian aimed to achieve, his scream reverberating throughout the entire auction house as the building shook for a brief moment.

“30 platinum cards going once… going twice… sold to the representative of the Spearman Guild?” Amidst the conversation between Noel and Julian, seeing that no one was bidding a higher price on the spear, Sirius went ahead and counted the three with a tone of uncertainty. After all, he did not know whether or not he should be counting to three in the first place.

Though with how both Julian and Noel had gone silent after their small argument, the man was left scratching the back of his head, letting out a faint sigh as he tried his best to shift the audience’s attention onto the next item.𝒩𝗈𝑣𝐥xt.𝒞𝑂𝔪

…

“Why…” With the bidding over his spear now over, Valyr took the downtime in between items as a chance to ask Julian what was going on in his mind as he bid on his weapon. However, with how he was still in great disbelief, only the first word of his question could come out.

“It was supposed to be another reward of yours for obtaining the leader position in the upcoming inheritance.” Though the man did not hear the entire question, Julian did not take long to understand what the young man wanted to ask, slightly grinning as he responded. “However, who would’ve thought that old man would give you the money I was planning to give instead?”

“Was this…” Still trying to process the entire situation that had unfolded earlier in his mind, Valyr tried to ask yet another question to the man, only to find his question stuck in his throat yet again.

“Was the whole bidding against one another thing orchestrated by the two of us? Is that what you were trying to ask?” Understanding how shocked Valyr felt from obtaining a huge amount of money in such a short moment, Julian worked with the young man as he asked multiple possible questions the young man might have with the same first words, nodding after seeing Valyr nod back in response to his guess.

“Not at all.” Finally figuring out the question that Valyr wanted to ask him, Julian shook his head in response. “I guess he also had the same idea as me to help you out in preparation for the inheritance. After all, he was the one who gave you your current subclass, no?”

“Yeah…” Though Valyr was surprised to find out that Julian knew about his subclass, it did not take long for him to get over it since he had a feeling the two of them would talk about his progress every once in a while.

Fortunately, it was around this point that he had finally gotten over the shock he felt from the final bidding price, letting out a long sigh as he noticed an archaic-looking book being wheeled into the stage.

“How much would I get from the spear, exactly?” Seeing as Sirius was preparing to introduce the next item, Valyr took the time to ask Julian about his profits from the item, knowing that the auction house would take part of it as a fee.

“Well, the auction house normally takes around 20% of the final price as a commission fee,” said Julian in response. “However, due to how high of a price it was able to reach in the end, I’m sure they’ll reduce that commission fee of theirs to 10%. In other words, you now have about 30 platinum cards under your name.”

“More than enough to buy that Wyvern Core you wanted.”

Though Valyr nodded in response to Julian’s words as he waited for Sirius to introduce the archaic-looking book, he still could not wrap his head around the fact that he had that much money while still being at the peak of Rank 2.

Though 30 platinum cards did not seem like much, the average amount of money a player would have at the peak of Rank 2 was around 5 to 10 platinum coins. Even if these players had formed an alliance and pooled their money together, the total amount they would have would range from 1 to 5 platinum cards.

Yet, here he was, with an amount of money at least six times as much as that.

‘At the very least, I won’t have to worry about where to get funds for my future experiments in the meantime.’ As this thought lingered in his mind, Sirius had finally begun introducing the item to the audience, with Valyr intently listening to it. Though, as the young man continued to listen more and more to Sirius’ introduction, his eyes widened in surprise as a question now began to linger in his mind.

‘Now how the hell did such a legendary item appear in this place?!’