Close Combat Mage
chapter-329

Chapter 329 – Grand Auction Pt. 2

Suo Jia couldn’t help but drop his jaw open in shock and seemingly forgetting himself, shouted, “Wait! Doesn’t the fruit have to be eaten within a day of picking it? This has already been 3 days, hasn’t it rotted already?”

The entire auction house fell silent for a moment, before it suddenly burst into booming laughter. At the same time, the auctioneer smiled wryly and said, “This gentleman over here probably just came here recently and doesn’t understand. In that case, as the auctioneer, I’ll give you a simple explanation!”

The auctioneer raised the jade box in his hand and stated, “Ladies and gentlemen, please look carefully. This item holding the Freezing Fruit is a Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box. The good thing about this box is that it can store magic fruits for a long time, extending its time limit from one day to one month!”

“Wow!” Suo Jia couldn’t help but cry out in astonishment. He excitedly asked, “There’s something this amazing? How come I’ve never heard of it before?”

“Haha…” The auctioneer smiled and patiently answered, “This Mysterious Ice Box costs an extremely high amount. Typically, only those that spend their lives collecting magic fruits use it. Moreover…this kind of box made from thousand year old Mysterious Ice can only be used for 1000 days. After 1000 days, the cold air will disappear, and the box will lose its ability to maintain freshness.”

“1000 days!” “Suo Jia excitedly looked at the box in the auctioneer’s hands and exclaimed in delight, “Then, where can this kind of box be bought? And exactly how much does it cost?”

If this were before, the auctioneer wouldn’t ever answer this question. But firstly, Suo Jia now had VIP status, and he couldn’t be offended. Secondly, the Grand Auction’s climax today was related to his question.

The auctioneer loudly declared, “This gentlemen asked a very good question. Typically speaking, the Mysterious Ice Box requires one to order from a specialized smith. It’s extremely rare. But coincidentally, the climax of today’s Grand Auction is a Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box. It can store any magic fruit and extend its freshness from one day to a year. Moreover..the Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box can be used for ten thousand days before it loses its functionality.”

“Wow!” The entire crowd couldn’t help but inhale sharply in shock at the auctioneer’s words. At the same time, the auctioneer continued to excite them by saying, “Ten thousand days is nearly 30 years of functionality. Moreover…it can prolong a magic fruit’s freshness for an entire year. If anyone is interested, you’ll have to prepare your money well, and make sure not to miss this chance!”

The auction continued to advance. Suo Jia symbolically bought four rank one Freezing Fruits, then focused on waiting for the climax. The reason he’d bought four was because Suo Jia estimated that the Mysterious Ice Box could store four fruits.

Finally, the auction entered its final stretch. The auctioneer carefully raised a colorless, transparent Mysterious Ice Box. Seeing that the box was actually so large, Suo Jia couldn’t help but gape in shock. The magic fruits were only about the size of ping pong balls; with the box’s size, storing even 20 wouldn’t be a problem!

The auctioneer lightly opened the lid and introduced, “The Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box was meticulously carved out. There are 20 empty spaces inside, making it able to simultaneously preserve 20 magic fruits.”

The auctioneer smiled. “I won’t repeat the benefits of this box. In order to make best use of everyone’s time, I’ll begin the auction. The starting price is 10 million Trade Route coins. Everyone, please make your bids!”

“10 million!” Suo Jia jumped up in excitement. He hadn’t thought that such an amazing treasure would actually start at such a low price!

The entire auction house fell silent. Seeing how quiet everyone was, the auctioneer thought that the price he’d started with was too high, and hurriedly explained, “Ladies and gentlemen, don’t think that this Ten Thousand Year box was easy to make. The details of this Mysterious Ice require ten thousand years to form. This is only the second of its kind in the history of Icebound City. The first one was discovered over a hundred years ago.”

“I bid 11 million!” Someone finally called a bid.

Once another price was named, the auction became lively. 12, 13, 14…the bids called out quickly rose to 20 million. Now, the ones offering bids had become sparse. After all…not everyone could hand over so much money at once.

There were many people present, and there were countless rich and powerful figures. Faced with this jade box, everyone went wild.. Actually…it wasn’t that nobody had wanted to buy it earlier, but the fact that they didn’t know how much to bid. Now that someone had already named a price, it didn’t matter how much money was called, they had to buy it.

As everyone wildly yelled out prices…the Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box rapidly reached a high price of 30 million. Now, there were only three people bidding. Everyone else had already lost the privilege of naming prices. The current value was one that the average person couldn’t even hope to strive for.

Seeing that the price had passed 30 million so quickly, Suo Jia finally began to grow worried. Suo Jia only had 40 million total on him. Although he still had some leftover money, Suo Jia didn’t believe that this small amount of money could decide anything.

In his panic, Suo Jia suddenly shouted loudly, “I bid 35 million!”

Hearing Suo Jia suddenly raise the price by 5 million in one go…two of the remaining three people immediately backed out of the fight. It wasn’t that they lacked money, but because no matter how rich a merchant they were, they didn’t have much cash on them. A qualified merchant would never let so much money accumulate in their hands. One could only earn money by constantly allowing it to flow.

The two merchants glared intensely at Suo Jia’s VIP room, and gritted their teeth in anger. They were both super rich and powerful figures from families with several billion. It wasn’t that they lacked wealth, but that at that exact moment, they only had so much cash on them. Waiting for someone to lend them money was impossible. That required 10 minutes at the very least. But by the time these 10 minutes were up, the item would’ve already been sold away. The auctioneer couldn’t possibly wait for people.

The auctioneer loudly declared on the stage, “Alright, VIP Room #6 has already bid 35 million! Are there any higher bids? Any at all?!”

Suo Jia’s heart had already jumped into his throat as he watched the auctioneer onstage. He knew that the auctioneer would ask three times in a row. If nobody else bid in that time, the mallet would fall, and then the Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box would belong to Suo Jia. At the moment, the auctioneer only needed to ask one more time!

“I bid 40 million!” Just as the auctioneer had asked a final time and was about to drop his mallet, a strong voice rang through the auction house.

“Plop…” Suo Jia fell back into his seat, staring blankly at the VIP room that had bid. 40 million was already all of Suo Jia’s assets.

After hearing that the price had actually reached 40 million already, the auctioneer was so happy that he almost fainted. He raised his mallet with a trembling hand and shakingly said, “Right now, this gentleman has already bid 40 million. Are there any higher bids? Any at all?”

Suo Jia blankly stared at the auctioneer, and grabbed his head in frustration. If he missed this chance, he’d probably have to wait over a hundred years for a treasure like this to appear again. That Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box was really too important to Suo Jia. No matter what, he refused to give this opportunity up!

As he thought this, the auctioneer had already asked a second time. Seeing that the opportunity to obtain the Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Box was just about slip from his hands, Suo Jia stood up, refusing to reconcile. He couldn’t…he couldn’t just lose this chance, right?

“No!” With a furious roar, Suo Jia abruptly opened his interspatial ring and shakingly searched through it. Scattered Trade Route coins slowly piled up on his table…

“Final call: any higher bids?! Any?! Alright…none? Then…” As the auctioneer spoke, he raised the mallet in his hand, and let it whiz through the air as it descended.