End of the Magic Era
chapter-34

When the price reached thirty-seven thousand gold, the venue went silent. Most of the people who had participated in the bidding were shaking their heads, wearing smiles that carried a hint of ridicule. A bottle of Styx Water reaching such a price... To them, this was already a foolish waste of money.

Clearly, even if Styx Water was rare, it didn't have a wide range of use in alchemy. There were no more than ten kinds of potions that used Styx Water, and most of them could use other materials as a substitute. To bid such a high price on a bottle of Styx Water wasn't something a rational alchemist would do.

"Thirty-seven thousand gold, going once… Going twice… Thirty-seven thousand gold, if there are no higher bids..."

"Fifty thousand gold."

Just as Cadgar was about to announce the deal, a voice came from a box on the 2nd floor.

Lin Yun's bid of fifty thousand gold made the originally quiet venue become rather lively. The people who had participated in the bidding for the item couldn't help turning to look at the box on the 2nd floor, wanting to see what the spendthrift looked like. Bidding fifty thousand gold for a bottle of Styx Water... This already surpassed something that could be described as foolish...

After all, Tornado Tooth, an Excellent Magic Tool, was only able to go a bit over ten thousand gold. So that bottle of Styx Water was worth a few Tornado Tooths...

Why waste your money like that?

Unfortunately, no one was able to see who it was.

The one who walked out of the box was actually Faleau of the Black Horn Auction House.

"It's that Merlin kid." Out of all the people in the venue, only those in the box of the Monchi Family knew who that profligate spender was.

"How could he have so much money?" Monchi frowned. There was nothing wrong with the bottle of Styx Water, but the appearance of fifty thousand gold was a huge variable.

Even in the Monchi family, only two or three people knew that Monchi had been targeting the house left behind by Locke Merlin!

At first, after Locke Merlin's shipwreck, Monchi felt that getting that house should be easy, so he looked for Fario and used the eight thousand gold promised in the contract in his hands to drive Mafa Merlin out of there.

But unexpectedly, just as he was about to get hold of the house, Mafa Merlin became a Mage out of nowhere and had the necessary gold, making Monchi lose his chance.

Monchi didn't lose hope, though, and he went to look for Sossu.

For the Viper Nest to be able to rise to the top in just over a decade and sit on the throne of the underground forces, this was inevitably linked to the support of the Monchi family.

This was an open secret among the major forces of Thousand Sails City.

With Monchi's incentives, Sossu sent a 9th Rank Mage. Normally, sending a 9th Rank Mage to deal with a young fellow who had recently been a mere apprentice and a butler who was getting old would be making a big fuss over nothing.

But ultimately, that 9th Rank Mage was defeated.

And the few dozen subordinates had been scared silly. A few days after returning to the Viper Nest, they found an excuse to leave Thousand Sails City and hadn't appeared again ever since.

But even these two failures only made Monchi frown a bit, as he still didn't put much stock in that Mafa Merlin.

In Monchi's eyes, he was a young Mage with no background and no power. How could he defeat a 9th Rank Mage? In the entire Thousand Sails City, the only person that could decide everything through strength was Solomon. Even if others were powerful, they couldn't rely on their personal power to contend against the Monchi family.

The fifty thousand gold today though… this made Monchi feel a bit worried.

Although the amount itself wasn't much, this was a variable that he didn't know about, because Monchi couldn't figure out where this gold had come from.

'Who gave this gold to Mafa Merlin? Could there be another force looking into that house? If that's the case, that will make the matter very troublesome…'

The Black Tower wanted ownership of that house. If he couldn't manage that matter properly, the entire Monchi family would be in trouble.

'Who leaked the news…' Monchi wondered, considering the possibilities. 'It might be Faleau lending him some money. That Merlin kid has always been lucky. Last time in the Sage Tower he relied on Solon, and this time in the Black Horn Auction he is using his relationship with Faleau. I'll have a look and see whether he'll still have Faleau behind him after leaving the Black Horn Auction.'

That glass bottle in the Gilded Rose was the stain on Mason's life. Although he was still in the auction, his thoughts weren't there anymore. Mason's mind was filled with thoughts of tormenting and humiliating that wretch, and he kept muttering under his breath.

"Shut up!" Monchi glanced unhappily at his son. It would be great if it was this simple. Faleau's status in the Black Horn Auction House wasn't low, but such an amount of gold wasn't something that he could easily take out.

But Monchi knew that reasoning with Mason was useless now. That kid was completely fixated on getting revenge, so how could he listen to something else right now?

Thinking of this, Monchi urged him, "Oh right, I have to let you know. I don't care if you want to deal with that kid, but the conflict with the Sage Tower and Solon last time already left the family in a bad situation. If you cause trouble this time, then don't even think of leaving the house afterwards."

"Okay okay, I got it…"

While this father-son pair was talking, Faleau had already carried that bottle of Styx Water back to the box.

"Mage Merlin, this… Is this really worth so much gold?" After Faleau gave the Styx Water to Lin Yun, he couldn't help asking after hesitating for a long time.

This was someone that was destined to become a Master Alchemist! If it had been anyone else that used so much money to buy a bottle of Styx Water, Faleau would have already mocked them. Wasn't this a complete waste? How could Styx Water be worth so much? Even new alchemist would be clear about it, spending fifty thousand gold to buy a bottle of Styx Water was truly foolish.

But that bottle of Styx Water was bought by Lin Yun, so Faleau didn't dare to comment...

As a future Master Alchemist, this young man's insight and experience was something he couldn't compare with. Even Cadgar wasn't on that level. There was definitely a reason for him to buy a bottle of Styx Water. He couldn't understand only because he didn't have enough experience and insight.

"Indeed." Lin Yun opened the lid of the bottle. It was very pure Styx Water, even better than he had imagined. At the peak of the Magic Era, such a bottle could easily be exchanged for a dozen Abyssal Magic Diamonds.

Only paying fifty thousand gold for such a precious material, Lin Yun couldn't help feeling great about it. And the auction house had guaranteed that it would let him pay any price for the items he wanted, anyways. Facing Faleau's question, he even said a few more things. "Wait until the auction is over and try replacing Troll Blood with Styx Water when compounding an Abyss Potion, it should increase the quality."

"Thank you, Mage Merlin, thank you very much…" Faleau froze before a pleasant expression appeared on his face.

'It came! It came! Advice from a future Master Alchemist! I wasn't wrong, as long as I acknowledge my mistake and show that I'm completely sincere, someone of such lofty stature wouldn't hold a grudge! And not only did he let the matter of my past slights drop, but he even gave me a pointer!'

This was the pointer of a future Master Alchemist. Thinking of this, Faleau was so excited that he didn't know what to say. He repeatedly expressed his thanks while feeling bewildered. After some time, he fished out a slip of paper from his pocket and recorded Mage Merlin's suggestion.

Lin Yun smiled before focusing his attention back on the auction.

As for Faleau's scribbling, Lin Yun didn't need to look at it. In fact, using Styx Water to replace Troll blood when compounding the Abyss Potion wouldn't make its quality just "a bit" better. It would increase the quality by several times, giving the Abyss Potion a qualitative change.

Moreover, this was just a superficial use of Styx Water...

Styx Water's true value far surpassed fifty thousand gold.

Lin Yun estimated that if he used it sparingly, that bottle of Styx Water would be enough to compound 10 potions on the same level as the Ghost Potion once he used what he needed for the Mana Baptism.

The auction was still ongoing, and although Lin Yun's extravagant expenditure led to a few heated debates, most people only considered it a funny topic, and once they were done jeering about it, they put it out of their minds. After all, those who had participated in the auction of the Styx Water weren't planning to get it at all costs. It would be good if they could get it at a low cost, but not getting it wouldn't result in a loss. Getting a funny joke for free was good too.

Afterwards, two more items were auctioned, and with Cadgar overseeing the auction, they sold at a decent price.

"The next auctioned item is a badly damaged spell."

Cadgar's introduction puzzled many people. Magic had developed for so many years. The inheritance of spells had already been refined thoroughly, so there would very rarely be a badly damaged spell.

And if a spell really was so badly damaged, the value of the incantation would be zero, even if it had shocking might. As long as one character was lacking, it meant that the spell was already a piece of scrap. Regardless of how powerful a mage was, one couldn't use an incomplete incantation to cast a spell, let alone reproduce the power of the proper spell.

So why did Cadgar take out this badly damaged spell?

"I believe that everyone present has heard the name of this spell before. The 3rd Era's last Heaven Rank Mage, Rudolph, once used this spell to destroy an entire army of Demons. That's right, this spell is Hell Destroyer!"