End of the Magic Era
chapter-35

Cadgar had just finished speaking when the entire venue suddenly became quiet. This strange silence stretched on interminably, before finally bursting into a huge commotion!

"…Hell Destroyer!"

"Did I mishear? Is it really Hell Destroyer?"

Hell Destroyer was rumored to be the spell created by the last Heaven Mage of the 3rd Dynasty when faced with an army of Demons. This spell was referred to as the only Extraordinary Spell. In that era, it nearly overturned the ideas of the entire magic system.

But after the 3rd Dynasty, that spell had completely disappeared. Rudolph fell at the end of the battle and the inner workings of the only Extraordinary Spell were buried along with him. After over a thousand years, even with countless mages working hard at it, they weren't able to reconstruct this extremely powerful spell.

No one could have thought that it would appear today in the Black Horn Auction...

Indeed, the Extraordinary Spell was already badly damaged, and like it was mentioned before, no matter how powerful a mage was, they wouldn't be able to rely on this incomplete incantation to cast the spell. But this didn't matter to everyone present. Even a complete version of Hell Destroyer, an Extraordinary Spell, wasn't something that ordinary people could grasp.

What was important was the knowledge that could be contained within.

That was the legacy left behind by a Heaven Mage, even one simple character would contain countless secrets.

"The bidding for this badly damaged Hell Destroyer Spell will start at fifty thousand gold. The minimum bid increment is five thousand gold."

The starting price was set at the same amount that Lin Yun had paid for the bottle of Styx Water, but the only difference was that Lin Yun had been ridiculed by the entire venue for his purchase, while the auction of the Hell Destroyer spell immediately set off a wave of bids.

"Sixty thousand gold!"

"Seventy thousand!"

"One hundred thousand!"

...

Less than a minute passed and the current bid for the damaged incantation had already reached a hundred thousand gold.

And it seemed that this was just the beginning.

That price was quickly overtaken by the following bids, and by the time it reached 250 000, it suddenly stopped, letting people gasp for breath.

But it was followed by another round of competition. Crazy bids were announced one after the other. A damaged incantation somehow managed to reach the incredible price of half a million gold.

What kind of concept was that much gold? When Locke Merlin opened the Gilded Rose on the Victorious Return Main Street, from buying magic materials to hiring an alchemist, it cost him a total of one hundred thousand gold. In other words, Hell Destroyer's damaged incantation was currently worth five of Locke Merlin's fledgling business...

The mages in the venue were practically going crazy over this badly damaged incantation. There were more than a hundred Mages, a few dozen Great Mages, and even a few High Mages in attendance at this Black Horn Auction. Their thirst for the Hell Destroyer was something that those unacquainted with magic couldn't understand. This was the legacy of a Heaven Mage, an unfathomable treasure to every mage.

Among all those mages, Lin Yun was probably the only one that wasn't moved...

To him, the value of the Hell Destroyer spell was really small. There were no fewer than ten spells in his mind with the same power, and they were all complete. Lin Yun's problem right now wasn't mastering these spells, but rather reaching a high enough rank to cast them.

In other words, the four materials for the Mana Baptism were a lot more valuable than the Hell Destroyer, at least to Lin Yun.

Thus, Lin Yun was completely at ease as he watched the play, with all these people fighting over items and spending their money so that they wouldn't be able to compete with him over the remaining three materials that he wanted.

And the numerous mages at the auction didn't fail to live up to Lin Yun's expectations. The previous bid of five hundred thousand gold only managed to shock the venue for a short moment before a voice came out from one of the boxes.

"600 000 gold."

This was the bid of the Sage Tower. Solomon, who had been silent for a long time, finally made his bid.

The venue became silent once more after this bid was announced, and it lasted a lot longer than the previous time.

This was already an extremely high price, not to mention that the one who bid was Solomon. The three big shots of the Sage Tower were already considered legends in the kingdom. Even major forces couldn't neglect those three High Mages. When Solomon declared his bid some of the mages who had wanted to bid had to reconsider...

Of course, not all the mages would think twice about bidding against him.

"650 000 gold." Another voice came out from another box, raising the price of the Hell Destroyer Incantation by another bump. Furthermore, after announcing the bid, that voice added with a hint of provocation, "I'm really sorry, Solomon, our Ash Tower is also interested in the Hell Destroyer incantation."

A fierce cough came out as an answer, as well as an even higher bid. "700 000."

"800 000!" Perhaps it was in order to keep provoking Solomon, or perhaps because he was irritated by the attitude of his counterpart, the mage from the Ash Tower instantly raised the price yet again right after Solomon bid.

A short silence came over the box of the Sage Tower before Solomon called a new bid, "830 000 gold."

But the mage from the Ash Tower quickly raised the stakes. "900 000!"

A violent cough came out from the Sage Tower's box, but no new bid appeared.

Lin Yun couldn't help shaking his head when seeing this scene. It seemed that this badly damaged Hell Destroyer incantation would end up in the hands of the Ash Tower. Although the Sage Tower stood at the peak of Thousand Sails City, they weren't as prosperous as some people would assume on the financial side. A large number of mages would need financing for their many experiments and other expenditures, so suddenly taking out a million wasn't that easy.

But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The price was truly already too high. It would be fine if they were bidding on a complete incantation, but this incantation was obviously badly damaged. Even if he managed to reproduce the spell, it would never possess the might of that time. The only thing it would do now was to allow one to take a glimpse into the wisdom of a Heaven Mage.

And considering his resources, Lin Yun felt that this really wasn't worth it...

'Wait, what's that…' Just as Lin Yun shook his head, something about the badly damaged scroll caught his eye, and he felt a jolt of shock.

The mana fluctuations emitted by that scroll seemed a bit abnormal...

Lin Yun frowned as he thought about this. He stared at the incantation scroll, studying it. The first thing that Lin Yun noticed was the trace of a burn at the bottom of the scroll. That should be the real cause of the damage. At the same time, Lin Yun noticed that after a millennium of wear and tear, the characters on the scroll were still incomparably clear, without the slightest trace of becoming blurry.

Based on this, Lin Yun was sure of one thing... That scroll had definitely been written with Eternal Ink, because only Eternal Ink could resist the corrosion of time to this extent. Regardless of how many years passed, the characters wouldn't change.

But the mana fluctuations of Eternal Ink definitely didn't look like that.

The scroll itself didn't have any magical power, and the mana fluctuations were extremely weak. An ordinary mage wouldn't be able to notice those minute differences. But Lin Yun was different. He had read so many books written in Eternal Ink in the decaying library, as what other books would be able to survive the ravages of time? The unique mana fluctuation was already deeply engraved in his mind, so once he focused on the scroll, it took but an instant for him to notice that this wasn't actually the mana fluctuation of Eternal Ink.

But, if it wasn't the mana fluctuations of Eternal Ink, what was it?

These mana fluctuations were very special, giving him a feeling of liveliness, and Lin Yun had only ever seen these kinds of mana fluctuations on a Spiritual Magic Tool.

'Oh, right, a Spiritual Magic Tool!'

This time, Lin Yun didn't dare to neglect it as he chanted in a low voice, secretly casting Detect Life.

That's right, there was a faint aura of life in the surroundings of the scroll. Although it was a bit weak, that kind of lively feeling couldn't be kept hidden from someone that suspected it was there. Lin Yun was a hundred percent sure that this scroll had a spiritual aura.

But it wasn't actually a Spiritual Magic Tool! Rather, it should be a rumored Spiritual Augment!

Spiritual Augments were similar to Spiritual Magic Tools, as both had spirituality.

But the difference was that a Spiritual Magic Tool's spirituality was bestowed by the alchemist. From the day of its creation, it was already finalized, stable and powerful. But it wouldn't grow. A Spiritual Augment was completely different. Its spirituality couldn't exist by itself. It would have to attach to another Magic Tool, and the stronger the Magic Tool, the faster it would grow. There had been several famous Spiritual Augments in Noscent's history, and when they grew to their limits, their power was not inferior to that of an Extraordinary Magic Tool.