Chapter 40 - Contend
“Whoever has the damn time to abuse these useless bums…” Gerian shot them a glare. The mages shrank back immediately, afraid that they might draw fire to themselves. Gerian then continued, “The first time you arrived at the Guild of Magic, wasn’t I talking to someone from Shadow City? We were talking about the control of the Demon Fall Valley at that time, I guess you remembered it from there…”
“Oh! Yes, yes… I remember! That place belongs to our Guild of Magic?”
An “our Guild of Magic” had lifted Gerian’s mood tremendously. This meant that Lin Li was gradually seeing himself as part of the Guild of Magic. This was definitely a good sign to Gerian. He believed that as long as he put in a little more effort, he’d be able to fit the Guild of Magic President’s hat onto the fellow’s head.
“That’s right!” Gerian answered with greater patience in light of his good mood. “The reason why the Guild of Magic is still the number one force in Jarrosus today is that we have the control of the Demon Fall Valley. There are three rare mineral veins and a great variety of herbs in that valley. Most importantly, it also abounds in all kinds of high-level magical crystals. When the auction for the Arcane Magic Potion is over, I’ll bring you there so that you can see for yourself.”
As they spoke, three more bottles of Arcane Magic Potion were off the shelf. Among them, the lowest price was above 30,000, and the highest price even reached 60,000 gold coins.
“From this auction onwards, the number of Arcane Magic Potion will be increased to three bottles.” The gavel in Kevin’s hand landed heavily on the table. “The starting bid will be 50,000, and the minimum increment 5,000. Let the bidding begin!”
“50,000 gold coins!”
“70,000 gold coins!”
“80,000 gold coins!”
“100,000 gold coins!”
Kevin’s gavel had just come down when the bidding calls rang out continuously, each higher than the other. In a moment’s time, the price for the three bottles of Arcane Magic Potion was raised to a high of 100,000.
“See, the Rolin Family has shown their hand. The previous ones were all on the small scale. From now on, it is the highlight. Just watch; if the final bid for these three bottles of potion is less than 200,000, I’ll screw my own head off!” Gerian laughed pompously at a side.
“120,000!”
“140,000!”
The leader of the Rolin Family had gone completely amok. Competing with him was a good-looking young woman around 30 years of age. She was beautiful and charming, her voice soft and sweet, and her every action was exceedingly fascinating and amorous. Perhaps only a wily old fox like Gerian would recognize her. The attractive young woman was Daphne, the leader of the Dark Moon, one of Jarrosus’ six underground forces. She controlled all the thieves in Jarrosus.
Gerian told Lin Li, “Memorized the woman’s face? If someday you lost your wallet on the streets, you must look for her. But don’t get it wrong, she’s the leader of the thieves, not a brothel madam.”
“…”
Anthony Rolin was about to bleed from his nose out of anger. He had not expected that rather than the big families he was most worried about, he would have roused this mad woman instead. What was more surprising to him was that this mad woman could be so merciless; she raised the price to 140,000 and was refusing to let up. If this continued, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to hold out for long.
140,000 gold coins had already exceeded the Rolin Family’s budget, but Anthony Rolin had no choice but to hang tough.
These three bottles of Arcane Magic Potion were his best chance. Giants like the Merlin Family, the Mannes Family, and the Saruman Family had yet to make a move. Once he had waited for them to strike, the Rolin Family would have no chance at all.
Moreover, Anthony Rolin really needed these three bottles of Arcane Magic Potion. Out of his three sons, the youngest was already 16 year old, but was still a level-four mage apprentice. There was only one step away from level-five, just one step, but it couldn’t be overcome no matter what.
Which parent in the world would not want their children to be successful?
So when he heard that the Guild of Magic was going to auction the Arcane Magic Potion, he was utterly thrilled and immediately started to raise money. He had even disposed of several profitable industries at a low price in order to make his three sons into mages successfully. But the Rolin Family was not the Merlin Family. The total amount of money he could gather was only about 200,000. If this mad woman continued to push on, Anthony Rolin dared not imagine what would happen next…
But this was often the case in the world. The more you didn’t want it to happen, the more it would happen.
As he turned the idea in his mind, Daphne called out another bid once more. “200,000 gold coins!”
Anthony Rolin almost blacked out when he heard the figure.
At this moment, Anthony Rolin even thought of jumping on this woman to strangle her to death.
But this was merely a thought. Not to mention this mad woman was no less strong than him and he probably wouldn’t be able to strangle her to death even if he did jump on her, just disrupting the auction alone would be enough to put him on the spot. This was not the Emerald Tower of the past. The Guild of Magic today was at the height of their influence; even the Merlin Family dared not compete with or challenge the Guild of Magic head-on. That would be no different than seeking their own death. With Gerian’s character, he would probably be blown down by his fireball before he could get to jump on the mad woman.
Anthony Rolin hesitated for long before he finally put a hand into his pocket.
“200,000 going once!
“200,000 going twice!
“200,000 going…”
Just as Kevin was about to hit the gavel for the third time, Anthony Rolin suddenly emerged from the crowd. “Hold on, Mage Kevin!”
“What’s the matter, Mr Anthony?” Kevin was inwardly delighted, but managed to put on a troubled expression on his face. “Do you have any doubts regarding the auctioning process?”
“No, no, no, I definitely don’t mean that…” Anthony Rolin waved his hands. This was not a joking matter—having doubts about the auction would mean having doubts about Gerian’s character, and it’d be equal to challenging the Guild of Magic. He would not dare to challenge the Guild of Magic which was at the peak of its influence even if he was given ten more guts.
“I remembered Mr Gerian had said that if cash is not enough, we would be allowed to replace it with items of equivalent value. Now, I would like Mr Gerian to evaluate how many gold coins this item is actually worth.”