Divine Beast Ascension

Chapter 501: Starting Off Hot

“Twenty-five thousand!”

“Twenty-five thousand two hundred-”

“Twenty-five thousand five hundred!”

While a small battle of bids broke out once more, Oli was thinking about how much money he had on hand. Not including his thousands of oxite coins, Oli had two hundred and seventy-five thousand gold after selling everything to Icicle Palace. Then, after removing any debts from the sale of his low-perennial battle art, Oli had still received a little over five thousand gold. That brought Oli’s total savings to two hundred and eighty thousand. And now, after seeing this first item’s selling price, Oli was certain that his high-perennial art was another guaranteed twenty thousand, giving Oli a minimum of three hundred thousand gold to spend as he wished.

But that didn’t mean Oli wanted to spend it all. If anything, Oli understood that anything and everything graded for perennials was phenomenally expensive. Yet Oli still hadn’t experienced the price of anything king grade. Considering how Oli still had a long cultivation journey ahead of him, and that he wasn’t always going to have Eeole looking over his shoulder, Oli preferred to not spend too recklessly.

As Oli started to wonder about the cost of this item Eeole claimed was undeniably important, a statement echoed through Oli’s head, ‘You should have enough to get it. If you want to get these three scrolls, it shouldn’t be a problem.’

“Twenty-six thousand seven hundred fifty gold going once!” the auctioneer’s voice resounded through the auction hall. “... Going twice-”

.....

“Twenty-seven thousand!” Oli called into the mic, startling the crowd as yet another booth threw its hat in the bidding ring.

The auctioneer had a curious smile while giving everyone a split second to respond to the bid. He had a moment to mentally thank the incredibly wealthy yet mysterious patron Icicle Palace had been keeping an eye on. “... Twenty-seven thousand! Amazing! Simply amazing! Twenty-seven thousand going once! ... Going twice! ...”

“Twenty-seven thousand two hun-”

“Twenty-seven thousand five hundred,” Oli big aggressively, momentarily ignoring the dumbstruck expressions of his teammates.

“Again, an amazing offer and price! Twenty-seven thousand five hundred gold going once! ... Going twice! ... SOLD!”

Dong, dong!

For a moment, Oli relaxed. He smiled and shrugged at the others in the room. “... What? I wanted the battle art.”

“THANK YOU!!” Freele shouted and dropped to the floor, prostrating herself.

But Oli only nodded and motioned for her to get up. He didn’t have time to say anything as the next item was already up for bid.

The auctioneer described, “Here we have an ice-based cultivation technique, mid-perennial grade! Its name, Raging Blizzard, is a perfect description of its provided essence nature! And, of course, we must start with of bid of-”

“Twenty-five thousand!”

“...”

The entire auction house was silent for what seemed like a minute, even though it was only a second. Everyone was staring at Oli’s private booth in awe, intrigue, or irritation.

“SPECTACULAR! Stupendous!” applauded the auctioneer. “A starting bid of twenty-five thousand gold! A true bid! Going once!”

“Twenty-five thou-”

“Twenty-seven thousand!”

Again, the crowd was stunned by Oli’s aggressive bids. And those inside Oli’s booth were just as shocked.

“... Twenty-seven thousand gold going once! ... Going twice! ... SOLD!”

Dong, dong!

The bell rang as the entire auction house kept all eyes on that winning booth.

“Thank you, Master Oliver!” It wasn’t Fulkar’s bow but his words that surprised half the people in the room. “I assure you, I and my family will prove our worth to merit such support!”

“You’re welcome. Now, please sit. I still have one more scroll to purchase.”

This time, everyone in the room sat in silent awe, not shock.

“Now, this Shadow Puppet art is a tricky thing to master! For some people, they might train it to entangle people in their own shadows! Others might train it to momentarily manipulate the bodies of other cultivators at the expense of a tremendous amount of essence! The applications and uses of this particular mid-perennial battle art are only limited by the user’s imagination!” stated the auctioneer, preparing the crowd for the abnormal starting price. “For that reason, the starting bid must be twenty thousand-”

“Thirty thousand gold!”

“...”

Once more, Oli’s aggressive, forceful bids rattled the minds of everyone present. It felt like he avoided bidding wars altogether and just threw gold around in place of business cards or an introduction.

“THIRTY THOUSAND GOLD!!” bellowed the auctioneer, smiling wider than Oli had ever seen. “MARVELOUS! A worthy bid through and through! GOING ONCE!”

The entire auction hall kept quiet, waiting for anyone to dare challenge the mysterious moneybags that was dominating everything thus far.

“... Going twice-”

“Thirty thousand two-”

“Thirty-one thousand!” Oli shouted, not bothering with raising the bid by only a couple hundred gold. He wanted everyone to understand that if he wanted something, he was going to get it.

“... Thirty-one thousand! Truly spectacular! Going once! ... Going twice!” the auctioneer yelled, eyeing the booth that had challenged Oli. “... SOLD!!”

Dong, dong, dong!

Oli was the first person to receive three rings of the bell, but everyone knew he was just that, the first. Anyone that understood auction prices and had seen the catalog, which was anyone in the lounge and private sections, knew that this was truly only the beginning. They also knew that despite that booth dominating the first three items, it was likely that it wouldn’t stay that way for long. With so many items on the agenda, it was impossible for someone to afford everything. And it was even less likely that someone would want everything.

Right away, that ideology proved correct.

Three more carts were carried in to replace the scrolls, this time covered in silver clothes. And the auctioneer threw off the covers before saying a word. “We’re still just getting this auction started! Here, we have three low-perennial weapons, each hand-crafted by none other than Rykard Willis, our resident king grade smith!

“At least... he was our former resident king grade smith!”

That statement shook the crowd into silence.

The auctioneer continued, “Only a few suns ago we had Master Willis himself approach Icicle Palace. He did something that no one expected... He sold us his entire stock of weapons, all just before selling his mansion home! These are perhaps some of the last Willis brand weapons that will ever be sold on this stage!”