John spent the next few weeks brewing potions.
He had saved up a total of 4760 magic stones.
Soon it was time for the auction.
John didn't feel like showing everyone his wealth. So he wore a mask and bought a private room to view the auction. This room alone costed him a mid grade magic stone. It had various treats and beverages stocked.
John wasn't used to eating food anymore, so he didn't even use these benefits. He merely bought it to remain anonymous.
John was also participating in this auction. He had submitted a hundred satiety potions... with a minimum starting bid of three hundred magic stones. you could never have too much money.
Soon the auction started.
A woman brought out a podium on wheels.
The academy's auction staff decided to start off with a bang!
"Today we are starting off the auction with a vial of phoenix blood!"
On the podium was a vial of glowing golden liquid.
Soon the entire venue was whispering amongst themselves.
Why was this? It was because this was taboo! There were various different kinds of mages. Besides the mainstream. You had rune mages, which could ignite their bodies by inscribing runes on them. You had warlocks, which got their power from a contract.
That is what this type of phoenix blood was for! You used the blood in a ritual to become a warlock! A phoenix was a rank 4 existence! Using it's blood, as long as the purity wasn't too bad. You could change your bloodline to that of the pheonix!
You would naturally have to go through the life cycle of a phoenix. Your lifespan would be thousands of years, and you would progress through the ranks without needing additional resources like a spell models.
Your path would be legendary!
But the blood also had other uses. Like for creating new potions or used as a legendary ingredient in making an artifact.
It was an absolutely valuable resource! Yet, it appeared in this auction.
"The minimum bid is 1000 magic stones, with increments of 500."
"2000!"
"3000!"
Many people started to bid.
Eventually, it was bought by a rank 2 magus.
The final price?
"10500 magic stones! Going once, going twice. Sold!"
John didn't even bid on this. Why would he want to be a warlock? Remember, he had read through all the books in the library. He naturally knew the weakness of a warlock. It was the bloodline shackles!
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
You would never be able to go past rank 4 if you used that blood. Rank 4 may seem like a high level, it is a huge change in life level. But, to never be able to progress further. That was unacceptable to John and it went against his dao of self improvement.
How was he to constantly surpass himself, if he gave this phantom soul a limit? John felt like he was a genius. He planned to make his own rank 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 spell models.
He just lacked data. You can't make something from nothing.
"The next item we will auctoning is a hundred satiety potions. The starting bid is 300 magic crystals, the increment is 50."
"300!"
"350!"
It was sold for 350. They then moved onto the next item.
"This blade is made from adamantium. It can cut through anything! Starting bid 1000 magic crystals, the increment is 500."
Someone right away said:
"5000!"
This person was also rank 2 and had a hobby of collecting special swords. Nobody wanted to offend him. He didn't even hide his identity. He was with the general population.
"Sold!"
The next item was a spell model.
"This item is a copy of a rank 1 spell model. It is called 'Hellfire Safeguard'. The starting bid is 1000 magic crystals. With an increment of 500."
"1000!"
John spoke up from his private room. He imbued Qi into his voice, it sounded like thunder.
"1500!"
The other person didn't give up. They were also an acolyte, and needed a spell model to become an official magus! They had been saving magic stones for half a decade for this one moment!
John didn't even hesitate.
"2000!"
This was outside of their budget.
"Sold!"
The technique was brought to Johns room. It was in a crystal ball.
He then took out 20 mid grade magic crystals and paid.
Once he was alone again, he put his hand on the crystal ball. He then felt a massive amount of information invade his mind.
"I see... so that's how it is!"
The rank 1 spell model had opened up his eyes.
John didn't plan to use this common spell model for his passive spell. John had a lot of knowledge in this world. So he knew something most didn't.
"Your passive spells must not conflict!"
An ordinary person, would just use this raw spell model to breakthrough. But this would make it impossible for further breakthroughs without a very specific spell model that continued in this direction.
John planned to make his own rank 1 spell model.
He didn't plan on using the reactive elxir at all!
John was capable of manipulating the tiniest details of his body. He simply needed a blue print to copy over. So that meant, he could create a test body and have them breakthrough. He would then use the information gotten from this to construct the perfect spell models for himself.
The auction continued to go on. Sometimes showing rare medicines, legendary potions, weapons, ancient potion recipes.
John only had 2660 magic stones.
He also had an additional 350 from the auction.
Soon the reactive elixur was put up.
"Starting bid is 1000. Increment is 500."
John spoke:
"1000!"
Somebody else bidded.
Then John raised it to 2500! That was already paying 5x the market rate. Everyone backed down.
"Sold!"
By the end of the auction John only had 510 magic stones left.
He went to the student market and bought another medium for 5 magic stones.
He made sure nobody knew who he was. Except for the professors he sold satiety to, everyone thought him to be a broke librarian that dabbled in potioneering.
John went back to his room and did something a little sketchy.
He used his spiritual sense to make sure nobody was watching him.
He then held out his hand forming a brand new phantom soul within it!
A body then formed from this phantom soul.
Now, obviously. This body lacked a lot.
It didn't have a nascent soul, since it wasn't created in his universe and tempered by heavenly tribulation. It only had a public consciousness.
It also lacked the native attribute from him going through the afterlife. So if he used his private consciousness to make it use spells. It would be sealed in an instant.
These were the restrictions of John's soul system and the world will.
This body he made was purely for testing purposes. He planned to get rid of it the moment the experiment was over.
He formed a perfect copy of his current body. Obviously without a nascent soul, he couldn't display power beyond Qi Condensation...
But this wasn't built for fighting either way.
It was time to begin the experiment!