“1050.”

“1150.”

“1200.”

The barrage of bidding continued.

Abraham also participated but just shouted his price for fun, for he knew he would never get his hand on the item with such a cheap number like that. Little did he know, Jack froze every time he heard his father's voice coming up from the crowd.

“1500 crystals,” Arnold Hensley jumped ahead after someone had just made their bid of 1300.

An expected moment of silence ensued. For some of the houses in the region, to cross this price threshold would be a bombshell.

“Well,” William pretended to wipe away some of the sweat on his forehead, “now that’s what I call the magnetism of an Epic item. It doesn’t take long for us to almost reach the record price of the Oxdale auction.”

“Don’t play for time, William,” Arnold Hensley said with a smirk. “Nobody here is catching up to me now.”

Infuriating sets of eyes were directed toward the head of the Hensley household in response to his condescending words, but none dared challenge him, for he was telling the truth.

“It seems Mr. Arnold here didn’t take me seriously enough,” the Mayor, Marvin, in his usual colorful set of clothing, spoke up, slowly putting his glass of wine down.

“I just thought this rather inferior stuff didn’t quite fit your taste,” Arnold responded with an indifferent voice.”

“Oh, really?” Marvin asked back in amusement.

Having said that, the Mayor waved his hand, signaling the boy standing by his side.

“1600 crystals,” the young assistant shouted.

Arnold, on the other side of the room, clenched his fist, the monocle slipping down with every twitch of the muscles on his face. What bothered him wasn’t the competition but rather the way he was being looked down upon. Marvin didn’t even raise his own voice, instead letting his servant do it for him.

“If the Mayor here has found interest in the item, take it then,” Arnold said calmly, as if doing the mayor a favor. With his aforementioned implication of “inferiority,” the head of the Hensely household couldn’t help but add more fuel to the fire.

“Huh,” Marvin Humphrey snorted coldly, squinting his eyes at Arnold Hensley. Whatever his poisonous words may be, Hensley had conceded this round. The point had been made: Arnold was not the sole dominant force in tonight’s event.

“So, Warfists of The Fleeting Might for 1600 crystals. Anyone else? Going once. Going twice…”

The host, a bit disappointed with the price, stopped the fancy words and concluded the session.

“Sold. Congratulate our Mayor, Marvin, for acquiring this treasure.”

Evelyn quickly wrapped the pair of gauntlets up, took them to the back, and arranged a delivery to the buyer’s personal quarter.

Watching from above, Jack couldn’t help but smile. The price, which was even higher than Bastian’s greatest Crusader sword, had exceeded his expectation. People were not only paying for its Crusader-like stats but also its unique attributes.

Though, the fact that the items were being sold as a set provoked Jack’s curiosity. The System did have similar crafting options and notes, but none of them was mentioned in the section for Warfists of The Fleeting Might. It was either he hadn’t invested enough skill points to learn about it, or all of this was a trick from the bank. He doubted the latter, thinking the bank wouldn’t risk its reputation like that.

Saving those questions for the end of the event, Jack returned his focus to the stage to seek any ingredients on sale for his next production batch.

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The item of the next phase was a seventh-tier Lesser Mana Potion. Eventually, it was sold for 300. Noticing this, Jack reckoned his eighth-tier potion must have been way more valuable than the 330 that he had been offered.

Watching from the back, Richard gritted his teeth in frustration, for he couldn’t believe the higher-ups had decided to do that. He had advised them to withhold the mana potion for tonight, but it seemed they really wanted to intimidate their mysterious guest.

Jack smirked at the show. Whatever the case, he would achieve what he intended.

“For the next item,” William said as if he could never say anything without excitement in his voice, “a rare material, highly sought after by the Maesters. But that didn’t stop other factions from getting their hands on it. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Watermelon.”

Watermelon? Jack frowned, wondering if his ears were playing tricks on him.

Evelyn gracefully pulled the cover. It was an actual watermelon, ova in shape, green in color with a few darker stripes.

“It is a watermelon?” Jack whispered to himself.

Activating his Identification Lens only gave him a bunch of question marks. His upgraded Maester knowledge wasn’t helpful, too.

“Are you interested in it?” Patricia quick-wittedly asked.

“Isn’t it just a fruit?” Jack asked back.

“What?” She covered her mouth in surprise. “Fruit?”

“Yeah, fruit for dessert,” Jack casually continued.

Patricia twitched her lips, unsure if Jack was testing her or if truly didn’t know.

“If so, then Mr. Adam here must be someone wealthy enough to treat Watermelon as a fruit,” she exclaimed.

“Oh, then what else does it do besides being food?”

What else? Patricia gulped, getting herself together.

“Well, it serves to enhance the awakening ceremony. As its name suggests, Watermelon can help to elevate one’s potential with the water element, so they are highly sought after, especially those of the Arcanists. Similarly, we also have Firemelon, Airmelon, and Earthmelon. They’re collectively called Elemelons.”

Jack frowned, thinking how dessert on Earth could be something so impactful on this world.

“Don’t tell me it’s red inside with black pips,” Jack said with a smile.

“Yes, it is. I thought you had seen it in the past?”

“Oh, I just wanna make sure it’s the right one.”

Beneath them, somebody had raised the price to 500, and it seemed that would be the final mark.

“Six hundred,” Jack called out with his croaky voice.

The bidder looked up, his eyes full of disbelief that someone would challenge him. He was a senior member of the Maester community here, so more or less, people didn’t want to get on the wrong side of him.

“Six hundred and fifteen,” the man grunted his voice.

“Eight hundred crystals,” Jack responded immediately.

According to what Patricia had said, Jack could utilize Watermelon in many different ways. To keep it for himself or help Thomas with the boy’s awakening, either way, he wouldn’t mind spending on this thing.

“Could the gentleman here let the Maester Guild have this one as a gesture of goodwill?” The person asked under the dim light of the room.

“No,” Jack answered without any hesitation.

“Are you sure about this?” Everyone in the room could hear the irritation in his words.

“If you can’t pay, get lost. I couldn’t care less, even if it were your headmaster, let alone a good-for-nothing member.”

Silence filled the auction space. Compared to this one, what had happened between the Hensley and the Mayor was just a petty dispute. Powerful families, landowners, or business organizations might clash with one another from time to time, but they made sure to stay clear of antagonizing the entities representing the factions, be it the Artificer or the Maester.

“Hurry up and finish this,” Jack rushed the host. “What are you waiting for?”

“Ah, yes,” William said with a wavering voice, with actual sweat on his forehead this time. “Going once, going twice. If nobody else makes their bid, then Watermelon is sold to the gentleman here.”

Patricia was still in shock after the exchange, her feet trembling when bringing the Watermelon to Jack.

After some scrutinizing, Jack put the item in his inventory ring and turned his eyes toward the auction again.

The introduction of Wind-forged Mace once again caused a ruckus among the participants. Some of them had never seen an Epic item before, let alone two in a row.

Thanks to some friendly reminder from William that this would be the last on display tonight, the price of Wind-forged Mace didn’t stop at one thousand six hundred like its buddy. The houses started putting their wealth together to have a chance against Arnold Hensley, as the Mayor made it obvious that he wasn’t interested this time. Even with that, it was inevitable that the Hensley became the new master of the second Epic weapon.

The auction thus ended. Everyone started walking out, paying Eve’s final performance little heed, leaving behind a few individuals full of killing intent, among them Mayor Marvin and a group from the Maester Guild.

Jack smoked underneath his cloak. It seemed the bank had no intention of letting him walk away in one piece.