Chapter 250 - The First Player Auction 5

Zaine nodded when she saw the effect her words had on the crowd. It was clear that they were all racking their brains as to what exactly she and her group could possibly possess that would be more valuable than a Rare Rank Bag of Holding.

Even a Common Rank version of it was still so valuable, and so rare! Among the pinnacle powers, maybe only the top 5 could claim to have a Rare one stashed away, and they would definitely seek out another.

What was the value of this item that made it so good? Well, it was a portable treasury in the making. Every faction had a place to store their funds, equipment and precious items, which was usually the treasury.

A treasury was set up in an underground or overground building that was converted into an artificial small world with a Basic Spatial Enlargement Device.

Of course, the Basic Spatial Enlargement device was capable of this. After all, the super mini small world in his Castle, Guild Hall and this Rank 7 Shop couldn't have been magicked from nowhere.

An artificial super mini small world was valuable, but only around 1% as much as a natural one. For example, artificial super mini small world could not grow resources or upgrade their rank, neither could its space be increased once created.

So, using this for a treasury meant that at some point, your space would be capped. You could certainly build more if you had the funds to buy a device, but in the current era this wasn't really feasible due to the lack of Magical Engineers.

Even if these Magical Engineers were supplied with crystals endlessly, there came the problem of Void Stones. These could only be found in Rank 6 or 7 shops, with their quantities capped.

Draco had simply been a selfish brute when he had sent Darnia to buy them all, almost depriving all other Magical Engineers for a year or more.

The quantity of them produced was limited, and when they showed up at auctions, they were high bid items. Those Basic Spatial Enlargement Devices also could not create a Bag of Holding, or they wouldn't be as rare as they were.

In essence, this leather pouch that looked pretty normal was worth around 20-30 million platinum alone!

SACRE BLEU!

This Bag of Holding was just as valuable as the Aether Crystals Draco had sold during the Divine Auction when considering the base price. As for the final price at the end of it, one could only guess.

It was now clear why Draco had been so happy when his actions had resulted in the creation of one, as well as his remark that it could be used for the auction alone and bring in more than everything else combined.

Thinking of it in these terms, many powers were suddenly enlightened as to what was going to happen. When Zaine opened her mouth to speak, it was as if many had seen the future, revealing all the secrets of the world and the Dao.

"This item shall be priced at 100 high-grade Aether Crystals, with only increments of 50 high-grade crystals allowed."

No one overreacted this time, because this was what they had expected to hear. After all, from here on out, it was up to the VIP rooms to participate. They in the crowds had been given a chance to have fun, but every banquet would need to come to an end.

There was no delay from the top rooms too.

"150 high-grade Aether Crystals."

"200 high-grade Aether Crystals."

"250 high-grade Aether Crystals."

"300 high-grade Aether Crystals."

Everyone in the crowd was silent. Despite the high numbers being thrown about, it didn't really faze them. After all, only those powers could bid in such a manner with ease.

It was like billionaires bidding in the real world. If their bids reached more than 500 million dollars, it would seem normal to the millionaires and other nouveau riche in attendance.

There were no shouts of backgrounds or insulting between them either. After all, they had the highest backgrounds in the world, and even with these 'closed off' VIP rooms, they all knew who was who in which room.

It was truly a different feeling for the players and other NPCs in attendance. The previous scenario with people screaming, shouting, cursing and about to claw at each other seemed reasonable to them.

This sort of mature and silent bidding scene put pressure on them. It made them understand that for those at the top, there was never a need to act extra.

This was the true elite, not those who boasted about themselves or used their backgrounds to try and suppress others. Such people were deficient compared to these powers.

"350 high-grade Aether Crystals."

"400 high-grade Aether Crystals."

"450 high-grade Aether Crystals."

"500 high-grade Aether Crystals."

It slowed down around here, as this was the prime price range for the Bag of Holding. 500 high-grade Aether Crystals was about 25 million platinum.

But let's be honest, 500 high-grade Aether Crystals was much more valuable than 25 million platinum. This was pretty much all Draco had sold during the Divine Auction, as well as some more.

Zaine rubbed her chin. Were they pooling together funds, or were they converting low crystals upwards? Or… did they genuinely have so many high-grade crystals stashed away?

If it was the latter, she would be pretty shocked. After all, even though the output was low every year, and centuries had gone by, it was still too much to believe that so many could be in the possession of each power that was bidding.

Low-grade Aether Crystals they might have in the millions and medium-grade ones in the thousands or less, but high-grade ones? It should be impossible.

Unless…

Zaine's heart chilled when she made a certain conclusion.

'Could it be that despite the recurring Great War over the millenia, these powers had never truly lost anything from their treasuries?'

This was a terrifying thought. After all, the gauge Zaine and Draco had been using all this while were centuries, because the Great War that happened every 1,000 years should see the human race get wiped to a bare few, with all their things looted.

However, if the top powers had hidden away their items every Great War, only allowing the demons to steal the lesser value items while keeping the truly valuable ones, then their treasuries were bound to be horrifying.

Zaine could not be blamed for now thinking of this. After all, it was even a relatively new thing in the real world for the rich and powerful to build secure underground bunkers to hide themselves away during conflict and emerge later.

Draco had suspected something like this, so the First Player Auction could be described as a probe. Just how wealthy were these Hidden Powers? Should he still be wary of them despite them practically pampering him all this while?

As he sat in the backroom with Eva curled around him in her usual manner, he shook his head. It seemed like he had been right all this while, these powers were not people he could rely on.

They only supported him because he was talented and posed no direct threat, as well as the fact that he would be hard to dispose of with his backing, as well as his Immortal Spirit.

If these powers were to engineer something like the Evil Bead, they would soon get rid of him quickly and seize all his belongings. They did not care of he could enter with a new Immortal Spirit (new account), because he would be even easier to deal with at that time.

However…

Draco's lips curled upwards. Unfortunately for these powers, the only entity on the side of humans that would develop a method to deal with the Immortal Spirit within the first few years were loyal to him, citizens of his state.

By the time these powers could figure a way out, he wouldn't even need Richmond's protection anymore. As such, he continued to watch the proceedings silently.

"550 high-grade Aether Crystals."

"600 high-grade Aether Crystals."

"650 high-grade Aether Crystals."

"700 high-grade Aether Crystals."

It still went on, even though the calls were spaced out from one another. It was clear these bids were probes by each of them to see the limit of the other parties. When this was sussed out, they would call an auction-ending bid, swiping away the Bag of Holding!

Zaine saw their behavior and was even more assured of her eye-opening guess. It was a great item, but unless one wanted to hide away mountains of precious items, it shouldn't have surpassed its base value this much.

These powers wanted to Bag of Holding so much because the next Great War was coming! It was in only a few years, so an item like this on sale would be extremely precious!

They could hide away even more goods and in a far more secure manner than using a treasury that was hard to move!

Sometimes, the value of an item could be determined by the timing of when it was sold. In a pandemic, even cheap hand sanitizer could increase in price by almost 700%!

In the crowd, Yui leaned over to Gentle Flower and whispered to her. "Big Sis Flower, why are these people bidding amounts higher than 100 high-grade Aether Crystals? Shouldn't they be converted upwards automatically?"

Gentle Flower laughed softly and petted Yui's head. "It seems to be all part of Zaine's evil plan. That was why the people were so angry when she announced the conversion rates. She waited until it was no longer useful for them to know, as well as the fact that it's very high."

"So now, people can bid with up to a thousand in the specific grade of the Aether Crystal before its converted up. This raises the bar of spending for the third stage, paving the way for the finale."

"Ah? But that doesn't make sense. Why not do this from the beginning, so people would spend more instead of limiting themselves?" Yui asked with a skeptical expression.

"Because that would ruin the finale. Each power needs to have at least some of the crystals left, and of each grade too. This would be important after this particular bid." Gentle Flower answered calmly.

Yui still looked confused, so she asked. "How do you even know this much Big Sis Flower?"

Gentle Flower smirked slightly. "I was able to see this based on the things Mister Draco and Madame Night had shown us."

Gentle Flower then gazed meaningfully at Zaine. "And besides, her plan is not hard to fathom if you are perceptive enough in the same manner she is. It's likely she chose to do this in such a manner to openly flaunt her intelligence to people like me."

Yui looked like she had been enlightened. "Amazing!"

Noble Soul shook his head and whispered under his breath. "I didn't understand shit though…"

The price had now reached 800 high-grade Aether Crystals, and it looked like it was going to end here. Even though many powers were pining for it, not all had the wealth to get it easily.

Not to mention that many were interested in what came next. So right now, it was only the specific hidden powers who wanted the Bag of Holding, not caring about what came next.

For powers under this category, they were bidding because they had either defective/damaged treasuries that could be replaced with this Bag of Holding, or their old treasury was full and they had no proper replacements.

Finally, the bid was called at 900 high-grade Aether Crystals. After the payment was made, the item was passed over to the recipient by the system, which was one of the few ways Boundless showed itself to be a game after all.

Now, the crowd waited with anticipation for the next item to come out. After all, Zaine had made some remarks about this Bag of Holding only being an entry level item at best.

So, what at all could be next that would warrant such words?

Zaine stood aside for a really long table to be brought up, with a glass casing covering seven circular disks that were painted in a black hue with a red bottom in the middle.

When everyone inspected the item, it was as if mini-explosions had occurred in everyone's cranium.

｢Advanced Spatial Creation Device – Device

Durability: ?/?

Rank: ???

Effect: Create Space.｣

｢Create Space – Passive

Effect: Opens up a pocket space in a location or in an item which has the ability to generate resources, sustain life and expand slowly with enough energy provided. Single use.｣

There was a horrible silence for more than ten minutes. This wasn't the same as the silence that was born when people were shocked or worried, as had happened before in this very auction.

This was a silence born by fear, pure fear. Those on the crowd stood rooted to their seats without even breathing too loudly, as they felt the presence of ethereal demise lingering at their backs.

This feeling emanated from the top VIP rooms, who had also been silent all this while. Even Gentle Flower and co were frozen in their seats, their bodies refusing to respond.

What Umbra had done was worse than Draco publicly announcing that he could manufacture Aether Crystals. Providing an item that could crate stable pocket spaces that had the ability to sustain life and grow if fueled with enough resources was like taking out a powerful yet unique nuke in an auction between the top countries.

Putting aside selling such a thing, what made the vendor think he had the right to even trade with them? They would directly seize it using force or threats, rather than pay for it.

This was what was going on here. The only reason these powers hadn't acted yet was the same reason that Draco hadn't been touched all this while, the fact that his backing was potent.

However, this particular matter was too grave for them to falter because of this. Right now, they were all communicating silently with the Church of Light and War Maniac Pavilion as to how to go forward.

Both these powers had stated that they would not condone theft in this auction with many attendees, meaning that they had temporarily sided with Draco. This angered many other powers, so they were hesitating.

Hence, the cold silence.

Zaine simply stood on the stage with her eyes closed, a slight smile on her lips. The nefarious intent directed at her was also pretty good, and she was unfazed by it on the least.

The only reason she hadn't broken the silence yet was because this intent was quite tasty, but she knew she would be pushing it if it went on for too long, so she spoke up.

"These seven items were made by Draco after sacrificing a hundred Void Stones each, as well as five top-grade Aether Crystals. They took him a week to make each, and this is the result." Zaine revealed with a serious expression.

Why did Zaine reveal this? Because Draco had asked her to. After all, she knew nothing of the recipe, so only he could have given her this idea.

This was done to raise the value of the item reasonably, as well as lower the intensity of dark intentions directed towards them.

Lo and behold, the stifling aura that enveloped the auction receded slowly until everyone could breathe properly. They still remained silent, as the activity had drilled home the difference between themselves and those at the top.

These powers had long heard that Draco had bought up Void Stones in such high quantities from his shop, almost clearing it out. Many had thought he was going to resell them, but it seemed like they had been thinking too simply.

Five top-grade crystals per device also stayed their hands. Putting aside where he even got such an unfathomable amount, this cost of production was simply to high that it was unbelievable.

So why did they believe it? Well, it was due to the stats of the item itself. Not only was its durability unmeasurable, but so was its Rank.

If such items were used in its creation, then it would make sense that the system was unable to grade it easily. Not only that, but given its overpowered effect, it was certainly believable that such items were necessary.

In fact, some powers felt that Draco had used too little, believing that he was rather trying to hide the high cost of production, not realizing that he was doing the opposite.

If they knew that it was one top-grade Aether Crystal and half of a Void Stone, they would rob these items, kidnap Draco and lock him in a cellar, forcing him to make them for the rest of his life.

However, he had successfully misled them, so they saw no value in doing so. Where were they supposed to get such resources if they wanted him to make more? A hundred - or more - Void Stones and five top-grade Aether Crystals was a tall bill.

Even the design for the best nuke was useless if one could not fork out the resources almost at all. As such, they did not value stealing the recipe or the item, but acquiring it normally.

If Draco used what he earned today to make more and sell them, they would be even happier to part with their crystals. After all, the value of even a top-grade Aether Crystal was nothing compared to this item.

"Set the price." Came a female voice from the premier VIP room, which Zaine identified to be Myrine.

She nodded and faced the crowd. "These items will be sold in a unique style. We will sell each of them individually and at different price points."

"For now, I will share the pricing for three of them. The first is set at 1 billion low-grade Aether Crystals with increments of 1 million low-grade ones at the least and the second is set at 1 million medium-grade Aether Crystals, with only increments of 10,000 as the minimum."

"The third device shall be priced at 1000 high-grade Aether Crystals, with only increments of 100 crystals allowed."

"Please note that this particular segment does not support the conversion of crystals."