Chapter 152- The legendary Rank Skill auctioned.

Chapter 152: Chapter 152- The legendary Rank Skill auctioned.

The Devil’s Fang sat on the stage, radiating a dark, ominous aura. If one stared at it for too long, a person begins to feel unwell, and a faint nausea creeps at the edges of their vision.

Even the attendants who had carried the sword out were affected. Their faces had gone stiff and pale, their jaws clenched tight.

The auctioneer continued. "Now, let me tell you something. This sword is epic rank, and it is of flawless quality."

He paused and watched the audience’s shocked faces. "Yes, you heard that right. Flawless quality. Out of all the epic-rank items sold today, there are only four with flawless quality in total. The rest are good or normal quality."

"Now then, shall we begin the bidding? Oh, and I should tell you that this sword was forged by the guild leader of the very same guild that sold the rare-rank pieces earlier. Meaning that this up-and-coming guild doesn’t just have two excellent blacksmiths. It has a guild leader capable of forging flawless, epic-rank items..."

Realization rippled slowly through the audience.

Elona smiled. This was exactly the reaction she’d wanted. She wanted the guild to become famous, and this was only the first step.

Then the auctioneer shocked the bidders once more.

"The starting bid for this sword is one gold coin."

Elona froze.

Most of the hall froze with her.

But a moment later, the bidders came to life and began driving the price up at a furious pace. In no time it had crossed 1,000 gold coins.

Only then did Elona and the rest of the guild members let out the breath they’d been holding since the auctioneer announced the starting bid.

Two duke houses clashed over the sword, their voices clipped and cold as they traded bids. Then a third voice joined from a hooded booth near the front.

It was the bidder seated right beside Elona’s booth.

These were people who never bid in a frenzy. Whenever someone tried to cut them off, they simply silenced the opponent with an enormous jump in the bid.

The booths and private rooms competing for the sword began releasing their own pressure as well, each trying to force the other bidders down by sheer intimidation.

As they dueled with bids and auras, it was the common people who suffered most, pinned in their seats beneath the clash. Down on the main floor, people gripped their armrests and struggled for breath, cold sweat beading on their foreheads. A few players near the aisle had already gone pale, unable to lift their paddles even if they’d wanted to.

Even after a long while, none of them showed any sign of stopping. The air itself felt heavy, charged, like the moment before a storm broke over the hall.

Then, suddenly, an even more terrifying pressure descended on the hall. Elona and the others froze.

Even the three bidders who’d been unleashing their own auras froze in place.

After a moment, the pressure vanished, as though it had come only to warn everyone against pressuring others while bidding.

The bidding finally ended at four thousand eight hundred gold.

A collective exhale and a wave of cheers swept through the hall.

Hugh was still worried that the sword might end up in the wrong hands. He could only sigh, and place his faith in Leo.

...

The auctioneer let the tension bleed off for a while before continuing. An attendant brought out another lot, and this time it wasn’t a single item but a bundle of epic-rank forging materials.

The bidding went on, and Elona managed to claim a portion of the raw materials at a fairly good price.

The guild’s storehouse would be a little better stocked now.

After a while, the auctioneer returned to the stage, followed by an attendant carrying an item covered in cloth.

"This will be the last epic item of the auction," the auctioneer said. "I hope everyone takes note of it before bidding."

He waved his hand, and the cloth was pulled away, revealing a golden sword giving off an elegant, regal holy aura.

"Everyone, this is the holy sword. A sword with the holy attribute. Normally, a holy sword is created through the blessing of a bishop or the church, and only those connected to the church can wield it... isn’t that right?" The auctioneer made the question sound mysterious, even though everyone in the hall knew the answer.

Then he smirked, snatched up the sword, and swung it in a wide arc. A sharp wave of holy qi shot into the floor and left a scar in the stone.

"As you can see, this one, with its holy attribute, can be wielded by anyone." The auctioneer was grinning ear to ear.

"And now, let me announce the forger of this magnificent sword."

"It’s..."

"The forger whose work you have already seen..."

Everyone in the hall began to wonder who could possibly have forged a sword like this.

"Haha, difficult to guess, isn’t it? Then allow me to surprise you. It is the very same hand that forged the Devil’s Fang."

"Yes, it is the guild leader of the Eternal Forge Guild, Leo Stone. The up-and-coming guild."

Everyone was stunned, the royal family members included. For a long moment, the hall was so quiet that Elona could hear the faint hiss of the enchanted chandeliers overhead. Then the whispers began, spreading from booth to booth like wildfire.

Leo Stone. The Eternal Forge Guild. Who is he?

The high-ranking guests immediately ordered their people to find out more about this guild and its forge, and Elona saw more than a few attendants slip quietly out of the hall to carry the message.

Elona had gambled on becoming famous, and now all that remained was to find out whether the gamble would pay off for better or for worse.

....

The contrast was instantly noticeable. Where the Devil’s Fang had brought a creeping chill, the holy sword brought reverence. A gentle wave of golden light washed over the display, sweeping away the last dregs of devil mana still lingering in the air.

Elona felt the corner of her mouth quirk upward, genuinely amused.

"Heh... he acts like a fool most of the time, but he’s a clever little boy," she murmured.

It felt as though Leo had known exactly what would happen, presenting the Devil’s Fang first and the holy sword last. People tended to remember the last thing they saw for the longest time. She realized that Leo had engineered the whole arc of the two swords to tell the story he wanted: same smith, two swords, one holy and one devil.

"Now, let us begin the bidding for the Holy Sword of Dawn."

This time, before the ordinary bidders could even call out a bid, the VIP guests had already started bidding. The auctioneer hadn’t even managed to announce the starting price.

The royal family joined in, and the competition was mostly among its members. Others didn’t dare bid at all.

But then another party entered the fray. The people of the church had seen the sword and couldn’t bear to let it go. They went all out, and they weren’t afraid of the royal family in the slightest.

The price had already reached five thousand seven hundred gold coins, and the parties were still going back and forth.

Seven thousand gold coins.

Eight thousand.

Nine thousand.

The auctioneer tried to hype it up further, but the bidding had reached saturation and refused to climb any higher.

So the countdown began, and the sword was finally sold to the royal family.

The epic-rank auction had finally come to an end.

But there was still one more item.

"And this is the final piece of the auction," the auctioneer said. "The last item."

It was a parchment that looked like a golden book, kept inside a glass case.

"Some of you may have already guessed. This is a skill. A legendary-rank skill."

At the word legendary, everyone in the hall was startled again.

"This is a movement skill, and it has no class restriction. A mage, a warrior, a hunter — anyone can learn it."

"So, shall we begin the bidding for the final lot?"

The auction hall went mad with shouts and gasps.

Everyone started bidding frantically, especially the duke houses and the royal family.

10,000.

20,000.

40,000.

And 50,000 gold coins.

It kept climbing. Finally, it sold to one of the dukes at 80,000 gold coins.

The auction came to an end.

Everyone attending trickled away, and the hall slowly emptied out. All the consigners and bidders went to meet the auctioneer to collect their gold coins and items.

Elona collected the materials she’d bought, along with the gold.

The auction house deducted ten percent of the coins as its cut.

Afterward, Elona and the rest of the party made their way to the teleportation portal.

Just after they left, two parties arrived at the collection point looking for the members of the Eternal Forge Guild. One was from the church. It was the saintess, searching for Leo. The saintess Venara, who had once fought alongside Leo.

But she couldn’t find him, so she left, her expression quietly disappointed. The same was true of the Sword Duke, who arrived later with his own retinue. He, too, was sadly turned away, left to wonder just who this mysterious guild leader really was.

The auction had ended. Elona and Elly were on their way back to arrange the new money and items, and Elona couldn’t shake the feeling that today had set something much larger in motion than any of them yet understood.

...