Magical Academy: Rise of the Supreme Magic Craftsman

Wallace twitched his mouth after hearing Sylvia's announcement.

A Mirror of Trace that can be used twice the number of times compared to standard one was something he had also made. 

Even, Tracy and Ross were surprised at this. 

"That description..."

"Wallace, did you teach someone else on how to do that?"

"No.You're wrong, Ross. That's definitely his creation..."

The three were only aware that there's a Mirror of Trace to be sold since they have a copy of the list but its description, origin, and prices were not disclosed at all.

"That's surprising... Can you confirm whether it's really yours?" Ross glanced at Wallace who was also intently looking at the item on the stage. 

There's no doubt about it. It was really his creation.

He remembered that he made this item especially for Ray Penber. The latter ultimately used the Mirror of Trace to win a close fight against Lawrence from the Mystic Gate Academy. Lawrence specialized in wind elemental spells coming from Archon and Royal Magic Series.

As he was about to defeat Ray Penber using an exclusive magic spell of his Mana Artifact, Ray brought out and activated this Mirror of Trace to win the match.

"I didn't think that it would be expensive." Wallace mumbled softly but the other three had clearly heard it.

"That's what you're thinking? Shouldn't you ask why it is even here?" Ross could only sigh after seeing that Wallace doesn't seem to care that his creation was being sold without his knowledge.

"19.5 million!" As the three chatted about the Mana Artifact, the bid didn't stop from increasing. 

"19.7 million!"

"19.9 million!"

***

"It's not that I'm uninterested to learn about the Mirror of Trace's backstory or how it ended up here, it's just that I've already realized it before." Wallace replied to Ross.

Tracy was just silently listening to the two. Her bodyguard instead refilled the cup of tea on Tracy's hand. There's a tea table in front of them where they could enjoy a high-class tea as a perk of being a VIP within the shop.

The 50 items would surely take a lot of time to be sold and there would be a break once the 30th item was auctioned off so some food and beverages were included in the room.

"You've realized?" 

"Mhm... The Mana Artifacts we are producing during local tournaments, class competitions, academy competitions, and even international competitions were being handled by the organizers. They called it partial telling that it was because they've provided the materials. Anyway, due to the bountiful rewards they are giving from their competition, it is being overlooked." 

"N-now that you said it... But normally, these organizations would not be interested in the materials made by students who didn't even have a license yet." 

"That's what I thought so too. Anyway, it looks normal for them to take all the creations after the competition since it's being done by all of the other organizers as well. But think about it, if a large company organized an Artifact Forging Competition and give some enticing prizes, they could attract talented Magic Engineers and make them use their secrets and keep it on their own. They can reverse engineer some products if they could and learn from it." Wallace stopped explaining as he let Ross and Tracy imagine what can be the benefits of owning the contestants' creations. 

"I get it now..." Tracy who was silent just now joined their conversation. Ross was also nodding to himself and asked his final question. 

"Then, how do we avoid this?" Ross has been planning to join some local tournaments outside the TMAC to gain fame and money. But it wouldn't feel good to have the organizers learn his secrets. 

"Well, I did it during the competition at Montego." Wallace said as he explained how he tampered the core of his automaton during the competition to avoid leaking his Magic Structure. 

***

"29 million, Going once, going twice, sold!" Congratulations number 247 for winning the 17th item." Sylvia announced as she waited for the 18th item to be brought on the stage. 

"That level of Mana Artifact should've been sold for around 35 million." Ross muttered after seeing that the Mirror of Trace was sold to a business representative on the lower floor. 

"There's no helping on it. The Magic Engineer who made this Mirror of Trace wasn't named. They couldn't just blindly follow the auctioneer's enticement. Although they don't doubt the shop's appraisal ability, they don't believe that an unknown Magic Engineer deserve to have higher than 30 million credits on their artifact." Tracy replied to Ross and continued after sighing.

"If they said that it was made by a student without a license, it may even decrease the value of the item. So it's important to have a level of fame in this industry, if you want your items to be sold in the right price." 

The two young boys nodded in agreement with Tracy's words as the 18th item was brought out. It was a bottle containing black liquid. Around this item was a black miasma reminding Wallace of the intruders in his property. The police investigating the case should have a lead about the real culprit's identity but was kept hidden from him.

"This a synthesized Hallowed Eyes' potion. Hallowed Eye is one of the Sealed Mana Artifacts capable of producing multiple Berserk Potion just by absorbing the natural Mana. This synthesized version of potion here is the same with the Berserk Potion of Hallowed Eye but has some heavier negative effects... The base price is 4 million credits and the buyout price is only for 30 million credits." 

Before anyone could raise the price, a white sign had suddenly lit up. It came from the lower floor.

"Congratulations number 345 for winning the 18th item." It happened very fast so some of the bidders were quite curious about this potion. They were not new about the existence of a Berserk Potion. 

Although the potion that they can acquire in the market wasn't as impressive as the one created by the Hallowed Eye, the gap shouldn't be too high. Did they miss something? Is this synthesized version has something more to it? Isn't that single bottle too expensive? 

They couldn't think more about it as the 19th item was revealed Anyway, everyone has their own needs. That number 345 might be in badly need of a unique berserk potion. 

"This is the Nightingale Throwing Knives. A set of eighteen beautifully carved knives created by Julian Esmeria in his younger years. The knives were imbued by a special Magic Structure to create 19 deadly attack patterns. You can use it to hunt or even use it as a part of your collections! Just look at those beautiful engravements on each of the knives. The base price is 11 million credits and the buyout price is only 65 million credits."

Sylvia said doing her best to hype up the item.

But the business-minded Tracy didn't get lured even though it was created by a living legend. 

"The grade of Mana Artifacts wasn't mentioned. Even the materials to create the knives were avoided." Tracy shook her head upon seeing the scrambling bidders acquire the item. 

"Well, it looks like most of the bidders right now had only plans to use it as collectibles."

"Mhm... It's not that bad if you'll look onto that angle." Wallace agreed about it. 

He even imagined that once a memento or an item that was associated with the legendary Aeolia has appeared, its price would be definitely unimaginable.

He glanced at Ross thinking whether this guy inherited something from the great figure. 

In the end, the set of throwing knives was sold for 48.9 million credits. The price was quite high for a low-grade Mana Artifact that can only be used to hunt birds or horned rabbits in the forest. 

The auction continued as the next item that was sold was another incomplete secret arts. 

"This is a manual containing an incomplete version of high-grade Secret Arts: Flowing Spirit. This is mostly for magicians practicing to be a Medical Practitioner or a Mage Doctor. There is no stages like the other Secret Arts in this manual. But we can say that the manual that we have contains at least 38% of the genuine Secret Art. The base price is 10.5 million and the buyout price is 70 million credits." Sylvia announced as she was expecting that the bidders will scramble after she introduced the item but it seems that the item wasn't as popular as she expected. 

The raise of the bid was so slow and only a few from the lower floors were participating. 

"16 million!"

"16.9 million!"

...

"24.9 million!"

"25.1 million!"

Sylvia was a bit disheartened after seeing that no one was raising the bid anymore. She was expecting the item to reach 30 million credits but anyway, she had already profited a lot with the previous items especially to those customers who opted for a buyout. 

"25.1 million. Going once-"

Sylvia smiled widely upon seeing the room number 27 competing for the item. 

"26 million!"

"26.1 million!

"27 million!"

...

"34 million!"

"34.1 million! 

"Wallace, do you really need this? I can lend you if you needed more." Tracy kindly offered her help.

"It should be fine. Grand Arcanist Slaine--, I mean, my master gave me 100 million for an allowance." 

"Ahh... It feels nice to have such a kind Master, huh." Ross envied Wallace's status for a moment.

Soon, the bid stopped at 37 million where the other participant gave up.

Wallace heaved a sigh of relief after acquiring the item.

He waited for the item to be quickly delivered while his consciousness checked out his lifeless body inside his dimensional storage space.