The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

"Congratulations to the guest from the sky-tier room for winning the grade-four Supreme Healing elixir. But reassured, to the rest of our guests, this opening night has only just begun." Esmere clapped lightly with a bright and elegant smile while the staff carried the box away, presumably to give it to the winning bidder. Others came out, carrying another box, and unveiled the next item. As Esmere began to introduce it, Oscar brought his hand near the set of bells, ready to buy it in a heartbeat.

The item was a large ore of black stone. All over its surface were small glittering diamonds, shining brightly in contrast to the deep black stone. A faint Ein could be seen by the naked eye, emanating from the ore, possessing a potent power within. Esmere smiled, clearly happy at the audience's reaction. "As you are aware, so many different resources exist within our beloved world. Armaments are one of the major points of our progress. However, even with a beast's cores and body parts, the only way to create an elemental armament is with the precious elemental ores. Here, we have one of those precious ores, a grade-three Diabond ore, containing the Ein of metal within."

"Metal?" Avril seemed excited and shook Oscar around from the side. "That's perfect for you. She wants to buy it now."

Oscar also wished to buy it now. But the rarity of these elemental ores meant the bidding was sure to be fierce. He was glad to know it was only a grade-three ore, meaning the value should probably be a little more than the auction's supposed appraisal of his crafted spear, a little over a million. While he held confidence in winning, the problem was in one particular bidder, Hector. Glancing at Hector over on a balcony just below the City Lord's level, Oscar wrote a message on a notepad provided by the auction house and rang the bell for assistance.

Oscar passed the note to the incoming attendant and said, "Please give this to Branch Head Hector Brenor. He will understand."

"The starting bid will be at 50,000 gold coins. Now then, let us begin!" Esmere finished off with a clap, and the hall descended into chaos, shouting their bids one after the other. Their hunger was more than the grade-four elixir, which was normal. After all, how many of them had the resources to buy such an elixir or compete against the deep pockets of big factions?

"Oscar? Are you not going to bid?" Avril yawned, stretching her arms.

"I'll start bidding once fewer people are fighting for it. Also, I'm waiting for a response." Oscar tapped his finger on the couch head until an attendant returned with a note. He unfurled the letter and smiled. Hector had agreed to let him the precious ore if he could take a piece of it. With the harshest obstacle settled, Oscar cracked his knuckles and leaned over to the bells. "It's time to bid."

Soon enough, only around ten people were bidding for the Diabond ore, and Oscar raised one of the bells, shaking it to alert the auction house of his intention to bid. These bells in the silver-tier rooms were well-made and quite fancy. Each bell represented how much a person intended to bid, five times the current amount, two times the current amount, half more gold, 100,000 gold more, 10,000 gold more, 1,000 gold more. The current bid for the Diabond ore went up to 150,000 gold. Oscar shook the ten thousand bell five times to raise it to 200,000 gold.

"200,000 gold! I got 200,000 gold. Any other bidders?" Esmere declared. Somehow she was getting the information on stage. Her eyes widened as she stated, "I have 500,000 gold. 500,000 gold."

Oscar raised his bid. "750,000 gold!"

This nearly silenced all other bids except for one other who continued to fight him for the Diabond ore. "900,000 gold!"

Oscar noticed the bidder was someone from the Pavilion's enemies on the earth-tier balconies, another reason for him not to give up this item. He raised a bell and shook fiercely. Esmere yelled out, "1.1 million gold! I have 1.1 million gold."

"1.2 million!" A man from the Thousand Storm Palace made a bid.

"1.3 million." Oscar bid again. Judging from the grim face of the man and his companions, he had won. Indeed, victory was his, yet it was puzzling. The group there represented the interests of three empires with their collective wealth. Their stock had to be large enough to surpass his, or it would be a poor showing for their empires. As Esmere declared his victory, Oscar passed the gold coins to the attendant, still confused about the reserved behaviors of his enemies, even later when he received the ore. 'Either they don't want to overbuy an item, or there is something else they are eyeing.'

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For an opening night of the Grand Gamble, he knew a grand finale awaited. The apex of the auction always came out at the end. As Oscar pondered, Avril tugged him again, drawing his attention. "Hubby, look over there. It's a wood-element ore."

"What?" Oscar couldn't believe it. On the pedestal was a wood-element ore, the Oaksteel ore. He sent another note to Hector and received the same deal. Without hesitation, he outbid the others and won the ore, spending a million gold coins this time. His funds were now down by a fifth, but he didn't care, hugging Avril, who was ecstatic at the win. "Honey, since your dear husband has worked hard and will do more to make a great armament for you, shouldn't there be a reward?"

"Ehehe. Fine. She's so happy." Avril cupped his chin and gave him a deep, long kiss, his lips and mind enjoying every moment of delight numbing his brain before the attendant rudely walked in with the Oaksteel ore.

Oscar separated from Avril, feeling unsatisfied, and stored the ore away. Seeing her listless face almost begging for more, Oscar clicked his tongue and went in for more, falling and lying atop her on the couch. Her hands wrapped around his neck like fiery chains, binding him to sink further into her embrace.

"Oi. I don't want to be the rude one in this relationship, but there's still the rest of the auction to go through." Erden sighed, his small transformed figure resting on the table with a cushion.

Oscar and Avril snapped out of it, their faces flushing and breathing ragged. He rose back to sit on the couch properly while Avril adjusted her hair back to normal. He sipped his water to cool down the heat of lust burning in him and nearly spat it out at the next item, an elemental ore of water.

"Are you going to bid for this one?" Avril asked, drinking her water as the flush in his cheeks lessened.

Oscar nodded. "We might not have the appropriate elemental sparks, but it's still good to buy, especially for the war. From the size of the ores, we can get around three armaments from one."

The following bids were quite fierce, but Oscar won the water ore. As it turned out, the Golden Rose Auction House gathered ores of different elements, wood, earth, metal, water, wind, darkness, light, lightning, and fire. After buying all of them, Oscar was satisfied. He constantly outbid the enemy and procured good ores for the Knight Exalts of his home. Their faces seemed cold, an icy and grim look in their eyes betraying their frustration and anxiety.

"I only have a million gold left. Money seems to just slip through my fingers." Oscar laid down on Avril's lap pillow as she stroked his head. With only a million, he could not continue competing for larger items, pinning his hope on his auctioned items to sell bigger than the loan from the auction house.

"Next!" Esmere clapped her hand again. Unveiled from the box was a long spear with a long coiling tip. "This is a recent item made by one of our own fabricators. It is an elemental armament of wind, created from Stormsteel, extremely flexible with a powerful tip. The purity of the refinement is 85, a good score for elemental ores. The starting bid for this precious spear is 100,000 gold!"

"Why is the starting price higher than the ore? Is it because it's a finished armament?" Avril continued stroking Oscar's head. "The auction's estimate was also a million gold. Isn't that cheaper than the wind elemental ore we bought?"

Gazing into her face above, Oscar said, "The starting price may be higher, but the end price might be lower. An ore has infinite options on what it can be and to the extent it can be purified, while an armament is all set in stone. Of course, they would have to hire the services of another fabricator later, but they can set the specifications. Or it can be another fabricator who wants the ores desperately like me. The only way for this spear to be worth a lot is if a spear anima user of the wind element down there wants it desperately."

"1.5 million!" Esmere called out.

"I guess there is someone who wants it badly. She looks at the balconies and sees one of the Elders from the Hilrest Tower. He has some students with him." Avril described to Oscar.

"Really? They didn't want the ores but went straight for the weapon? How strange." Oscar closed his eyes as Avril rubbed his forehead. The auction house took ten percent of the gold earned and gave him the leftovers, taking into account the one million gold they gave him for the spear as a loan, a small amount of 350,000 gold. With the 1,350,000 gold, Oscar went into battle again, raising the price whenever he saw the enemies start to bid and backing off when someone else seemed eager enough to win it. Ultimately, he bought one more item, a rare green liquid, the extract of the seven-bloom daisy, and gifted it to Avril, who responded with more kisses.

Esmere bowed with a smile. "We will be taking a short intermission, but don't go anywhere. I will let you all know what will come next. The rare Wildersap, grade four!"

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