176 Clues (1/2)

Tracy and Ross wore a serious expression after the 49th item was introduced. Wallace didn't find any abnormalities on the item.

Cores of the Mana Beast were not some rare commodities. They were mostly used as materials for mana artifacts, potion ingredients, and others.

'Is there something I missed?'

He glanced sideways at Tracy who was about to join the bidding war any moment from now. Ross was also looking interested but he kept himself from raising his bid and only watched the event.

He recalled Sylvia's introduction.

The 49th item to be auctioned was a sack containing 30 pieces of cores from three different Mana Beasts. Ten from Fire Ravens, ten from Blaze Wolves, and another ten cores from a Flame Warhorse. The base price was a staggering 150 million and no buyout price as expected.

It seems that the bidding war would take a while due to the slow raise of the price so Wallace decided to understand what's happening.

”Why is this so expensive? Mana Beast Cores shouldn't be this expensive right? Based on the previous market price of these cores, it should only amount to 160,000 to 200,000 credits each piece.” Wallace couldn't help but ask some clarification to Ross.

”Ahh... Right, you're not aware of the recent incident here in the capital.”

”Incident?”

”Yes. It should be for the top Clans only but I'll make it short for you. Cores from mana beasts that has fire affinity was discovered to be a main ingredient to create a new power source called Molten Core. Unfortunately, mana beasts that has fire affinity were too rare in our country. Most of fire mana beasts can only be found in Utara but we don't have a reliable channel in that country. These cores might even be all the remaining cores available in the market. If others wanted to hunt, it would also be tough even for a group of Adepts.” Ross kindly explained while observing the auction.

[ No public or private information found on the internet about the new term. ]  Avalon dutifully checked any online information about this but found nothing. It seems that this information was tightly guarded for some reason.

”Molten Core? I haven't heard of it and why for top Clans only?”

”That's fine... I can tell you now since you're an apprentice of Sir Slaine, you'll surely hear of this soon.”

Ross didnt bother to hide anything from Wallace since his identity and status would rise up after the government or society acknowledge his apprenticeship. This information would soon spread to the whole nation. He'll definitely be a small time celebrity soon and access to these kinds of information will be easily come to him.

”In short, the Molten Core is like the Mana Battery made of Mana Stone but in this case, it is made of cores from those fire beast's cores.”

”What are they use for?”

”To make Steel Knights...”

Wallace knitted his brows at the familiar term. ”They're few grades lower than the Iron Knights found in the northern continent... Oh, if you're not aware of Iron Knights, they are large humanoid machines made of magic and science. I'm not too sure of it's specificities but I've seen one.” Ross smiled feeling proud about his knowledge.

Of course, he was aware that he can only brag for now because Wallace has not yet fully taken advantage of his status to get some internal information like these.

'I see... It's a good thing I've learned of this. I'll have to make some adjustments in the settings then.' Wallace thought about something else after understanding Ross' words.

”I got it. So its normal that these people were all trying to get hold of these cores. Well, if I have the blueprint of the Molten Core and Steel Knight, even I will be tempted to bid. Haha.”

”That's right. I heard that two fire beast's cores can be used to create one Molten Core for Steel Knights. Sigh~ This shop didn't even separated the cores. They could've sold per pair and might even earn a lot more but they still decided to do this.”

”Mhm...” Wallace nodded in agreement.

”322.2 million!” The bid already reached a very high price. Even Wallace was feeling that it was too absurd at this moment. Well, most of it was due to the continuous bid of room 28 to increase the price.

Anyway, the 49th item was successfully won by someone in the VIP room 11 for a final price of 472 million credits. It also means that whoever won this item would have a chance to create 15 Steel Knights for their own use.

The amount of money being spent here was also an eye-opener for Wallace who deemed that his security contract with the Golden Trident Group was too expensive already.

At last, after more than an hour of this event in the New Era's Magic Shop, the final item was revealed.