281 Chapter Eighty One - We check out the lots for auction (1/2)

Three spaces had received such treatment; two were where the lots were held for inspection, one was where the auction would take place.

Leon was beside Jin Li as they wandered around the crowded hall holding the open auction lots.  Sixty displays were formed in the space, each protected by arrays from accidental damage, from theft and from time itself.  Most of the displays held animal parts and herbs, occasionally, as with Pike's team's display, there were gemstones and ores.  One team was selling some rare wood that they had found and a few had arranged to sell left over paper talismans and pills.  Leon's team had decided not to do this, after all, some of his pills were not exactly common.

The small alchemist didn't look at others' pills, ignoring even the higher quality ones as they mostly had no use to him.  However, there were more than one stalk of herbs that caught his eye.  He particularly found interest in the whole plants, ones that could be repotted and continuously nurtured.  Some were common, some were not, that part was not something he worried about.

Jin Li glanced at one or two things, just that these things happened to have little value in his eyes.  Skins, furs, horns and teeth, he could hunt those things himself.  The ores were nothing special to him and he had no use for jade and gemstones; he could not blacksmith nor craft weapons and jewellery, so why would he buy them?  Beside, he'd already found a treasure in the sword he'd named Xunsu Bagong; these people could keep their own measly finds.  He didn't want them.

That's not to say he lacked interest in everything placed in the auctions, but that was due to the fact that the second room held truly valuable and more interesting things.

The things held for the closed auction were not held in groups, just displayed individually.  The other displays were made to show a fraction of the reason behind their overall scores in the competition, thus quelling some doubts.  In this room, the things being sold didn't just give their finder's points toward the competition, they were valuable and sought after.  Plus, non-competitors would display their finest works here in order to obtain some money or other things for themselves.

In amongst these lots, Leon's senior brother Hue happened to be standing, with his other senior brother, Stygar.  They happened to be standing next to a display with a jade bottle upon a pedestal, a single, rare pill inside.  It was known as the Scarlet Barrier pill and was an defence-enhancement pill aimed at Fire Mages.  If a mage or even a martial artist with fire roots took this pill, it would form a reflective barrier around them made of fire, which would not only burn any weapon or fist that attempted to make contact with them, but would retaliate with small fireballs.  The major downside was naturally its reduced market; without fire roots to control the volatile nature of the magic pill, the consumer would suffer internal and external damage from the flames.

”D-d-did b-big brother m-make this p-pill?” Leon found himself asking the large man.

”En,” came the simple response.

Leon couldn't help exchange glances with Jin Li and as if reading their mind, Stygar answered their unasked question.  ”Hue likes to stand guard over his pills before they exchange hands,” he told them, then muttered with a sneer; ”it's not as if there is no protective measures in place.  He does this every year.”

He didn't tell them why he chose to stand beside Hue; Leon understood that their relationship was not unlike that between himself and Jin Li, so he did not say anything in regards to this.  But a sudden thought did cross his mind.

”C-can b-big brother m-make other p-pills m-m-m... that mages like?” Leon asked him.