The day of the auction.

  Lucas didn’t expect so many people to attend the auction, nor did he expect them to be representatives of influential houses. From what Philipe told him yesterday. They gave out reservations per table to reduce the number of participants. But there was still a lot of people present.

  A lot of influential people.

  “I feel out of place...” Lucas muttered.

  “You do realize these people are here for you, right?” Althea gave him a flat look.

  “They don’t know me though...”

  Althea just scratched her head. “Enough of that. Did you get the memo about all the people attending?”

  “Yeah. Apparently, an imperial guard is in one of the private booths,” Lucas said. “I wonder if they just came to watch.”

  “Out of my way!” Althea was shoved by a pompous man.

  Thankfully, Lucas was able to catch her in time before she fell to the ground. Lucas glared at the man and was about to say something when Althea stopped him. Lucas looked down at her, and she shook her head.

  The man scoffed. “Uncultured swine have no place in an event like this,” the man said before walking away with his group.

  “Hold it in. We have an event to get to,” Althea said as she got to her feet.

  Lucas made sure to remember the man’s face.

  By some miracle, Shina and her friends were given a private staff booth in Iris’s auction. With this, they were even given options for who to interview for their final project.

  “Almost all the most reputable houses in the south are here,” Monique muttered as she looked outside the window of the staff room. “Who do we pick?”

  “I think we should pick depending on how the auction goes,” Aurora suggested. “We could choose someone that’s in a good mood.”

  “That’s a great idea!” Monique agreed.

  “Preferably someone from a normal house at most. Getting involved with the great houses is never a good choice,” Shina mentioned.

  “Oh, it’s about to begin!” Aurora exclaimed in excitement.

  The host stepped into the stage and began explaining the process of the auction. And hearing it made them all scratch their heads in confusion. All bids would be in increments of a thousand and Iris could decide to void a bid if he wanted.

  That statement managed to put a few people on edge since it seemed money wasn’t the only factor in the auction.

  “Now, some of you may be thinking, is it worth it to auction a single golem?” the host spoke. “Well, you won’t be bidding for the standard kind,” the host snapped his fingers, and two golems began walking out from behind the stage.

  The golems were identical in appearance with a mechanical humanoid shape and carried a vat container on its back like an oversized backpack. The only notable difference between the two golems were the color of the liquid inside the vat and one of them had a faint green aura.

  “This is the Iris: Medic,” the host informed. “Its primary role is to be an on-field healer as some of you already guessed by recognizing the liquid within the vat containers. For those who don’t know, the liquid is used for stasis, preventing any injuries from worsening as they are rushed to the hospital,” the host explained. “The golem is also able to use mid-level healing magic using rune magic.”

  The one with the faint aura stepped forward. It then proceeded to raise an arm, and then a green dome covered the venue.

  Shina and her friends immediately felt their fatigue disappear as the dome covered them with a green glow.

  “The golems that will be auctioned today have all been enchanted with the abilities of monster and even had those abilities enhanced,” the host revealed. “This particular model has the ability of an Acacia treant to heal in a wide area. I hope I don’t need to emphasize how hard it is to achieve that.”

  The people began murmuring as the dome vanished. With the demonstration over, the golem without the enhancement returned backstage, leaving only the enhanced golem at the stage.

  “Now, shall we begin with the auction?” the host asked and immediately got a reaction.

  “50 thousand credits!”

  “70 thousand credits!”

  “Phil really knows how to rile people up,” Lucas commented as they watched the auction from the viewing booth.

  “You know, I always wondered if you had an extrovert friend after I visited you in the hospital,” Althea commented. “How come I’ve never heard about him.”

  “He didn’t know I was hospitalized and I kind of went off contact with everyone after I received my mage evaluation,” Lucas replied.

  “Well, you might have failed as a mage, but at least you’re one of the best crafters now,” Althea stated as they watched the bid reach half a million credits. “Very rich too.”

  Currently, the highest bidder was the mage association. But it was evident by the way their representative was sweating. They were already straining their allowed budget for this auction.

  “Is the golem that good?” Lucas asked in confusion. “I expected to get a 100 thousand at best for it.”

  Althea gave him a flat look. “Your humbleness is starting to get irritating.”

  By the end of it, the first golem was sold at 850 thousand to the exploration committee, an organization that explores ruins and dungeons in the southern sectors.

  Lucas didn’t even know they had that much money.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “They’re probably out of the auction,” Althea commented. “They’re wealthy, but I doubt they had that much money lying around all the time. If they read the catalogue, they should have waited for the Iris: Dispatch. That would have fit their organization better.”

  “Maybe they really needed a healer,” Lucas mentioned. “They could order the standard Iris: Dispatch after this auction.”

  The next golem up for auction was the Iris: Oracle. “Aside from the ability to fly, this golem has the ability of a mirror hawk to camouflage itself in the sky!” Philipe explained as the golem seemed to turn invisible and erased its presence.

  The golem had a starting bid of 200 thousand on Philipe’s insistence and only increased as people began bidding.

  Apparently, Lucas underestimated the worth of a scout since the current bid was now a million credits. “At this point, I should just make my own factory,” Lucas muttered.

  “Well, I’ll be willing to work for you with the right pay,” Althea added with a laugh.

  “2 million!”

  They turned back to the auction to see who doubled the current bid. Lucas recognized it as the man who shoved Althea earlier and insulted them. He stood proudly in one of the front tables and had the same arrogant smirk on his face.

  Lucas pressed something on his phone and that sent a signal to Philipe.

  “Well,” Philipe adapted his own arrogant smirk. “Unfortunately, your bid has been voided by Iris.”

  The man’s smirk vanished.

  The crowd began murmuring, most of them trying to figure out what actually caused the reaction from Iris.

  “Who is that?” Lucas asked, wondering why Althea stopped him earlier.

  “That’s Anthony Lavarith. The heir to the Lavarith family that’s part of the southern alliance,” Althea explained. “He’s also a Viscount-ranked mage.”

  The last part was emphasized by Anthony Lavarith creating a magic circle as he marched closer to the stage. Philipe’s smirk didn’t falter even when an enraged mage was heading towards him.

  That’s because he knew Lucas would never allow a friend of his to get hurt.

  As Anthony Lavarith fired a blade of wind towards Philipe, the sound of thunder echoed through the venue as a white blur tore through the blade of wind and stood between Philipe and Anthony Lavarith.

  Ragnar’s silver fur crackled with red lightning as he menacingly stood over the arrogant mage. Cold air escaped Ragnar’s mouth as it growled, making the mage step back.

  Anthony Lavarith’s group stood from their table, but they hesitated to take action when they realized they were the only ones who reacted to the sudden appearance of the monstrous creature.

  “I do not take kindly to those who mistreat my people,” a modified version of Lucas’s voice rang out the venue. “Leave. As in your own words “Uncultured swine have no place in an event like this”.”

  “You can’t do this to me!” Anthony Lavarith yelled.

  “Leave.”

  The voice wasn’t loud, but it somehow rang through the whole venue and exuded pressure over everyone present. Everyone turned to one of the private booths and saw the imperial guard watching the scene from the balcony of his booth.

  Thankfully, even Anthony Lavarith knew better than to go against an imperial guard and quietly left the auction. Lucas was well aware that an imperial guard was not included in the continental rankings, but in terms of power, they rivaled the mages within the top 20.

  “Continue with the auction,” the imperial guard spoke before heading back inside his booth.

  “I like him,” Lucas nodded in approval.

  Althea hesitated on commenting how much they were similar.

  The auction continued smoothly with the first five of the golems that Lucas created selling way beyond his expectations. Now came his most recent creations with some of them not even being golems.

  “For our sixth item,” Philipe gestured to the screen. “We have a generator capable of producing 1000 megawatts per day!” Philipe exclaimed.

  That got a reaction from the crowd.

  The powerful generator was created on accident during one of Ragnar’s field tests. Lucas had created a battery to absorb the lightning being generated during the formation of Ragnar’s golem.

  As he watched all the lightning shooting out, he got the idea to use that part of the magic circle to create a generator. After some modifications to the magic circle, Lucas assembled the generator and was amazed by the results. Considering it produced and contained literal bolts of lightning, there was doubt it was a powerful generator.

  Lucas considered selling it commercially, but such a powerful generator could lead to several problems since unlike golems, there’s less restrictions in purchasing generators.

  The auction quickly got heated with the great houses putting in their bids. So far, only the big organizations had been participating in the auction, and the imperial guard hasn’t even placed a single bid yet.

  “I guess he’s just here to observe,” Lucas muttered as the final bid for the generator came from the Slywood family at 2.5 million credits.

  By this point, Lucas already raked in over 7 million credits. A whole lot more money than he expected to get today.

  “For the seventh item, we have the core of a monster lord!” Philipe announced, catching Lucas by surprise as well.

  “Wait what?” Lucas grabbed the catalogue, flipping through the pages to find the item.

  “I’m guessing you didn’t know about the other items that filled in the slots of the auction,” Althea spoke. “It came from the imperial extermination squad,” Althea mentioned. “When they found out a bunch of great houses would be gathered today, they jumped at the chance to place a few items up for auction.”

  “2 million.”

  The starting bid caught them off-guard, especially because the bidder was the imperial guard. “Wasn’t he the one that brought it here?” Lucas asked in confusion.

  Althea shook her head. “All imperial divisions act separately. Additionally, that imperial guard isn’t here as a member of the imperial guard on duty, but as an individual.”

  “Oh...”

  With the imperial guard starting the bid, nobody else dared to bid against him. Lucas knew that all the great houses attending the auction were primarily merchant families other than the Slywood family, so it was understandable that they wouldn’t want to go against an imperial guard.

  “How many items do you have left in the catalogue?” Althea asked.

  “2. Phil said to save it for last,” Lucas answered.

  Althea nodded. “Well, I’ll step out to get some food. I hate fine dining,” Althea said before leaving the viewing booth.

  Lucas stared at the plate of steaks that Althea left untouched. “Might as well....”

  “10 thousand credits as an entrance fee? That's ridiculous,” Jasmine grumbled as they went to grab some food from the buffet.

  “I mean... you wouldn’t come to an auction without money,” Alliah replied.

  They came to the auction to meet with Lucas Atican since Waywood started restricting people from entering their buildings after an incident of people trying to sneak in. This resulted in Waywood tightening security and providing employees the option to enter through a secret entrance.

  That made it hard for Jasmine and Alliah to wait for him outside as well. “Are we even sure he’s Iris?” Jasmine grumbled.

  “Who else did we bother recently?” Alliah raised an eyebrow.

  Jasmine sighed. When they returned to the table, they noticed the other people from the mage association that came with them were gone. They were only given row seats since the table seats were given to the houses that had reservations for the auction.

  “Where did everybody go?” looking around, they spotted a crowd near the exit. “What are they doing over there?” Jasmine asked.

  “Hold on,” Alliah closed her eyes for a moment. “Apparently, Iris’s recruiter passed by.”

  “His recruiter?” Jasmine raised an eyebrow.

  “Althea Everbloom. She's also from a family that’s a decedent of elves,” Alliah explained. “She’s not well-known since she’s not from the direct line of her family and she already cut ties with them.”

  Jasmine squinted her eyes, trying to get a good look at the woman that was trying to get past the crowd.

  She is a curvy woman with long blonde hair that is styled in curly locks in the front with folded curls in the back that is pressed by a curved plate and green eyes. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties and dressed professionally.

  “Maybe she knows where Iris is,” Alliah spoke. “Should we approach her.”

  “I don’t think she’ll react well if we bother her now,” Jasmine stated.