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Alex stared in shock and quickly checked the ore mine's information. He soon discovered that the ore mine was a Black Iron vein, which left him even more astonished. He truly had no idea why they were auctioning something like this off. Black Iron was a rare mineral classified as S rank. Ores and herbs followed the same ranking system as the affinities. An S rank material could serve as the primary component inside an Epic rank item. Even if not used to its full potential, it would still at least reach Light Gold rank. The auctioneer then announced,

"I'm sure everyone knows the value of this item! It's located inside a very special item, yes, that's right, it's located inside a pocket dimension. This pocket dimension makes it easy for the owner to use the ore mine and only requires 100,000 gold to function! The bidding will start at 500,000, with a minimum increase of 10,000. Furthermore, we will only accept magic crystals for this item."

Alex quickly began his bidding, refusing to let anyone else claim it. The bidding was intense, and after a lengthy hour, Alex won the ore mine. He had to spend over 2.2 million magic crystals, but his smile never left his face. The rest of the items in the auction were good, but Alex didn't bid on them. It was finally time for the second phase of the auction, the bartering stage. This was the main reason he wanted to attend this auction. In the first timeline, a sword was auctioned during this phase, and it was later discovered to be a part of a sword of unfathomable power. The mere fragment of this unfathomable sword was of Legendary grade and was called Heaven's Requiem. Alex ignored the millions of items listed in front of him and searched for the sword. While the sword itself was a great weapon, Alex needed to acquire it as he already knew where all the other fragments were. Eventually, he found the sword and noticed that it had already reached a bid of 400,000 gold coins. However, Alex smiled when he saw the buyout price. The buyout price is the price listed to gain ownership of an item immediately. Moreover, the buyout price was 800,000 magic crystals. Alex didn't waste any time and bought out the sword, spending 800,000 magic crystals, leaving him with only 90,027. Alex leaned back in the comfy and soft couch and said to Mia,

"Alright, I'm done. You can spend the rest on things to help our guild."

"Really!? Alright, I won't hold back then!"

Mia didn't hold back and spent the rest of both their magic crystals and gold. Luckily, Alex was able to convince Mia to save at least 100,000 for the Ore Vein. After everything was over, the third phase of the auction was about to begin. The last phase was a simple banquet for anyone who had spent over 1 million gold coins or an equal amount in magic crystals. Since they had spent well over that in magic crystals, they were invited. However, before they went, they looked at the items they had bought from the auction.

They had purchased an ancient sword that Alex had plans to use soon, a shop promotion order, a fragment of the sword of Solomon, and an ore vein inside a pocket dimension. Mia had also bought 3,000 Light Gold and Dark Gold equipment for levels 20-30 and 30-40. She had also bought consumables like health, mana, and magic scrolls. Additionally, she had purchased a few item recipes that could be learned by an infinite number of people. While they were common items like return scrolls, health potions, light stones, mana potions, etc., they would save on the guild's costs and provide a learning experience for the production members they planned to recruit.

Once they had everything sorted and stored in Alex's Sky Ring, they left to attend the banquet. As Alex knew exposing his identity would be premature, he gave Mia and himself masks to hide their faces and block any identification skills. Alex was wearing a fox mask while Mia was wearing a cat mask. They both arrived at the banquet and noticed how packed it was. The banquet was crowded, and Alex could see a few familiar faces. He recognized some people from the Library of Secrets guild and even saw a few from other super guilds. However, his main focus was on the people not from his dimension, those from another server. The game acted as a second world for everyone, including people from different dimensions. Later in the game, you would be able to visit these dimensions both in the game and the real world. Each dimension had its own server, and every server was different. Alex had seen servers where the game world was completely destroyed from a battle, and the players were living in a post-apocalyptic society. He had even seen one where the game world was set in a futuristic setting, with robots and advanced technology prevalent.

Alex didn't waste any time and took Mia's hand. Then he started to walk over to a few people he knew. Mia was flustered, but she kept her composure and walked beside him. They reached the representative from the Library of Secrets guild and asked,

"So, did you all acquire anything substantial?"

"Uhm, who are you? I'm not familiar with you."

"Oh, silly me. I'm Lucifer, the guild master of the Broken Heaven guild."

"Oh, yes, I know who you are. I also must thank you in advance for the information about the magic crystals."

"No problem, it was a worthwhile trade."

"To answer your question, we did get quite a few worthwhile items. We even managed to obtain a guild promotion order."

"Oh, congratulations on your purchase then."

Alex continued talking with the Library of Secrets representative and noticed a few people were watching him. He smiled slightly and then said,

"I'm sure you've all had your fun eavesdropping. If you have something you would like to ask, I'm more than willing to hear you out."

"Hehe, I'm sure of it now. You were the one who bought the ore vein, weren't you?"

"That is correct. If you have any trades you wish to discuss, you are more than welcome to message me. My username is Lucifer. Now, I must say goodbye to you all."

Alex wasn't wearing the mask to protect his in-game identity; instead, he wanted to protect himself from people finding his real-life identity. Some identification skills could reveal the player's real name and information, and Alex knew he needed to keep his identity a secret for a little longer. As he left with Mia, he sensed a burst of hostility and easily identified the culprit. It was a man wrapped in bandages, and the exposed parts of him were pitch black. His aura was oppressive and evil in nature. Chains were wrapped around both his hands and feet, and they seemed to glow with a crimson aura. Through Alex's Seeker Eyes, he could tell the man had a high negative karma value and was an incarnation of pure evil. His eyes widened a little, and he whispered under his breath with surprise,

"The Evil God's temple has already been activated?"

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A/N

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed today's chapter! Have a good rest of your day or night!

If you like this book so far you should check out my other work, A Last Wish!