The auction (Part 1)

A few steps from the entrance, Winston saw an old man with white hair and beard wearing silver robes. His collar was embroidered with golden patterns, and his eyes flashed with a cold blue light. The old man was also accompanied by two burly men in black robes who exuded a strength comparable to that of a wizard in the pinnacle of the zero realm.

"Good evening Mr. Makroft. I didn't think you were coming tonight."

"Haha... And miss the chance to get fourth-age relics? Come on Winston, I thought you already knew me."

'Yeah, I know you pretty well you old piece of sh*t. I honestly didn't want you to come here you old creep.' Winston thought to himself.

Although the old wizard seemed to be a nice person, the reality was different.

After the fourth age, many meditation and cultivation techniques had been lost to oblivion causing the level of Genaerrsis wizards to decline greatly.

Even if a person had the talent to become a wizard if they did not have a good meditation technique or enough resources they would be stuck in the lower realms for a long time and perhaps forever.

For this reason there were people who having no meditation technique and no appropriate resources had tried to advance to a higher realm by their own means. But they failed and were injured for life.

Many of the wizards in the port city of Neima were people whose affinity for magic was rather mediocre and they were too old to continue cultivating, or they had been injured and stagnated in their cultivation.

These wizards who now made a living from selling enchantments or magic potions had retired to the noble district.

The old Makroft was one of these wizards who, while trying to advance to the 2nd realm, had injured himself and got stuck at the pinnacle of the 1st realm.

But the reason Winston did not like this old man was because despite being injured he was still a wizard and abused his position to bully the common people.

In fact, old Makroft was notorious among the local wizards for exercising indiscriminate violence on almost any commoner in town just for fun.

There were also rumors that the old wizard was connected to the black market, the slave trade, and the city's gangs. Other rumors said that the old man along with other wizards frequented the slums of the city to kidnap people to use for their experiments or to arrange some twisted entertainment.

But since the old wizard had a high status and surely bribed several nobles, the city authorities only made him pay some fines for his lighter crimes and concealed the more unpleasant deeds.

"Hohoho, though to tell the truth I'm more curious about that wizard Edevane. He must be quite talented enough to be able to obtain so many ancient relics."

'Tch, this old man sure heard that Mr. Edevane is just a lone wizard of the 1st realm and thinks he can easily take advantage of him.' Thought Winston. "Well about that..."

But just as Winston was about to speak, a luxurious carriage guarded by six armed horsemen pulled up to the edge of the street, right in front of the carpet.

At that moment, everyone present moved out of the way and even old Makroft had a straight face. The reason for this was because everyone sensed that inside the carriage was a person with power comparable to that of a wizard of the 2nd realm.

The coachman of the carriage got down from his seat and went to the carriage door. When he opened it, a tall man wearing a dark robe with white striped patterns and wearing a full black mask got out of the carriage and walked down the red carpet straight towards the entrance.

When Winston saw the man step down from the carriage, he was truly dumbfounded. 'Impossible, when I saw him last time he was just a wizard from the 1st realm! Did he manage to make his way to the 2nd realm in just a week?!... If so, this man must have a powerful meditation technique.'

Winston had a natural gift for determining the strength and elemental rank of a wizard just by sensing the magical energy he emitted. So he was sure that Marcus was just a wizard of the first realm who had not even reached the pinnacle of that realm.

Of course, it never occurred to Winston the possibility that Marcus was hiding his true strength as he was too confident in his evaluation abilities that had given him a high position in the T.M.S Company branch.

"Good evening Lord Edevane, I don't know if you remember me....? I am Winston Folghs we met last week. Allow me to lead you inside." Winston quickly snapped out of his state of surprise, hurried to greet Marcus, and together they entered the building.

But before entering the building, Winston turned to see the stupefied look on old Makroft's face, which filled him with satisfaction.

Old Makroft was really confused.

Until just a few moments he was planning to take advantage of this lone wizard so that he could make as much profit as possible. After all, he had status and position in the city while Marcus was a nobody. But now things were different.

For the wizards, the difference in power between each realm was immense and in the port city of Neima where there were only four wizards from the 3rd realm, the wizards from the 2nd realm were the real masters of the city.

Sure, there were some exceptions where a wizard from a lower realm could be as strong or even stronger than a wizard from a higher realm. But old Makroft was not one of those exceptions.

Even if the old wizard had all kinds of contacts and dealings with all the elites and underground organizations in the city, he still had to be careful who he provoked. After all, Makroft valued his own life more than any profits he might make.

****

Winston, along with four employees dressed in white suits led Marcus through a series of white hallways with various extravagant artwork and paintings hanging on the side walls. Finally, they walked up a marble staircase to a large wooden door with gilded engravings.

The hall where the auction was to take place was very similar to a theater and was divided into different areas. At the bottom were the seats where the merchants and lower-ranking nobles were seated.

Above, there were three floors with different box seats and halls where the true elite of the city gathered, the representatives of prestigious companies and powerful organizations. This wooden door led to the VIP box seat of the auction house where only the highest ranks of society gathered.

Originally Marcus could not be here, since in the eyes of others he was just a lone wizard from the 1st realm who did not belong to any organization. But the auction house had made an exception as many influential people had expressed their desire to meet him.

*Creack*

The employees opened the door. The third floor was a long semi-oval hall with shiny wooden floors and white ceilings. The hall must have been about 6m (20 ft) wide and at the end of the balcony was a row of 50 red leather seats set behind the railing from which a large wooden stage could be seen.

There were only about 100 people in the hall, but most of them were bodyguards, escorts, or branch staff. Of all those people only 30 were important. But of those 30, Marcus only focused on 10.

Those 10 people gave off an aura that gave them away as powerful. Some were representatives of local clans or large organizations. It didn't take Marcus to use his [Analysis] to determine that these people were between rank 3 and 4.

When Marcus entered, everyone present focused their attention on him and many were shocked. They had all heard that although the one responsible for getting all the ancient relics was a talented wizard, he only belonged to the 1st Rehi realm and was not affiliated with any clan or organization.

This led them to think that they could persuade Marcus to join their forces or they could easily take advantage of him. After all, this was a world where if one was weak they would be trampled by others.

The only way to stay on top was to have power. Whether it was financial, political, or personal, power was everything. Now everyone knew that Marcus was a wizard of the 2nd realm with a mastery over the dark element of rank 2. Even if he was a lone wizard, he already possessed a power that easily placed him as one of the strongest in the city.

"Mr. Edevane I presume. A pleasure, my name is Hans Renier, vice leader of the Giant Clan."

At that moment, a burly bald man over 2m (6 ft) tall and sporting a huge scar above his left eye, approached Marcus.

The guy was wearing a black suit that was fitted because of his large muscles. Although Hans looked a bit ridiculous in that suit, no one dared to laugh at him. If they did it would be like signing his death warrant.

================================

Name: Hans Renier

Titles: [Master of the Great Sword].

Race: Human

Profession: Warrior (Vice clan leader/Mercenary)

Rank: 4

Level: 37

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HP: 2222/2222

MP: 1203/1203

Strength: 223 Stamina: 197

Defense: 230 Intelligence: 120

Vitality: 222 Wisdom: 35

Agility: 156

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Skills:

{[Swordsmanship lv:?][Sixth Sense lv:?]

[Aura control lv:?][Melee combat lv:?]

[Battle cry lv:?][Commando lv:?]

[Bloodlust lv:?][Magic resistance lv:?]

[Aura resistance lv:?] }

================================

'What the f**k?! Who is this guy, the f**king H*lk?! I guess he's not an elite rank mercenary for nothing.'

Marcus was impressed. According to his status, Hans' physical stats were almost 15 times higher than a normal person. If this guy was on Earth he would have easily been categorized as a superhero. But if one considers his background, it makes sense.

Hans was the vice leader of the Giant clan, one of the main mercenary clans in the port city of Neima. In addition, he was one of the few mercenaries classified as elite rank in the city.

It was also rumored that Hans had killed a horned basilisk last week. Although Marcus knew this wasn't true, that didn't mean he underestimated the man's strength.

According to his calculations, the horned basilisk was superior to Hans not only in terms of stats but also in general skills.

But humans could also use weapons, artifacts, and magic potions, so if one took all this into account, Hans was more than capable of killing a horned basilisk on his own.

Hans approached Marcus and extended his arm implying that he wanted to make a formal greeting.

'Ah, if we shake hands he'll realize I'm a skeleton, but if I don't greet him I might end up offending him. Well, let's do this... Shadow hand.'

A dark shadow spread out from under Marcus' robes, the shadow took the form of a dark hand and shook Hans' outstretched arm.

At that moment, everyone in the VIP box was stunned. For some, what Marcus had done was the equivalent of challenging one of the strongest people in the city as being on his own level.

The only ones who looked at Marcus with seriousness and respect were the other nine people who were above rank 2. Even Hans had a smile on his face.

To them, what Marcus had just done was a simple demonstration of skill. This was also a way for the high-ranking mercenaries to show their respects for the other side. Something like a friendly greeting. Of course, Marcus knew nothing of this.

His only thought at the time was that since almost all human wizards were weird and eccentric types, Hans would think he was one of those antisocial wizards or something like that. After all, it was better for people to think he was a weirdo than for them to find out he was undead.

'Hum. His mastery of dark magic is even better than an average 2nd realm wizard. Well, it would be rude of me if I didn't respond to his greeting.' Hans thought.

*Weng Weng*

At that instant, a strong energy began to emanate from Hans' body causing the air around him to distort and causing the entire box to shake.

*Crash Crash*

The energy emanating from Hans gradually increased causing glasses and other crystal objects to explode. Many of those present could not resist the pressure of the atmosphere and began to faint.

"Oh boy, here we go again."

"Hans always gets too excited every time he meets someone talented."

"But I must say that Edevane is pretty impressive, being so close to Hans and he's not even shaking."

On the other hand, the other people who knew Hans knew this was a normal thing so they weren't worried. As for Marcus, he appeared to be quite calm but was actually in an internal struggle to control his emotions.

'Hum. Compared to the Treant lord this is nothing. I wonder Hans, how much experience would you give me if I killed you?' Marcus smiled inwardly.

Instead of being scared or nervous, Marcus felt a deep desire to kill this man. But he restrained himself, after all, there were a lot of people watching him and they weren't the only ones.

....

{The [Monarch of the eternal garden] is looking at you closely.}

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