The moment the applause stopped, the Queen displayed the next bundle.
This time it was filled with orange stones, and it was obvious that the number was way more than what was shown before.
"The 2nd bundle is 100,000 High-Grade Fire Elemental Stones." She followed with, "The starting bid is 100 million SC..."
Naturally, the Death Elemental stones were placed at the start to fire off the auction and set the start's intensity.
But following it, the other bundles were just from either common element or uncommon element.
Felix merely kept spectating as everyone fought for tooth and nail for them since energy stones were a must commodity to have.
There was never having 'too much when it comes to energy stones.
Before long, 100,000 High-Grade Sand Elemental stones were auctioned as well.
Princess Bird floated in front of Felix and asked with her eyes narrowed, "Why aren't you bidding for them? Or are you bidding telepathically?"
She got closer to his expressionless face and started examining him, wanting to see if he would show any reaction.
Alas, he was as stoic as the British Queen's guards.
"Tsk." Princess Bird clicked her tongue in annoyance and promised, "I will find out what you are doing one way or another."
Still unresponsive, Felix scratched his chin while thinking, 'What's my maximum bid for illusion stones? I should probably set it at 5 billion SC. If it goes above it, I can only give up on it.'
Just as he thought so, the Queen had removed the bundle that had just got auctioned successfully and replaced it with another one that was full of peculiar-looking stones.
They didn't have a specific set of colors as they kept constantly changing between them. Sometimes, they were colorless and sometimes they turn into shimmering rainbowed stones.
'Illusion stones, Finally!' Felix exclaimed in his mind but his reaction on the outside was the same as others next to him...Enthralled and fascinated.
"The 24th bundle is 10,000 High-Grade Ilusion Elemental Stones." The Queen carried on monotonously, "The starting bid is 650 million SC"
Before Felix could even try to bid low so he could test the water, the price had climbed to 720 million SC from a single bid.
'This is going to be tough.' Felix rested his chin on his hand and kept watching the ongoing fierce bidding.
"840 million from room 33."
"950 million from seat 133."
...
"2.3 billion from seat 98."
Only after the bid reached this amount did the Queen started to slow down her calls. Even the bids weren't getting increased by hundreds of millions anymore, lowering the intensity for a bit.
Felix could see with his enhanced vision that most interested parties that were bidding fiercely before, were starting to exhibit signs of discontentment. Yet, they were still going at it, increasing the bid by 50 million SC each time.
In a few moments, the price was about to reach a whopping 3 billion and Felix's palms were starting to get sweaty since he noticed that more than 5 bidders had no intentions of stopping soon.
'F*ck it, I can't let them keep hoping that they might win it if they kept increasing slowly.' Felix decided to bid big and big he did!
"Queen, Please increase the b..."
"3.2 billion from an anonymous guest." The Queen announced abruptly, cutting off one of the five bidders in mid-sentence.
He was just about to increase the bid by 40 million SC before the bid jumped from 3 Billion to 3.2 billion, increasing by a whopping three two hundred million at once.
'Motherf*cker, did you have to do that in my turn.' The bidder cursed in his mind while closing his mouth shut, not daring to follow up after that.
He was already past the budget deducted to this auction and he had no intentions to follow that madman.
In his eyes, this was just an auction for energy stones and capital should really be saved for other treasures and items in different auctions.
He wasn't the only one thinking like this as the other three also decided to withdrew silently from the bidding war.
This left only Felix and another man, who didn't hesitate to increase the bid by 50 million.
Felix waited for two seconds until the Queen repeated the latest bid, then he increased it by 100 million SC.
This time, the other bidder didn't raise instantly like before.
"3.350 billion from an anonymous guest."
"3.350 billion from an anonymous guest...going once, twice..."
"3.400 billion from seat 5."
'F***ck youuu!' Felix bawled in his mind, annoying both Asna and the Jörmungandr who had just started a new game of chess.
'Mute him.' The Jörmungandr said calmly while setting up his side of the board. Asna did so by a finger snap and started working on her own pieces in utter tranquility.
Good thing they disconnected as Felix kept cursing each time that f*cker increased the bid after him.
3,600 billion from a seat 5."
"3.700 billion from an anonymous guest."
The other guests were left speechless by the ongoing bidding war as they didn't doubt for a second that the amount proposed was not worth it at all for those energy stones.
After all, 10,000 High-grade Ilusion stones would never bring them back the same profit if they used them as materials for potions or substances. As for using them to recover energy?
No one was a fool to waste them like that since recovering energy could be done using medium-grade stones.
Plus, the illusion bloodliners never reach the 4th stage of replacement since tier 5 illusion beasts were either extinct or hiding.
Felix knew so as well; hence he was quite pissed that he ended up against a bidder who seemed quite desperate for them.
However, he still had no intentions of stopping since the final bid had yet to hit his limits.
Thankfully, it seemed like even that bidder was starting to feel the brunt of the large price as he kept waiting until the Queen was about call trice, then he adds an extra 20 million.
"4.100 billion from an anonymous guest."
'F*ck it, if he added after this, I am will leave it to him.'
Felix couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to keep going until 5 billion, but he felt that a vein would definitely snap if he did so.
He was doing his very best to keep appearing as stoic as possible when his heart was about to burst out in flames.
"4.100 billion from an anonymous guest...going once, twice...sold." The Queen struck the gavel forcefully without giving even a second to Felix's contender to make a comeback.
Clap Clap Clap!!...
Honeslty, Felix didn't even know if he should feel happy by winning the bid or not as he felt that he had gotten cheated out of at least half a billion in this bidding war.
'Sigh, no harm was done, money can be earned again but chances like those were hard to land on.' He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Then, he smiled faintly and started clapping his hands joining the deafening applause. Princess Bird didn't notice his emotional turmoil as she was engrossed in the bidding war before.
If it were the Chief, sitting next to Felix, he would have noticed everything. So, it was a blessing that Princess Bird was accompanying him.
After the applause died down, the Queen sent a message to Felix, 'Congratulation, the serial Code of the bundle had been sent to you per email.'
Felix didn't respond as his attention was stolen by a holographic notification, entailing that 4,100,000,000 SC had been wired to the Belverian Auction House.
Felix sighed softly and removed the cursed notification from his face. However, he still didn't teleport outside the auction like some guests were doing after securing what they wanted.
He wasn't stupid to leave right now since Princess Bird could guess that he had already gotten what he wanted.
Hence, he waited for extra ten minutes before snapping his finger, activating the teleportation process.
"Wait for meee!" Princess Bird beseeched with a panicked tone after seeing that he was breaking into light particles.
Since she was just a hologram, she couldn't really teleport outside like Felix. Thus, she had to float outside of the building manually.
By the time she reached the gate, Felix was nowhere to be found!
"Landlooord!! I will kill you!!!" Princess Bird bellowed with flushed cheeks in anger after realizing that she got ditched behind!
She quickly chose a direction and started searching for him. She didn't want to inform her father now as she knew that he would scold her for losing him in the 1st place.
While she was searching everywhere like a woman on crack, Felix was walking casually in the streets while having a different face on and clothes! He even removed his name from above his head to stay settle.
Currently, he was heading to one of the three bloodline auctions in this event. He marked it previously since there was an epic tier 6 sand bloodline within their items list and an epic tier 4 illusion bloodline.
He wanted to secure them no matter what since the customs taxes between empires didn't apply to the attendants in this event!
If it weren't for so, Felix would have coughed blood after reading the customs taxes for the 10k High-Grade stones.
After all, the weight of such a large delivery was definitely going to make him pay extra 50 million SC!
In a short while...
Felix could be seen sitting inside a small-sized room that had only two chairs and a glass window. This wasn't a VIP room but just a regular one inside this auction house, which didn't have any seats in it like the previous one.
Everyone had his own small room that was peeking at the holographic image of the Queen. She was floating in the center while displaying a bottle with dark liquid within it.
"This is an epic rank tier 6 Lavania Bulldozer Bloodline. The Starting Bid is 700 million SC." She followed with, "Its full details are on your screens. You have 2 minutes to read them properly before we begin bidding."
Felix glanced at them but didn't read them carefully. Instead, he scrolled on the updated items list, wanting to see what items were added recently by the guests.
While he was reading them, the bidding for the bloodline had already started and the price had climbed through 1 billion SC without any signs of stopping.
"Oh!" Felix exclaimed in delight after seeing that another epic tier 4 illusion bloodline was recently added.
He was already aiming to buy one epic tier 4 illusion bloodline from this auction and another one that would be placed on a different day.
He knew that only by buying a lot of them could he actually obtain 1% or 2% of the illusion primogenitor.
After all, they were just a tier 4 beasts. If it was for any other uncommon element, Felix wouldn't even bat an eye on them.
Alas, if he ever wanted to utilize his illusion element, this was the way to go.
Clap Clap Clap!...
Felix joined the abrupt applause after the successful auctioning of the item. When it quietened down, the Queen displayed another bloodline and Felix lowered his head in disinterest.
It wasn't what he sought and probably it was going to take a while until the bloodlines that he wanted to make an appearance.
After all, there were multiple elements. Even if the auction decided to display a single bloodline for every element besides rare, the number of bottles could reach hundreds!
As expected, Felix had to wait for an entire hour until the Queen mentioned, "This is an epic tier 4 Spectrum Mournling Bloodline. The Starting Bid is 250 million SC."
She gave them two minutes to read its details and Felix decided to reread them since he didn't remember much.
//Bloodline Name: Spectrum Mournling.
Tier: 4
Rank: Epic
Element: Illusion.
Passive abilities pool: *Illusionary Vision*, *Skin Hardening*, *Hallucination Immunity*...etc
Active abilities pool: *Illusive Suggestion*, *Illusion Reflection*...*Illusionary Skin*...etc
History: Spectrum Mournling is a worm species beast that uses illusion element to avoid predators. Its currently being bred domestically by the Welsh Family in Bardot Empire.//
Felix wasn't surprised in the slightest by the fact that the beast was being domestically bred instead of hunted in the Andromeda Galaxy.
He understood that 99% of the illusion bloodlines in the markets were all sold by the breeding families. As for the hunted illusion beasts?
They seldom make an appearance in the auctions. If they did, it would just a pitiful tier 1 beast.
That's because it was almost impossible to hunt them down with their peculiar abilities. If even tier 1 was giving this much trouble to hunters, how about tier 5+?
Until now, no one actually knew if there was even a tier 5 illusion beast or not since they were never spotted before.
Felix knew about the primogenitors' existence, he understood that probably even tier 7 illusion beasts were existing.
After all, for the illusion primogenitor's bloodline to reach even tier 1 beast, it was impossible not to reach higher-tiered beasts first.
He believed that the only reason no one was finding those high-tiered beasts was that they were disguising themselves!
The Jörmungandr had stated before that no one had seen the real Illusion primogenitor due to his constant realistic shapeshifting.
Those beasts might not be able to shapeshift as good as the illusion primogenitor but they could at least fool humans.
So, those illusion beasts might have been spotted millions of times by hunters unbeknownst to them.
"Please begin bidding."
Felix closed down the details after hearing the Queen's announcement.
"280 million from room 14."
"310 million from room 133."
"390 million from room 63."
By now, the price had already exceeded the known epic tier 5 bloodlines in the market and it was still climbing slowly but surely.
Felix decided to join the fun by increasing 60 million at once, pushing the price to 450 million. After a couple of back and forth bidding, Felix ended up winning it after his last bid that reached 590 million SC.
That's double epic tier 5 sand bloodlines!
Yet, Felix wasn't even bothered by it as he knew that his money would return one way or another after he places those bottles back in other auctions.
If it wasn't against the rules to place them back in this event, he would have done so after extracting the essence.
Alas, the auctions didn't want to see guests buying products in this auction and resell them in another. That would mess up the entire seven days event.
...
A couple of hours later...
Felix had already secured the other illusion bloodlines after paying 510 million for it. Now, he was simply waiting for the epic tier 6 sand bloodline to make an appearance.
It was kept at the end of the event with five more bloodlines with the same rank and tier.
Thankfully, it was presented sooner than the rest as the Queen had displayed the bottle in the air and told them that the starting price was 650 million SC.
Felix reread its details in those two minutes of wait and he couldn't help but hope that everyone's reaction would be lukewarm since the bloodline's abilities weren't really the best compared to its counterparts.
That's due to being from the Cat species. After all, the evolutionary traits of cats weren't really that compatible with the sand element.
But they were amazing if the element was darkness. That same concept applied to other species.
For example, bird species with water element weren't going to be as good as marine beasts with the same element.
Hence, compatibility should also be taken into consideration when choosing a bloodline.
Felix never bothered by any of this since he was simply seeking the primogenitor essence from those bloodlines.
"690 million from room 1784."
"730 million from room 986."
"790 million from room 41."
"820 million from room 1784."
As he hoped for, the Queen started the auctioning, the bids were coming from just 4 rooms and the newer bids weren't increasing by much.
'So far so good.' Felix smiled faintly, 'I will make a move when the price reaches 1.5 billion SC.'
It took at least a minute before the bid reached it since only two bidders were left at the end and they were increasing by 20 million each time.
"Queen, please add 50 million SC." Felix requested out loud, not bothering to speak in his mind since no one was with him and those rooms weren't accessible by the 'Ghosts'.
"1.550 billion from room 99." The Queen announced.
The two bidders went silent after realizing that another competitor had joined them. However, they still wanted to test Felix's limits as one of them increased by 40 million and the other followed after him by 30 million.
"Queen, 200 million." Felix said calmly.
With that, the final bid had reached 1.820 Billion SC. Those two bidders wanted to jack up the price a bit more just to spite Felix for ruining their chances at buying the bloodliner cheaper, but they didn't dare to.
After all, they didn't want the bloodline to end up in their hands with that price when the beast's species wasn't even the best in the market for sand element.
They could purchase a scorpion epic tier 6 bloodline by just adding 200 million SC or so.
Hence, they stopped bidding at once.
"1.820 SC billion from room 99...going once....twice.....Sold."
Bam! Clap Clap!...
'Pheew, finally a lucky break.' Felix sighed in relief after hearing the gavel sound followed by the applause.
However, he didn't stick around to bask in them as he needed to catch up to another auction that was selling potions, substances, materials...etc
His main target was Elemental Potion...If he found it cheaper, he wouldn't hesitate to grab one!
Felix would always be needing new elements if he wanted to continue on his unique Primogenitors bloodline path.
However, if the potion was too expensive, Felix could only give up on it and continue relying on materials to concoct it.
After all, its market price was 5 billion SC. Since there was no supply, this price could multiply with the snap of a finger in this event.
Although the rest of the humans who awakened a new element with the Elemental Potion weren't going to enhance their affinity rating as fast as Felix, still they could totally reach 50% if they were willing to pay big bucks.
Anyone aiming for the Elemental Potion was beyond filthy rich and could afford to waste tens of billions to raise it!
Felix didn't want to commit most of his leftover capital to fight it out against them.
He still wanted to buy a decent body artifact, other potions, the Elemental Potion materials, and more.