The group had to repeat the process of luring these beasts ten more times before they dealt with the whole nest. And it would not even have worked if not for the fact that it was time for them to give birth.
The second time they did it seven Hollow Bones Mares came out of the nest chasing, from the third time onwards the group had managed to give them the false impression of being stronger than they were, resulting in far less kills.
It was another problem of nests that did not have a leader. Each warrior fulfilled certain roles when there were no enemies, when extremely strong enemies came even the suicidal warriors were unwilling to charge out to meet their doom.
If it was not mating season or if they had a Commander the battle would have ended before it even began.
By the end they had captured five younglings for the army and no longer wished to fight or have anything to do with horses any longer.
Pearl institute lost to imperial College on that note as they managed to stick it out longer and capture seven younglings, but the young mages no longer cared after they were in the comforts of the city, enjoying life.
Cao Guang had gained another complete soul Essence during the trip and was ready to sell everything he had collected for the past four months. Which included six Minion Soul Essences and two Warrior level Soul Essences.
He reckoned that they would fetch him more than seventy million on the market. The reason he hadn't sold them yet was because he wanted to take part in the Zhao family's auction in Shanghai.
Not their largest auction, but the second tier one, The largest auction only sold stuff above five hundred million, he didn't have that much in spare. He just wanted to check for a few resources and buy information.
The Zhao family ran an extensive information spanning Hunters, Magic associations and military. They sold the information flat out for high amounts of money or in parts through a lottery style for five million each.
He wasn't even sure what he needed now, but he was willing to play. If he got a cheap Galaxy Vein he would buy that as well.
The auction was in a week and he wanted to improve his rank from an Intermediate Hunter to Advanced Hunter this time. He had registered to be a Hunter in Dunhuang, when he went looking for the Flame Belle, he had taken a mission to slay a couple of Warrior level Sand Demon Tigers and became an Intermediate Hunter on the spot.
Before leaving Ordos City, he had picked up a mission about internal organs of Hollow Bones Mares after submitting that he was bound to become an Intermediate Hunter.
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Cao Guang had made it to the Zhao family auction he wanted to attend. He saw a couple of familiar faces in Mu Hua and Lu Zhangtian on his way up, but they were in the private box,.while he sat in the open area.
The private boxes were designed to hide the identity of the bidders, they were assigned to VIP guests. He didn't have the privilege yet.
Price range of an auction was an indicator of what level of an item was going to be sold. The Galaxy Vein was among the most expensive items sold to Intermediate mages, so the maximum price in this auction was about one hundred million.
The spotlights lit up as everything else dimmed and a beautiful woman in a red dress made her way to centre of the stage. She was pretty enough to get a rise out of men. She declared the beginning of the auction and brought the opening item of the auction with her a pristine Galaxy Vein, something an appraiser verified.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Galaxy Vein described by Shanghai's top appraiser as pristine. The odds of breaking through to the advanced level with this particular item can be said to above seventy percent. Now the minimum bid on this item is one hundred and ten million with a minimum increment of one million." The auctioneer paused to look around for a moment before asking again "Do we have one hundred million?"
Lots went up as intermediate mages and their factions competed to buy the item.
"One hundred and twenty"
"One hundred and forty, going thrice"
"Sold".
The item was obtained by a VIP guest in the private box. Galaxy Veins of this quality would only make it to the market if someone made a blunder.