"Itâs here!" Dukeâs spirit lifted as he finally awaited the arrival of the crystal core he needed, and it was water-attribute.
Crystal cores are a type of collective term; even among water-attribute crystal cores, there are many forms of expression.
As long as something meets the conditions, it can be called a crystal core, and some crystal cores are even living entities.
The starting price for the Deep Sea Heart is thirty thousand Level 1 Magic Stones, suggesting its ceiling price shouldnât be too high.
But it mainly depends on how many people need this thing, the price fluctuations could be significant.
Duke understood this well; he couldnât determine if the Magic Stones he had would be enough.
Soon, the numbers in the mirror on stage began to jump, reaching one hundred thousand Magic Stones.
Immediately after, the numbers continued to move, coming to one hundred fifty thousand.
Many wizards bidding for the Deep Sea Heart didnât actually need it themselves; mostly, they bought it for reserve, either providing it for their own forces or for their descendants and such.
In the auction house with so many wizards, the probability of encountering a Liquidation Wizard who needs a water-attribute crystal core is quite low, with not many people.
Duke didnât rush to bid initially but waited until the price rose more slowly before he started bidding.
He held the green leaf and used his spiritual power to give a bid of six hundred fifty thousand.
The original price was five hundred thousand, and he added one hundred fifty thousand at once, causing a temporary halt in price movement.
From this, Duke inferred that very few people truly needed this item; at least, the previous bidders didnât really urgently need it.
"It should be just over a million at most," Duke speculated in his heart.
Having experienced many auction items before, he had a rough idea of the final price of auction items.
After a few more slow movements in the price, Duke temporarily stabilized at eight hundred thousand.
Zoe already took out the hourglass, and it seemed likely to end up in Dukeâs hands.
However, at this time, the numbers on the mirror suddenly soared to one million eight hundred thousand.
This scene prompted some exclamations in the venue; one million eight hundred thousand wasnât considered a very high price in todayâs auction.
But this was a direct jump from eight hundred thousand to one million eight hundred thousand, with the bidder adding one million at once.
This was obviously a bit unreasonable; the Deep Sea Heart clearly couldnât fetch such a high price, at least not now.
The fact that the opponent could raise the price by one million at once also proved that they werenât lacking money, and itâs impossible they didnât bid earlier and suddenly did now.
Even if they were short of money and went to raise funds, they wouldnât have increased the price so much at once.
Duke frowned, sensing something unusual, but couldnât figure out why.
Nonetheless, he still needed to bid.
These crystal cores are rare opportunities; if missed today, who knows when theyâll appear again.
Duke thought for a moment and raised the price to two million.
As soon as he bid, the Deep Sea Heartâs price jumped to three million, with the opponent again increasing by one million.
Duke smiled helplessly, realizing this person was determined to secure the Deep Sea Heart.
He had just over three million Level 1 Magic Stones in total, making continued competition impossible, forcing him to give up.
Horn saw Dukeâs bidding process and said, "Mr. Duke, I can represent the Commerce Association and lend you two million."
Duke thought for a moment and nodded, "Okay, Iâll give it another try."
The maximum he could accept was five million; if the price exceeded that, he wouldnât bid even if the Giant Rock Commerce Association could lend him more money.
Duke then raised the bid to three million five hundred thousand, and unsurprisingly, the opponent raised it to four million five hundred thousand without hesitation.
Duke knew it was probably hopeless, but attempted a bid of five million, which was his maximum acceptable price.
As expected, the price jumped to six million, giving Duke no chance.
Duke simply gave up, accepting that this item wasnât destined for him, and further investment wasnât worth it.
The price of six million had already surpassed the intrinsic value of the Deep Sea Heart, even for wizards who truly needed it, this price was too high.
After the price of the Deep Sea Heart settled down, the auction continued, with many people discussing who had bid such a high price for the Deep Sea Heart.
Some speculated it was an ancient wizard clan, buying the crystal core for their descendants, hence sparing no expense.
For these ancient wizard clans, six million Level 1 Magic Stones indeed werenât considered a significant investment.
Duke continued as a spectator, completing the whole auction session without bidding on anything else.
He did see many enticing items, but since most werenât immediately useful, he refrained from bidding.
The available funds in his hands werenât abundant, so he needed to spend wisely.
After the auction ended, it was already late at night, as it had lasted the entire day.
Duke and Horn left the Jade Heart together, just reaching the exit when they saw a familiar figure, who also looked over, seemingly waiting for him deliberately.
When Duke saw this person, he suddenly remembered who it was, the one whose egg he shattered with Rock SpikeâBell.
Bell was a descendant of the Crawford Clan, an ancient wizard clan with a Dark Attribute Bloodline.
Since that match in the Wizard Arena, Duke hadnât seen this person again, and unexpectedly met them here.
From the aura emanating from Bell, the person should now be a Crystalized Wizard.
This kind of advancement speed was extremely terrifying, but wizards with bloodline inheritance generally advance differently than ordinary wizards, defying conventional reasoning.
For wizards with bloodline powers, they can often unlock the powers stored in their bloodline through methodical training.
They donât need to exert much effort to gain far more powerful strength than ordinary wizards, which is the potency of bloodline power.
Back then, when Duke was a second-class Wizard Apprentice, Bell was just a first-class Wizard Apprentice, with not much of a lead.
But now Duke hadnât even completed the Liquidation process, while Bell had already become a Crystalized Wizard; the gap was considerable.
It was known that Duke had a Skill Tree that enabled him to advance swiftly, yet Bell left him far behind.
This certainly proves the prosperity of these ancient wizard clans wasnât without reason; such bloodline power is indeed formidable.