The day of the Grand Auction finally arrived.

Adrian went back to the inn, took a bath and put on his most expensive white suit. It wasn’t one of the custom ones that nobles bought, but it was good enough to be bought by rich merchants. He then pulled a plain white porcelain mask out of his dungeon and strapped it to his face.

He walked to the massive Auction House, skipped the main line and walked straight to a heavily armed guard.

"I have an extremely high value item to list for today’s auction," Adrian said smoothly.

The guard escorted him to a back office where a fat balding manager sat behind a mahogany desk.

Adrian did not waste time. He pulled five glowing mana crystals from his pocket and dropped them on the desk.

The manager’s jaw hit the floor. "By the gods. We can absolutely list these for you, sir."

"I have one hundred of them," Adrian said casually. "Can you take me to your boss, please?"

The manager sweated and ran out of the room. He came back ten minutes later with a tall imposing man wearing royal purple robes. This was the head of the auction house, a direct branch family member of the Emperor, a royal.

"I hear you have a hundred crystals," the man said calmly. "The house takes a ten percent cut of the final sale."

"I lied." Adrian said as he took out two leather bags from his dungeon and placed them gently on the desk.

"I have two hundred crystals. Sell them in two batches of one hundred."

The royal’s eyes widened. This was worth a lot of money even in his eyes.

He reached into his robe, pulled out a solid gold card and handed it to Adrian.

"You are now a top tier VIP of this establishment," the head of the auction house said respectfully. "You will be provided a private viewing box with complimentary food and drinks. Any items you purchase today will be deducted from the final sale of your crystals."

"I have one more item," Adrian said.

He pulled out the rolled up paper with the map and placed it on the desk beside the bags of mana crystals.

"This is a map and address to an unmined mana crystal deposit," Adrian said calmly as he looked at him straight in the eye, "I found it a few months ago and based on my estimates, there are at least one hundred thousand crystals buried there."

The royal stopped breathing. He stared at the paper like it was a live bomb.

"Are you absolutely certain you want to auction this?" the royal asked as his voice shook.

"I am a commoner," Adrian lied. "I do not have the military power to hold a mine like that. If I try to dig it up myself I will be assassinated. I would rather sell it off to someone strong and get paid directly without having to take any risk."

"Smart," the head of the auction house nodded slowly. "Very smart. Please follow the staff to your private box."

A servant led Adrian up a spiral staircase. They opened a door to a small but lavish balcony room on the second floor. A massive spread of roasted meats and expensive wine sat on a table.

Adrian sank into a plush velvet chair and looked down through the glass window. The ground floor was packed with hundreds of wealthy nobles.

An hour passed and the lights dimmed.

A cute girl wearing a revealing dress, walked onto the stage. She hyped up the crowd and blew kisses. Then an older man with a massive majestic mustache walked out and tapped the cane he was holding on the podium.

It was time for the auction to begin.

The first item was a steel sword enchanted by a master runesmith. It had an extreme sharpness buff.

The nobles went crazy bidding on it. Adrian just drank his wine and watched. He knew runes were basically magical batteries, and that they degraded over time. In six months that sword would be no different from a regular sword.

It sold for one hundred gold coins.

A few minutes passed and a lot of art and jewelry was sold. Finally the auctioneer brought out a wooden chest.

"Next we have the experimental records of a deceased third circle mage," the mustache man announced. "A complete collection of ten books. Starting bid is fifty gold coins."

Adrian leaned forward. He slammed his hand on the magical bidding button on his table.

"Two hundred gold," Adrian’s voice magically amplified across the room.

The crowd went silent. Nobody wanted to fight a VIP box over some dead guy’s notes.

Adrian won the collection of books and he spent the next few hours aggressively outbidding everyone for every single knight manual and spell book that was introduced.

Finally the auctioneer cleared his throat.

"We have reached our final two items for the evening," the man shouted. "And they are truly historical."

Servants carried out the two leather bags of mana crystals.

"Two lots of one hundred pure mana crystals!" the auctioneer yelled. "Starting bid for the first bag is ten thousand gold coins!"

The room erupted.

If it was just one crystal it wouldn’t cause a panic, but a bulk lot of one hundred was huge deal.

"Twenty thousand!"

"Thirty thousand!"

"Forty thousand!"

The price skyrocketed in less than two minutes and the first bag sold for sixty five thousand gold.

The second bag sparked an even crazier bidding war. Desperate nobles who lost the first round threw everything they had and the second bag sold for eighty thousand gold.

Adrian choked on his wine. One hundred and forty five thousand gold coins.

’Why didn’t I just do this from the start?’ Adrian thought. ’I wouldn’t have to sell iron like a peasant.’

But he knew the truth. He only had these crystals because his citizens pumped the dungeon full of mana rolling for iron ingots. Without them, this wouldn’t be possible.

The auctioneer raised his hands to quiet the screaming crowd.

He carefully picked up Adrian’s rolled up paper and placed it on a velvet pillow.