Chapter 33: CHAPTER 33 - PURE MANA
After Sen woke up, he explained what happened to the crowd. Fatima understood and fetched him the daggers with no complaints. Apparently, he was feeling guilty about this happening under his turf, where he boasted about his security measures.
Also, the two still have an impending deal that was of extreme importance to the DuBois house.
Of course, Sen had hoped that the daggers would have the same power they did when they were in Mathrim's hands. Sadly, in his own hands, they were just scraps of unbreakable and sharp metal that no longer affected his fused energy.
On that note, Sen finally became aware of how serious the people pursuing him are. They were even willing to resort to offending the DuBois house just to get to him and lost one of their chaos items which grandma Ming explained to him that they were one of a kind and cannot be reproduced.
"They won't bother you," Fatima said. "When you were unconscious, grandma placed a seal upon your fused energy. If you look at your energy pool, you'll find that the energy is tranquil and calm. Meaning that they would have zero chance of ever locating you if you're not in your Fanalis form since Grandor seem to already know about you"
Energy pool is the thing Sen stupidly thought to be a qi sea. And indeed, what was once a world of booming lightning now became a quiet world of light, sparks flew from time to time but the overall situation is that the fused energy was controlled temporarily. It means it won't react to chaos items for the time being.
Sen asked and was pleasantly surprised to know that he had just been unconscious for a few hours, which was pleasant compared to the time he was out of it for weeks.
The auction is ongoing and was reaching its conclusion. Sen decided to watch the rest.
Their room was still messed up from the previous fight as world level experts' energy fluctuations linger after use. So Fatima led them towards another room which was occupied by one of his friends.
This friend is a slightly obese man, Fatima introduced him as Ragas.
"Ragas owns the biggest prostitution and sexual services facilities franchise in Thesa"
Gulp!
The group of four froze and swallowed their greetings. What is this? Fatima introduced them to his friend, the pimp?
Sen had an impression of the medieval world. In a place where slavery is rampant like a disease, wouldn't those slaves be used as prostitutes? Doesn't that mean that people like this Ragas imprison young women and have them service disgusting nobles as he sees fit?"
"Ahh," Fatima laughed and patter Leonas' shoulder since he's the one who cannot control his expression. "Don't mistake Ragas for those repulsing common pimps."
Ragas: you're still calling me a pimp though…
"His business is legit and registered with the government. The women and men he uses in his 'facility' all consented to what they do. They sign a contract and all. They even receive a salary and may resign any time they want as long as they give three weeks' notice. Privacy and confidentiality are also top-notch and worker's safety is a priority. This business-like environment is why his business prospered across many countries."
"Thank you for that…introduction." Ragas grumpily said. He turned to Sen and company and he wasn't offended at all. It was clear he often encountered this same situation.
"Ragas Petro at your service" he extended his hands and shook it with Sen and Leonas. He did, however, kiss the back of Risa and Nivera's hands like a gentleman. Nivera didn't object as she too was quite used to it in the demon continent. But Risa who spent her entire life fighting and running was flushed with such treatment.
"Hey what about me? Aren't you happy to see an old friend?"
Ragas ignored him and ushered the company to join him at the couch.
"Little Ragas; that was really just a small prank. Are you perhaps still mad about it? All I did was-"
"Shut up!" Ragas' face flushed before shouting at Fatima who was running his mouth off.
"Alright, alright, let's focus on the auction, the last three items are really special"
Sen mused and thought that the relationship between the two must be really good. He once had the same one with his brother.
.
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Bali on the stage was still grumpy after that old lady suddenly appeared and took away the daggers he was presenting. But the young master told him to continue with the auction and manage the crowd, so he faces the raging audience and gave a perfunctory explanation before resuming the auction.
Now the auction was at its highlight with the last three items on auction.
"There are three items left in our humble auction. As usual, we've left the best for last. I am certain that these items will grab all of your attention" he clapped his hand and the two same staff members entered while pushing something taller than two humans and wider than five. It looked like a miniature mountain, Sen Thought.
The cloth was lifted and the crowd gasped. It was ... beautiful. An earth-shattering beauty was displayed. Even royalty who were used to beauties opened their eyes wide. They had never seen such beauty with snow silver hair and pale skin. The only thing was that this woman was right now encased in a giant block of transparent darl blue ice, but it sure did not stop her beauty from being shown.
"When adventurers from our DuBois exploration unit ventured the Frojlay continent, they stumbled upon this beauty in ice. As you all know, our DuBois house makes it a rule to never ever trade in living beings except beasts. But our experts have confirmed that this woman here has been long dead. The reason why it is auctioned, I'm sure you all can feel it. The ice! For cold, ice, snow cultivators, and the like, cultivating next to this mystical and unknown ice would multiply the effects of cultivation numerous times. If one was capable, they could even absorb the Mana from this ice."
Bali moved towards the ice block, held out his hand, and breathed slowly. The crowd then saw how he had managed to draw a substance made from cyan light. It shaped into a finger-size ball that rested on his palm.
"Pure cold Mana!" someone from the nobles' rooms shouted. Soon after, the entire hall erupted in gasps and hazardous bids.
Bali, who now had a sweaty forehead from the pure cold Mana extraction, waved his hands to calm the crowd down.
"Yes, it is a pure cold Mana. We've discovered that whatever this ice is, it contains a reserve of pure cold Mana that can be extracted by Mana surgeons such as myself"
Mana surgeons, like translators, are people born with the innate ability to decipher, bend, and identify the different types of Mana out there.
One more thing Sen was proud to know. Nivera had already told him about pure Mana.
Unlike regular Mana that exists only in the aura, or a spectral form, pure Mana is a physical matter, can be extracted, touched, felt, consumed, and whatnot.
The thing that makes pure Mana an extremely desirable entity, is that when a warrior who uses internal energy consumes this pure Mana, they'll have a chance at forming a Mana core inside their body, thus enabling them to use both internal energy and Mana at the same time.
Obviously, pure Mana isn't like cabbage to be found anywhere. In fact, in the entire Thesa continent, only a finger width of Mana was found in a hundred years.
Of all treasure displayed tonight, this one was the one that grabbed all of their attention.
"Now we've estimated that only a handful of cold pure Mana is contained inside. If you're planning to use it to become Mana warriors, I'm afraid there is only enough for three warriors to use. You can bid as you see fit on this item"
"100 dragon coins!" A royalty shouted
"200"
"250!"
.
.
The crowd didn't need more convincing as the royalty and nobles hogged the biding to themselves. Soon the price reached a frightening 650 dragon coins. If continued to rise before it was won by the only person who was unsurprised when the cold pure Mana emerged, noble lady Temari, who had questioned Bali about Baratie's breakthrough to the world rank. it cost her almost one thousand dragon coins. ohters thaought ahzt it was not worth it, but temari did not even bat an eye while biding.
As soon as the ice block was delivered to her, Temari left right away after paying the full price.
Others thought that she just wanted to avoid trouble so she did not stay to the end of the auction.
Only, no one at the moment knew that the woman in the ice block, Temari, and Nivera, will be at the center of the event that will shake the entire Frojlay continent years later.
But now, everyone was looking forward to the next item. Those who failed to obtain the pure Mana were determined to acquire the next item.
Bali ordered the tray to be brought out, "The next item are actually two items. Two ancient texts."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone