Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Hill felt that the people in the superior private boxes around him were probably getting a bit bored, for unless it was a particularly ancient antique, nobles rarely purchased items from merchants, especially at auctions.

Indeed, there was fierce bidding among the people in the seats below, but in the boxes, aside from ladies occasionally buying some gemstones, there were few voices to be heard, and the atmosphere was a bit strange.

High-level professionals wouldn't be interested in these low-rank magic materials. They had their own channels to obtain such things and didn't need to pay a high price at auctions.

Those gemstones were all incomplete, and although they were exquisitely polished, any mage could tell at a glance that they could only be used as decorative items without any use.

However, Ferun's gemstones indeed had a special feel to them, different from Teraxil's.

Teraxil probably had its unique Elemental Crystals due to the instability of the world rules, rather than allowing these elemental powers to fuse into various ores.

Thus, mages from Teraxil could directly cast spells using elemental power, consuming Elemental Crystals at most, whereas in Ferun, they had to waste gemstones. As such, those regular gemstones that were well-polished were of interest to someone in the superior private boxes upstairs.

After all, many nobles who were simply common people would only dare to use such gemstones for jewelry.

High-level gemstones, even if affordable, were not to be used openly. Displaying them would not show one's nobility but serve more as a delivery to one's doorstep.

The auctioneer looked up and, noticing the slightly off atmosphere, quickly brought out real estate for sale.

Speaking of which, as a standalone business, this auctioneer was far from as outstanding as the one from Valkin Commerce in Felunryel, who only knew how to dryly peddle goods.

The first piece of real estate he offered was located within the large marketplace, packaging three shops together. That commerce had deep pockets, purchasing three two-story shop fronts nearby and connecting them.

Some merchants below tried to place bids as well, but unfortunately, they were quickly silenced by the wealthy ones above.

Even in Silvermoon City, a bidding war surpassing ten thousand Gold Coin was incredibly frightening.

Indeed, real estate prices in Silvermoon City had soared to unbelievable heights.

Hill overheard the neighboring conversation with his keen ears, it seemed that the purchaser of these shops was a major merchant from Deepwater City.

Surely, after Elaströ established the Silvermoon Alliance, many believed that Silvermoon City would become the center of the North.

Hill turned to look outside his door, where the female thief who had tried every means to probe Hill's movements had been taken away.

Such one-way soundproof arrays required an overall barrier and were not something anyone could use, evidently, this was an official auction house in Silvermoon City.

The female thief's movements were very discreet, but they couldn't escape the watchful eyes of Elaströ.

Elaströ was not one to indulge in foolish tactics such as releasing an enemy to secretly track down accomplices. Even if she couldn't extract any clues from the mouth of the female thief, she wouldn't let her cause trouble in important places.

Moreover, for this thief to infiltrate an official institution, there would definitely be many involved in lending her a hand – just tracing her origins would reveal a host of corrupt officials and spies.

Hill no longer paid attention and turned his gaze back down to the auction.

The auctioneer seemed to be selling storefronts in the North and then began auctioning high-value magic materials and supplies.

After watching for a while, Hill only bid on some seeds of rare plants.

As for the materials, Hill had little interest; the commerce seemed to prefer selling materials from magical creatures.

Furthermore, their methods were brute force, and it was very possible that they were engaging in mass slaughter, or even eradication. With just a few glances, Hill could feel the resentment suffusing those materials.

That resentment even contaminated the adjacent plant materials.

Hill was a bit puzzled; in Silvermoon City, which worshipped Melikai and Lally, why would they be selling these materials? Couldn't they see the problems?

This was not something that a Purification Spell could solve.

If Hill hadn't felt that those seeds might go into complete dormancy due to the resentment, he wouldn't have spoken up to purchase them.

The auction house shamelessly mixed precious seeds with ordinary ones, claiming they could create an environment suitable for growing rare trees.

That was just useless fragrance.

These rare plants, if bought by other mages, would need to be planted in specific magic botanical gardens; those ordinary seeds were useless.

Hill silently watched the auctioneer for a moment; he felt this was not indicative of Elaströ's character.

Although the lady had many flaws, she had never been so petty.

The Golden Dragon and Silver Dragon couple wouldn't do this either; they probably had never seen such low-rank items with their own eyes.

Hill now somewhat understood why Silvermoon City would eventually run into trouble – the person in charge might not be a bad person, but their mindset was narrow, reluctant to let go of anything, and had a tendency to push dangers and responsibilities onto others.

If it were Elaströ, she would have informed those two dragons that these items were not suitable for sale.

The Golden Dragon, though reluctant to give up her possessions, wouldn't lose her morals over a few Gold Coin, being of Kind Alignment. Moreover, she had an excellent temperament and was generally understanding with proper communication.

Even her partner, in reality, was quite generous. Both loved wealth, but neither was the type of dragon to endlessly covet treasures.

Hill sighed softly; there were always omens to upcoming events.

The auctioneer quickly brought out more real estate. This time, it was residential properties within the city.

The first batch of houses to come up for auction were several three-story apartment buildings located on the south bank.

The price of the property was not expensive, but it was well situated for graduate students of the Magic University to live in.

Hill became interested and pressed the square button in front of him on the desk, labeled 'Auction Item Details'.

He then carefully looked over the finely detailed hologram that floated up before him. This was probably a privilege for the noble boxes to see the specific details of the property.

Hill thought for a moment, then decided to buy a set near the university library, with a door that led directly inside.

Although the two sets by the Riven River seemed more exquisite, Hill still felt that proximity was better, as he could take a walk every day, and the apartment building seemed larger in size.

He wasn't sure he would live there, but what if there was nothing more suitable?

The two sets of apartments by the river went up for auction first, with a starting bid of 1,000 Gold Coins, and each reached 2,000 Gold Coins before the bidding stopped, which seemed to be the highest the market could bear.

The set that Hill was interested in started at 200 less, which he found strange, so he took another detailed look at the apartment building – it was clearly much larger.

Then he understood – those two were closer to Limoon Bridge.

According to the thinking in this world, that area was probably safer and one could always get help from Elaströ.

In case of any trouble, Hill, who trusted more in himself, of course, made a slight misjudgment.

He listened to the bidding for a while. It seemed that most people saw this property as an investment choice, bidding just above the floor price. Hill tentatively called out 1,500 and easily secured it for himself.

It seemed he had bid too high.

Hill sighed – he really wasn't good at this sort of thing.

He glanced at Agleya in the pendant, who was diligently working on a Puzzle Lock, and resigned himself to giving up on cultivating her, as Teraxil's Sea God was truly wealthy.

For practice, they always used top-tier Water Materials.

After some probing, the auction started releasing better properties, small farms outside the city.

Hill glanced at the location on the map.

Several farms were located in the South, not far from the apartment building he had chosen—just an hour's walk from the city, which was almost enough for him to live there for one or two years.

He decided to wait and see how others bid.

The small southern farms, being safer, actually sold for less than the ones in the North, even though those exceeded 5,000 Gold Coins!

Hill looked back and forth in confusion; indeed, they were in the North!

In the spring, there would be hungry Beastmen moving south!

He decided to ask Lynn when he returned.

Then he spent 3,500 Gold Coins to acquire a small farm at a corner. It was a bit more expensive than the others but that was because his deed showed it could be further developed.

But the land in the North wasn't so easy to cultivate, and even if developed, without sufficiently high walls, it couldn't stop the occasional Thief, so many people chose the already mature farms, priced only at around 2,000.

Hill didn't care about that part. He just noticed that not far away there was a small river that could lead to the Riven River in the North.

He could directly expand the farm to that area, and if he ever needed to come back to Silvermoon City, he could just take a boat from the sea to the Riven River.

As for plowing and planting, Hill wasn't even daunted by specialized farming Druids.

He wasn't interested in the larger farms that came up later; the crops they grew were actually worth more than the farms themselves. But to Hill, they weren't necessary.

He did come to understand one thing – the larger farms, those in the South, were the valuable ones.

It seems those small farms did have some other significance, but since Lynn hadn't mentioned them, it probably only concerned the Nobles.

Hill quickly perked up. The high-level residential properties on the south bank were finally coming out.

He took a liking to a garden villa also near the Great Library.

Although not very large in size, it covered an area of 1,000 square meters.

The three-story main house occupied over 300 square meters, followed by a two-story, 100-square-meter servant quarters on the side, and then the garden green space, which also housed a magic Botanical Garden of over 100 square meters.

There were many others interested in this property, but Hill wasn't afraid of a bidding war.

He just didn't want to be the sucker who overpaid. Bidding higher, of course, was much easier.

The starting bid for this house was 5,000 Gold Coins, more expensive than other houses in the same area, probably because of that Magic Garden.

Hill actually preferred this house as it had a waterway connected to the Riven River, which complemented the farm he had outside.

He nonchalantly pressed the button to increase the bid by 100, time and again.