"Cut the fishing net! Quickly cut the fishing net! "
Captain Foster made a prompt decision and gave the order loudly. The crew looked at each other — the fishing net was expensive, why did they have to cut it?
"Did you hear that? Cut it! Damn it! "
Foster saw that the crew was in a daze and cursed loudly. The latter finally came back to his senses and immediately found a machete to cut the rope that connected the fishing net. In just a minute, everyone realized that the fishing boat was being dragged in another direction by the fishing net. It was not until the fishing net was cut that the tugging sensation finally disappeared.
"Don't just stand there! Full sail! Leave this place! "
The captain's words made the crew quickly busy. Foster stared at the churning sea cautiously. The fear in his heart made his hand that was holding the rudder tremble violently. This fishing boat was not an agile warship, so it was not moving very fast. But now that it was not fully loaded, it could still move at a decent speed with the wind in the right direction — Foster did not care which direction he was heading in. He just wanted to leave the sea!
With this thought in mind, the boat began to slow down after sailing for 15 minutes. The crew was still guessing what the fishing net had hit, but Foster frowned and looked at the scattered islands not far away. "Why are we here …"
There were many similar uninhabited islands outside of Lassiman. The big ones were more than ten square kilometers, and the small ones were no more than a hundred square meters. Fishermen usually did not come here because there were too many submerged reefs. Thus, Foster immediately chose to go around — but before he could turn the rudder, he heard the crew shouting …
"Captain! There's something on the shore! "
"Where?"
"Look at the shore of those islands!"
"F * ck! What the hell is that!? "
"Oh my Goddess of the Ocean, are those merpeople?"
Forster turned his head and found that things seemed to be far beyond his imagination. He had thought that there was nothing on the coast of the island, but when he looked carefully, he found that what he thought was "seawater" was, in fact, a large number of blue-striped murlocs!
It was impossible to count how many Blue-gilled Fishmen there were. However, one thing was certain … if one was targeted by them, one would definitely not be able to escape.
Thus, Foster immediately turned around and prepared to leave the vicinity of the island. However, just as the bow of the ship straightened and was about to accelerate at full speed, everyone saw the sea suddenly bulge …
The White Pearl never returned to the port after the preliminaries of the Crown of Late Autumn began.
*****
September 28th.
In Duriel, Speaker Jeremy did not care about the overdue ships. His eyes were focused on what was in front of him, because the auction held by the Noggenfogger Auction House was in progress.
As the highest level auction house in Lassiter's world, all of Noggenfogger's auction items were naturally extraordinary, and everyone present was a respectable figure.
Many magisters from the six academies had come, as well as representatives from the famous families of the kingdom, as well as envoys from several big countries who were about to participate in the Crown of Late Autumn. Smaller countries did not even have the right to enter, so Eiseka was naturally lucky to be selected. However, Evelyn and Doris sat quietly in a corner, seemingly uninterested in the auction items.
This was Evelyn's political wisdom. Being invited to attend meant that Lassiter approved of them, while not participating in the auction meant that they were "obedient" and did not want to cause trouble. To put it bluntly, the main characters of this auction were the mages from the various academies in Lassiter. They only needed to keep a low profile and be spectators.
The other academies were all young representatives, but only Ballenner Academy had Councilor Lotica come in person. Of course … everyone could guess why he came.
The auctioneer of the Noggenfogger Auction House was very good at stirring up the atmosphere. The first ten or so auction items had already heated up the atmosphere. The bidders' bids seemed to be filled with an invisible smoke. When the second last auction item was pushed out, the smoke seemed to have completely ignited …
"How is this possible?!"
"Eight kilograms is already scary enough, and it's even refined?!"
Evelyn and Doris did not understand the exclamations around them. They were not orthodox Lassiter mages, so they had no idea what cobalt ore of this grade meant. However, following the auctioneer's introduction, the participants from other countries also understood how precious this unassuming blue ore was …
Currently, all the materials for Lassiter's Levitation Magic Circle were related to cobalt ore. "Cobalt ore" usually referred to ore, which was a large stone mixed with many other substances. Lassiter's cobalt ore had a lot of impurities. Out of ten kilograms of cobalt ore, only two kilograms of "cobalt gold" would be refined. Many people had such preconceived notions, but they did not expect that the eight kilograms of cobalt ore in front of them … was actually the weight of the refined ore!
This square cobalt gold ingot emitted a blue light under the illumination magic circle, but Councilor Lotica, who was staring at it, felt a chill in his heart.
Ballenner Academy, which had almost monopolized cobalt ore, naturally knew how difficult it was to find these ores. The eight kilograms of ore could be said to have been found by chance, but looking at the refined ore ingot in front of him, he immediately realized that this meant large-scale mining and smelting!
Who was it?! What was he trying to do?!
Lotica scanned the surroundings with an unfriendly gaze, but he also knew that it was impossible to determine the seller of the cobalt ore. The only thing he could do now was to buy it at all costs and reduce the chances of the cobalt ore being sold to other academies …
With this thought in mind, he raised the starting price of 3,000 gold coins to 8,000 gold coins. When the other academies chased up to 35000 gold coins, he clenched his teeth and raised the price of 40000 gold coins, forcefully buying the cobalt ore into Ballenner Academy's possession!
This was definitely the highest price that had appeared in the auction tonight. Such a terrifyingly high price left the representatives of the smaller countries dumbfounded. Evelyn and Doris were even more silent, not daring to make a sound. This was because the tributes they had brought to Lassiter this year were all worth less than 3,000 gold coins!
Evelyn did not expect such an unassuming rock to be auctioned off at such a high price …
Lassiter's gold coins were of high quality and weight. The reason why it did not reach a higher price was that the "Noggenfogger Auction House" only accepted cash and did not accept payments in installments. Hence, the 40,000 gold coins really made the Ballenner Academy bleed.
"The seller has made a fortune!"
Doris sighed. Looking at the ore, she felt that it was a mountain of gold coins. At this moment, she suddenly thought of Roddy, who liked to brag about how many gold coins he had. She smiled and said, "If the envoy from the Kingdom of Karen were to attend this auction, he would probably be scared to death, right? If there were more of this kind of rock, wouldn't he be as rich as a country? "
"That's why we didn't invite such people. People from small places are ultimately frogs at the bottom of a well."
Evelyn sneered disdainfully, then continued, "There's no way to get more cobalt ore … If there were too many, it wouldn't be an auction anymore. Cobalt ore is priceless, and it's a game of the upper echelons. "
What she said was actually more reliable. Resources like cobalt ore were used less in Lassiter. Money alone was useless. To be honest, the other academies were very dissatisfied with Ballenner's behavior. It's fine if you don't give us the materials for research, but why are you suppressing others even in an open auction and not giving them any benefits?
But they only grumbled about this in their minds. Ballenner Academy had a strong momentum and could be said to be the number one power in Lassiter. Looking at their stubborn attitude, although the other academies could afford to offend them, after careful consideration, there was no need to provoke them.
Lotica got what he wanted, but he was more concerned about the seller of the cobalt ore. However, the Noggenfogger Auction House's reply was simple: "Auction anonymously." They would not reveal the identity of the seller.
This answer was expected. But what Lotica didn't expect was that after the eight kilograms of cobalt ore was moved off the stage, the auctioneer suddenly walked to the front of the stage, knocked on the sound amplifying spell, and said softly, "The seller of the cobalt ore has requested to read out an explanation for the auction. Please wait a moment."
Such a scene did not surprise the investors, because similar notices had appeared many times in the past. Most of them were good words to the buyer, or blessings. But today, the auctioneer took out an envelope with a serious expression, took out a piece of white paper, and said in a clear voice, "Seven days after the successful auction of the cobalt ore, cobalt ore ingots of the same quality will be sold in Lassiter."
After reading this, the entire venue instantly fell silent. The representatives of the academies looked at each other, unable to react for a moment. But Ballenner's Senator Lotica's face was ashen, and he suddenly gripped the auction contract that the auction house had just handed to him!
"What … do you mean?"
He stood up and asked, gritting his teeth. But the latter raised the piece of paper in his hand without a change in expression. "The Noggenfogger Auction House is only responsible for reading out the seller's message. They have no right or obligation to explain the message."
This sentence made Lotica feel a lump in his throat. Indeed, no matter how powerful he was, he could not force the Noggenfogger Auction House to break the rules. If someone had tried to snatch the cobalt ore from him, he would have dared to fight them head-on. But the auction house had the backing of all the academies and many retired experts. Ballenner Academy was really not enough.
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