Bidding Was One Thing Hill Didn't Fear

Hill figured the people in the surrounding luxury boxes were getting bored. Unless something was a particularly rare antique, nobles seldom bought from merchants, especially at auctions.

The people in the seats below were bidding fiercely, but hardly anyone in the boxes spoke up, apart from the occasional lady buying gems. The atmosphere felt a little strange.

High-level professionals had no interest in low-grade spell materials. They had their own ways of obtaining such things and had no need to pay auction prices.

The gems were all flawed. However beautifully they had been cut, a Mage could tell at a glance that they were only good for useless ornaments.

Still, Faerûn's gems did have a distinctive quality, unlike those of Telashir.

Perhaps because the World Law in Telashir was unstable, it had formed its own unique Elemental Crystals instead of allowing elemental power to seep into various ores.

Mages in Telashir could therefore cast spells using the elements directly, consuming a few Elemental Crystals at most. Mages in Faerûn had to use up gems instead. That was why even ordinary gems, if well cut, attracted buyers from the luxury boxes upstairs.

After all, many noblewomen were ordinary people, and these were the only gems they dared wear as jewelry.

Even if they could afford high-grade gems, they could not wear them; they could only lock them away in a vault. Wearing them openly as jewelry would not proclaim their noble status. It would be delivering valuables straight to a thief's door.

The auctioneer looked up, noticed that the mood was off, and quickly brought out some properties.

Come to think of it, perhaps because this was a business with no competition, the auctioneer was nowhere near as skilled as the one from the Waukeen Trading Company in Faerunriel. He simply