Chapter 194: Plant Elemental Essence
Bang! As everyone took their seats, the auction hall, adorned with a strong elven decorative style, suddenly dimmed.
Following closely behind was a bright cylindrical beam of light, gently falling upon the auction display stage ahead.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the exhibition hall of the Purple Hibiscus Auction House. I am Luke, the host responsible for introducing the auction items today. It's a pleasure to see everyone here."
Beneath the light was a young half-elf wearing a top hat and a tuxedo, with a refined appearance. Following closely behind was a similarly delicate-looking half-elf girl holding a tray, dressed in a white gown.
"They're all half-elves—"
Furthermore, Jia Na, who possessed the Exceptional Memory talent, quickly recognized the young half-elf standing on the auction stage as the bartender Luke she had encountered when carrying out a mission at the Lu Jiao Alley Tavern in the past.
"How is it? Feels pretty good, right?"
Hearing Sophina-Silvermoon's low-voiced inquiry from beside her, Jia Na smiled and nodded.
"It feels very good, and the overall quality of every staff member seems very high."
Especially their looks—whether it was the host Luke or the attendants moving through the hall, they were all good-looking half-elves.
"They're just barely passable. If you see anything you like later, you can tell me, and I can get you a discount."
"Really? Then I won't be polite."
"Of course, it's true."
Jia Na, who had originally just wanted to broaden her horizons, naturally had no reason to refuse the favor Sophina-Silvermoon proactively offered.
After all, from Sophina-Silvermoon proactively inviting Jia Na to sit beside her to her extra care for Jia Na, Jia Na, who was familiar with social rules, naturally knew that the other party's purpose in doing so was to proactively make her acquaintance.
Although Jia Na had many secrets about herself, these secrets did not affect Jia Na's ability to build higher-quality connections, as long as there was no obvious conflict of interest between the two parties.
After all, who doesn't have a few secrets?
"The first auction item today is the hatchling egg of a Red-headed Dove."
As the host Luke lifted the black cloth from the tray held by the girl beside him, a Blood Red bird egg, like a heart, suddenly appeared before everyone.
"The Red-headed Dove is a Fire-attributed avian magic beast. It possesses considerable Flame attack capabilities, and its flight speed is also extremely fast, making it very suitable for raising as a mount."
After speaking, Luke gently pressed the rippled button on the display stand. Accompanied by flickering light and shadow, a fierce-looking flying beast suddenly appeared on the screen behind the display stand.
"I designed this projection. What do you think?"
Hearing Sophina-Silvermoon's inquiry once again, Jia Na, who was very perceptive, immediately provided ample emotional value.
"I think this design is excellent. Previous auction houses only had the host simply introduce the auction items verbally, which gave a rather ordinary impression. But with this projected explanation format, everyone is clearly listening more attentively,
It's just—"
"Just what? It's alright, I love hearing suggestions from young people."
Sophina-Silvermoon, who greatly enjoyed listening to Jia Na, saw that she seemed hesitant in her words and smiled generously, gesturing for Jia Na to continue.
"It's not a suggestion. I just feel that preparing these product projection images must have required a lot of effort and cost. Therefore, I think this is where the Purple Hibiscus Auction House makes me feel the most sincerity."
"You are right."
After hearing Jia Na's words, Sophina-Silvermoon, who hadn't really taken it seriously before, also became interested for a rare moment.
"Just the labor cost invested by the Purple Hibiscus Auction House to prepare these projection information images is a huge expense. Not only that, but the preparation period for the entire project alone is also particularly long—"
With timely praise and attentive listening, and with Jia Na's cooperation, Sophina-Silvermoon was like a floodgate had opened, and the atmosphere of their conversation became increasingly harmonious.
"I've noticed that although you are not old, many of your ideas coincide with mine, this old fellow's."
Hearing this, Jia Na deliberately put on a surprised expression.
"Given your age, you should still be considered a young girl among elves. How could you be old?"
"Hahahaha, Jia Na, you certainly know how to talk—"
As the auction progressed faster and faster, Jia Na found that many of the auction items had completely exceeded the scope of knowledge she had learned from books in the library.
Just like many energy stones from other planar layers or extracted potions with various bizarre effects, they all gave Jia Na a sense of having her eyes opened.
"This is only an apprentice-level auction—if it reached the Formal Wizard level, I'm afraid I wouldn't even recognize a single thing—"
Auctions between Formal Wizards often feature auction items with strong radiation and pollution. These things are not only dangerous for Wizard Apprentices but also pose a certain degree of risk even for some Formal Wizards.
Therefore, auctions targeting Formal Wizards are often invitation-only for members and are not open to outsiders at all—
"The next auction item is a top-quality Plant Elemental Essence. According to the appraiser's inspection, the energy purity within is as high as 99.99%, with no pollution whatsoever. The starting bid is one thousand jin sule, and each bid increase must be no less than one hundred jin sule."
Hearing Luke's words, Jia Na's eyes suddenly lit up.
"It's actually a top-quality Plant Elemental Essence. This is simply too rare in Turin."
Because the City of Turin is located on the edge of the Mist Forest and is constantly shrouded in heavy fog, even if top-quality elemental essences appear, they are mostly Dark-attributed.
Just like the top-quality Water Elemental Essence Jia Na received from the Black Bone Forest last time, within Turin,
it was already considered rare, let alone a top-quality Plant Elemental Essence.
"Nineteen hundred jin sule, going once! Nineteen hundred jin sule, going twice—"
"Two thousand jin sule."
Accompanied by an ethereal voice, after only a moment's thought, Jia Na raised her bidding paddle and joined the competition for the auction item.
"Based on the market price, the price of ordinary quality elemental essence is around two hundred to two hundred and fifty jin sule. The price of top-quality elemental essence will roughly increase by about ten times—therefore, if there are no surprises, the price of this elemental essence should be between two thousand and twenty-five hundred jin sule—."
"Two thousand jin sule, going once! Two thousand jin sule, going twice! Two thousand jin sule, going third time!—Congratulations to VIP number twenty-three on the successful bid!"
Hearing this, Jia Na couldn't help but be momentarily stunned, then her heart filled with joy.
"I originally thought I'd have to add at least another five hundred jin sule to win it. I didn't expect it to go more smoothly than I imagined."