CHAPTER 322: GRAND AUCTION FESTIVAL

CH332 Grand Auction Festival

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A month later...

Alex and Eleanor completed their first collaboration — a project that left Zora utterly exasperated and wondering if she’d made a grave mistake pairing the two together.

As expected, once Alex became involved, the simple idea they’d started with evolved into something far more complex than either of them had anticipated.

The pair had originally intended to auction off their creation. However, after Zora pointed out the potential social and political ramifications, they wisely decided to shelve the product, ensuring it wouldn’t see the light of day — at least, for now.

While Zora despaired at the terrifying synergy she might have unleashed, Alex and Eleanor managed to find common ground.

Although Alex kept much of his Rune-Tech prowess concealed, the fact that he’d turned a harmless Rune Scroll project into something deemed forbidden spoke volumes about the platform’s potential. Eleanor began to understand the roots of his paranoia — why he guarded the secrets of Rune-Tech so fiercely.

That understanding drew them closer — at least professionally. As for romance, neither of them was in a hurry. They were both too absorbed in their work, and Alex had always been more of a go-with-the-flow kind of man.

Quietly, however, Alex had his own plans. Without telling Eleanor or Zora, he incorporated the "forbidden" product into his Interplanar Project. His intention was to test its effects — and gauge societal acceptance — within the new plane he was preparing to visit.

It would serve as a live case study, an experiment to determine whether the product could ever be safely introduced into Pangea. He could only hope that the society of the next plane would be similar enough for his results to hold meaning back home.

That little interlude aside, the group now turned their attention to the upcoming auction.

With a vast number of professionals and resources at their disposal — both magical and metaphysical — the partnership between the Enclave and the Golden Palace had succeeded in constructing an entire small city around the main auction house.

This would be the site of what was now officially called The Auction Festival.

The festival would last an entire week, drawing visitors, merchants, and nobles from across the continent — all for business, pleasure, and the prestige of being part of it.

Alex’s plan was executed meticulously by the Enclave’s administration, led by its Finance Department, and the Golden Palace’s management.

The city was unofficially divided into three main sectors — Lower, Upper, and Core.

The Lower Sector was free-entry and mostly comprised of bazaars, kiosk spots, and modest residential areas. The bustling markets were filled with low-tier — and a few poorer mid-tier — Enclave craftsmen and mages selling their crafts and looted goods.

Non-natives and visiting mages from other regions could also set up stalls here, though at a hefty fee — especially if they couldn’t provide proof of identity.

Moving upward, entry into the Upper Sector required an entrance fee. Security was much tighter, and both entry and exit were heavily monitored to ensure order and safety.

This was where luxury began. The upper tier hosted high-class to downright lavish hotels, rentable private villas, and elegant shops run by mid- to high-level Enclave craftsmen. It also featured a variety of entertainment spots — casinos, combat arenas, race tracks, and more.

It was the beating heart of commerce and pleasure — the true image of the entertainment and economic hub the Enclave and Golden Palace envisioned the town to become.

Unlike the Lower Sector, which was a chaotic free-for-all, only Enclave-certified individuals were allowed to operate here. That rule ensured most businesses were owned by Enclave natives — mages, craftsmen, and affiliated professionals.

The few outsiders who managed to secure operations in this sector were already distinguished names — large merchant houses, powerful professionals, and at least renowned Tier III expert craftsmen known throughout the empire.

And then, there was the Core Sector — where everything went up a notch.

The visual style evolved from the luxury of the Upper Sector into something almost futuristic.

Tall buildings rose under shimmering light arrays, surrounded by carefully planned greenery and a seamless fusion of technology and magic — a concept clearly inspired by Alex’s design sensibilities. The result was a district unlike anything else on the continent.

Accessing the Core Sector required far more than money. Status mattered. So did patronage — meaning only those who had spent a certain threshold amount in the Lower and Upper Sectors were permitted entry.

The threshold wasn’t unreasonably high — just a total trade value of 100,000 gold coins.

Roughly the price of two military-grade Magic Armours... or a single Luxury-tier Rune Phone.

Most of the organisations Alex was targeting to sell his Rune-Net to were the same ones that casually bought multiple Luxury-tier Rune Phones, and maintained entire companies—if not entire brigades and corps—equipped with Magic Armours.

To such entities, 100,000 gold coins wasn’t even a barrier; it was little more than a tip—a simple gesture to ensure the rabble stayed out of their way when the true elites began bidding for the crowns of the auction.

And it wasn’t as though the money was wasted. Those funds had been spent purchasing goods which, while considered low-tier to them, were still valuable enough to distribute among their subordinates.

Unsurprisingly, anyone permitted entry into the Core Sector was far from ordinary. Ironically, this made it the most orderly sector of all. There was less visible security here than even in the Lower Sector, simply because no one would dare disgrace their House or organisation by acting out of line in such company.

The few guards who were visible were stationed in front of key landmarks — the Golden Palace Auction House, the Dragon Chamber of Commerce Building, and a handful of luxury boutiques owned by either or both the Golden Palace and the DragonHold Enclave. Even then, those guards were more for show than necessity; the true security forces remained hidden from view.

Unlike the other sectors, however, the Core Sector had an exclusive policy—some might even call it xenophobic. Only businesses affiliated with the Enclave or the Golden Palace were allowed to operate here. Even the most prestigious merchant companies and trading chambers found themselves excluded.

This was the realm where both powers flexed their commercial might, displaying the finest goods and services their alliances could offer.

Trade agreements for any of the Enclave’s products—down to even the lowest-tier item—could be negotiated directly through the Dragon Chamber of Commerce, sparing the elite clientele from dealing with dozens of minor craftsmen or individual sellers.

Meanwhile, the Palace Auction House served as both a hub for trade negotiations with Palace representatives and a logistics centre for convenient deliveries anywhere across the continent.

And this was before the main auction had even begun.

By this point, both the Enclave and the Palace had already earned hundreds of millions of gold coins in direct revenue from pre-auction sales alone.

As for indirect earnings—the taxes, tariffs, and levies tied to the event—those figures were still being tallied, but early estimates placed them well into the high tens of millions.

Unlike the sales revenue, these were pure profit, passively generated without further effort.

To say the festival had already been a success—even before the much-anticipated auction—would be an understatement.

Many of the merchants present could only look on in envy. Even though the business model was clear for all to see, it wasn’t something just anyone could replicate. At the very least, they would need an item of immense significance—like the rumoured final auction piece—one capable of drawing such a diverse crowd of individual powerhouses and influential organisations.

The five days passed without much trouble, and the much-anticipated day of the auction finally arrived.

Just the entry requirement alone—a total trade qualification of 500,000 gold—kept the rabble at bay. Still, the Enclave had been considerate enough to plan a live screening of the event across various venues within the entertainment district.

Of course, for a small token fee of 10 gold coins.

A hefty sum for a commoner, but a modest price for an average professional.

The two partners hosting the event earned another tidy profit from the live broadcast—an innovative concept in this world, where meeting the powerhouses one often heard about was near impossible. Offering such a privilege for merely ten gold coins was, without question, a fair deal.

On the sixth day of the festival proper, many powerhouses and scions of great families who had remained quiet throughout the festivities finally began revealing themselves. From royalty to grand duchies and cross-continental guilds, nearly every organisation of repute was represented. Those unaware of the details could only wonder—what exactly was this final auction item, that it could summon such an assembly of giants?

Some among these elites were dissatisfied with the hosts for airing the event publicly, while others saw it as an opportunity to flaunt their organisation’s prestige by securing victory in the bidding wars.

Whichever side they stood on, none of them realised they had already stepped into a carefully laid trap.

Unbeknownst to all, by choosing to broadcast the event, the Enclave and the Palace had ensured that no organisation could afford to appear stingy. Rival factions could no longer withdraw their financial strikes against one another.

In other words, through a simple act of media coverage, the very organisations that ruled wind and cloud over the Arun Continent were softly manipulated... forced to open their wallets—whether they wished to or not.

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