PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Seeing that Sasha, Claire, Cecilia, and Revna didn’t seem excited about the auction taking place, Xiauyue and Fei Long frowned and decided to intervene.

“I don’t know what all of you are thinking, but I recommend you pay attention to this part of the auction. I remind you that as much as the quality of the weapons and equipment that will appear later will be very high, these are still equipment for Aura users; they are not suitable for you. Of course, I still recommend buying some defensive equipment and weapons if you find one that meets your standards. Still, I thought you guys should take the opportunity to acquire the best quality raw material.” Xiauyue explained.

Fei Long added. “Even if this won’t increase your strength immediately, you should treat it as a long-term investment. It will take a long time to see the quantity and quality of the resources that are about to be displayed; you shouldn’t miss the opportunity.”

As if she didn’t think it was enough, Xiauyue added. “There will be no shortage of precious metals that can be useful in creating armor or a weapon to suit your beloved Desmond’s tastes and needs.”

Although Xiauyue and Fei Long’s explanation pointed out a problem with the girls’ way of thinking, causing them to reflect and change their attitude, what ignited the flames of passion was that last comment about Desmond.

Although she expected a similar effect, Fei Long was amazed when she saw how excited and serious the four girls seemed. Of course, she couldn’t know that Desmond had lost his old armor on a mission gone horribly wrong and was in dire need of new armor.

Under the guidance of Fei Long and Xiauyue, Claire and the rest began bidding for metals and other materials for the creation of weaponry. Concentrating on those materials with unique properties or those of extraordinary rarity, Claire and the rest plowed through the best the auction had to offer, at least at the beginning.

Eventually, the girls’ funds began to dry up, and the competition for the best materials became too fierce, especially for those precious metals or gems that reached the top of the three-star class.

.....

“As our next item, we have three ingots of divine ocean steel, a rare metal that can only be found in the deepest and most hidden parts of the ocean. It is one of the densest metals known but also one of the lightest. With impressive defensive capabilities and excellent conductivity for either water or metallic property energies, it is the perfect material to create defensive or offensive gear depending on the user’s needs.”

As the strongest of the four, Sasha was the one who gave her opinion on metal based on her knowledge of the materials’ properties as well as what she got from her mana scan. “That metal showed a great dislike for the fire attribute that plagues my Mana. However, I feel that the metal’s driving affinity is more suited to Mana than Aura. Given the explanation, that metal would be very suitable for Desmond.”

To complement Sasha’s explanation, Xiauyue commented. “That’s some of the best stuff you’ll find in this world, and I’m even surprised it’s being put up for sale. Not even my Fei and I would have a complaint if we had a piece of armor made from that metal.”

Fei Long added. “I’m afraid they will have a difficult time obtaining it. Many people will spend their fortunes to obtain that metal.”

Before the conversation continued, Sasha did something that only a rich girl like her could do: slap her rivals with money. Showing complete contempt for money, Sasha put every last one of her spirit stones into the first bid, scaring off her competitors.

The tyrannical way that Sasha just went and bid a ridiculous number from the start made a lot of people feel insecure about bidding against her. Although many people had the funds to beat Sasha’s initial bid, such an effort might prove fruitless, a waste of time overall.

Other people even believed that this was a trick played by Sasha to trick them into spending their funds before better items arrived in this or another section of the auction. Needless to say, some people had noticed the little tricks that Sasha had used during the auction phase with medicinal ingredients.

In short, Sasha’s move had sent out many mixed signals that the people at the auction house competing with her didn’t know how to interpret. On top of that, there were still four other stages left in this auction, and one of them was the armaments auction, the specialty of the Eternal War Maiden Sect.

Since it wasn’t worth depleting their funds for rare material that might have been used in some equipment in another section, a collective consensus was formed not to compete for metal against Sasha.

Thus, after an awkward silence that lasted for a dozen seconds, the host Qiqi counted down and announced Sasha as the winner. Under the disbelieving gazes of Claire, Revna, Cecilia, Fei Long, and Xiauyue, Sasha breathed a sigh of relief and made a light comment. “Whew, I can’t believe that worked.”

With her statement, Sasha had made two things clear. The first was that she had yet to be sure her rich-girl bravado would work, even with all the factors she had in her favor.

The second, and most disturbing thing, was that she had made that move with many of those factors in mind rather than doing it on a whim and getting lucky as some girls had thought.

Truth be told, most of the time, when Sasha wasn’t out of her lab, she was too lazy and childish. Although she had many redeeming traits, such as how caring and considerate she could be, she never displayed her great intellect in anything unrelated to alchemy, nor did she display many social skills to speak of.

As such, how she had considered and played with so many factors to get what she wanted to leave the other girls in awe. Sasha, on the other hand, didn’t overthink about it, this kind of mind games and stratagems were not her thing, and that was already the limit of her abilities; she could never be as conniving and manipulative as Desmond could be.

Revna was the first to recover from her daze. As the woman managing and supervising many of Garden’s operations, she knew more than the average. Revna knew that Sasha was more than she appeared, a wolf who preferred the role of the sheep because it was more comfortable. However, that could apply to all the women in the Astryd residence, depending on the scenario.

In this particular instance, it was Sasha who revealed that she had a certain amount of strategic and manipulative mind. Tomorrow it could be another one of the girls showing a quality that she did not use daily.

At the end of the day, people were too complex to be defined by just one aspect of themselves. Having worked seeing the darker side of people, Revna had long since grown accustomed to people keeping certain facets of themselves hidden.

After that little surprise from Sasha, the girls spent the rest of their funds on some rare metals and other materials that could be used to create good quality three-star class armor. Now all they needed was a good blacksmith to do the work for them.

The only one who kept some of her funds was Revna, mainly because materials suitable for her Mana type were too rare, at least in this section of the continent. Also, due to her fighting style, Revna favored light and flexible defensive gear, standards that most auctioned materials did not conform to. In the end, aside from bidding on a few materials she planned to use to create a pair of bracers and greaves, Revna saved the rest of her funds.

Revna’s last hope was to at least be able to find some suitable weapons for herself. The special daggers Desmond had given her long ago had broken into a million pieces during her intensive training. Given her preferences, Revna hoped to find a good pair of daggers or short swords, perhaps some other weapon of the light and flexible type, anything to suit her graceful and artistic fighting style.

The next phase of the auction was much less interesting and got zero participation from anyone in the private room. As a genius alchemist, Sasha was not into buying healing or cultivation pills; she could create similar or even better things. Claire and the rest had Sasha, so there was no need for any further explanation. Even Fei Long and Xiauyue had their own exceptional alchemist, Ai Zuling, so there was no need to participate in that part of the auction.