Lucian immediately laughed. "Haha, that's funny." It wasn't until he saw Lorraine's expressionless face did he realize she might be yelling the truth.
"65% to 70%? Is an institute even allowed to do that?"
"Yeah. Since their resources are getting thin, they filter out the waste through various life threatening trials and give their full resources and time, training those who survived."
"Using this method, they've managed to acquire at least two Fiend gods for their academy, making themselves no less than those Top 10 academies."
"But it's incredibly dangerous and I don't recommend you go there. I have a contact in Supreme Heaven's Bane Academy. I could reach out if you'd like."
Lorraine suddenly added, taking Lucian by surprise. He thought deeply about it.
His predecessor did want to go to Supreme Heaven's Bane Academy and had been so confident they would come recruit him which is why he didn't choose his university earlier.
But now he awakened a trash talent, it was Lucian who was taking the fall for everything while the bastard is off enjoying in heaven or in hell.
He could reveal a bit of his talent, receive the attention and get a massive support and endless high end treatment from the top academies. But that wouldn't be fun at all.
Moreover, it would put him at the center of attention. Farming for stat points would become difficult, suppressing his talent even further. Moreover, he already liked the feeling of blood and battle, it was really addictive.
"Thanks, but there's really no need for that." Lucian declined politely, surprising Lorraine slightly.
But she didn't push further.
"I'm leaving town."
"Eh?" Lucian was both confused and surprised when he heard this. From what he could remember, she had been in this town for about ten years or perhaps longer.
"There's something important I need to do and I might not come back for a while."
This made Lucian frown. "Is it going to be dangerous?"
Lorraine simply chuckled but didn't say anything as she packed the empty plates to the kitchen.
Lucian stared at her for a considerable period of time. Then on impulse, he took
out the Heaven Cloaking Art and gave it to her.
"Here, this should help you considerable."
She was confused at first but when she knew what it was, her eyes opened wide in shock.
"Where did y—"
Lucian interrupted her with a deep kiss. "I still have matters to attend to. Will see you when I see you."
With that, he turned around, opened the door and left the building.
———————————————
It was night time, and was finally time for the auction. Lucian branched a store, bought a nose mask and a hoodie with a few Federation credit before turning to leave towards the auction's direction.
He needed to purchase a meditation technique or 2 since he really needed them before heading to the location of the unclaimed portal.
With the mediation technique, he would be able to recover his mana faster.
——————
In the southeast corner of the city, was an enormous building hall, an hall which could seat a about a thousand people and more
Generally speaking, during every Auction, because of the influx of people from nearby towns or cities, the seats would be completely filled.
At this moment, things weren't all that different from the last time.
This auction hall was split into three levels. The first level had ordinary seats, while the second level had stand-alone booths which only major families and wealthy people were qualified to enter.
The price to enter those booths was really high. As for the third level, it was just a single, extremely large hall, also decorated very lavishly.
At this moment, the thousands of seats in the first level were filled up, despite the fact that the price of each seat here was a hundred relic coins.
As for the ten or so private booths on the second level, based on the locations of the seats, the prices varied from a thousand to ten thousand relic coins.
But the third level? That wasn't opened to the public at all.
The allure of a rank 3 meditation technique was too tempting.
Any of the people currently in the auction hall were some of the wealthiest, most powerful noble within a ten-mile radius.
But precisely because there were only so few seats while there were so many nobles present, these standard seats, which supposedly cost a hundred relic coins each, were being sold outside for a ridiculous sum of money.
On the platform, a beautiful serving girl stood at the back, while a golden-haired gentleman walked onto the platform with a smile.
Looking around himself, he said in a bright voice, "Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome all of you to this auction for the rank 3 Meditation technique."
This middle-aged man behaved extremely leisurely. Slowly, he said, "Every single guest who has come today has a grand reputation and is from a respectable family. In particular, our Gallery was fortunate enough to be able to invite Mayor Grant to attend as well." This middle-aged man bowed slightly towards the third level.
Instantly, everyone below clapped their hands in applause.
"We also have Lord Rollin present."
Another round of energetic applause
This auctioneer rattled off one name after another, and each time he did, there was a storm of applause. To these people, a Cardinal of the Radiant Church, the Noble families were worthy of admiration.
Standing in the middle of the platform, that golden-haired, middle aged man continued to boast, "When discussing about good meditation techniques , in this day and age, the lowest valuation is up to 20,000 gold coins, while the highest ever seen so far, a Rank 4 meditation technique was sold for up to a million relic coins!"
All of the nobles and wealthy merchants below grew silent.
These prices were downright terrifying!
The golden-haired man let out a sudden laugh.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, you all know the rules of our auction, so I won't go into all the details. We have a total of 50 types of items up for auction, including mana potions, combat techniques, vitality potions, treasure chests, Monster eggs and even relic weapons."
"Let the auction begin!" the man said with a respectful laugh.
The crowd fell silent as the first item emerged. The pretty lady behind him —approached with measured steps.
She carried a rectangular box carved from ancient blackwood, inlaid with silver runes that pulsed with gentle light.
"Our opening item," Fendrel announced with a sweep of his arm, "a complete set of Mana Restoration Potions from the legendary Alchemist Bernard of the Alchemist Guild."