"1600!" a plump noble on the first floor raised his hand and said.
But soon, the bids behind him quickly drowned out his, and for this rare ore, although it was relatively singular in nature, it still attracted the pursuit of many nobles as a material for knight armor specifically used in certain environments.
After the price rose to 2100 Gold Coins, the bidding began to slow down.
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Rein thought about it and directly had the beautiful lady bid 2500.
When the beautiful lady on the second floor dignifiedly raised the 2500 sign, Idris, an old man with a monocle, his face joyful and his voice raised two octaves, shouted:
"We have a bid of 2500 from a distinguished guest, any higher bids?"
After three calls, no one responded.
With the fall of the auction hammer, Rein successfully secured the ice iron ingots!
Perhaps for others this price was somewhat high, but for Rein, these ice iron ingots had a special significance.
Conservatively estimating, Rein felt that after using up all these ice iron ingots, he could elevate his armorsmithing Profession Level by at least one, and perhaps even two levels might just be possible.
Having secured the ice iron ingots, Rein was even more anticipative of the upcoming auctions.
Unfortunately, the next few auction items were mostly antiques.
To this, Rein had no interest at all.
Antiques were, in Rein's view, items that were expensive but did not offer much practical use, serving more to indirectly highlight a family's heritage.
At this moment, a female Attendant knocked on the door and holding a luxurious carved wooden box, respectfully presented the twelve gold pearls that Lady Jennifer had just won at the auction.
"Baroness Crawley, here are the auction items you won," the Attendant said with a bow as she handed over the wooden box.
Unexpectedly, Jenny who was beside her quickly took it first. As she opened it, she was instantly captivated by a row of glittering gold pearls.
"Mother, these gold pearls are really beautiful."
The beautiful lady was also quite intrigued and picked up one to look at. It was glittering with a round, gentle luster, indeed exceptionally pretty.
At this point, Idris, the chief auctioneer, began to introduce: "The next item up for auction is an extremely rare ore."
As Idris spoke, he mysteriously lifted the red cloth on the tray.
Rein's attention was immediately diverted from the gold pearls as he focused on the auction stage, where Idris displayed the tray.
On it were five long, metal ingots, appearing similar to silver ingots but noticeably brighter with tiny sparkling starlight mixed within.
Shh! It's Mithril ingots!
This instantly delighted Rein.
"It's definitely Mithril!"
Many nobles on the first floor also quickly recognized this precious rare ore as Mithril.
Furthermore, the output of Mithril, whether in the Dragan Empire or the Eagle Federation, was extremely scarce, rarely encountered by ordinary people.
This time, having five Standard Ingots appear all at once was quite rare indeed.
Rein first heard about Mithril six months ago during a mission to eradicate mermen, where Captain Weilun mentioned someone had obtained a highly valuable Mithril ore by killing a merman.
Just like the previous ice iron ingots, to Rein, Mithril was not just a rare ore but also a main material for crafting Secret Silver Engraved Plate Armor.
Though having the material alone was not enough, Rein further needed to address the issue of inscriptions, but these problems could be tackled one by one.
A skilled woman struggles without rice, thus the availability of materials sometimes stood as the utmost priority.
Luckily, Rein had earned a large sum of Gold Coins from betting on a bloody duel this time.
Otherwise, he likely wouldn't have had sufficient funds to secure the Mithril ingots.
Only after Idris, the chief auctioneer, had made a round showing the items and stirred up the lively atmosphere, he loudly announced: "The quantity of Mithril ingots this time totals five Standard Ingots, starting bid 2000 imperial Gold Coins, now, let the bidding begin!"
"2500!" a thin noble on the first floor couldn't wait to raise his hand, saying.
But trying to scare off others from competing for the Mithril by directly raising the bid by 500 was clearly a miscalculation.
Soon, subsequent bids rose one after another, quite higher each time. Since Mithril had many more uses than the ice iron ingots, it naturally attracted the pursuit of most male nobles.
After the price rose to 3500 Gold Coins, the bidding increments began to slow down.
At that moment, Rein leaned over and whispered in the beautiful lady's ear, "No matter what others bid, always go one hundred higher than them."
The beautiful lady immediately chuckled and said, "It seems that Baron Sir is very fond of Mithril, just like how we women love jewels like gold pearls!"
Because in public, the beautiful lady always paid great attention to her demeanor and speech, addressing Rein quite formally.
With many nobles competing in the auction, it wasn't feasible to attempt to secure the Mithril ingots by suddenly raising the bid too much, so after expressing his determination to secure the ingots to the beautiful lady, he left the rest for her to handle the paddle.
At that moment, with each new bid, the smile on Idris, the old man with a monocle, became even brighter. His voice rose steadily as he shouted, "We have a bid of 3700, any higher bids?"
By now, there were not many nobles continuing to match the price.
Although Mithril was scarce, at that point, it was starting to slightly overprice. If not in urgent need, many nobles began giving up on bidding.