1476 Stallion and Gauntlet



The black cloth was removed to show the cage of the slumbering little horse. The horse's body was of silver color with not a single flaw anywhere in its body.

"This is a baby Silvermane Stallion," she explained. "As all of you most likely know, Silvermane Stallions are some of the fastest beasts both on land and in the sky."

"As if blessed by the wind, they can run with…"

The woman continued speaking and Alex looked at the little horse's replica floating in front of him. To his surprise, he could truly sense the fair amount of wood aura coming from the image.

"Quite nifty," he said, moving the image around for everyone to see. Whisker ran down to his thighs, looking at the beast while Pearl got closer.

"The little fellow is sedated, right?" Pearl asked.

"He is," the woman answered from behind.

"Who auctioned off this horse?" Alex asked out of curiosity. "Where did they even find a horse like this in the first place? The Beast Paradise has been closed for some time now."

He wasn't really expecting an answer and was just speaking to himself. However, the woman still answered him.

"This horse, along with a few other beasts that you will see in the upcoming days were beasts that were sold by the Royal School of Beast Taming."

Alex looked toward the girl. "The Royal Schools auction their stuff here too?" he couldn't help but ask in surprise.

"They do it just to be part of the festivities," the woman said. "They aren't looking to earn from these sales."

"I see," Alex said. "And are you allowed to reveal this information to me? Especially about the seller."

"The Royal School and various other guilds and organizations would rather they not be anonymous in the auction," the woman said. "Their names being spread around when asked helps them more than it hurts them. They would rather the people know where the item came from so they came back for more."

"Ah," Alex said. "Makes sense. I wasn't asked if I would want to remain anonymous or not."

"Individuals are all kept anonymous despite their choices," the woman said. "Although in your case… it might not help much."

Alex chuckled. "Of course, it won't," he said. He shook his head and turned back to the screen.

The explanation on the stallion seemed to have been over, and the auctioneer was moving on to the bidding.

"The bidding will start at 400 Saint Spirit stones," the woman said. "Please begin placing your bids."

Numbers suddenly appeared on the screen next to the woman, and it kept changing every single second.

500.

550.

600.

650.

700.

Alex sat back and looked at the screen with not much worry. He looked at his two elders and saw their expressions.

"Do either of you want this stallion?" he asked.

"No," Yao Ning said straightforwardly.

"We're too old to be rearing young beasts like that," Liang Shufen said. "It would find youngsters more than us."

"Youngsters… I wonder if Ronron would like this," Alex thought. "Do you think I should get it for Ronron?"

"Forgive me, Your Majesty, but isn't the Princess bound to leave for the higher world sooner rather than later? I'm sure there are dragons and phoenixes waiting for her to bond in the higher realm."

Alex thought for a bit and nodded. "You are correct," he said. "I shouldn't be thinking about buying this beast right now."

The bidding war went on for a while before it stopped at 1400 Saint Spirit Stones. The bid ended when no one bid anymore for a certain period.

The bid was set to end automatically, so there was no unfairness here at all. 

Once the bid ended, the cage with the stallion fawn was taken away, and replaced with something else. 

Alex watched as all sorts of items were bid off. Formations, talismans, pills, whatnot. He didn't just watch either but also participated in the auction a few times when he thought he could catch something good.

"Next up, we have another great item that I know most of you have been waiting for," the girl said and turned toward the staff.

The cloth was lifted from the box, which was a square glass container, containing a metallic gauntlet that gleamed with the colors of blue and green, all shining in a gradient around the gauntlet.

Alex looked at the gauntlet with slight curiosity as it was not every day that you got to see an item being sold that could only be used in close combat. As cultivators could send out attacks that spanned cities, if not countries, the necessity for weapons for close combat was no longer there at all.

"This is the Dragonheart Gauntlet," the woman spoke, explaining the item to the guests. "It is made by master Guanxin of the Royal School of Artifact from the scales and skin of a Dragonborn lizard that was killed in the eastern ocean a few dozen decades ago."

"There is absolutely no metal involved when making this artifact. All that came from that very lizard," she explained. "The gauntlet is appraised to be a Saint-ranked Heaven-grade item and is something you will want to lighten your storage bags for."

The woman went on to explain more about the gauntlet while Alex looked at the gauntlet carefully back in his room.

He moved it from side to side, seeing the colors on the surface, the leather inside of it. As someone who could now be considered more than just an amateur at making artifacts, he was more than confident in the fact that he could never make a gauntlet this good with his current level of knowledge.

He needed more practice, and more experience to make something as great as this was. As he was now, he couldn't do it. He heard the woman's explanation of what it did out of focus and was surprised to hear that it had multiple uses.

"Woah!" he couldn't help but say when looking at the gauntlet more carefully after that. He hadn't realized it at first, but there were runes carved into the scales to provide the user with 3 different types of powers.

The first was simply weight. It added fake weight to one, giving them much stronger attacks altogether. It didn't just have to be punched, but even swords could be swung much better with them.

Aside from that, it also allowed one to shoot out a Wood energy punch that at around Saint Transformation 1st realm strength as well as use a defensive technique that helped them protect as well.

Alex wasn't impressed much by the product's last two skills, but the first two made it sound amazing to his ears. It increased one's weight to give damage to one's attacks.

The two skills weren't bad either, especially because they used spirit stones and didn't require the user's input to work. 

Replacing them would be troublesome, but that was nothing as Saint Spirit stones would last the gauntlet for ages.

Alex thought a bit more about the first skill, and the more he thought about it the more it made sense to him.

"This will be the perfect artifact for Father."