Free Web NovelChapter 67: Pleasant Surprise (2)
"A young Pristine Wild-Spirit!? Are you serious?"
A man dressed in white, one of the few people not hiding his face behind a mask, spoke with a tone full of irritation.
"It’s true that the number of Pristine Wild-Spirits is declining, and finding one captured alive is rare. However, they can still be purchased in various places, provided you have enough resources. Is the Alu-fiend clan trying to make fools of us?"
Following his question, a wave of dissatisfaction spread through the audience.
Priam, seated among the crowd, clenched his fists tightly.
He desperately needed a Pristine Core. If the item on display had simply been an exceptionally good core, he would have bought it at any price, no matter the cost.
But the merchandise being displayed...
...was a living little girl.
In other words, to obtain the core, he would have to kill her.
He let out a heavy sigh.
No matter how much he was losing or how essential her core might be, he would never do such a thing.
His mother’s life was important, but if she ever discovered what he had done to obtain it, the disappointment she would feel would be beyond measure.
The most pragmatic choice would be to simply save his money and ignore the auction.
But...
...he still vividly remembered what it was like to be a slave.
Because of that, Priam simply couldn’t forgive himself if he turned a blind eye to this situation.
"Don’t be so hasty, Lord Rhuths," the Succubus replied, maintaining a serious expression as she looked at the man in white. "If this were merely an ordinary Pristine Wild-Spirit, my clan would never have the audacity to invite all of you here."
She walked over to the runic inscriptions imprisoning the little girl and gently touched one of the runes with the tip of her finger.
"Please," she said with a confident smile, "watch carefully."
A faint red energy flowed from her fingertip and touched the little girl’s forehead, right between her eyebrows. The little Wild-Spirit trembled all over from the contact, but remained completely silent.
Suddenly, a brilliant golden mark slowly appeared in the center of her forehead.
"WHAT!?"
The instant the golden glow appeared, the stone chamber erupted into an uproar of shock, as if a bomb had exploded.
Everyone except Priam jumped to their feet.
Even the arrogant Rhuths lost his composure and leaned forward to stare at the mark.
"She is... a member of the royal family of the Pristine Wild-Spirit race!" Rhuths shouted, his voice trembling.
"Exactly. As you can see, this child is far from ordinary," the Succubus declared excitedly, withdrawing her finger while the golden mark remained vivid. "She is a Primordial Pristine Wild-Spirit!"
The audience seemed unable to breathe.
"You may have only heard ancient legends about them, but Primordials still exist on the mortal plane. This golden mark comes from her pure ancestral Bloodline. It cannot be imitated or manipulated by any known technique."
"B-but... wasn’t it said that all Primordials outside the Divine Plane had perished?" Rhuths asked, his voice now filled with unimaginable excitement. "How is this possible?"
The Succubus smiled.
"Indeed, the last known specimen was recorded more than twenty generations ago. Because of that, everyone reached the same conclusion: they had gone extinct on the mortal plane. My clan thought the same thing, and we didn’t believe it when we first saw this little girl. So we paid a fortune for accurate information regarding the last known specimen. We obtained images and even recorded replicas of its Bloodline aura."
She waved her hand, causing a small crystal to float into her palm. At that very moment, the crystal pulsed with a faint golden light for a single second.
Without exception, everyone in the room could feel the Bloodline fluctuation emanating from the crystal.
When they turned their senses back toward the little girl, they felt the exact same energy signature.
They were identical.
The chamber fell into such profound silence that one could hear a pin drop.
Everyone present had traveled from other universes, and some had even come from the divine plane to participate in that auction, hoping for something worthwhile.
But no one could have imagined a surprise of this magnitude.
An ordinary Pristine Wild-Spirit was already valuable, but a Primordial was on a completely different level. This capture would send shockwaves even through the Divine Sects.
Of course, they still existed on the Divine Plane, but they were protected by powerful humanoid sects. However, nobody was naive; everyone knew that Mages were malicious and greedy by nature.
Because of that, those great sects didn’t actively search for the Primordials hiding on the mortal plane in order to protect them. Instead, they were left to survive on their own, serving as "targets" for independent hunters.
That way, the specimens protected by the sects attracted less attention. Anyone who truly wanted one would always have a better chance of obtaining one through the black market of the mortal plane.
But after so much time, Primordials had become legends.
The few families of that Bloodline that still existed should have been captured centuries ago.
Having one standing before them now was a historic event.
The Succubus broke the silence with a slow, calculated voice.
"Although this little girl has not yet reached adulthood, I’m sure everyone present understands the vast range of uses she offers."
Under the weight of countless hungry gazes examining her as if she were a piece of premium meat, the little girl wrapped her arms around herself and began trembling uncontrollably. She fought to hold back her tears, but the absolute terror she felt was far greater than her willpower. freёwebnovel.com
Priam took a deep breath, trying to steady his emotions.
A Pristine Core was already a unique and coveted item that belonged exclusively to that race. But the rumors surrounding a core from a Primordial...
That was a treasure among treasures.
Every legend and description regarding the power such an item contained sounded almost inconceivable, yet nobody present doubted it at this moment.
The history of that humanoid race was marked by tragedy.
Although they could become Mages, their natural talents were poor, and even those who reached high levels remained pitifully weak in combat.
Combined with their extreme difficulty reproducing and their tiny population, it meant that once they fell into cruel hands, there was no escape.
The overwhelming majority of Pristine Wild-Spirits chose to destroy their own Cores when defeated, an act equivalent to immediate suicide.
Preventing that mechanism was nearly impossible.
But...
That little girl had not done it.
Priam had no difficulty imagining why.
As possibly one of the last members of her race carrying the Primordial Bloodline on the mortal plane, her death would mean the complete extinction of that ancestral purity.
In fact, even the Mages of the divine plane had never personally seen a Primordial. Only the sects that protected them claimed they still existed.
But who could guarantee that those sects hadn’t simply used them up?
There was a real possibility that Primordials of this race no longer existed anywhere.
Despite being so young, the little girl understood that no matter how humiliating or desperate her situation became, she simply could not die.
The weight of an entire Bloodline rested upon her small shoulders.
"Not only you gentlemen, but Mages and Sages across all universes believed that Primordials were extinct on the mortal planes. Yet there is a living specimen right before your eyes," the Succubus continued, causing the audience’s eyes to shine with renewed greed.
"All of you here today are as fortunate as I am. As for who among you is the most fortunate... well, I wonder who that will be."
Everyone’s eyes remained locked onto the little girl without shifting even the slightest bit.
"The elder who captured this child originally intended to enjoy her for himself, but for a variety of reasons, he decided to entrust her to my clan..."
"Miss, start the bidding already!" Rhuths roared, cutting off the saleswoman’s speech impatiently.
"Hehehe, it seems nobody can wait any longer." The Succubus’s eyes became even more enchanting and manipulative. "The opening bid is... one hundred million Black Diamonds!"
The sound of people swallowing nervously echoed throughout the chamber.
One hundred million was an astronomical figure, enough to shake the finances of major organizations.
But if that was the price of acquiring a Primordial Pristine Wild-Spirit, the future profit would be simply incalculable. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
The crucial thought hammering through every mind present was the same:
If they missed this opportunity, they would never find another one like it for the rest of their lives.
