The Golem Mage

Which was equivalent to at least another ten bodies if they were counting in Tier 5 terms; and now the pills’ value had reached the equivalent of twenty Tier 5 bodies which is the original realm Alec had placed the bid.

As the two men stared toward each other’s booth, trying to anticipate each other’s next move and act as cautiously as possible, Alec stood with his hands behind his back, neither announcing nor acknowledging their bids.

Everyone was so pumped about his heated bidding battle that the both Booth were probably the only ones being stared at, the crowd found the bidding battle far more interesting than expected, many realizing they even enjoyed watching such power plays.

‘Yes! Fight! Bid and spend all your corpses here, in the end, I’ll still be the biggest winner, no matter how much you believe I’m taking a loss,’ Alec thought as he watched them close to breaking down, though he kept a nonchalant face, deep down he was almost jumping for joy seeing how much the pills were already infecting the crowd.

Even those who had claimed they were only here for sightseeing had started checking if they had enough corpses to bid with, the only one who seemed undisturbed by Alec’s web was Alistair.

And this wasn’t because he was feeling proud or unimpressed by the pills, but because his father had incinerated the zombie corpses they had in their custody, leaving them with no corpses to use in the bidding.

Now, his father’s attempt to prevent the Gordons from gaining more corpses had completely backfired, as other clans and rogue mages had prepared better and were ready to just offer them to the Gordons in return for their items.

Meanwhile, they, as the city hall representatives, were missing out on the very items that could have strengthened some of their loyal mages in the city hall forces.

“Old man, we both know that your clan’s strength is above mine, which clearly means my clan needs this more than yours,” the Lanzt Patriarch said with a snicker.

“Two Tier 6 bodies and five Tier 5 bodies to add on,” Bailey Lanzt bid, choosing to make a move instead of exchanging words with the Darkbliss Patriarch like his son had.

“Three Tier 6 bodies.” Another bid came, but this time it was from the regular seating area.

At a round table sat a man with an incredibly muscular frame, surrounded by members of his clan, these were mages from the Aegisborn clan, and Orion Aegisborn sat close to the man who made the bid, as it turned out he was the Patriarch of the Aegisborn clan.

Although they had not been given a booth, since the Gordons had no prior relations with them before, but they were still given a place of honour.

Out of all the new clans that had moved into Estonia City, they were the only ones Alec had sent an envoy to personally, delivering a letter of invitation.

Alec had seen first-hand how Orion, one of the clan’s elders, had conducted himself on that bloom moon battle.

After asking around, he learned they were not troublemakers but a family that preferred to keep to themselves, out of respect, and impressed by their aggressive initiative during the Blood Moon War, Alec had extended an invitation, as any clan willing to take such risks was not made up of cowards, and he wanted them closer to the Gordons.

Seeing the Aegisborn join the bidding, Alec felt they too had grown tired of the old powers in the city acting as if they alone were wealthy in corpses, with the Aegisborn joining the fray, the auction almost turned into a free-for-all, with many clans desperate to get their hands on the pills at any cost.

Before anyone knew it, the bidding had climbed to ten Tier 6 bodies, equivalent to a hundred Tier 5 bodies, with Bailey Lanzt laying down that bid, causing the Darkbliss Patriarch to grit his teeth in frustration, as he didn’t want to lose in both rounds, but all the other clans that had joined the bidding, including the Aegisborn, had backed down when the price hit seven Tier 6 bodies.

The Darkbliss Patriarch had only stayed longer to save face, but even he hadn’t brought that many Tier 6 corpses.

Instead, he had prepared Tier 7 bodies, as those were the realm of opponents he usually fought.

The Tier 6 bodies he had brought were corpses the clan had long kept in reserve, but he hadn’t expected things to spiral so far out of control that the few he had would cause him to lose two rounds in a row.

“Just use one of the Tier 7 bodies to add to the bidding,” Clarissa suggested, but the Darkbliss Patriarch immediately shook his head.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the Gordons’ auction rules, it’s that higher realm bodies are far more valuable than lower ones, you can see it clearly, the Gordons themselves made it clear that they would accept higher realm corpses to cover a bid, but they won’t even consider lower-ranked ones to make up the price.” After the Darkbliss Patriarch spoke, the elders and companions around him realized he had likely decided to give up on this round too.

As much as they felt unwilling, there wasn’t much they could do, especially since the Lanzt clan showed no signs of backing down.

Many were still wondering where the Lantz found such confidence, but it was quite simple: out of all the clans in Estonia City, the Lantz were the only ones who had a true alliance with the Gordons.

And with what Alec had done to help Bailey survive a few more days with the Zombie infection, Bailey had decided there was no better move than to trust the Gordons’ judgment completely.

While others had hesitated to bring out the reserves of corpses they had painstakingly accumulated over the years, the Lanzt clan didn’t hold back, because from what the Gordons had announced, this auction was designed to increase the strength of those who fought in the Blood Moon War, and Bailey had taken it seriously.

He had brought almost all the corpse reserves the Lanzt had been saving for as long as he could remember, he did this because he believed that even if the Gordons kept helping keep him alive, eventually they would run out of healing pills, as it was an item known to be incredibly rare.

And When that time came and his death approached, Bailey wanted to be sure he had done everything possible to strengthen his clan, and at this moment, seeing the result, he was genuinely pleased with his decision.