The Golem Mage

After the incident with the Lanzt Clan’s Grand Elder being cured, Alec had been able to successfully assure each mages present that the Undead Purge pills truly worked against zombie Virus.

Inside the five different bottles were Tier 1 to Tier 5 Undead Purge Pills, the Tier 1 bottle alone contained fifty pills.

Though many clans were eager to bid, but Alec clearly stated that only clans with Tier 1-infected members still alive were eligible to participate.

Those hoping to hoard the pills for the next Blood Moon War lost their chance like that, eventually, the bottle was sold in exchange for ten Tier 2 corpses.

Alec even went as far as to say that if the winning clan cured their members and still had pills left, they were free to resell them to help other infected clans, however, he made it clear that he wouldn’t tolerate price gouging or exploitation.

To prevent that, Alec set a fixed market price: ten thousand magic crystals for five Tier 1 Undead Purge Pills.

The winning clan felt restricted, knowing that if sold on the open market, just one pill could fetch more than that, but Alec didn’t care, since the pills were bought with corpses that were low in value, so he refused to give power to opportunists who might exploit others using a cure his auction had provided.

He even threatened that if they inflated prices and word got back to the Gordons, their clan would be blacklisted from future auctions, that warning quickly sobered the winning bidder, who had no intention of losing access to the Gordons’ auction.

Everyone present could see the value of what the Gordons were offering, and anyone willing to jeopardize their spot clearly wasn’t in their right mind.

Like that, the rest of the pills followed the same structure, it was no longer just about winning the auction, it was about earning the right to distribute the pills later for extra gains, both the Tier 2 and Tier 3 bottles contained 100 pills each.

Alec had been more generous with these tiers, even though he chose not to auction off too many, his reasoning was simple: the Gordons had actively dealt with the low-rank zombies on that battlefield, so he believed that while many were infected, the numbers weren’t overwhelming.

The Tier 2 bottle eventually sold for 40 Tier 3 corpses, despite the starting bid being only five, and the Tier 3 bottle went for 100 Tier 4 bodies, a bid won by the Raisa Clan, though the starting bid was thirty Tier 4 corpses, the new Raisa Patriarch raised it to 100 instantly, scaring off anyone who might have competed for the Tier 3 pills.

He placed that bid out of fear, because after the High-rank mage had been thrown out earlier, several cold stares had turned in his direction, though no one said anything aloud, but it was obvious that many mages in the audience didn’t buy his excuse about wanting to help apprehend the rogue mage.

And they weren’t wrong to be skeptical.

After all, he was only a Tier 6 mage claiming he wanted to challenge a Tier 7 Mage for the Gordons with such an impossible gap to bridge, plus, it was no secret that the Raisa Clan had issues with the Gordons’.

So, the overbid served as a strategic distraction, drawing attention away from himself.

Surprisingly, it worked but not because he secured an item from the auction, it worked because it was finally time to bid on the Tier 4 and Tier 5 Undead Purge Pills.

This was the moment many had been waiting for, with these pills, they would finally be able to save the mid-rank mages in their clans who had been infected, most couldn’t even begin to express how grateful they were to the Gordons Clan for informing them in advance that those with infected mages have to attend at all cost, which ensured they didn’t miss such a critical opportunity.

As soon as the bidding began, the prices surged rapidly.

This time, Alec didn’t restrict the bidding to only clans with infected mages, so the clans that had been side-lined during the low-rank Undead Purge pill bidding auctions jumped back into the fray.

Alec had only limited access to the lower-tier pills, because if he didn’t do that the larger clans would hoard them and would have completely shut out the smaller clans, and once those powerful clans had control of the pills, even if Alec tried to enforce a fair market price, they could exploit loopholes, pretending to sell at the official price while laundering profits through backdoor deals.

But when it came to the mid-rank Undead Purge pills, Alec didn’t care how the winners handled them, because he had plans to control that market himself.

The Tier 4 Undead Purge bottle, which contained twenty pills, was won by the Darkbliss Clan.

The Tier 5 bottle, with ten pills inside, was also secured by them, few could match the sheer number of corpses they had left, as the Darkbliss Patriarch had been saving up specifically for the final round.

The Tier 4 pills sold for 100 Tier 5 bodies, and the Tier 5 pills for 100 Tier 6 bodies.

To the Darkbliss Patriarch, it was good business, having those pills meant he could dictate distribution, but Alec wasn’t about to let anyone make excessive profits from his hard work.

He immediately set an official price for the mid-tier pills and announced that the Gordons would now be using their newly renovated “business region”(formerly the outer region, Alec renamed it after he renovation) as the hub for all related trade and oversight.

The first shop scheduled to open in the newly established business region was a pill shop and for a few days, and it would only sell Tier 4 and Tier 5 Undead Purge Pills at the market price Alec set.

With this move, Alec not only prevented the Darkbliss Clan from monopolizing or extorting others with their winnings, but also used the opportunity to give the Gordons Clan more public exposure.

Alec believed that the pricing he set still allowed the Darkbliss Clan to earn a reasonable profit from their investment.

However, he had no illusions, they were likely to attempt shady dealings.

That’s why he strategically opened the Gordons’ pill shop as both a counterbalance and a warning, cause if the Darkbliss tried to hike their prices, customers could simply turn to the Gordons instead.

Though the Darkbliss Clan was clearly displeased, there was nothing they could do, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and settle for the profits allowed by Alec’s set price, because if they didn’t, they risked losing customers entirely.

And with that, the auction came to a close, many left with satisfied smiles, others with valuable knowledge they hadn’t expected to gain, but one thing was certain: news of the Gordons’ auction would spread far and wide after this day.

As for Alec, he headed backstage waiting, while the Gordons’ mages and enforcers who had served as guards for the day began their final task, calling forth each winning clan and lone mages one by one, to come present their corpses backstage and collect their hard-won items.