Affinity:Chaos

"It's nice seeing you again, miss Verla," The young man said with a soft smile.

"The pleasure is mine, Your Highness," Verla bowed once again to the young man.

Grey looked at the young man once again, he didn't know the identity of the young man, but from how he was being addressed by Verla, he guessed he must be royalty.

'Is he the Crown Prince?' He thought curiously.

He had heard of the Crown Prince, but he never got the chance to see him. The only time he got close to seeing him was when he allowed the Smith family to detain him.

While Grey was trying to guess the identity of the young man, someone from one of the special rooms spoke up.

"I never thought the Second Prince would attend such a mediocre auction," A voice said.

There was a little hint of mockery in the voice.

"I enjoy coming to these places, you may never know what you'll see here. Even a less popular auction tends to always have something special," The Second Prince said, still wearing a soft smile on his face.

"Since your highness wants this herb, it's only natural we leave it to you," Someone else from another room said.

"Hmph!" A cold snort came from the previous room.

"Since no one else is bidding for the item, the herb goes to His Highness the Second Prince," Verla immediately concluded the auction.

Although she would want to see the herb's value continue increasing, she knew since the Second Prince has shown his face, no one else would dare to bid. Even though his status isn't as high as that of the Crown Prince, he was still the Second Prince, someone who had the chance of becoming the next Emperor of the Qilin empire.

The Crown Prince is the one most of the people in the palace, big families, as well as the Emperor of the empire. The Second Prince has a few people behind him, however, that meager support isn't enough to get him the throne.

Grey looked at the expression of the Second Prince, and he couldn't help but commend his bearings. Even the Twelfth Prince he encountered previously also had a unique bearing.

'Looks like it runs in the family. I wonder what the Crown Prince looks like,' He thought.

After Verla sent the item to the Second Prince, she began auctioning off the regular items once again.

Just as she got to the seventh item, she brought out an item that roused Grey's interest.

"This book contains an ancient array formation. Usually, this array would be part of the main items in the list, but unfortunately, it's incomplete as there is only one-third of the methods needed to complete the array written in this book. Furthermore, the specifics of the array isn't known," Verla said while bringing out a worn-out book that seemed to have some side ripped off.

"You mean you do not know what the array is used for, yet you're going to sell it off?" Someone from the crowd asked.

"That's correct." Verla nodded, "We've given the book to our appraisal to verify it, and it is confirmed that it was from ancient times. However, not even the best array masters in the organization can decipher or bring out the use of the array since they don't know which step to take after the first steps shown in the book,"

"This book is something from ancient times, and the only reason it is being sold for higher is because we don't really know what it can do. The starting price for this book will be five thousand mid-grade essence stones, for every bid, the price must see an increase of five hundred essence stones," Verla said.

Even she wasn't too sure the item would sell, after all, she just said they couldn't find out what it was used for, nor was it complete. It would be a loss if anyone bought something they can't really use.

She stood at the platform nervously, waiting for someone to make a bid. Just as she was about to give up on the item, she heard a calm voice.

"Five thousand five hundred essence stones,"

Looking in the direction of the voice, she found out it was from the room with the number six on it. She never expected that it would be someone from the special rooms that would make the first offer.

Not just that, but before taking up the role as the host, she was informed by old man Gerald that the person in room six was a very important figure and he should be given whatever he wanted.

The people in the crowd stared at Grey's room as if they were looking at a fool. Who would want to obtain such an item? If even the best array masters from the Lenz organization couldn't decipher or use it, what was the use of buying it?

One has to know that the Lenz organization had the best array and forge masters in the entire continent.

After Grey made his offer, he sat down quietly, hoping that no one else made a higher offer.

The stones he had with him were just slightly above six thousand mid-grade essence stones. This is if he adds the low and high-grade stones he had.

If he buys this item, there is no way he would be able to activate the teleportation array.

"Is anyone willing to make a higher offer? If not, the book will be given to the guest from room six," Verla asked.

She naturally knew no one else would make an offer for the book, the fact that someone even made a bid for it was surprising.

After waiting for a few seconds, she immediately declared the item sold, telling the young lady by the side to bring it to Grey.

'Looks like there are no array fanatics here, else, they would be infinitely intrigued by something like this. If any of them were to be able to decipher it, it would be a huge honor. Hehe, how lucky,' Grey chuckled to himself while waiting for the book to be brought to him.

If not for the fact that he was a little curious about what the last item would be, he would've left immediately he collected the book, so he could start studying it.

Knock! Knock!

"You can come in," Grey said coolly.

The door to the room opened, and the young lady who attended to him when he came to the auction walked in holding a small animal skin bag in which the book was kept.

Grey had brought out all the stones he had with him, on seeing the stones beside him, the young lady gasped in surprise.

"How is that possible?" She muttered to herself.

When Grey came to the auction, she didn't recall seeing him with anything, so where did all these stones come from?

"What?" Grey raised a brow in confusion.

"It's nothing. Here's the book," The young lady handed the bag to Grey.

Grey collected the book before showing the young lady the pile of stones by the side.

"It should be accurate if you change them, there are…"

"You don't need to pay for the items you purchase," The young lady cut him short.

"Huh?" Grey looked at her in confusion.

"The lord informed us of your arrival and said whatever you bid for should be given to you, he'll take care of the bills," The young lady explained.

"Oh!" Grey exclaimed, making an 'o' with his mouth.

The young lady looked at Grey, dazed by his appearance. Even though half of his face was covered, it still couldn't hide his handsome face.

"Hello," Grey waved his hand across the face of the young lady.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Uh! Who, what… Ah! I'm fine thank you," The young lady first looked around in confusion before realizing where she was.

She exclaimed softly in embarrassment before hurriedly leaving the room.

Grey stared at her, confused by her strange behavior.

"Hmm, strange," He shook his head before deciding to check out the book.

He stretched out his hand and all the stones were kept back in his storage ring.

'I never thought old man Gerald would be so generous. *Sigh* If only I was as shameless as Klaus, then I'd buy something really expensive which I would naturally want to use,' He thought.

From what the young lady said, he could buy whatever he wanted from the auction. But the truth was, given his personality, he couldn't really bid for something he knew he couldn't afford.

He opened the book, focusing his entire attention on it.

Before he knew it, one hour had gone by, he was still very much engrossed in the book.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you all have been waiting for has arrived, the last item to be auctioned for today's event is, the bones of a true dragon," Verla said.

The word dragon dragged Grey out of his engrossed state.

"A Dragon?"