Thunderous silence filled the room; Soren immediately appeared by the Prince's side and observed his condition.

Just from outward appearance, the Prince was covered in blood, the bruises all over his torso had changed to a purplish black colour; his face was unrecognisable nothing like the handsome appearance from only moments before.

Ryan looked at the scene callously, turning he walked back to his seat beside Richard.

“There is no way you could beat the Prince without being 9 steps into Transforming! How is it that you’ve only trained for a few months? Is that nothing but a lie?” The young man from the Prince’s entourage barked at Ryan’s back.

“Even then could you not show mercy to the Prince? Or are you trying to incur the Kings….” At that moment Soren moved so quickly he appeared beside the youth and slapped him unconscious.

Soren as a general was utterly disappointed by the ignorance and arrogance of these naïve nobles. “Elder we have wasted too much of your time, forgive us if we have offended you in any sorts,” Saying this General Soren ordered the group of people that had come with the Prince to carry him back to the Palace.

After everyone had gone ahead he treaded towards the exit, when Richard suddenly called out to him.

“Your name is Soren, right? From what I can see you’re quite young and yet you’re already quite strong, I presume you are a Sage Master. You have the possibility of reaching a much higher realm if you’re prepared to give up the little authority you have in this small kingdom and adventure through the world.”

General Soren recollected his composure although the words had already carved deep into his mind, he left the room as swiftly as he had entered it.

-------------------

On the balcony room below Richard’s room the blonde haired man was speaking to his servant Reid: “Did you sense that?”

“Yes, I did Master?” Reid replied, his senses recognised the murderous killing intent that appeared like lightning and disappeared. “That room above ours sits a mysterious, powerful individual.”

“Hm” The blonde haired man nodded, “I did not expect the appearance of a formidable individual at this auction.”

“Well, as long as he does not bother us there is no need for us to interfere with him.”

“A wise decision Master,” Reid replied in harmony.

-------------------

“I was expecting you to hesitate a lot more, guess all my worry was for naught,” Richard said.

Ryan responded calmly: “I learnt long ago that mercy on an enemy is cruel to oneself, you also stated that I must not let my guard down at all nor show mercy to an enemy.”

Richard agreed.

“Richard, do you think I went too far?”

“No.” Richard replied instantly not pausing to think: “If it wasn’t you, someone else would have done the same thing to that arrogant Prince and that someone else might’ve been me.”

“What I’m trying to say is everyone will judge depending on their experiences, your experiences modelled your morality, “mercy on an enemy is cruelty to yourself”. Once you’ve made your decision stick to it.”

Ryan nodded then proceeded to ask: “Earlier that guy mentioned something about steps into transforming or something like that? Is it some sort of level prior to becoming a Sage?”

“It’s called steps into Transformation; honestly I despise those that use it to satisfy their egos since the 9 steps have no meaning to a person’s chances of becoming a Sage,” Richard answered.

“A person that has never trained in his life can become a Sage through deadly experiences or even through unexpected fortunate experiences. Just because one person is at a higher step compared to another literally means nothing besides raising the amount of force a person can exert with his bare fist which is easy to develop.”

“Beside’s that it doesn’t reveal anything else like the sturdiness of the body, skin or bones, it lacks all these important elements so it is a broken system.”

Richard then turned to Ryan, “You yourself, even if that child had landed a solid punch on you, it wouldn’t have done any substantial damage to you with all the training and resources I put into your body to strengthen it.”

“Then how does a person realise when he’s close to becoming a Sage if there isn’t a real system?” Ryan asked curiously.

“Again just as an ordinary person can become a Sage through experience, when a person has faced deadly situations enough times or even once, the moment they sense that sensation of Sage Force, that is when you’ve cracked open the door to the Sage Warrior realm. Though it is true if a person is able to increase both durability and strength of the body under control it will be much easier to become a Sage.”

“That is why I want to put you in an environment like the Coliseum, do you understand?”

Ryan swallowed all of the information and enjoyed the fact that he had learnt something new from the walking encyclopaedia called Richard.

Coincidentally the door to the room was knocked 3 times before Chairman Francis walked in: “Elder the auction will begin in two minutes.”

Richard nodded.

------------------

The stage at the front of the room was similar to that of a theatre stage: glossy wooden floor, red curtains with gold trims, and lights shining on the centre of the curtain.

In front of it, there were two levels of seats adding up to nearly a 1,000 and they had long been filled by individuals, the balcony rooms were all lit, occupied by either individuals or groups holding both status and power.

Just then the curtains split, opening wide bringing attention to the man standing at the centre of the stage dressed in a black suit, smiling enigmatically at the audience with an appearance that was on the high end of the spectrum.

“I humbly welcome all of you to this auction. My name is George and I will be your auctioneer today.” The man’s voice was cool, firm, charismatic drawing in the attention of all in the enormous hall.

“Since all of you have waited patiently for a significant period of time we will immediately begin the auction, please remember to stay till the end, we will be revealing an item that you will not want to miss.”

“Bring out the first item.”

Slowly from behind the curtain, a young beautiful woman walked in wearing a sky blue dress carrying a velvet cushion.

On the cushion was a gem that was only an inch in length without much lustre: “Here we have is a Dark Jade core, a gemstone that has been hidden deep in the ground absorbing energy for countless years. It has enough power to act as the Energy Core for a Sage Master level Weapon.”

“The starting bid for this will begin at 1000 gold coins.”

“1500 gold coins!” A man seated in the middle of the first row made a bid.

“1750!” Another countered in the same way.

“1800!”

Steadily the price rose higher and higher.

“2650!”

“Anyone else?” George looked around at the seated audience.

“Then it’s sold for 2650 gold coins!”

Then another item was bought in, bids flew across the hall, arguments rose that were quickly calmed and time flew by. Items ranging from rare materials, artefacts, powerful weapons to life-saving treasures all appeared during the auction. Until the climax of the entire auction and the reason why so many people had come for came.

“Now it’s time to bring out our special item that all of you have been waiting for, Forge Master Saul from the headquarters during one of his experimenting he created an item that would invoke the greed of a Sage Ancestor, we the Reinhart branch of the conglomerate were lucky enough to have procured it from him.”

“I believe you all know the status of Forge Master Saul, a 3 Star Forge Master with the capability of creating weapons for Sage Ancestors.”

At this moment an air of excitement rose from the tones of the audience, the auctioneer smiled expecting the reaction.

“This is no weapon to be precise; its value is much higher than that of a weapon because of its utility, a rare Sage Equip!”

As he was speaking a built man brought in a pedestal, the object on top hidden by a veil.

“Let me ask you, what is the one ability that humans dream of, the ability that is synonymous with freedom, the ability to fly!”At that moment George pulled the veil revealing two grey boots.