"The Staff of the Sage—the Staff of St. Francis."

"All of you here are no strangers to the legend of St. Francis, who is said to have listened to an oracle in his dreams, and the great god of fire and rock reflected the future that was about to happen—thunder and lightning poured down a black torrent that completely submerged the village where he lived, leaving no one alive. But Francis did not flee alone after waking up from the dream, but with a cane, knocking on the door from house to door in the pouring rain, but by the time he persuaded all the 132 households in the village to leave, the old saint had no strength or time to flee from the torrent, and with a flash of lightning that turned the night into day, the roaring black torrent had swallowed everything - in the original location of the village, no body was found, only the old man's cane, after the church listed him as the twelfth saint of the god of fire and rockThis cane has also become a holy relic registered by the church, and it is also one of the few holy relics that does not have a clear attribution. ”

"Start the auction now, the starting price is 100 gold coins."

"Bell—"

The auction host's mallet slammed down, and the dull echo reverberated through the hall under the effect of the alchemy props, and also woke up the little mage who was in a half-asleep state.

—Musa at 10:20 a.m.

"It's over? What a long opening statement. Monia opened her eyes, rubbed her sleepy eyes, stretched her waist quite inelegantly, and then focused her eyes on the alchemy screen above the host, noticed the name and function of the auction item, and couldn't help sneering, "I thought I could see some fine products, but I didn't expect it to be unexpectedly boring - holy relics, heh, this kind of thing can only deceive those vain nobles." ”

The Holy Relic, or the Holy Relic, is not worth a single one in the little mage's heart.

If it were the heroic evidence left by the Predators who could make a name on the battlefield, the mages might be able to use summoning spells to recreate the souls of ancient heroic spirits in the world, but the souls of the Church saints had long since been scavenged by the gods they believed in, and there was no supernatural power in their relics, and there was no possibility of exploiting them at all—I am afraid that the great nobles who regarded the glory of their families as everything would be willing to spend such a large amount of money for this.

One hundred gold coins, that's not a small amount.

Looking at the price that gradually climbed and had no end in sight, Monia couldn't help but secretly shake her head - despite the isolation of the Elven Forest, she still accumulated a lot of money through a series of means such as hunting slave hunters (the bulk of which was the destruction of a trading site of the slave catchers), if you add the dozen or so gold coins squeezed out of the night watchman's store manager, and put aside the factors such as the unequal value of gold coins in various countries, the little mage is also a little rich woman with more than fifty gold coins- Although she simply couldn't find a place to spend it.

From this point of view, it was a fitting event to participate in this auction.

It's just that Monia looks down on this level of auction - the auction in the game in the previous life is much more lively than here, not to mention all kinds of alchemy props, ancient weapons, and auction items such as the archmage's research codex that any player will be tempted by, and the popularity may be slightly inferior, but the practicality can be said to be a few streets away from the auction that opened this holy relic.

"One thousand one hundred gold coins once, one thousand one hundred gold coins twice, is there anything higher? Is there anything higher? Through the rising quotations, the atmosphere was quickly hyped, but when the quotation broke through the 1,000 mark, everyone's quotations became cautious, losing the pride at the beginning, it is obvious that the auction price of this holy relic has reached the top, and it is difficult to be speculated higher, "One thousand one hundred gold coins three times, okay, congratulations to the friends of 507 for winning the Staff of St. Francis!" ”

"Bell—"

Final word.

"A guy who has money and no place to spend it is really enviable." Although she had expected the price, when the auction results came out, she was still a little unbalanced, "If you give me the money......" The mage who fell into a dream was quickly awakened by the cruel reality, and then sighed, "I ...... Even if I give it to me, I won't have a place to spend it......"

The Forest of Elves, other places are fine, but it has never been a good place to spend - in a relatively closed environment, the commodity structure is single, the display lacks updating, and the supply is not abundant.

That's right, rotten in the hands.

Although many things that happened in the Chaos Chronicle are not well recorded, there is one thing that the mage can remember quite clearly, that is, the occurrence of the first economic crisis in the Aarensian continent - before the outbreak of this crisis, the countries of the Aarensian continent used the precious metal currency of the gold standard, although there is a subtle difference in the gold coin circulation in various countries because of the gold content, national reputation, shape and other factors, but in general there is no particularly big difference in value, and the gold coins of various countries can be circulated around the world. It's just that the geographical value will vary in different countries.

But an incident at the beginning of the Age of Chaos changed everything—or rather, made it all fall apart.

That is the breakthrough of alchemy.

One is all, all is one - the mages regard the ether as the root of all things, everything in the world evolves because of the ether, and the change of physical properties has always been a subject of study for those who are interested in the path of the ether, and alchemy is only an insignificant sub-discipline under it, which is rarely taken seriously, and even the church, which has always been on the same page as the mage, has not strictly forbidden ordinary people to study alchemy and prohibit the circulation of alchemical supplies.

Alchemy, with the aim of refining gold, was reprimanded by many mages as a crooked way.

But who would have thought that it was this inconspicuous technology that shook the order of the entire world in a chaotic year - I don't know who, and I don't know when, really broke through the barrier of physical properties, realized the transformation of physical properties, and could convert the humble copper into real gold.

Perhaps in the eyes of orthodox mages, this is just a small breakthrough, but for the world, it is the beginning of an economic earthquake - I don't know when, and for some reason, this technology gradually spread, although its threshold is not low, but it is not high, and the vast majority of alchemists can complete the smelting without knowing the steps, converting the meagre value of brass into out-and-out gold. (PS: The mage's flames, frost, and thunder are all shaped by the ether, and the transformation of physical properties is not too difficult for the mage.) ）

Then, with the flood of technology, a large amount of gold poured into the market, causing panic in the market, and during this period, the aristocracy, alchemists and big businessmen grabbed a lot of profits through the regulation of gold prices, and the economic avalanche caused by the distrust of currency issuers caused by panic was finally passed on to the middle and lower classes, and under a series of chain reactions, not only the economic order, but also the political order was completely out of control, only one step away from collapse.

So Monia has been looking for an opportunity to convert these gold coins into silver coins, but due to the closed economic environment of the Elven Forest, it is difficult to get what she wants, she thought that this auction would be an opportunity to spend more or less cash in hand, however, ...... It looks like the blind store manager is going to have to find someone to eat the gold coins.

While the mage frowned and pondered, the auction would not end with the mage's distraction, and under the unhurried pace of the host, several auction items had already found their owners, although their prices were several grades lower than the Staff of St. Francis, and the least was more than thirty gold coins - before gold refining became possible, he could take out dozens of gold coins at will, at least he was a gentleman, or a middle and high-level professional-although Monia was one of the middle and high-level professionals, But it was only three years ago that she became a mid-level mage, and three years was not as long as imagined for a mage, a profession that requires talent and accumulation, and even with her talent, she had only recently completely mastered the various spells that a mid-level mage should master, laying a foundation for future promotion, and she simply did not have the time and energy to amass wealth.

"What I'm going to introduce to you next, Master Exvenson's proud work." The moderator began to introduce the fifth exhibit, he pulled the cloth and showed the long sword placed on the weapon rack to the screen, "Master Exvenson is a rising star among the craftsmen in recent years, although his reputation is far less than that of the two old masters, Arman and Edric, but in terms of skill, he is not behind, and the blades of the Wind Chaser and the Blade of the Frost Fury he forged are known for their sharpness and lightness, which are rare weapons. ”

He took a step back, let the screen have a zoomed-in close-up, and after a little pause, he continued: "This long sword in front of me is the master's famous work when he was young, the hilt is made of ebony, the sword body is made of Waldylian steel, about an arm long, a single blade, the blade is extremely sharp, and it can be seen at the touch, even if it is an adult rock armor beast, in front of it is just a docile lamb, its name is Aurora, it is a weapon that coexists with beauty and danger, and the starting price is ten gold coins. ”

"Bell—"

"Auction begins!"

PS: Due to the limitations of knowledge, I don't know if gold coins can be called the gold standard.

Ps2: The transformation of physical properties is at least a subject that only high-level mages are qualified to touch, and it is already a problem close to the essence of spells, and even archmages need to spend considerable time and energy to achieve something. But as long as they become high-level mages, the demand for money is no longer so embarrassing, and the wealth they can grab through their strength and status is much faster than refining gold, so they will not put their precious time on gold refining, and middle and low-level mages are not enough time on the one hand, and on the other hand, they have more than enough strength to do so, and the final achievement of gold refining is the result of generations of alchemists.

Ps3: Ran a chapter of the question, and is likely to continue running...... After all, the original idea for this chapter [The Long Day] was three or four months ago.

Ps4: Essex is so cute, silver hair and stupid cuteness are in the middle of the good ball area, but it's a pity that it's not Lori...... Hey, it looks like something was exposed - you didn't see anything!