However, that was something far into the future. Right now, the auction for residences was limited to 50 open slots, the auction for citizenship to 100, and the auction for student passes for Darius' magic academy to a mere 5!

The residences were naturally the easiest sell as all of them were villas in the outer section. The bid started at 1,000 Supreme Coins per villa, but their retail price would drastically increase after the auction.

Deia did not state by how much, so many felt she was hyping up the price. Ultimately, the final bid never passed 1,500 for the villas. This did not bother Darius in the least, as he did not host this auction to make money, no.

This auction served only one purpose, and that was advertisement!

Advertisement to what his city could offer and show off the quality of his goods to the topmost echelon of powers, creating endless demand!

They may have scorned the residences because they thought living in his territory was not necessary given their background or because they did not understand the benefits the city held, but that was completely fine.

Darius was only selling these so cheaply for the same purpose, advertisement. Those who would end up acquiring any of these three things, be it a residence, citizenship or the academy slot would do all the work for him once they shared their experiences.

Not to mention the investigation the various parties would do in the coming months.

Besides, the secondary purpose was to serve as a shield. After all, even if he wanted to act closed door, he would be receiving a lot of pressure from various parties to open up, in the light and in the dark.

If he just turned his nose and acted arrogantly, he would invite a retaliatory response. What he needed was a logical excuse that fit his personality and goals, as far as the other parties could tell.

It would be like this; He would be visited by various parties, they would engage in small talk and eventually hit the point, which was acquiring a spot for the academy, the right to citizenship, or the ownership of one of the residences. They would ask if he was willing to sell them radiately for higher prices.

Darius would then answer, 'I gave a lot up during the auction but very few took an interest.'

Being reminded of their ignorance during the bidding, they would be left slightly irked.

'Also,' Darius would add, 'I don't plan on selling anymore privately or publicly using retail prices for such things, as the demand is too high for them. Hmm, maybe in auctions?'

They would then ask if Darius was planning to auction them specifically and he would give them a noncommittal promise. They could only leave at that and wait for something that would never happen.

Before they would realize that they had been duped, the city's power and his personal power especially was bound to exceed theirs.

Residences were fine though, as he would sell them normally but the future prices would be at around 100,000 Supreme Coins. Many powers would look back to this auction where 50 of them had practically been gifted away for only 1,000 Supreme Coins, yet they had failed to take the chance.

As for the citizenship slots, they received more patronage because some Fallon residents appeared quite interested. They were priced at 5,000 Supreme Coins though, making many shake their heads.

They gazed at the few who bid for them like they were idiots. What's the point of clamoring for such a thing from such an upstart city? Sure, they made high-quality goods, but how would that affect you in particular?

You'd need to make income to be able to afford such things and how could a new city like this offer stable jobs and growth when it was so young? If one needed anything from here, they could just come and buy it then leave, or even order a shipment from afar.

The mere fact that they were even auctioning citizenship alone was seen as testimony that they were in dire need of people to help the city grow, and that the value of it was not very high.

The powers weren't wrong for this, this was a logical conclusion given the facts they had. Of course, once they updated their facts, they would naturally wish they had never thought such things, but hindsight was always a bitch.

All citizenship slots ended up all sold but the maximum price never crossed 5,100 CP, which was pitiful. Many fellows laughed with derision, amused by this 'disgrace' the city had brought upon itself.

As for the final 5 slots into the academy, they received the least interest of the lot. After all, a newly established mage academy would only appeal to the poor. Most talented fellows would rather go to mage academies that had long histories and more exemplary results.

Not to mention that the fellows from other continents had zero reasons to even attend as it had no benefit to them, even if they knew how great the academy would be.

Even worse, a single slot was priced at 2,000 Supreme Coins. Most shook their heads and folded their arms, hoping for this segment to be quickly done and dusted so they could focus on the more important things.

Only two slots ended up purchased, both at the minimum bid. The remaining three had to be bought in by the auction house, and many fellows had to hide their faces from second-hand embarrassment.

Many expected Deia to react in some way, but she maintained her amused smile that contained a tinge of schadenfreude as she quickly announced the next section.

This made many powers frown as they realized that things might not be so simple from her reaction.

However, it was too late. The items had been bought in and they would not be brought out again, so they could only shrug and stop caring.

"Well now, we are onto the fourth segment, which is the penultimate one! This time, we are selling unique resources in bulk, so lets' take a look at what we have!"

Deia gestured and a tray was brought over by another Guard Android. When Deia removed the cover, many gasps sounded out in the room.