Chapter 42

Lionel had entered this place just before the magic stone auction began.

The auction process was suspicious.

At first, several people had participated in the auction aiming for the magic stone, but once the price rose to a certain level, several people—including the man who ultimately won the magic stone—took turns raising their bids.

Recently, the price of magic stones had risen, so high-mana-content stones were not readily available on the market, but the auction price of the magic stone won today was strangely high.

Of course, it was not entirely impossible.

Magic stones with high mana content were always in short supply, and only a wealthy few could keep raising the price to the end of an auction.

If it had ended there, Lionel would not have suspected anything either.

But the timing of the magic stone's disappearance was too exquisite.

An item that had been perfectly fine during…