Chapter 42: The Cursed Magician Ruben

  Gillian's move was indeed brilliant.

  Apart from the Merlin family's brief test of strength, among the three major magical families in Gallos, the Mannis and Saruman families have not even made a move. The reason for their inaction is not hard to imagine. As fellow members of the three major magical families, they can be said to know each other inside out, with an unspoken understanding that doesn't need to be explained. Each family knows how many bottles they should take, and no one will disrupt this tacit agreement maintained in secret.

  Unfortunately, Grian didn't give them the chance. You like to play humble, right? Then let's just push you a bit more. The Merlin family just got three bottles and will definitely not be satisfied. Everyone knows that their family has at most four apprentices, and the other two families didn't even get one bottle, so it's impossible for them to give up. This is an Ofar potion, after all. If they miss this opportunity, who knows when the next chance will come?

  The three big families can't help but see red now...

  The once quiet hall seemed to have a hint of gunpowder smell.

  The three family members sat in the front row, their seats not far apart. At the beginning of the auction, they occasionally exchanged a few words, but as the astonishing news was thrown out, it seemed like an invisible wall suddenly rose between them. No one had the heart to talk anymore, and all eyes were fixed on Kevin, waiting for the small wooden hammer to fall...

  The atmosphere in the hall suddenly became somewhat oppressive, just like the feeling of panic and suffocation before a storm.

  When the auction reached this point, the six major underground forces and the eight major magical families had already lost their chance to compete. Whether it was wealth or power, they were far inferior to the three major magical families. In fact, even if they had the opportunity, they didn't dare to come forward. In the entire city of Galos, who else dared to confront these three giants head-on besides the Magic Guild?

  This quiet guild hall was destined to be the stage of three major families.

  But their mood remains tense, this auction of Olfactory potions may change the course of the entire city of Gallos, and even a small detail could decide the life and death of tens of thousands of people.

  "Look, the one in front wearing a black wizard robe with his head covered by a hood is Ruben Saluman, the current patriarch of the Saluman family." At this time, the only ones who were not nervous were probably the old and young hiding behind. Grian was leisurely, stretching out his chubby hand to point forward, patiently introducing Lin Li.

  Lin Li took a glance from afar and discovered that the patriarch of the Saruman family had an aura that seemed somewhat unusual. It was a very pure feeling, unrelated to strength or weakness, nor related to magical fluctuations. It was simply a pure feeling that this person was somewhat strange, just like a dull and lifeless air, no matter how one looked at him, it would always give people an uncomfortable feeling.

  "Did you feel it too?" Seeing the puzzlement on Lin Li's face, Ge Ran smiled and said: "To be strict about it, this guy doesn't count as a real magician, he's a spellcaster!"

  "Warlock?" Lin Li was shocked to hear this, and thought of Magdalena and her father: "You mean he's good at cursing magic?"

  "That's right, isn't it strange? The head of a magical family is actually a curse master..."

  "Do you have inside information?" As soon as Lin Li saw Gruen's expression, he knew that this old man must have some inside information.

  "It's not even a secret, half of Gallos knows about it." Grian's voice was laced with a hint of apprehension: "In this city of Gallos, aside from that old lecher Mathews, the one I'm most wary of is actually Ruben. But to be honest, when he was young, he didn't have much magical talent at all. Even in his twenties, he was still just a fourth-level apprentice. At that time, not only did outsiders like us give up on him, even his own father had given up on him."

  "Not long after his twenty-fifth birthday, Old Saruman announced his successor, who was his half-brother Sosa. On the day of the announcement, Ruben disappeared from Galos City and was gone for five years. Nobody knew where he went or what he did during those five years until he returned to Galos at the age of thirty."

  "When he got to this point, Gruen paused for a moment before continuing: 'The first thing he did after returning was to kill people. From his half-brother to his own biological father, anyone who had the qualifications to occupy the position of family head was killed overnight. Afterwards, Ruben used iron and blood to control the entire family firmly in his hands. In the following thirty years, he even brought the small Saluman family at that time to one of the three major families in Galos today!"

  "Awesome!" This was Lin Li's only comment on Saruman-Ruben.

  "This guy is a madman." Gwain shook his head, with a hint of frustration in his tone: "Matthews may be formidable, but at least he has weaknesses to exploit, such as his son and brother. But this madman from Saruman's household, I really don't have any way to deal with him, unless I have absolute power to kill him in an instant... But this madman is also very good at hiding his true intentions, and he won't provoke enemies he can't defeat until he has absolute certainty..."

  Gillian's last words, Lin Li didn't pay much attention to listen, because he was thinking of something else.

  Is the curse in MacGregor related to the Saruman family?

  But no matter how hard he thought, Lin Li still couldn't figure out the reason why. McGregory and his daughter were just ordinary adventurers, with a power level of around 5 or 6, and they didn't have any wealth or influence to speak of. What reason would Ruben-Saluman have for targeting them?

  Just as Lin Li was racking his brains, Kevin announced the arrival of the auction.

  "Ten bottles of Orafu medicine, starting price 100,000 gold coins, 10,001 and up, bidding starts!"

  "110,000 gold coins!"

  "Ah, Ferre, you absolutely must know this person, the richest man in all of Gallos City and indeed the entire Kingdom of Francia, the head of House Mannis - Iselra Mannis!"

  "Manis family?" At the mention of this name, Lin Li couldn't help but think of the Golden Rose in Calos, where he had once seen a staff selling for several thousand gold coins. If it weren't for that, he wouldn't have thought of making money by concocting potions. It was somewhat ironic that after going around in circles, the money ended up on the head of the Golden Rose...