"Seventy million Spirit Stones. Going once! Going twice—"

  Before the auctioneer could complete his words a strong voice tore in absolute "One Mystic Coin."

  The auction froze.

  Every voice stopped. Every hand lowered. Even the auctioneer's confident expression faltered for a split second — everyone stunned by what their ears had just heard.

  The bid had come from a young man seated in a private carriage viewing box above the crowd. Golden-colored curtains partially concealed his face. He wore deep crimson armor bearing the insignia of a golden phoenix, seated lazily in a comfortable chair with his chin resting on his hand.

  The crowd erupted into shocked whispers.

  "Did he just say... a Mystic Coin?"

  "That's worth more than five hundred million Spirit Stones!" a man whispered to his wife.

  His wife replied, still in shock, "No, it's even more valuable than that. Mystic Coins can't be bought with Spirit Stones. As they are very important materials in refining that can directly increase the chances of creating high-tier Spiritual Orbs."

  "To spend a Mystic Coin on a slave, even one with Epic-grade talent... his family must be unimaginably rich," the man said in an envious voice.

  Even the wealthiest merchants who'd been bidding aggressively moments ago went silent. None dared challenge that bid.

  The auctioneer recovered quickly, his smile returning, it became wider now, almost ecstatic.

  "One Mystic Coin! Going once! Going twice!" He paused, scanning the crowd to see if anyone dared to raise the bid. None came. "**SOLD!** To the honored wealthy young master!"

  The auctioneer's gavel struck with finality.

  As the auction ended, the young wealthy man gestured lazily to one of his servants to collect his prize.

  The envious and regretful gazes of those who couldn't afford to compete against him were unmistakable. They were clearly bitter that they'd lost a future powerhouse that could have strengthened their factions.

  'This so-called Core Saturation must be incredibly important if all those people are willing to spend fortunes on it...' Lainus thought, observing the darkened faces of the wealthy merchants and nobles that lost the auction.

  'I need to escape this cage as soon as possible. But my options are extremely limited given my situation.'

  'The only real chance I have is to awaken a Spiritual Core and become a mystic. But the real problem is... I don't know the process. There must be requirements, otherwise, why would there be people who can't awaken? How does awakening actually work?'

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  His eyes darkened.

  'And if I somehow manage to awaken... could the slavers someway find out immediately?' The more he considered this possibility, the more paranoid Lainus became.

  As a mortal, he currently had two possible futures: being bought by a mystic and used as a test subject for their unknown experiments, or dying of hunger. As the food given to them was scarce and of terrible quality. And with his frail body, he couldn't guarantee he'd get food every time the guards distributed it. At this rate, he estimated he wouldn't survive a full year in this cage.

  There was no other choice. Awakening was his only option. He sighed deeply, his resolve hardening around his next goal.

  "Lainus... did I do something wrong?"

  Tia's voice came from behind him. She was kneeling, her small hands clasped together in her lap.

  Lainus didn't answer. His eyes stayed fixed on the marketplace beyond the bars.

  The silence stretched. Tia remained still, watching the back of her brother's head, waiting for something — a word, a glance, anything. But nothing came.

  Her chest tightened with a strangely familiar feeling with each passing second. When her brother still didn't reply, anxiety twisted in her stomach, turning into a cold, creeping dread.

  She thought that she must have done something that antagonized him, but she couldn't figure out what it was...

  "Lainus... I-I'm sorry." Her voice cracked on the last word. "If I hurt you somehow... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Tears began to well in her eyes, threatening to spill over.

  Still, there was no change in Lainus's demeanor.

  "Why are you ignoring me..." Her voice had dropped to barely a whisper, the words trembling as they left her lips. "Did I do something? Please, just... tell me what I did."

  Still nothing.

  "Lainus... please answer me!" Her voice broke completely. "You're the only family I have. I don't have anyone else."

  The tears finally fell, streaming down her malnourished cheeks. Her hollow eyes — those eyes that had already seen too much suffering for an eleven-year-old child, now brimmed with a different kind of pain. It was a heavy fear; it was the fear of abandonment.

  "Please... don't leave me alone..."

  The one person she had left in this world was treating her like she didn't exist.

  Her thin shoulders trembled as quiet sobs escaped her lips. She didn't dare cry too loudly — it could bring the scary guards toward her brother again, so she bit down on her hand to muffle the noise, tears dripping silently onto the filthy hay.

  Lainus was indifferent.

  He hadn't heard her. Or perhaps he had — his mind simply registered it as a trifling matter. It was just background noise, like the wind. His mind was occupied with more important matters.

  For him, her tears, her pleas, her desperation — none of it mattered. She was a distraction. Background noise. Irrelevant to his survival.

  His focus remained fixed on the marketplace beyond the bars, ears straining to catch fragments of conversation, piecing together every scrap of information he could gather.

  Behind him, Tia's quiet sobbing continued.

  He didn't spare her a single thought.

  ***

  A week had passed.

  Lainus sat cross-legged in the corner of the cell, eyes closed, perfectly still. His breathing was slow and deliberate.

  Around him, the other slaves huddled in their own corners, silent and watchful. Tia sat nearby, her red-rimmed eyes fixed on her brother's back. She'd stopped trying to talk to him days ago.

  Lainus's focus was absolute.

  He could feel a strange, faint warmth against his skin. It wasn't physical heat, but something else, something invisible. An energy drifting through the air, drawn slowly, hesitantly, toward his chest.

  'So this is what essence feels like.'

  It was like trying to grasp smoke. Intangible. Elusive. But it was definitely there.

  'I'm finally having a breakthrough. It shouldn't take much longer before I can finally form a Spiritual Core.'