“The starting bid for this item is 500 gold, with each subsequent bid needing to be at least 100 gold higher. Any interested parties?”

This time, Zeke waited for the others to move first. He wasn't sure how much interest there was in an item like that, and he didn’t want to seem too eager. After all, if even the Varun family couldn't decipher its content, what chance did others have?

Aisha, seeing his intense stare, spoke up. “Are you interested in that tablet?”

Zeke nodded wordlessly, not taking his eyes off the item.

“Then, you might be able to get it cheap,” she said.

Zeke glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. “Why do you say that?”

“I remember that same stone tablet being offered last time,” she explained. “However, the starting bid was twice as high. They must have lowered its price after not being able to sell it for such a long time.”

Zeke smiled. That was valuable information. If nobody had wanted the tablet last time, and there were still no bids, he might get it without much of a fight. He could already see Priya starting to get impatient after nobody had shown interest for such a long time.

He waited. Then, just as she was about to order the item to be brought away, Zeke pressed the button.

“We have an offer of 600 gold from number 31,” Priya announced, clearly surprised and overjoyed by his bid. “Does anyone bid more?”

Zeke held his breath, recognizing that often, interest in an item sparked only after others had shown interest. Nobody liked to miss out on a great deal, after all.

“Anyone?” Priya repeated hopefully. Yet, there was no reply. “3… 2… 1— sold for 600 gold to number 31!”

Despite the modest selling price, she seemed content with the outcome. It appeared the auction house had been eager to offload this particular piece. Nonetheless, for Zeke, it mattered little. He would have gladly paid ten times the amount. After all, this marked the first clue to unraveling the mystery of his holy relic.

Minutes later, he held the tablet in his hands, reverently tracing its etchings. With half an ear, he followed the next few items being brought in.

“What do you think, Akasha?”

[Answer]

Linguistic patterns suggest the probable origin of the language as Dwarven. Nevertheless, the encoded symbols do not align with any documented dialect. I will proceed to initiate a cross-referencing process with available sources. This procedure is anticipated to take a considerable amount of time. Any supplementary data provided would facilitate the analysis process.