With the start of the auction the lights in the building dimmed a bit, while the ones iluminating the stage got slightly brighter, emphasizing the main area of this event. What followed was a pleasant sounding chime, comanding the attention of the room of the stage, from where the sound came. Victor was on the stage, acompanied by Eredar. What followed was a wery short speech from Victor, as this was the first of hopefully many grand auctions his city would host, and his thanks for all the people who had both arrived to enjoy the occasion as both the the atendees adn the people who had worked hard to provide things of worth to make the experiance all the more worthwhile.
Once done with Victors quick speech, Eredar explained the rules of the auction as a matter of courtesy. The system was rather simple. Item is brought up, a small explanation of its purpose, or history, then a minimal bidding price and if the item is estimated to be quite valuable, or if the minimum price is high enough, a minimal bid size could also be set. It was however also possible to bid with other items, and if the owner of the item heard an item offered along with the bid that they wanted to aquire no matter what, they could inform an attendant near them, that they would take that certain offer. Sure it would be an advantage for forces with very deep and rich vaults, but the auction was meant to enrich the sellers, while giving the buyers what they want. Once the bidding is finished an attendant will bring the item over to the new respective owners, so they can pay and recieve their winnings. Since all attendants were slaves there was no worry of them trying to take off with the items entrusted them.
With the formalities out of the way, Eredar got off stage and his place was taken by a rather beautifull lady, who started the auction. The first part of the auction was equipment. All sorts of high quality weapons and armor were displayed, made of all manner of metal farmed in dungeons. They were sold in the range of fifty to few hundred gold coins, depending on the quality, type, metal used and beauty of the item in question, since the nobles did like themselves a fancy and pretty equipment. Rex saw nothing he liked in this part of the auction, as he had expected. It was quite unrealisticaly to find anything better than his Limitless here, and his girls were not much interested in aquiring anything on display. And while they did not go to the dungeon, they were having frequent spars back in his mansion to keep themselves in great shape.
Next came all sorts of ingridients used in alchemy and other crafts. This part was quite more interesting and active, since alchemy many wonderous recipes that could create as just as magnificent results as one could imagine- slighty strenghtening ones body and mana channels, expanding the mana pool, slightly recovering ones aged body to a younger self and so on. The hard part was the ingridients for such incredible arts, so obviously whenever any such ingridient appeared in the market they would be instantly bought for exorbitant prices. And since there were loads of nobles present, they were more fierce with their bids. And while Rex had little interest in the actual herbs since he had his drain, he still kept his eyes focused on the ingridients, lest he miss something quite special.
What did created quite the chaos and the first real bidding war was the last item in this category.
"As the last item of this category we have something wery special prepeared for you, our dear guests." The beatifull auctioneer spoke, her tone misterious and inviting.
"We present you with our second highlight of this auction." as she spoke a small ring was brought over to her, along with a table with certain magical inscriptions. The ones in the know would recognise that such tables weer used to display and maintain the condition of the meat on the tables.
"We present to you ten kilograms of gold grade meat." the auctioneer finished as she displayed the rings contents on the table. She intentionally took a moment of silence to emphasize the hall, now absolutely devoid of any sound as the atendees were processing the information before them. It has been a year or two since the last time such amount was on the market, and never in one place and by one seller. The could pull of quite a few meals with such amount for a single person.
"We will begin the bidding with five hundred platinum coins, and the minimal bid amount will be ten platinum coin." once the auctioneer finished, an intense bidding war began. Surely, had the presence of this item been known, even some emperors would have arrived personaly to try and ensure their aquisition of it before it goes to auction, but since it was there now, all that could talk was money. And so they talked. It was generally asumed that if it were not almost non existant, one killo would be sold for a single orichalchum coin, or in other words one hundred platinum coins, so the innitial price was that of half the expected minimal market value. So when the bid very quickly reached ten oricalchum coins, it was no wonder, nor was it any wonder when the bid reached fifteen orichalchum coins. What suprised everyone, was a rather loud voice of a womans bid, creating a moment of silence.
"FOURTY ORICLACHUM COINS!" the womans voice resounded. It was Izumi who had just bidded. She had recieved a clear instruction from the green haired council woman, that she may pay as much as ten oricachum coins for every kilogram of heaven grade meat, should she encounter it, and since it would be the council womans clan that was paying, and pay they could, even ten times that, she faitthfully preformed her duty as a voice of the clans in Blythe, besides she still had a lot of room to bid, and she needed that extra wiggle room, since soon the bidding restrarted, but now with only a few participants remaining.
Sadly, since it has been such a long time since heaven grade was displayed, the nobles were more than willing to fork up exorbitant prices, and Rex had beted on that. It is precisely why he gave ten killos to Eredar to auction off, since they were ussually sold as one killogram units. Izumi had to give up, one the preice crossed hundred oricalchum coins, and the bidding ended when it was sold for a wooping one hundred and sixty oricaclum coins. Rex was quite pleased with his gains as he new the price will eventually stabilize if he will be providing more in the future, however the true value in his remaining and future stocks will be in dirrect exchanges not auctions, as it could bet him acsess to very exotic and exclusive goods if he comes to exchanges with his own exclusive goods. And unlike most others, his stash was potentially limitless, since dungeons never run dry as long as their core is not destroyed, and Rex hda no interest to do so.
With the ingridient part of the auction over, they took a thirty minute break, to let the guests strech out and deal with their necesities since the auction had gone for more than six hours already, and while some might think it is a long ass time, every item sold was exquisite and valuable, and the nobles attending were having the time of their lifes. Even when they failed to aquire what they did bid on, the action itself was providing them exitement and entertainment, and they could brag a ton in any of the gatherings the ywould be attending for quite the while. The heaven grade meat and the bidding wars for it would be an exiting tale to retell, and if the current exitement and activity if to go by, the war for the chance to maybee form a long lasting business deal with the blood mage will be of massive proportions. Surely, quite the valuabe possesions will be used to pique the interest of the mage since raw money would be of little interest for him.
During the break, there were a lot of gossiping going on, regarding the just now auctioned meat. Speculations and guesses regarding a raid that had either recently returned, or some member of a raid pulling out their most prized possesion in a desperate time. Izumi meanwhile was asuming that it should be the associate of the blood mage, who is providing Eredar with all that earth grade meat too. Who could the person be and where is his raid members hiding if the man is sent alone and in quite the secrecy to sell of the goods, since there is no way a single man can farm the deep floors. Mean while Eredar, Victor and Brogni were sitting in a private room together and laughed at the commotion.
Stolen story; please report.
"Eredar, think you could get Rex to cough up a few more killos of that gold grade a few months later. If word gets out thatgodl grade is sold from time to time here, I am sure we will have every major trading company setting their branches here. And that would guarantee more traffic and variety of goods. Im sure even Brogni would profit will more of high quality slaves being sold here."
"You know" Brogin spoke while Eredar was thinking the question over "It is at times like these that I sometimes regret being a slave trader you know." the other two looked at him, waiting for the dwarf to continiue "Cant do much as a slave trader when Rex's comodities are not for my market." the dwarf sighed when he finished his thought.
"Hmm lets quickly go over to Rex and see what he has to say about it, because we surely need a foot in that market, since some of the most expensive deals are often made over top quality slaves."
And they quickly arrived at Rex private room, and were promptly invited in. Upon learining of their conundrum, Rex though for a second and answered
"Then why dont you focus on the absolute bets quality, and disregard the low end for the most part? Sure keep your workers dealing with it as before, but since you have and in with a blood mage, you could try and sell the top shelf slaves with brands. Sure it will cost an arm and a leg for the buyers but we just dont care do we? And if you can cultivate such a reputation, all the best stuff with have to pass either through your shop or with your involvement, allowing me to get acsess to the best booty anyone can ever buy."
His words ignited a fire in the dwarfs eyes, since that is indeed a market that is basicly without a figurative master right now. there are a few merchants from huge families, trying to be the middle man between blood mages and their potential customers, but mages being mages are as fickle as they come, making such merchants unreliable in their efficiency.
"Will get on it as soon as the auction is over!" Brogni spoke with a huge grin, and Eredar asked his question regarding Victors previous inquiry.
"Sure, we can do that, but as you said, we should wait a few months before that, so there is no need, besides, maybee I will get some more on my next delve, that i plan to go on soon after the auction. Gotta exercise with Limitless after all" Rex had not uesd his priced treasure sword much after he had aquired it, and he felt that was a shame, since the weapon was amazing.
A few more minutes of small stuff later , the trio returned to their own rooom, and waited for the final part of the auction , that will be concluded with the auctioning of the right to negotiate with the blood mage. As the last and the most interesting part of the auction for Rex, the slave auction promised to be quite the show, and it started out strong. The first on the stage was the orch champion that Rex had provided for the auction
"And this specimen" pointing to the orc with his champions greatsword on his back, obediently standing on the stage and either posing or turning around to show hismelf off better, the auctioneer continiued "will be our first. orch champion, caught in the thwenty nineth floor of our own dungeon. Absolute loyality is guaranteed as this specimen has been branded. His combat capacity is rated at class A. We will start the bidding at hundred platinum coins and minimum bid will be a ten platinum coins."
The bidding was quite intense and the champion was eventually sold for five hundred platinum coins. It may seem like a lot for just an A class, seeing as Rex had been encountering them lately left and right, but only a few percent of the people ever reached that level of strenght. It is just that Rex circumstances are special, and so his rate of encounters with the pinnacle of civilization were much more often. Nobles had the pockets to employ the best of the best after all. So a high class warrior of absolute loyality had an immense value. One might ask how come a killo of heaven grade meat sold for sixteen oricalchum coins while the A class champion only for five? The answer lies in the acsess to said resources. While they are not on every corner, A class adventurers are in every city, and can be hired to perform whatever one might need for a few platinum coins. The meat however in extremely rare, tastes divine and those who have some sort of unique bloodline may have theirs strenghtened with the consumption of such meat. That would mean that ones own limits for power become higher, and with purer bloodline, the talent of ones descendants will be higher was well. It was a simple case of borrowed strenght versus personal one and comparison versus the rarity of said comodity.
What followed was a few high B class beings , subjugated with the warlord mark, and while nowwhere near as valuable as the champion they were still sold quite nicely. Then followed a numer of pretty girls with slavery chokers one after the other, scantaly clad to show off most of their features, while leaving just enough covered to entice thedesire to see it all, and not show of the goods to every aviable set of eyes. Sure they were beautifull, Rex would put them in the seven point five out of ten scale, but he was not interested in just this. He was also quite sure, the best was kept to the end of the auction. he was hoping to get his hands on at least one new girls of a race he didnt already have. If the girls had some special skills it would be even better.
A few more combat slaves and some cute looking critters in cages later, another interesting specimen was brought on the stage. The first non human girl of the auction. Rex had no other way to call her as a cat girl. Scantally clad, as all other girls beforehand, her cat ears bent to her head, indicating the girls was quite scared. The choker of slavery also clearly visible, and Rex noticed a few barely noticable, even with his unreasonable eyes, traces of quite heavy abuse of the girl.
''They probably tried to break the girl with physical abuse first, hoping to save on the slavery collar.'' Rex lightly spoke and was heard by all his girls. While that caused no real change in their expressions, since it was quite an ordinary occurance among the more unscrupulous slave traders. Brogni told that only idiots would damage the merchandise in hopes to break them and save on the slave collars, since any slave worth the collar will be worth more the less damage was incurred. And while the girl was a solid eight point half, and being a cat girl she was quite valuable, the obvious mistreatment she had been through surely lovered her innitial price when the acution house evaluated her, since with such noticable remnants of her physical abuse, it was safe to reason that they must have tried to break her through constant rape as well. And most of such cases end up with girls in a condition of a living doll. Such slaves obviously were not worthy of a proper auctions and were sold in the slave markets, just as most others were. Auctions brought in only the most beautifull or exotic or special of specimens.
"A cat girl by the name of Rika. Former adventurer, who was hired by a nations military, and consequently was capture by the enemy. Since no one paid for her release, she was made a slave as per the right of the victorious." As the auctioneer was talking and explaining a few more things about the girl, including the fact that, while still in quite good condition, she had gone through a lot of breaking, Aina had rushed up to the window, and was eying the girl quite a lot.
"I know her." were her words, filled with pain and sadness "We did quite a few quests together while i was living in the city she hails from a few years back." she then looked at Rex
"She is the sweetest girl one could ever encounter when off duty, and quite the ball of energy when on quests. She deserves better than that."
"I am still branding her, and will assign her to be your personal attendant. Are you fine with that?" Rex asked before hejoined in on the bidding. And Aina did not hesitate one bit
"Yes, it is better than anything she will ever have anywhere else."
"The things I do for my girls" Rex sighed, as the bidding had reached thirty platinum coins, since, while a beauty, she was only C class.
"One oricalchum coin." Rex spoke quite loudly, silencing any other possible bids, since the girl was in no way as valuable as that. And since no one was bidding anymore for the girl, who was even more scared now, since there was no telling just what her new master was going to do with her if he was willing to fork out such money, she was sold.