My first action after entering the inner walls of the city is definitely to give the trait 'Static Master' to Yuu, she can train with it later and will probably be way better with it than me, but the main reason that I am giving it to her now is that I really don't wanna it activating on its own now that I'm approaching the place where the nobles live, I wanna keep my head attached to my body, thank you very much.
Yuu wasn't expecting me to do that. She spent her whole life without a trait, so suddenly getting one, and it was even as high tier as it, she was speechless. Her emotions started to get the best of her and she soon began to bawl her eyes out.
"Thank you so much for this gift Mr. Creed! *sniff* I will train a lot with it and use it to protect you *sniff*"
People were starting to look in our direction since Yuu was crying loudly and hugging me in the middle of the road while Laura was also with her eyes a little wet, giving Yuu an affectionate smile, Starly was just confused. I grabbed both girls and move them out of the street to an alley until Yuu was able to compose herself.
We previously agreed that we should go looking for an expensive-looking tea shop to try and sell our 'Royal Jelly' since this jelly will probably attract the attention of the nobility and tea shops usually are flooded with young noble ladies. We tried to enter a few that we found along the way but our scruffy clothing really stands up in this part of the city, we are being kicked before we can even show the jelly or explain anything.
We made a pause since we were only getting more and more frustrated by the minute with zero results. That was when I noticed a large poster on the wall.
'RARE DROP ITEMS AND OTHER INCREDIBLE GOODS AUCTION TONIGHT!'
Seeing the poster I called the girls and we discussed changing our strategy, instead of trying to sell the 'Royal Jelly' as a delicacy food to rich noble ladies we should try to sell it as a rare grade S drop item.
When we got to the auction place our fears about being turned out at the door again were fortunately unfounded. The receptionist girl thankfully was already accustomed to dealing with adventurers and she was also acting way more professionally than a certain other receptionist that I knew.
"Welcome dear patrons, what can I do for you?"
"Hi, we are hoping to put a few of our drop items in the auction tonight."
"Oh, I was thinking that you wanted to auction that tamed monster of yours, it is the latest trend with the nobility these days to collect them. This peculiar colored one would certainly sell for a lot." She said while staring at Starly as if it was just an expensive object.
I took Starly in my arms and started to pet it hoping to soothe it a little since it was shaking scared by the looks of the receptionist. I was a little angry with the way she was treating my adorable small companion but we are still in desperate need of money and this auction house was our best bet so I let it go.
"No, no, this slime is my important companion. These are the items that I wanna auction" I told the receptionist while taking one of the three jars from my backpack.
The receptionist's attitude took a turn and she sternly told me, eying our outfits. "While we indeed have a custom of auctioning drop items brought by adventures we only accept ones of grade B or higher, I'm sorry."
She told dismissively believing that the jar was a low-grade drop, but I stopped her. "Miss, this is an S grade item"
She froze there for a moment then eyed me suspiciously, asking.
"And how would you know that?"
"I simply know..." I vaguely responded to her not wanting to explain about my peculiar vision capable of seeing pop-ups on top of items.
"Okay then, how about we do it like this, I will call our expert here who have an identification trait and if this item is of a grade below B you will have to pay our identification fee of 10 silver coins but if it really is of the grade that you said then I won't charge you the fee." She told me with a daring tone, expecting me to back down.
"Sure, go ahead" I say with confidence.
"Look, if you can't pay our fee we will have to call the guards here, are you really sure?" She said warning me.
"Yes" I say and just nod.
"Okay then, it was your own choice..." She went through a back door to call her expert.
The twins became scared when they heard the price of the fee, but I just reassured them that everything will be fine.
A very old woman came to the front desk along with the receptionist, I also noticed that two large women each holding a spear move close to the door, they are probably this place security, they are positioning themselves to stop us if we decide to run.
"Let's just get over it..." The granny said in a tired tone as if we were just wasting her time.
I put the three jars over on top of the table and the old woman picked one and brought it closer to her eyes. She suddenly opened her mouth and became very wide-eyed. She quickly picked the other two jars and also inspected them.
After putting them back on the table, the granny pulled the receptionist to her side and murmured something in her ear. The receptionist also made a surprised face and turned back to me.
"I'm sorry for the minor inconvenience dear patron, we of the Carne's Auction House would love to make business with your esteemed self." She bowed her head to me, drastically changing her tone with me again.
"It was no big deal, how do we proceed?"
She started to explain to me how this auction house worked and that she would be glad to put my three jars of 'Royal Jelly' for the auction tonight. When she said that the house will take a 40% cut of the price that the drop items ultimately sell I was a little apprehensive but she then explained to me that this is the most well know auction house in the city and that all of their customers are very wealthy and I will not be able to profit as much as here if I try to sell the items elsewhere.
She was able to convince me with that last bit and provided me with a form for me to write my information and everything that I could tell about the product. I just wrote my name and adventurer rank as my info there, for the item, I wrote the flavor text description and vaguely explained that I dropped it from a slime outside the city.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
After that, the receptionist told me that the auction would start at 9 pm and I gave us an invitation ticket in case we also wanted to participate in the bidding tonight before she stopped mid-speech and took another look at our outfits. She sighed and offered to lend us a spare tuxedo and dresses they keep here for the staff for the night.
I was again surprised at how favorable she was treating us, I thanked her and took up on her offer saying that we will come back here later today and left. We exited the inner walls and the girls said that they wanted to practice a little with their new traits before evening. We decided to go to a more secluded place away from prying eyes since their new traits were very eye-catching and we should keep them a secret for now, so we went back again to the west section of the outer walls and we settled at a large empty area in the middle of the ruins.
Yuu quickly demonstrated an impressive mastery with the 'Static Master' trait, she could hit several targets with ease shooting lightning bolts from her hands, she was able to make a few objects levitate around her and also control them with incredible finesse, which made me want to buy a metal shield for her when we have the money, I can already imagine her flying in the air on top of it like a certain superhero with very similar powers from a cartoon used to do with manhole covers.
Laura also exhibited how her trait is also over-powered, she kept disappearing and reappearing in different locations diving through the shadows, she also discovered that she could shape the shadows and give them physical properties, she was able to create a shadow that had her shape had a little spar with it until she decided to send it to sneak behind Yuu and pull her tail, making my silver wolf girl emit a cute noise while she jumped in surprise.
I can already picture Yuu using a fighting style that utilizes several floating swords while she flies around on top of a shield zapping her enemies, the fact that a lot of individuals wear metal armor in this world will also allow her to incapacitate unsuspecting foes since she can more easily control metal than other materials with the electromagnetic aspect of her trait. In the case of Laura, I imagine that a dual-wielding dagger style would fit her well, with her trait she can take the role of a scout or assassin, I really want to buy a ninja outfit for her.
I was watching them from the sidelines with Starly on my lap thinking how can I get more traits to give the girls and make them even more powerful, I don't wanna steal traits from innocent people so our best course of action would be to take bandit hunting quests from the guild or if I could make a connection with some high up guard in the city I could steal traits from imprisoned criminals in the jail, the image of that centaur guard materialize in my head and I quickly dismiss this idea, nope nope nope.
When the night fell we went back to our house to clean ourselves with a quick sponge bath, not that I expect the people who are attending the auction to do the same, oh my god, I can already imagine the smell... Yuu made us a quick bite and I fed some of my mana to Starly, I was a little surprised when it started to drain my mana once it got hungry early today, despite Starly only eating mana, our food situation is really looking dire. We can't wait to change our financial status with the auction going on tonight.
After we finished eating we left to the auction house I don't wanna take Starly there with us after hearing that the nobles are after tamed monsters but I also can't leave it alone in the house, so I plan to hide it inside my clothes when we get there, Starly's chilly body temperature is very refreshing so it is no big deal. We got there within 20 minutes before the start, I gave our ticket to the bouncer at the door and we entered, the receptionist from before found us as soon as we entered and she guided us to a room that had had a 'Employers Only' sing on it. There we found a closet with a lot of formal clothes. The receptionist quickly picked a set of a tuxedo with some formal pants and a polished shoe for me and let the twins choose a dress each, Laura and Yuu both picked a white gown and I can't unsee them as my brides at a wedding now. They both started to blush when they saw my amazed face and the receptionist gave me a grossed-out look.
"Takes all sorts I guess..." she says and guides us to our seats. Starly is currently getting itself comfy inside my shirt and it's tickling me a little.
We are led to a big theater room and we are seated on the corner of the first row. Wow, this chair is really comfy, I put my arms around my girls' shoulders and get cozier in my seat. They both smiled at me and I couldn't resist and kiss them. I feel like I'm at the top of the world right now.
I almost started to sleep in this cushy chair when an elderly woman gets on the stage.
"Welcome, I'm Carnes the owner of this establishment and I am glad to receive you all on this wonderful night!"
"We hope that our selection of goods pleases everybody and I'm happy to announce that we had a new addition on the last minute of a rare grade S to tonight's collection!" She says as the audience gives an 'oooh' sound. I really hope that our item sells for a lot of money. The twins explained to me that a family in the slums is able to live with one silver a month while a middle-class family in the inner walls usually needs about 10, the conversion is a hundred copper coins are equivalent to a silver coin while a hundred of those are equal to one gold coin. If we get a gold coin for our item we can buy better equipment for me and the girls and also live comfortably for a good while in the girls' house in the slums, allowing us to have more freedom when we start taking quests in the guild without hurting for money.
I take a look behind me and see that almost all of the seats are occupied, my face is also hit with a wave of hot air, smelly hot air. I'm really happy that we are in the first row, if our seats were in the middle of the room, surrounded by smelling grotesque-looking women I'm certainly wouldn't be having a good time.
The owner leaves the stage and a well-dressed dude stand in her place as a group of staff members bring a wooden table with a red velvety cloth covering what is on top of it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to be your host tonight. Right here we have our first item for tonight's collection." He removed the cover and there I saw a boot, a fucking single boot, not a pair... what the heck.
"Here we have a nice exemplar of a grade A rare drop item, this one was dropped by a lucky party of experienced adventurers in the dangerous mountains of Drakenshorn from a viciously great wyrm!" The audience is giving exciting noises but I really can't see that boot as anything more than junk, what the fuck do you do with it? The cloth covering it looked more expensive than it for me.
I was impressed when the betting started and someone ended up paying three gold coins for that, holy shit... My estimation of one gold for our item really missed the mark, if a single boot can get that high our three grade S will surely fetch more right? I can't stop my grin.
The night went on as they displayed item after item, I was really confused at what is the use of that grade B sword other than just hanging it on display, I'm not gonna lie, it looked cool but you are more likely to end up cutting yourself instead of your target with that many curved edges, the funny thing is that the sword went for almost two gold coins...
Finally, they bring our item. "This is the one that everyone is waiting for, here we have a set of three grade S items. They are the most delicious jelly to ever exist and they could enhance the beautifulness of whoever consumes it increasing your facial hair growth and increasing the number of zits and rashes on your skin. We also have confirmation that all of them were dropped by a single monster, the adventurer who dropped it must have insane luck, we heard rumors that he calls himself the Rabbit Foot! We hope to see what other rare items he will bring to us in the future!"
Oy oy! What the heck are you talking about! Stop inventing weird effects to the item how the heck is zits and rashes gonna make you pretty and who the fuck is 'Rabbit Foot'? Laura started to mess with me just as the announcer said that and Yuu is trying to hold a laugh...
The start of the biddings took my attention away from the girls teasing. The price keeps going up and up, I can't believe what I am hearing.
"Going once, going twice, going three times, sold to the lovely lady over there!"
33 gold... 33 gold... Wow... We are rich! Holy moly we are rich! I jump from my seat and start a funny dance, then I notice all the weird looks that I am getting and the embarrassed faces of both the twins and get back to my seat with a straight face.
I was thinking that the auction would end now but the announcer started speaking again.
"Thank you very much for everybody's participation so far, as usual, we will begin now our slave auction part of the night!"
I'm having a hard time processing what I just heard... Slaves? I ask the girls if there is slavery legal here because ever since the bandit woman captured us and planned to sell us in a black market I was thinking that it was a criminal act to buy or sell slaves. My girls gave me a confused look and started to explain. It seems that slavery is pretty common in this world, well, in this kingdom at least. The twins told me anybody can choose to sell themselves as slaves and the most common punishment for violent criminals is to be sent to slaves mines.
The announcer started introducing slave after slave, there was a majority of men and only a few very ugly women, it surprised me how easily each and every slave crossed the ten gold coins mark in price. I pitied the men that I saw wearing suggestive clothes being sold to those hideous women. Well, I don't know, maybe those women may look attractive for these guys so they are happy? Who knows... all I know is that I must avoid becoming a slave with everything I have.
The announcer made a little concerned face when the last slave stepped on the stage. I was a woman with a lean stomach and very big breasts wearing a maid outfit with a veil covering her face. I could see that she had two very fluffy-looking bunny ears poking out her head.
"Well, this is here is our last good for the night. Her name is Lulu, she was trained to be a maid ever since she was little in a noble family from the capital, unfortunately, that house now has fallen and lost its nobility status, they had to sell all of their slaves and that included Lulu here, she is a very special rarity since she possesses two traits, she is able to increase her own strength and she can also create a small flame from her hands. Ladies and gentlemen, her slave contract is set as indefinitely, I'm opening the bets at five gold"
I never considered buying a slave before, especially since the ones announced before were mostly males and the female ones were extremely unattractive, but this one now has an amazing body with perfect curves, she had a very long honey colored blonde hair and I could see a small cute rabbit tail peeking from the back of her dress. The only problem is that her face is covered.
"Five gold anyone? five gold? She really is a catch, everyone, Two traits, I repeat two traits!" The announcer is trying very hard but until now nobody made a bid.
"Who cares? It's two low tier traits anyway and shows us her face!" A woman yelled from the audience, she sounded pretty drunk.
That inspired a few other people to also yell at the announcer demanding him to show her face.
The announcer started to desperately dry the sweat that was coming from his head with a handkerchief as he nodded to a staff member who came to the stage and removed the veil.
The whole audience went silent, me included. Her face was completely gorgeous, at least to my standard. The audience lost interest as the announcer started to lower the price to four, then three, then two, then one. All this time Lulu's face was completely emotionless.
I was totally lost, staring at that beautiful bunny woman. Laura shot a look at Yuu from across me and both sighed. Then Laura lift up our betting sign signalizing to the announcer who looked really relived seeing our sign up. He slowly counted to three and nobody disputed our bet. This is how we became the new owners of Lulu, the new member of our family. Lulu's poker face broke a little showing a surprised face for a second when she saw the faces of her new buyers and me holding both of the twin's hands while Starly was peeking from insinde my shirt.