POV Arabella

Today’s fight was quite exciting and while I was glad that I could fight stronger opponents, my next fight was scheduled for the next week. I kind of miss the days when I could fight multiple times a day, but then again, I was so weak back then. This fight, however, showed me my limitations. No matter how good I get, if my equipment can't keep up, I would be limiting myself a lot. I was interrupted when my servant came in.

"I apologize for distracting you, my mistress, but I have received news that the Valour Vault Auction House has added a specific auction for archers." When she finished, she gave a short bow as is customary, which was kind of annoying. Just 10 years ago, I would have gotten her fired because of the 4 strands of hair that weren’t in proper order. Blue fire, I was a bitch back then.

"Thank you for informing me and please make sure that we have tickets for the auction," I replied. She gave another bow but before she could leave, I added, "And Sandra, not the VIP tickets, just a regular one will do." She froze in place but quickly turned around and said while bowing, "Of course, mistress." When she left, I had to shake my head. She still thinks that I should be at the top, but I’m just one of the many arena fighters here.

Some of my training was hard to get rid of so even when I didn’t want to, I still spent quite a long time making sure that I looked the best that I can. That was hard to do when I was wearing armor. I have come to kind of admire this look. Most armors were restrictive but to me, I felt freer in them than the court dresses that I used to wear, which limited my movements even more.

We reached the auction house about an hour before the archery auction. It was being held on the 7th floor and we made it there without trouble. Sarah went off to buy the itinerary for today where all the items being sold were listed. There were some second-ranked bowstrings that looked promising but the prices were expensive. Unfortunately, I would need to buy some as my current string was near its limit.

I was more surprised about the amount of bows being sold and some of them had quite an interesting design. They were a lot shorter than the bows I was used to and when I dug deeper, I found out that all of them were made by the same maker.

The only description for the maker was a symbol of his maker’s mark so I wonder if it was someone outside of the city. When I kept looking more, I found that some more regular-looking bows were also made by the same maker and to my complete surprise, even a rank two bow was made by him.

There were some examples of the products being sold and as I expected the new type of bows were also there. Where the new type of bow was being displayed was the place where the most people were. It seems that only two first-rank bows were on display but we were at least allowed to test them out which was good news. The problem was that it was going to be tough getting through the crowd especially when I noticed that a lot of people were checking me out.

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I didn’t want to cause a scene when someone stupid tried to touch me when I go through the crowd. There is always someone stupid like that. I had already waited for more than 10 minutes and was preparing to brave the crowd when finally the security for this auction started to move people along so no one could spend too much time to test the bow out.

When I finally made it to the front, I was handed the bow. It was heavier than I expected and it seems to have a lot of work and design put into it. The moment I started pulling back the string, the bow started to talk to me like every other bow I’ve touched. It was easier to pull than I expected but from the feedback I got, I knew that it was as powerful as any other bow. I had the urge to shoot it but unfortunately, this was something not possible at the moment.

I did some testing while moving the bow and I found it to be quite nimble, which was something important to my style of fighting. Then I started to flood it with energy to test its capabilities and I was awestruck.

It was capable of safely handling more energy than my current second-rank bow. That was so astonishing that I only came out of my stupor when the security got my attention as it was someone else's turn. I was so deep in thought that I hadn’t noticed that the auction had started and we were already at our seats.

I felt the buzz of the room and I could feel the excitement everyone had. The first few items were not that interesting but then came one of the bows from the new maker. It was in a more traditional style so I didn’t bid on it but others certainly did.

When the auctioneer said that it could handle four times more energy than another comparable bow, I was not surprised, but some others were. I wonder what they were going to think when they found out that this was at the lower end of what was being sold today.

Of course, those bows that use mana as a base were more expensive and more sought after but there were still a lot of energy users so that meant the prices went quite high. I purchased myself one of the new designs in the middle range that was available. While it wouldn’t be my fighting weapon, it would be good to get used to the design. I had hoped that perhaps I could buy the second-rank one but the prices would probably be astronomical for that.

I was also able to get myself a second-rank bowstring but the largest spool went to a person that had bought quite a lot of bow-making materials already. I didn’t recognize them as any of the bow makers I knew but I could put the pieces together. I was quite certain that he wasn’t the one who made the bows but he was most certainly working for him.

When the time came, it almost felt like the entire place was empty. They brought out the second-rank composite bow and every archer, including me, sucked in a breath of air. It was beautiful and I could feel its deadliness.

When one of the people who was demonstrating the bow started to pour in energy, it was hard not to jump to my feet as he just didn't stop. What was that bow made out of? I concentrated as much as possible but I could see many different woods and even horn but my brain short-circuited.

That was iron oak. How did a sacred bow material end up in this auction? I was disowned, my iron oak bow was confiscated, and ever since then, I have had no use for my iron oak connection trait. Before I realized, the price had already gone over 500,000 cores.

I hadn’t used a single core that my father gave me the day I was disowned but I was going to spend it all if it meant I was able to get that bow. At first, I didn’t join in but slowly I started to get into the bidding which of course made Sandra give me a huge side-eye but she didn’t say anything.

I continued and eventually, there were only two of us left. I didn’t look up where my opponent was as he was in the VIP box. No way was I going to lose this bow. And even when the price went over 1.5 million, I continued. Eventually, I won it for the price of 1.75 million cores. That was over 2/3 of the money my father gave me, but I couldn’t be happier.