Ray had been so excited to test out his theory with the treasures, he had almost forgotten that he was trying to carry out his little experiment inside the room. Probably not a good idea. Not only would Marcus be mad if something went wrong, but the hotel proprietor would no doubt cause a commotion if one of his clients blew up his room.
It was only after summoning up a flying Windbane head construct that Ray realized it was probably not a good idea. Mostly because he couldn’t recall if he had ever summoned one of the constructs indoors.
Oh, he supposed there had been that fight inside a warehouse down on the Second Floor.
“Sorry buddy,” he told the construct. “Can’t play here. I’ll see you outside soon, though.”
He wasn’t sure, but the construct looked almost sad when he dismissed it. Which made the prospect of his actual experiment make him feel rather guilty, but he pushed the feelings down and found an empty field not far from the hotel.
“Alright, let’s go.”
The potential problem with being outside was that he could very well be observed by someone else. No way to tell who was looking on from where. Ray imagined Sameer sneering at him from a rooftop. He shook his head. Had to focus.
Calling up the construct again, Ray bid it to stay still as he pulled out the flesh crystal in one hand and the brush-shaped stone carver in the other. He was wary of using the crystal directly. While this was clearly not a Tower Node, no matter how much it tried to feel like one, he still didn’t want to risk drawing the Fleshcrafter’s attention.
So, for now, Ray dipped the carver into one of the fleshy bits of the crystal. He pulled it out, then started inscribing on the construct itself.
Good little Windbane maw didn’t move even as Ray scratched on its scales. The tip of the carver dug in and left a mark that bled chaotic, black-red energy in a soft stream. He once again felt a little bad, and thinking of it as a tattoo didn’t help soothe his conscience either, since the next step was going to be even worse.
If he could reach the next step, that was. Ray had decided earlier that the new ability he was trying to get would no doubt be some sort of barrier skill. As such, he had decided to inscribe his best rendition of a simple kite shield with an X on the construct.
Nothing happened, though. He didn’t feel any real change, and the construct continued bleeding out the chaos energy without giving any indication that there was anything different about it.
“Hmm…”
Ray wasn’t sure what was wrong. His idea had been to use the driving principle behind the Carver of the Ancients. It was an implement that could inscribe the will of its user into any given object. The construct was an object, and by will, Ray took it to mean any skill or ability he could use, going by the hints the Sylvan nobles on the island had dropped.
So why wasn’t it working? The only reason he could think of was the flesh crystal. He was probably not using it correctly.
Yes, that was right. Ray nodded as he felt surer. He had attempted to make the carver itself take up the skill by dipping it into the flesh. That wasn’t how it functioned. Ray himself had to possess the power to inscribe it into anything. Which meant he needed a closer connection with the crystal than he had allowed himself so far.
Deciding to push down his memory of the last time the Fleshcrafter had drawn him into the Paragon’s domain, he focused on flesh crystal. For all that it pretended to be a Tower Node, Ray found that channelling the crystal’s power was not dissimilar from a Node’s.
When the new energy filled him—the new Mana, no doubt—Ray quickly drew the same shield shape on the construct’s scales.
This time, it wasn’t just the chaotic black-red energy that bled out of the construct. The outline of the shield grew brighter as white light filled it up. Ray smiled as his construct turned, the flying head slowly swelling to twice its size.
There. The new ability was active within it now.
“Sorry, buddy,” Ray said. “I promise this won’t be a regular thing.”
Activating Spiritsorb, Ray blasted his construct with a bolt of chaos. He had raised it several tiers with the Mana Infuser ring first too. The construct collapsed into a burst of mana.
The notification of Spiritsorb activating Lifeblood Graveyard arrived a second later. There was a long list of all the soul aspects Ray’s construct carried, but he ignored them and focused on the newest one.
[Lifeblood Graveyard Activated]
Spiritsorb has absorbed the soul of a defeated Lifeblood Soulform construct. Please select which Aspect of the targeted soul to retain.
Soul Aspects
* Soul Sacrifice [Tier 7]: Imbues a piece of the caster’s soul into any ability, allowing it to rupture when the caster is struck damaged, diverting all damage away from the caster. Rupture occurs when damage reaches the same Tier as the ability.
Ray smiled broadly. There. Just what he had been hoping for. He wasn’t exactly sure what the description meant by Tier of damage. Damage didn’t have Tiers, as far as he knew.
The more interesting bit was that it was an ability that was slotting straight into Lifeblood Graveyard. He had done well to raise it by a Tier recently. That still left him one slot for him to fill with any other new ability that could fit his fighting style. While he hadn’t yet spotted any opponent from whom he’d like to take a power, there was no saying he wouldn’t in time.
Ray hoped he’d get to test his new ability soon. For now, though, he had an auction to attend.
----------------------------------------
“Thank you for sending the descriptions of your treasures,” Sridayne said. “I was able to identify a potential buyer who would be quite enamoured with what you possess.”
They had decided to meet up before the day ended. Auction day was tomorrow. For now, they needed to plan. Although, Ray wasn’t sure meeting inside their hotel room was the brightest idea. It was getting quite cramped with five people inside, two of whom weren’t even human.
“You mean the Saltsien corporation,” Marcus said.
“Correct.”
Ray looked between the two of them. “Who?”
“They are a group who seeks to profit off of their partnership with the administration of the Tower of Forging.”
Ray needed only a second of thought to figure out what that meant. “Right. They’d be interested in anything that deals with the Fleshcrafter.”
“Question is,” Gritty said. “How do we make them aware that we have a treasure they might be interested in, considering we can’t form any pre-emptive deals or anything like that.”
Sridayne smiled. “That is where our little interview will come in handy.”
The jewellery at the top of her horns tinkled as she nodded at Vyournel. Her assistant nodded back, then looked at Ray like he was a fish the Sylvan had just drawn out of the water on a line.
“Uh…” Ray hesitated. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“It is simple really. We will be conducting a little interview where you will sell the treasures you possess, without going into specifics, and we will publish it ahead of time to garner interest.”
“Like a sneak peak hint,” Marcus said, warming up to the idea. He turned to Ray with a gleam in his eyes. “You talk about your treasures, how cool they are and how excited you are to get to sell them. Give them just enough flashes to be sure what it is without revealing it all.”
Ray still wasn’t that sure, but he was starting to see the sense in it. If Sridayne was right—and she was likely to be more right than Ray could be in this instance—then this was a way to bypass the tournament’s restriction on talking about treasures before the auction. A loophole to make the interview available to those who wished it, but not publicly available.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
At least, not until after the auction had occurred.
“Alright, what do I have to do?” Ray asked.
Vyournel smiled disarmingly. “Simply answer some questions, be yourself, and we shall be ready to go.”
“There’s just one problem left,” Gritty said. “How do we make sure they won’t be lowballing us?”
That was something none of them had an easier answer to. But it only took a few moments of thinking before a little grin popped up on Ray’s face.
“I think I’ve got an idea.”
----------------------------------------
The auction next day drew a huge audience. There were not only all the tournament competitors who were hoping to sell their treasures to earn as much as they could. A variety of others were gathering at the Auction Hall as well—auctioneers, merchants of various kinds, nobles and dignitaries from all over, as well as broadcasters like Sridayne.
Ray was tempted to take some time to marvel at just how much of an occasion this whole thing was. But they had procedures to follow to make sure they took part in the auction correctly.
First thing was registering what they were selling. Apparently, competitors could either hold on to their treasures for a later auction or sell them at the current auction. However, once registered, the treasures had to be sold at the current auction.
Ray wasn’t sure why anyone would hold them back, though Sridayne suggested there might be external factors. That’s when he got it.
For instance, if their primary auctioneer target couldn’t make it for whatever reason, then it would be to their detriment to try to sell the treasure off. In such cases, a team might choose to hold on to their treasure.
“Two treasures registered,” the Sylvan clerk at the auction desk said. “Will that be all?”
Marcus beamed at the clerk. “That will be more than enough, thank you.”
“Here you go. This is your auction token. It has all the information about when you will be called up and where you need to go before that.”
Ray and Gritty gathered closer to Marcus to take a peek at the token. The clerk was right. There was a numbered slot indicator that stated they’d be third among the list of auctioning teams.
“I think I know exactly who are going before us,” Ray muttered.
Marcus frowned at the distant doors that led into the main auction hall. “The team they called Albatross or something, right?”
“Yep.”
Gritty frowned too, though she was frowning between Ray and Marcus. “Wait. You guys never told me we could name our teams.”
The other two both groaned. Thankfully, they were able to steer Gritty towards the auction hall and distract her with the prospect of the auction.
Ray was a little nervous. Not only because now was the moment of truth on whether they could get ahead in this Immortalizer Tournament Auction or at least see if they stood some chance of winning. It was also because his plan for the auction revolved around one key element.
Whether or not they would be allowed to use their skills and spells within the auction hall.
There were many reasons why it would be restricted. Chief among them was that the organizers would really like not for anyone to go rogue and start assaulting the poor auctioneers with whatever crazy powers they could wield. But even if it was restricted in the auction itself, Ray’s plan didn’t really hinge on the restriction against activation.
What it rested on was their ability to detect a skill or spell being used.
He breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw that no such obstacles awaited him. People had gathered in the auction hall, and they were blithely using their powers with hardly a care in the world.
One Sylvan was using Growth Mana to operate multi-jointed limbs to carry drinks and snacks all over the place. A Ryous in an expensive-looking robe had little balls of light floating nearby. Ray couldn’t fathom their purpose. A human had created their own seat away from the rest of the audience using some kind of spectral ability.
There were lots of others that would have taken Ray way too long to observe. His mind was distractingly trying to figure out if any of them looked useful.
“I’m going to be back soon,” Ray told the others.
They nodded as he departed. Hopefully, they’d find a seat at a good spot. For now, Ray rushed over to one of the bathrooms. The stalls there were large and airy, easily bigger than master bedrooms in most houses. Probably to accommodate both smaller races like the Holdstar and the larger ones like the Ryous and that boulder-like race Ray didn’t know about.
He also wondered if the administration had anything approximating security cameras. If they had broadcasters and channels, then security systems weren’t too much of a stretch.
Disregarding the impulse to be overly careful, Ray simply cast Lifeblood Soulform within the stall and constructed two mimics. Ray closed his eyes and pictured the right people, and he made sure the Imitator constructs took their forms.
A moment later, Maya and Kredevel stood before him.
Ray grinned. “Hey guys, long time no see.”
They didn’t reply. A part of him wanted to cringe at the fact that he felt somewhat sad all of a sudden. It had been a while since he had seen Kredevel, and even longer since he had seen Maya.
Ray shook his head. It wasn’t really sadness or even loneliness. He realized he was feeling a smidge guilty about using his friends’ forms without their explicit consent. His intentions being far from nefarious didn’t help assuage his conscience.
Honestly, he was glad he still felt guilty. Glad that a part of his mind recognized some of the fucked-upped-ness of what he was trying to do.
It would help make sure he never took a step truly horrible.
Ray let the constructs head over to the auction hall first. It didn’t look like the bathrooms had any gender markers, so hopefully, no one would make a fuss about Maya emerging from the same spot that he and Kredevel did. Mimic Mana took care of the need for tokens for entry too.
When he arrived, the auction was already underway. The main organizer was making a grandiose speech about the importance of the auction and how grand it would be.
“Nice spot,” Ray whispered to the others as he took his place between Marcus and Gritty.
Gritty was looking farther behind though. “Did I just see…?”
Ray grinned. “We’ve got some unexpected friends, yes.”
She grinned back at him conspiratorially. Marcus looked blankly between them for a second before focusing on the large podium. While Ray had explained his intentions, he hadn’t mentioned the specifics of who the mimics would be impersonating.
“I wish they’d get this over with already,” Marcus said, in the same low register. “I want to see the other treasures already.”
Ray couldn’t agree more. A quick look around him confirmed the same deal. Everybody else seemed tense, expectant, ready to get the main course of the auction going.
Thankfully, the speech ended before long.
“And now,” the announcer said with a flourish. “We will welcome our first consignors! The brave competitors who cleared a Tier 32 dungeon and emerged with the treasure in its depths. Please welcome, Team Albatross!”
A round of applause chorused through the hall. Ray and his companions joined in too, but before they could see who exactly were in Team Albatross, a Sylvan attendant approached them.
“Competitors,” he said in a clipped, professional tone. “You are the third team in the auction, yes? If you would please follow me. We must get you in position to take your place.”
Ray, Gritty, and Marcus followed the Sylvan to a separate side chamber where Sameer’s team were waiting.
“Well, well, well,” Sameer said, eyeing them all with heavy disdain. “If it isn’t the team of bullies.”
Ray ignored him and waved good-naturedly at Eliza and Karkatrix. “Is he always like this?”
For just a second, Eliza looked like she was about to conspiratorially agree that yes, Sameer was indeed always like this. Then she remembered whose side she was on and scowled at Ray.
“Don’t wave at me, you ass,” she said. “We’re not here for a picnic.”
“Aw, really?” Gritty tutted. “And I brought a basket of snacks too.” They all looked at her. She pulled out literal candy. Little foil-wrapped bars of who knew what because surely they wouldn’t have chocolate of all things inside this Tower. “I got it the last auction day. You know, the smaller auction, which isn’t really an auction. More like a farmer’s market, weirdly.”
The Sylvan made a strange noise in his throat. Ray realized he was basically drawing all their attention to him, kind of like a cough. “You may choose to converse among yourselves, but please do not cause any commotion.”
If any of them had a reply to that, they were foiled when the auctioning began. Ray promptly ignored everyone in the room and looked at the main podium, squeezing past the big Ryous to get a better look. Sameer cursed Ray when he almost stepped on the latter’s feet. For Ray’s part, he was too busy taking in the strongest team in the tournament to notice.
Another one of the boulder-like beings was holding a strange treasure high up in the air in their branchlike arms. Their voice ground out like two rocks trying to start a fire. “Behold! This is a chunk of Alutrium. A Mana-eradicating material.”
That statement caused murmurs to spread throughout the gathered attendees. Ray stared at the storm-grey chunk of metallic rock in the alien’s hands.
A second member of the team came forward, a slight Sylvan with snow-white horns. “We will now demonstrate the Mana eradicating properties.”
The Sylvan clapped her hands together. Golden fire popped up all around the boulder-like alien. They all streamed straight at the rock, only to simply disappear as soon as they struck it. More gasps and murmurs churned through the crowd, several of the auctioneers applauding the display. They were excited.
And why not? That was pretty incredible. A substance that could simply delete Mana as soon as it came into contact with it? It was almost unbelievable. Ray could already imagine lining his robe with that material, Alutrium, and becoming completely immune to any and all Mana-based abilities anyone might throw at him.
Though, was that thing immune to any and all sorts of Mana? His question—and more—was voiced by several attendees. They all wanted to know just how strong that material was.
It turned out, while the material could obliterate all sorts of Mana—at least, provably, all sorts that the competitors showed and tested, which also included various test subjects picked randomly from the crowd—it wasn’t that strong in and off itself. Someone with enough Strength could break it with their bare hands.
“What about its mechanical properties?” someone else asked. “Do you know what its melting point is?”
All three of the competitors on stage were a little taken aback by the question. Frankly, so was Ray. How the hell were they supposed to discover something like that without harming the treasure?
“How about malleability?” asked yet another person. “Or even ductility?”
“What about its resistivity to electricity?”
“Does it react to any other materials?”
The questions pummelled the nonplussed competitors for a bit. But when they didn’t have answers, they eventually died down. Sensing the awkwardness, the organizer stepped forward to move it along.
“I believe we have had a sufficient demonstration of the treasure’s main properties that these wonderful competitors would like to sell,” he said. “Now, let us begin the bidding!”
That was honestly the part Ray was curious about the most. They really needed a proper baseline of what they could hope to get here.
“But before we go ahead with it,” the organizer said. “Please welcome our main guest of honour—the Lord of the Tower of Forging!”
Ray wasn’t the only one who was surprised as the main doors opened, admitting the Tower Lord into the auction hall.