Bidding for the third skill slot kicked off with far less enthusiasm than the first two, the vast majority of players seemingly trying to raise the amount by the smallest possible figure of significance.
“All the high rollers scared now that Shin has enough to challenge anyone.” Donny commented.
The moment the bids slowed down at the million mark, he used a silver ticket and teleported down, a menacing barbarian woman his opponent. His eyes turned white and veins on his temples bulged, and the challenged crashed to the floor. Donny returned with his prize and the tokens.
“You have enough tickets to waste them like that?” Yen asked.
“Need enough to play the game. Best time to earn is right now.”
Karla put all of her tokens down, just shy of 3 million, and a ticket brought her onto the stage. She smiled at the bald brute of a man and he fell dead, her face devoid of strain or tension.
“It’s not as fun as fighting.” The Amazon gave her honest assessment upon returning.
“How are we coordinating?” Dante asked a rather important question.
“First one that bets gets it, unless they give up.” Donny half suggested.
‘Sounds good.” Yen agreed and none in the room had opposing sentiments. “Build up as much tokens as you can but save at least one ticket for later. Silver, bronze is a death trap.”
With a thought, Shin gave each of them a million tokens.
“You’re carrying us too much.”
“I can get more.”
“Yeah, I guess so…”
As decided the party took turns bidding. Kamala, Dante, and Ashley had enough to bait out ticketholders, all three winning with minimal trouble, though Jean, Basem and Mujin had less success. The latter two that were participating kept finding themselves outbid. Finally, Yen brought herself to go all in with her now 2 million tokens, and immediately a silver ticket brought her before a mustached middle aged man with golden eyes.
“If we can’t kill him, we can kill those around him.” He sneered.
Yen braced and found herself in a blank white space, flames coating most of her body. A pressure struck her mind from the Atreus man shining gold. Pain and a forbidding sense of dread, as though standing at the edge of a cliff, bore down relentlessly. She fought back with her mind, her desire, instinctively, the flames swelling in size and intensity. But still, she felt the dread.
The bright gold light emanating from the man shone brighter still with his growing confidence and malice in the face of victory. Yen’s flames flickered and the dread grew. She tried with all her might to push back but the patches of flame shrunk and snuffed out, leaving her more and more of a mere mortal with each moment. And at the brink of defeat, her dread turned to a terrible desperation, and her fire exploded. In seconds, the raging inferno engulfed the light, and then man, and with his shrieks she found herself back on stage, sweat pouring down her exhausted face.
“Had me worried for a second.” Donny said.
“Goldfuckers are targeting us…” Still, bearing worn eyes, Yen was in no mood to say much more. Several times before in these trials she had experienced that same desperation and it always left her feeling ill.
Donny quietly went all in on the next bid and an Atreus called him out immediately, though his battle ended sooner and with less effort. The bids continued with the members of party called out to battle occasionally. Mujin and Basem finally got their time in the sun by going all in at the start of each bid, facing difficulty in their battles though not as much as Yen had. She grit her teeth and went all in again to yet another Atreus challenger, and by the state of her, the struggle no easier than the first.
“Fuck!”
“Gets better. They put bounties on us.”
Yen checked the section of the menu and sure enough, both her and Donny had bounties of two million apiece. “Why only us?”
“Someone gave them outdated information.”
“It was only the four of us when we encountered them in the dungeon.” Kamala added.
“Then why don’t you have one?” The lotus eyed priestess gave no response so Yen dropped it.
A noticeable ramp in intensity appeared in the auction as it reached the halfway point of the category. More recognizable names and emerging powerhouses starting making their move, and the bids and bounties both rose in scale. Titon Saba and Lu Kang, Chandra Pandavas, the Paladin turned Justiciar, the kings Eskender and Richard, Renzo, Leon Moore, Sereth Narmer.
Major figures won bid and battles with ease one after the other, and the amount of participants started to drop. Among them, a boy, the young scion of the Kamo, who dominated every battle made without so much as a twitch in his lazy expression.
[Kamo no Yasunori]
“Yas… Isn’t that who you said before? Back in the highlands?” Yen turned to Kamala.
“Yes…” Kamala did not seem surprised, although it was as though a slight suspicion had just been answered. “The Kamo have long practiced the art of mediumship, even calling on ghosts of past to replace the souls of their own. There has been a rumor for many years that Yasunori himself has been continuously invoked into sacrifices among his own bloodline to rule without interruption, but they keep their secrets closely guarded.”
The appearance of a familiar blue haired man with cloth wrapped around his eyes whose true name was indeed recognized as Xerxes had Yen mutter an insult under her breath, but the next battle brought a deeper reaction. The challenged a legendary tier classholder with gear rivalling the original members and the challenger, a muscular young man with spiky white hair and a playfully evil smile.
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[Hiroshi Minamoto vs Bando Koga]
“17 and 28.” Dante commented. No one needed to ask what the numbers meant. All eyes were glued to the stage for the first battle between two high rankers.
“We never should have taken in your ungrateful clan…” Hiroshi’s words dripped with venom, an intense aura cloaked his impressive stature. “I will see them all wiped out to the last child.”
“Scary~”
Bando’s insult fell on deaf ears and the two clashed, a dull friction felt by those outside, something that had never happened before. Moment’s passed as the ferocity of their expressions held, and the prince of the Minamoto fell dead. Bando’s smile stretched wide.
“Is that the best you have?! The Minamoto are easy!” The devious reaper’s words echoed throughout the room even as he vanished.
“Psycho…”
“A smart one.” Donny glanced through the menu. “They put a 6 million bounty on him.”
Yen’s response was interrupted by the image of a giant golden ticket in all its splendor. A short old man with a long whisker like mustache dressed in the silk robes of a monk and a crowned cap, his expression one of restrained annoyance. Opposite him, stood the one who used the first golden ticket of the auction. A tall wiry old man with wrinkled skin. His white hair combed back but his long thin bristly beard unkempt in comparison.
“You haven’t changed a bit, my old friend.” Genjiro gave his old associate a mischievous smile after seeing the look on his face.
Feng Lu’s resolve strengthened and their wills clashed like two dragons. Stronger than the battle between Bando and Hiroshi, yet over in a moment, Genjiro standing tall over his slain rival. He gave nothing more than a look of dismissive pride, the right of a dominant victor, and vanished. Bidding started again with a noticeable spike in high rollers bearing the name Igarashi.
“That seemed important…”
“It was.” Kamala confirmed Yen’s sense for narrative. “Those were the current heads of the Igarashi and Lu clans.”
“Your grandfather?” She asked Shin.
“Yeah.”
“Really?” Yen had only asked half seriously. “Pretty sure he was rank 9 last time. How is your clan so broken. Do you have another trait besides Body Supremacy?”
“No.”
“The Igarashi have operated as assassins and mercenaries for 500 years. Their upbringing is notoriously harsh, no other clan has such an extensive focus on the art of mortal combat. The most talented among the main family is always chosen as the patriarch.” Kamala explained in Shin’s stead.
“Then…”
“Renzo’s the heir.”
“Is he stronger than you?” Yen asked with some surprise.
“No.”
Slight relief found her attitude. “What about the old man?”
Shin thought for a moment. “Don’t know. Maybe before.”
A sum of 1,590,000 tokens entered Shin’s vision, and he turned to the sohei standing to the side.
“I don’t need any help from a muri-”
Shin returned the money back.
“I said-!” Mujin gave back the the money and Shin returned it again immediately.
“Stop that!”
“You need it.” Shin said bluntly.
“Hey, do you even crack half a million without it?” Yen’s words were prickly towards the guy who had largely been antagonistic from the start. “How many tickets you have, two, one? What do you even expect to do without tokens then?”
“I don’t need help.”
“Why did you pick him?” Yen gave up on talking with him and turned to Shin.
“Felt right.”
“We barely met anyone yet! What is he, melee dps? There has to be a ton of better ones out there.”
“Better knights and mages, too.”
“Shut up.” Yen snapped at Donny’s casual banter. The mage took a moment to compose herself long enough to think, and looked back at Mujin.
“Listen, you keep going on about murim this and murim that, but you’ll never beat people who are indestructible or can turn off your mind with a thought unless you close the gap. This auction is probably the only time you can really do that, if you throw away this chance now, you’ll never be anything more than second rate.” Mujin didn’t respond but Yen could see her words struck a chord, so she pressed further. “If you don’t like getting handouts, then you can pay Shin back by being in the party. Unless you’re the dishonorable type that doesn’t pay his debts?”
“Of course not.” Mujin turned to Shin, seeming to have made up his mind with that final push. “I’ll fight until the debt is paid. But only for you, not your clan.”
“I’m not part of the clan.”
Kamala took the opportunity to ask a question that had been on her mind. “Are there any members you would like us not to battle against?”
“Yuna, Shoko, Fuyumi.”
“That’s all?” Yen asked.
“Yeah.”
“Grandpa.”
Karla’s casual word brought everyone’s attention to a towering figure on the stage. Unkempt white hair, a similar complexion to the cheerful amazon, and a muscular physique of a man half his age. Jurandir Barbosa his name, and his opponent fell dead before his smile of foreboding confidence.
“Why don’t you and Shin have last names?” Yen blurted out a question that came to mind.
“Grandpa said I’m not a Barbosa~”
“Oh.” Karla didn’t seem to be bothered about it at all, simply stating it as a matter of fact, but Yen felt bad enough to try and be tactful. But the appearance of a familiar curly hay blonde young man made her forget everything else.
“Is that fucking Freckles?!”
“Someone important?” Dante asked.
“We left him to die.” Kamala didn’t mince words.
“Yeah, he don’t seem to have gotten over that.” Donny kept his focus on the Cursemaster despite his laidback tone.
Micah won with surprising ease and turned to look right at the party’s booth, his disposition hateful and sinister with an unsettling arrogance.
“Is he gonna be a problem?” Yen asked with some concern.
“We’ll sort it out when it happens.”
A silver ticket shone in the air and Shin took the stage. His opponent had put down a sum of 4.5 million right at the start, a clear attempt to bait a challenger, but by the look on his face he hooked a bigger fish that he wanted.
“W-wait, wait, I quit.” The man vanished from the stage in an instant.
“Oh, I forgot. You can yield before a battle of will. Counts as a loss but you keep your life. I hope none of you died in vain~” Nem made no effort to pretend he truly forgot, nor to hide his amusement.
Jean put all his tokens on the next bid and was summoned to the stage. The battle started with hardly any buildup and Jean returned within moments. A light sweat coated his face but his expression remained unchanged.
“Thought you’d never try.” Yen jabbed. “The get out of jail card gave you some confidence?”
“Well…” Jean showed no reaction to the light banter. “I was waiting for Shin to go next anyway…”
Shin put down 2 million tokens on the next bid and no one dared to raise, the mere thought of the reaper of the auction looming over them enough to give them pause. The time counted down and he won the bid. And he did it again to the same effect. An yet again, this time bidding only 1 million.
Donny broke into a smile. He had been around Shin long enough to know he meant nothing by it but the practical results, but the rest of the players would surely take it as a taunt, a particularly egregious one. Six more times he bid and all six auctions were claimed without challenge.
“I’m done.” Shin announced to the party.
“Our turn then.” Donny went all in and a challenge called him out only to leave Donny the prize and every token he owned.
The rest of the party started their own hunts for skill slots at their own pace. By the end, most had gotten at least several. Kamala, Dante, and Karla collecting five, and Yen and Jean with only two. Yen opted to sit out in preparation for the next rounds and Jean took an opportunity to pick up one more, although that seemed to be the limit of his risk tolerance. Two players had distinguished themselves even more than Shin, at least in number, Leon Moore and Kamo no Yasunori, claiming 12 skill slots apiece.
Nem strolled across the stage as the last item disappeared. “Two down, two to go. How many of you got what you wanted? Did you see someone you care about lose pathetically?”
He twirled the cane in his hand rapidly. “Weakness is a sin. But don’t worry! For weaklings like you, I have just what you need. Unrestricted. Epic. Tier. Abilities!” He raised his cane up to the changing sign above.
“Do your best~”