After a good night’s rest, filled with cooking far too many meals, we packed everything and headed out towards the auction house. I kept an eye out for the twins, but soon I found myself distracted due to the signs of battle throughout the streets. None of the buildings seemed to be harmed, which Tessa said is due to the Major’s barriers, but the roads had lots of signs of massive, tough battles.
“Huh, seems like people beyond the Crossroads also fought here, how curious.” Looking where Tess was, I could see lingering signs of magic that was beyond the Crossroads. Frowning a bit, I saw some black smoke that seemed familiar to me, but brushing it off as a coincidence, I followed the rest to the auction house. Once more we’re seated in the same private booth.
“Right, let’s keep a close eye out for any big ticket items. Oh? Seems more of the private booths are filled today. Things might get rough afterwards, so be ready.” Tessa gives us a cautionary look as we all nod.
Once again, the announcer came out and proclaimed the second, and final, day or the auction had started. She yelled that this time, the auction would run all day and night, with the adventurer turn in happening at nightfall.
“Ah…that’s not good.” Hearing Tessa mutter, I turned my head as she showed me a stiff smile. “It means that all day tomorrow there will be fights. All buildings will be locked down, meaning we can’t just get back to our residence. It’s also why we were left alone after those attackers believed you were Delta-level, since they would’ve had to wear us down and it would’ve taken too long, meaning we could easily escape. But now…”
Knowing what she meant, I simply put the thoughts of the fighting off. After being in Hiems for a few weeks, I’d become a bit bothered. I wanted to fight so if the chance came up, I wouldn’t say no.
“Now, our starting item is an oddity! It is the egg of a Spirit Beast that was found in the dungeon of the Underworld. While Spirit Beasts are extremely rare, this one is even stranger; it’s a Lunar-type beast!” Hearing this, my interest was piqued as the men brought out an item covered by a cloth. Gently taking it off revealed a small egg, the size of my palm, silver in colour with extremely familiar black patterns and symbols…
“Coffee?!” I flash stepped to the window, peering at the egg. I felt a strange, broken link between myself and the egg.
“That Spirit Beast from Celestia? That’s not possible…” Aubrey muttered from behind me as Tessa walked up next to me.
“Are you sure, Alisha?”
“Yes. I don’t know why it was in the Underworld, but I can absolutely feel the link…at least, faintly, it’s like it’s broken.”
“Bidding will start at 10 Gold coi-” Before the announcer could even continue, a loud shout that shut her down came from one of the VIP rooms that caused everyone to turn to it, including me, stunned at the words.
“1 Rainbow coin.”
Who?! Who is this person?! That’s my Spirit Beast, not his! I stared at the room across from me, ignoring everything as my rage built, my monster form raising itself, a very fine string of reason the only reason why I hadn’t broken through this window and attacked that voice.
“Alisha! Don’t! Release your pressure!” Hearing Summer, and ignoring her, I blinked and found one of the men from the stage directly in front of me, holding out a palm.
“Wait! Do not harm her. She’s still immature in the ways of our world, good sir. Forgive her this one time.” Tessa, sounding out of breath, used me to help herself stand. Seeing this, I realised that the pressure from my rage had caused her to collapse and quickly releasing the form and pressure, I helped her to her feet.
“Doesn’t matter, she’s clearly shown intent to harm, she will have to lea-”
“Haha! I do not mind. I did indeed rudely outbid her yesterday and I have done the same today. Please, allow her to stay, she has not caused me any disturbance.” The voice rang out from the VIP room and the guard frowned and looked at the stage. The announcer, who looked unconcerned about all of this, simply shrugged then nodded once. The man shrugged and disappeared back to the stage.
“Alisha, come and sit down.” Tessa led me to the couch where I sat, feeling a bit heartbroken. Aubrey then sat next to me, giving Tessa a light nod.
“Alisha, don’t worry. Whoever that person is we’ll find them in the future and take Coffee back. For now, let’s just enjoy ourselves, he’ll be okay, that person doesn’t sound bad…” Aubrey took my hand in hers. For some reason that action by hers caused my heart to skip a beat. I simply nodded and rested my head on her shoulder, finding an odd sense of comfort in doing so. Aubrey wrapped her arm around my waist causing the distance between us to become nothing.
The announcer closed off the bidding as the egg was once more covered and carried it away. Once again, another item is introduced but unlike before I didn’t feel unmotivated. After a couple more rounds, I found myself looking forward to the next lot of items. Around midday, the door to the room opened as a member of the United Merchant Guild came in.
“Hello, we’re here to collect anything you may have for the auction. Please keep in mind we will have a preliminary check now and if we don’t believe it will sell well, we will reject it.”
Not wanting to part from Aubrey, and because Alice had at some point sat on my lap, I simply handed the storage bag to Tessa who just chuckled at the sight of me before heading over to the merchant. Xeno, Summer and Xia were all handing over items they had found randomly and after they were all accepted, I heard Tessa explain the contents to the merchant.
“Sorry, we don’t just accept food. We’re aware that some people might make Faster Regeneration drinks and Better Vision food, but honestly they’re worthless.”
“Ah, you shouldn’t say that. The fox eared one there, she’s a Chosen of Gastron. Her food is a bit more…advanced, here have a look.” I heard the rustling of the storage bag before the smell of a particular recipe hit my nose. After a few minutes, I heard the merchant gasp in shock.
“P-plus 1 rank of all Stats?!”
“That's small time compared to what else is in here. Here, look at this.”
“Ten percent more experience and thirty percent more Stats for forty eight hours?! H-how is this type of food possible?!”
“Can’t let a trade secret out now, can we. We’re eager to sell and judging by the drool you’re nearly letting loose I can tell you’re eager to auction this off. I know the Merchant Guild usually does a seventy thirty split, but we’re looking for a ninety ten split.”
Eventually recovering, the merchant stayed silent for a moment. “No, that’s too much. While we have far more VIPs today, we still need to create an illusion of scarcity. By having so much of this food, it’ll cause prices to come down since most will be a one time use. Eighty twenty split.”
“Ninety ten or we’re not interested.”
“Fine, eighty five fifteen split.”
“Deal! Swear an Oath on it.”
“We don’t do Oaths anymore, we do binding contracts.” I heard and smelt the smell of paper and ink, the scratching of a quill on paper. “Sign here please.”
“Ah, Binding Vows? Interesting.” Hearing more scratching, I felt a surge of mana for a second before it disappeared. “Wonderful, I’ve never liked System Oaths, they’re too harsh.”
“Indeed. It’s settled, we’ll sell as much as we can of these, but we may need to keep it aside to sell in other locations, depending on the performance tonight.” The merchant left and as she did, the announcer came up and introduced a new item.
“A recent find that came to our attention; this small stone holds a strange power that we have yet to identify correctly but believe to be Yin and Yang magic.” The item revealed a palm side stone, one side white the other black, both having the opposite colour as a small dot. “The starting bid for this is 10 Silver Coins!”
As with smaller items, there wasn’t much of a reaction, only a few dozen people started bidding. Because of this, my eyes finally located the twins. The Guild had said they headed here after hearing of the possibility of an item like this showing up. The amount quickly went up to 1 Gold Piece. The twins looked desperate, glancing at each other before painstakingly raising the price to 3 Gold pieces. As soon as they did, they were once more outbid, causing their faces to crumble. Looking at them, they seemed rather healthy, but I could tell now that the link was on the verge of collapsing. The stones I had given them were likely the only thing keeping them alive.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The cost slowly went to 10 Gold coins, and as the announcer was about to close it off, I raised my voice. “One Diamond coin.”
The adventurer who thought they had won shot me a hate filled glare before realisation showed, causing him to look away. With no one else bidding, I won the stone. When the merchant came in, I told her to instead deliver it to the twins, pointing out where they were and what they looked like.
“Oh, and tell them ‘meet me at The Snowman’s Retreat, room 31B and bring the stone’.” The merchant nodded and left.
“That’s a nice thing to do, Alisha.” Aubrey giggles as I snuggled up on her shoulder once more.
“Mm, those are the twins I told you about, remember?”
“Oh, are they? The ones with the strange, broken link?”
“That’s them.” As we watched, the merchant approached the two, handing them the ring. They both looked absolutely confused at both the ring and the message, but very quickly the sister, Yin, seemed to realise something as she grinned and whispered to Yang, who went wide eyed and glanced at the room. Yin slapped him, seemingly telling him off as I giggled.
“They don’t act like elves, do they?” Summer chuckled at their behaviour.
“Speaking of elves, I hope Olivia is doing well.” Olivia had been left in the care of Elise, though she had started making great strides with her new party. Last I had heard they’d braved a beginners dungeon while Elise acted as their advisor. On that note, my thoughts turned to Elizabeth. She too had remained in Vale, seeking to find her own path to the Crossroads. She had wanted to join our party, but first she wanted to find Leon and help him overcome what had happened.
The auction continued, with us picking up more items. I got a great deal on a box of recipes from a town across the world, as well as more seeds and sproutlings. As mid afternoon rolled around, the announcer turned to the crowd.
“There hasn’t been too much spending! So let’s finish out this section of the auction with a few specials! Coming from a forbidden location called the Garden of Everwinter, this next item is not only beautiful, but powerful! It is said that if prepared by a master, it could allow one to return from the dead; this is a Yin Ice Flower, formed from the deepest parts of the Garden for thousands of years!”
Unveiling a small ice flower in a jar, the crowd erupted with bids before the announcer could even say the minimum. Tessa tsked next to me before talking.
“Idiots. Even if you found someone to make it into an Elixir of Rebirth, what makes you think they’d give it to you?” Though she said this, the bid very quickly eclipsed 20 Jade coins by the VIPs, before selling for 25.
“That’s more like it! Onto the next item!” The next item came along with more spending happening, all selling for high amounts of Diamond coins or Jade coins. While we enjoyed ourselves by watching how much things sold for, my mind kept being distracted by the fact that Coffee was still here, just outside of my reach.
Soon the high valued items came to a close. I managed to win a quiver for Oliver that when used would automatically cover arrowheads in poison that constantly changed. It cost me 35 Diamond coins, but I felt it would be a good gift for her.
Soon, night fell and the announcer changed gears. The table was replaced with a cloth covered set of shelves.
“To start tonight's nightly auction, we decided to pull out some delicious items, literally life changing food!” The cloth is removed to reveal an assortment of my cooked foods, less than a hundredth of what I had submitted. Confusion sounded out amongst the crowd and the announcer walked over and picked up one of the Hearty Eggs.
“This is not any regular old food. Made from the very hands of a Chosen of Gastron, this food is life changing! This Hearty Egg meal increases all your Stat Ranks by one! You heard me, your strength is down at E? Well this will permanently increase it to D!”
A silence so heavy rang out that a distinct ringing could be heard. “See, I told you all it's not regular food. The assortment here has been arranged to provide the best bonuses to the winner and we will be regurley auctioning off sets like this throughout the night. Now the bids start at 10 Diamond coins!”
Screams and shouts blew me away, all of them coming from the VIP rooms. I had no idea what was happening until Tessa told me.
“Your food is powerful, Alisha. Those in the VIP rooms likely come from large Clans, Families or Guilds. They all have people that they want to strengthen, so the food you make is highly sought after. Even if they sell everything you prepared, the price will barely go down.”
The bidding reflected her words, quickly moving into Jade coins. Soon, the bidding slowed and the first set sold for…18 Jade coins.
My head spun at the amount that it had sold for. From what Tessa said, I’d get 15 Jade Coins and a few Diamond Coins in return. Of course, she gave me serious advice at this moment.
“Alisha, now is a good chance to teach you about the world’s banks. Along with running literally everything to do with merchandise, the United Merchant Guild also has a system called a ‘bank’. You need to only sign up for it with a drop of blood, in exchange they will give you a ring that will identify you at any of their branches so you can withdraw the money.
“Carrying so much will only lead to despair if you lose it all. Unless you’re a Demigod who has virtually no need for money, you can’t carry so much of it around.” Hearing her advice, I decided to take her on it. I’d been carrying my money around for nearly my entire time as an adventurer. As the night went on, they kept bringing out my food between every 5 to 6 auctions, with the bidding going slightly higher each time.
As the end of the auction neared, I had earned nearly 200 Jade coins. I had no idea what I would use the money for, and with a merchant coming in to report the total amount, I asked about the bank, which they got set up right then and there. With a singular drop of blood, everything was set and with my new ring, I was informed that it would be accepted at any bank.
“How can they tell how much I have?”
“Simple. It's a storage ring and within it it’s a note that is carefully crafted by the merchant guild, with ink and paper only they know how to produce. Well, the auction is ending. We didn’t get much so let’s find somewhere to relax before we head home.”
Making sure to arm ourselves, as we had bought a few things through the day, we exited through a side door once more, however this time things didn't go exactly as planned.
We walked two blocks before finding ourselves surrounded by 10 people. All of them felt around Level 100, meaning that if we were to get into a fight it would be a tough one.
“Lay down the rings and walk away, then no one gets hurt.” A woman with flaming red hair steps forward, looking seriously at Summer.
“We have a Level 1 and a Level 5, we request that they get safe passage away from here first.”
Looking annoyed, the red haired woman looked at Tessa and Alice before shaking her head. “Fine, but they must leave their rings with you.”
Alice had none. She hadn't cared about the auction, but Tessa had 6 in total. They weren't worth much, but this group either didn't care or they were blindly robbing those they could.
Alice and Tessa walked away, with the surrounding people making way for them. After another 10 minutes of waiting, the red haired woman scoffed.
“Alright, we doing this or wha-”
Slamming my foot down in the snow, I released my Domain without a word as the ten surrounding us were caught off guard. At the same time, Summer disappeared while Xeno raised his new shield. Xia started casting a spell while I prepared one.
High above everyone here, a massive magic circle appeared. I heard the shouts of those around as they sensed the amount of power I put into it. As mana surged as they prepared to attack the barrier, Xia waved her hand around.
“Arcane Bindings.” 10 purple symbols formed around her and shot out, hitting each person. As soon as it does, purple and blue chains erupt, binding them and sealing their magic. It wouldn't last long, but it's all I needed.
“Starfall.” I aimed to only severely wound them, not kill them. The ten beams struck down and as the light faded, ten heavily wounded people appeared, obviously no longer able to fight.
“Grab their bags and rings.” Hearing Summer, who had been on backup in case anyone dodged my spell, say this, I went over and robbed those who tried to rob us. They had quite the collection of auction rings and bags. Looking at them, it seemed they weren't a part of some group, likely just joined forces to blindly rob people. Releasing my domain, which dumps the injured in the street, I'm about to breath out as a wave of pressure hits us, causing all of us to fall to our knees.
Straining myself to look, I saw an old woman standing there in front of us. A flowing black shirt that matched her old, silver hair. The pressure increases, a sinister smile forming on her old lips as she raises a hand, a familiar band around her wrist.
Her hand slowly descends, the pressure increasing every centimetre. I knew once that hand reached low enough, we would die. Killed by pressure alone. I didn't know what Class she is, I just knew it's well above Delta.
The moment her hand reached the halfway point, she laughed. “And so the shame of Celestia ends here. Pity that others had to join you.” I heard bodies behind me slamming into the ground as the pressure increased several fold. My one thought at that time is that I was glad Alice and Tessa had gone ahead, at least they'd live…
A calm breeze blew past me, a gentle yet violent pressure descended from all around us. It fought the pressure from the granny as she cackled.
“If it isn't Alexander of the Corrosive Dragon. What does a weak Beta class think he can do against I, a Eclipse Class of the Sisterhood of the Moon.”
A voice sounded from directly behind me, one filled with amusement. “Ah, so you're still up to your old tricks. If you had killed them without showing off, you'd have completed your mission. But now, you've failed.”
The granny only grinned as more pressure was released from her. However, as if a dam broke, I felt my Master’s pressure slam into the old woman as he slowly stepped to my side.
“Are you okay, Alisha?”
“Y-yes…”
“Good, then you'll get to witness a battle between the Epsilon Classes.”
Master has become an Epsilon class?! As those words stunned me, he rose two fingers intertwined, a powerful energy erupting from him.
“Dimension of the Ancient Corrosive Dragon God.”