Minnie was even more confused.
“You are the one who submitted the Long Burning Flame concoction, right?”
“That is correct,” Minnie said, her mind having a hard time working again. She was in the same room as one of the three Expert Pill Heads in the Third Realm!
She snuck glances at him. He looked like a man just working at a desk, not what she had been expecting.
“You say that the concoction will burn hot and last for a long period of time, even in small doses, and it is hard to put out?” Delilah asked.
“Yes,” Minnie said.
“I would like to commission you to make as much of the concoction as possible. I will provide all of the materials and pay for workshop time. I also hope I can observe you working on the formula. I will pay you one hundred gold per finished concoction, though I will need them all in three days,” Delilah said.
With each batch, I can make thirty potions, which is three Mortal mana stones for every batch. I can make around sixteen batches a day, if I took mind calming concoctions and better grade Stamina potions. It’s not a backer but with that many mana stones, I can increase my cultivation or I can get manuals and formulas that were out of my reach before!
“Okay,” she said.
“Good. Then let’s begin,” Delilah said.
***
Erik and Rugrat wore masks that hid their identities as they were led into the auction hall. They weren’t placed in a box but on the ground floor as they had only paid for the ground floor seats. As long as they were inside the auction hall, that was all that mattered.
A woman walked out onto the stage. “Thank you for coming and visiting our humble auction house. I hope you are all having a great day. Today, we have a number of items for sale, including treasures related to smithing and healing.”
The people in the room shifted in their seats, looking at one another. They were all competitors in this room now.
She smiled, feeling the tension in the room increase. “Let us bring out the first item!”
With a wave of her hand, another gorgeous woman walked out with a handsome man, rolling out a cart onto the stage.
They pulled back the covering curtain, showing a pill bottle. A slight scent came from the bottle, calming one’s mind and reducing the stress placed upon them.
“This is the Singular Focus One Dream pill. A pill that can increase one’s abilities to their maximum, increasing their chances to create a high-level item. Pills and aids are not forbidden in the tournaments coming up this week. If you’re looking to get an edge, then the Singular Focus One Dream pill can make your dream come true!”
People competing in the competitions, or those who knew someone who would be competing in them, all leaned forward.
“The starting price is fifteen Earth-grade mana stones!”
“It is a half-step Expert pill and it has a high efficacy. Fifteen mana stones is indeed not bad,” Erik said.
“With the competition, people are going to bet everything on it. These kinds of aids will only increase in price,” Rugrat said.
“Eighteen!” The first threw out their bid, aiming higher to scare off others.
“Nineteen!”
“Twenty!”
“Twenty-five!”
“Forty!” someone in the boxes yelled out.
“Forty-five!” another said.
“Forty-six!” the first person in the boxes said, after some hesitation.
“Fifty.” The second person spoke as if money didn’t matter.
“Any more bids? This is a rare opportunity that you won’t see before the competitions start!” the auctioneer announced.
She counted down and struck her hammer, still pleased with the sky-high price.
“Sold to the bidder in the boxes.” The woman bowed to them, unable to see who they were.
The pill bottle was removed and another item was rolled out onto the stage.
“A medical attenuator! Of the mid Journeyman level!”
“Medical attenuator?” Rugrat asked.
“Think of it like a medical scanner. They’re a cool piece of diagnostic kit, but limited in the lower grades. They can basically find the point of injury in Apprentice level, then you focus your healing spells there—bingo, person healed faster. Higher grades, you can use to actually tell you what is happening inside a person. Though they’re not as accurate as the Simple Organic Scan and the Simple Organic Scan doesn’t take much mana.” Erik shrugged.
“Why don’t people use the spell?”
“Might have been lost. Spells are expensive and people like to hoard knowledge. Whole reason we’re buying these manuals instead of checking them out of the library,” Erik said.
“Really is kind of dumb,” Rugrat said.
“Well, hopefully we can do something about that at least for our own people,” Erik said.
They sat there, seeing different items pass by. Items increased in rarity and price as it went on. The auctioneer built up the atmosphere, slowing down to draw people and speeding up so that people’s eyes were red with excitement.
“Damn, auctioneers can make a lot of money,” Rugrat said.
“Why do you think we own so many of them within Vuzgal and the one within Vermire?” Erik asked through sound transmission.
Rugrat nodded, as if it were only natural.
“Today I’m able to bring you a great prize. After all, the competition will come and go, but it doesn’t determine one’s future! There are many treasures that can change one’s fate and destiny! Today, we have Dasa Keri’s carving tool!”
The cloth was removed from the top of a case with a flourish. Underneath, there was a simple-looking carving tool. It looked well-worn but one could see that sparks of mana moved along the blade and the handle.
“After using it for so long, Dasa Keri—who was rumored to have reached the medium Expert level—left an imprint upon the carving tool, raising the mid Journeyman-level carving tool to that of an imprinted weapon!”
Erik looked at Rugrat, who had his eyes closed, his hands moving as if he looked through a computer.
Rugrat opened his eyes and used his sound transmission device.
“An imprinted item is a weapon that has adapted to a user completely. If someone else was to use it, they wouldn’t be able to use it effectively for its primary role, but they would be able to gain insights from the person who imprinted upon it. Only powerful people can do this. You can have special items to allow someone to imprint on a weapon quicker. Say a sword sect have a bunch of powerful members imprint their learnings into a sword; then, when someone is using that sword, they have a guide with the sword. Problem is that after the imprinting, it will eventually weaken,” Rugrat said.
Erik and Rugrat weren’t the only two talking. The room was filled with a commotion as people went back and forth, sharing what they knew with their neighbors.
“The bidding will start at fifty Earth-grade mana stones. One must increase the bid by no less than ten mana stones,” the auctioneer said with a blazing smile.
Many could only sit back and watch what was happening. The amount of mana stones had long since passed their threshold.
“Sixty!”
“Eighty!” another called out. The auction hall turned silent.
“Ninety!” Another voice spoke up.
The hall went silent again as the different people bidding stared at one another.
“Should we bid?” Erik asked, through his sound transmission.
“We don’t know how much imprint is left on it, and don’t we have our own Expert-level crafters? With time, our people will increase this skill. Right now, the thing holding them back are those technique manuals—or a lack of them, really.
“With those and what we have already, it’ll cost more, but the carving tool is good to raise only a few people’s strength. With the manuals, we can pass them on to more people and increase the ability of all the people in Alva,” Rugrat said.
“Look a
t you—thinking ahead,” Erik said.
“Tan Xue would kick my ass if we spent all of our money on some formation carving tool.”
Erik let out a chuckle and shook his head. A few people looked over to him.
“Don’t draw attention. I am a tree, I am a tree, don’t look at me!” Rugrat said.
“Is that how you got through recon training?”
“Yes, that and a liberal amount of dark humor, caffeine, and anger,” Rugrat said.
“Sold for one hundred Earth mana stones to Formation Journeyman Huo,” the auctioneer said to the pleased-looking older man in the higher boxes.
“Tools and techniques—one needs them all if they will break through into the Expert realm. Today we bring you an unknown healing technique manual. It was found in a hidden Expert’s cultivation retreat. It boasts the ability to allow one to cast multiple healing spells at the same time, with decreasing one’s mana cost by at least five percent and increase the power of the spell by ten percent. Though it is damaged, so we believe it is a half Expert-grade healing technique,” the auctioneer said.
The healers all leaned forward and Erik raised an eyebrow. An Expert’s retreat was a special cultivation area that an Expert created to get away from distractions to attempt a breakthrough in their cultivation.
“Useful?” Rugrat asked.
“I think so. If it can really do two spells at once, then I could cast a healing spell and then a Stamina recovery spell, so that I would just have to rely on the patient’s ability to recover Stamina. Like with Chonglu—I would have been able to heal him in just an hour or less instead of taking several hours.”
“Shall we?”
“I think we shall,” Erik said.
“You sound like some kind of Dracula,” Rugrat said.
“We will start the bidding at eighty Earth mana stones. Every increase must be no less than ten Earth mana stones.”
Erik shot Rugrat a look as he raised his hand. But as he did, a voice drowned out the raised hands.
“One hundred!”
“There is a bid for one hundred Earth mana stones from Elder Mo of the Agate Sword sect.”
The others who might bid on the item all cooled their bidding.
“One hundred and ten,” a man in the Divine Sunset sect box said.
“One hundred and forty,” the elder from the Agate Sword sect said back.
All others, including the sects, had given up on the manual.
“One hundred and fifty.” Erik raised his hand.
The eyes in the room moved from the boxes to the people on the floor.
The auctioneer’s eyes thinned as she looked at the hidden men sitting at the table. “If one does not pay the required mana stones promptly, then they will have to pay a fine and the item will not be given to them,” she said.
“Ouch. I think she’s saying that we’re too poor.” Rugrat laughed, sending his message via sound transmission.
“I understand,” Erik said in a tired voice.
Her eyes stayed on him before she turned back to the podium and her smile returned in full force, looking at the two boxes. “Any more bids!”
“Shall we see if he has the strength in order to place such a bid? My Divine Sunset sect wishes to know instead of having numbers inflated,” the elder said with a note of derision aimed at the auction house.
Falsely raising prices could be a great issue.
“You’ll see in the end,” Erik said, without looking behind him.
The elder turned to the people in his box; those in the Agate Sword sect talked to one another as well.
“What do you think they’re doing?” Erik asked.
“From what I can read on their lips, they’re looking into our background. They want to know if we’re part of the auction or if we’re wandering Experts, or just people trying to make a scene,” Rugrat said.
“Your lip reading skills are impressive.”
“Higher reaction time makes it a lot easier,” Rugrat said.
“One hundred and sixty,” Elder Mo from the Agate Sword sect said, looking at the two men for a reaction.
Erik raised his hand.
“One hundred and seventy,” the auctioneer said.
“One hundred and eighty!” Elder Mo said again.
Erik rose his hand again. “One hundred and ninety.”
Elder Mo fell silent and the Divine Sunset sect fell silent, using the opportunity to drop out of the bidding without being noticed, saving them from embarrassment.
“Sold to the man on the floor,” the auctioneer said.
The whole auction house had a weird atmosphere as Erik and Rugrat sat there, people all looking at them as the next item was brought out.
“We only bring you the best of items. As the last item for this auction, we have the intermediary woodworking technique manual, called Infusion of Mana, a technique that is supposed to be able to combine wood together, increasing its overall grade or, through different mixtures, change its properties. For making tools, bows, spears, hammers, magical staffs, and formation flags, it is a must-have manual!”
Rugrat moved in his seat.
“We getting it?” Erik asked.
“I don’t see why not,” Rugrat said.
“Your turn,” Erik said.
“We will start the bidding at one hundred and fifty Earth mana stones!”
The eyes turned to the boxes as they were the only people to have that sort of money.
“Two hundred,” the people from the Golden Path box said.
“Two hundred and fifty!” the Soul Hammer box said.
“Two hundred and eighty,” the leader from the Divine Sunset sect said.
“They’re going all-out,” someone on the floor said.
“Metal or wood—everything in the Ten Realms is built with these two items, from tools to weapons. An art that allows one to combine wood as if smelting metal, it could increase their strength dramatically.”
“Thinking about it, only a big group could make the most use of it. There are so many combinations to make, you would need people to figure out all of the useful ones!”
“Do you think any of us can bid on something like that?”
The bidding had cooled slightly as the Golden Path elder spoke up with a pressured look on his face, staring at the other sect leadership.
“Three hundred and fifty,” he said, his voice one of warning.
“Four hundred,” Rugrat said from beside Erik.
Everyone once again looked at the mysterious pair.
The elder in the Golden Path sect smacked the chair and used his control over mana. It was an invisible force but it dropped like a hammer on top of Erik and Rugrat.
“A smith bidding on a wood item, interesting,” Rugrat said.
Erik and Rugrat felt pressured underneath the hammer, but with their Mana Rebirth, they were much stronger than someone of the same level in terms of mana. Add in their Body Cultivation and their own control over mana with their skills, they were able to hold up under the pressure. It was difficult, but they kept their composure, acting as if it wasn’t any problem.
“Do it again and I’ll consider it an attack.” Rugrat sent a thread of his own mana back. It was invisible and condensed, but it moved faster and pierced through the mana under the man’s control, shooting past his ear and leaving a hole in the wall behind him.
The pressure on Erik and Rugrat disappeared as the Expert knew that the hidden mana attack could have very well attacked his body.
The people on the floor might not have known what was going on, but the different sects and the auctioneer knew what had happened.
“Are there any more bids!” she said, looking to cover over the incident, looking at the two men on the floor with new interest.
No one else bid on the item as she counted down. “That brings our auction to its conclusion!” she said. “Thank you all for attending and I hope you enjoy the tournament!”
Erik and Rugrat headed out to where they c
ould collect their items.
A number of guards waited for them, awaiting the mana stones.
“If you could deposit the mana stones into here, then I can give you your items,” the guard leader said with a half-smile as he held out a storage box.
Erik put his hand on it and deposited the mana stones.
The guard looked at the box and then coughed. An awkward expression appeared on his face before his smile became more real. “Please wait inside. The items will be brought to you in a moment.” He waved to a room behind the guards.
The guards moved aside. Their movements were awkward, as if they were not expecting to have to move aside.
Erik and Rugrat passed through them and into the room.
“They take a lot more precautions here,” Rugrat said.
“Well, there are a lot of people from all over. To get to this realm, most people need backing of some kind. We just spent a lot of mana stones, so they’re looking at us, just wondering who we are and what our background is. If we’re weak, then they can pressure us like the people did in the lower levels. If we’re not weak, they don’t want to piss us off and have the people behind us put pressure on them. Everything that is done here is a tactical decision,” Erik said.
“Still, they’re willing to test others,” Rugrat said.
“Yeah, but I think that we got through that rather well,” Erik said.
Two of the women who had been with the items walked into the room and put down the goods.
Erik and Rugrat had a hard time looking at them straight on. They were incredibly pretty and seeing the awkward way that the two looked away only made them smile more.
“Please let us know if you need anything else,” one of them said, her eyes flickering suggestively as the other played with her finger in her mouth.
“We’ll—”
“Thank you for the offer,” Erik said, speaking over Rugrat before his hindbrain got him into trouble.
They smiled and left the room.
Erik took the items into his storage ring. “Get some food and then we can head to the underground auction tonight.”
Rugrat swallowed his complaints and focused on the task at hand, once again talking via sound transmission. “We’ve already spent about half of our wealth. These things aren’t cheap.”
The Fifth Realm Page 44
