Andrew Robinson Leinbach
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Chapter 214: Last 12 Items of the Auction
🕑 Added 2023-07-05 00:03:19 +0000 UTCMila
“So, the daily silent auctions are done and we’re down to the final twelve items.” The Mistress of Gold smiled at everyone, her snake tail moving back and forth in what Joma had explained was a sign of pleasure. “And all of these twelve items are amazing.”
A book appeared hovering over the goddess’s left hand, not looking special at all, a gray cover with green lines flowing over it in a pattern that wasn’t text of any kind. But Mila recognized the pattern for what it was, as Aalam carried around two similar books in his spatial storage device, a complicated magical array.
“Some of you might recognize this artifact as one of Camoran’s 108 Puzzle Books,” the Mistress of Gold continued her pitch. “And you might be wondering why it is worth its status as the first of the last twelve items for this instance of the Universal Auction.
“For those that don’t, however, here is the breakdown of the common knowledge surrounding this artifact. Camoran the Spirit Smith was the greatest A rank smith of all time within our universe and any other we’ve found. Upon his death, he entrusted 108 special puzzle books to the System. When all the puzzles in all the books are solved, they will enable any B rank or lower who holds them to teleport to the hidden demiplane where the smith lived, and there they will compete with the holders of the other 107 books to gain Camoran’s full posthumous inheritance.
“What isn’t common knowledge, however, was that Camoran himself inherited the legacy of three fallen gods during his lifetime and, possibly more important for those crafters in the universe, the full inheritance of Runemaster Alashan, the originator of the most efficient and complete runic language I at least have ever heard of.
“Camoran’s contribution to the safety of our universe was so high the System has hidden his inheritance site for over 45 trillion years, not even gods able to find it despite several trying very, very hard.” The Mistress of Gold grinned as she deliberately cast her gaze to three paintings among the gods, one of the other merchant gods and two others who’d also seemingly tried to find the demiplane in vain. “But why exactly did they try so hard?”
She cast her gaze over the various boxes holding the universe’s A ranks. “Well, that’s because Camoran’s inheritance consists of more than just artifact blueprints, hidden runic combinations, and other types of knowledge. There are at least four confirmed divine artifacts, and likely at least a dozen more, along with countless materials thought lost to the ages. But the biggest part of Camoran’s inheritance is his own legacy, the origin of his title, the technique to guarantee awakening spirits in artifacts, greatly boosting their potential.”
The Mistress of Gold held up the book in front of her with both hands. “This chance at wealth and power alone is enough for this 108th puzzle book to be worth millions of A rank universal credits normally, but there is an additional reason why the minimum bidding price on this item will be 2,985,984 A rank universal credits, allowing it to be worthy of its status as first among the last twelve items at this Universal Auction.
“The conditions for the 108th puzzle book to be sold are having 81 of the puzzle books fully solved, with the remaining 26 at least half way there. But the System has confirmed, of the 107 puzzle books out in the wild, all but two have been solved completely, most within the last two thousand years, and the last two are in the hands of someone who will be fully capable of solving them within a few dozen years.”
The Mistress of Gold smiled warmly at everyone in the auction hall. “With that, should we start the bidding?”
Bidding for items from the main stage was done through the System, just like with the silent auctions, no one shouting out, but the difference was that the identity of the bidder was available for everyone to see. So, without a certain amount of strength, bidding for items on the main stage was generally a bad idea.
Nana Xara, in her own box, had pretty much revealed her identity when she’d bid on the Bloodforged Living Armor, the main materials for the array to temporarily raise the rank of Earth, and other materials so Aalam could make high rank weapons in the future, causing quite a bit of a stir, several A ranks even visiting Joma’s box to discuss it. But Nana Xara had known this would happen, and had prepared for it, her identity presented by the System as the Bound Spirit of the Yin Yang Sage, not a title which would make people think she was free.
No enemies had yet tried to visit her, but, according to her, she had been visited by three old friends, other independent A ranks like her who wouldn’t be of much help to Mila or the United Federation of Planets, so Mila just remembered their names for the future.
“Going once. Going twice. Sold to the founder of the human race, the Primordial Sovereign himself, for 429,981,697 A rank universal credits.” The Mistress of Gold bowed toward the painting of a plain Arab-looking man, the eldest of the three heads of the Human Ancestor faction, and the book over her hands disappeared.
Then the Mistress of Gold raised her head and a blood-colored sword appeared in her right hand. And, just by looking at it, even in the soul space created by the System, Mila felt a sense of primal fear enter directly into her soul. “Now for the second item, the legendary Bloodspilling Blade.”
The next seven items after Camoran’s 108th Puzzle Book were all amazingly powerful A rank artifacts, things only particularly powerful A ranks or gods could afford to bid on, and seeing them widened Mila’s horizons as every single one, even in the soul space, caused her emotions to surge in an unnatural direction just from looking at them.
The ninth item, however, was slightly different. It was also an A rank artifact, but it wasn’t a weapon, armor, or anything else used in combat. Instead, it was a twelve-floored pagoda useful for training, a failed experiment of the Lady of Laws herself.
It would gather primal energy and split it into twelve parts, filling each floor with an extreme power of one of the twelve elements, making it useful for raising spirits or practicing single element cultivation techniques, but, unlike the Lady of Laws’ intent, it had no effect on helping speed up the practice of Laws. So, as a result, her experiment was a failure and she’d decided to sell the Twelve Element Pagoda at the auction, hoping it could prove useful to someone else.
And, judging from the way Aalam grew excited when he saw it through Mila’s shared senses, it seemed that someone else would be him.
Mila didn’t react in the soul space, but, in the real world, Joma was with Aalam and Aalam quickly said, “That pagoda. I want it.”
“It would be an added risk to buy an artifact like that.” Joma looked at him calmly. “Do you just want it for some sort of experiment, or does this have something to do with your advancement path?”
“My path.”
“Okay then.” Joma nodded.
In the soul space, she contacted Parvorax, saying she’d made a deal with an independent force who wanted their purchase to be secret and had no enmity with the faction of the Divine Child.
At the same time, in the real world, she explained to Aalam that this type of deal wasn’t uncommon, and was one of the reasons the gods allowed neutral A ranks like her, so it probably wouldn’t be looked into too deeply. But it was still an added risk due to the attention it would bring from the gods.
Meanwhile, in the auction space, one of Parvorax and Kilvorax’s other brothers, Mokvorax, the Heavenly Scarab of Death, began bidding on the Twelve Element Pagoda, and, as there wasn’t much competition, he managed to buy it for only 8,957,953 A rank universal credits, the cheapest artifact among the last twelve so far.
The remaining two A rank artifacts then went for a lot more, both famous weapons, a spear and a bow respectively, but they were followed by the final item, the location and the System approved control over the only known stable entrance to a new universe, and the bidding went absolutely insane.
Only three individuals were bidding, the Divine Child, the Lady of Laws, and the Primordial Sovereign, but the very first bid by the Lady of Laws was already 5,159,780,352 A rank universal credits, and the amount only increased from there.
In the end, the Divine Child secured the entrance to the new universe for 743,008,370,689 A rank universal credits and, almost instantly, 15,470,383,103 A rank universal credits were transferred into the United Federation of Planets’ account, one forty-eighth of the bid minus the cost of the Twelve Element Pagoda, an amount which was so large it was ridiculous.
Mila felt good, on top of the universe, and, for just a minute, she thought everything was going to go well, at least for a while.
But then her mind which had been sharing the senses of her teacher along with Diana for the last part of the auction noticed something. Someone else had entered into Nana Xara’s private room and, by the unannounced way she’d entered, she was a goddess.
For a goddess, however, she was quite plain looking, with no odd features, and, like the other five divine children of the Primordial Sovereign in the human ancestor faction, she appeared mostly middle-eastern. But, unlike in her picture on the wall of the auction hall, Bellessia of the Primordial Humans, the youngest goddess in their universe, wasn’t wearing a black veil. And, unlike what Mila had expected from such a picture, the goddess’s aura wasn’t one of death or darkness, but of extreme life, with strong elemental powers of life, earth, and water.
This wasn’t a goddess of war like the few stories Mila had heard about her, but one of growth and nurture.
More important to Mila, however, was how Diana, when seeing the goddess through Nana Xara’s senses, was having an intense and obvious emotional reaction, sitting up from the hospital chair where she was having an ultrasound and quietly mouthing the word ‘mom’.
For a second, Mila thought maybe this was a good thing. If Aalam and Diana were technically part of the human ancestors faction, there wasn’t really a better backing they could ask for. But then she felt how Nana Xara’s soul started to tremble, and she saw the arrogant smile on the goddess’s lips.
Something very, very bad was about to happen, and it was completely outside of Mila’s control.
