Eramith
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Book 2: Chapter 81
🕑 Added 2023-07-03 13:00:10 +0000 UTCThe first item up for auction in the second phase appeared to be an ornate suit of plate armor. It looked like it was made of an almost white metal and had large pauldrons that almost looked like shields themselves.
Between the hundreds of interlocking metal plates, Felix saw hints of a dark chain mail that helped hold everything together. Lastly, the helmet was a completely seamless piece of metal that had no holes for sight or breathing but did have a massive golden mane that poured down over the back of the armor.
It was magnificent looking and sounding with a rarity of Legendary and an effect that allowed the wielder to protect both themselves and their allies in golden light. It was also completely useless to Felix so he didn’t even bother fully reading through the informational screen.
As the bids poured in, quickly raising the price to triple what it had started at, Felix started reviewing his previous purchases and mentally planning through his next steps. As he was lost in thought, Amani returned to the room and sat down right next to him, hopping over the back of the chair and landing so gracefully, Felix almost didn’t notice her.
“Not interested in trying out plate armor?” She teased.
Felix didn’t even look at her, “Nope.”
“I noticed you also prefer a more… subtle color scheme.” Felix could hear the smirk in her voice.
Looking down at his almost entirely black ensemble, Felix just shrugged then asked something he had been wondering for the last hour or so, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but why are you here with us instead of with your city?”
Amani feigned offense, “What do you mean, maybe I just enjoy your company.”
Felix ignored the comment because he knew she was just teasing him, “For the second part I guess it doesn’t matter… but for the first, don’t you want to coordinate with your city?”
Amani nodded, “I delegated pretty much everything. I own the city but the vast majority of the work actually running it is done by people far more competent than I at such a task. Not unlike Noah, except, I don’t trust it all to just one person. All I had to do was buy for myself or look for items I thought were interesting. Why were you buying so many gemstones? Starting a collection?”
Felix was genuinely surprised, which helped sell the act, “What do you mean?”
Amani smirked, “I was mostly paying attention to your and everyone else’s purchase histories and auto-bids. Seeing how many gemstones you ended up buying, I was tempted to buy some myself. Do you know something I don’t? Care to share with the class?”
Felix just shrugged, “Side project.”
I didn’t even know you could do that.
Grim mentally shrugged, Maybe she has to be in the same booth as you? I can’t imagine you can do that for anyone.
Maybe.
Amani gave an exaggerated nod, “That what all the poisons are for too? Planning on murdering someone then encrusting their coffin with jewels?”
Felix just looked at her sternly for a few seconds before responding, “No those are food.”
Amani cocked a brow, “Oh of course. That’s what all the raw materials are for too?”
Felix shrugged, “Yup. Nova get’s hungry.”
Amani finally bore a more serious expression, “Oh, right. Actually… that makes sense.”
Felix nodded, “The poisons are so I can try and build a tolerance, so food as well.”
Amani nodded, finally realizing he was actually being serious and apparently having finished with her teasing, “Ah… Look, I’m not here just to spend more time with you… well actually, kind of?”
Felix just raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue.
Amani tilted her head a little, “I need a favor.”
Felix was fully expecting her to ask for something he didn’t want to do like give advice but, he gave her the benefit of the doubt because she seemed to be nervous which was out of character for her.
Amani sighed after finally building up the courage, “I need to borrow your familiar.”
Felix cocked a brow, “Nova? What for?”
Amani hurried to explain, “I’ve got a problem I need to deal with. I can pay yo-”
Felix cut her off, “You don’t need to pay me but… Nova might take a cut. I take it you need to kill something and that’s why you need my familiar? They might eat the corpse, just be aware.”
Amani shook her head adamantly, “That’s fine with me. I just need it gone.”
Felix nodded, he could appreciate her willingness to sacrifice rare materials for, presumably, the safety of her city. Not that it was a trade he would have made. “What is it?”
Amani looked at Felix for a couple of seconds then sighed, “I don’t know.”
Felix’s head tilted slightly, his brow still cocked, “Level?”
She just shook her head.
Felix’s head tilted a little further, then shook his head to clear it, “While I think Nova can handle themselves just fine, I’m not sure I’m super keen on the idea of throwing my familiar at some unknown creature.”
Amani crossed her arms, “Your familiar is a stupidly high level and it’s not like it would be alone. I’ll go with it just… probably won’t be able to participate in the fight.”
Felix shook his head at her logic, “Why just my familiar? Why not me too?”
Amani sighed, “Honestly… I just thought I might be able to bring Nova back with me. It would take you a little while to get there plus I figured you might be kind of busy.”
Felix smiled, “Oh. I think I can fix that actually.”
It was Amani’s turn to cock a brow, “What do you mean?”
Felix shrugged, “I can go back with you, kind of. How urgent is it?”
Amani looked completely serious again, “As soon as possible.”
Felix nodded, “Alright you can borrow Nova but, I’m coming with. Deal?”
Amani nodded, “Yeah but, you aren’t allowed to kill yourself. While I don’t know it’s level, it’s at least 500 or so.”
Felix just looked at her for a few seconds before finding the right question to clarify, “How do you know that?”
Amani sighed, “I’ll tell you more if- when you get to Orselle.”
Felix sighed, “Anything else you know about it?”
Amani sighed in turn, “No, unfortunately not.”
Felix smirked a little, “You were willing to sacrifice my cat?”
Amani shrugged, “It’s less important than you are. Now that I know you’re stepping down, I guess you’re expendable too.” Amani said with a smirk.
“Ouch.” Felix said with a completely serious tone.
The first item, the Legendary plate armor, was sold to someone in a box seat across the theater from Felix and the item was then lowered back beneath the floor. Felix didn’t catch how much the last item had gone for himself but asked Noah and apparently it had sold for just under a hundred million credits. Another item took it’s place and rose up from the stage on a pedestal. Felix peered over the railing but as soon as he saw it was a great sword, he immediately sat back down.
Items continued to be presented and bid on, but at first, none of them were even remotely interesting to Felix. They were all either unsuited to him, too low rarity to matter or not nearly worth the price to him. There were bows, daggers, gauntlets, boots and a huge variety of other items. They had effects ranging from fire immunity and trails to flight. The most interesting thing to Felix in the first 70 or so items was a pair of gauntlets that encased themselves in lightning but that was only because they looked cool.
After the first batch, the items on display got a little more interesting. Instead of items for specific people, the items turned into buildings and items that would benefit large factions or even cities as a whole. The first one of these items was a large theater. The description mentioned that it was a similar size to the theater they were currently in. If bought, the building could be placed down at a location of the buyer’s choosing. Talking to Noah, it seemed like although the building seemed interesting and he’d be happy to have it, it wasn’t worth more than a hundred million or so to them.
Unfortunately, the bidding quickly exceeded a hundred million so Noah didn’t even bother bidding on it. A few more buildings that weren’t worth much to Atalus passed by including a library, which was tempting but they simply couldn’t justify it given the fact that they already had one. Their library was smaller, more tailored to locking information up, and didn’t look like an architectural or historical monument, but it was functional.
With each item that appeared, the winning bids just kept climbing. It seemed like the other cities were either taxing their citizens much more than Atalus or they were pooling their money together with their wealthiest citizens. Either way, some of the bids got ridiculously high and if the trend continued the winning bids would quickly exceed what Felix or Atalus could buy by themselves. Luckily that likely meant the other cities didn’t have a ton of credits left for the later items, but neither Felix nor Noah were betting on that.
Out of respect alone, they didn’t bother bidding on the Greenhouse when Amani’s eyes lit up. She had to bid against a few other’s but it seemed like her main competitor also dropped out early out of respect, gratitude for saving them from Silas or for some more mundane reason. She managed to buy the greenhouse for a meager 250 million credits, the lowest price any item had been sold for in a while.
A few items later, Jackie bought herself a massive Lumber Mill for 30 billion credits. That item also didn’t seem to have quite as much competition because it didn’t seem like anyone else would even be able to fully utilize it. Her city was located deep in the largest forest on the planet, according to the map, so she actually stood a chance of filling it, if she needed a ridiculous amount of lumber.
The first item Atalus bought was a stone processing plant for a hundred billion credits. Given their location right on the edge of a mountain range, the plant would allow them to massively accelerate the city’s growth. It also meant that more of their buildings would be made of a strong and sturdy material which was a positive all around. Furthermore, for defensive structures like walls, the plant would be invaluable.
The next item Atalus bid on was a surveillance tower. While the name itself didn’t pique Felix’s interest, the description and sample image did. The tower was a massive structure that looked taller than any building back on earth. At the top, the tower was equipped with visual and auditory surveillance methods while the bottom would detect vibrations beneath the ground. It was incredibly impressive but Noah dropped out of the running when the bidding hit 500 billion credits. Noah said he just couldn’t justify spending that much. It ended up selling for 750 billion to Sprouts.
Noah also bid on a shield for the city walls that could be erected to protect the walls from specific attacks. He dropped out very quickly when Felix told him he could probably create something similar, not nearly as powerful but similar in function.
The description said that the shield could either defend from strong hits in specific locations or provide a large scale shield across the entire wall that was much more fragile. Felix figured some simple wards with shields connected to a massive battery would give a similar effect to the localized shield. The biggest issue was just being able to inscribe the ward across the entire wall.
In theory though, he figured he might be able to make a mold and have someone else mass produce the inlay material. Then all he would have to do is verify it and have the builder’s add it to the wall.
Even though he was musing to more than he was assuring Noah that he could replicate it, Noah admitted that they didn’t actually need the item. He was happier with just saving money for the later items and was bidding for two reasons. First was simple strategy, driving up the bids to make sure other’s were using their money and second was incase he did happen to win with his meager bids. Even if his bids weren’t very high, just making it seem like Atalus wanted the item, making it seem more desired which made others want it for themselves even more.
The shield for the wall ended up going to Martin and Snowvale. The 6th item from the end was an item that neither Felix nor Noah were super interested in. It was a forge heart. Apparently, it would supply enough heat for almost a hundred forges and was hot enough to melt down all materials in the D grade. While it was tempting, Noah was inclined to just let Jack have it. Felix thought about using it as a heat and light source in his pocket dimension home but ultimately decided he’d rather just do it himself with mana and that it wasn’t worth the price.
They were both happy to just let Jack have it for 100 billion credits when suddenly Noah frowned then a moment later, the door to the room burst open revealing a panting Henry.
“Buy it god dammit. Bid on the damn item!”
Felix just reacted and bid on the heart for 101 billion, mostly to give Henry time to explain. Jack almost immediately bid again for 110 billion which only gave Henry 10 seconds to explain.
“I have trouble melting most D grade materials now. With the portals going up soon, we could rent out forges. Will pay for itself in a year. Think about how useful armor and weapons are. They’re only going to be-”
Henry kept talking but Noah had already bid 150 billion. Looking across the theater, Felix saw Jack sitting atop a balcony looking straight at them. They briefly made eye contact and Jack cocked his head. Felix just looked at him and after a few moments, Jack nodded then pointed at Felix followed by himself then sat down. No one else seemed to want the forge heart surprisingly so Atalus managed to pick it up for just 150 billion.
