The Warehouse, 20:52.
Less than ten minutes were left before the silent auction would begin. Daniel and the rest stood by the side of the hall while observing the crowd become larger and larger.
Leaders of prominent families, heads of sects, masters of schools of martial arts, and even members of the military were present.
Daniel was able to understand their power thanks to the clerk, which announced the arrival of each of these prominent figures the very moment they entered the hall.
He and Jerigh were standing quietly on their own, while Ligart went to socialize with the young masters of other powerful groups. He and Heimart were the pride of their school of martial arts, but even they weren't used to such a high level event.
Heimart, on the other hand, was currently walking around with Alis. The two walked arm in arm, and the reason for this, was to stop the young masters from constantly pestering Alis.
Alis was much more comfortable than the rest of them. Her group had been founded by an extremely prominent figure of the area, and even if the population had forgotten about the horrid acts the Clear Mage committed, they did not forget his battle prowess and talent.
Within the group of rich cultivators, Daniel had noticed a few interesting scenes.
Scenes like a quarrel between two men who belonged to different, and probably enemy groups. After the quarrel had ended, the wife of the first man looked at the second man with a sweet and complicit smile.
Roaming around the hall, was an extremely good looking young man dressed in a green martial attire. On his shoulder, was his school's coat-of-arms, which showed a dragon flying upwards in the sky, while surrounded by clouds.
This young man kept following a family of three with his eyes. This family was composed of a stunning looking middle aged woman with platinum blonde hair, a man with slightly long but well kept hair, and a teenage girl which seemed to be the younger version of her mother.
This young man couldn't stop looking at the teenage girl, but whenever her mother looked back at him, he would immediately turn away and pretend that he wasn't doing anything.
Another interesting thing that Daniel had noticed, was that despite the large and expensive looking buffet, the only thing that people consumed was a cup of tea which they personally requested the attendants that patiently waited by the sides of the room, to prepare.
Daniel and Jerigh weren't aware of the common etiquette, so they had approached the buffet more then once in the past ten minutes, provoking disdainful looks by the high-class people that noticed them.
"Esteemed guests. Welcome to the warehouse! I am Mr. Krien, and I will be responsible for revealing the winners of the auctioned items. I hope that you will enjoy tonight's event." Said a middle aged man that stood in the middle of the hall with an extremely polite tone.
After making sure that everyone's attention was on him, he continued "For those who are new to this type of auction, I'll explain the rules once again." He said before pointing his hand towards a large table placed in the side of the room "If you'd be kind enough to look to my right, you would notice a large number of envelopes placed above that table. Each of these envelopes contains a list of the auctioned items, and an identity stone. The offers must be written next to the items present in the list before the end of the bidding stage of the event. At any point during the event, you may approach one of the attendants and ask for quill and ink."
He then stopped for a moment, and with a reassuring tone he said "Do not worry about the possibility of your offers being read by others. Every single object is enchanted, and it is impossible to follow its true movement."
"A portion of ki must be inserted into the identity stone, and put back into the envelope along with the list that contains your offers." He said in a clear and loud voice. "In case of two or more identical offers, the bidders will have a chance to withdraw their offer, or proceed into a quick round of 'open ascending price auction'."
After the middle aged man finished explaining the rules, he smiled and said "Ladies and Gentlemen, the bidding stage of the action starts now. Have a wonderful evening."
Daniel approached the table, and took one of the envelopes. He then put his spiritual essence inside of the identity stone, and started to browse through the list of auctioned items.
The list could be hardly considered a simple list. In truth, it was closer to a book. On each page, a dozen of items would be described in detail. The description was very thorough, and even the current market price of the item was included in it.
The items were ordered by category, and these categories were cultivation resources, alchemical ingredients, weapons, armors and many other.
The main point of selling the weapons, was for Daniel and the rest to purchase cultivation resources. They had no plans of accepting other missions, and instead wanted to work on themselves, and on making the castle habitable.
What caught Daniel's attention was the section of the list dedicated to cultivation resources. In it, various levels of beast cores were listed in order of rank.
There were many deals, and each of them comprised a large batch of beast cores. The lower the rank of the beast cores, the higher would the amount be. At the bottom of the cultivation section, Daniel noticed three different batches which evoked his interest.
The first offer, comprised two hundred and fifty beast cores of the fifth level, and fifty cores of the sixth level. The market value of this batch was of five hundred thousand gold coins.
The beast cores included in the second offer were of a broader selections, which spanned from third rank to seventh rank beast cores. Its market price was of nine hundred thousand gold coins.
The third and last offer, included two hundred beast cores of the sixth rank, and ten of the seventh rank. The market value reached three million gold coins.
Daniel had decided to place an offer on each of these offers, but instead of guessing the right price, he started to observe the many guests that possessed a negative karma.
He then wished that these people would not be able to win the items, and in a matter of moments, a window appeared in his mind as if out of his own desires.
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*Primary Quest started: No Rest for the Wicked*
Description: Complicate the lives of humans with bad karma.
Third objective set: Outbid the highest bidders with bad karma.
Optional: Purchase batch one for 691,001 gold coins.
Optional: Purchase batch three for 3,886,001 gold coins.
Reward: 5000 KP (+1)(+1) / 20% Negative reputation with +46 different powers (Details). / 40% Positive reputation with +21 different powers (Details)
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"I guess batch two will be purchased by someone with good karma.. I'll have to make a honest bid." Muttered Daniel to himself in a low voice.
Suddenly, the voice of a girl arrived from behind Daniel's back. It said "What are you muttering about?"
Daniel turned around, and saw a beautiful girl with platinum blonde hair look at him with an expression contorted in confusion. She seemed to be looking at a crazy person.
He understood immediately that this girl was the direct kind of person, so instead of explaining himself and ease her confusion, Daniel decided to joke around. He looked at the girl and said "I was talking to you, who else could I be talking to?.. Stop being so weird."
The girl's confusion deepened, and with a slightly irritated tone she said "How could that be true, we've never met."
Daniel's expression changed into one of shock. He then said with a hurt tone "How can you say that.. It's been so long since the first time you've talked to me. I still cherish in my heart the first words you've ever said to me.. 'What are you muttering about?'.."
A beautiful smile suddenly appeared on the girl's face. With an apologetic tone she said "I am so sorry! Please forgive me, I had no recollection of a past so far away."
The two started to laugh at each other's silly behaviour.
Suddenly, a teenage boy approached them from the side. It was the young man dressed in a green martial attire that Daniel had seen stare at the girl with obsession.
He turned towards the platinum blonde girl, and asked with an angry tone "Who is this?"
The girl's expression turned into one of annoyance, but before she could respond, Daniel said "You too? Did you forget about your best friend?!"
"What are you talking about? I have never seen you in my life." Responded the young man in an irritated manner.
The girl was currently trying to hold her laughter.
After noticing the girl's actions, the young man started to feel embarrassed. It didn't take long for his embarrassment to turn into rage, and just as he was about to lash out on Daniel, the girl stopped laughing. She then turned towards Daniel, bowed gracefully at him, and walked back to her parents.
The young man looked at the direction the girl had turned towards, and after noticing the serious look of the girl's mother, he straightened his back, and walked away as well.
Once again, Daniel noticed the girl's family. And once his eyes landed on her father, he felt some sort of familiarity with him. Unfortunately, he couldn't wrap his head around it.
Daniel had no idea when Jerigh had separated from him, and after a quick search, he found him standing in the middle of a group of girls. These girls seemed to want to talk to him, but he looked back at them in silence.
When Jerigh noticed Daniel, an unusual pitiful expression appeared on his face. He wanted Daniel's help to get him out of trouble, but instead of approaching him, Daniel disappeared back into the crowd.
Despite of what Jerigh might have thought, Daniel did not only do this to mess around with him. The reason why he had left Jerigh in that situation, was because he hoped to instill some desire to learn the human language into him.
After a few minutes of strolling in the hall, Daniel noticed Heimart and Alis. He immediately approached them, and once in earshot, he asked "How much do you guys think I should offer item number 22?"
Alis quietly read the details of the offer indicated by Daniel, and after thinking about it for a few moments, she said "I would go for a million and a half. It's a bit high, but we have the money, and with these resources we should be alright for a very long time."
"Very well, a million and a half it is then." Said Daniel. Then, without looking up from the list, he slowly walked away while saying "I'll leave you two alone, so you can play couple some more."
Once decided on the price to offer, Daniel approached the clerk.
Using the quill and ink he was given, Daniel wrote his offers right next to the items. He then put the list back into his envelope, and gave it back to the clerk along with the quill and ink.
He then left the hall, and found a quiet spot to sit and wait for the bidding stage to end.
As he sat on the bench he and the rest of the group occupied earlier, Daniel noticed Ligart approaching along with a group of young men and women. He walked in the middle, and seemed to be the center of their attention.
Ligart stopped right in front of him, and with a proud expression, he said "Hey Dan, I've assured these guys that you had already comprehended a big deal of earth essence.. But they don't believe me. Want to give them a demonstration??"
