It was time to start the next slave auction, Wu Hai got smart. For a week, the tower had been buried outside of town just behind the Inn. Mike and the Prince had gotten tired of ferrying parades of people and dug a pit large enough for their needs. They could use teleportation to go directly inside when they got situated in one spot, which would evade most detection methods available.
The dragoons were useful, but restless. They were left in the care of the Stable at the Inn but it was clear they would need to be ridden regularly. Most of the time that the pair had to spare was spent studying but they had taken the day to pick out slaves rather than just buying lots. The attention they had gotten previously was not sitting well with either of them, someone was sure to follow and attack just as they did before.
The suns were high above their head when they arrived, and the auctions had blown into full swing. Stages were setup around the Marketplace and trains of chained beings, cages and beasts were lining the alleyways.
The Guards were on full alert because of a stabbing that happened earlier. One visitor had stabbed a slave who had been a survivor from an enemy attack on their homeland. The Slaver had to keep the man alive until they found a buyer but he was bleeding out and would soon die because of it.
"This is rough to watch, should we help?" Mike asked a gentle question, he didn't want to get involved without approval.
Wu Hai was already motioning toward the guards who were hassling the attacker when he started talking to them. "Can you tell me how much for this slave?"
The Guard looked confused.
"I'm asking for the price of this slave. Can you tell me?" Wu Hai repeated himself.
"What a joke. Get the merchant over here." The Guard was busy laughing when he had the others bring the merchant in front of him.
"This guy is asking how much you want for this slave." Slapping his thigh and bellowing with laughter, the Guard kicked dirt onto the slave who had been stabbed.
The kick was clearly a sign of contempt, the guard felt like he had better things to do.
"Just take him, this is already costing me business." The Merchant didn't seem to care anymore, he had people walking away from his post.
"... The contract?" Wu Hai held out his hand with a gold bar.
"Ahh... That. He was chained, I didn't put a contract on him.. I tried, but they all failed." The Merchant waved his hand to show his furthered disinterest.
Wu Hai took the Man and had Mike continue shopping. A turn of the corner brought them into an alley that wasn't occupied. Wu Hai channeled his abilities and teleported the duo to the Tower's Lobby.
"!QU!" Wu Hai called out.
The figure of Qu quickly materialized and awaited instruction.
"Healing Potion." Wu Hai asked but Qu already had one in his hands.
"En. Good, Thanks." The potion was quickly taken from Qu's hands and the vials cap was unsealed.
Wu Hai was about to feed it to the man when he held up his hands and begged them to stop.
"Why, Why are you helping me. Just let me die." The Man was clearly disfigured and only had death await him with his current condition.
"Faded Bravery? or Cowardice?" Wu Hai had seen this look before.
The defeated look of those who were imprisoned.
"Drink this, if you truly wish to die.. what's stopping you the next time?" Wu Hai put the potion to the mans lips and waited for him to swallow it.
"Swallow it." Wu Hai tapped the throat of the man with his finger, forcing him to swallow some of the mixture.
His health quickly returned, the bruises were the last to go which signaled he had been beaten extensively. Wu Hai couldn't just rush back off, he had to at least make sure the man would not kill himself in his absence. "Qu, Call Kim Li down here when he's done."
Looking back at the man Wu Hai started introducing himself. "I am Zao Wu Hai. I've freed you from your slavery, but for the moment I'd like to ask you some questions. Can you tell me about yourself?"
The Man was still a bit overtaken by the change in his physical condition when he started speaking, "My name is Aehur Kulenti, I come from the Soul Sounds Sect, but. I am afraid I may be the last."
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Mike was loaded down with treasure and gold, he would be able to buy from anyone within reason. When Mike started seeing Beastgirls tied up, he quickly rushed to their position and bought them all. The contracts didn't take long but Mike rapidly found out why he was able to get so many with the price.
'Contaminated, Pregnant, Blind, Traumatized.' Mike looked them over once he was done paying.
"Gather yourselves, and follow behind me." Mike grabbed the slave tether and walked to a few more vendors in the square to see what was going to be up for auction.
He himself was surprised at how much he was enjoying the atmosphere, if he could ignore the slave trade in his head it was a rather fun and exciting place. But as always, the feelings of enjoyment were clouded out by the sounds of whips and curdling screams.
On one stage a man was grabbing a lot of attention with his latest auction. It was a boy.
The Child couldn't have been more than eight if he were human, but the boy was not. His eyes were like a frog, his eyelids inverted. He held a natural stealth ability but he wasn't Reptilian. His fur shined like jewels in a soft swirl pattern. The most distinct feature on the boy was not his fur or even his eyes, but the wings on his back. They matched the fur patterns but glowed only slightly due to their small size.
"We have a Qilinkin Child, this is a rare opportunity people. Spend wisely, Bidding can be anything but I want something special." The man held up his hands and started the auction.
"Do we have any bids?" The man rubbed his hands, he knew he had something interesting in his future.
Absolutely nothing from the Qilinkin's corpse was considered trash, to have the cow for later was even better.
"Thirty Two Ounces of Ashette blood." A bid came in, but it was just the first.
"Three Magic Books" ...
"Eight Ingots of Silentium and a Quicksilver Blade." ...
"Sixteen Oratami Slaves, all healthy" One bidder started to drastically change the nature of bidding, before it was just somewhat useful objects and materials.
"Sixteen Slaves, Do I hear a higher bid?" The Auctioneer felt like he was going to make a huge profit, sixteen more slaves meant he could potentially make more than what he would have made with just the few he had stored in the distance.
"4 ounces of Lightentia." A Rabbit looking man, a member of the Sakai had given a high bid.
The immediate area fell silent.
Mike felt panicked, he wasn't sure what to bid. He had lots of treasure, but no idea what would be too much to put out.
"Three Boxes of Treasure." Mike gave his bid, but wasn't sure if it would be enticing.
"Only three?" One Perdea had tried to make Mike out to be a fool, but Mike opened the treasure boxes.
"Filled with trinkets and gems." Qu had gone through all the non-magical loot that the pair had come across, the items inside held no significance for the Sect.
On top of the pile of gems inside the second chest was a gaudy ring.
The citizens surrounding the chests started lurching forward and mike threw up an Ice barrier.
"What the fuck! Are you all nuts?!" Mike stowed the chests and concentrated till he was sure that no one was approaching.
"What the hell was that about?" Mike kept asking while he was slightly confused.
The auctioneer grabbed the boy by the arm and threw him to Mike. "DEAL!"
Mike wasn't sure what was going on, but he wanted to get out and the slave girls had already been frightened enough that they were instinctively pulling on the chain to run away, which was normally impossible given the contracts that Mike had gone through earlier.
"The contract!" Mike put his hand out, materialized the chests and waited.
"Yes. yes.. sorry, here you go." The auctioneer rushed toward the second chest and quickly took the ring before running for his life.
"What the hell was that about?" Mike wondered a lot of things while he should have been paying attention to his surroundings.
"!!!" Outrage could be felt from the people on the other side of the Ice barrier, it had yet to disappear and now the auction was not only over, but Mike had the contract and boy.
"Lets get out of here!" Mike dropped his blood onto the contract but there was no reaction.
"?! FUCK ?!" Mike blew his top and scanned the contract to make sure it was real. It was.
The contract was real, the boy was even in his care; but the previous slave owner hadn't relinquished rights. Under normal circumstances, Mike would actually be legally able to hunt the man down inside the city to resolve this with force but he was different than the average human. Mike still had the beastgirls to worry about as well, he couldn't just abandon them and teleporting was completely out of his wheelhouse. All that could be done was wait but he had the attention of everyone present, and lots of them were still pissed off about the Ice Barrier.
"You there." The Guards came closer and wanted to confront the situation.
Mike didn't know what to do, but he had the contract. Only he would know that it wasn't completed. Mike stood there, quietly and waited for the Guards.
"Can I help you?" Mike asked the guards.
"You can explain what just happened." The leader of the guard unit pointed to the chests that had been left behind.
"I told him he could have whatever he wanted and pulled out these three chests. He took off after he grabbing a ring. He went that way." Mike pointed to the eastern side of the City.
The guards felt something was off, but nothing Mike had said was suspicious enough to continue bothering him. Very quickly they turned around and left in the direction he had just given them. Mike didn't bother sending them in the right direction, he didn't want to offend the man and complicate the slave contract. Mike also didn't want to just leave the treasure laying around, it would be stolen.
He swept it back into his storage ring and wondered what exactly had happened. 'All he took was that stupid ring.'
'The Ring had a flat edge.. it was just gold. maybe it had a special meaning.' Mike tried to remember what the ring looked like, but he didn't inspect it.
Mike could only remember what the ring looked like at a glance but if it carried such a significance, perhaps it had a deep history. Then it came to him.
"It had to be a signet ring or royal crest of some sort." Mike felt like he had just lost a quest item.
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On the western shore of the Central Continent, Zao Xue was doing her best to stay cheerful. Her Soul Abilities were little help to her, she hadn't even started to train with them. Lei Lei had given her advice a few times without asking, but Xue and Xi were preoccupied with growing up. Lei might have had to deal with the Exile, and even the death of people she cared about but none of the people that died from the Zao Clan within the Capital were direct family members, Xue had lost her sister.
Sitting on her own became the only peace she had received lately, her captor had kept her locked away and only returned with food. It seemed that there was something going on that he didn't want her to be aware of. Sometimes days went by without his return.
Xue dug at the cave entrance many times, but she only achieved a few bloody fingertips. The rock face was solid enough to require tools or at least a much higher strength level than Xue had. She had no choice but to stay put, anticipating the fate before her.
On the fifth week of her stay inside the cave, Xue started to worry if she would ever leave. Darkwing had spent a few days away and her rations were gone. Soon, the water would run out as well. When the stone moved again, it was dark outside and a slender man came into her view. It wasn't until he came closer that she felt it, the aura of death.
She was familiar with it, the Dark Sun Sect Elder who attacked Zao City felt very much the same. There was a difference however in their attitudes, the slender man grabbed at her wrist and dragged her into the moonshed light. His body was actually quite young, but his mouth held a set of teeth that caused Xue to faint upon seeing.
"Child, You will do perfectly." The slender man grinned.
"Go kill the Qilinkin when he shows up." giving out an order, the man stared at the girl in his arms.
"Yes, Lord Eddingar." The Guards stood up straight and then scattered into the night, they would search for as long as it takes.
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Mike managed to shake off the worries of the others after passing out several bars of gold to those who were competing with him, he didn't know how else to handle it and so he just compensated them for the misunderstanding. Mike pledged to himself that he would try to avoid the same issues if they came up. The boy was chained but separated from the beastkin girls, it was not a security problem but a contract issue. If the boy was taken from Mike, they might try to take away the girls as well. The longer he lingered, the more likely things could get complicated.
Mike visited a few stalls that didn't have slaves but animals or beasts. A bunch of really strange beings came into vision and mike wondered if he had enough space to carry the cages. there were enough of some of the species to create a full breeding stock. flocks of birds were held in a cages, One flock resembled flamingos but instead of pink, they were jalepeno green. Jade color would be too light of a color, instead, they were more like fresh uncut green bamboo.
Inquiring about the price of the Birds didn't quite go as planned, the man wanted materials or slaves in trade. Mike pulled out the Honey-Brandy again, he only had a few dozen bottles to begin with but he knew it was a good trade.
He explained the liquid to the Merchant. "This stuff lures insects like crazy. Watch."
Mike popped the top of the bottle briefly and all the caged birds turned their heads toward it. Their attention couldn't be swayed from the bottle's contents, neither could the Merchant. Mike noticed that the people surrounding him were also very quietly starring at the bottle.
The merchant didn't know what to say, but agreed while shaking his head and accepting the bottle into his hands. Mike threw in a few gold bars and got the mans cart. The smaller girls sat with the birds on the cart while the stronger ones and Mike pulled the Cart. Mike intended to find some larger males to take up the position, and found them quite easily.
A pair of Bastet were sticking out like sore thumbs, both were in cages but just sat there quietly. Their hulking bodies were decorated in warpaint. A slave collar adorned each one, but slave collars didn't work on beings with higher levels of intelligence. It was clear that the slave collars were not working, but the pair of Bastet were as calm as water.
"I'll give you eight taels of Ghost Flower Tea for those two" Mike made an opening offer, but the Salesmen didn't seem impressed.
Quickly chiding at mike, the man scoffed and said "Fifty!"
It was clear that the man never had any dealings with Ghost Flower Tea, but Fifty was already an outrageous amount.
"I can do 15, I can throw in this 100 year Life Ginko. Will that cover it?" Mike didn't know the value of the Ginko but, he had already made several trades that were quite one sided in the past.
"I'll take it, but.. what's the Tea for?" The merchant was interested in some information, but Mike knew how to play the same game.
"As an Information broker, I'll have to charge you but how about we call it even if you throw in those cages." Mike played his hand.
"Hmm. Throw in something else, or its too big a loss for me." They were getting somewhere with the trade, but a business man never gives up till its done and freebies were almost always welcome.
'Sneaky Bastard' Both of them had the same thoughts.
Mike replied, "how about these?"
He pulled out a set of earrings that were laying in the chest he had already given away once during the day. The merchant looked them over and agreed, the gemstones were quite valuable and the chain was strong.
"Very well, lets finalize the trade." They finished the trade but Mike stayed in that area for a bit and started talking to the Bastet men.
"Hello, I understand that you have no reason to believe me. But, we are not your enemy and will be leaving here very shortly. please do not cause problems before then." Mike realized that the girls couldn't pull the Tiger men.
"I guess I'll have to look for something better to pull everyone.." Mike was about to start looking for Beasts to pull the carts but Wu Hai came into his view from across the crowd.
"Bruh! What took so long things got chaotic. Put that other cart and help me get the two tiger guys to pull the girls after their loaded onto the beast cages. I don't know many more of these slave auctions I can deal with. We need to do our shopping through the Rogue Queens Chamber, this is getting out of hand." Mike fumbled with chains, he felt awful when he re-secured many of the shackles and bindings.
"What are you talking about? Give me one cart. Mike, you're more than strong enough to do this too. Have the beastmen carry their own cages, put the boy inside and lets go." Wu Hai didn't know what Mike's problem was, but he hated being hurried.
They got around a corner and stopped. There was a problem.
Ahead of them was a group of armed men looking hungrily at the caravan.
"Mike, Your turn." Wu Hai was at the lead, but Mike loved to fight.
"In the name of Justice, I cannot allow you to harm these people any longer!" Mike thought he sounded cool before he struck out toward the group of men.
One of them dashed to the left, another to the right. Four others stood in the middle and readied their blades to meet his incoming attacks. What they didn't expect was the frost bolts. Mike donned his Ice Armor to stop the incoming attacks from the pincer so he could focus on the four in front of him. The Frost Bolts broke through their defensive line but the leader kicked everyone to the side to help them evade the barrage. The ground was covered in slush and quick movements became a problem in the close quarters.
Mike kicked at the man in front again, then swung his fist to the right to block an incoming attack. The kick was successful but his right thrust had been an error in judgement. Mike took a club to the face and fell backward. He had lost his footing and got back up to defend himself again when another flurry of kicks was coming from the group.
A light glimmered from one of the men, a knife came out and tried to stab at Mike's throat.
"Hell fuckin nah" Mike broke his restraint, he had been working to not kill his opponents but they resorted to trying to kill him.
All mercy disappeared.
Mike flared his powers and froze all six men in their places. Some had awkward positioned footing and were having incredible difficulty keeping themselves upright.
"I was trying to be nice." Mike played with some Ice particles in his hands, and threw them out.
"Now die." The needles quickly dropped all six opponents to the ground.
Five were dead, the guy in back that they all had been defending was the only to survive.
"Tell me who sent you." Mike's fist glowed.
"No." The man quickly slit his own throat.
"Fuck." Mike cursed.
The six corpses were easy enough to sweep into the storage rings for sorting later, Mike and Wu Hai thought that this position was as good as any and then Wu Hai channeled a teleportation ring. With the touch of a finger, they all vanished from the alleyway.
Qu had been waiting with the man from earlier and eagerly looked upon the new arrivals.
"So few. Oh well, no worries. You two. Come over here." Qu looked at the Bastet Men with some mistrust.
"What Tribe were you from?" The Tower Spirit had some questions.
"Great.Spririt." The two Bastet men were having difficulty talking, it seemed that they didn't spend much effort on words.
"Yes.Great.Spirit.Me." Qu pointed to himself, then to another room.
"New.Home.Go.Rest." Qu showed them to Darkwings' old room, after sweeping it free for clues, the place was just nesting.
Lu Sha was still trying to figure himself out, but the new arrivals let him in silence rather than a talkative mood. There was little to no argument with the arrangement, Qu didn't bother with the pair after leading them into the room and started to focus on his new guests.
Mike and Wu Hai had other matters to attend to, Gefest was teaching them his breathing technique to help with their endurance. After handing Qu the contracts, they both clasped hands and teleported to the Lower Forge.
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