"For this next part of the auction, i shaw be merely a stage assistant ladies and gentleman, yet i could not be more honoured to help the guest announcer of today. Esteemed guests, the queen of fairies herself!" Exclaimed the announcer, to the astonishment and excitement of all present, who immediately stood up and clapped energetically, Aki following behind because he didn't know if this was some psychopath that would simply kill him on the spot for not showing deference.
To his own shagrin however, what came was a calm woman wearing a black get up of shot heels and a black and gold qipao, silver bracelets and several special rings adorning her, even a star that looked like an earring, and he was pretty sure that wasn't backwards, illuminating black cascading hair and serious eyes, a small nose and luscious lips.
She had a face!
He'd spent quite a few hours on trying to figure out how to turn off his own blurring so he could later use the process against people he temporarily dominated with mind magic or the like, but the maximum people could do was to wear hoods or masks and those would instead become the set appearance when people tried to perceive your appearance.
Wether this was because she was some kind of metamorphic creature or because she was powerful enough to disable the blurring manually, it didn't matter. Going after someone like her by appearance would be useless, she'd likely be able to run away or even survive a hidrogen bomb, nevermind the hunting of weaker players.
Major forces? Trying to kill each other on the real world? For what, money? Did that give you the ability to punch missiles away? No? Then what's it good for?
Besides, points could be exchanged for money through the system. It would even open up an account on whatever bank you wished for and had a currency exchange. If you were rich, you could have points. If you had points, you could be rich. Points were honestly not going to be the problem for such people to advance, but opportunities instead.
"Thank you darling, why don't you bring up the first item?" The woman in her early twenties said sweetly, and if Aki had to guess, she had a carisma score beyond S+. However it was that someone raised such thing at that point.
The first item was a rare sword that could change it's own weight, and he honestly became more interested after hearing that. He didn't actually want the two handed monstrosity, he could do the same thing himself, nevermind better, but that'd been the best item so far, the ring he sold beaten in price by 52K.
People really wanted that sword.
Then came a helmet that could resist strong rank mental attacks, a bone wand for higher grade necromancy, an elixir that could raise status up to a certain point, some consumables to deal with undead, a claw skill book...
"Sixty thousand." He said, picking off from where people weren't so interested to keep going. Who here even fought with claws but some esoteric guys anyway?
"Sixty five." Said a gruff voice from his left, and he eyed the tall woman staring at him.
[Why don't you go suck on cock, leech.]
They recognized each other immediately. They were enemies.
[I will be choking until i lose HP after buying this skill, but you will have to be happy with eating your own dejects bitch.]
"Seventy five." He raised, a stare down beginning as his gravity and her bloodlust clashed, neither making progress.
"Eighty five."
[Sick parasite.]
"Ninety five."
[Erratic mutt.]
"Hundred."
[Limp dick.]
[Thirsty slut who knows naught but how to shake her tail.]
"Hundred and ten."
"Hundred twenty five."
He didn't raise, the growling werewolf holding the rail with enough strength to bend normal metal noticing something was wrong. Yes, well, it was only an uncommon skill book, so of course she'd still need to invest a similar amount to that again for it to even become very useful, meaning it wasn't a very good business.
By the way, Uncommon rarity made skills cost twice as much to raise in level, Rare thrice, Epic Four times and legendary five.
The woman blanched. He doubted she had enough for other things that might actually be interesting. There was no need to look to know she was giving out a death glare, nevermind memorising his smell to later hunt him down. He was unable to do the same as easily unfortunately, though he should indeed buy a tracking skill when he went out as his magical perception simply wasn't enough without the respective knowledge such skill would provide.
The following selection wasn't very interesting to him, though he did feel satisfaction at the werewolf chick almost loosing out on a ring that helped with mental checks, which she no doubt had more than once monthly, but seemed to decide on something and eventually won out by paying money she didn't seem to have if the distaste in her voice and trembling were anything to go by. His vampiric instinct were definitely influencing his distaste for her, but he'd always been a petty person to begin with, so it wasn't like he was going to take the provocation laying down.
That woman was likely going to go into debt with the house, which would mean mercenary work if she didn't want to work as some kind of exotic prostitute, which was possible, but definitely just a bit less dangerous as diving if more humiliating, nevermind more time consuming. Aki himself was considering some missions too since they all worked on a system sanctioned contract basis, and thanks to that the agreements were binding.
It was all mostly related to dungeon stuff, like finding consumables that would push your dive away and make it come faster in a few cases, but the great part of it all was bodyguard work, rich people that needed protection to survive their own dungeons because they weren't good enough alone. You could basically cap a shit ton of skills with pure money, sure, but unless that money was really yours and no one would look for it... Simply pushing skills to grandmaster would also not be that useful when you went further and further into the levels however, the conditions for success much harsher, nevermind survival.
Sans, people that actually know what they are doing passing the mission for you while bodyguards make sure you're safe. It was actually one of the most liked mission spots despite the high casualty rate since you could gain a patron that would guarantee you to receive good equipment and training. There were only so many loyal bodyguards that could be induced in the game and pass the tutorial without any proper explanation on it after all, so the market for bodies was always in demand.
Maybe Aki too would consider such intentions suitable for him if he was not capable of healing others already. Now he just needed...
"...And as one of the last items of the night, we have a rare grade skill book. Though it posses high requirements of B rank intelligence and spirit, this is a skill that will allow any to blaze through the dungeon worlds as long as they are cautious enough. It is aptly called 'Hypnotizing gaze', and i am sure the intelligent patrons of this house will know how such investment may be what saves you in the future. Without further ado, here is the item description." Slowly and softly spoke the fairy queen, sending all present a notification about the item in question. After a brief glance, Aki was sure it was what he needed. Exactly what he needed. "The starting bid is one hundred thousand points."
With her announcement, instead of several people competing over the same skill, five auras flared, Aki's included. First it was just their spirit, two backing out of the competition, then one aspect after the other was added, many of the present starting to tremble because of those at the bauconies.
Little by little, the pressure increased and Aki was still going when another person went out, though his teeth were already close to breaking from the pressure he put on them. He had the same amount of proficiency through his spread arsenal as the other person, though they were clearly more of a specialist, what with their spirit being even higher than his.
"Hundred and fifty."
"Hundred and sixty."
The pressure was upping and he could feel his stability loosening, his body would be damaged from the inside out if he simply stood there doing nothing. Bitterness filled his mouth as he opened his status window and their pressure suddenly equaled out.
A-.
"Hundred seventy."
"Two hundred."
The pressure went higher, someone obviously thinking the same as him. This price was already going to get him in debt however, so he didn't have time to hesitate.
S rank. His pressure exploded, something else blooming as the system upgrades finished, suddenly making the other guy go down.
"Two hundred ten." He said in a raspy voice, a noticeable hiss at the end. The metallic smell of blood flooded the room with him as the center, all present easily recognising it, many even identifying that this was simply the effect of a player's aura, not even a skill.
Complete silence was his only answer until the guest announcer suddenly beat a small hammer to the podium trice before indicating he had won the skill book and could have it after the auction, a robot giving him a paper indicating the room for exchange. For now, he just flopped over and zoned out.
Aki still noted that the final item was a legendary sword that could cause poisoning on the slightest cut or the like, but he was honestly not impressed with it's edge, yet the powerful rank damage was very enticing to the rest of the people around, the same person that had bid against him for the skill even recovering in time to end up lossing the thing when the bid passed the four hundred points mark, though it almost reached five but ended up being sold at 480000 points. He didn't regret spending six golden points to shut them up at all now, he'd have lost misserably or went into debt.
Still, that did not mean that mean he was at ease when it was time to redeem the item.
"That leaves a bit over twenty thousand points sir. Your purchase cannot be undone at a time like this, how do you plan to pay our house for the difference?" Asked the attendant in a formal three piece while sitting on a steel table with Aki, the skill book behind him, being kept by three combat robots. He didn't doubt there were hidden turrets on the room even if harm could not be done while inside a lobby.
"Well, to begin with, there are itens on the market of this house worth more than i wish to borrow, so you already have a colateral, but i don't believe i could simply come into this room and borrow twenty k after that display. Too little benefits. I will be honest so we can all go home to dinner quicker, my team dungeon is ready and I have no mission in mind. We can sign a contract here and now and I can guarantee success on a dungeon from the third to sixth level. Even a fourth level with dangerous circumstances should not be impossible as long as the client cooperates." He sighed and directly explained.
"An your condition will not be a problem?" He proded.
"I can escape a certain level of holy silver and be unbothered by day light, yes." He admitted. "Though i expect the house will not be selling such information for cheap. You'd be lossing on some easy money." He laughed.
"Oh, and why's that?"
"Why you ask? Everyone is going to figure out about that in some time dude, there's simply no reason to hide it from people that have not figured it out yet. No offense, it's just a mystical knowledge thing." He quickly added. "The contract, do we have a deal?"
"We do." The clerk nodded, a robot entering the room and bringing an unsigned contract right after, which the man on the other side of the desk quickly filled for his part before passing on to the vampire.
Reading the contract didn't take much time, and it basically stated that his debt for the item he'd bid for would be pardoned, his person paid eighty thousand points, and the auction house would be the one to decide his next mercenary contract, anything between level 2 to level 4, specifying he'd be put into a party on the next two days or so if he agreed.
He did. He wanted that skill badly, and his blood didn't need to resonate with it so strongly for him to want it.