"What's wrong Noxtis?" Wurino curiously asked.
Shaking his head as the sight had still blinded him, Noxtis questioned Ember. "Are you sure you gave me the right ring? There clearly is some mixup here."
Ember just tilted her head slightly thinking but shook her head no. "There's no mixup. Besides, Elder Nancy wouldn't just hand me a random unbound spatial ring by accident. What happened?"
"Take a look for yourself." Offering his hand to Ember.
Curious as to what could have flustered Noxtis as she hadn't looked inside the ring beforehand. Looking into the ring, she saw the enormous pile of pristine Gold Scale Coins and much smaller stacks of Silver and Copper Scale Coins. Aside from a large number of coins, there was also some fairly good stock of camping and food supplies neatly arranged in another part of the ring.
"I don't see what's wrong, she did say she would pay you for the thing you gave her with the Nightstalker Gorilla Armor and coins, the spatial ring and supplies are a nice addition though." Lying back on the couch and laying her legs across Noxtis' lap, she checked over the list of auction items.
Walking over after having seen the items she was interested in, Velnarra was curious to just how wealthy the young beastkin was now. "Mind if I take a look?"
Not really having anything in the ring that he wanted to hide from Velnarra, Noxtis let Velnarra take a look.
While she would be unable to take anything from the ring due to the seal, she could see inside with Noxtis' permission and immediately saw the pile of coins. While both she and her husband have seen their fair share of coins, however, the sheer amount and quality of just the Gold Scale Coin were more than their restaurant made in a whole year.
Handing the ring back to Noxtis very gingerly, Velnarra sat down in a huff and sighed deeply. "Are you sure you didn't blackmail the Tribe with their princess or something? That amount of gold, not even mentioning how expensive an unbound spatial ring is, was not something some merchants ever see in their entire career."
Thankful that he wasn't the only one shocked by the amount either or bewildered that Ember reacted so nonchalantly, Noxtis shrugged. "I have no idea either, I just talked with Elder Nancy about selling a technique in the auction and she decided to buy it herself. She was well respected by Flint so I thought it would be fine."
"I see... Well, you certainly won't have to worry about paying for things in your travels for quite a while with that amount of coin. Just be careful not to flaunt your newfound wealth too much or you'll attract unwanted attention. Anyway, the auction is going to start in about an hour. Have you seen anything that piques your interest?"
Chuckling nervously, Noxtis admitted truthfully. "I looked over the list a bit but I didn't recognize almost any of the names of the items. I was hoping for Ember to let me know more about the auction and stuff."
'And maybe also from Master Mirko, but his fragment still hasn't surfaced.'
Ember spoke up with her eyes still closed in her feigned nap. "Don't ask me, I have no idea. I have heard about auctions before but never really cared enough to go myself. Too busy training and killing demonic beasts with Grandpa."
"Well have you considered what you might need? I heard from Ember that you both are about to forge your own personal weapons soon. But have you considered having some more disposable weapons at hand like throwing daggers and the like? Also, armor is a consideration but with your Nightstalker Gorilla set and Ember has her own Blazesteel armor so that will be more than enough.
Ember spoke of camping supplies so you should be good food-wise but Wurino and I can teach you more about cooking food out in the wilds and give you a copy to recognize various plants and such.
Also, fighting techniques and styles are on the expensive side, especially at the Red Drake auctions, but are usually worthwhile if it suits you. Do either of you have any interest or skill in alchemy, forging, or inscription? If so, then those might be worth looking into."
"Honey...let the boy think for himself a bit. You're doing it again."
"Shush you, I'm just giving him some advice. It's always better to go into an auction with your needs and wants in order. Wouldn't want him to go COMPLETELY blind, he might be taken advantage of if he bids on things he doesn't really need too eagerly or miss out on things."
"Thank you for the advice Miss Velnarra, I appreciate it very much. As you said before I don't think that Ember or I need any weapons or armor but disposable weapons are a wonderful idea. As for alchemy and inscription, I don't know if we have the skillset for it. Forging might be interesting but maybe only for insight into forging our spirit weapons.
If anything, some useful pills or potions might be worthwhile to keep handy. Would there be anything else you would suggest? Ember and I are going to be attending the Unyielding Beastking Tourney coming up and we need to place in at least the top 10."
"Hmmm...in that case finding a few fighting techniques to broaden your skillset would be useful. Being flexible against the many strong youths across the continent would be important. Do you have any suggestions dear?"
"Outside of the auction, a bestiary would be useful. While there are still many unknown savage beasts out there, there are a lot of territories that are known and would be useful for them. As for looking inside the auction, a life-saving treasure and some protection inscription talismans would be very useful."
"Thank you both for your help, I am excited to see how the auction plays out." With renewed vigor, Velnarra and Wurino helped explain a bit more about some of the items listed on the paper. While the seller and price point were not given for obvious reasons, most of the items themselves were appraised.
This service was only available for high-profile guests. Much of the more common, at least compared to the vastly more valuable items on offer later in the auction, would be shown to let the high-profile guests. Should any of the more meager items catch their eye they would be able to participate but most of the time they would wait for the mysterious, unique, and potent artifacts.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Welcome everyone to the Annual Red Drake Auction!
We have a wonderful set of goods and artifacts for you all today, some of which would make even the Great Tribes drool in excitement!
For those of you that have visited the auction before, welcome back and we at the Red Drake hope you will find something you fancy. And for our new visitors, I hope you find your time here worthwhile. Before I have our wonderful members introduce the items for your hungry appetites, I will of course need to go over the rules of the Auction.
Firstly, the beginning section will go over the more affordable items so everyone will be able to participate. Our members will go over what the item is as well as the starting price and minimum bid increases. If there are any additional conditions set by the seller, they will be stated as well.
If any beastkin decides to bid, a reminder that every bid will require an automatic 5% payment regardless if you win the item or not to prevent those who try and unjustly raise the price for others.
Aside from that, general rules such as any fighting either verbal or physical inside our establishment.
Anyways, I'm sure you're all quite tired of my blustering! May your coins be plenty and your appetite large, and enjoy the treasures to come!"
The announcer bowed to the light applause of the crowd of beastkin out on the open floor and another Red Drake member came onto the auction floor. This beastkin was much more flamboyant than any other beastkin Noxtis had seen before. In a world of body cultivators, seeing such an...elegant beastman was unusual, to say the least.
Bowing, the elegant beastman was dressed in an iridescent blue suit with the Red Drake emblem tailored onto his blazer's breast pocket. Holding a captivating green fan inscribed with blue circles which looked much like eyes. "Welcome everyone! My name is Praline and I will be your host for half of today's auction."
Raucous applause sounded out as Praline's aura had an incredibly enticing aura to him that attracted everyone's attention.
"To bring out Praline for the early auction, there must be some quite valuable items in this year's auction. I wonder who they will send out for the second half." Wurino pursed his snout in wonder.
Noxtis couldn't help but question. "I've never seen a beastkin like him, most that I've seen are on the bulky side, even most of the Elderly beastkin."
"Well while you aren't wrong about most beastkin being natural body cultivators to a certain point, there are still some bloodlines that bolster a different aspect. For Praline, he is of the Peafowl bloodline and his bloodline's purity is quite high which provides a bloodline skill called Allure.
Allure is given off instinctively and usually just charms the surrounding beastkin to be more favorable to the Peafowl.
Just like how certain flowers are more attractive than others, male Peafowls are naturally more enticing than other beastkin bloodlines. While their combat abilities are below average, they can certainly leverage their allure in many different ways.
Praline is one of the best hosts of the Red Drake Auction House, he is able to utilize his Allure to coax the crowd to participate in the auction more readily. Red Drake keeps that information under wraps though so not many know this fact. So the fact that they are bringing him out for the early portion of this auction is surprising."
"Are there any other bloodlines with special abilities?"
Velnarra couldn't help but chime in. "Of course! There are uncountable amounts of bloodlines out in the beastworld. Wurino and I have been to many unique places across the continent and seen thousands of different tribes of different sizes.
Some beastkin bloodlines number in millions such as the ratkin, then there are extremely rare cases of tribes with only a few members. Most bloodlines are pretty common and not many have extremely pure bloodlines and those that do usually do not have any noteworthy bloodline skills. For example, the Crimson Scale tribe has only a few members that have the Fire Breath bloodline skill like Embervesent here."
Yawning slightly, Ember cheered. "Yup! That's how I was able to create my Scorching Crescent attack."
"Fascinating...I wonder if there will be anything interesting for auction today."