Dom retook his seat as Johannes the concierge handed him a glass of watered down red wine and a plate of sweat treats. Crassus soon joined him with another glass of wine, whilst Xun Yu also returned and sat beside them.
"There was a mixture of frustration and excitement in the lower rungs." Xun Yu commented, "Quite a few good item's came up and I think it will incite a lot of the Lord's to work much harder to grow. There was a sentiment that those that are already rich will continue to get rich, whilst those that are not will have to work even harder to catch up."
"That is the way of the world." Crassus commented with a laugh, as he took a sip of his wine, "Most plebians stay as plebians, whilst the patriarchy continue to grow and grow. Only a few plebians will move up the ranks of the world."
"I assume you are an example of that." Xun Yu said as he looked at the proud smile on Crassus's face.
"Of course." Crassus smiled back, "Did anything else exciting happen?"
"Not overly, there were discussions about the different VIP's. Lord Lazarus was highly praised for not bullying others when bidding, even though he has won a lot of the better items. GeneralSlaughter671 was highly criticised." Xun Yu replied, "there was also some discussions about the other VIPs and some of the exciting items that were won. I think there is a lot of excitement at the type of items that are due to come up in the next section, but no expectations on anyone else winning them."
"I am looking forward to it." Dom agreed. "We haven't used up much of our budget, so we have a chance to win what ever we need now."
"We do still have the other Auction to come." Xun Yu advised, "But I agree."
"The other auction will be more variety, I don't expect as much will be relevant to us." Dom counted, which Xun Yu and Crassus agreed with.
Petunia soon arrived on the stage again, a big smile on her face as she settled the audience who were finishing taking their places. Linus had also joined her, instead of her previous assistants, and was stood behind the table with her.
"The final part of the Lords and Leaders Auction is about to begin." Petunia introduced, "There are only a handful of items this time, but each of them is highly valuable and not something you will easily find elsewhere."
Dom sat forwards as she spoke, as did Crassus and Xun Yu, listening to her words as Linus opened the first box that had been placed on the table during the short break. He pulled out a metal five pointed star medal, that had a red ribbon attached to it.
"This is the General Order Token." Petunia introduced. "This is not something that can be gained through normal mission rewards, and is extremely rare."
She waited for the crowd to quieten down, as different Lords in the lower rungs made speculative guesses as to what it does. Dom also wondered what the General Order Token could do that made it so rare and worthy of attention.
"This is the ultimate reward for any aspiring Lord who looks for opportunities." Petunia continued, "As you are aware the world is full of opportunities and experiences, with many friends and foes that litter the landscape and the mission landscapes that you may visit. The General Order Token once used, can allow any General within your forces, that has a relevant association to a unit in a mission or happens to come across one within the world, to claim that unit as a reward."
The room erupted as she mentioned what it did, as people thought of the wide implications this General Order Token could have. Dom wasn't entirely sure what she meant, but had a good understanding that with the Golden Token's and the growth of Riverside, he would come across more forces.
"I shall give an example, if you have a Hero who has an association to a specific Military Unit, such as an ancient Indian General who comes across a force of Ancient Indian Unit of Chariots or War Elephants. You can then use the General Order Token for your Hero to Claim that unit through the recognition of it. The Unit will then join your army and become part of your force under that Hero. This will however not work if your Hero is of a lower rank than their leader. If you have a D Class General who is good at Cavalry Command, and is from Ancient India, but the unit you are trying to claim has a C Class General of the same unit type, then the token may not work as well unless the respect between the two is high." Petunia continued. "However, if your general is a C Class General or above, then the General Order Token is much more likely to work. This means that you need the right opportunity, the right hero and right timing for it to be used successfully."
"It may sound difficult to use." Linus added, "However, if you have a variety of Heroes and a variety of opportunities, you could claim yourself a large force of trained warriors. There are limitations, but it is a transformative item."
Dom was silent as he thought of the possibilities, he caught Crassus and Xun Yu's eyes as they also did the same thing. If Dom successfully got this item, with his high ranking heroes he had a good chance of claiming some strong units. Gan Ning, Xun You and Liao Hua were Han Generals or Strategists who could pull in some Han Soldiers or Sailors if the opportunity arose. Tomyris was a strong General in her own right that fought against the Persians and would have elite units. Tomoe had a background of mighty Japanese Samurai and Subutai was a Mongol General with some of the strongest Cavalry in history.
If Dom looked away from his Military Heroes, he had Crassus who was a mighty Roman General and Consul who could command full legions, Xun Yu who like his counterparts could bring in Han Troops. Lucius was a general of Ancient Rome before the Legions were a profession and Shang Yang was a Qin General who could command tens of thousands of Qin Troops.
"We need this item." Crassus said seriously. "If we use the Golden Token's and take the correct Heroes, we could come back with a lot more rewards than the last one."
"We should have won the other Golden Token." Xun Yu lamented, "We played the game too gentle."
"We can always look back and complain." Dom agreed, "But I agree, we need to win this. I suspect the other Lords will feel the same."
"The key thing is, no one knows the value of this item." Crassus said, "Where as we can afford it."
"The General Order Token will start at one thousand gold coins and will be raised in increments of one hundred gold coins." Petunia announced as the crowd got louder in excitement at the item, as more and more of them worked out their own opportunities.
"One thousand gold coins!" GeneralSlaughter671 bid.
"Two thousand gold coins!" PhoenixSlayer counterbid.
"Three thousand gold coins!" GeneralSlaughter671 announced, "So much for increments of one hundred."
"Five thousand gold coins!" Prince Li Shang bid.
"Ten thousand gold coins!" Prince Dong Cheng shouted loudly, causing an uproar in the crowd as the large jump.
"Fifteen thousand gold coins!" Crassus counter bid, his first bid on the item.
"I want this item." Prince Dong Cheng announced, a small threat in his voice as he said it.
"Twenty thousand gold coins!" A soft voice said, which came from the green dress Lord that had made eye contact with Dom in the break.
"Twenty five thousand gold coins." Prince Dong Cheng counter bid.
"You guys are crazy." GeneralSlaughter671 said loudly, "I am out!"
"Thirty thousand gold coins!"
"Thirty two thousand gold coins!"
"Thirty four thousand gold coins!"
"The amount between the bids has reduced." Crassus commented as he prepared to make the next bid.
"Fifty thousand gold coins!" Dom said loudly, the first time had had bid in the entire auction so far, causing a lot of people to look at his VIP room in shock.
"I doubt we'll get counter bid." Crassus said with a shake of the head, wondering why Dom had decided to intervene in the bidding.
After a few grumbles from Prince Dong Cheng, Petunia announced that Dom had won the General Order Token.
"It was worth it." Dom said before Crassus asked. "Imagine if we get a situation where we can recruit an entire Roman Legion because you are there, or ten thousand Horsemen due to Subutai, or a River Naval Fleet because of Gan Ning. It is worth the money."
"It is." Crassus replied, "But it's getting serious now."
"I think it is time to show the other players, who the winners are." Xun Yu stated as Linus opened the second box, pulling out an Orange Cube, which whilst rare, Dom had procured one earlier.
"You may be wondering why we have another Orange Cube, Hero spawner." Petunia stated. "This one is slightly different, it allows you to spawn a Hero related to a current one in your service. For example if you have a General from the Kingdom of Chu in the Warring States Period of Ancient China, this Token can bring you another General from that Kingdom, during that period, of a random grade either the same or higher. It also has the opportunity to spawn a relative or a small group of relatives, whose grades may be one grade below or higher."
"The key part to this token is team work." Linus continued, "Who ever you gain will be family or close friends to one of your current Heroes, meaning that their current working relationship will already be high. If you have a specialism in to a particular era or area, this can also help strengthen the ties between units and Lord, be that Civil or Military."
"We need this item as well." Crassus stated, "Gan Ning is from a family of Warriors and Politicians, as am I."
"Subutai and Liao Hua are also strong candidates to use this item on, if we get a choice." Xun Yu agreed, "I have many friends, however my family are already here, so it is unfair for me to say more."
"There is also Shang Yang and Meritamen." Crassus continued. "Let's win it first."
Even though this item had lots of key uses, it wasn't as popular as the General Order Token and Dom aggressively won it for twenty thousand gold coins.
The next item was a suit of armour, that even though Dom was interested in, he liked the flexibility of his new armour that he had only just been given by the game. The armour went to another of the VIP Lords for fifteen thousand gold coins.
The item after that was a long sword that had seven branched blades that protruded from it. The sword, names Nanatsusaya no Tachi, came from Ancient Japan and Dom couldn't see a practical way of using it. Never the less, it sold for Ten Thousand Gold Coins to Prince Dong Cheng, who for some reason seemed very keen to win it.
"There are now only two items left for today's Auction." Petunia announced, "We will then kindly send you all home and hope to see you again soon. Please welcome to the stage our next item."
As she said that, from the left side of the stage, ten beautiful petite women slowly walked to the stage, their heads facing down to hide their natural beauty. They walked with small tiny steps, and wore different coloured silk hanfu, which were patterned robes that had been elaborately stitched and built to fit each of the women.
"These are ten of the finest women from the Harem of Ashoka the Great Emperor of the Ancient Mauryan Dynasty. They are all untouched and have been given to us as a gift from the Emperor to sell to a mighty Lord, to please him or her with any of their wishes." Petunia introduced.
"We need this item!" Crassus exclaimed excitedly.
"No, we don't." Dom and Xun Yu both counter argued.