xkarnation
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112. Auction House
🕑 Added 2022-10-02 23:39:49 +0000 UTCDamien found himself lost in thought as he sunk back into the plushy armchair and fiddled with his golden pocket watch between his fingers. The last few days had been beyond hectic and weighed significantly on his mind. So many variables he didn't wholly control had to go perfectly, or his plan would fall through, leading to his potential death. He flipped open the pocket watch and stared into the tiny mirror. Despite his body maintaining a near-perfect appearance at all times, he could see the mental exhaustion in his eyes. Finally, he focused a little more, and the familiar golden words that only he could see materialized on the mirror's surface.
[Damien Nightshade]
[Noble Vampire]
[Bloodline: 4/5]
Schools Of Magic:
[Psychic Magic (B+)]
Psychokinesis [A]
Pyrokinesis [E]
Aerokinesis [F]
Geokinesis [F]
Hemokinesis [C+]
Levitation [B]
Clairvoyance [C]
Automatic Writing [D]
Telepathy [C]
[Spatial Magic (C)]
Phantom Form [B]
Spatial Movement [B] -> [B+]
Spatial Inventory [B]
[Blood Magic (B)]
Blood Script [C]
Blood Tracking [C]
Blood Sacrifice [F]
Blood Transmutation [D]
Hypnosis [B] -> [A]
Blood Contract [D]
[Darkness Magic (C)]
Shadow Walk [B] -> [B+]
Shadow Hounds [C]
Shadow Bind [C]
=Null Spells=
Mana Control [B+]
=Trait Spells=
Deflection [B]
Soul Bind [C]
Sleep Casting [C]
Perception Field [C] -> [B]
Suppressive Voice [D]
=Resistances=
Holy [99%]
Fire [75%]
Damien snapped the lid closed and let out a deep sigh. The few upgrades he had were a testament to the amount of work he had been doing over the last month or so. 'Whenever I wasn't working with Thar in the basement on creating guns and trains, I was busy hypnotizing the population of Blackthorn.' For this mission of overthrowing a kingdom, hypnosis would be his most powerful asset. Since he would be away from Blackthorn for a long time, why not kill two birds with one stone and instil loyalty in his knights and close aides while simultaneously practising his spell? 'My Perception Field went up a grade due to using it with my gun, and my two movement spells also went up due to all that sneaking around I've been doing.'
Damien was brought away from his wanding thoughts by the door to his VIP booth being slowly opened and a well-dressed thin man strolling in with measured steps and impeccable form. Damien couldn't help but glance at his slightly pointed ears that verified the man was at least part elf.
"Greetings, Duke Nightshade." The elf said with gusto, "Welcome to the Yaeldrin Auction house!" Damien could tell the man was making a fake smile as it twitched with every word despite his apparent professionalism. "I have brought some well-aged wine that I hope will humble your tastes." The elf manoeuvred around Damien's chair, carefully placed a well-crafted crystal glass on his side table, and poured a splash of wine. "Please, have a sip." He said as he backed away, wine bottle still in hand.
Damien didn't make a move on the wine and instead asked the elf, "How is Akna Yaeldrin doing? I am terribly sorry our personalities didn't align, and I could not tutor her at the Mage Tower."
The elf tightened his grip around the bottle's neck, "I know not of your relationship with our families, Princess, my lord. I am merely a humble servant of this establishment." Then, he tactfully added, "But it is not the lord's fault he could not see eye to eye with the Princess. Akna does have a rather hot temper and reluctance to learn from others."
Damien gave the elf a slight smile, "Indeed. So tell me, servant of Yaeldrin, why have you entered my booth without an invitation to provide me with wine I did not order?"
"Ah." The elf bowed slightly, keeping the bottle's exposed end upwards to avoid an accident. "This wine was a gift due to the lord's esteemed status."
"Oh really?" Under the supervision of the startled elf, Damien leaned over and took an exaggerated sniff of the wine, confirming his thoughts; Damien lightly shook his head and frowned. "But to poison a guest, A Duke of the kingdom no less, during the King's birthday weekend seems a rather heavy-handed way to treat such a supposed esteemed guest." His hand darted over and grabbed the elf's bony wrist. Damien twisted it, and the elf yelped as his knees buckled. Then, Damien used telepathy to command Olympia to block the door. His kin acknowledged his request with a slight nod before gracefully standing up and shifting to the VIP rooms-only door. Olympia passed Vanity on the way out and gave her a smile. She knew this would be fun.
The elf started shaking in Damien's vice-like grip as he watched Olympia march to the door before turning to him. She gave the elf a smirk as she crossed her arms under her chest.
"Now, mister...?" Damien questioned, "I know you work or are part of the Yaeldrin clan, but I know not of your name. Speak." The elf squirmed under Damien's intense gaze and refused to talk. Damien grinned as he activated his A-grade Hypnosis, forcefully brought the elf's chin level with his, and glared at him.
"Name?"
"Vulluin." The elf replied with a hazy stare.
Damien frowned. He had only played as a member of the Yaeldrin clan once, so he didn't know all the side characters associated with the elusive merchant family, and he certainly hadn't heard of a Vulluin. "Do you have a family name?"
"Yaeldrin. Vulluin Yaeldrin is my name." Despite the hypnosis, a venomous expression appeared on the elf's face.
"Side family?" Damien knew the Yaeldrin clan was vast, but only the founder's direct descendants had power as they owned all the major industries, including the Auction House they were currently seated in. Vulluin nodded to his question, which pleased Damien. He knew how much the side families hated the central family, and it was one of the major plot lines of the game. When he had played the game as the Yaeldrin princess, Akna. Around this time in the game, she finds herself in a conspiracy that leads to her family's downfall, which happens tonight at the Yaeldrin yearly grand auction.
And Damien planned to capitalize on that. "Who sent you here?"
"Akna..." Vulluin murmured, his shoulders dropping.
"Why was the wine poisoned?"
"Not poisoned." Vulluin slurred his words. The man clearly had an iron will to attempt a resistance against Damien's spell. "It was sleeping powder. The Mistress does not want you to participate in the auction."
Damien raised a brow as this was a turn of events he had not foreseen. "Why would Akna not wish for me to attend?"
"She knows you are wealthy and therefore deemed you as competition. And there is something she needs to purchase tonight."
"The Yaeldrin Princess needs to buy something? From her own auction house?" Damien couldn't believe what he was hearing. Of course, he was wealthy, but Akna was the scion of the most prominent merchant family on this side of the peninsula. What could such a person possibly need?
Vulluin nodded. "She never said what she needed, though."
Damien racked his mind. 'Did Akna buy something that caused a civil war in her family?' He thought long and hard about the Yaeldrin clan. Their family was vast, but one thing came to mind. "The Silver Phoenix Elixir?" He muttered to himself, and he caressed his chin. Damien picked up a pamphlet beside the wine glass on the side table and scoured its contents. "Ah, here we go, number thirty-seven."
Vanity, sitting beside Damien, had been half focusing on the auction below them. But the mention of something piping Damien's interest drew her back to the room. She reached over and stole the pamphlet from her brother's hands. "Silver Phoenix Elixir? Sounds far too fancy for a human product. Even I couldn't defeat a phoenix."
"That's because it's artificial and has nothing to do with phoenixes. It's simply a name picked to make it sell better to these morons." Damien stared out the booth's window. He could see the other VIP rooms from his high vantage point, but their windows were blacked out with magic. The floor below was a frenzy of wealthy merchants and a few low-ranked nobles bidding far too much for over-hyped products.
"Okay, but what does it do?" Vanity questioned as she gave the pamphlet back to Damien. "You sounded interested in it."
"Well... out of all the items here, it's the only one that could cause some real hatred if it was obtained by the wrong person. Silver Phoenix Elixir has two effects. The most marketed aspect is its general health benefits and the ability to reverse skin age by a few years. But the other one is its ability to cure an embarrassing sexually transmitted disease that ironically makes the person infertile." Damien obviously had no idea what side character from the Yaeldrin clan had such a disease, but it did not matter. "Vulluin." He turned to the elf, "Go back to your master, tell them I drank the wine and forget everything else that happened here."
Vulluin rose to his feet, turned on his heel like a robot and marched out. Olympia happily opened the door for the elf, and after securely closing it behind the man and making sure to lock the door, she returned to her seat.
Damien opened up a rift in space and withdrew ten golden spatial rings that fell into his waiting palm. They each tugged at his cufflinks as they were so filled with gold they had their own small gravitational fields. He separated them and chucked them to Olympia and Vanity, who effortlessly caught them with reflexes matching their race. "Ladies, we came here with one goal and one goal only. To cause as much chaos amongst the Yaeldrin clan as possible. They have many enemies, and there's no better way to cover the assassination of a few low-ranking nobles in the king's cabinet under Prince August than with the internal collapse and civil war of the Yaeldrin clan."
Olympia curiously looked at the five rings in her hand, "So what are these for?"
Damien smiled. "I think it's about time we spent a little? I have no way of knowing which product sold today is on Akna's list, but there's no harm in buying them all to ensure we don't miss one! So spend away, buy it all!"
Olympia rose from her seat, equipped with the five golden spatial rings on her fingers and strolled over to the booth's window.
"Item number 30, A Moon Blade of exquisite make with various enchantments." The auctioneer, an elf of similar features to Vulluin, removed the cloth coving the sword outline with a frivolous movement. The blue cloth flew through the air and revealed a breathtaking curved blade that rested on two pieces of white wood. The handle was black, wrapped in some fabric, and the sword had a thin layer of luna mana coating its surface.
"Starting price will be one platinum! Do I have any takers?" The auctioneer shouted to hype up the crowd. "Oh, one platinum offered by this fine gentlemen over here!" He gestured to a well-dressed man in the front row of the lower area.
Olympia approached the crystal ball that rested upon a podium in the room and placed her hand on it. She channelled her mana into it, and as the ball lit up a pale blue, she stated, "A hundred platinum."
Her voice echoed out of the VIP booth, and the auctioneer's neck practically snapped in her direction. "VIP booth twelve has bid an astounding hundred platinum! Does anyone dare contest this elusive Mistress?"
Olympia took her hands off the ball and spun around to Damien. "Can I keep anything I buy?"
Damien shrugged as he lay back in the chair to get some much-needed rest. "Sure, why not? All of this is garbage, anyway." Damien knew this was the tutorial area in the game, so for him to care about such low-level loot would be embarrassing. Even the money didn't matter. Apart from the raw materials used to make the coins, they were almost worthless on the central continent, as no trade occurred between the regions.
"I do." A female voice that Damien knew all too well echoed through the silent auction hall. "One hundred and fifty platinum."
"So Akna made a move, huh?" Damien wished he had some wine to drink while watching the shit show that was about to commence.
"We have a bid from VIP booth number one for a hundred fifty platinum!" The auctioneer went to seal the deal, but Olympia rushed over to the ball and blurted out, "One thousand platinum!"
"Well, that is sure to anger her." Damien chuckled as Olympia froze, realizing how much she had blurted out. Akna's booth remained silent, so the auctioneer hesitantly raised his gavel and sealed the deal. "Sold!"
Comments
XKARNATION
Fixed! Luckily those funds are a drop in the ocean compared to the rest of Damien’s wealth.
bob barker
gah. so irresponsible with those funds. ------------ elf's squirmed > elf
