Chapter 80: Kicking Things Off

When more than one god has a claim to a truly exceptional soul, they try to outbid each other, offering incentives to the soul to join their afterlife, raising the god’s power and prestige.

William Oh cheated the system by arranging for every god to have a strong claim on his soul.

When he finally died the first time, he declared that he could only serve in the ‘greatest’ god’s afterlife.

As they bickered over which god was the ‘greatest’, William Oh slipped away and returned to life.

• Jason Salazar

He’ll be at the auction. Set a trap.

With all due respect – didn’t it also imply that he’ll escape?

“Ow.” June whispered as Alicia kicked her shin. “Already? Will just left.”

“You told me to kick you when things look tense.” She whispered, her glowing blue eyes locked on the shadowed booth above them. “They look tense.”

“…Tell me when they start killing each other.” June said, going back to her preparations for a ‘successful’ auction.

Up above them, Will was navigating the murky social scene, shaking each of the Lord’s hands – except Rotwitch – before making his way to his seat.

“So…” Will said, glancing to his left and right as he sat. Mark Wyrd gave him a studiously neutral expression, while Nephir paled and glanced away.

“My name’s William Oh, honor to meet you.” Will said, shaking Mark’s hand. Naturally their coverup of Oilton meant they’d never officially ‘met’.

“Likewise. You have a remarkable talent for single combat, Mr. Oh,” Mark said giving Will a short, painful squeeze before letting go.

“Thank you!” Will beamed the way he thought a simple orphan would at the direct complement. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I’m just a friendly rube. Pay no attention to me.

“We’ve already met,” Nephir said, trying to avoid eye contact as Will wiggled his hand under the Nuker’s nose. Nephir finally relented and shook his hand to make the encounter end quicker. The Nuker wasn’t a bad person, per se, it was just hard to be civil to someone who’d humiliated you that badly, that recently.

Mark had distance from the event and a façade to maintain, so he was better at it.

Will sat down between the two of them, the gazes of the Lords in the room raking across his body like hot irons.

After a few minutes of strained conversation between the three young Climbers, the lights in the auction house dimmed as a servant swept by and turned them off, signaling the beginning of the auction.

This is kind of exciting, Will thought, smiling a bit as he glanced around watching the audience below shift and begin whispering to each other.

Will glanced down at the stage, an orb of light forming above and beaming straight down on the stage, just as a familiar young woman stepped up onto the stage.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Great Auction of Akul, where rare and unique goods from beyond the Tenth Floor congregate.”

Oh, not this announcer again, Will thought sourly, half-tempted to give a petty booing.

“Is this the only announcer you have?” Will muttered to himself, nebulously addressing the city without thinking too hard about who was listening.

“It’s a big city, but it’s not that big,” Baron Akul whispered back across his son, leaning forward to see Will. “You try paying for a person to make it safely to this Floor with nothing but voice enhancements.”

“No offence meant…Sir,” Will hastily retracted his statement.

“None taken,” the Baron said with a grin before disappearing behind his aging son. Luis was silently chuckling to himself and shaking his head.

“In this auction, over the next three hours you will bear witness to a selection of some of the most powerful Relics and Sacrifices to grace the Fifth floor.”

“The attendants will now be handing out the final itinerary for tonight’s auction.”

A servant slipped a piece of paper in front of each of them with professional haste.

Will’s brows rose as he skimmed down the list, gaze lingering on ‘Uru drake scale’ before moving on.

“I don’t really know what half of these things are,” Will said, motioning to the Dimensional Oyster, and Reinforcing Awl.

“The Dimensional Oyster is a monster whose sacrifices are nearly as valuable as the Uru drake. While it’s sacrifice doesn’t often grant dimensional powers directly, it has a tendency to empower them, or, apply a powerful defensive boost or even a growth-like effect to an Ability.” Mark offered.

“You see these?” Nephir said, leaning over and pointing to about a chunk of about a dozen items on Will’s list simply marked ‘pearl one through fourteen’.

“Yeah?”

“Sometimes when Climbers defeat a Dimensional Oyster, it’ll have pearls inside it. These aren’t normal pearls. They’re typically the effects of Climbers who have been eaten by the monster. Rather than spit them out, the Dimensional Oyster forms a sheath of nacre around these irritating objects. This sheath of nacre protects the oyster from the irritating sharp edges of things like blades, buckles or jewelry.”

“So like…giant, sword-shaped pearls?”

“Not exactly, because these pearls actually reduce the size of the object inside, growing smaller and more spherical with each layer until the offending object simply vanishes.” Nephir said.

Beside them, Mark made a ‘poof’ gesture without looking away from the stage.

“The pearls for sale today are the size of those a noblewoman might wear around her neck, indicating either the item inside the pearl is small, or they’ve been encased in dimensional nacre for years. If you crack open a tiny pearl and it had a Relic in it bathing in dimensional energies for years, the chances are good it has picked up an extra Affix related to dimensional Abilities, making it extremely valuable.” Nephir continued.

“So the pearls are….gambling.” Will said.

“More or less. Who doesn’t like a mystery box?” Mark said with a shrug.

“It may be gambling, but it’s one of the few things that isn’t rigged.” Nephir said.

Mark grunted acknowledgement. “But as soon as someone finds a way to do it…” he shook his head.

The cynicism on display from these young men only a handful of years older than Will warmed his paranoid heart.

That makes me wonder though. The dimensional oyster Sacrifice… Would it be a good addition to Phantom Hand, or Sourdough?

The ability to coat permanent items in a substance that adds extra affixes to Relics is exactly what I’m working towards with Sourdough.

On the other hand, expanding the utility of Phantom Hand further would be a powerful boon. It’s my most powerful Ability by a wide margin, benefiting from scaling and boosts from every piece of gear I could get my hand on. If I add another Ability to it, that new ability will start off as potent as the rest of them, immediately adding a lot of strength to my Build.

…I’m thinking about this all wrong. If Dimensional Oysters are so well known, then they’ve shown up before and they’ll show up again. Most likely I’ll get the opportunity to get my hands on some personally. I shouldn’t box myself in thinking this is the only place I’ll ever get a chance at one.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Will relaxed in his seat and took the long view on the Sacrifice: Nice to have, but not critical. Today’s primary mission was to improve Mason and Travis’s Build in preparation for the 6^th Floor and beyond.

“Now that our attendants have handed out the Itinerary and you’ve had a chance to review it, we’ll begin with Item number one! A mutated set of Bracers of Shielding!”

The announcer motioned to the side and stepped aside as an attendant rolled a glass case on wheels out, revealing a simple set of bracers that had a bronze glow to them under the spotlight.

She began reading the details.

Bracers of shielding*

+5 Strength

+7 Resistance

-7 focus

Drains Focus to create a passive shield effect that restores itself daily. Potency scales with Resistance

Adhesive: weapons warded off by the shield will be held in place for a moment.

Interesting, but it wasn’t vital to any of his Party member’s build.

Will settled back in his chair and let the Auction unfold, waiting for the items that Loth decided to bid on.

Eventually the attendants rolled an ornate staff forward, and Loth jumped into the bidding.

Staff of the Warmage

+10 Focus

+10 Acuity

Nuker Archetype Ability potency increased by 75%

Adds Acuity scaling to the size of all Abilities.

Bidding rose to a fever pitch as Loth was rapidly, almost punitively, outbid by several rich families.

Loth didn’t let her emotions get the better of her and simply stopped raising her bid as soon as they hit the limit of what she was willing to spend on a single Relic for their Nuker.

Shame.

After that, Will was interested to see that Loth shifted her strategy and began bidding more freely on most of the items that came on the stage. Each time, a table with more money than sense bid the item above what it was worth, and Loth would stop bidding just before she won.

Will knew what she was doing: She was depleting everyone else’s budget – if they even had one – and masking which items she really wanted versus which ones she was bidding up solely to gouge her competitor’s pockets.