The Empires Rise

Immediately after the start, the piece's price goes up to eight gold. While we want this item, we will wait for the competition to die down a little bit.

Listening as the price slowly increases from eight to ten and then to fifteen in rapid succession, we continue to wait. Looking over at the box that Gwilana is in, I can see she is talking with Throsdurgrash about something that I can't make out. Before long, the price had risen to 25 gold, and the competition for the piece had also slowed down to a couple of people on the ground floor, but most of the people involved were those in the first and second tiers of boxes.

We continued to wait until the price finally hit 30 gold. Narus states our first bid in the auction was "32 gold." Raising the price by a whole two gold isn't much for us, but for those participating in this item, it is a big deal when the price has only been going up by 50 silver at a time, and maybe a single gold piece here or there. The jump to two gold immediately caused those below us to go silent for the briefest moments.

Not wanting to think about what other groups are willing to pay for this token, having a small amount of shock for this piece isn't bad. After that moment of peace, the bids started to come in once again.

The next bid for the item is "33 gold," which continues to rise quickly to 41 gold.

It takes another minute before Narus calls out our next bid for the item, "45 gold."

Another hush falls on the crowd. Dalvtorin looks up to our box with a smile. The silence lasts for a couple more moments than before. "Are there any more bids for this item?" He asks the crowd. Not hearing anything, he starts the count. "Going once. Going twice..." With a pregnant pause, he is about to call when someone calls another bid.

I looked toward the bidder with a slight sense of frustration on my face. After I gave Narus the go-ahead to continue bidding for the item, it went back and forth between us and our fellow unknown participant.

"Friend, if you would let me have this one, I will help you with something in the future. I am in dire need of this item." came a soft yet slightly forced voice.

"I am sorry, but my lord has told me we must get this item. I could also offer you the same. We might be able to help each other in the future." Narus responds to her.

"If that is the case, then let the better offer win, " she says with a bitter smile, immediately bidding 60 gold.

Not afraid to continue to bid for the item, Narus bumps the price up to 70 gold. Another bid from the other person brings the item up to 79 gold. Our final bid for the item is 80 gold.

There is a moment of silence, and then Dalvtorin starts counting the items: "Going once, going twice, and sold to the wonderful patrons in the second-tier box number 80."

A loud ding rings through my head before a voice sounds out. "If you are purchasing an item for the first time, please look toward the door, and you will be able to see the final bill. You cannot leave the auction until the bill is settled. Thank you for your patronage."

As the voice said, a blue screen shows the cost per item and the total at the bottom when you look at the door.

"With that, my friends, I encourage you to go to the lobby for a small break; food and beverages will be available for those who would like them. Otherwise, we will see you in the next twenty minutes! Enjoy!" Dalvtorin proclaims and then walks off the stage.

Looking at the other two, I tell them, "I will stay up here. It is less likely that I will run into that terror of a woman if I stay. I don't find a need to get angry at this point."

"I think I will head down and enjoy some company of others. I'll see about making some connections to different groups of people. I'll also see if I can get more information about the system and if we can connect with others outside of our settlement during normal times." Eleanor offers.

"That is good. I will stay here with Drake and see if we can devise a plan for the second part of the auction. I want to ensure we have enough funds, though based on how the first part went, the only expense we had was the one token. Here, we hope the second part of the auction produces different items that would be enough to pique our interest," Narus offers.

Nodding in agreement, Eleanor heads out the door. With just the two of us, I inquired what her thoughts were on the next part of the auction.

"We should plan to use at least three-quarters of the wealth we brought in this second part. It would give us a solid amount of items, but they should be within our usability. I don't want to shoot for too many items so that we can be outbid and left with nothing. Also, it is an excellent time to show some financial strength. The latter portion of the auction is for those with a more extended foundation than we can."

"That sounds like a good plan. Should we spend one-third of our budget for the second part on the different categories, or should we be fluid with them to ensure we can get the items we want?"

"Being more fluid with the funds will give us more flexibility. I agree with the initial plan of using one-third per category with the option to put more funds into something else if that item would be better for us overall."

Continuing that conversation for a bit longer, we figure out our overall strategy before moving on to different topics of less importance. In what feels like a shorter time than what it is, I hear the door behind us open and Eleanor's voice sound out.

"Thanks. I will see you at the next intermission." Coming over to sit beside me again, she turns to us and asks what the plan is.

Answering her, I asked her how her time down in the lobby was.

"There wasn't much going on; there were just a lot of smaller groups getting together to find ways to pool money together so they could afford something in the next segment of the auction. A couple of people from the first-tier down there talked about what they could expect, but nothing major."

"Did you learn anything about the system and how things work?" Narus asks.

"No, they didn't have much information other than how they became what they are," she says in an offhanded manner.

"Became what they are?" I asked.

"Yeah, they were solo adventurers," she replies, and seeing my quizzical look continues. "For someone to become an adventurer, they must leave the settlement after it has reached the second tier. This gives them more autonomy. Most people don't want to leave their settlement because it is more dangerous. Still, from what I gathered from overhearing their conversation, they were from territories that didn't treat them well, and it was their only option to save themselves."

"Did you, by chance, overhear what the different tier levels are called?" I asked.

"I did manage to overhear what the first five tiers are called. They are Roadside Hovel, Hamlet, Village, Small Town, and Large Town or, as most people say, tier 0 to tier 4."

"Even at the fourth tier, we still haven't hit the level for a city, which is mildly interesting. Is there anything that I should be aware of when it comes to the different tiers?" I asked her.

"There wasn't anything worth noting, and honestly, from what I gathered from everyone, they didn't know much about the expansion and ranking up of the settlements." She once again answers what I can tell is the best of her ability.

"Did you learn anything about classes or races? Bloodlines or anything of that nature?" Narus asks.

"I did learn that classes evolve at several different points. The initial class that everyone has can evolve at level 10, and it is a very personal choice; from there, I couldn't make out any details as the system blocked that information. As for bloodlines, some items can increase bloodline density and purity. Some items can increase the rank of a race. But I don't know if we will see any of those items in today's auction, but it is worth watching."

Just as she was about to talk more about it, Dalvtorin stepped on stage, and next to him was another person. "Welcome back, friends; I hope the break did you well. As I will be the person to demonstrate the items auctioned off for this next section, please allow me to introduce the next auctioneer." Gesturing to the woman behind him, he gives her a grand introduction, "Behind me is a woman that I look up to. She has trained me to be an auctioneer for the last 100 years, and it is my absolute pleasure to present Hothtol, a Sylph."

"Thank you, Dalv, for the lovely introduction." With a gentle gust of wind that goes around the hall, she gracefully bows. Her red dress accentuates all the right places, and her shawl has two golden bands on the sleeve. "For those new to our Consortium, I would like to introduce one small thing. We bring out a new auctioneer for the different tiers of items presented. It gives the lower-tier auctioneers practice for future auctions. So, thank you for your understanding. Now, without any more delays, allow me to introduce the first item of the second part of the auction."

Just like in the first part, items were brought out one by one; this time, there are now groups of items for the different tokens being presented, sets of armor instead of single pieces, and groups of weapons.

Throughout this part of the auction, we won nine different sets of weapons for 89 gold a piece. Each set came with 20 weapons of varying grades and qualities, resulting in 801 gold spent. We also won two sets of armor for 48 gold, for a total of 96 gold.

Finally, we won 13 different lots for different token sets. Four sets were purely upgrade tokens, with ten tokens in each set for 90, 97, 98, and 99, respectively. There were four sets of outpost tokens. Some of them were specific to certain types of outposts, while others were just generic. The outpost token sets cost a little more due to the difference in rarity, so they were 108, 120, 133, and 157.

The last five sets were for overall settlement tokens ranging from time reduction to resource reduction and tokens to reduce the type of worker involved. The previous kind of token differs from what I know since I hadn't seen anything like that, let alone a specific requirement for a profession in a building. With these common tokens, we got them at a steal for 50, 51, 55, and 60. The only set that cost the most was the profession-level reduction token, which cost 258 gold.

With all of our purchases, we came out far under budget compared to what we had been hoping for. We only spent 2,353 gold out of our 17,280. We are going to be going into the last set of the auction with a nice bankroll. We hope that more things come out of the next set before the next intermission starts.