Wolrd Sphere - 194 - (Patreon)

Chapter 194:

The mountain of a man, Gareth, made me feel small. He must have grown even more since I last saw him, maybe not in his 6’8” height but in width. I knew he had been in the city for a few days and had chosen not to disturb me in my work on the array. Maybe he had delved into the Cavern of the Thunder Witch while waiting for the auction. I returned his grin as we broke our hug. “Tell me about your new delve team,” I asked with genuine interest.

“We found a fire and ice mage named Marc. He is a silver adventurer with an innate ability to speed up his casting. He has been extremely helpful on our delves, giving us powerful ranged damage. We also added an elf woman, Haezel. She is our porter and a decent looker.” Aelyn nearby rolled her eyes at Gareth. Gareth defended himself with a crooked smile, “She is with Tobias. I haven’t touched her, Aelyn.” I nodded as Tobias was Gareth’s specialist healing mage.

Aelyn grunted, not quite believing Gareth, and pulled Freya to a seat at the other end of King Nirhaan’s box so she didn’t have to listen to Gareth’s. I assumed Aelyn and Freya had spent some time with Gareth in the last few days. At least Freya had hinted at such when we had a meal together.

“Is that your entire team Gareth? Is your scout Zayne still with you?” I asked.

“Yes, Zayne is around somewhere below. We have two half-orc brothers in Dungeon Heart as well. Wimble and Torrent. But they are only with us for another three delves.” He grinned as he told the story of how he recruited them. Gareth and the orc brothers were both boasting in an Adventurer’s Hall. They lost a drunken bet to Gareth and had to complete five delves with Dungeon Heart. I nodded, picturing Gareth drinking and then hurling and answering challenges in an Adventurers Hall.

It was good seeing Gareth, but I was time-crunched. I explained to Gareth, “I am only going to be at the auction for a few hours. Once my aether core refills, I am going to continue artificing the city shield array. Are you headed back to Skyholme soon?” I asked hopefully. “Your parents would like to see you.”

“We are trying to obtain a few items for Princess Amelia before the dungeon closes here. When the World Walker shows, we will depart for Skyholme,” Gareth replied seriously. Princess Amelia was his benefactor and sponsored his delve team. “Some of the unique items in the Cavern of the Thunder Witch will be worth steep prices after it closes. We are also here selling an essence, but the gold will all go to Amelia.” I nodded in understanding and no longer felt any pressure to push the price of the tier-three essence higher. If the coin was not going to Dungeon Heart, there was no need to do them a favor.

We talked for a few more minutes, and it appeared Gareth was doing well enough for himself. I broke up the reunion by saying, “I need to confirm my accounts before the auction opens.” I excused myself but hoped to see Gareth in Skyholme when I returned. We were on two different paths, but I hoped we could maintain our friendship. I entered the promenade and went to the room with the gnome accountant.

The gnome recognized me immediately as I was a semi-celebrity in Myththorne now. “Master Artificer! Thank you for gracing our auction again! Will you be adding anything to your accounts this evening?”

“I just wanted to confirm my balance. The Myththorne Treasury should have transferred funds…” I left the statement hanging.

“They did!” He said brightly as he looked at his registry. “Five hundred thousand gold, to be precise. With an additional two hundred thousand credit line backed by King Nirhaan himself.”

Captain Delilah, who had been shadowing me, answered my confusion. “For future work on the array, Master Artificer. King Nirhaan knew you were attending the auction and has secured the credit line if you find something in particular you want.” 

“Excellent, thank you.” I nodded my thanks to the Captain and gnome. It was much more than I had planned to spend, and I was glad Aelyn and Freya were not aware of how deep my pockets were for the auction. I only planned to spend six hours at the auction before returning to work on the next tower.

When I returned to the King’s box, Gareth had already left. Aelyn waved her hands dismissively when I asked after him, “He took two platters of food and a pitcher of expensive wine with him. He said he would see you in Skyholme in a week’s time.”

I nodded and realized how far apart we had grown. I looked around the box, “Bleiz?” I asked to the air.

Bleiz appeared, dropping his invisibility and leaning against the wall in the corner. I walked over to him and set a privacy screen around us. I held up my bidding stone, “When I leave, you will be in charge. There are only three items I am interested in later in the auction.” I retrieved a slip of paper, crossed off Gareth’s tier three essence, and handed it to him. “I have seven hundred thousand gold available, so track what I spend on the early auction lots.” Bleiz wasn’t surprised at the amount and took the list, nodding as he read the three items.

Freya took the moment to move closer but couldn’t hear through the privacy screen, impatience on her face. She had been holding her tongue for days on what she had become enamored with in the auction. She was getting ready for her request to me, and I would at least listen. I was guessing she wanted one of the unique dungeon essences going up later in the auction. I was not going to be here when they were auctioned off, though.

I pretended to ignore Freya. Rather than mingle on the promenade, I watched the press of people below from our balcony looking for Gareth. The lower bowl of the auction was standing room only. Freya moved to stand next to me, and I held back a grin, “So what did you want, Freya? And why can’t you afford it?

Freya put on her best puppy dog eyes. “Well, there are two things I want.” She hugged my arm softly. “I will pay you back, Storme.” I turned to look her in the eye, waiting. She finally said, a little breathlessly, “A tier three spell and a dungeon essence that increases darkness affinity.”

I considered her request for a moment, seeing where this was going. “A tier three darkness spell then? What is the spell, and what tier is the darkness affinity, tier four?” Dungeon essences that increased affinities for a sphere of magic were rarer than beast essences. For mages, they were incredibly valuable as they reduced the cost to imprint their spells in that affinity. I had lightning and healing affinity as part of my traits. 

Freya sighed, thinking she was not going to get what she wanted based on my tone. She explained, “The dungeon spell is called blackout, and it is unique. We researched it in the Adventurer’s Hall, and it is an advanced form of the tier one darkness spell. I need a higher affinity in darkness, so I only need to use one slot on my aether matrix.”

“Can you even add a second magical affinity? You already have an ice affinity. Why don’t you focus on learning ice spells?” I questioned her.

“They are complementary affinities,” Freya had a lecturing tone. “The dungeon essence may not metabolize, but it should.”

“You want me to purchase a dungeon essence for hundreds of thousands of gold that your body may reject? What about the possible damage to your core?” I said a little harshly. “Why do you need this spell?”

Aelyn, seeing Freya was floundering, interceded, “We spent hours researching the affinity and consulted with a Master of Dungeon Essences. Freya has over an eighty percent chance to absorb the dungeon essence successfully. It would have been one hundred percent if she hadn’t already consumed two other dungeon essences.”

“What are you going to do with this blackout spell?” I asked calmly.

Freya, seeing my potential resistance cracking, eagerly continued. “It creates a domain around the mage and eliminates all others from having access to their senses of sight, sound, and smell. There is almost no way to resist as it affects the air, not the person directly. I can use it when delving.”

I frowned as I considered her request. I didn’t want Freya to delve due to the dangers, but she caught the bug. The tier three spell was not a huge expense and would only cost a few thousand gold. The costly transaction was the darkness affinity. You could only take so many dungeon essences in your life. At a certain point, you could only enhance the same dungeon essence with a higher-tiered version or risk damaging your core. “Why darkness?” I asked my young sibling.

“Because it synergizes with my ice affinity. There are a few dual affinity darkness and ice spells that are very powerful—like how your lightning reflexes spell requires both healing and lightning.” Freya explained, but I could see the hope in her eyes.

“A tier four dungeon essence is going to cost more than a skyship Freya,” I said skeptically. Of course, I was a sucker for doing anything for my sister and just needed the proper convincing.

“It is not a popular affinity as there are not a lot of darkness spells. It shouldn’t cost more than three hundred thousand,” she said confidently.

Freya was starting to remind me of Gareth when spending my coin. She was saying three hundred thousand like it was nothing. “How are you going to pay back the funds?” I held up my hand to stop her as my tone indicated I was going to purchase the essence for her. “I will tell you. You will never delve into a dungeon again until you complete your Academy Training in Skyholme. Make that promise, and I will try to get you the essence. Break that promise and…well, I do no need to make threats.”

“What if I attend your Dungeon Academy and part of the curriculum is a delve,” Freya asked slyly. So that was her plan to get her delving training. She must have discarded thoughts of attending the Mage Academy in the capital.

“Fine, that is an exception. And you can never join Gareth’s delve team either,” I added the stipulation. Freya’s jaw didn’t work for a moment. Was that part of her plan? Did she have a crush on Gareth? I replayed his time in the booth with us, but I didn’t sense anything. I was going to have to pay closer attention in the future when the two were in the same room.

“Fine. I agree.” Freya said, annoyed.

“I wasn’t done. Once you start delving, you still need to repay the cost of the darkness essence.” I finished and watched her eyes bug out. My delvers made excellent gold and had all their expenses paid, but a three hundred thousand debt would take decades for a regular delver to pay off.

“That’s not…” She started to say, but then read my face. “…a problem.”

Aelyn gave me a half smile before handing me a book. “All the lots are listed in here for active bidding. To speed up the auction, you just have to write your bid out, and it will be updated in all the books. The porter who dopped it off said you need to have your bidding stone in contact with the book when you write your bid.”

I opened the book, and it was a ledger of the various lots, and bids were already entered in the right column. It must be similar to the skyship captain’s quest books. I scrolled my thumb down to the lots of tier-one dungeon essences that I was interested in for the Wolfsguard on the Black Spire estate. There were buyouts for some of the lots at ten thousand gold. Twice what they should go for. Tier one dungeon essences were rare rewards but occurred on the first five floors of a dungeon.

Still, it was better to make sure I got them since I was not sticking around till the end of the auction. I bought out two lots of strength essences with twenty essences for twenty thousand golds, two lots of constitution essences for thirty thousand golds, and five speed/quickness essences for fifteen thousand gold.

Constitution essences were more valuable because they could help you extend your life slightly and help resist disease. One of them was definitely going to my mother, who, as far as I knew, had never consumed a dungeon essence. The speed/quickness essences were the most valuable for a melee fighter, but that was a hefty price at three thousand gold each.

I then moved over and bought out Aelyn’s two lots of textiles for forty-five thousand gold. I was probably overpaying, and it would not be smart if I tried to turn it into a profit on the exotic cloth. I just didn’t want Aelyn to get her hands on the bidding stone. I then bought an assortment of other tier-one dungeon essence lots with a buyout price of five thousand gold. Each lot had ten tier-one essences that were probably worth closer to an average of 200 gold each. Still, the one hundred essences would give the opening of our magic shop a decent amount of stock.

The Triumvirate used to seize all dungeon essences harvested in Skyholme, and only recently were they beginning to become available. I knew I would take a heavy loss when I turned over the essences, but they would help grow the students at my Dungeon Academy. It would also give my Academy a leg up in competing with the Adventurer’s Academy in the capital.

Two Lots of Dungeon Textiles                                   45,000 gold

100 Assorted Tier 1 Dungeon Essences                     50,000 gold

20 Tier 1 Strength Dungeon Essences                        20,000 gold

20 Tier 1 Constitution Dungeon Essences                  30,000 gold

5 Tier 1 Speed/Quickness Dungeon Essences            15,000 gold

And just like that, I had spent 160,000 thousand gold. At least I wouldn’t have to wait to till the end of the auction to receive my items. As I paged through the other lots and resisted temptation, an attendant came to our box and set up the delivery details with me. I just had everything sent to my suite in the king’s palace. I would move it all into my dimensional closet later.

I stood and announced, “I am done for the evening.”

Aelyn was surprised, “But you haven’t eaten anything, and the auction has not even begun.” I looked at the buffet table at the back of the box, and my stomach agreed with Aelyn's comment. I spent the next hour sampling the food and couldn’t blame Gareth for taking two platters with him. Satiated, I made to leave.

Freya asked worriedly, “Who is going to bid on my essence and spell?”

“I am going to give the bidding stone to Bleiz to handle it,” this got immediate frowns from Aelyn. Freya looked around for Bleiz, who appeared a moment a heartbeat later. I handed him the stone, and he knew how it worked. I had the sheet with the three objects I wanted and the maximum I was willing to pay for each. “Don’t let them talk you into bidding on anything extra,” I said with a smile.

“Don’t you trust me?” Aelyn stated flatly.

“I trust you to spend every coin, Aelyn. I am hoping there will be some left over to bring back to Skyholme.” I tried to say it with a sense of humor, but Aelyn didn’t buy it. Well, she had her own coin to bid on items if she wanted to.

I left the box with my Myththorne escort and went to the palace to get Kiara and Adrial before heading to the tower. Neoma and Tibault added themselves to my procession as I made my way to the next tower. I was feeling pretty well-rested and focused at the moment.

I completed two more towers while the auction proceeded without me present. Aelyn called me twice on the communication stone and to borrow gold. The first time was five thousand, and the second was twenty thousand. I agreed to both loans but ended them after that. When I returned to the suite, the auction had concluded, and my essences and textiles were stored neatly in crates in the common room.

Bleiz sat on the sofa, visible and looking exhausted. “Shopping is that exhausting a job?” I asked in good humor.

“It is stressful bidding against other people and fending off advice from Aelyn,” Bleiz said tiredly. I looked around, expecting Aelyn to appear like Bleiz. “Aelyn is off delving with Gareth.” My eyes hardened. “Don’t worry, Freya is sleeping in the next room. She consumed her darkness affinity essence and is recovering. Yes, it took.” He answered my next question before I asked it.

“She should have waited for me. She is still too impulsive. How did everything else go?” I asked.

 “Freya’s spell was twelve thousand,” Bleiz stated, and my eyes bulged.

“I know. Everyone was surprised, but apparently, it is extremely rare and incredibly useful. Her dungeon essence cost 260,000. After it passed two hundred thousand. I was only bidding against one other person, I think.” Bleiz stretched as Adrial searched every corner of the room for intruders. Kiara just lounged on the carpet. Kiara wasn’t as upset as Adrial with not going in the dungeon for the last few days. 

“You can take Adrial and Kiara next delve,” I said.

Kiara’s voice rang in my head, “Protect. Father. No. Hunt.” 

“Just Adrial then,” I told Bleiz. “What about the three items I wanted?” He was clearly waiting for me to ask.

Bleiz couldn’t hide his toothy grin, “I got all three. The first one was 50,000, and you said to go as high as 100,000, so I applied the 50,000 I didn’t spend on the next item up for bid. That cost 210,000, and I think I might have angered someone.”

“So, you got the two beast essences then. And how much did the spell end up costing?” I asked, sitting down after a cleanliness casting.

“Just 9,000 gold.” He said, and I arched my eyebrow, surprised. It was a tier four spell and probably worth around 2,000 gold, but like Freya’s blackout spell, it was rare. Bleiz placed the two dungeon vials on the table and the thick black bound dungeon spell book. I looked at the title, dominate lightning.

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