Limitless Path

There were a few items that came up next that weren't of any interest to anyone in their booth, apart from the fact that they went for fairly exorbitant prices, until another big ticket item came up that Blood was very interested in. It was a one-two whammy for her, as it was a claw skill that was also blood-related, something that would do extremely nicely for her current skill set and inclinations. Adding another attack-type skill wasn't exactly necessary for Blood right now, but the skill was practically perfect for her and it was all but calling her name. The wolf used the room controls to bid on the crystal, not being quite as circumspect about her bids as Beth had been. If someone challenged her, Blood would just instantly raise the price by an orichalcum coin or even two. There was a certain power to her strategy, or lack of strategy, as, after a few raises, it started to become clear that Blood was determined to get the item and didn't care about throwing around lots of coins to achieve her goal.

Blood eventually won the skill, after spending what Beth thought was a bit too much, but they were all flush in cash right now and fifty orichalcum for a high-tier skill that would dramatically increase a person's power wasn't all that bad. The next handful of items were all lots, mostly gems, though there were a few lots of beast cores that were of exceptional quality or had unique properties. None of what was coming up was interesting for Beth, not even in tracking what the prices were, as the beast cores were large lots of very high tier or specialized beast cores to even be appearing here. The lots also went pretty fast, just a handful of minutes for nearly a dozen lots before they were back to the interesting individual items. Those items were a long line of weapons, many of them rather powerful, but none of Beth's group were in the market, at least, not right now. Sera could do with a new spear soon, but she didn't really need it all that badly, as her current spear was something she had from her family's vault, a Masterwork weapon that she could use for quite a while still.

Item after item went by, with little interest from their booth, until it was time for the finale items. The healing skill crystal that Alex had mentioned had already come up, so Beth was assuming any other big surprises would be part of the finale set. Most of her items, apart from the eye power, had sold, meaning their group knew roughly how much they had made. Based on how they eye power did, they would either be making a great profit or a tremendous profit, and Beth was betting on the later. The pace of the auction had stayed quite high, with the intermediary lots like the beast cores moving quick and them getting back to more exciting fare. The atmosphere was high as the first finale item was introduced, something that made Beth click her tongue slightly and roll her eyes, but swords were popular, so she couldn't really say she was too surprised. Also, opening the finale with a couple weapons or pieces of armor was pretty standard, a cool sword stoking the crowds' fires and getting them prepped for something bigger such as an airship or starship.

Well, a few bigger things did come next, of course, including an entire set of plate armor that appeared like it drank in the light around it, even when viewed through the screens in the auction venues, as it was only physically present in one. The thing was a full set, with appropriate set bonuses, and Beth thought it might do well for Sera, or even possibly Bjorn, but both waved it off. Sera claimed that it wasn't quite as good as it appeared and Bjorn had no interest at all, apparently having a very high-end armor set he couldn't use for a long time that was much better than the displayed. That got Beth rather curious, but he just grunted monosyllables to her questions, so she gave up that line of attack for now. They watched the set of armor go for a pretty high fifteen adamantines, as it was very good, requiring level seven hundred and having great bonuses, before the auction rolled on.

The next two items were pretty interesting, a special elixir that the auctioneers talked up for quite some time, followed closely by a special kind of re-usable array that was good for training. Sera commented that the array appeared to be by a Sage, though she couldn't really tell, as Enchanting wasn't at all her specialty, but the thing went for an even higher price than the armor. The elixir wasn't much behind, though it went for around the same amount as the armor set, give or take a little under an adamantine coin. They had gotten to the point where the penultimate item and the final item were everything that was left after the array was dealt with, and Beth was just slightly surprised the eye power would be going up for one of those entries.

It turned out the eye power was the penultimate item, which was still crazy, and it make Beth look forward to what the true finale piece was just after that. The group in the booth with her had all been there when they got the eye power, so they weren't at all surprised, but there was a very visible and audible reaction in their venue and from the fourth floor at somebody selling such a good eye power. People, including fourth-floor luminaries, barely waited for the auctioneer to be done with the introductory spiel before throwing out bids, rapidly blowing past the adamantine coin value and showing no signs of slowing for a long time. Beth just sat back with a big grin on her face, rubbing her hands greedily several times as the price ticked into a new adamantine coin range. The bids went for a while, with quite a few of the fourth-floor dignitaries going totally wild, throwing out bids, insults, and the occasional threat at each other over the eye power, not backing down in the slightest.

It was nothing but good news for Beth's group, especially as the final price ticked up over twenty adamantine coins. When it was finally all said and done, they would each be getting just over four adamantine coins, which had Beth so giddy she was almost lightheaded. The others weren't nearly as impressed; Blood didn't care about money, Sera and Kris were from crazy rich clans, and Bjorn was one of the, if not the only, inheritors of the titan legacy. Money didn't really impress the other four, but Beth had her love of gold and her origins as a fairly regular, middleclass family member, meaning she was really over the moon with how well they had done. Totaling the other sales, even with the minuses from what they had bought, they would all be getting a nice handful of adamantine coins after this final item was over.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Speaking of the final item, Beth could only sigh as the first bits of information on it appeared on the screen, groaning as the full details, and the starting price, were revealed to everyone. The last item of the day was a starship, and not some cheap one, oh no, not for the yearly Seven Lights auction, it wouldn't be. It was more like a flying fortress, one that could move at ridiculous speeds in sub-light and jump multiple systems in just a couple hours when engaging its FTL drive, while it also boasted more built-in luxuries than many five-star, or more, hotels could claim. Beth had groaned at the initial price because of all that and more, as the minimum starting bid was ten adamantine coins. Their group could only put in a bid with multiple people pooling their money and she really had no illusions that the price was going to end up anywhere close to that. The fourth floor was already making some crazy noises while the ship was explained and something in that explanation caught their attention in a way she didn't understand, as the bidding here was way crazier than for the eye power. It was, in fact, the only item in this yearly auction that broke the neutronium coin mark, breaking the barrier of two neutronium coins before the sale was finally called and closed out.

"Intense," muttered Kris afterwards.

"Why'd they go crazy?" Beth asked, looking at the others.

"Drive type," Bjorn answered. When Beth just gave him a strange look, he continued, "The drive on that thing has fewer restrictions than other types. It can jump farther, faster, and can punch through certain resistances other drives can't. Don't know who was selling something like that, but the drive itself is worth the price that buyer just paid for it alone; the rest of that stuff, while people like it, is just tat. The drive is why they went crazy."

"Okay, that makes a lot more sense," Beth said with a nod. "I don't know if somebody will bring us our stuff, but let's wait for a bit. I'll split the money with everyone and then we can go about the rest of our days."

They didn't have to wait for too long, as Alex popped up, though not quite literally, giving them their money, which Beth took just a minute to divide out among the group before getting them moving. Well, the others took off, more like, while Beth and Sera stuck around for a while, wanting to enjoy the bit of free time they still did have and a good excuse to be on this world. Alex wasn't able to break free for another hour, Selene taking even longer than that, having to see to quite a few things to wrap up the aftermath of the yearly auction.

"It took you some time," Beth teased the greater demoness when she finally appeared.

"No thanks to you!" Selene exclaimed, though there was a teasing note in her voice.

"Me?!" Beth returned in surprise.

"All your sales went through our branch," Selene explained with a sigh, sitting on the couch next to Beth and wrapping her arms around the slightly shorter woman. It was something that both Beth and Sera had noticed and that the dragon thought was cute; Selene was very hands-on and touchy with Beth, the same amount or even more than with Alex, demonstrating quite a strong affection.

"It's just processing a few transactions," Beth protested, wrapping an arm around Selene while her other was around Sera's waist.

"It's more than that," Selene said, readjusting her position against Beth. "We have to do paperwork for all the sales we process at a branch during the yearly auction. It's more, and more complicated, paperwork than what we have to do for monthly auctions. You sold nine items in this year's yearly, more than almost any other branch. That was a lot of stuff I had to make sure, as the branch head, was filled out and filed properly. Not only that, but you also made several large purchases, as did one other of our third-floor guests. I have to do some, not as much, but still some paperwork and accounting for those purchases as well. So, yes, it was your fault it took me so long."

"Sorry for bringing you so much business," Beth said with a slightly joking, slightly exasperated tone, though she did rub the demoness's back and wings while saying it.

"It doesn't matter now," Selene said, burrowing her face in Beth's shoulder. "We can take some time and relax…if you two don't have to go."

"Oh, I'm included, too?" Sera teased.

"Of course!" Selene exclaimed, sitting up quickly only to see the very large, very toothy grin on Sera's face. "Oh, you were being an ass."

"Hey," Sera said, pretending to be offended.

"You do have an awful lot of ass, hon," Beth said with a light laugh.

"Well, that's true," Sera replied with another huge grin.

"Shall we?" Selene asked, looking at Alex, who nodded enthusiastically.

What followed was quite nice, if quite brief, and then Beth and Sera had to report back to, of all things, work. Beth found it rather amusing, after the turns and twists her life had slid through, that she was doing something that she had heard her parents and even grandparents complain about for so many years. And it was just as wonderful of an experience as she had expected and thought it might be; she made a promise with Sera that they weren't doing this again for more than a decade, at minimum. The days they were back blended together, but it was a very plain, boring, monotonous blend of doing the same thing every day. For the weekdays, at least, as the weekends brought about some interruption to their routines, with more things for them to explore and work on than just the golem dungeon or even the caldera.

That also included the tower in the desert, which none of them had forgotten about. They hadn't really reached their true limits last time when they had challenged the tower, and they were all much stronger now. On top of that, the ruinous entry fee of a diamond coin every time they stepped inside was little more than a rounding error to them at this point. They could challenge the tower as much as they wanted, whenever they wanted, excepting all those times when they had work to cover. The last two months of that work also saw them having to do some night and weekend shift duty to fill in gaps in the schedule, which they bore with a remarkable level of patience considering it was the homestretch and they were going a bit crazy at that point.

The last six weeks were an agony, though they were brightened up a little by Bjorn and Kris pushing very hard as they started to get close to another rebirth. They wouldn't be able to hit it before the girls were done with their ref years, but that wasn't really something that mattered that much in the grand scheme of things, as they could keep going with even more freedom once the girls weren't tied up. The only other thing of note was that Sera said she felt like she was just on the verge of breaking through to Master with the spear, meaning they would have a four Master group once she hopped that last hurdle. It had pushed Kris to train a bit more with the staff, even paying for some lessons for a month with Baelvyr, who was more than happy to hit somebody with something blunt for a couple hours a day. Sadly, even with the ogre's expert teaching and demonstrations of immense skill, Kris still had a way to go before she even hit the top of Expert, let alone rolled over into Master.