Limitless Path

The duels and the work dragged on, but their free time flew by, and Val disappeared after a week without even a goodbye, at least to Beth and Sera and the rest. Beth was sure she had said a rather nice goodbye to Blood, at the least, but that didn't include the rest of them. Well, Val was sometimes like that, so Beth just dismissed it as she looked towards their next goal. They had to get back to the leveling grind in a major way, though she didn't think they'd quite be ready to do another dungeon run with a spike before the yearly Seven Lights auction, which she planned to attend in person.

It was a bit ironic, but her plan to attend the auction actually meant they assuredly couldn't do another spiked dungeon, as the auction was on a weekday for them, though it was a weekend on some other planets. That meant they were taking days off from ref duty for the auction, so they couldn't also sneak in a cheeky four-day weekend to do the golem dungeon with a spike again. They could, however, go and explore the caldera a little bit, once they were over level two hundred and had close to the stats they had before they did their seventh rebirths. Bjorn and Kris were also progressing very well, thanks in no small part to Beth's gate, and the titan descendant, for one, was ready to mix it up a bit and get to something new. The area with level four hundred wyverns should be just enough of a different flavor, and higher level of challenge, that Bjorn should be satisfied for a while.

They returned to the place that they had killed the wyvern, which Beth had had Blood chip chop after they were back home safe, storing all the parts being easier than storing the creature, especially when Sera ate almost all the meat in the span of three days. This time, they parked a little further out from the caldera and approached it a bit more cautiously, though their new levels of power and new levels of gear meant the danger was less than the last time they had unknowingly wandered around the place. Still, Beth knew there were at least a handful of beasts lurking in the depths that would be very serious trouble for them, another reason why the plan was to skirt the edge for a day and not move down in too deep.

A day was just not enough, either for exploration or for their purposes, considering the amount of fights with high-level beasts they got into. Beth had hoped to spend Friday night and Saturday exploring then head out, but it took them until late Sunday to make nearly a full circle of the edge of the caldera. Every time they moved a few dozen feet they ran into something at or over level four hundred, which took even their group of five some time to deal with. The experience was good, and the materials they harvested from the beasts were fantastic, but the hassle of fighting things so much stronger was a real pain. It was just part of what they were doing, pushing high levels; some people would get to Enlightened before they fought any beasts at or over level three hundred. Meanwhile, here were Beth and her group still several rebirths out from that and fighting beasts at level four hundred. That did put them firmly at the very top of the ranks of elite, even into the ranks of the true monsters of the galaxy at this point.

True monsters still needed rest and, sometimes, to work their nine-to-five day jobs, sadly. They continued with refereeing and exploring for another few weeks, passing two-thirds of the way through their time refereeing while they were at it. They did get permission to take two days off in the middle of the week, their leave time having surprisingly worked out to be some of the lowest of the refs at their Hall so far. Be that as it may, Beth still felt bad about skipping out in the middle of a busy week; something she had noticed as their time there went on, that the number of people at the Hall and using the fields to duel was still increasing over time. At the start, it had been busy but not particularly full, even when events were happening, excepting very special events such as the low-fee teleporters event. Now, the place was hopping even late at night, and some days the arena floor was packed with long queues to use the dueling fields. Luckily for Beth and the other two, they had just under three months till they were done and it was somebody else's circus to deal with.

The yearly auction was held in every place of business that the Seven Lights had an auction house, basically meaning their large buildings in major cities, though Beth took the others to the one they were quite familiar with. They were greeted by Alex when they arrived, only engaging in a very light display of affection before going up to their booth, at which point that light moniker went out the window, though Bjorn and Kris and Blood ignored the byplay, taking their seats to wait. Bjorn produced an enormous mug that had to hold more than a gallon and started drinking something, from the smell of it, quite potent, Kris sitting on his lap and sipping at a much smaller drink. When Alex finally broke free, she quickly informed them of their general credit limits before the auction started.

"Based on our findings, you can bid up to forty orichalcum beyond whatever you have on you and we'll cover it," Alex said to Beth and Sera quietly. "If you need more than that, just send Selene or I a message and we'll cover it. She'd come see you, but this auction is going to be particularly important; I'm sure she'll have some time after."

"That's no problem," Beth replied quietly. "I don't know that we're really interested in anything right now; we've all got good armor, weapons, and a bunch of supplies and materials. I think the only things we might really want are any interesting skills that pop up."

"There are several," Alex said quietly. "If you haven't looked over the program materials, two of them that we've advertised as a big draw for this year's big auction are a powerful healing skill and a very powerful looting skill. We've been holding the eye power you gave us in reserve as a special item to stir the place up; it should be quite a surprise and might provoke a huge bidding war."

"The looting power is interesting," Sera commented quietly. "How much is the estimate?"

"Five orichalcum," Alex replied a little nervously. "But it could go far higher; I don't need to explain, you both know how auctions work."

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"I think we'll grab that power," Beth said with a small grin.

"There's more than that," Alex said with her own grin. "But I don't want to spoil the surprise."

"I guess we'll just have to see, then," Sera said, giving Alex a quick kiss before going to the front of the box to sit with the others.

"If you need money-" Alex started again, but Beth cut her off with a very deep kiss.

"Alex, sweetheart, we're fine," she said a bit breathily, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Go take care of what you need to do."

"Fine, but let me know," Alex said, returning the quick peck before darting out of the box to get back to work.

The auction proceeded much the same as the others they had experienced, with one item or lot after another popping up and inspiring bidding. Beth was a bit nervous at first as the bids seemed a bit desultory and weak, the first few items not that impressive but still not a call for such anemic enthusiasm. That changed at item five, a sword that literally glowed with the power contained within it. Having been to several auctions, and spent large amounts of time talking with Selene and Alex, Beth could sense an audible when one was called, having a pretty good guess that the organizers hadn't been happy with the slow start and had brought a later item forward to ramp up the excitement. It was a testament to the people running the Seven Lights auctions, their knowledge shining through, as the sword was the exact right catalyst for this year's audience. The bids exploded, the third floor at Beth's local venue and the fourth floor going crazy. Beth was sure the third floors at other venues were also going nuts, judging by how the price was flying through the orichalcum range and into the adamantine range at a blistering pace.

She was worried because an anemic auction meant shit prices for all the stuff they had that would be coming up, which was more than just the eye power. On the other hand, the auction staying weak or low momentum meant that buying things would be somewhat easier, so she would have to hope her gains would outweigh any bidding wars she got tangled in. She and the rest of the group had just watched passively for the first while, Beth noting that the fever pitch from the sword didn't really die down and the items later in the afternoon took it to a new level. This yearly auction didn't have quite as many items or lots as others had, but it would still take most of an entire day to go through everything, especially with quite a few bidding wars kicking off.

The first really immense bidding war was for the first shield Beth had brought, which came as a great surprise to her. Shields were apparently fairly rare overall, though smiths could make rather good ones on request, but the high-level legendary shield she had put up for sale was considered both rare and rather exceptional. The fourth floor got involved on that first item, though the winner was someone from a different auction house in a third floor booth. That happened more than one might think, considering a lot of VIP guests might not have access to the fourth floor, especially if they were newly working with Seven Lights. There was also what happened even with Beth's booth, where someone with a pass brought in people without passes but with serious wealth at their disposal that decided they absolutely had to have an item. Beth suspected both Kris, and especially Bjorn, had quite a lot of wealth at their disposal, whether that was personal wealth or wealth from their clans they could draw on as needed.

The shield went for several orichalcum coins, most of which Beth would be getting with how little Seven Lights took from Emerald Tokens as a commission. That alone was a great start, but it was nothing compared to the halfway point, where Seven Lights had decided to feature the elixir they had found as the midway showpiece. If Beth was happy with how much she would be getting, even splitting the share of the items with the others, for the shield, the elixir was a different beast entirely. It garnered very widespread interest from the fourth floor, including one extremely powerful individual who seemed desperate for it. Any bid was instantly upped by that person, sometimes by multiple orichalcum coins at one go even early in the process, and they eventually paid almost five adamantine coins for the elixir. Minus the fee from Seven Lights, and splitting it five ways, that still wouldn't amount to an adamantine coin each, but it was pretty close, and it looked like Beth wouldn't have to go begging for coins if she wanted to bid on something nice.

Her opportunity arose shortly, as one of the items leading back in from the long midway break was the looting power. It was a skill crystal, one-time use, with a tier five looting power in it, something that sparked a fiery passion in the auction houses and started a rather furious bid war. The skill was called True Life Harvest, and Beth wanted it rather badly after reading the description of the skill provided on the screens. The skill let someone pull every single part and piece out of a kill in the most efficient way possible and, beyond that, had a low chance of turning the remaining mana of a kill into a precious resource or item. The name was a play on the fact that the skill could, apparently, harvest even the life force of a beast or monster, creating either a lifeforce crystal or small vial of concentrated blood that carried magical properties of the beast. The skill would need to be trained to at least the early ranks of Gold to start exhibiting such features, but once it did, the person who had the skill could use it to swim in practically infinite wealth. Both the crystals and the blood vials were extremely valuable, things that were incredibly difficult to harvest or create by other means and would always sell for an absolute premium.

The bidding was very fast in the beginning, with the price climbing from the initial one orichalcum coin to thirty rapidly. It slowed a bit there, though there were still a few serious bidders involved in the war, Beth being one of them. She played a little more defensively, letting others bid and only throwing out a number when it felt like the others might have fully given up. The price climbed to fifty orichalcum, then sixty, before finally settling just over seventy. Beth knocked the last person interested out by suddenly raising the price from sixty-eight orichalcum coins to seventy-three, a massive and shocking bid that flexed her financial muscles and cause the other person to give up outright. That was spending most of what she had just made from the shield after the money was split between the group, but a good looting power was the last thing her little group had been missing. Whereas leveling the power could be a real pain for others, with the advantages provided by her gate, leveling the power would be far less painful and far faster for her.

An attendant, sadly not Selene or Alex, delivered the skill crystal to Beth as the auction was still ongoing, telling her it was courtesy of the branch chief and that her payment had been deducted from lots already sold. Beth thanked the attendant and learned the loot skill herself, figuring the one with the gate power would probably be the best out of the group to have the looting skill. She absorbed all the information and sighed as the crystal turned to dust in her hands, though the sigh was more about what the knowledge just injected into her head said about leveling difficulty. The skill was going to take absolutely forever to level, even considering her use of the gate, and it would likely be objective years until she could push it just to Gold. Of course, being a high-tier skill, it was going to be able to push into Platinum, Diamond, and even Mithril fairly easily and could go even further than that, which was a bonus, but the timetable was insane. Getting the thing to Mithril would be the work of centuries, and again, that was including her use of the gate to speed the process up, at least where objective time was concerned.