25 Caliburn

"Everyone! Prepare yourselves for our main attraction!" The lady introduced as a pedestal slowly emerged in front of her and above it was a sword floating like an invisible stand was holding it in place.

"This is the Caliburn. It was a replica of the legendary sword of Excalibur! Starting bid will be 100,000 points with 1,000 points increment!" The lady started the last bidding.

A masked man raised his hand and bid 110,000 and smirked at all the people inside, who looked depressed.

"What's happening with these people?" Blue Liquor noticed this strange phenomena and he also noticed that those people didn't take part in a single bidding since the start.

Urie only looked at the smirking man as he raised the bid by another 10,000.

"120,000! Going once! Going twice!" The lady shouted, but was interfered when the masked man raised his hand and increased another 10,000 to the bid.

"Oh! You think that I'll go down that easy? That's your mistake dude!" Urie smirked as he raised his hand and increased his bid by 20,000, making the price of the Caliburn increase to 150,000 points.

The masked man frowned and increased the bid by another 10,000.

Urie saw that the man didn't want to back down, and he noticed that the other people inside were sighing when Urie was bidding higher than the masked man.

"I see! I think I already got the gist of the situation! Let's play a little longer!" Urie smirked as he increased the bid by 5,000.

The masked man smirked and thought that Urie was getting out of points, but when Arie and Blue Liquor saw the weird creepy smile on his face, they already knew that he was toying with the masked man.

Their bidding wars kept ongoing as the masked man lost his composure when the price slowly reached 250,000 and Urie kept on increasing his bid by 5,000, but the masked man slowly lowered his price from 10,000 down to 5,000, then down to 1,000.

"I think it's time to totally crush him!" Urie smirked as he raised his hand to bid and immediately raised it to 50,000, making the price of Caliburn reach 300,000 points.

The masked man frustratingly left, and the lady finished striking the gavel and ended the auction, with Urie receiving the main item of the auction.

"Thank you for coming to the Mystery Auction! If you have excess points, you can go to the reception area to exchange it into Obsidium Reputation Points!" The lady smiled and walked away from the stage.

The people inside went towards the reception area, which was also in the lobby of the Mystery Auction House.

People who won something inside the auction made their way towards the exchange area.

Urie and the two fall in line and wait for their turn to receive their winnings and exchange their points into Obsidium Reputation Points.

"Good Day, Mr. Urie! Can I confirm your winnings?" The receptionist asked as Urie sent the details of his winnings as the lady pushed some things inside the cubicle and a small pouch emerged from behind her.

She handed the pouch towards Urie. "Would you like to exchange your remaining points into Obsidium Reputation Points?" she asked one more time.

"Yes, please!" Urie smiled towards the receptionist as he examined the pouch and the items immediately went inside his inventory.

A notification rang inside his head as an interface popped up in front of him.

[System]

[Congratulations on acquiring the Town Duke Reputation for acquiring over 10,000 Obsidium Reputation Points! Would you like the world to know of your renowned achievement?]

Urie only shook his head, and the system rang around the Obsidium Town but named it as an anonymous player.

He immediately equipped the earrings and read Caliburn's description.

[Caliburn (Replica), Handgear]

[Description: A prototype of the legendary sword, Excalibur. It still has the power of its former glory. It can fend off the projectiles that might hit the bearer. (For god's sake! Don't use this to cut off bushes or kill a beast! This is a beast collecting game not an idle slashing game!)]

"And the annoying flavor text is back! I wonder who made these flavor texts?" he thought as he looked towards the two when another notification rang inside his head.

[Clan Quest Incoming!]

[The Flames of Life]

[Description: Go to the top of the Black Volcano and fetch the Embers of Life that was damaged by the recent event. Bring the Embers of Life to the Lost Temple of the Ashen Elves.

Deliver the Embers of Life: 0/1

Rewards: ???]

"I really hate how they made the rewards of these quests hidden but ending up not that surprising!" Urie thought with a frown as he sighed and walked towards the two who were still admiring the items they got.

"Arie, I received a quest, are you coming?" he called out to his younger brother. The latter looked at him and nodded as he equipped the item he got from the auction.

"Urie, Arie! I apologize if I can't come with you now! I have a quest to return to Aqfrost Town. See you somewhere!" Blue Liquor bid as he was about to turn around and walk in the direction where the Aqfrost Town was when he received notifications.

[System]

[Player Arie would like to become your friend! Would you accept?]

[System]

[Player Urie would like to become your friend! Would you accept?]

Blue Liquor accepted both of their requests as he waved his hand and shouted, "Let's meet in the city! I will keep in touch!"

After saying his farewells, he summoned Neodyne and rode it back to Aqfrost Town.

"Come on, bro! Let's finish that quest of yours and rush towards the City!" Arie exclaimed as he excitedly pulled his brother.

The two immediately went towards Urie's quest area while Blue Liquor went the other way to finish a quest given to him.

Back at Aqfrost Town…

The townspeople were looking towards the strange phenomenon that was happening at the Mayor's Residence.

"Finally! It has been activated after so long!" Barbatus sighed as he looked at the towering light coming from beneath his mansion.

"Mayor Barbatus! There's something that you need to see!" one resident called out as he pulled him towards one statue.

It was a statue of a cloaked person, the same as the three saw inside the chamber beneath the Mayor's mansion.

The statue's face was burnt and the plate beneath it was filled with scratches and beside the name of the person depicted on the statue, there were scratches that were spelled as "traitor".

"I think I know who made this! No need to concern yourself about this, monitor the light and the changes in the town."

"I guess they can't accept the evil deeds you have done, Louisse!" The mayor shook his head and sighed as he walked back towards his residence.