Auction

Soon a week passed under Minos's and Rubella's unrelenting training. Rubella was getting closer and closer to mastering her first talisman, but she would have to study on her own for a while, since Minos was planning on heading to the Nine Treasures House for its auction.

"Rubella, I'm heading back to Underwood City for a short time, you continue training here. This is a stack of talisman's, use them if you run into any danger, but try not to leave the cave if you don't have to."

"Master, I want to go with you. This dark lonely cave is starting to make me depressed, I want to see other people!" Rubella complained.

Minos thought about it for a moment, but realized it made sense. Training was equal parts hard-work and rest, so it would be good to give Rubella this time to decompress and have some fun.

…

The two quickly reached Underwood City. Minos slipped some Nux Crystals into Rubella's hand so she could go have some fun, in the meantime, he headed towards the auction.

The Nine Treasures House was always exceptionally busy, but today it was even more crowded than usual.

Minos looked around for a moment before noticing two guards standing next to a staircase that led to the second floor of the building. Occasionally someone would come up to them and show a card before being let up.

Minos followed in their footsteps, coming up to the guards before presenting his silver card. The guards took a quick glance before giving way and letting Minos onto the second floor.

Minos walked up to the second floor, from here one can go even higher to get to exclusive auction rooms, but that required a gold card from what Minos had seen, so he was stuck with the crowd.

He squeezed through a few people before finding a seat closer to the front. The room was quite large, being able to fit a couple hundred people.Minos couldn't help but look up towards the private rooms overlooking the auction floor, feeling slightly envious.

Minos looked back towards the stage and waited patiently. This wait would last a few hours, but eventually the room settled down, and the majority of the seats had been taken.

Only then, did the lights start to dim slightly. A beautiful young woman came out from behind the stage, the lights gathering on her. She took out a strange device Minos had never seen before, and as she spoke into it, her voice resonated across the room.

"Welcome guests! Today's the Nine Treasures House annual auction. We've got an abundance of amazing items for guests to bid for, treasures that we've been collecting for the past year. No doubt, there's something for everyone!" She said with a bright cheery voice, causing the audience to get slightly rowdy.

"Without further ado, let's get onto the first item." As the young woman said this, another beautiful lady came out with a longsword in her hand, handing it off to the auctioneer.

"Everyone, this is a Two-Moon Flame Cutting Saber. Created by a Three-Moon weapon refiner, created with flaming ore, and embedded with a searing crystal. This blade becomes tremendously hot once activated, capable of cutting through still like a knife through butter!"

The audience couldn't help but go into a slight uproar. With a weapon like this in hand, they'd be able to destroy their peers, so it's value was evident.

One step ahead at the present becomes a mile in the future. Any advantage one can get now, would play a critical role in determining their ensuing achievements, so a weapon of such power was very sought after.

"We'll start the bid off at 10 Nux Stones, each bid must be raised by at least 1 Nux Stone. Let the bidding begin!"

"11 Nux Stones." One man shouted.

"13 Nux Stones." Another quickly rebutted.

Minos watched in patience as the number got higher and higher. While a weapon was important, how could it compare to one made with your own hands?

"23 Nux Stones" Finally said a man, causing the audience to go quiet for a moment.

"23 Nux Stones going once! Twice! Thrice! Congratulations guest, you are officially the new owner of this Flame Cutting Saber. Everyone, how about a light applause?"

While no one wanted to clap for someone else's success, they naturally would give the auctioneer this much face, so the audience lightly applauded, raising the room's atmosphere.

The next auctions continued on without a hitch. The value of the items got higher and higher, as the auction was reaching a boiling point.

"Everyone, this next item is a bit different from the rest. It could be the most valuable thing of the day, or the most worthless. To be honest, even we don't know!"

As she said that, the same young lady from before came out with a tray in hand. On that tray was an old yellowing map that had parts of it burnt off, leaving blackened edges. The auctioneer took it from her hands and presented the map to the audience.

"Everyone, this is said to be a map leading towards the Nine Sword Divinity burial place. As everyone knows, while the Nine Sword Divinity left behind no inheritance, it's said he took his sword to the grave with him, the celestial Heaven-Sundering Sword. As long as one can find his grave, the sword will certainly become theirs!"

Even though the map was likely fake, the crowd couldn't help but go into a massive uproar at the mention of the Nine Sword Divinity. That was the greatest swordsman of his time, leaving his peers in despair.

How exactly he died was unknown, but in life, he was the strongest person on the Alephora continent. Not only was he the emperor of the Aleph Empire, the empire in which the continent was named after, but also the patriarch of the Nine Sword Sect.

He was born above all not only in background, but also in talent. Cultivators couldn't help but feel tremendous envy and awe at even the mention of his name.

The Heaven-Sundering Sword was a weapon forged by the Nine Sword Divinity himself. Made only after gathering the resources of the entire Alephora continent, with the greatest weapon refiners from across the continent spending decades working on it.

There was no debate that the Heaven-Sundering Sword was the greatest treasure in the Alephora continent, but its location became a mystery of the Nine Sword Divinity's death.

With all that said, whether the map was real or fake, people couldn't help but slightly salviate at the thought of mastering the Heaven-Sundering Sword.

Ultimately, if the map was real, they would soon become owners of the greatest weapon on the continent, and if it was fake, they'd just lose out on some money. Most people were still willing to make this gamble.

Of course, plenty of charlatans understood this logic perfectly, so until now, all things pointing towards the Nine Sword Divinity or his sword have turned out to be fake.

"Since the authenticity of this item has yet to be guaranteed, the bid will begin at a modest 5 Nux Stones."

With that said, the bids soon started pouring in at a rapid speed, the price getting higher and higher at an accelerating speed.

Minos didn't need to bid, not because he didn't want to, but because he had already memorized the map in the half a second the auctioneer spent showing it to the crowd.

Of course the auction was worried about things like this, so they usually showed items for only a split moment, stopping anyone from memorizing them.

Not only did this make it harder to verify the genuineness of the item, thus indirectly raising its value, it also stopped people like Minos from learning without buying.

For a map with incredible detail, no one would expect anyone to be able to master it in half a second, but unfortunately for them, this rule applied to most people 'like' Minos, but of course, Minos himself was an exception to the rule.

As the bid went on, Minos browsed over the map in his mind. While he didn't know much when it came to verifying the age of items, there were a few things he could guess with common sense alone.

Relatively speaking, the map looked quite legitimate in Minos's eyes, but even then, he would never doubt an expert's ability to fake something, so whether it was real or not was hard to know.

Based on the map, the treasure was located not far from the Underwood Mountain Range, out near the Endless Sea.

It seemed to be located next to a small village under control of the elusive Salt Breathing Tribe, whose names supposedly came from the amount of time they spent underwater.

This alone raised some slight suspicion in Minos's opinion. The Alephora continent was massive, yet this map happened to lead to a place not far from where they currently were?

This may just be a coincidence, but in Minos's eyes, it was more likely indicative of the map's falsity, but since he already memorized it and it wasn't far, he decided to give it a look.

Though considering the current price the map was going for, Minos was destined to have some competition, with that in mind, he decided to take the lead.

He left the auction without a moment's delay. Wandering through the streets for a bit, he found Rubella gathered around some dusty children, showing off her toys, much to their envious eyes.

"Pretty cool huh? My master said that with my talent, I can become a talisman maker easily. By then, I'll take you guys soaring with me!"

"Woah, thanks sister Rubella!"

"You're the greatest!"

The kids said as they gathered around Rubella, causing her to raise her chin in pride as she laughed loudly.

Minos couldn't help but smirk as he watched over. He gave Rubella a second more to brag before tapping her on the shoulder.

"M-master. What are you doing here, what about the auction?" Rubella said as her neck shrunk back into her body.

"The auction is over, and I've gotten what I came for. Where I'm going next, you can't follow, so for now, stay here safely. Also, take care of your little friends some more, you may need their help in the future."