Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 937
🕑 Added 2025-07-25 00:30:11 +0000 UTCIt was shocking to me that no one seemed at all surprised by the colossal show of power that the auctioneer had just unleashed. They seemed IMPRESSED, don’t get me wrong, or at least the people who I could perceive did? I think. Remembering expressions was giving me issues just then, but Callie and the others were definitely impressed, and so was I. But it didn’t seem to cause a stir.
Apparently the Void infiltrators had assumed that their tricks would work just as well here as they did in the lower zones, and they had GRAVELY miscalculated. Whoever ran the Empty Auction was NOT associated with the Void, and they didn’t think much of people who were.
“Two B-rank chits!” Bethy shouted excitedly. “Guys, that thing is so cool! I totally want one!”
I sighed and rubbed my temples, hissing at her. “Bethy, I MADE that, I can just give you one. Don’t BID on it, you might win and we’d miss out on a chance to get a demonstration of my work into the hands of people who might buy more in the future.”
She giggled. “Oh, my bad. It’s just super cool looking. You better made me one of those later though. But not a ball, that’s dumb. You should make me a pair of heels with that cool fire in them, then when we fight Void baddies I can just be like…bam, heel to the face, nerd!” She stopped addressing me directly, seemingly lost in her shoe design fantasy, but I did file away the concept for later, it sounded pretty cool. At least she hadn’t had time to do more than a reflexive initial bid.
Still, that drove the price way up for my orb, and I was thrilled with the fervor that seemed to drive all the interested parties after the demonstration. “Three B-rank chits,” bellowed one person. “Five!” shouted another. I couldn’t make out who any of them were, but it was clear they were all determined to win the bid.
Sadly, by this point things were out of my hands. All I could do was sit back and watch as they drove the price higher and higher. Sadly, while this was definitely interesting and useful, it was still a D-rank item, and a relatively niche one at that. This was a B-rank auction attended by some of the richest people in the younger generation of the WCP, and many of them had much more important things to buy than experimental Void fire orbs.
Finally, the bidding wound down, and I managed to sell the orb for a whopping two hundred seventy five B-ranked chits. Sadly, I didn’t get any armor offers. That wasn’t completely unexpected. The price had spiked, but a full set of plate mail would have cost much more than the orb had gone for. I’d been hoping someone would trade out of desperation, but it was looking like I was going to be stuck paying retail.
That was unfortunate, but also not the worst thing in the world. I could save a lot of money if I just bought the materials for scrolls and then paid a smith to make the suit of armor for me custom. Material cost was the big money sink in cases like this, so I just had to figure out what kind of metal I wanted to use. The only real downside was that I almost definitely wouldn’t have the suit before the duel.
“Well,” said the auctioneer with a clap of his hands. “That was certainly a bracing start to an excellent evening. Now, with our surprise entry out of the way, let’s return to our regularly scheduled programme. Our first item for auction, the Horn of Annuvin. A summoning object that creates undead soldiers bound to the will of the user.”
He gestured grandly and the podium where the orb had been burst into flames, the fire dying down nearly instantly to reveal a massive black horn.
To my surprise, my Dantalion scan was able to easily sweep over it, presumably because it was the only non shielded item in the room. The masks disguised everyone in here, and I was working on cracking them, but the actual objects for sale apparently weren’t covered. I assumed this was intentional, the ability to use information skills adding a layer of transparency to the proceedings, but it meant I was able to learn a bit about the item, and it was a fascinating bit of study.
Dantalion was at C-rank still, and the item in question was as well. I was able to learn a few interesting enchantments as well as more deeply understand the horn. The stat distribution was interesting. Creation, of course, and Fantasy, but there was also a strangely large amount of Vitality involved in the construction. I was so wrapped up in the study that I missed the actual auction, and before I could really parse everything, it was gone.
The next few objects were fascinating. An umbrella that shed energy like rain, a knife that could only cut flesh and passed through everything else, and then a paired blade that did the opposite. A club that could change its weight mid swing, a shield that magnetically attracted long range attacks, a pair of boots that could walk on moonlight and leave no trace on the ground.
I learned a lot about the local enchantment styles, the distribution of all those stats and how everything worked was fascinating, and I made a mental note to pass this on to Benny somehow.
Eventually though, a new item was posted, one that caught my attention immediately. “Now, for the last item on tonight’s docket, we have a special offering.” He gestured again, and the podium burned, when the flames faded, there was a pair of what looked like wristbands. Except there were no hinges, only a pair of very small keyholes, and a thin, nearly filament sized chain connected them together.
“These are the shackles of desire,” he announced grandly. “Originally used to bind a Greater Djinn whose name is lost to time. Steeped in the powerful wish granting energy of a being whose very nature was part of the inspiration for the Wishmaster’s signature skill. An A-rank item of power with endless uses. The starting bid is an A-rank chit, or an item of equivalent value. Let the bidding…begin!”
My eyes were glued to the shackles. They were small. Relatively useless to most, but not to me. They were A-rank, but not big enough to use in a suit of armor, if I could even WEAR one of those. Regardless, I didn’t have the money to commission an A-rank suit…but if I melted those down and alloyed them with some powerful B-rank materials I could presumably make something pretty special, especially if I was willing to spend a few of Nat’s scrolls to fine tune the metals I used.
“Two A-rank chits!” I called, as I hit my feet. I had a bit over two and a half right now after the sale, but I could tell that wasn’t enough. I started to panic slightly. Someone raised the bid to three, and I started adding in scrolls. My scrolls, despite being powerful, however, were D-rank.
“Ten A-rank chits,” came a clear voice to my right. My eyes widened and I turned to see Bethy, a solemn expression on her usually cheerful face, staring up at the stage. She saw me looked and grinned at me. “What? I can tell you really want this. You’re my bestie, I gotta help out where I can!” She winked at me, but her smile wilted slightly, her tone taking on a warning cast. “But I only have fifteen A-rank chits on me. Daddy doesn’t give me that much pocket money, and most of it goes to my clothes budget.”
I grinned at her in excitement. “Bethy, if you win this, I will make you as many pairs of those heels as you want. Hell, I’ll build you a damn shoe palace!”
She squealed with excitement. “Oh that sounds so cool! I run out of places to put them all, honestly. I’ve got entire closets full of spatial rings stuffed with shoes, but they just look so lame on display like that.”
I suppressed a horrified shudder and thanked the gods that my wife was just obsessed with treasure in general and didn’t have an expensive shoe habit.
Bethy continued her bidding war, eleven, then twelve. She finally managed to bully the last bidder out of the running at thirteen. That represented over a thousand B-rank chits at a B-rank auction where most of the interested parties were candidates who hadn’t even reached C-rank yet. I let out a sigh of relief as she was declared the winner, and Callie threw herself over my lap to give Bethy a big hug as she expressed her gratitude.
It said something about how wrapped up in all this I’d been that I missed the white knuckled grip Callie had on my arm. I knew how worried she was in general, but I hadn’t realized how focused she was on upgrading my armor. I could feel the relief and gratitude through the bond, and I finally understood just how scared she’d been for me. Not just about this duel, but the whole invasion was one big nightmare for her.
As she pulled away from Bethy, I put my arms around her and gave her a right squeeze, sending my love and reassurance through the bond. My heart ached for her. This Void stuff was scary. Knowledge and feelings she didn’t understand, enemies who would stop at nothing to see her dead, a connection to a god she’d never heard of. And now to see that same nightmare turn its eyes on the planet where nearly all her closest friends and family were.
I wished I could have gotten her something fun to mess around with, but none of the items had really been her kind of thing, and I couldn’t justify spending so much on generic loot. Still, I was as excited as she was about the shackles, and I couldn’t wait to see what kind of supplementary mats I could get for the suit.
We all got up and headed out of the auction, back to the front counter where I turned in my tag to collect my auction profits. Two hundred seventy five B-rank chits. It should be enough to pay off some of my material needs and commission my armor as long as I provided the mats.
I hoped. I was going to need a particularly talented smith, or an A-ranker, in order to handle those shackles. To my surprise, when I submitted the tag, they didn’t just give me back the chits, they also handed me a matte black card with an empty golden circle on it. There didn’t appear to be any other writing on the thing, but I was curious what secrets it held.
After that, Bethy picked up the shackles and passed them over, and we all headed back to the boarding house. As we climbed into the car, I mentally indexed the information I’d gained from Dantalion. Inside my library, books began to fill. Not just with information on enchantments, but some on the functions and mechanisms of those glass masks. I had several ideas for how to improve Murmur using the information I’d gathered there.
As we drove, we chatted with Bethy, my sister, Ellie, and the others, and I couldn’t help the warm glow of contentment in my belly. Tonight had been a big win, but more importantly, it had been something we could all do together. It reminded me of what that auction back on Callus could have been, just without Mordaunt and her crew messing things up for us. In some ways, knowing I had a fight tomorrow helped make it even easier. Until I won there was no pressure on politics or recruitment. All I needed to do was step into the arena. There was something to be said for enjoying the simple things. Maybe Abel had been a bad influence on me.
Comments
Peter Smith
The shackles will be a good step towards it, one growth item for his doom path ability, the other for his wish ability
Void
Growth armor.....the poor bastard needs growth armor to go with his staff at this rate.
