The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

23

Changing the topic, he asked, “So, who’s in first and second place?”

Primrose shrugged. “We have no idea. Haven’t seen them. All we know is that they’re teams strong enough to have held their slots for the last two months since we arrived.”

Daisy added, “Queen knows them, if you really want to know. But getting her to talk is like pulling teeth. Anywho, we just wanted to welcome you to the top teams club. Feel free to make yourselves at home. The royals have this place decked out. The Masquerade was created by the competitors, but it’s earned the recognition of the higher-ups.”

With that dismissal, the two of them stood up and made their way over to Queen.

Quill pointed at the open seats and asked, “Mind if we sit?”

Cradling her greatsword, Queen shook her head, not taking her gaze off the screen in front of her. “Sit if you want. I don’t have much to say, though.”

She proved that true as she only gave one-word answers to their questions.

Seeing that, they gave up as a new team came in.

This team had a mask and cloak theme going on, which just seemed impractical. They paused to look at him and Torch and glanced at their numbers before moving to the fifth-ranked table.

Leaving Queen’s table, they sat with the three newcomers and introduced themselves again.

The one with a mountain on their mask made the reciprocal introductions. “I’m Cliff at the Edge of the World. That’s Summer Rain Striking the Grass, and Winter River Burbling Over a Brook.”

Winter leaned forward and, with a feminine voice, added, “That was a fairly impressive showing. Sapphire Shield’s defenses are rarely overwhelmed. Or at least, we’ve never seen it. When we fought them, we had to take out the others and move on to her last. We had to hit her from every angle.”

Summer seemed to be a man by the voice, and he asked, “Are you guys up for a spar?”

Quill shook his head. “If there aren’t any stakes, we couldn’t care less. This is all pointless until the actual tournament starts.”

Cliff tapped the table, and a bottle of liquor was lifted out of an opening that appeared. He poured everyone a glass before nodding. “At least you aren’t as annoying as the Gem trio. They care far too much about this little club for our liking. If you guys do want to spar, we’re down nearly any time, but we also recognize that everyone is holding back their abilities. Enjoy your stay at the lounge, then.”

Moving back to their own table, Torch and Quill sat across from each other and started to go through the functions of the place.

As the others said, there were a number of functions at their fingertips, but everything seemed geared toward aggregating information about the other competitors.

While that was useful, it wasn’t something so interesting that Quill felt it was worth the hassle of earning a top ten slot.

As if someone was listening to his thoughts, a message flashed on their pad rapidly.

“Auction starts in five minutes.”

Looking around, he checked to see if Mara and or Leon were watching him as that timing was just uncanny.

But he knew he wouldn’t see the duo unless they allowed it; his efforts were futile.

After digging through a few menus, he saw that they were given the option to offer anything of value to the auction as well.

That made Quill pause. If this was a completely audience-run auction, good items would be rather limited. At least they had nothing of true value to put up for an auction. And he doubted that the other teams would be keeping items hidden this late. Especially not before such an important event like the Tier 10 tournament.

Activating the privacy bubble the table came with, he asked, “What are your thoughts on the auction?”

Torch shook her head and shrugged. “Seems odd, but what do I know?”

The Gem trio came up and glared daggers at him and Torch even through their masks. They were sitting at their old table, after all. But the trio didn’t say anything.

Quill debated saying something to antagonize them further but didn’t feel that it was worth the effort. Being mean was hard work.

Sitting in a comfortable silence, they waited for the countdown to finish. When it hit zero, a new window appeared, and the first item for auction appeared.

“A delve slot for a Tier 11 rift from a local guild? Just for a single Tier 10 mana stone?”

Quill looked to Torch, and even through their respective masks, he could read the surprise on her face as well.

Tentatively, she asked, “Are the local guilds trying to earn their ways into our good graces?”

He agreed with that suggestion but waited as the ninth team bid two mana stones for the slot. A new countdown appeared, and as it hit three, the second team increased the bid by one mana stone.

Not willing to show their hand so early, the two of them waited through the first auction slot. Eventually, the slot went to the second-place team for seven Tier 10 mana stones. Considering that a single Tier 11 mana stone was worth one hundred Tier 10 mana stones, that was a steal.

“I think we should get a delve slot if another comes up.”

He left unsaid that they were freshly advanced Tier 10s, and running a rift could allow them to increase their power, unlike most of the other contestants. The majority of those participating had long since reached the peak of Tier 10 and had no way to increase their cultivation.

Torch nodded and took his hand as she slid around the table to sit next to him.

As that first auction ended, a second item replaced it.

A local Tier 35 guild was selling a Tier 11 mace that was enchanted with a vibration enchantment that would bypass armor.

That was the theme for the next few items. Guilds and corporations were selling items on the cheap to the top ten masked contestants.

It wasn’t until the final items that things got interesting.

Torch whistled softly. “A guild level information packet on who they suspect to appear in the tournament. I can’t tell if they’re ballsy or just plain stupid. Tur’stal can’t be happy with that…can she?”

Quill offered the other plausible reason, “That, or the information is all open secrets and nothing actually valuable.”

Torch nodded without saying anything else, and they watched as the bids rocketed up to fifteen Tier 10 mana stones. Eventually, the first-place team, who was still unaccounted for, upped the bid to one Tier 11 mana stone. That caused a long stall before someone else added a second stone to the bidding.

After a few more rounds of back and forth, the packet of information was won by the first-place team.

Even for the price, Quill considered it cheap. He assumed that, like them, most of the teams were able to delve two Tiers up and had access to at least some Tier 12 mana stones. As for why they weren’t using them in the auction, he wasn’t sure.

There seemed to be an unspoken understanding to keep prices down but, so far, nothing truly valuable had appeared yet.

Once again, as if someone was reading his thoughts, a Tier 13 natural treasure appeared up for auction.

Reading the description, Quill leaned forward, with Torch mirroring his action.

Someone was selling a Tier 13 chunk of lightning stone.

Lightning was a fairly desirable mana type, and lightning stone made it trivial for anyone to get it. Instead of manually combining fire and air mana, having a Concept that influenced their aspect, or undergoing fairly extensive meditation in a lightning-aligned area, they’d just need to cycle their mana through the rock, making it far more valuable than the Tier 11 stones its starting bid represented.

Even he could use the stone for the core of an item. If he built a staff around the lightning stone, he could increase the damage of lightning spells cast through the staff by at least half, and possibly up to double. Though, that would waste the stone in the process.

The stone’s price quickly shot up to thirty-two Tier 11 mana stones before pausing slightly.

It took until the countdown reached two digits before the first-place team stepped in once again and started a three-way bidding war.

The first, third, and sixth teams were all seemingly unwilling to give up the item, and the price skyrocketed to forty-two Tier 12 mana stones before the momentum petered out once again.

In the end, the sixth-place team was willing to pay the most, and the item vanished.

The next item forced Quill to bid.

Someone was selling the nail sheddings of a Tier 15 wind dragon. While it wasn’t as ideal of a crafting material as the hide of a monster, it was the next best thing, and its elemental alignment would allow him to create five or six devastatingly powerful wind talismans.