Jonathan took the nearest seat, and waited for the man to finish his spiel. The subsequent bidding for the sword was quite restrained in comparison, and it ended up going for two million Outer Realms Credits to an alien looking tentacled figure who took up three seats on its own.

  Most of the transactions were carried out in Telvarian Marks, but Jonathan occasionally saw people trying to pay with other forms of currency. Out of the four types accepted in the Trading Hub, Halcyon Marks were the rarest. Jonathan assumed that those were the currency of the Heavens, if such a thing did exist. Most of that speculation was based on the fact that Hell was real. Presumably, there was a Heaven as well.

  Outer Realm credits were the second rarest, as not that many people lived in the outskirts of the universe. Then came Leviathan Marks, and finally, Telvarian Marks as the most common.

  The next auction item was a large copper bowl, filled with a strange, silvery liquid.

  “Straight from the Halls of Fate, this is an authentic scrying bowl!” the auctioneer roared. “Are your enemies closing in, your allies traitors? Use this bowl to find out the truth! Bidding will begin at three million Telvarian Marks!”

  An older human raised his paddle, his eyes locked on the bowl. “Three point five.”

  The auctioneer smiled, and pointed at him. “Going for three point five million! Do I have any raises on that offer?”

  “Four,” a female elf said.

  The bidding picked up from there, ending in a war between the original bidder and the tentacled creature from the Outer Realms. The bowl was eventually sold for twelve million Outer Realms credits, about six million Telvarian Marks, to the tentacled monster. It looked like it would be one of Jonathan’s main obstacles to getting what he was looking for.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  There was no auction schedule here, so Jonathan was forced to wait. Nothing caught his eye, until three items later, a large leather satchel was hoisted aloft by the orcish auctioneer. “This storage satchel is at the pinnacle of its Tier! Able to hold upwards of a hundred thousand square feet, it also has a special dimensional pocket capable of storing up to a billion coins of any denomination without taking up more than the space of one! Bidding will begin at one million Telvarian Marks.”

  Jonathan raised his hand. It was exactly what he wanted.

  “One million! Do I have any raises on that?” the auctioneer shouted. The room was silent. His face flushed. “Any raises for this masterwork?”

  Jonathan kept his hand raised. It was pretty clear that he was the only one here lacking such a device.

  The orc gritted his teeth. “Sold.”

  The satchel was taken away, being held until Jonathan came to claim it. The next item was brought out, and the bidding resumed. Another five came and went as the rest of the auction continued. There were all sorts of treasures, ranging in price from the low millions to over ten million. The most expensive thus far had been a set of wings that allowed for a massive increase in mobility that did not require any sort of energy investment. Those had gone to a lithe half orc warrior clad in leather armor. She looked like she could make the most of them, as the wings operated off of the user’s Dexterity, effectively tripling it for the purpose of flight.

  Jonathan was beginning to grow bored. The items weren’t of any interest to him, and he had no idea when, or if, his would come up. Then the auctioneer said something that piqued his interest.

  “Up next, we have some of the rarest metal to ever grace this auction! It comes from the heavens themselves, produced by the death throes of a star! Every now and again, a chunk of this metal lands on Telvaria, and is picked up by some lucky individual!” The man held up his hand, and beams of light converged upon it. When the light cleared, he was holding an iridescent ingot of steel. It shone with the light of a sun, brighter than any of the lights in the buildings. “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Starfall Steel!”