The days started to blur together, it was one after another, with just the same grind day after day. I had to look up the date on the interface to remember that it was day 22. It had been three days of constant grinding. I had levelled up some more, making me level 14. The only break from that had been the two times I had been assassinated by Shadowguards. Luckily I had not lost anything of importance and so far they had only targeted me so far.

Even though Kira had tried to find them, she had not been able to catch any of them. She had however, found more than a few Bears with Tainted aura. They had not enjoyed being hunted down on the streets. Most of them had quit, or at least not logged in for the last day or so. Only Iron Bear and a few really loyal, or stupid, of his men continued to log in. It was most likely the latter rather than the former adjective that applied to them.

It had been a while since I had studied my character sheet, so I did that while heading towards the crafting halls. I had managed to gather a good amount of manastones, and was about to try and craft half the remaining trophies I had left. I had still not gotten around to crafting one for Petals and Robert.

Name

Damian Heosphoros

Race

Human

Class

Pacifist (Tier 1)

Level

14

Skill Points

1/10

Upgrade Points

5

Skill Cap

14/2

Skills Learned

14/2

XP Penalty

0%

Health

200/200 (0)

Stamina

500/500

Mana

70/70 (0)

Satiety: 70/100

Hydration: 70/100

Unassigned Attribute Points: 1

Strength: 30

Agility: 10

Dexterity: 20

Endurance: 25

Vitality: 20

Spirit: 14

Resonance: 10

I was starting to fall behind in levels, but that could not be helped. Pure crafters had less of a chance to keep up with people who spent the entire day fighting. I looked over the changes to the sheet.

My class was of course Pacifist and Tier 1, would be that until I reached level 75, or I hit someone. The Skill Cap and Skills Learned had two numbers. The one before the slash represented normal skills, while the one after the slash represented number of class skills. The numbers in parentheses after Health and Mana was how many Wounds and Exhaustion I had accumulated. Since I had just come back from sleeping the night away, they were zero. The way I liked it.

I was looking forward to level 15, when I would be getting another Class Skill. It would most likely be Imbue that got the honour of being the next Class Skill. Speaking of skills, I took a gander at the skill panel, wanting to try and calculate when I would be getting another level up.

Name

Tier

Level

XP

Observe

Beginner

3 (+1)

2499/4000

Lesser Transmutation

Beginner

2 (+2)

0/3000

Greater Transmutation

Beginner

3 (+1)

0/4000

Imbue

Beginner

6 (+2)

3785/7000

Message

Beginner

2 (+2)

68/3000

Meditation

Beginner

10 (+4)

4976/10000

Butchery

Beginner

13 (+3)

2438/14000

Gem Cutting

Beginner

3 (+1)

3474/4000

Alchemy

Beginner

6 (+2)

2436/7000

Cooking

Beginner

14 (+5)

9935/15000

Herbalism

Beginner

13 (+4)

5065/14000

Mining

Beginner

1 (+1)

326/2000

Runesmithing

Beginner

4 (+4)

0/5000

Mentor

Beginner

2 (+2)

13/3000

Horticulture

Beginner

1 (+1)

1625/2000

Brewing

Beginner

3 (+3)

2004/4000

Unassigned XP: 1269

Upgrade Points: 5

I had spent a bit of XP to level up Brewing and Greater Transmutation once each, and with a bit of luck I might be able to invest the remaining in Greater Transmutation and earn another level up.

Looking over I was only certain of one thing, and that was that I would probably not manage to level any of my skills up during the day. The only hope would be Greater Transmutation and that would probably only happen with a bit of help from my unassigned XP. It would be days before my next level up.

“Welcome back,” the attendant at the crafting hall said as I entered the still quiet room. In a couple of hours it would be filled with cursing and laughter, as well as the noise of various craftsmen applying their trade. “How long will you be renting a room this time?”

“Twelve hours this time,” I said after doing some quick calculations.

“Very good, room two will be yours for the time,” the clerk said when I handed him the twelve gold. I could have gotten away with just ten hours, but I would need breaks for food and needed to make some bone meal for my plot of chamomile and for all of Nise’s fields.

Elize joined me in the crafting room for the last few hours. Over the last few days I had been gaining Mentor XP spending a couple of hours being near Elize while she was butchering the seagulls. Since I was not going to be doing much butchering during the day, she got all the level one and two rabbits instead to butcher. Or more precisely bought them for contribution points. Even with her low level in Butchery it should still be a net gain for her.

After almost an hour of silence, Elize was the one to break it. “My husband says they finished tearing down the houses, and have started digging.”

“That’s good to hear, they should be able to start building the house in a day or two then.”

“Same estimate my husband gave. They are going to have to buy a lot of the materials though, like windows, nails and such. He’s also wondering why you’re locked up in here instead of earning coin like usual. His words not mine.”

Looking up from the diagram I was redrawing, I said, “Because the charms needs to be a secret for as long as possible.”

“I guess you said that before, but why make such a fuss about it? Sure the effects are pretty good, but it’s not that groundshaking, is it?”

“Tell you what, I’ll drop off a single Lucky Charm or two for the auction, and you can join me tomorrow morning for the weekly auction and see how well it sells. I estimate at least ten platinum per foot.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Should be able to cover a lot of expenses with that,” Elize said after a minute.

“Indeed,” I said. We lapsed into silence for another couple of hours. She was busy butchering rabbits, while I was busy merging rabbit’s feet.

“How much meat of below average quality did you manage to get?” I asked after I had finished my thirtieth attempt of making charms.

She looked into her inventory. “I got one hundred and thirty two, is that enough to feed everyone?”

“Normally yes, but I’m going to provide the food for the poor, so you guys should eat some real food instead of just my bland skewers.”

“A break from those would be nice, it’s getting a bit repetitive. How did your transmutations go?”

“It went both badly and pretty good. Only managed to get two protective charms, and one of them only had one damage reduction instead of two. On the other hand, I managed to get twelve Lucky Charms, which should hopefully sell for over a hundred platinum, after the auction houses have taken their fee.”

“That’s pretty good,” Elize said with a whistle. I just nodded. While cleaning up I looked at my Greater Transmutation XP. It was at 2,918, which meant I had enough free XP to level it up. I considered for a moment to wait until I had enough manastones to craft the last charms, but I chose to invest in the skill at once.

As we were leaving the room, Elize said, “It’s been weird the last few days. Blaze has been going off on his own, and Kira is fanatically searching for those Shadowguard people all day long.”

“Well at least she has taken care of the Bears.”

“Right, I guess that’s something.”

“Anyway, hand me the meat, and I’ll transfer the contribution points.”

We made our way across the street to the auction house. Stepping inside the warehouse I saw the usual female clerk there. “Greetings, good to see you again. As far as I know we haven’t received anything else of yours. Are you here to register something?”

“Indeed, I’m here to register two items for the weekly auction tomorrow, and ten items for the monthly auction,” I said confidently.

“I’m sorry sir, but it’s a little late to register something for the weekly auction, and the item must be of certain value to be registered for the monthly auction,” the clerk said with an apologetic frown.

“If we could speak in private, I can assure you that you’ll find the items worth the trouble.”

“Very well,” she said and started casting a spell. It was a variant of the silence cone, which also blocked anyone from seeing inside. Pulling out one of the Lucky Charms I placed it on the lectern in front of her.

She just stared at it for what felt like a really long time, but was probably less than a minute. Finally she whispered, almost reverently, “Is this what I think it is?”

“Most likely.”

“This is what earned you the achievement?”

“If you’re referring to Magic Item Inventor, then yes.”

“And you’re willing to sell this one?” she asked with large eyes.

“Yes I’m willing to sell this one, and another in the weekly auction tomorrow. I’m willing to sell another ten at the monthly auction,” I said with a big smile.

“Twelve?” the clerk whispered, and looked like she was about to faint. I could not help but cast a knowing glance in Elize’s direction. She seemed a bit stupefied by the clerk’s action. Sure it was a bit over the top, but this was a backwater place. It was probably some of the most expensive items she had handled.

“Yes, twelve total,” I said.

That seemed to snap her out of her stupor, and she returned to her professional self. “We can certainly make an exception for wares like this. Because of the uniqueness and newness of the item, and if we can use your name as well for advertising, we’re willing to change our usual fee of fifteen percent to ten percent.”

She looked me up and down before continuing. “We’ll also provide a private box at both auctions, and waive any minimum and entry fees. The boxes can hold up to eight people, but there’s a dress code.”

“Excuse me, I’ve heard a bit about the auctions. Isn't it just our spirits that are being projected there? If that’s the case, why a dress code?” Elize asked.

“Because your projection wears the same as you wear on your body,” the clerk explained.

“Okay, I guess I don’t want to see people running around naked,” Elize mumbled.

Ignoring Elize’s comment, the clerk focused her attention fully at me. “I hope those terms are acceptable.”

“They’re acceptable.”

“Is there a minimum price?” the clerk asked.

“Well, nothing less than a platinum over the standard value,” I said with a smile.

She laughed at that. “That shouldn’t be a problem. You’ll earn good coin tomorrow, and a week after that you’ll be a rich man, when the monthly auction is over. Apprentice crafters will be after this item.”

“Sounds good. And I’m glad that no one else has figured out how to make the charms,” I said.

“If they have, they aren’t selling. I would have heard about it, even out here,” the clerk said before packing away the charms carefully.

We bid her farewell, and left. Outside Elize said, “Okay, seems our doubts about the value can be put to rest.”

“Indeed, but first we need to go shopping.”

“What for?”

“Some nice clothes, which is going to be a bit expensive,” I said, almost balking at the thought of going clothes shopping.

Making it an open invitation to the rest of the guild of who wanted to come to the auction was a mistake of epic proportion. All of the guys bowed out quickly, leaving me with Kira, Robin, Marion, Nise, Petals and Elize, and they brokered no peace or compromise when it came to updating my wardrobe.

They had dragged me to a tailor where I was coerced into trying on several outfits. It got even worse when Hannah arrived at the scene. One, or maybe all of them, had invited her along. Almost an hour later and five gold pieces poorer, they were happy with their selection.

A pair of dark brown leather boots and a black robe that reached the middle of my calfs. Originally they had wanted orange or red, but I could not get myself to wear that. It was not that it did not look good, but I was just not happy about wearing warm colours like that. The black robe fit like a glove after a few alterations. The robe was trimmed with royal blue, to me it just looked blue, lotus flowers. There were also a larger motif of the blue lotus on the back of the robe. Cinched around my stomach was a faded dark orange sash, my concession in return for the black robe.

“He looks like a prestigious guild leader now,” Robin had said as all seven ladies were staring at me. I had felt uncomfortable and embarrassed. I hated being the center of attention like that.

“Could stand to lose some weight though,” Marion had said without any hint of shame or propriety.

“I need to work him harder at the gym,” Kira had added to my embarrassment.

Having enough, I had started walking towards the exit, when Marion’s voice had stopped me. “You don’t expect us to pay for our dresses ourselves? You’re the one who invited us.”

“Yeah, you need to take responsibility, we can’t show up looking like beggars,” Elize had added. Looking back at the females, I had realized there was only one way to get out of there. I had left three platinum with the laughing tailor.

That had all been yesterday evening, an expensive evening. I had also taken ten platinum out of the guild accounts for Philmore to pay for all the materials they needed to buy. I had also been killed by the Shadowguard after leaving the poor section of Blackport. Had lost another gold on that.

The morning of day 23 and the day of the auction found me waiting at the auction house. Every time the door opened, I looked up hopeful that it would be the ladies. However, it had only been NPCs so far. Amongst the roughly two dozen people entering, I only recognized the Lord’s senechal and Ilat. Time was starting to run a bit short, only a few minutes before the auction started.

The door opened once more, and I heard the giggling of Nise before I even turned around. When I did, I felt flabbergasted. I knew the ladies of my guild were pretty, but this was a whole other league than usual. The floor-length dresses, or maybe gowns would be more accurate, they wore looked to be of the same cut, but with different colours which highlighted their individual beauty. They were also a bit revealing.

Not wanting to appear rude, or a leecher, I quickly said my hellos and turned back to the clerk, the same one that I had talked with the day before. She had a slight smile on her face as she looked me over. Probably something about how red my face had gone. “Please follow me to the VIP section.”

“So, what do you think Damian? Do you like what you paid for?” Marion said with a sickly sweet teasing tone.

“You’re a damn tease,” I said with gritted teeth.

“Yup,” she answered without a shred of remorse. Which made the other ladies laugh, including the clerk.

“In all honesty, you all look beautiful, radiant even,” I said, and then added under my breath. “Maybe too beautiful.”

“Why thank you Damian,” Hannah teased. “Too bad none of us are available, huh?”

“I think any one of you could eat me alive, so no, it’s not too bad. And I’m happy that all of you have someone to share your life with,” I said, staring straight ahead. Concentrating on following the clerk instead of catching glimpses of the temptations around me. For a moment I wondered who the hell Petals, Hannah and Kira was seeing, but decided it was none of my concern.

“That’s sweet of you to say,” Kira said.

Nise came to my rescue when she asked the clerk a question, “I wonder why we’re being personally led to the booth? Last time I was here you summoned a glowing, floating ball of light.”

“You’re our very special guests today, which warrant some special treatment,” the clerk said and stopped in front of a double door. She had led us to the end of the corridor. Opening it she revealed a luxurious space, something that looked out of an ancient roman set, with reclining couches and trays of fruit. There were glasses and decanters next to each pair of couches. Instead of one large crystal like in the booths, there were a small one next to each couch.

The clerk gestured us in, “Please feel free to indulge yourselves, before or after the auction. The wine is an excellent vintage, and will provide a one hour buff to Spirit. The auction starts in a few minutes.”

“Thank you,” I mumbled. I had never received such a treatment from the auction houses before. Not even when I was a member of Dawnguard.

“Wow, if you bring me places like this, I might ditch my girl for you,” Marion stated with a whistle.

It took Robin two seconds to react with a, “Hey!”

“Just kidding, babe. Just kidding.”

“It is rather nice,” Hannah agreed.

I was not in disagreement, but I was focused on something more important. Once the auction started, one could not join it. I told the ladies as much, and they hurried to find a seat. So did I.

A few seconds later I found myself in a private booth, surrounded by the ladies. I was actually happy that no one could see us, since they would have attracted a lot of attention.

“Oh, there’s refreshment here too,” Nise said.

“Yeah, they don’t carry any effects over into the game world. So you can eat and drink as much as you want,” I informed her and the others.

“There’s chocolates!” Marion said in a loud voice before she hurried over to the table in the back of the booth with refreshments.

“God, she’s going to be riding a sugar high,” Robin groaned. “Can’t even tell her she’s going to get fat if she eats all that.”

“Exactly, so they’re all mine. Nice, chocolate covered strawberries.”

“Is it too late to put her back in the box?” Robin queried in a stage whisper.

“I heard that!”

“You were meant to.”

“Meanie.”

“Glutton.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too,” Robin said with a content smile. I felt happy that I had reunited the two of them. Now I just had to keep them out of the Coffins and safe from Marcus.

“Look, the auction is about to begin,” Petals said eagerly around a mouthful of grapes.

I watched the auctioneer start the auction. The first lot up on the block was a wyvernling, and I heard Nise take a deep breath, before she leaned forward to eagerly watch it. It was a beautiful creature, no doubt. Vicious too.

Her eagerness diminished quickly when the starting bid was 10 platinum. I chuckled, “You’ll probably find that some of the cheapest items in this auction is my two charms.”

“But they’re worth so much,” Nise protested.

“Not really, not compared to what they have for sale here,” I said as the final bid of 31 platinum was accepted. “It reminds me though, how are things? I’ve been too busy the last few days to really pay mind to anything.”

“We’ve noticed,” Marion snorted.

“Everyone except my husband has a class now,” Elize said. “I took the Healer class and Robert took the Heavy Warrior one.”

Nise spoke up next, “And I found an old farmer that lost his farmstead when the rabbits went crazy. He taught me how to be Farmer. It includes all of the normal agriculture skills and spells, so I can also raise animals. I’ve ordered some chickens to be delivered with the next shipment.”

“That’s good, what about Phil?”

“He’s become an Artist, there were some down on his luck Sculptor living close to our new house who taught him the class. He went with the broader Artist instead of only sculpting,” Elize said with a bit of pride in her voice.

“And if you’ve forgotten I took the Evoker class,” Marion said with a cheeky grin.

“Shield Warrior,” Petals said. Then added with a shrug. “Just incase he has gone senile.”

“I like that. I’m a Templar Assassin,” Kira said.

Robin laughingly added, “Ranger.”

“You know, I might consider losing my class worth it, just to spank the lot of you,” I said with a mock growl. With just made them laugh harder.

“Just so you know, this avatar is a Reporter, so no laying hands on me, or you’ll get banned,” Hannah said after a few seconds of laughing.

“Very funny. Could we pay attention to the auction?” I asked, and looked down at the stage where a rune covered helmet was being sold for seventeen gold.

“Spoilsport,” Marion muttered. After thirty minutes, I became excited when I saw the next item brought on to the stage.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a rare and exciting opportunity,” the auctioneer started his spiel. “This magic trinket is a new, never seen before in the history of Carn. It’s a Lucky Charm created and invented by the Outworlder Damian Heosphoros. This Charm was personally crafted by him. It raises luck by a single point.”

A loud muttering started to become audible as the crowd was talking excitedly. The auctioneer continued, “It does exactly what you think. It raises the success rate of all crafting attempts by one percentage point, no matter what tier you are at. Beginner or Master, it matters not. Also effects loot chances and anything else determined by Chaos. The standard value says five platinum, however, we’ll start at ten platinum. Do I hear ten platinum?”

A chorus of voices shouted, “Here.”

Who got the first bid I could not say, and I did not get a chance to look for whoever it was, because someone immediately shouted, “Thirteen.”

“We’ve thirteen,” the auctioneer said. “Now fourteen. Eighteen. Do I hear nineteen? Nineteen? Eighteen going onc—Twenty. We have twenty. Do I hear twenty one? Twenty going once. Twenty going twice. Twent—”

“Twenty four!” It was the same guy who had bid thirteen.

The auctioneer tried his best to raise the price over the next couple of minutes. “We’ve twenty four, do we have twenty five? Twenty four going once, going twice. Twenty four going thrice. Sold to Lord Akker.”

“Holy crap, twenty four platinum for a single Charm. How did you make them?” Hannah asked.

“Trade secret, but if you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll tell you,” I said with a smile. I knew it was a risk, but the secret would be out soon anyway, and I wanted to show I trusted her. Though she had not said anything about our last conversation, she did not look uncomfortable around me, which I took as a good sign. Also, with the altered plans, we would need someone to post the news we wanted the world to hear.

“Fine, I promise not to reveal the secret as long as no one else produces them,” she said and stuck out her hand.

I shook it. “That’s fine with me. Not to pry or anything, but any thoughts about our last conversation?”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” she said with a frown. “But as a precaution I’ve taken your advice.”

“Good.”

“Hey, look they’re bringing in your other charm,” Nise said.

Down on the stage the auctioneer said, “This is another example of the same item as was just sold. Same creator. And the last we offer today. We start the bidd—”

“Twenty platinum!” Someone shouted.

“Twenty four!”

“Twenty seven!”

The two next bid came fast, but no one else wanted to compete with them for it, and the second was sold for 27 platinum. The excitement in the crowd was high, but rose to a whole other level when they heard the auctioneer’s next words. “While we’re not auctioning off any more of the charms today. On the monthly auction of the Nine Great Auction Houses, we will be selling more Lucky Charms created by the inventor.”

“I can see that raising luck by one point is valuable, but they’re paying five times the value of the charm. Why?” Hannah asked.

“Because it raises all crafting skills, not just one. The fact that it’s only one point is why the price is not higher. It’s only crafters starting out that are really interested, or the poorer ones. Once you get to a high enough level you’ll be making a lot of coins and can easily buy runesmithed items that raises crafting proficiency by five percent in a specific skill,” I told her.

“Okay, now tell me. How did you make the charms?”

After telling her, I spaced out for the rest of the auction which ran for another five items. All I could think about were the 51 platinum—well almost 46 actually, after the fee was paid. Nevertheless, that was a lot of coins, and should cover more than ten percent of our monthly expenses if converted to credits.

If this was any indication of the prices I would get at the monthly auction, it was insane. Sure, the price might be a bit lower, but probably not by a lot. Which meant I was looking at around two hundred platinum or more after the fee had been paid.

“Now we don’t have to pay you back for the dresses,” Robin said.

“Huh?” Was my intelligent reply.

“The money for the dresses was just us having fun at your expense,” Marion explained.

Nise said, “We felt bad about it after you gave the tailor the money, and ran out of there. We were only teasing, none of us expected you to leave money and bolt.”

“Though the dresses looks great, I can buy my own virtual clothes,” Hannah added.

Looking at them, I groaned internally, before saying, “No, they’re a gift. I should’ve recognized that you were not serious, but I think it was a mistake worth making, because all of you look lovely.”

Before they could say anything, I did what I did best; I skedaddled. I woke up back in the VIP lounge, and before any of the others could come back I hightailed it out of there. I stopped briefly to pick up the coin before heading to the Temple to deposit most of the money.

Afterwards I returned to the inn where I changed into my normal clothes. It was when I was leaving the inn that the guild caught up with me. Ed was the one to speak up, “There you are Damian, we’re going to an old farmstead.”

“What old farmstead?” I asked, confused.

“The guy that taught me my class told me he had a root cellar with a lot of seeds,” Nise said. “If we would bring back some family keepsakes, we could keep everything else. Got this nice quest and all.”

“That’s good, but why do you need me?” I asked, looking around at them. Seeing someone missing, I asked, “Where’s Blaze?”

“Because you know a lot that might help us,” Ed said.

“Fine, but I don’t recal—know anything about this quest,” I said, and asked once again. “Where’s Blaze?”

“Right here,” he said from behind me. Seemingly just exited the inn, which was weird because I had not seen him in there. “Can we go already?”