“Sold,” Maya announced.

The next two items sold without much commotion as well.

The first item was taken by a lady in a dress while the other was taken up by one of the Celestial Devotee Generals.

“Gladiator’s Thorns,” Rick checked the description again.

[Gladiator’s Thorns]

A single seed of the elusive Gladiator's Shrub. When infused with the blood of the first user, half a kilometre wide circle of protective thorn protective enclosure is created around him.

Additional Information:

The thorns start withering after two hours.

“A protective artifact. Interesting choice,” he observed.

“Okay next item on the block is a Fixed Entrance Portal,” Maya said. There was nothing on display, so she explained, “For those of you that don’t know, the instructions on how to use it will appear as a notification for whoever makes the highest bid.”

“Excuse me,” Dale whispered bringing Rick’s thoughts back to the moment. “I am bidding for the next one.”

“All the best,” Samira encouraged him.

“Sure, we won’t bid against you,” Jay assured and Rick nodded in agreement.

Soft murmurs resounded throughout the hall as everyone checked the item one last time while others discussed it with their neighbours.

“Mr. Dale, this will not go easy. Many of them have used the portal before and know what it is. So whoever bids, probably want it for a specific purpose as well,” Rick said.

Dale gave a slight nod, “I expect the same.”

“The bidding will start at Five Blessed Stone,” Maya spoke up from the podium.

“I call five,” the first bidder called.

“Five and a quarter,” another raised.

The bidding began with fervour and within minutes the bid was at six and three-quarter Blessed Stones.

“Seven and a half Blessed Stone,” Azer raised his paddle.

“This- Looks like the Devotees are after the portal too,” Rick looked at Dale with a knowing look.

Dale nodded, “This won’t be easy.”

“Don’t start bidding right away!” Jay added.

“Twelve blessed stones,” a woman in the crowd bid.

The auction dulled, no one raising the price anymore a moment with no one increasing the bid any higher.

“Anyone with a higher bid?” Maya asked.

“Twelve and a half,” Dale said

Hearing his voice one after the other the Celestial Devotees looked back.

“Twelve and three quarters,” Eira immediately called.

“Very nice. Anyone bidding higher?” Maya smiled happily.

“Thirteen,” Dale obliged.

The bidding became furious again, calming down only when a Devotee bid.

“Thirteen and three-quarters,” the Devotee bid.

Seeing no one make a higher bid, the Devotees let out a collective sigh of relief.

But Maya did not bring the gavel down. Instead, she shook her head disappointed. With the gavel in her hand, she pointed it at the Devotee, “You don’t have the amount. You can’t bid if you don’t have the money to pay”.

The crowd broke into a collective glee at the Devotee General’s embarrassment.

A second General spoke up. “I will cover the balance.”

Everyone including Maya became silent.

“You cannot allow that,” a voice of protest spoke.

“Miss Manager, most of us here are alone so we don’t have anyone to share the Blessed Stones with,” a second person said.

“Bid accepted,” Maya said ignoring the raging discontent. “Anyone with a higher bid?”

“That’s not fair,” a young Hero sitting at the first row said, unable to keep silent anymore. “Shouldn’t we all be treated equally? This is cheating. You can’t allow this.”

The crowd got even louder with people on their feet. There were hateful glances thrown towards the Celestial Devotees as well, but no single individual was willing to take on the entire seven of them single-handedly. So the crowd egged on Maya, hoping to change her mind.

“Aren’t you cute,” Maya replied looking at the young Hero. She looked back up at the audience, “Do you think I am a nanny to judge good and bad? My job here is to make sure that the artifact is sold for the highest price.”

“Of course, as the Manager, I have the authority to deny admission and throw out anyone who creates a ruckus,” she added. “So where were we?”

Everyone understood the subtle threat and sank back down to their chairs

“Fourteen Stones,” Dale raised his paddle taking the cue.

“Okay, thank you,” Maya returned back to her chirpy self. “Anyone with a higher bid?”

“Fourteen and a half Stones,” another Devotee general bid.

Soon enough several short-term alliances started forming up and the bidding price continued to increase. But ultimate it was still the Celestial Devotees that ended up making the highest bid.

But it cost them as well. The final price of the Entrance Portal was at nineteen and three-quarters Blessed Stones.

“Why did you give up? We would have pitched in you know,” Samira said.

“It’s fine,” Dale said. “The cost was not worth it.”

Everyone had different needs. So when the Devotees made the last bid, Dale chose not to raise the paddle and gave up on the Entrance Portal.

“The next item on the block is the Annihilation Rock” Maya announced.

Rick did not pay attention to it. His mind was occupied with something different.

‘Even the Lemegeton did not know about the Portals either. So it must be something that God made recently in secret,’ Rick reasoned.

The Lemegeton could immediately produce the Beast Encyclopedia. But others were a different story.

Even humans were so unique, that the Lemegeton could not immediately gleam into their lives. When a human made an invention, only if other people knew about it would the Lemegeton know. So it made sense to him that God being an even higher being would definitely not be easily pried into

‘But I can still try to reverse engineer any of your invention that falls in my hands,’ Rick let out an unconscious smile gripping on the Lemegeton through the fabric of his coat.

When the Patch first arrived Rick had obviously checked on the Lemegeton to see if there was anything on the Entrance Portal, but there was nothing there.

The Lemegeton absorbed the knowledge he could find from the Entrance Portal he had, but it was unable to analyze it completely to create one. ‘I need to find other Portals for the Lemegeton to analyse.’

Rick snapped out from his thoughts just as the last item was sold as well. He sat by idle apart from chipping in a Blessed Stone to help Samira and then Dale to help them get winning bid.

Samira bought an Unending Whet-Stone while Dale got a quiver for himself. The only one who did not get anything was Jay.

“The things here are all auxiliary things,” Jay said. “I am going to save up the Stones for the next auction.”

“Well, with that we have reached the end of today’s round of auctions,” Maya declared throwing her hands in the air and brushing the blue hair off her forehead.

With that, the final item was sold as well. They had quite a good trip even though ultimately only Samira and Dale bought. But even that was good considering that the more than five hundred people strong crowd was eyeing for fifty artifacts.

Rick pushed his chair and stood up, and said, “I will see you guys outside.”

He made his way through the dispersing crowd, as he made his way to the front of the hall.

“Miss Maya,” he said waving at the blue-haired Manager of the Blessed Exchange.

She was looking out from her podium as the Hero’s gathered around the other end of the hall, not knowing what to do.

“Oh! Hey, I remember you,” Maya said. “Thanks for helping me out with the World Map back them”.

“Never mind that,” Rick replied. “I was happy to help.

“So,” Maya said. “Is that all?”

“No, no” Rick waved his arms. “I have an idea for the place.”

“Okay, let hear it,” she spoke with a polite smile.

“You said back at the auction that what you want is Blessed Stones, right?” Rick asked.

“Of course. The Blessed Exchange is not a charity after all”

“Well then. I have a plan with which you can earn Blessed Stone without even auctioning anything,” he said with a wide smile.

“That-that’s interesting,” Maya was intrigued now. “Go on.”

“There were nearly five hundred people here for taking part in the auction,” Rick stated. “But with so few things being auctioned, only a handful among all of us actually ends up buying. And this number will only increase.”

Maya nodded her head in agreement.

“So what if you allow us to set up shops in the Blessed Exchange when the portal opens the next time and in return, we will give you a rent amount for letting us use the land,” he continued. “This way you will have a steady flow of Blessed Stone coming your way besides the money from the entire auction”