Redd was having fun. And it was evident the young ‘uns were too, despite how they had yet to buy anything.

This was far from his first auction in life; but it was his first time experiencing the way they did it here, in downtown Dormata.

Around the city outskirts were other, smaller market places, ones where things were not sold at a premium, but where the rarer items also came around but once a month. And that was if you got lucky and there was someone clueless who’d grown or bred something good by happenstance. They were auctions for horses of every kind, and likewise with cattle and farm animals bred for the protection of flocks such as ostriches and donkeys, and even the occasional llemur, who was a strange, solitary creature that often showed up with no owner to be auctioned off on its own; where it would then happily come with you to live under your chicken coop and protect your flock from hawks and other predators–including some lesser magic ones, by way of its blowdart. All they charged as a toll was the occasional egg for breakfast, and you would on occasion even see them sitting in the yard, petting all the chickens.

They were one of Redd’s favourite critters, just for how humanoid they seemed, but while remaining so distinctly animal. The only downside was how they were known as impossible to find in the wild and only lived for a few years at most, almost like this was how they spent their retirement.

And of course there were other lesser auctions for all the mundane things that also grew on all the steadings surrounding Dormata, and that arrived by caravan as well. But all of those experiences paled to this. He realised now how they were mere cheap imitations, based on this ancient model in the beating heart of human commerce. One of the few.

A couple of hours went by, and the merely uncommon items like the raw materials and luxury goods for the frivilous crowd soon turned into a blur; but eventually there was always something pulse-raising up next: Just as soon as the end of each hour arrived–and by now it was high time for some more premium items.

The next showing turned out to be eye-catching indeed. It was a sword; but it had a strange curve and looked almost as if it was meant to be swung directly from the draw. Redd had heard it called a Dao, and the blade was thick enough to go straight through the neck of a charging bark boar with the right enchantment–but the Redd was less impressed than some in the crowd. During his time as a [Sergeant] Redd had seen his fair share break in the hands of inexperienced wielders who'd been equipped in a rush when joining up with the army. Although I doubt it would have happened quite so easily, had they been swinging that thing around.

The [Auctioneer] on screen gave it their best pitch. "Presenting, once more from house Shoal, our first premium sword of the evening: [Tsunsu, Austral Gust]" This time the projection showed the name in purple. Again with no further explanation for the colour, even Redd was unfamiliar with the type of Skill.

This blade was seemingly made out of ordinary metal, yet it had a strong yellow streak heading down the blade in the form of an arrowhead from the black and gold handle, and Redd could just barely perceive an aura of searing carnage emitting from it. The [Auctioneer] explained how the Enchantment was designed to extend your range by sending a [Cleaving Cut]-like effect powered by your own strike, able to reach a distance of two metres before extinguishing. But that was not all; the attack was empowered further, turning into a [Searing Cut], if you swung it with sufficient aptitude, which was all but guaranteed to happen as you leveled past your thirties: Although the auction house made it clear they had been unable to fully confirm the Class level this deeper bond would occur at; three independent experts had still verified this magnified portion of the Enchantment.

The bidding was fierce, as Redd would have expected from a weapon with such a presence, that somehow managed to still look brand new.

The starting bid was for 23 000 silver, but the extension was soon called despite how there was plenty of time remaining. Although he could not see every dark corner of the hall, Redd was luckily a high enough level to make out the participants from the glow of their bid paddles as they raised them.

The three fiercest bidders soon emerged as a masked lady in a sunhat–who seemed to want the item to study the Enchantment rather than to use it for herself–first took the lead. Followed by a Human warrior, who did not wear armour and had neither sheath nor holster for any weaponry, but who was in such remarkable shape that he had to be nearing level 40 in a warrior Class–and tightly stalked by the third rival, who was the earlier Foxkin that Livia had pointed out, who was previously meditating on the balcony.

The predatory Cultivator had on soothing white robes, but their demeanour was entirely switched from the previous outer tranquility now; with every raising of the stakes provoking another reaction.

The Caster lady had been trying to ignore her outbursts–but the bitch would not stop yapping, and the Foxkin's eyes were slowly turning a disturbing red. Once they passed 60 000, the apparent [Enchanter] decided to drop out, and the Foxkin seemed to calm down a bit and sat back down.

Right until the warrior made a bid for 61 000 with another raise of his paddle–while wearing a big, shit-eating grin on his face and looking boldly up at the balcony from his front row seat.

Of course that reignited the Foxkin’s fury once more, it took but a moment before she was yet again leaning over the edge of the balcony, looking like she wanted to jump across and tear into the man. Redd could feel waves of a savage aura coming off her, but the man seemed completely unperturbed.

The Foxkin woman focused up, and put in her bid for 62 000, and then dared the man to one-up her with a rude gesture.

He was standing with his arms crossed, relaxed but not vulnerable, and only looked at her with his fixed expression–as a tense ten seconds passed them all by.

Then he sat back down.

The timer was still ticking, and with a good 30 seconds left to go to the close.

The high level man let them all go by, just about. All 28 of them anyway, before he raised his paddle again, twice in quick succession–signalling a raise by 10 000 silver.

The Foxkin looked shocked, but then enraged. Nobody had raised by more than 3000 in this round before now, and even though 2 seconds was plenty for a high level person to react... She had not expected this. She was even granted extra time, as the timer was never meant to be used to close the show against an opponent who was unwilling to back down, it was only because the show must go on.

And nobody could deny this was good show.

A late bid made in the final 10 seconds extended the clock by an extra 3. As did the return bid, but the bid after that granted only 2 extra seconds. And then just 1 for your final shot… Resulting in your number of bids being limited, and ensuring you had to go big if you waited until those last moments to play your hand.

None of this helped the Foxkin; she had not been ready, and had to turn towards her lone companion–who had not made a bid all night–to try and salvage the situation.

The other Foxkin stammered a reply, caught completely flat-footed, but without agreement the bid would be termed illegal. You had to register any consensual co-bidders as you got your paddle to get around the rule; evidently the Foxkin had not planned that far ahead.

The delay caused the timer to go off, and the Human warrior immediately started laughing over his win, uproariously.

The Foxkin started shaking in her stoked wrath, and her companion looked terrified. But that was not where she aimed her anger.

Before entering the auction everybody had been disarmed and had their belongings stored in a Skill-enforced vault where you could withdraw the item yourself at any time, so long as you headed out the exit next.

Around the hall were posted variations of [Guards] above level 30–some of the best paid in the city–all sporting cudgels Enchanted to knock people out.

Everybody was still nervous: Foxkin were especially notorious for being deadly fighters with nothing but hand-to-paw. And you couldn’t exactly ask them to leave the fangs at the door.

Yet the man was still laughing, and he wasn’t even looking at the balcony any more.

The Foxkin turned and made ready to leap off the edge, getting so far as putting a foot up on the bannister and roaring just one word in her own tongue. “Yorr Dashy-Yas!”–and every cudgel in the room was off the belt in the next instant–but it was entirely unnecessary.

Suddenly surrounding the red-eyed Foxkin, whose aura was blazing more savagely than ever, were four other Foxkin, all wearing black robes.

They had appeared like; well, probably like what Livia just said. Redd couldn’t think of something, and after she said the word it got immediately stuck in his head. “Ninjas!”

They had the raging Foxkin–and her aura–subdued within seconds, and then the struggling Cultivator was carried out of the room, to every observers chagrin.

The tension of the moment deflated, and with the only sound the booming voice of the man who was still laughing, even the blue Ogre suddenly joined in. And he had such a great, high pitch laugh–so uncharacteristic to what a Human would expect–that suddenly the whole room was laughing with the release of tension.

The [Auctioneer] took but one moment to breathe a sigh of relief; and then two minutes later she went right on as if nothing had ever happened, a true consummate professional.

There was an intermission every third hour, and the second one was about to come up next, so they’d thankfully get a moment of respite to stretch their legs and discuss the drama.

And that was right when Redd caught sight of Livia’s eyes lighting up at the explanation for the next item that had just blinked onto stage via the broadcast.