Chapter 120: The First Surprise

Alister Kim had rented a suite in BlackHole Coliseum, calling a temporary ceasefire with the group. After the single man raid on his primary compound during his off-realm trip, he was far too agitated to even think straight, deciding that a break was necessary.

After seeing that the leader of the BHC, his rival was competing, he’d had one of his many operatives obtain the personal code to watch Carter Gestalt compete, and had been absolutely underwhelmed until halfway through the first day everything changed. He and his employees had been bored up until this change occurred, quickly finding themselves chanting with the rest of the audience.

He’d glared at Seven and at his own wife who’d picked up the chant almost as soon as it started, but by the end had joined the dozens of employees and guards he’d allowed to come with him.

After the interviews, activities within the Coliseum had quieted to a certain degree, but even that didn’t last. A large auditorium had opened up for guests to mingle with one another, and much of his staff left to see the festivities. The only ones left in his suite, himself, his wife, and Seven.

Alister Kim paced, annoyed at the creativity being explored all around him, only for things to get worse. The large holo screen in his room pinged with a message, and the man looked over, confused by the sound, until a message popped up on his screen, accompanied by a sweet voice.

“Hello guest of BlackHole Coliseum. As a guest of our fine facilities, you have been selected to join in an exclusive auction being held tonight. If interested, please select "yes" on the station table within your suite and pay the admission cost to join,” the hologram of a rather beautiful woman offered pleasantly. Alister Kim’s eyes narrowed and he placed a hand on his forehead.

“And just when I started to believe that I wouldn’t be surprised by anything else today…” Alister mumbled underneath his breath before he turned to Seven. The young man didn’t even look up, responding as he took his feet off the table he’d rested them on and strode over to the room’s station table.

“On it, boss,” said Seven, paying the cost to enter the auction without receiving a single word from Mr Kim. Who’d just sighed and looked toward his wife who shrugged in his direction before his attention was pulled back toward the hologram wall screen.

“Thank you for taking this opportunity,” said the young woman on screen. The view panned out and showed a large empty stage. Guards standing on all sides of the area were shown, and with a bow, the presenter showed the first item up for bid.

“Our first item, the entire skeleton of a low born dragon,” said the presenter, and the stage opened up like the hatch to a missile silo, before a platform was raised up to reveal the bones of a drake.

“You have got to be sparking kidding me…”

Alister continued to curse, over and over and over again. His shock and awe shared by every other person who’d paid the admission cost, and Seven’s flatscreen began to ring all while dozens of messages tried to come in all at one time. The stuttered sound of the handheld device distorted even further by the number of messages that continued to pore in.

“What do you want me to do, boss?” Seven was yelling, looking between his phone, not truly knowing who to answer on the device firsthand, and back at the dropped jawed Alister.

“Don’t be an idiot, bid, bid bloody right now!”

The price on screen was steadily on the rise, meeting hundreds of millions of credits in mere blinks. Seven kept bidding but he was outbid faster than he could press the button on the station table he stood in front of.

“Should I keep going or do you want me to back out?” Seven’s voice cracked under the pressure of what he was seeing. The young man had become rather wealthy, and anything under the trillion credit mark was mere pocket change to Alister but even still the half billion price tag that continued to rise made Seven nervous.

“You keep betting until you hear me state otherwise, boy!”

Mr Kim’s wife was on her feet and by his side, clutching at his arm. The woman’s adrenaline was reaching an incredible height.

“We could, we could, we—“ The woman stuttered with excitement.

“I know, dear, let me focus!” The grip on his arm was almost as impressive as the sight on screen. The price continued to rise, as the value of the item being sold was nearly immeasurable.

Alister wanted the bones most likely for the same reasons everyone else who bid wanted them. Refined dragon bones could be used to start the Cultivation process in a mortal. Raise the power of Cultivators regeneration. The capacity of a core, and even heal injuries that stopped a Cultivators growth entirely.

The only thing more valuable to Cultivators were dragon and phoenix hearts, as those when preserved could grant a cultivator with new abilities, skills, legacies, access to a multitude of elemental affinities, and more. As Mr Kim had long worried over the lifespan of his mortal wife, he would give his entire fortune for a single dragon bone, let alone the entire skeleton.

“Boss…” Seven spoke up when the price point reached a billion credits.

“Just keep on bidding boy, my wife isn’t the only one who will become a cultivator if we win that sparking drake skeleton, do you understand,” said Alister with a pointed look at Seven, who nodded in understanding, pressing the button on screen even faster than he was before. Mr Kim was his adopted father, and though he was a shady business man on occasion, he’d never lied to his son, ever.

“Yes, Father... I mean yes, sir!”

…

Troy strode into a hallway full of activity still wearing her mask. She had no clue what was going on but every person she saw was running. She’d been bumped into a hand full of times, and the person on the ground in front of her had collided into her, and after Troy lifted the young man onto his feet, he darted off without a single word.

What in the bloody embers is wrong with, people.

Tired of being out of the loop, Troy strode up to a guard standing at the entrance to the series of suites she headed toward. Gave the man a nod, which he returned and asked what was going on to have so many people so frantic, assuming that a fight must have broken out, and that maybe someone had died.

“No, Tsarista, the auction has begun, and many here are frantic to win the first item being displayed currently, nothing major,” stated the guard simply. Troy nodded slowly, and almost walked off, but continued to question the man.

“All this over a simple auction, what could your leaders be offering that could be so valuable to cause…” Troy trailed off, pointing toward two women picking themselves up off the ground, cursing violently at one another after they two had collided with one another.

“I’m actually not suppose to be speaking about that, Miss, I only even spoke up as...” The guard leaned in to whisper.

“I truly enjoyed watching you today, I got a lot of money riding on your victory. Troy smiled though the sight went unseen, nodding slowly.

“Is there anyone I could ask that could let me know?” The man shook his head in answer.

“Unless you already know someone who joined the auction, any and all information is limited to those who paid the admission cost to bid,” whispered the man once more.

“Hmm, thank you. Your help is very much appreciated,” said Troy before she walked off.

Of course you would make the staff stay closed lipped, Arson… hopefully I know someone who paid to join, Troy thought, striding up to the suite she’d had difficulty finding.

She knocked on the suite door, and a familiar voice spoke up, and Troy waited for the woman to answer the door. Another smile stretching across her face, only this time the gesture didn’t go unseen, the woman returning her smile as she greeted Troy and waved her inside.

“Hello, girlie, you look good,” Almarine said while stepping aside to let her enter.

“Why did I know that I wouldn’t be able to hide from you? Mask or not,” said Troy, taking off the mask, her eyes changing from yellow and red, to their original blue and green. Almarine closed the door behind Troy, and the pair walked into the living room of the suite Almarine had rented for her stay during the tournament.

It was then that Troy saw the drake skeleton being sold on the wall screen on the opposing side of the room and gasped.

“Holy heaven’s fire, is that a bloody drake?” said Troy with a point toward the skeleton on screen.

“Why yes it is, my dear, and your Arson has no idea what he’s stirred up with this little stunt, and since this is the very first item being auctioned, I bet things are only going to become more outrageous from here,” Almarine said smiling even broader.

“Why does that serial number keep changing in the corner,” Troy asked, sitting on one of the many couches in the room. Almarine sitting beside her and picking up a plate of appetizers to offer her daughter.

“Don’t be silly, child, that is the price of the bid in the corner. Troy’s mouth dropped open and her gaze shot to Almarine.

“No…”

“Yes…”

Another voice could be suddenly heard yelling in the other room, and Troy glanced away from the Orphan Mother and toward the sound. Troy’s eyebrows raising in question.

“Winter is reporting in. Graveyard wants him to start bidding on the drake, and any other items of equal or greater value, something about not wanting power to leave the realm,” Almarine said, rolling her eyes at the same time as Troy. The two giggled noticing that they mirrored each other.

“So how is Adroit? I see you have learned a lot,” Almarine asked changing the topic.

“Probably the best experience of my life, but I miss Arson everyday, and I’m starting to believe I would even if our souls hadn’t bonded,” the young woman admitted to herself and her mother. Almarine nodded, smiling.

“Well it doesn’t help that the little man has had a crush on you even before I sent him to be your roommate when he was younger, I never thought all of this would occur, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t absolutely elated for you both, not many Cultivators are lucky to find a partner as young as you two have,” Almarine said, divulging truths that would make Arson blush, but instead made Troy’s face bloom a bright, rose red.

“You're kidding, no way. He never told me that,” Troy said looking away in embarrassment.

“And who would child, Arson has never even considered the thought of entertaining the pursuit of anyone but you, and until your bond was acknowledged by the system, I’m sure he believed you would never come around to feeling the same, it wasn’t even until you realized he had closed the gap in age that you even considered it to be a possibility for yourself,” Almarine stated laughing more to herself than at Troy.

“I know things are different in Cultivator culture, but the thought of love scared me, and then it didn’t. Poof,” said Troy with a snap of her fingers.

“It's hard not to feel like my emotions are being controlled by some sort of external forces. Do I really feel this strongly or is it the system manipulation,” Troy said looking away. The feeling of shame at her own thoughts apparent on her face. To be loved was already scary enough without there being anything external influencing the emotion. Troy felt embarrassed at how easily she’d accepted the love from Arson, jumping into an adult relationship without ever even experiencing the slightest of attraction to anyone before.

She felt there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for her best friend, and knew he felt the same, but didn’t want to force him to be stuck with her for all of time, especially if it wasn’t his decision and had been thrust upon him. She didn’t want to be alone, but would be if she found their love to be a lie.

“Don’t be silly, child. I’m sorry to tell you this but the system was built without the ability to influence emotions, my son sacrificed his life for its birth, and this was one of many things he made sure was impossible. You and Arson have a love as real as any other love stumbled upon and explored since the beginning of time, the bond couldn’t and wouldn’t have been formed otherwise, so fix your face, you aren’t an immortal yet and you don’t want to have frown lines permanently imprinted on your forehead for all eternity, do you?” asked Almarine with a laugh.

“Are you serious?” Almarine nodded.

“You wouldn’t believe how many Cultivators I’ve seen trying to find ways to remove the marks of age from their bodies—“

“No, not about that, Momma Almarine. I mean about what you said about our soul bond?” Almarine nodded again.

“Yes dear, it may not have been the way either one of you wanted to find love, nor will it be a story you rush to tell everyone you meet, but that is life, and you shouldn’t be embarrassed or ashamed by being loved without condition or constraint.”

Troy finally smiled, and glanced back toward the number still rapidly rising on the screen beside the pair. She shook her head, thoughts of worry washed away by the sight of the drake bones being sold for hundreds of trillions of credits. A chuckle bursting from her involuntarily.

“Well I could have ended up with a broke dude..” The women side eyed each other before they bursted into laughter.

“Well you know what they say about broke men, don’t you?” Almarine in a conspiratorial whisper, leaning in toward Troy as the younger woman shook her head.

“They are rather good lovers. Trust me, I know from personal experience,” stated Almarine her brow rising suggestively as she spoke, glancing toward where Winter still yelled in the bedroom. Troy’s blush returned and the next yell that came from winter rang throughout the whole suite.

“Hey, I heard that!” Winter charged into the room and the pair looked away as if caught amidst a scandal.

“Don’t be telling that girl things like…” Winter’s statement cut off once he saw the price on screen still rising.

“Son of a bloody ember,” cursed the man, looking back between the women. His gaze falling on Troy.

“You wouldn’t mind doing me a favor and telling your man to stop this spectacle. This is going to get out of hand if we don’t do something quick. A war could start across the realms if any powerful individuals feel slighted or cheated,” asked Winter. Troy glanced at Almarine who shrugged, and Troy could only shake her head before she looked back at Winter.

“Sorry, Uncle Winter, I’m technically not even supposed to leave Adroit Academy’s dungeon campus until I graduate, students of the academy aren’t even supposed to leave with the smallest bit of knowledge before it's an absolute certainty that we aren’t a danger to ourselves or the realms. I’m not even supposed to be talking to you two at the potential threat of an inter-realm incident,” Troy admitted reluctantly, both hands raised in defense. Winter closed his eyes and nodded before he turned around and went back into the bedroom still yelling in frustration at the demands being put on his shoulders.

“Ignore him, he’s stressed, but as you stated dear, you shouldn’t be here, so why are you?”

“Because Arson is at risk. A few of the administration members from Adroit Academy have been dispatched to remove him as a threat. He’s done something to increase the success rate of students trying to gain admission into the dungeons campus, and they handle that one way and one way alone…”

“And that is?”

“Absolute sabotage.”