The attendant takes the items from Jack and passes it over to the new person, Jack watches this person closely as they open the bottle causing the room to instantly fill with aroma, everyone nearby involuntarily shivers as they come into contact with the fragrance as it wafts about the room.

Jack watches the person with the veil closely, ensuring they do nothing with the items.

The veiled person's body flashes with a silver qi, Jack's inner energy stirs as the power pulses from this person in a single moment.

The veiled person places the pill back into the bottle, it speaks quietly into the ear of the attendant and walks away without even glancing at anyone else.

Jack has a smile on his face as he watches the veiled person walk away without delay. He wasn't able to tell much about the person who just showed up but he could tell at least one thing, it's a female under that veil. The silver qi she emitted was strange, it felt related to the silver qi or moon qi, yet it's clearly not as different colours...

 

Jack thinks for several moments when the conversation is finishing up between the attendant and Albert, "We'll pay you 25,000 gold per pill now, or you can auction it with a 10,000 gold reserve. We have a 25% fee for new participants but have a discount for higher volume."

 

"25% fee, that's ridiculous. Will we still have that fee if with this amount?" Albert passes over the ring with the most of the pills in them.

 

The attendant flicks through the storage ring with a smug expression. He takes a brief look at Albert's face before flicking through the storage ring losing his expression and flapping his mouth about, "How… How.. How do you have so many? These are ancient dan, the methods to produce them were… lost... Only people from her... my helper's clan can even attempt this sort. I believe I'll have authorisation to lower that fee down to 2%."

 

"Oh? That sounds pretty good, but can't you go any lower?"

 

"Sir, we aren't allowed to go any lower unless it's approved by the head office. With this amount you are qualified to be on the second special VIP section. You will be the first player to be on that level—

 

"WAAAAIT A MOMENT THERE!"

 

A man with green hair and an enormous hat on steps forward, he looks quite strange as Jack looks at him in his tracksuit looking costume. The attendant that has had an attitude shift is holding a small golden pin after retrieving it from a holder with many other colours.

 

"What Sir?"

 

"Sir? I think you mean, Lord. I am one of the Lords of this city and I deserve respect within the city limits."

 

"Si.. Lord, the auction pavilion is separate from the city so you will have to follow all rules. If you would like, then I'll get the auction pavilion manager to address your complaint. I need–

"No, don't bother him, I just want you to revoke the access to the VIP lounge to this filthy player. Look at him, surrounded by the filth from outside the city. The players should all stay downstairs with the riff-raff."

 

Another person who is dressed similarly steps forward, "That's right, I don't want to risk being near a player. You can never trust them as they can always respawn, who knows what sort of plot they're playing. We won't be able to relax."

"I agree. I won't feel safe with a player in there."

"I won't feel safe."

 

Several after people join in unison, many of the attendants don't know what to do. Jack raises his voice after feeling like this situation is going nowhere.

 

"If it'll shut these idiots up, I'll just go downstairs."

 

"Good. Go back to where you belong."

 

"Go back!"

 

..

Many other people join in the chorus of telling Jack to go back. He ignores it as he gets a dark grey tag instead of gold. Amber goes to get the same colour, but Jack stops her.

 

"You take Albert upstairs. I'll be alright down here plus it seems you'll be more welcome, take the escorts too."

 

"Lord..." the bunny assassin's say quietly before standing to attention.

 

Amber furrows her brows, "You'll let them win?"

 

"You think I'll let that happen? Just you wait..." Jack smiles as the attendant is about to walk away trying to calm down the rest of the crowd that hasn't heard the incident is revolved.

 

"If I need to sell more pills, can I just sell them mid-auction?"

 

"Sir, why don't you allow us to hold on to them? They will be safe with our long history we have never had an item stolen from our custody."

 

"Never eh?" Jack mutters under his breath sarcastically as he mulls it over. 

 

"I'll hand over some, but I want to keep a hold on to the more valuable ones. Will I be able to see that helper again?"

 

"I can arrange it Sir as you assisted me earlier, it would penalise me for getting the manager involved," the attendant's voice is quiet as he looks around.

 

"Understood."

 

Jack passes over the higher tier medicines, the tier 2 medicines that aren't as many but they're much more individually valuable.

 

The attendant's eye go wide upon seeing it but he speaks nothing as he hands over a receipt, "Thank you sir."

 

Jack shrugs as the attendant walks away. Amber and the rest of them join him as he looks at the food that's available. There's nothing available except wine, so Jack grabs a cup while surveying the room stealthily. Many eyes are on him with a hostile gaze, yet no one does anything as they turn their nose up at him as they make eye contact.

 

He sniffs the cup of wine and gets a really rich fruity taste in his nostril, he quickly downs it without tasting it.

 

"Ugh, it works, I guess?" he speaks looking for another cup.

 

"My Lord, we'll have to part shortly, so how will we communicate?" one of the bunny assassin's approaches him and asks him quietly.

 

"It's fine, don't worry about it. We'll have the helpers on the back," Jack turns his attention towards Albert, "You know what we're after?"

 

"Yes, Lord."

 

"Ok then go, I'll speak with the escorts."

 

Amber and Albert walk away while the bunny assassins come forward, they're dressed like civilians but they attempt to salute Jack.

 

"What do you have to report?"

 

"Lord, forces related to shadow sect are operating right now with interest towards you."

 

"Shadow sect?" Jack silently mutters as his mind thinks back to their encounter with suspected Shadow Sect earlier, "That's fine, just protect Amber and Albert. Do you have a method to communicate? I just need to be able to relay what's going on with my end."

 

"Lord, we will recognise your voice. Simply speak." the bunny assassin holds his hand up to his ears.

 

"Alright Go, make sure things work out smoothly and if anything comes up, then you have my authority to use whatever force is needed."

 

The bunny assassin's salute and return to their shadows, Jack approaches Amber and the brown-haired girl as Albert has gone off somewhere.

 

"Well, guess they don't like players here, I'm glad that you're not like them..." Jack leans in signalling to them to do so too, "Anyone I need to watch out for?"

 

"Well, the elders with feathers in their hats but the important ones are... the one with the purple sparrow and the one with the white tiger" the brown-haired girl points to the crowd, specifically stopping on two individuals that stick out. They match the description, Jack takes note of them with their animal icons that stick out.

 

"Thanks... I'll yell out if I need help."

 

Jack laughs and walks away, Amber and the brown-haired girl watch his back as he walks away.

"Will he be alright?" the brown-haired girl asks.

"I don't know, the people here seem to be agitated already and acting up in the entrance hall... That's never been tolerated, yet I haven't seen the pavilion manager. They should have arrived already, there might be things going on that we don't know about..." Amber lets out a sigh as she finishes her words.

"What should we do?"

"What should we do? Nothing, just be yourself as it's clear my Lord has some sort of plan."

"Ok" the brown-haired girl nods her head at Amber as they smile at each other, they watch Jack disappear in the crowd and return to their previous group, Albert is looking at the various displays with prices attached to them while Amber and the brown-haired girl float about the family groups talking.

Jack walks around with a smile on his face as the crowd makes way for him, his spiritual sense can pick up many people talking about him as they discuss what happened and how he managed to annoy those elders already.

His footsteps pause and scan the room looking for the veiled girl again, but he's unable to spot even a hint of where she is leaving him wondering about her.

*GONG*

Jack turns towards the sound, as does everyone else in the room where a large person is standing on the second level by a large gong, "We are now open, please enter!" the door swing open as a loud announcement resounds through the room yet doesn't come from the large person.

Jack takes a deep breath as he watches the doors near him open as he can see the splendour and grandiose area that is the auction pavilion hall, the lobby area is very well decorated yet it's nothing compared to the prestige simply emanating from the room as he looks through the doors.

He is the first one to enter the first floor where a male attendant greets him with a deep bow, "Sir, please follow me".

"Sure."

Jack follows the attendant as he looks around the hall. Many tables and chairs are setup but it all looks rather cheap. The attendant walks through several lots of tables and heads towards the front near the stage where 3 tables are behind a rope.

The tables behind the rope are much better quality than all the other tables, the chairs are covered in leather and padding while the table themselves seem to be made of high quality wood. The tables look rather luxurious, yet there's nothing to stop everyone else seeing who is at the table compared to the upper level that cannot even be seen from the lower level.

Jack shakes his head, "Is this the best you can do?" as he stops at the rope as the attendant pulls out a chair.

"Sorry Sir, we aren't permitted to change the first floor by decree of head office. We technically aren't even allowed to have this VIP section but the player situation is unique..."

 

Jack lets out a quiet, "Ah", as he takes a seat. His body sinks into the seat as the leather wraps around his body slightly, it feels great but as he looks around he can see the other players also enter.

 

They're two male players who are wearing rather expensive looking equipment from what Jack can see, the equipment is atleast tier 4 as he looks at the clothing, it has lots of patterns of creatures yet each of them looks like a shell. The other man is wearing glasses, his brown hair is tied back into a pony tail and he looks quite gentle but Jack can sense a vicious glint in his expression.

 

Jack nods at each of them, they each return a quiet nod and turn towards their attendant.

 

"Would you like a beverage? I cannot guarantee we'll get out to you during the auction, but we'll try."

 

"That's sort of slack, alright. I'll just grab several drinks and fill the table with food. I'll share whatever I don't like since you seem to act like it'll be a some sort of mob behind me..."

 

"Nothing like that, Sir."

 

The attendant laughs it off and walks away, the other attendants leave one by one as they're done with their respective player.

 

Jack settles in the chair and relaxes his mind for a moment as he thinks about where these players might be from. This doesn't last long as the entrance door swings open again. A large group of people walks in with their swagger, around 3 central characters. Jack can recognise 1 of these figures as the player that was outside previously.