[The auction goes on.]

Lia exits the room and comes back soon later with a necklace.

With the new object in his hands, Ben begins to explore it. The artifact indeed has protective measures implemented, but as Ben predicted, this isn’t its only usage. Between the superficial structures, Ben finds a design he still remembers quite well.

In the past, he was utterly played with, as he failed to discover the workings of a similar piece of mastery and ended teleported away to a small island in the middle of nowhere. As a result, Ben spent so much time playing stranded that the memories of the design entrenched themselves very deep in his mind. He couldn’t forget it because of the anger it caused him.

Although Ben knows of the design usage, he doesn’t know who made it or how old the technology is. However, at the very least, he is sure that the one who made it is a freak of an Array Master because the extra functionality is too well hidden!

After thinking further, Ben decides to be extra careful with this key, or else who knows where he will end up next. Besides, he still has the same conclusion he did back then: the person who did this must be trolling, or why else would they send someone to such a weird place.

‘The danger is much clear if the builder is a known prankster. Generally, the feeling of safety when using such unknown treasure rises from the idea that most were assembled to protect someone. However, if we remove that basis, the use of anything with such obscure origins which involves such dangerous matter is insanity.’

Despite being slightly afraid of its maker, Ben still keeps in his mind the way to activate it. Whatever it may entail, the artifact is still some high-end technology. Some use for it may appear someday.

Some time passes, and the auction eventually arrives at Ben’s third target. Looking at the object, Ben can’t hold back his smirk.

‘Why does it look like a deformed doughnut? Couldn’t they make it in the shape of a slab or cylinder? Why try something like that if they know they can’t process the material thoroughly.’

The deformed big doughnut is a spirit energy stabilizer. A suitable treasure to use against the after-effects of big battles. Yet, the reason for its deformation is due to this world’s standard incapability to process its material efficiently.

The material is semi-transparent, and at first, it looks like some crystal. However, don’t be mistaken since it is more comparable to some unusual hybrid between metal and natural plastic. Its weird mix of characteristics makes the material unsuitable for use, despite its final form dealing well with Spirit Energy.

‘Such a waste, if they want to make a simple stabilizer, they can do so of some other materials. No need to use Solapis. Oh… Maybe they didn’t have who to sell it to, so this is the better way to cash it. That would make sense. Still, a slab would look much better.’

[…]

“810, VIP13 bids 810!” […] “Going once, going twice, sold! N11-31 sold to VIP13.”

As the items sold, the price of the final bid steadily increased.

‘Ouch… That price hurts, even when I am not paying it. The last one may reach 1200…’

Not long after, the object arrives at Ben’s hands. Looking at it closer, he can’t but laugh at it. ‘Such a shit job.’ [laughs]

Noticing Lia holding back, Ben asks her: “Don’t you think they did a bad job?”

“It is an amazing artifact.” She answers.

“Too much of a waste.”

“You still bought it.”

“I am more interested in melting it… Hopefully, the right circumstances will appear.”

An expression of interest appears on Lia’s face momentarily, but it soon disappears. She is surprised because not many would buy such a thing to melt it again.

After finishing joking about it, Ben stores the item away.

A few more bids happen, but before his last target’s bidding begins, Ben turns his chair around and looks towards the door. A frown appears on his face.

‘Why is someone from that wicked clan of Srok coming here? Did they connect my past identity to now? No… I nearly forgot I am not in the middle of nowhere anymore.’

His mind becomes super active. He then comes up with his best prediction in a few seconds.

‘That technique was quite uncanny, so maybe that purple Elder has some connection with them. Is New Horizons in cahoots with them?’

Unfortunately, Ben doesn’t have much time to think about conspiracies, and he cares little if the geopolitical shape of the continent changes or not. Deciding on his next step, he begins to talk to Lia.

“Can you pass a message to my patron?” he asks.

“Sure,” Lia says while slightly confused by this elder actions.

[knock, knock]

“Tell him that a wild Canor appeared! Hence, I had to break the toy, despite it being such a good gift.”

The door opens, and from outside, someone begins to introduce the newcomers.

“VIP13, your friend Elder Summer has…” however, the guy is interrupted by the two guests immediately entering the room in the middle of his sentence.

Looking at them entering, Ben has in his left hand the necklace and his right hand on his pants’ right pocket.

“Additionally, repeat those sounds for him: < Later, alligator! >” Ben says, as he throws the necklace towards the two guests.

Elder Summer readies himself to intersect the object, but the member of the Canor Clan at his side stops him, pushing him a few meters back outside the room.

The object in the air wriggles, and the beads shatter. The surrounding space distorts and crackles. In this instant, the area’s protective Array activates in full force, sending rays of energy towards the necklace. The resulting rumble can be felt all around the Auction House.

Around Lia, a white glow appears. Her unbelieving eyes focus on Ben, who became surrounded by a golden radiance.

Not missing the opportunity, Ben’s right hand activates the golden statue in his pocket. He uses the opening caused by the activation of the necklace’s spatial ability to more easily pass through this building dense and layered protective measures.

At the critical point, he teleports away. The golden radiance flashes and another point of spatial distortion appear, causing the surrounding energy to destabilize. A loud sound, like thunder, echoes throughout the city, surprising everyone.

[RUMBLE]

After noticing the second phenomenon, the system divides its attention to settle both issues. As a result, the second shower of energy bursts towards the VIP chair, but the array was too late. A few seconds later, once the measures stabilize the area, Ben is nowhere to be seen. In his place, a one-meter golden totem sits, cracked.

“Wow,” Lia whispers.

The white glow that envelopes her slowly goes away after the surroundings calm down.

At the door, the Elder in purple, who is now in the ground, has a shocked expression, and at his side, the middle-aged man shows interest. Fortunately, for them, the system of Arrays’ unusual and fast reaction warned Canor so he could respond promptly.

“Your friend is gone,” says Mr. Canor, as he looks at the surprised Elder at his side.

“Ah, ah… oh,” the elder can’t find his words, but he still stands up from the ground, confused and shocked.

“How unfortunate we will not be meeting our brother today. Maybe he had something urgent to deal with.”

“Right, right, yeah.” Summer responds.

Inside the room, Lia talks with someone using a small communicator, and, in the theater, after stopping for a moment, the auction restarts again.

The two men turn and try to leave like they had nothing to do with the trouble, but someone interrupts.

“Since both esteemed guests came all the way here, why don’t you stay for a talk,” Lia says in a clear and loud tone, as she arrives at the door.

“Oh, Lia Clearsky, I haven’t seen you there. How have you been going? Long-time no see.” Mr. Canor says as his smile twitches a bit.

Lia doesn’t immediately answer. She activates the protective system, so the room is confined. Then, she leaves the room and closes the door.

Outside, she looks at the two uninvited guests and says: “Follow me.”

The two can only follow her. Now surprised even more, since they didn’t expect to see such an influential character in this room.

—

[RUMBLE]

The loud sound echoed in Ben’s ears.

In an instant, he finds himself elsewhere. It is dark, and he feels suffocated. Moreover, it doesn’t take long for his whole body to become thoroughly wet since some sticky matter surrounds him.

Ben tries to move around, but he finds it extremely difficult. Then, he disperses his spirit sense until he finds an open area. After digging his way out with much difficulty, Ben finally finds the above ground.

‘Another buried experience… Great!’ thinks Ben, as he has some difficulty to breathe. He feels some deep discomfort. Yet, that is to be expected, since using such treasure is always highly painful, but fortunately, Ben had something else in his hand to pave his way out. Otherwise, the protective arrays in the auction house would have caused even more damage to his body.

From within the ground, he crawls. Ben’s appearance rivals that of a horror movie.

His wet clothes glued to his body clearly shows his skinny structure. And despite being covered in black mud, his wrinkled skin can be seen slightly.

While covered in filth, the only thing that doesn’t seem to belong to the earth is his eyes moving around as it checks the surroundings.

As Ben slowly crawls out, the ground flows in, filling the gaps left behind. Because of its weird consistency, he finds it difficult to stand up, but he eventually succeeds.

When he begins to walk around, funny slurping sounds echo in this cold and wet forest.

Once he stands up, Ben notices that the black mud isn’t exclusive to the area he popped out. The black ground goes as far as he can see. However, he can’t see much since scattered high trees and bushes are everywhere in this place.

Notably, this place is quite cold. It seems that rain stopped not long ago, and Ben feels he should be quite high up.

After looking a bit more, Ben finds a big rock a dozen meters away. He walks towards it and sits on the solid surface.

Once he sits down, he removes handful after handful of black soil glued to his skin. He takes off his shirt too, as it has gained a new color.

There he stays catching his breath.

‘Doing this is never fun. My body feels so wrong. Ah… Where am I?’

Ben looks at the back soil in his hand and notices his skin beginning to tingle. ‘It is trying to erode my body… I feel even more alienated. First-class experience.’

Ben readily removes all his clothes and takes from his ring a fist-sized blue spirit stone.

He stands up and hovers the stone above his head. Once he inserts a bit of energy in it, water begins to condense around the stone. Following, the volume of water increases and Ben quickly washes himself off all the black soil. After making sure he is clean, Ben chooses some new simpler clothes and stores the blue spirit stone away.

He throws his dirty clothes to the ground but chooses to ultimately not burn it off since he senses some flammable gas in the air.

Now with appropriate shoes, he gets off the rock and walks north.

‘Walk, walk, walk! I hope I can find some cavern without much trouble.’

Not long after, Ben takes a piece of special paper and a pen from his spatial ring. On the paper, he draws a complicated pattern before folding it.

Once done, the origami flies into the air like a butterfly. It soon goes higher and higher. Only stopping once it is a few dozen meters higher than the trees around, then it hovers.

Once he notices it reached enough height, Ben covers his right eye with his hand while closing the other. A small amount of energy gathers around his hand, activating the long-distance observing technique. As a result, Ben’s visions on his right eye shifts to the high ground position. First, he observes his surround, before finally deciding the direction he needs to go after he notices to his east a change in the distant landscape.

After finding where to go, Ben immediately uncovers his eyes and begins to move. Above, the little origami burst into flames once the technique stops.

—

Later, after walking for many hours, Ben arrives at a more welcoming area. The ground is more firm, the air has no flammable gas, and the trees look more lively.