Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Eighty-Six (Patreon)

"Don’t let that discourage you,” he said. “You’ve presented some fine items here yourself. With any luck, you’ll make quite a bit. If you have money on-hand already, you’ll have a good shot at the deed.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Beth said, though with a smile to ameliorate her tone.

“Of course, customer satisfaction is a priority,” he replied with a small smile of his own. “Now, as to the rest of the business. Seeing as how you are presenting items at the auction yourself, and quite good items at that, we can offer you preferred seating for yourself and your group. Sadly, all of our boxes are taken and will continue to be for some years, so those aren’t open, either for sale or rent.”

“So, what does preferred seating mean?” Beth asked with a raised brow.

“We have three tiers of seating. You can sit on the main floor, which is still rather nice, do not misinterpret me. Above that is the balcony seating, which is sets of tables with wraparound seats that each have their own privacy screens. Above those are the private boxes, which are much nicer, and private, of course,” he explained.

“Second floor table isn’t awful,” Beth said idly, though she already wanted a private booth.

“Sorry, the private booths simply aren’t available,” Tarvek said, as if reading her mind.

“We’ll see about that,” Beth replied with a cold grin, understanding where there was a will, there was a way.

“As to your participation, we are will to extend you a line of credit even before the items are sold,” he continued. “You can draw on up to a neutronium of credit even without selling anything or using any of your own coin. That is not a freebie, of course, but will come out of your earnings or needs to be paid back after the auction.”

“A neutronium is a lot to most people, but that’s scratch compared to what I have my eye on,” Beth said with a sigh, leaning back in her chair.

“I apologize, but that’s all we’re willing to offer as credit at this point,” he said.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Beth said, holding up a hand. “I understand you guys are likely giving a lot of people who are participating some form of credit for one reason or another. It’s still a lot of trust and I appreciate it, I just have my sights set on something crazy.”

“Right, I can understand your position as well,” he said with a small smile, handing her a token across the desk. “This acts as your invite and your pass to the auction house. Don’t lose it.”

“Right. You want me to drop the rest of the liquid with you?” Beth asked with a raised brow.

“Do you have a container for it? Or should we prepare one?” he asked.

“I prepared beforehand in case there was a lot of interest,” she answered with a chuckle.

She stood and moved to the side a bit and summoned a container, another product of Kris and Val’s, one that they had taken the time to prepare before came down. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a big square container that was able to hold the few thousand gallons of liquid that they wanted to sell. Tarvek moved over and examined the tank and the liquid, checking that everything was as promised and Beth hadn’t done anything suspicious. After confirming the liquid, he made it disappear, likely into a storage skill; Beth doubted someone who did the work he did had a storage item, which did have security, but they were still easier to steal and break into than a skill.

“You have anything else for me?” Beth asked after Tarvek took the container.

“Not unless you have anything else to sell or that you need,” he said, returning to his seat.

“Nothing,” Beth said, giving him a nod as she turned to leave. “Thanks for the help.”

“No, thank you,” he said with a chuckle, Beth sure he was quite happy with the goods they had brought to sell.

She wasn’t quite done yet, as she had one more stop before she could relax, and that was to make a few more sales, unfortunately. She loved earning money, but running all over the place and having to negotiate on prices often felt like a pain; she was hoping that she could eventually secure someone for the team that was willing to do all that work. Maybe she could even rope in a certain demon and angel, but the team would have to level up quite a bit before they were able to pull them in.

Her next stop was Seven Lights, as she still had to sell some of the cheapest stuff they had gathered. She had already dropped off the rarer things, those that were valuable but not auction worthy pieces, at the Black Ships, so now it was just what she considered the junk. That junk was still worth multiple mithril coins in total, if not a few dozen mithrils, but that was at the point of being chump change, at least in consideration of what they currently needed.

After taking care of that errand, which took a couple hours, she returned to their house, heading back to Zephyr Prime to take a little time to work on her crafting while they waited for the big day of the auction. It was still a few days out, and they had time to do whatever they wanted in the meantime. Beth had half expected Mortaine or someone to show up out of the blue with a new request for them, but that didn’t happen, which was a bit of a relief. At the same time, Sera was missing in action for the next two days, though Beth knew exactly what she was up to, even if she didn’t know her exact location.

While her wife was otherwise occupied, she got to work, having her gate open in the house to the residence area so the team could all take advantage of the time dilation to work or relax, as they chose. They didn’t really need to be leveling right now, so there was no reason for her to have it open to somewhere to fight, so the residence was best. She spent the equivalent of a few days in the forge, working on her latest piece with some help from Erosh, who pointed out some flaws in her technique. She was at the point where she was starting to try to use runes as part of the crafting process, which was early for a Master, but if she could create something rather good with those techniques, it would push her to Grandmaster and set up a good foundation for when she wanted to push to Sage.

That was what the Empyreans insisted, anyway, and Beth didn’t find any materials that made her question their assertions. She worked for a week before taking a break, having finished the first piece but not at a high quality, meaning she didn’t really get any progress from it, other than the little bit she learned from the practice of forging it. After a day of rest she was back at it, though the eight days hadn’t even been a full day on the outside. Her second went better, but she was still having trouble getting the knack of it, forging a level two hundred rare piece of equipment, which certainly hadn’t been what she had been going for.

“Don’t get frustrated,” Erosh said, leaning against one of the four workbenches in the room, making it creak a bit ominously. “Rune crafting takes a lot of time. It’s why most people never become Sages, you know.”

“It’s just annoying,” Beth sighed, tossing the piece somewhere in her necklace. She need to do an inventory sort soon. “I just wish I could get a grasp of it quicker. I’ve spent a lot of time studying runes and working on my crafting, bu tit doesn’t seem to be meshing well. I also have super good senses now, even if they’re a bit uneven with some of my mana senses being better than others. I would like to think I have everything I need to do a good job.”

“It’s a real skill, and I mean that in the sense that it’s something that takes enormous practice and understanding,” Erosh replied, shaking his head. “It took me decades to work it out. The fact that you’ve only practiced it for a couple years of subjective time, spread out over a lot of time spent fighting and doing other things, is already great. It will take you years before your forging using entirely runes and special techniques; it’s the path to Sage and beyond, but it’s not easy.”

“I just have to keep working at it,” Beth said, glancing up as someone walked into the forge. “Oh, back from your little jaunt, huh?”

“Don’t be feisty,” Sera chided, walking up and planting a firm kiss on Beth. “I don’t think she’d mind you joining in, if you know what I mean.”

“Sorry, just grumpy about my progress,” Beth said, wrapping her arms around her wife and squeezing before lifting her off the ground and giving her a little spin around. She set Sera back down before smooshing her face into the center of the woman’s rather impressive chest, most of Beth’s head disappearing for more than a minute.

Eventually, she popped back up for air, saying, “Ah, that’s always so refreshing.”

“Ha! I’m glad you like my boobs so much,” Sera replied, not able to contain the laughter.

“Lot more than like,” Beth muttered before giving Sera another kiss.

“So, what has you all fired up?” Sera asked.

“Just trying to craft using only runes,” Beth answered with a sigh. “I’m able to actually complete some things here and there, but they’re pretty trash items, like, trash even by our old standards from years ago. I just can’t seem to get the hang of it, no matter what I try.”

“And I keep telling her it’s more difficult than she thinks,” Erosh added, having not moved even after Sera entered. “She wants to be a Sage in a week! Ha! It took me twenty years to get to Grandmaster and more than a hundred and fifty to get from there to Sage. This isn’t going to be something any of you do in a weekend. Not even prodigies at crafting get to Sage quickly, and some of them can do complex recipes with their eyes closed.”

“That’s good to know, I guess,” Beth said, not really all that placated. “I guess I can set it aside for now. Not like I’m making much progress.”

“Come on. Let’s relocate,” Sera said with a laugh.

Beth followed her out of the forge, Erosh disappearing as they left, though that was just because he returned to the reliquary. Sera led Beth up to their bedroom in the residence, which got a raise eyebrow, but clearly the dragon was still very much ready to go. They showered together first, mainly because Beth needed it after the last few hours in the forge without a break, though there was less fire and soot in crafting with runes. It was still intensive, sweaty work, and there could still be some dirt and grit from the process, so cleaning off before doing anything else was basically a must.

A few hours later, after they had had their fun, It was getting close to time for the auction to start, and they would need to both travel there and wait in line. Beth expected the auction venue was going to be full to bursting and it would take a while to get in. They left about five hours before the auction was to start, or maybe just under, and it took them close to two hours before they were in the rather long line that had started to form at the auction venue. It took an hour for them to get to the front, and that was already pretty good considering how many people were trying to weasel their way inside. Beth simply presented the token she had been given and they were whisked away by an usher.

The second floor balcony at this place was both larger and fancier than what it was in the Seven Lights venues. There were maybe eighty table spread out around the balcony, all with a semi-circular style seating arrangement around them that was of one piece. It was large enough, and adjustable enough, that not just Sera, but even Bjorn could fit into the seating without them having to do any sort of…constructive modifications. They were probably the largest party that was on the balcony, as all nine of them were there, but they still all fit at the table comfortably. They had a good view of both the first floor, which had seating for over a thousand guests, and a decent view of the stage itself.

Like Seven Lights had in their private boxes, the table they were at had a pad that let them view the current item up for auction and make bids on it. They could also set the privacy screen to any setting they preferred, including keeping their words from getting out, any sound but the stage from getting in, or totally sealed. Beth set it to keep what they were saying from getting out to start, glad they were able to use the pad to bid and didn’t have to yell it out or anything.

They watched as the venue filled, more people arriving and being escorted do seating on the first floor, and more groups being ushered to second floor tables. It was mostly groups on the balcony level, though there were two individuals that came alone. Beth supposed it didn’t matter if they here by themselves, as it was unlikely anything untoward was going to happen at this venue, nor even afterwards. There was a certain point of pride in assuring customers of their safety even after leaving the building, so coming alone really wasn’t a big detriment. It didn’t take a whole team to press the bid button, after all.

Beth was sure the third floor was filling up, too, but they had no insight into who or what was transpiring up there. The whole floor was sealed off and couldn’t be seen like the first and second could, though the private boxes had one-way windows that they could use to observe the first two floors and the stage at their leisure. The waiting went on for some time until the place was full, but the start didn’t happen for almost a full hour; Beth could only guess it was the third floor holding everything up as important persons arrived right at the starting time.

Once everyone was there, presumably, the auction began, with an incredibly beautiful woman stepping out onto the stage in a rather revealing dress. Beth was not at all surprised, as it was one of the oldest tricks in the book, nor was she surprised with the security she could be see and sense waiting in the wings. If anybody got up to anything today, it would be a very brief, very final acting out on their part. At least, for most people; she was pretty sure she could take all but the strongest of the security personnel herself, even the one she felt was an Ascended.

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