The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 266: Auction and purchase

It had been a while since Amiya and I were drinking wine, and more and more VIPs started arriving, filling up the place. Although 7 VIP spots remained empty, so more important people could have come and had a place to stay. Among the VIPs, I don’t know anyone directly, but I know a few from books.

I can say they are the elite of the elite in the kingdom, even though they’re dressed in fancy items and accessories, they can’t hide from me, who is hundreds of times stronger than them.

But I don’t care about that, what really matters is the auction. Amiya got a ”little” drunk because the wine was strong, so she ended up falling asleep, completely wasted from the wine’s effects.

After 10 minutes with all the spots taken, a woman appeared on the big stage. She introduced herself as Serena a redhead with red eyes, a well-endowed figure, and an arrogant posture and face.

Her outfit is a black pants and blouse with golden jewelry and some relics. She doesn’t even bother hiding that she’s the leader of the entire black market.

”Let’s start this auction divided into categories, so whoever wants to leave after a certain category can do so,” Serena says arrogantly, not caring about the authority of everyone in the room.

”We’ll start with the slave category, followed by relics, artifacts, jewelry, materials, potions, magic items, and finally, information.”

’Tsk...clever bitch,’ I think, noticing this division. She starts with the ”less valuable” part and leaves the most valuable for the end of the auction information. So I’m obligated to stay until the end to try to talk to her directly or at least buy some truly useful information.

I’m sure many nobles come here to buy information about themselves, as certain types of information are only sold once.

Once bought, no one else can purchase it, ensuring a certain immunity for some nobles who have things they don’t want discovered. Of course, there are also information that is sold to more than one buyer.

But since this is an auction, all information here will only be sold uniquely to one person, guaranteeing exclusivity.

”Let’s start with 6 slaves at once,” Serena says as 6 cages are pulled out simultaneously, containing an elf, two human girls, 2 beastfolk children, and a dragon girl.

Nothing really interesting in these 6, they’re at most useful as sex slaves, as they don’t seem to have the strength to serve as combat slaves, although they can also be useful in manual labor since they appear to be well-cared-for, high-quality slaves.

And they are soon auctioned off at very high prices, higher than I expected. It seems there are people here who like to splurge money and compete for the highest bid.

”This is great! So to spice things up, let’s show 4 more of them!” Serena shouts excitedly, using sound magic for everyone in the room to hear her perfectly.

And so, 4 more cages arrive, containing 4 male slaves. I notice some strength in them, they all have strong magic-suppressing collars, and I’d say each of the 4 could single-handedly destroy a small village, and they are all beastfolk.

Which must give them the strength of a Rank C monster, and they are being limited, so they could be even stronger.

’They are really quality merchandise,’ I evaluate them as goods, knowing well how horrible their situation can be, and I would hate to be in their position, under the control of others.

However, I don’t have enough empathy to waste on mere strangers, I just ignore them as not being what I’m looking for and not worthy of my attention.

And of course, they are sold very quickly, with even higher bids than the previous ones, as they are strong enough to be useful.

”You know how hard it is to get good slaves, especially high-quality ones? So let’s move on to the last two acquisitions of the night! Two dragon race girls.”

”They are sisters, 18 and 13 years old respectively,” Serena says maliciously as a golden cage is placed on the stage.

In the cage, there are two dragon girls hugging each other protectively. Their wings, horns, and eyes are white, which as far as I know is quite rare. They are not albinos, but rather from a powerful clan with natural white draconic features. Given the color and purity of their bodies, they are likely from the main family or even the chief’s daughters.

’How did they obtain them...how curious,’ I ponder, having studied dragons extensively thanks to my interest in Zephyra. I know the leaders are extremely careful with their lineage, and in certain tribes, girls may have less value as leaders. So depending on the tribe, the girls may only serve as ”maternity wards” to produce more offspring of good lineage.

And the lineage of these two girls falls into that category, so they would only serve to have children when they reach the appropriate age. I deduce that they probably tried to flee to escape this fate and were captured, as it’s unlikely that humans could invade a powerful dragon tribe and steal members of the chief’s family.

And since both are dragons of a powerful lineage, my interest is piqued. I want them, I want to taste them, and I will use them to be tortured by Amiya. Who cares if they are young? The world is cruel.

I wonder which of the two has the best flavor, and which one will give the best screams for Amiya to hear.

It would have been better for them to have remained in their pathetic little village forever. Besides, dragons generally hate me, so I will return the hatred in kind.

”Let’s start the auction for them, is everyone ready? We’ll auction them off separately,” The two girls cry when they hear Serena saying this.

”Okay, let the bidding begin!” Serena says, already eyeing the profit that these two rarities are worth. It’s obvious that everyone here understands how valuable they are, and in addition to being beautiful, they would make excellent sex slaves.

The prices continue to rise, and I wait patiently, until one of the participants decides to increase the amount, offering a piece of Tempestium, which has the value equivalent to a small kingdom.

”Oh! Now that’s a good value,” Serena says, delighted by the price that two slaves who are not even fit for combat have reached.

”Anyone else? Anyone? No one? Then I guess...”

”I offer a 1.3-meter by 30-centimeter block of Celestial Stone for the two girls,” I say, leaving the room in complete silence.

Celestial Stone = A rare mineral made from the crystallized blood of a goddess, with high magical conductivity, which can be used in magic circles to automate them for long periods.

”...H-HAHAHAHA WHAT AN IMPLACABLE COMPETITOR!” Serena shouts excitedly.

Celestial Stone is a ridiculously rare mineral, as it is made from the blood of a goddess, and having remnants of a goddess’s blood is extremely rare. Ironically, after becoming a goddess myself, I can literally fabricate this mineral.

It means that I have a monopoly on one of the rarest minerals in the world. Of course, I only learned to crystallize my blood after removing it from my body during my training period.

And it’s extremely costly, as instead of a natural process, I had to do it artificially with my magic, which is very expensive. But thanks to practice, I have a lot of this mineral in my treasury vault.

No one makes another bid, as there’s no way to compete with this. The amount I’m offering is so large that it’s incalculable.

The quantity of this blood is so limited that just the amount I’m offering already reaches astronomical values. As far as I know, the amount I’m offering represents more than 89% of the Celestial Stone that has been discovered in the human kingdom at the present time.

But of course, I’m not stupid enough to just hand over something so valuable without my tricks. Inside the crystallized blood, there is a ”monster” shadow that, after being removed from my vault, will completely devour the mineral.

They are one of the new shadows I’ve tested. They are basically bacteria the smallest shadow I’ve created. When I made them, I was thinking about the possibility of creating a disease.

But it turns out they are not capable of making anyone sick at all. That’s why I judged them as useless until I saw them devouring non-organic materials, discovering that they have an incredible ability to devour minerals, similar to lithotrophic bacteria that literally eat rock.

And with my tests, they were able to devour Celestial Stone. So in the end, Serena will lose all the mineral that I deliver, and since they are bacteria, they are too small to be seen, and even detecting them with magic is almost impossible.

Of course, these shadow bacteria have shown difficulty in devouring already refined ore, so they are not perfect and not that fast. I think it took them 2 to 15 days to devour the entire Celestial Stone block.

And I don’t understand why these bacteria are unable to devour living beings, but they have shown their utility, and it was based on them that I created the [Orthozora] magic.

Serena doesn’t even question the veracity of what I said, as I’m a VIP customer, so the payment is almost guaranteed, since I wouldn’t want to have ”problems.” And soon Serena announces that I’ve won, which was obvious.

No one has anything to compete with. I can only imagine Serena’s face when the mineral simply starts to disappear. Even for a demonic expert with hundreds of years of experience, after evaluating the mineral, they couldn’t find anything wrong with the tests.

They confirmed the authenticity of the Celestial Stone I made as original, and couldn’t find the bacteria that was devouring the mineral until it had disappeared completely.

So when Serena evaluates the stone, she will see that it is original and not an imitation or magic, but she won’t be able to find the bacteria until the mineral disappears completely. And it won’t help to try to break, melt, or do other things with the mineral, as the bacteria won’t be affected.

And in the miracle case that she discovers the bacteria, she still won’t know how to kill them, and even if she manages to save at least a tiny piece, then she deserves to keep it.

Now that the slaves have passed, the cages are taken to another area to be delivered later, while the next auction category begins.