Asher wasn’t sure what was more surprising. The fact that nobody seemed to want to purchase the castle, or the fact that he technically could have purchased it if he wanted to.

  “What the hell was up with that?” he muttered as not a single person put in a bid on the keep that Brian had pointed out before the day’s auction kicked off. The host somehow managed to keep a broad smile on his face and act like nobody meeting the starting bid was totally normal, but based on the whispers going around the room below them, that had to be far from the case.

  “No idea,” Samantha shrugged, already looking at the next listed item in the booklet. “If I had to make a guess, I’d assume it’s some sort of noble politics. Maybe some family has fallen into disgrace and is trying to sell some of their land to keep their lifestyle going, or something stupid like that. Oh, next is a young pegasus in the prime of its life! And its starting bid is only six hundred thousand shards!”

  “Samantha, you can fly,” he pointed out, laughing at the pained expression on her face. He knew she’d enjoyed the sensation of flying when Sefta had all but thrown them on some pegasi for the first time and ordered them to follow her across the sky. “And what was that? Only six hundred thousand shards? Perhaps you should be a little more worried about your own perspective changing than Brian’s,” he teased, poking her in the side.

  “Oh realms, you’re right,” she muttered, closing the booklet and placing it on the chair beside her as her eyes widened and she stared off into the distance at something only she could see. “I can’t believe those words even left my mouth.”

  “Hey, it was just a joke,” he said gently, taking her hand as he noted the ashen look on her face. “I know you didn’t actually mean we should just throw out half a million shards on a whim. Though to be honest, it’s probably not a bad idea to start trying to shift your mindset just a little bit. Trust me, this is pretty wild to me as well, as it wasn’t like I was in any position to toss around giant lumps of cash back on my old world. I think I’m adapting better to the change because my mind’s able to lump it into the whole ‘new world’ change as well I’ve been dealing with.”

  “You’re probably right,” she said, snapping out of her fugue state long enough to give him a small smile. “It’s definitely a big change, but I’m working on it.”

  According to the host, the pegasus that Samantha had grown excited about was apparently prime breeding stock, and it ended up being sold to some noble family for just over a million shards. That seemed like quite a lot in Asher’s opinion for a single horse with wings, before he remembered that the pegasi were probably a cornerstone of the nobles’ entire society. Having the ability to fly between the kingdom’s different cities in only a few hours rather than spending days on the road was probably priceless.

  Seeing as he could pop between cities on a whim in only a few seconds with Recall, it was easy to forget the importance of fast mounts.

  “How much longer until the greater demon?” Brian asked, his eyes locked on the winged horse as it was carefully brought back off stage to make room for the next item.

  “It’s today’s biggest item, so they’re saving it for the end,” Asher explained, eliciting a groan from Brian as the boy threw his head back. “That said, the next item should be somewhat interesting.”

  “Next we have a rather unusual item for the main hall, but one I do believe should do quite well,” the host declared, his smile sparkling as he gestured to the massive array of crates that were being brought up on stage. “For all of you collectors out there, or those of you interested in the various realms and want to learn more, we have here a vast collection of books taken from a wizard’s forgotten library! If you look in the back of today’s pamphlet, you can see a list of titles, their approximate age, and a brief description of some of the more famous tomes. This is truly a collection worthy of display for anyone’s private library, and we are going to start the bidding at one million shards!”

  “The lich’s books?” Samantha asked, looking confused. “I thought Bellod recommended splitting the collection up and doing a handful of smaller auctions?”

  “He did originally, but that was before he realized the crowd that the main auction hall was going to bring in from the greater demon,” Asher explained. “Last I spoke to him, he recommended we do it all together. That way they could enter it into the main hall in front of all these big spenders. Let’s just hope a party or two are interested.”

  Unlike most of the other auctions that had taken place that afternoon, there was a slight pause as everyone flipped to the back of the booklet and went over the various titles that had been listed. Asher waited with bated breath as the host stood there, smiling and no doubt praying that they weren’t about to have another repeat of the keep where nobody even matched the opening bid. Thankfully, after only a few seconds of silence, there was a small motion near one corner of the hall and the host’s smile turned more genuine as they pointed toward the raised sign.

  “We have one million shards!” the host shouted, causing Asher to let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t been sure that putting up the whole collection together had been the best idea, but he’d decided to trust in Bellod. Once again, the experienced auction master didn’t let him down.

  There were one or two more hesitant bids, but in the end, the books ‘only’ ended up going for a grand total of one million and forty thousand shards. Even after giving Bellod his three percent for appraising all the tomes and offering his professional advice, that was still a cool million shards they hadn’t had a few minutes ago.

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  “We need to raid old wizard towers more frequently,” Asher whispered in Samantha’s ears, who snorted in response. What was really crazy to think about was the fact that those tomes were less than a third of the lich’s actual collection, and presumably the worst of the whole bunch. Asher could only assume that the lich had prioritized moving the books it truly cared about first, which meant they had just earned a million shards putting up the dregs of the lich’s collection that had been largely forgotten about.

  When they found it again and finally finished it off for good, Asher was pretty curious to see how much the wizard’s true collection would end up going for.

  Despite them earning a life-changing number of shards in one fell swoop, the auction carried on to the next item. Though as they went from one item to the next, Asher could tell the feeling of the room itself seemed to be changing. The closer they got to the final item of the afternoon, the more electricity seemed to flow throughout the crowd as hushed whispers grew louder and people scooted closer to the edge of their seats. Even if the majority of them weren’t planning to bid against the true big shots that had graced the Grand Auction with their presence today, it was obvious what most of the people here wanted to see. Getting the chance to witness a bidding war that potentially stretched into multiple millions of shards was only something that happened maybe once a decade, and none of them wanted to miss it.

  After declaring the winning bid of one million and three hundred thousand shards for the five-year contract of an elite slayer team, the host let out a warm chuckle that echoed around the room.

  “Alright, it would take a blind man to miss the energy in this room, so I won’t keep you kind folks waiting any longer! As you all very well know, we’ve got something special here for you all today to wrap up today’s auction. For the first time in the history of our Grand Auction, we have been provided with the intact and largely unmarred corpse of an actual greater demon!”

  Despite the fact that everyone already knew what was coming, a collective gasp rang out across the room as four assistants walked up with a large rectangular box, placing it upright on the stage beside the host, who immediately whipped off the cloth covering it. The front was revealed to be made entirely from glass, showing off the greater demon’s monstrous, nine-foot-tall body. Its mouth was frozen in a snarl, showing off the jet-black teeth that still sent shivers down Asher’s spine, and its blood-red eyes were open, staring blankly off into the distance. Even now, the corpse gave off a subtle sensation of weight that didn’t seem to make any sense, and Asher witnessed the first few rows of people physically recoil as they felt the same sensation wash over them.

  “This greater demon was expertly taken down by a lone demon hunter, dispatched with only a few blows struck,” the host explained, hungrily looking over the crowd as everyone stared at the displayed specimen. “A masterwork mithral blade struck the killing blow, meaning the body was damaged even less than you would have expected. Notice how all the teeth, horns, and claws are in flawless condition, perfect for any master alchemist to use in their concoctions. Other than the few wounds it sustained, the muscles and integrity of the body is stronger than ever, meaning this could be a display piece that your great grandchildren could happily inherit, even without the use of preservation enchantments. Yes, this item is truly one of a kind, and for that reason, we have chosen to start the bidding at three million shards!”

  “Three million?!” Samantha all but choked, turning to look at Asher like he was crazy. “Won’t that scare-”

  “I’ve got three million and two hundred fifty thousand!” the host shouted, his grin going positively manic at the flurry of signs that were being lifted. Samantha looked as if she was going to pass out as she gripped the edge of their box, her knuckles whitening under the strain as the bids just kept getting higher and higher. Brian, on the other hand, was laughing and all but dancing as bids came in one after another, turning to grin at them as the greater demon corpse quickly passed five million shards and still showed no sign of stopping.

  “Now, can we buy a castle?”

  “Why would we want a musty old castle?” Asher asked, barely able to contain his own excitement as he watched the bidding continue. When Donvath had explained how he wouldn’t be able to give them any shards or real support, due to those futures containing the total annihilation of the Noala Kingdom at the hands of The Council of Death, Asher had grown worried that they’d never be able to get enough shards together to continue their advancement. Evolving a skill to the third tier cost a million shards. That was crazy enough on its own, but then thinking about how one had to do that eighteen times in order to move beyond the Stage of Bleed after factoring in the three new skills that would develop throughout the stage, that was a quantity of shards that seemed pretty much impossible to earn in one lifetime. Then there was the fact that he wanted to ensure Samantha was advancing right alongside him, and that meant he was on the line for at a bare minimum thirty-six million shards.

  All that to say, no matter how much they ended up making from this one auction, he still had a long way to go.

  Still, this was about the best start to chipping away at that future debt that he could hope for. At this point, the vast majority of the signs had gone down, and the bidding was being carried solely by the occupants of the other private booths situated above the auction itself like their own. The greater demon was already up to an astonishing seven and a half million shards, but the fervor was finally dying down. From what Asher could tell, the bidding was officially down to three different interested parties. None of them seemed to want to give up on the greater demon, and thus the bidding continued to stretch higher and higher, until one of them was finally knocked out of the running at nine million, and the last competitor appeared to throw in the towel at nine million and eight hundred thousand.

  “Do I hear ten million?” the host asked, his eyes bouncing between the private booths as he waited for someone to chime in. “Ten million for the corpse of the greater demon? Come now, folks, this is quite the treasure! Nine million eight hundred thousand going once! Nine million eight hundred thousand going twi-”

  “Twelve million shards,” a booming voice called out from one of the other private booths, silencing the hushed whispers and causing the host to stumble at the break from decorum as someone called out rather than used their sign. Asher was at a loss for words as the already ludicrous number of shards they were going to be receiving suddenly jumped up by another two million.

  Though it seemed there was a little more to it than that.

  “Twelve million shards,” the voice repeated. “…and a private meeting with the one who slayed the greater demon.”

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