I stared down at the sword. A material holding pieces of my own evolutionary materials. As it was impossible to trap souls physically, there was a way one could do it: using a soul-absorbing metal.

“And this sword here is… what I needed. It has over a hundred decaying warrior souls, and that goddamn vampire probably thought I wouldn’t be able to get this. How unlucky for her. Also, apparently, he was supposed to be selling it, but I guess there’s no need for that anymore… I don’t even know what just happened…” I muttered before shrugging. I mean, a win is a win, and it’s better than nothing.

Upon picking up the sword, I braced myself for an assault of power or something like that. Yet, nothing happened. It was really just a broken sword that was duller than an entire stone pillar. This made me really wonder if it held the souls I needed inside. 𝗈𝐯𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t

“What the hell was that?” Aisa suddenly hopped down from the roof, not too far up. The buildings creating this dark alleyway were smooshed between two dilapidated stores, so of course, I got Aisa to move up there so she could assassinate the guy if needed. But I doubt that would have even worked.

“I don’t know, but at least we got our first material. Ummmm… I’ll ask the vampire when we get back. He was hella strong, so he would have kicked our asses if we did something… actually, we did, but he didn’t retaliate for some reason. He was almost like a projection into hell.”

…

Our next target was an actual merchant, not some mysterious guy just sitting around waiting to die or something. Sure, he was cool and all, but compared to the guy we were about to meet, even his strength couldn’t make up for this man’s wealth.

As we walked into the massive quartz auction hall towards the center of the capital, I noticed a convergence of snow and heat meeting at the very middle of the entrance. And as soon as me and Aisa pushed forward, through the massive twin doors, dressed in a few suits we had bought, a blast of air conditioning ripped through my loose hair.

“Goddammit… move it will you,” Aisa spat out, the air suddenly flying into her mouth and then moved around from behind me, glancing at the beautiful sub-room just before the actual auction hall. It was packed to the brim with people, and as soon as we got far enough in, the two guards standing next to us slammed the twin doors shut, sealing the cold air around us.

We went to the front desk, which I assumed was where we turned in our tickets, and thankfully the duchess had already bought one for me. Aisa, on the other hand, could easily slip in… I mean, it’s not like she’s buying anything anyway, so there is no need to confirm if she was really supposed to be here.

“Okay… okay… and, here you go. Just wrap this band around your wrist, and that is your confirmation for when you step into the auction hall. Just show the guard, and… do you know how this auction hall works? It’s not very different from most, but there are some minor changes that we tweaked to make the process more streamlined,” the receptionist smiled.

Aisa had already slipped through the crowd, invisible as a ghost, and I presume made it already into the auction hall, waiting for me. So now, all I had to do was finish listening to the woman who explained the normal rules of an auction hall, be it a bit outdated, but it’s whatever. As long as I can get the item, then I don’t care what rules I have to follow.

Once the woman had finished, I smiled and gave her a slight nod before slipping through the crowd effortlessly, trying to make any ruckus or make any enemies yet… as I was sure some were to come later on. At this point, it’s just unfair as even if you win an item, others outside of the auction house will just slaughter, bribe, or blackmail you for the item.

“What an unfair world we live in…” I muttered, walking to one of the exits of the welcoming room and catching a glimpse of the auction hall behind the massive guard whose horns were quite stubby. They were nowhere near as big as mine, so I couldn’t help but feel a bit suspicious as to why they were using such weak demons. Or maybe the auction hall was trying to save money for something?

Deciding that overthinking things would get me nowhere, I followed the process and eventually entered the grand theater where this auction was taking place. It was beautiful as the floor was lined with a silky red carpet which we were fully allowed to step on, and seats that looked so comfortable I might just fall asleep. Then finally, there was the stage. It was massive and had replicas of all the items they were going to be selling.

“There we go… that’s what I need right there. The contained war essence….” I smiled as I sat down next to the young woman with long light blue hair and flashy yellow eyes. Her hair had been cut in between the small amount of time in between this auction and the strangely strong merchant. It was a wolf cut. Just a simple wolf cut.

“That’s cool and all, but the people here are…” Aisa looked around at the seats beginning to swiftly fill in. Everybody looked prepared, ready, and most importantly, rich as **! Holy ** were people dripped out in suits I looked like I could barely afford. If it wasn’t for the duchess’ overwhelming amount of bread, then I would have no chance at even scraping this item. “Anyways… I was wondering why we aren’t just taking it from somebody. Why make so many enemies when we can just take it from another who makes the enemies for us? We wouldn’t even need to be here if we did that from the start.”

“Aisa, you’ll see… have I ever disappointed you when it came to a plan?” I smiled, rubbing the smooth marble board, which had my identification number on it: two-hundred-fifty-seven. This was what I was going to raise in order to start a bid, and then a demon will communicate with me telepathically to inquire what price I wanted to set.

Like I said… a bit outdated and even a bit strange.

Soon, the bidding started, and they brought out the first item, which I wasn’t interested in. In fact, all of the items present except for the contained war essence were useless to me. I had everything I needed.

The spears were probably way worse than what I was using. The rest of the weapons looked useless, even if I bought them for my friends. They were more like collectible antiques to hang up on the wall and looked pretty opposed to using it to fight.

Some old buff dude acquired the first item, a sword that was sheathed in a thousand diamonds. It looked rich and all, but the sword inside was probably poor quality. It’s best to just keep that pretty sheathe on the outside and not touch it again.

Next, there was a potion that could regenerate you to full health no matter what debuff was applied. The auctioneer made it seem like it could even cure a debuff placed by the god of death himself: Hades.

Although, many didn’t fall for its alluring trap, causing its selling price to be a bit lower than they probably expected. But that’s what comes with selling things that have a vague use… normally they don’t sell too well.

Next was probably the second biggest item hosted here, an evolutionary material for the common demon. People were fiending over this, with young masters and young mistresses being the main target audience. Most of the older demons didn’t care or wanted it for their children, possibly grandchildren. There was no in-between.

To say the least, a few small skirmishes had immediately broken out in the grand theater but were shut down by a single man who stood on a balcony just above the stage. His shadow magic was unbelievably strong, creating a wave of darkness that restricted and nearly suffocated most of the assailants. Embarrassed, those people immediately left, covering their faces while drenched in a black liquid.

“That’s him, right? The merchant selling all of these items?” Aisa asked, causing a few people sitting around us to drift their eyes toward her. It was as if they didn’t know this prior to coming here, immediately putting us and that menacing man standing up there on their radar.

“Yeah… now shut up,” I whispered to the young woman who looked to be getting impatient. Her foot continuously clacked against the ground, and she wouldn’t stop biting her nails. “Just be patient… our time will come soon enough.”