Leaving

Maddox knew what it was that these guys were doing with starting with such a huge price as he would be an idiot not to see that they were trying to drain more funds from him. Still, Maddox was sure that he would be able to get this item for free.

Such an item was dangerous in anyone's hands and it would be in Maddox's best interest to make sure that no one had their hands on it, well except him of course.

Still, though how does one combat such a method of people trying to drain more funds from him than he has already given out? Simple he just crosses his legs, leans back, and shows no interest in bidding for the item in from of him since he knows that these high-tiered infected were not going to be able to pay for the orb.

So Maddox decides to let them dig their graves so that when the time comes he would be able to swoop in and pry it from their grasp.

The number rose slowly from the original price of 20 million US dollars to 40 million essentially doubling from the actions of the four high-tiered infected with each of them seeing that Maddox paid no attention to the bidding which worried them since the whole reason they were doing this was to gain something in return for helping Gremi milk the fat cow.

These bids they were throwing out however were just empty words and everyone knew this cause they would have used these funds to buy the items auctioned today to prevent them from being sold to Maddox.

Eventually one of the high-tiered infected got cold feet as the bid went up to 50 million and soon enough another fell out of the bidding ranks with only two of the high-tiered infected battling it out to make it so that the other one would have to shoulder the gargantuan cost.

The bidding eventually goes up and up with the two infected getting heated enough to even use threats against each other to shoulder the payment.

"1.2 billion going once..."

"Going twice..."

"Sold to the gentlemen in booth number three..." The announcing girl states as the threats paid off for one of the high-tiered infected

Now then this was the fun part as Maddox took one look at the infected and just seeing it was enough to know that he was scared out of his wits as to what he had just gotten himself into just now.

"How amusing," Maddox says as he gets up from his chair and walks to the stage

"I'll be taking my acquired goods please oh and if the member of booth three would not mind me offering you the fair price of 20 million for that orb? I would be glad to take it off your hands seeing that you would not be able to use it anytime soon," Maddox asks as he sets an illusion of himself on the stage and directs his gaze at the high tiered infected who had to shoulder 1.2 billion dollars for the item

'Accept it... I will make sure that you get a fair share...' The voice of Gremi rings out in the mind of the high-tier infected in booth three seeing as he could salvage the situation to make a bit of cash

The infected only just nods its head in agreement at Maddox's proposal and Maddox calls upon the announcing girl to bring out the card reader to make the payment since he already knows where the money is going anyway.

The payment is accepted and Maddox asks that all the items be placed within the burlap sack that he purchased, minus the captured women and infected wolf of the Coalition since living creatures would be unable to breathe inside the sack.

Within a moment the items are stored and Maddox is now standing on the stage while looking at Gremi who in turn is looking at Maddox with a sour look on his face.

"I would like to request two things from you," Maddox says

"What would our... humble patron wish for?"

"I simply wish for two things, a vehicle to transport my newly acquired goods and secondly something to keep them asleep for a few days at least," Maddox asks while smiling at Gremi

"Why... yes we can provide it to you but the co-"

"Oh, you wish to discuss the price? I thought you would be so kind-hearted as to give them to me as a gift in hopes that I return and that I don't go someplace else where they treat me with more respect..." Maddox says putting some emphasis on the last bit of his sentence since he felt that it be the best way to not waste more money than he already has today

"..." Gremi does not say anything as a staring contest between him and Maddox ensues until Gremi moves his gaze away in defeat

'Snap'

Gremi snaps his fingers and the two remaining ladies on the stage jolt in surprise before they scurry off in what Maddox believes to be his demands for his purchased 'goods' as the infected call them.

"Esteemed guest your items have been prepared for you as requested," The announcing girl says as she gestures with her arms to the exit

"Thank you dear now then this sure has been fun I hope to return once again to find some more interesting knick-knacks," Maddox says as he begins to leave

"Splat!" "Splat!"

All the regular middle-tiered infected that stayed behind for the final part of the auction were all now lying dead on the floor with their brains and hearts crushed by Maddox's miasma.

It was a pleasant surprise to see that his miasma had actually worked but then again he used this as a test for himself and extra insurance had placed more miasma than he should have into the process, but the overall results were good.

As for why he did it well the infected only seemed to respect the powerful and influential, plus killing a few of these bastards felt nice since he had the opportunity to do so.

Maddox only smiles as he leaves the auction house to see that the vehicle he requested was a pickup truck with a long horsebox trailer attached to the rear. It was decently sized but Maddox was unsure if the women from the Coalition and the infected wolf would be able to fit in fine considering the formers size and the massive cage it was in while lying down.

Still, Maddox needed to figure out what to do with the giant dog once he got home since he was defiantly not going to let it go plus it cost him a lot of money to purchase it, and as they say, "Get your money's worth".

So keeping the giant creature may bring him some benefits, plus it would be interesting to test some things on the first found animal infected type. Think about it made Maddox grin slightly as he received the keys to the truck from the announcing lady before getting in and is just realizing two things.

One he does not know how to drive and two Maddox's home is still under renovation currently so he cannot place his goods there at least not for another month or two.

So coming up with a plan Maddox, after looking up the basics of driving, drives out of this miasma-filled area, with some jolting, and ends up back at the entrance where the goblin infected chauffeurs are located talking and gambling amongst themselves.

"Hey! Who wants two hundred dollars?" Maddox calls out to the goblins

At the prospect of money, the goblins all stopped what they were doing and immediately rush over to the side of the truck to learn more about how they can earn this money.

"Two hundred dollars to whoever can drive this thing to Las Vegas," Maddox says out loud to which a sort of brawl breaks out amongst the goblins with some of them kicking, biting, and grabbing each other to get to the other side of the car

Eventually one of the little goblins was able to get into the car and take the passenger seat in the truck.

This little one was clever since it stayed back and let the others fight it out and waste their energy before he swooped in and overcame them to get into the car before slamming the door in the other's faces and a prompt locking of the doors was heard.

"Alright then take me to this place," Maddox says as he displays the google maps route that he wanted the goblin to take

"Yes great one"

His answer seemed to be a bit eccentric but Maddox believed it probably because this guy thought that he would be able to curry some favor with Maddox if he was able to perform well enough in his delegated tasks.

Maddox did not care about that since he was only going to have him take him to Las Vegas before killing the bastard since there was no telling if this goblin would be able to keep its mouth shut from spilling where he took Maddox to. He had already placed the miasma into the goblin's mind and heart to destroy it when the time came so for now another illusion is placed over the goblin to make it seem like a human driver is in the front seat.

Maddox, unfortunately, cannot remove the illusion around him so he is stuck looking this way for now at least until the goblin is done driving him to his destination.

So Maddox after grabbing a sort of booster seat and feet pads the goblin can now reach the pedals and steer safely without worry of crashing the truck.

As for the joystick and everything else needed to drive a vehicle Maddox just left it up to the goblin to figure it out since he was sure that it was used to dealing with height disadvantages that it could figure something out for this truck.

So Maddox simply closes his eyes and tries to take a nap seeing as that they will not be arriving back in Las Vegas for another three hours give or take depending on the traffic.

Soon enough he is snoozing in the back while the goblin driver navigates throughout the great dry plains of Utah into Nevada. The drive was a bit long but following the directions was easy enough since the phone Maddox had was giving directions to the goblin driver who was both glad and nervous about this drive.

Most infected would never leave the underground caves and systems that they built due to the chances of them being found by the Coalition being too high so those at the bottom had to live off what they could find. Joining a nest of infected though, especially one which was run by a high tier infected would allow them to receive many things from weapons, items, holes, women, anything that they wanted might be available to them if they joined the right nest however most low tiers only got the scraps of the others.

To anyone else, the conditions of the low-tiered infected would be considered unbearable but their common sense and morality had been erased leaving only a desire for something more.

As such, that was why the hierarchy of low, middle, and high tiered infected existed still since everyone was still content with what they were given and what they had.

Little did they know that hierarchy would be threatened if they truly did beat the Coalition and killed off all essence wielders on the planet since leaving nothing left to stand in their way would most certainly lead to conflicts amongst each other and then eventually change.

These were the random thoughts that Maddox observed in his mind space since he much more preferred to spend his time here rather than dreaming of something that was not real but a figment of his imagination.

Viewing the essence within his mind space Maddox sees that it had not spread at all which was good for him since he did not want to deal with this in the future.

Still, though he had accomplished his goal of finding items to replenish his miasma which meant he could now grow his miasma capacity to greater heights with the regular items, and maybe even one day he might even utilize the orb he bought.

The conversion rate of essence into miasma was scary, scary enough that Maddox was unsure if his using it would lead to him completely transforming into an infected just by attempting it.

So for now it would be used on others and just be a decoration for him until he felt certain he could harness the power of the orb to enhance his miasma even further to greater heights one day.

'Time to get stronger'