CH56 (186), The Auction (2)

Squirtle was followed by quite a few items none as rare and interesting as the royal starter. One or two did tickle my curiosity but once their prices rose above what I was willing to pay I lost interest in them. It had already been nearly 4.5 hours since the auction began, and we were close to the second break, the 1-hour one.

"Our next item is the body of a (mid) gold-stage Azuraid. It has been confirmed that it died in the sea tide at Aero City three months ago. This one had been one of the lieutenants of the tide leader. The body is perfectly preserved and you might be able to help your Remoraid evolve into an Azuraid using it." Mary introduced item no. 48 and immediately got my full attention.

Since the item was a carcass they did not bring it up the stage and just displayed a few pictures of it on the display behind Mary. It looked exactly like the one I had encountered in the sea 4 years ago, just a bit larger.

This would be a good component for Kun/Remoraid's evolution, so I was planning to buy it as long as the price did not exceed 5.000.000 Poke. Anything above that was so much above the actual worth, that it would be wasteful spending.

Since this was an auction, that happened more often than not. Things selling way above their worth, I mean.

"The starting price is set at 1.000.000 Poke. Each bid has to be 10.000 Poke minimum." Mary declared and I decided to immediately double the price in hopes of scaring away anyone betting for the heck of it.

"2.000.000," I shouted and a murmur went through the hall due to the people's surprise at the high first bid for a body. I also instantly felt my parent's gaze on me but motioned them to wait for a moment.

Mary looked over to us and seeing that no one beside me protested she accepted the bid.

"A bid of 2.000.000 Poke, from the promising young man in seat B69! Is there anyone else that wants this chance of potentially evolving a Remoraid into an Azuraid?" Mary tried to entice others into bidding.

While she did that I focused on my parents.

"I want it for Kun. We talked about it a long time ago, and he wants to evolve into an Azuraid. I'm hoping that I will really help him evolve. You know that there is currently no surefire way to trigger the evolution, so I'm willing to pay for it." I whispered to them, and they nodded in understanding.

I had introduced them to Kun years ago, and while I was already confident in helping him evolve, there was nothing wrong with getting the body as an assurance.

She waited for 20-ish seconds but no bid came. It seemed my tactic had worked better than expected. I noticed Mary preparing to speak up, but before she could attempt one last sales pitch a bid did come after all.

"2.100.000!" Some shmuck somewhere behind me on the left shouted.

Seeing such a "tiny" increase I decided to go for a larger increase.

"2.500.000," I immediately yelled out raising the bid by nearly half a million.

Still, as soon as I did that my phone began to vibrate inside my pocket. While waiting for Mary to acknowledge my bid, I took out my phone to see who send me a message and why. I did not think it was a coincidence that it happened right after my bid.

The message actually came from Ace.

[Mikail I recognized your voice just now. I just want to tell you not to go over 3.200.000 Poke. When I told my father that my good friend, aka you were the one bidding on the body, he told me he could definitely get you one for that price as long as you were willing to wait.] Ace sent to our group chat.

Since his father was a Vice-Admiral I was inclined to believe him, so I set that as my new hard limit.

[Alright, thank you for telling me. Also, thank your father in my stead please.] I wrote back and he returned a [you're welcome] message.

Still, while I was writing with Ace the bid for raised to 2.700.000, so I decided to simply round it up.

"3.000.000," I shouted and waited to see if any counterbid was going to happen.

Still, despite her waiting for 20-ish seconds later none came and Mary acknowledged my bid. She used her flowery words in hopes of getting someone to raise the bid, but still, none came.

"...going three times. Sold to the young man on seat B69 for 3.000.000 Poke." Mary finally closed the bid.

"You can collect your item at the reception or in private in exchange for the money." She addressed me before starting to introduce item no. 49 that was just brought to the stage for everyone to look at.

My phone began vibrating again so I pulled it out to see what the message said. As expected both Ace and Weiss had sent congratulations messages to the group chat, so I sent back a quick thank you.

Once item no.49 got sold Mary announced the break and a lot of people left the hall. I waited for a few minutes to avoid the congestion, before leading my parents to the right where Ace said his family's table was.

I told my parents that Ace, Weiss, and I wanted to meet up and that I was planning to use this chance to introduce my parents to Ace's parents. They seemed happy with my decision and followed my lead.

It did not take long to see Ace, even if I heard him first. Their table was the sixth one to the right of our seats. They stood up when we arrived in front of them. I greeted Ace before greeting his parents as well. This was the first time I saw them, so I introduced myself.

"Hello, Mr. Gold, Mrs. Gold. I'm Mikail, Ace's friend from the Academy. Ace told me a lot about both of you, so it's nice to finally meet you."

"Nice to meet you as well, young man." The king of pirates, I mean Ace's father returned.

"What a polite young man. It's nice to meet you as well," his mother replied before she placed one of her hands on her cheek and continued. "Ara, I wonder what Ace said about us," she questioned in a really sweet voice.

I saw Ace sweating like crazy when she did that and heard my mother giggling to my left. Ace threw me a desperate look that screamed please don't try to make any jokes, just tell them the truth.

"Oh, only good things, really. He bragged a bit about his awesome father as well as beautiful mother, and I can see he did not exaggerate." I decide to lay it on thick for a bit.

"Oh my, what charmer." Mrs. Gold said in amusement, which made Ace release a sigh of relief while the other adults chuckled.

"Ah, where are my manners? Ace already knows them, but these are my parents." I began introducing the adults to each other.

"My lovely mother, Arya Geo," I motioned towards my mother, "and my father, Edward Geo." I finished while pointing toward my father.

My perfectly unbiased introduction caused another round of chuckles for some reason. While the adults were exchanging their own greetings Weiss graced us with her presence.

That she actually managed to bring along her mother and father honestly surprised me a bit. I had not thought that they would be willing to come down just to meet us.

Still, their arrival started another round of introductions. Once that was out of the way Weiss's father took the lead and led us to the restaurant of the auction house where we ate lunch together. Apparently, the restaurant had private rooms and Mr. Schnee directly booked one.

During the meal, our group mostly listened while the parents talked with each other. We stayed there until there were only 10-minutes left for the auction to resume. The men "argued" a bit over who was going to pay for the meal with each wanting to be the one to pay, but in the end, Mr. Schnee won with the argument that he was the one to book the room.

At the entrance to the hall, Weiss and her parents splintered off since they had to go to the second floor, and at our seats, Ace, and his parents left for their table.

The auction resumed a few minutes later, but I found nothing I wanted to bid on while my parents were preserving their bids for whatever grass type attracted their fancy.

Still, Ace's family bid on something called a Volcano Ore, which according to the message Ace sent to our group chat is something that amassed and compressed the fire energy inside an active volcano. It seems like his father bought it for Ace's Ninetales since it was really useful for pure fire types.

Anyway, it wasn't until item no. 96 that my mother began to bid, and I could understand why she did so. No. 96 was a (high) silver-stage Roselia with 4-star potential, as well as the confirmation of the moves Sunny Day and Solar Beam.

The starting bid was 16.000.000 Poke, and that quickly increased to 29.000.000 Poke before it slowed down. After that only three bidders remained which reduced to two at 35.000.000 Poke before my mother won the bid at 40.000.000 Poke. While this was quite a bit cheaper than the stageless Squirtle sold at the beginning, I was not surprised by that.

Not only did the Squirtle have 5-star potential, but it was also a royal starter which automatically raised the price. Moreover, its low strength was not a demerit in its case but an advantage since that indicated its young age and malleability.

Unlike with Pokemon at higher stages, where getting their trust and bonding with them was harder. All in all, the price difference made sense to me. Anyway, after my mother's new Roselia, three more items were sold before Mary announced the last article for the day.

It was a (low) gold-stage Forretress that had yet to achieve sapience. Moreover, it had 5-star potential, and according to Mary seemed non-aggressive as long as one did not try to hurt it.

Apparently, someone had caught it while it was hurt in a fight with another Pokemon. After said individual healed Forretress it showed non-aggressive behavior and was even willing to listen to orders. However, due to an instinctual fear of bug types, the catcher was selling it.

It seemed like a fairytale encounter to me and I saw that even my parents were gaping at the ridiculous luck of whoever that person was. The starting bid was 60.000.000 Poke and each bid had to be at least a 1.000.000 Poke increase.

My parents even tried bidding despite not needing or actually planning to add another bug type before this, but once the price ballooned they had to give up. The final bid was actually 288.000.000 Poke, which shocked me a teeny tiny bit.

Still, this was an anomaly that happens due to multiple factors that were unlikely to repeat themselves. It was at the (low) gold stage, had yet to gain sapience, and showed non-aggressive behavior. Not only that, but it was already willing to follow orders without a fuss. That was an easy-to-train, and bond Pokemon that was already pretty strong.

Anyway, after the auction was declared over for the day, Ace and his parents joined us while we all went to exchange the things/Pokemon we bought.

Afterward, we went out to eat dinner together. Weiss and her parents did not join us since they had other plans. Our two families chatted amiably during dinner and split afterward, each family leaving for their hotel.

Once we were inside, my mother wasted no time to talk to her new Roselia. She obviously had Titania/Nidoqueen out since her starter had to explain their trainer-family hierarchy. Well, the intimidation factor may have played a role as well.

Still, I did not miss the opportunity to check out her status using telekinesis.

'Species: Roselia

Gender: Female

Type: Grass, Poison

Potential: Deep Green

Stage: Silver-stage (high)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Natural Cure, Poison Point

Talents: None

Affinities: Grass, Poison'

My mother proved to be really lucky since her Roselia had deep green potential, which meant she would have at least light blue potential when I placed her inside Utopia someday in the future. Moreover, she still had an evolution ahead of her as well.

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