Auction

Max yawned as he observed items appear and being sold in the auction. Although the town was small, there were still quite a few travellers like Max, many of who came to this town specifically to participate in this auction. Thus, the prices of many items went several times higher than their market price.

'The clash of egos, mostly from the rich few either for themselves, or to impress others,' he mocked internally until his item finally came on.

"Here we have an extremely rare item. It is the talon of a silver-feathered falcon, a rumoured descendent of the mighty Silver dragons! This talon has passed through countless hands until it has finally arrived here, waiting for the fated one to purchase it to add to their collection, or use for other mysterious purposes…"

The host, who was a rather charming elderly man with grey hair but a fit physique, winked comically at the audience, leaving the latter part of his sentence to the imagination of the audience.

Some ladies in the audience blushed, while some gentlemen simply began laughing out loud, what they imagined would forever remain in their minds. Still, Max knew most people would not have mysticism on their minds, at least not here. Perhaps if the auction was in Backlund, there may have been a good amount of Beyonders to avid mysticism collectors interested in this.

Max waited as the price rose from just a few pounds, to a considerable 200 pounds. Ultimately, he placed a 250 pound bid and successfully won the item since the others immediately got the signal that he was willing to pay a lot to get this item, and on the off chance he decided to give up, they would have to fork over an insane amount for such an item.

'Now, should I leave immediately, or should I stay just in case something interesting comes up?'

After a while of pondering Max decided to stay and observe. Time continued to pass, and Max went over to the Amalgamation of All, and checked up on the situation on Independence.

As it turned out, things were going rather well. Mark, the one who had lost all his family to the giant boar, decided to become a missionary, and take on the mission to spread the holy faith of the Primordial Unity to other villages, hopefully at least bringing in one person per village to become a priest, and at least set-up a rudimentary church in each village.

Meanwhile, the villagers had recovered considerably from the event and had got back to their ways. Max had given them knowledge, and he had also given quite a few of them access to the Church Headquarters.

As soon as these few had seen the mighty presence of the Primordial Unity, they had all become fervent believers, almost at the same level as Mark the missionary.

Thus, they maintained contact while Mark set off for the nearby village, while the original Boar village as Max renamed it in his mind, had begun to rapidly grow in various ways. Firstly, Max had explained to them some important technologies related to farming, to rapidly improve crop quality and productivity, while also giving them a bit of technology for improving their homes.

He also put up quite a bit of such technology for exchange, requiring contributions to the church for being able to exchange this information.

Contribution would be earned by bringing in believers, improving the living standards of believers, and following orders given by the Primordial Unity.

Of course, at the moment, nobody had any contributions, but Mark was sure to gain quite a few on his journey.

…

Suddenly, an item was called out which caused Max to nearly jolt in his seat as he became incredibly serious. It was not because of the name, but rather because of the Spiritual energy he could sense from it.

He quickly closed his eyes and prayed to the Mother goddess of Depravity and found himself floating above the red moon once again.

"So, what should I do with this?" he asked in slight confusion. Max no longer had too many scruples about this Outer Deity and former Pillar. He had already seen how she had protected him from a certain psychopathic pen, and how the Wanderer's key had helped him so much.

She was clearly helping him grow, and become a Great Old One.

"Hmm, alright. But I want something in return."

"Yes, yes, I know. I have already received a lot from you, and have not helped you in any way. I will do so once I am strong enough. You know it too, which is why you have been helping me since the beginning. I just want to know one thing. Were any of you Outer Gods, or just overall any Great Old Ones involved in the death of the Old Man Uxas, his real name is Ural Ves."

"Alright. Thank you. I will ensure to pass this on to Backlund, you don't have to worry."

After that, Max returned to his body and instantly bid 100 pounds for an item that was still being bid at 3 pounds, causing the entire hall to fall into silence. Unfortunately, this time around, somebody actually bid against Max, and it was clearly a hostile bid to make him lose money rather than get them the item.

"101 pounds!"

"150 pounds," Max added without hesitation. He already had gained a lot of money over time and had withdrawn a lot of his savings to ensure he would have been able to get the ingredient he wanted. Unfortunately, he had already spent 250 pounds on the first item he wanted, and he only had 300 pounds left.

"151 pounds."

Max frowned and added with a heavy heart, while also secretly using his Beyonder powers to observe the one who was bidding against him. As it turned out, it was a lady… who seemed to be… sprawled all over a fat but clearly wealthy man.

What surprised him more was the fact that she was a Beyonder. Most likely of the Demoness or Assassin pathway, considering how she was trying actually do nothing, but the man seemed to be in great pleasure.

This meant she was most likely a Sequence 6; Pleasurer. She could also be of another pathway with similar abilities, or resulting outcomes, like the Sequence 9; Apothecary who could create potions with similar effects.

'If it is the former, things will get difficult. But I have already promised, and Anti-divination should be able to keep me safe as long as I escape her physical pursuit.'

'Well then, I suppose the time has come to digest a bit more of my potion,' Max smiled as he got up and left the room, preparing to take his Beyonder ingredient first and sacrifice it to Unity to keep it safe before thinking of a suitable plan to retrieve the wooden box that had the Mother-Goddess' spirituality all over it.

'But it is strange. How come she did not lose control? And neither did any of the people here suddenly mutate into vicious monsters or explode, or implode… or even feel mild discomfort. I should investigate it once I get my hands on the box.'

Max was now more focused on this incident since he had received news from the Mother goddess herself that no outer gods were involved in the Old Man's death. This meant the higher level of power involved were Gods in the worst case, which made it possible for him to somehow escape at the very least in case anything went wrong with the investigation on Cedric Negan.