050 Secret Membership

Players from all over were gathering their funds, hoping to be able to buy something from the game's first ever player ran auction.

A few players tried to get into the auction house before the proposed time. At first they were going to be shooed away but they said that they were looking to auction some of their items.

The staff were skeptical until a few items were shown. The floor manager called Cat for help. She arrived at the entrance to see what was going on.

Cat looked at the six players in front of her. There were 2 mages, 2 melee classes, and a rouge.

"I was told that you wish to auction some items. If you wouldn't mind showing me them I will determine if we want to place them in our inventory for auction." she said.

"Hello, my name is Rover and this lot are my party members. We were doing a quest and came across these items." he said.

Cat looked over the items and was happily surprised. She looked back at Rover and she could tell that he was confident on his items, and he should be. "We will accept these items. Would you like to sell them directly to Blue Moon or just have us auction them?"

The two girls in his group silently cheered together and the others had gleeful smiles. "We would like to have you auction them on our behalf."

Cat nodded her head, it was a smart move. While she would have paid them good money for the items the auction would yield them higher prices. "Very well, we have a 15% fee that we take from the item's final price. Is that still okay with you?"

Rover considered it for a moment, "Yes, that should still be alright."

"Please come inside and we will do some paperwork" Cat invited them in.

They all followed Cat in and were blown away at the beautiful interior of the Auction House. It was extravagant and displayed Blue Moon's wealth, or at least what Blue Moon wanted people to believe.

Cat quickly explained the agreement, "Okay, here is the paperwork. We like to have a paper trail on all third party purchases and auctioned items. The contract is very basic, it just states that you will allow Blue Moon to auction your items for you. You can set a minimal starting bid but we are not responsible for the final price, meaning the item could be sold below, at, or above market value and we take no responsibility if it sells below that value. It also states that you can not decide to cancel the auction of the item, you can only do so until there are 30 minutes left until the auction takes place."

Rover and one other person from his group signed the contract. James had Cat hire a few people to act as notaries, these few had real life experience in the field.. They were to act as a third party so that the contracts were certified. Both Cat and a notary signed the contract and it was official.

Cat thanked them and escorted them out of the building, "Thank you for your item. Your times will be auctioned off at the beginning of the auction."

She also gave them special passes, "These tickets will give you access to a VIP area that is dedicated to people who have items in the auction. It contains a privacy screen so that you have the option to hide your identity from other players."

Rover and his group thanked Cat as they left the building. Shortly after they left two more people walked past the lines. It was Alexander and Tempest.

Cat saw them approaching and greeted them, "Greetings gentleman. I will have to apologize, there is no early entry for anyone."

Alexander told Tempest to remain calm before they headed to the building. He also recommended a very good psychologist for general help but that's besides the point…

"We understand that Mis. Cat. We are here to see if you would be willing to auction off a few items on our behalf." said Alexander in a polite tone.

"Hmm, that would depend on the items. Would you mind showing me one?" She wanted to know what kind of items a leader of a top guild would bring to auction. She also sent a message to James to see if he would allow it, which he did. He also gave her some special instructions, they had pre-made an auction inventory pamphlet. He told her to see if they would buy it from them.

"While we do have several big ticket elite and violent monster drops we feel like they would be too much as this period of time. Instead, we have some rare life skilling materials." he explained. Alexander then showed Cat a few of the items in their possession.

[As expected of a powerful guild. These items would sell for a high price. Blaise might even want them for his group.] she thought to herself.

Cat waved the duo into the building. "We would be pleased to do business with you, please come inside so we can talk more about the details."

Alexander and Tempest followed Cat into the building. Rend and Scarlet saw the two enter and walked up to the door. They figured that Blue Moon was giving special treatment to the top guilds.

"It is only natural that they would give our guilds special treatment. I bet they don't want to get on our bad side, even if they have two 'big' backers." Scarlet laughed.

No one stopped them on their way to the door, they figured they were in the clear. Scarlet was still laughing but it didn't take long before her laughing was cut short. As they grabbed the door handle they were greeted with a system prompt. It was not only visible to them but to the crowd behind them.

***************

Entry forbidden,

Please rejoin the line and wait until the auction begins; someone will let you in at that time!

***************

The two of them could hear snickers behind them. They entered stealth and disappeared into the crowd and joined the other top guilds. There were only 15 more minutes left until the doors officially opened.

Author figured that they were nearby and couldn't help but tease them, "I am not surprised you were turned away."

"Zip it, why was Alexander and Tempest allowed in." Rend wanted answers.

"I cannot believe that they are showing favoritism towards only one of our guilds. Are they really looking to make enemies with the other three guilds?" complained Scarlet.

Jack laughed at Scarlet's arrogance. "Did you not see that before those two entered that another group also entered and exited? They were both escorted by that Cat women. I bet they are trying to sell items."

Scarlet glared at Jack, "Still, they are not showing us any face."

Author, Violet, Jack, and Quincy all signed, Scarlet had no chill. Apart from Tempest, she is the only other leader from the top guilds that embarrassed the group. When will she cool down that hot head of hers?

"It doesn't matter if they give us face or not. They know that by controlling the market that we have no choice but to follow along." Author gave Blue Moon some praise.

Jack gave his thoughts. "If I were them I would also act this way. I am willing to bet they did all of this in response to Harbingers. They knew they needed to beat that organization to the punch."

Violet agreed and looked to Scarlet, "Based on the video your scout got, Harbingers and Blaise's groups are most likely mortal enemies. If I were to guess, Blaise got involved once he saw that Harbingers were trying to control the market."

"Yes, I also think that is the cause of all of this. I am also guessing that Blaise's group made contact with Magicks. Without both Magicks and Blaise this would have been impossible to pull off. This Blue Moon Trading guild used to be two separate guilds; Magicks appears to be a very smart man. He is most likely the person pulling the strings behind the scenes." Author gave his conjecture.

"It is probably for the best," said Quincy. "Thanks to the Harbingers I had to pay half of a gold coin to get a few woodworking materials for my Fetcher profession. With Blue Moon around, Harbingers can't really do anything. Players from all over, including the bullied gathering guilds, will come right to them to sell their goods."

"Is it that big of a deal?" asked Rend.

"You have been focused on your combat skills too much, Rend. Professions are not something to ignore. Making your own items, or at the very least having someone make your items for you, saves more gold then you can believe. Some of the hand crafted items are better than gear you can get in the Zones." explained Violet.

Quincy nodded his head. "I was able to make a custom bow that makes it easier to shoot two arrows at once; it improved the power of my Double Shot skill."

Rend listened to everyone and put some thoughts together. "I still don't want to waste my time with a profession but I will look into hiring some crafters for my guild and myself."

It was rare for Rend to listen so well to the group so they all were happy. While they were all technically enemies, it was more like being rivals. With a strong competition between the groups it made each of them stronger. Truthfully, behind any drama the groups had was actually a hidden friendship that they don't talk about.

*** Inside Blue Moon Auction ***

"Thank you for offering these items to Blue Moon Auction," said Cat.

Alexander was happy that Blue Moon was not showing any negativity; he was worried that since Blaise was behind the scenes that there would be bad blood.

Cat was observing Alexander and a smile appeared on her face, "I bet you are wondering why we are treating your guild with respect. Even though Blaise is an investor behind the scenes, we plan on treating everyone with respect as long as they are also respectful to us. You think that Blaise has something against your guilds, but in reality he is just trying to play the game. He plays the game his way but won't take things lying down if his hand is forced.

Both Alexander and Tempest were caught off guard. They both thought about it, she was right. Would Blaise actually have a problem with the guilds if they didn't cause it first? Probably not. He was an anomaly, he came out of nowhere. The guilds see him as a treat due to his rise to fame.

"Now that I think about it, Blaise didn't seem too happy when I found him in the library. Looking back on it, his unhappiness might not have been because our guild was present but something else. He had a slight frown before he approached him." said Tempest.

Alexander spoke his mind. "I don't think his fame was wanted. He has been trying to hide from the public ever since. He has not made a big deal out of anything he has accomplished. His only conflict with any of our guilds was Scarlet's. From what I heard, Scarlet started it because Reaper was there."

Cat was just hanging back letting the two talk to one another. Based on what James said, these two people should be the second most hot headed people in the top guilds. Tempest caused James some hassle in the past. What she heard was surprising in the very least. She was sending James messages about what was going on.

After hearing what Cat was saying James changed his mind. Instead of selling the list of items to be auctioned off, James wanted her to give them the list for free. She was also to offer a Purple Membership Card. The card would let them only have a 10% fee instead of the regular 12%; since it was the highest membership card, it would allow them to buy items from the non-event auctions / sales floors at a small discount as well.

He didn't offer them the card due to their new outlook on him. Instead he wanted Cat to have them keep it a secret. Eventually it would cause conflict between the top guilds; these people were not slow minded. Given time they would catch on to the benefits that Alexander's guild was getting.

"Should I apologize to Blaise? I may have been too rude back then." asked Tempest.

Alexander thought it was a good idea, "If we get a chance to see him it might not be a bad idea. We may be able to get back on his good side before the others come to the same realization. He appears to be a smart man since he was able to avoid direct confrontation for so long."

Seeing that the two were still talking and time was running out Cat clapped once to get their attention. They both turned to look at Cat.

"Gentlemen, sorry about the interruption but time is short. The auction is to start in 8 minutes," she apologized.

The two realized they had been talking for a while. Alexander felt a little bad, "Sorry about that. What procedure do we follow for this?"

"There are two paths. The first is that you sell your items directly to the auction house for a flat price. The second one is you allow us to auction off the item in your place; there is a 15% fee that comes off of the final sale price. What would you like to do?" explained Cat.

"Does the House offer a sort of protection plan if the item sells below the expected price?" asked Alexander.

"Not exactly, we have an agreement to sign. It states that you pick a minimal price that the bidding begins at. The House is not responsible for the final item price. If it is below the actual current market price we do not make up the difference but we also do not increase our fee if it is above the market value." explained Cat. She also handed Alexander a copy of the contract.

He read over the contract, it was short and straight to the point. He handed it to Tempest as well. He figured that Tempest would be able to pick out any extraneous details that he missed since he was a businessman in the past.

"It looks good but there is a clause that is interesting to me." Tempest looked at Cat. "What does it mean that the fee lowered"

Cat clapped her hands together again, in a happy voice she explained the clause. "The House sometimes offers membership cards to those who do business with us often! The level of the card depends on the depth of the relationship between us and the card holders."

She gave a short pause and pulled out a card. She handed it over to Alexander, "This is a Purple Membership Card; it is a gift from Blaise. With that in mind, I will have to apologize, I was relaying what you were talking about earlier to him. He wanted to accept your apology and told me to give you this card in return. He also said if there was ever anything he wanted to talk to you about, he would message you directly."

Again, both Alexander and Tempest were taken back. "He really said that?" asked Tempest.

"Yes, but he asks you to keep it a secret for now. He likes to keep a distance from the drama of your guilds. But he also wants a neutral stance if possible." she explained.

"Tell him thank you and to reach out if he ever needs anything. Solemn Sword repays our debts." Alexander knew that James was up to something; a gift this big was not something to scoff at.

They talked about the card for a minute or two. Alexander and Tempest learned that the card would give them a 5% discount on the fee taken from the items they sold as well as a discount on general purchases from Blue Moon. The lower tier membership cards gave a 1% discount extra for each level so they were happy. Cat also gave them a list of items being auctioned off. She explained that it was on the House and not to share the information with others.

They all signed a contract then Alexander and Tempest left the building. They joined up with the other leaders and talked for a few minutes until the doors opened. They were sure to leave the juicy parts out of the chat.

The crowd waited for the leaders to enter the building, after that the representatives of all the other guilds entered. Prior to the grand opening Blue Moon notified everyone that there was a limited capacity to the auction house. Thus, guilds were only allowed two people per entry and had to show identification at the door.

Only after the guilds entered any solo or individual players were allowed to enter. Once the seats were full, all the remaining players were directed out back where there was a giant screen that would air footage live from inside the auction house. Everyone out back also got an item that would allow them to bid on items that appeared on screen. Blue Moon has been prepared for everything.