Chapter 16: Part 1

Soul Art Online

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 16: Unexpected Meetings!

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- Arthas - 

I froze at the word and looked at Veena in shock. Did she just say?

I looked at the group once more. This time I used Scan on them.

[Lily Moon]

[Aurelia]

[Bina Lessthan]

[White Rose]

[Muyuki]

All of them were early or mid T3.

"Which one?" I asked.

She pointed at the second girl from the right.

"Arthas, we need to save her. At any cost." She said, looking dead serious. By now, the rest of our group had also sensed something odd about the situation and looked at us.

"The second girl from the right is Veena's family member." I said, shocking everyone.

Shiroe was the one who broke out of the stunned state first and took charge. "How much do we have left? Around eighty thousand? How much do you two have?" He asked the two new members.

"A hundred and twenty thousand."

"Seventy five thousand."

Our personal funds would make twenty five thousand at best.

"Two hundred and seventy five thousand then. Let's hope we can bet on them for that price. How much do the usual bids go for anyways?" He asked, uncomfortable.

"Mr Damon, how high do the bids go for these kinds of people?" I asked, looking at the Mafia Boss.

He had a stoic mask on his face. "Anything from two hundred thousand to a million. It depends on the merchandise and if they catch the eye of anyone. It's mostly a matter of luck."

Luck… with just one hundred thousand margin, is relying too much on luck.

The first girl was sent forward and the bidding started. It was an NPC so we didn't pay attention to her and quickly thought of any countermeasures.

"Say, would the auction house accept new items? Skill Books or such for sale?" I asked Damon.

"For the next Auction. There is just no way they would stop the auction for a few skill books. They do however keep advance items with their guarantee for the next auction." He shook his head.

There goes that plan.

Dammit, they should have distributed an itinerary for everyone to plan ahead. We could have saved enough money then. Now…

While we were running around, the auction for the girl was over.

Three hundred thousand…

The highest bid was three hundred thousand for her.

There were a total of twelve girls, five players among them.

Three million six hundred thousand for all and one million five hundred thousand for players. Three hundred at the base of Grayfia alone.

"What will happen to them when they are sold? Is there any way we can buy from the one who purchases them…?" Veena asked.

"It's highly unlikely that the buyer would sell them. The ones who come to participate in these auctions are… not the best sort if you know what I mean…"

…

"Can we… save them later on?"

"If you start a fight here, you will die." The man's words were straight and without any nonsense. "The only chance you could have is when they leave the island but even then you're bound to fail. First of all, most of these buyers have strong body guards, a team of T5 or even T6. And if you, by some miracle win,Every slave is bound by a Slave Crest from a distant continent. The owner can make them do anything, even kill themselves. They will need to be transferred to other users."

"Maybe we can remove the mark?" Star suggested.

"If you can get them to T7, then sure. That's the only known method." Damon shrugged nonchalantly.

By now, the second npc girl was being bid on and it had reached three hundred and fifty thousand already… dammit.

"Mr. Damon, can you buy some of our goods? We have some good equipment and skill books which you can sell for a nice profit." I offered.

No one from the team spoke anything.

"Hmm, show me the goods."

We quickly offered almost everything we had.

"Seven hundred thousand." The guy offered.

"That's absurd. Just the armour cost over one and a half million and we are adding other unique weapons and skill books worth a million too." Star retorted angrily.

"Supply and demand kid, supply and demand. While this equipment might be worth a lot in your Kingdom, it's slightly above average in others. Your kingdom is known for its medicine, not equipment. And lastly, you need the money urgently. What kind of a businessman would I be if I didn't take advantage of that?" He smirked.

….

The third npc was brought on the stage but this time she resisted and was subdued. It caused her injuries and the price for her was reduced.

After that, they took a small break for everyone.

I looked at the faces of the girls who looked fearful and Veena who was panicking. Alright, we agree." I took a deep breath and replied.

"That's more like it. Shall we sign a contract first?"

"Contract?"

"In Sabaody, words don't mean anything. They are the most worthless commodity and no one buys them. This is why any transactions we do are done in contracts. A binding contract. The loser faces the same consequences as those girls down there, becoming the slave of the other if they fail." He said with a smile. "Obviously, if you don't back down from the deal and complete it, no harm done. After all, a contact only makes things legal. I don't want Richard to come after me, accusing me of cheating you."

"Arty…" Star put a hand on my shoulder but I just nodded at him.

"Very well. Let's go and do this contract. Veena, Shiroe, will you guys come with me?" I asked and the two followed while the rest stayed there.

He led us to a place in the Auction House while explaining everything to us. He entered a room and beckoned us to follow.

"Damon, need another contract?"

"Yes. A deal I got my hands on." He pointed towards us and explained the deal.

"So just legal documentation. Oh my, is that the Blessed Sun Set? Isn't that an exclusive of the Holy Knights? Those stuck up bastards use special blessings on them and those enchantments are nigh impossible to copy. You really got yourself a deal this time." The dealer laughed as Damon smirked once more.

When the contract was signed, I looked at the contract and Veena rechecked it for any flaws.

"Is there any way to nullify the contract?" I asked, just to be sure. "For example if one side dies?"

The man laughed. "Hahahaha thinking of killing Damon, are we?" He looked at Damon who was smirking too.

"Just being sure that we won't be killed to nullify the contact and avoid payment."

"You don't have to worry about that. The Auction House is backed by every native faction of Sabaody and no one messes with it. This is a neutral ground. Even the kings of other countries will think twice before breaking the rules here. Obviously, we cannot guarantee anything happening outside. But still for your information, to nullify a contract, both sides must agree on it and only then can it be nullified."

I knew about the no attack zone part already. It was showing in my menu. The part about the contract was helpful. The guy even threw me a parchment with all the rules written about contracts.

"I see.Thank you." With that I signed the contract too.

The man finally cast a spell on the piece of paper, sealing the contract.

With the contract sealed, I felt a tug at my being and a notification appeared in front of me.

"There, the contract is sealed. Anything else, I can do for you?" He asked.

I took the money from him and came out and gave it all to Veena. With this we had a million. Hope that will be enough or I will have to resort to desperate means.

The next round of bidding came and this time again, three girls were on the stage, all NPCs again. Were they going to put three girls on stage at a time?

We sat in the room quietly, waiting for the bidding to start. The announcer on the stage continued.

"Next, the starting bid will be fifty thousand gold coins. Each increment can only be five thousand and above. Begin."

Calls rang throughout the hall.

Suddenly a message appeared in our guild chat. I read it and I looked at Veena. We shared a look and then looked back at the halls.

The bids increased one by one before one rang in our room. "Seventy five thousand."

Veena had bid.

The call obviously didn't stop and the price increased to one hundred and eighty thousand when another call came from our room.

This time it wasn't Veena however.

Damon had bid.

We looked at the man and Veena questioned frostily. "What is the meaning of this Mr. Damon?"

The man had that same annoying smirk on his face. "What else? I am just participating in the auctions. I have a ticket too."

We understood what he was doing.

This bastard was playing with us.

This is exactly what Veena was telling us in the Guild Message.

She had expected this could happen and tried to test it out on the NPC. She didn't lay down the facade and continued bidding. The price increased and obviously our funds were no match for Damon's and we lost.

Damon got her for eight hundred and fifty thousand gold coins. The guy looked smugly at us. "Hey, don't look at me like that. I am permitted to buy merchandise too. Obviously, we are friends so if you lose, you can always buy them from me… for a price of course."

We merely glared at the guy while the next girl was on the stage. The bidding started and Veena bid again.

The smile on Damon's face froze.

Not willing to back down he bid again and was baited to bid again.

Nine hundred and eighty thousand.

The guy had a bad look on his face.

It was when the third time Veena bid that he actually looked angry. The price increased and he still bought her for seven hundred and eighty thousand.

There was another break. This time I had sent a message to the team and they all sat quietly in the room.

"There are nine more girls left, Mr. Damon. Do you really want to face that much of a loss?" I asked.

"I will not face any loss. You will have to pay for everything I spend here, with interest if you want those girls back." He argued.

"I am afraid that's not going to happen. If we don't get her, we leave." I shook my head and stared at him blankly.

"You are bluffing." He scoffed.

"As much as I hate to say it, I am not. The thing is, you are a guy with no integrity Mr. Damon. What guarantee do we have that I can even get her for that price and you won't increase the price again, that this won't become a debt trap? We might get her back and even lose our own freedom. At this point, I have decided to cut my losses."

He frowned.

"Why are you so surprised? We work as adventurers. Dealing with the loss of comrades is a regular thing for us. Obviously, I will write today's incident down in my memory. Worst case, I can just use the money to place a bounty on your head. Nine girls, at an average of eight hundred thousand will be above seven million gold coins. I am pretty sure that can attract people to aim for your head."

"Are you threatening me?" He scowled.

"I am just telling you what can happen, Mr. Damon. I am not the one who started it. You can either continue the fool's game or give up and we can both get away from this without any grudge. Obviously, I will not let go of the girl I want so easily so I will put in a last ditch effort for her."