Auction Part 1

The day arrived. I was wearing a Gold cocktail dress I had designed that was hiding me magnificently. I was dressed to the nines and surrounded by my wonderful women. Close to me was Yuri on the arm and the other Mally. Mally was starting to show the baby bump and was smiling all the time. She also took time to educate herself in the higher society and had been brushing up on it. They swiftly told me the information necessary for me or reminders on things I needed to talk about.

I went from Wizard representative to another, greeting guests politely talking briefly before moving on. I was the number one person who people wanted to talk to. I was the creator of the potions on auction tonight and an Ambassador to my nation. This was an incredible time for me to make contacts for my business as well. I told some who expressed interest in larger quantities of the less rare potions I could make. I said to them that with a deposit, I would order the ingredients before making it. I would give them seventy percent of all potions produced with this. This was a fantastic way for me to make easy money for the amount of work.

The customer would absorb all the risk I would get to charge them for only the ingredients, but I would take a large portion of the profits of the extra potions produced for myself. This would incentivize me to do a better job for a higher rate of success. This would also limit how much it cost these wizard towers. I heard many expressions of interest. I told them for anything formal, though; they would have to come to meet me back in the embassy.

This seemed to appease most of the Wizard towers. There was one, though, that seemed to have a problem with it. This Wizard tower was in the Beholders province of the demon lands. Their tower was called Eye Tower. Their form of wizardry was unique, and I wasn't sure how to explain it. The main thing was that their way of using mana was only usable by their race. What they wanted, I had never made it before, and they wanted every potion that was created for themselves. This was compounded with how rare the ingredients to it was plus its difficulty. One of the problems with Beholders that most of their grip came from tentacles. This made it extremely difficult to make potions. That did not mean their race was entirely bad at it. I remember Timbits of history about beholders who could become dexterous enough usually became Alchemist masters.

Alchemist masters were rare, and only fifteen were known to be alive. One was in our Silvermoon tower as an A rank powerhouse. I had never personally met him, though. He was a recluse that would sometimes drop a book of information for us to read before going back to his thing. That did not mean that he wasn't one of the most useful people in our tower. He would rarely drop a portion into our hands in payment for the materials we supplied him with. Some of these potions allowed a B rank wizard to become an A-ranked with more mana than they knew how to deal with. These potions were game-breaking and currently beyond my understanding of mana. I still wanted to take one of these potions to research on my own. The books of his findings were pieces of art that I had gotten my hands on only once. I spent a year looking into his results, learning much from the book he dropped into the hands of the tower over sixty years ago. The insights it showed me were nothing less than brilliant.

This was the main reason our Tower created so many accomplished Alchemists. The problem was now becoming where all those other Master Alchemists were. One just so happened to be an A ranker in the Empire. This Alchemist has a single apprentice in the Empire but does not widely distribute his findings. This was a boon to the Bunny-kin that used our Master Alchemist results to create a robust export for our country. The other Master alchemists seemed to be Travelers, though with their whereabouts unknown. They all were powerful women and men that traveled the world to the best of our countries knowledge.

That didn't change my current predicament, though. The Eye tower wanted me to use their materials to make potions with not enough gold to make it worth my time. They chipped in nothing to make it so. They also seemingly didn't want to take no for an answer. I started to get annoyed, which prompted a pinch from Yuri, who was gracefully talking while I was in thought.

I stared into the Eye of the beholder wizard across from me, coming back to reality. The night around us was in full swing, and I saw the tentacles on the floor holding up the Beholder Wizard named Henry. "Look, Wizard Henry, I cannot do this for free. I have never done this potion either, so I will need extra time doing so. If I cannot take a portion of the finished potions, I will only take cold, hard gold for making Eye might potion. I am good at pioneering, but I am not infallible. Many of these potions on sale are work of years of study. You know this as much as I do. Why are you so stubborn."

"Ambassador Chelsea, You can use the ingredients to learn. That will be our cost. We were hoping you could do it with an investment in your future as an Alchemist. These materials are rare and something you would rarely work with. Take the chance and learn something new, Ambassador." Henry said back to me.

I grew even more annoyed; I wanted to go back into my research bubble. I loved that bubble. I could stay in peace back in my home country. I would be able to see my kids every day before work. I would be able to bog down with others getting ingredients for me to make more significant and powerful better potions. This was a goal I was working towards after the war that was coming. I then realized I almost missed an opportunity.

"How about this, Wizard Henry. If you can get the Beholders representative to vote in favor of war with the Empire. I will not only do the work for free, but I will also pay you a portion of some other potions I make that will be useful to Beholders in your Unique eye magic." I said with a bright smile.

The Beholders eye in front of me seemed to have opened even wider as it didn't seem to know how to react. "This will work in your interest and my own. I will need months to learn the potion, and you would be the first vote that I know of in favor of war. Your Beholders are in the neutral faction, and I would love to pay to win you over!" I told him with a giant smile as I noticed him visibly want to back off.

The Shameless Henry seemed to want out. I knew that he didn't have the authority even to get the representative's ear on command. This was an impossible demand, just like he made to me. This could have a good or bad fallout, though. If the Representative of the Beholders learned of this, he might want to make the deal. If that happened, I would essentially be working for free for a while.

This wouldn't be a terrible fallout, though, if I got reinforcements for my people. unfortunately, Henry backed off, "I see, I will talk to him about it, But I will contact you if Eye tower wants to do this Trade Ambassador Chelsea." With him backing off, I got a bad glare from Yuri and Mally.

"That wasn't the worst, but you could have chosen a better way to exit that Deal," Yuri stated, and I held up a hand to stop it from becoming an argument.

"Wizard Henry was insisting on a bad deal, and I couldn't back out to go see others. Now the Auction is about to start not allowing me to have time to greet everyone that we wanted to talk to." I told her, seeing Yuri relent. Mally seemed to know me better that I didn't take that into consideration.

"Ya right, You took his shameless pandering for your attention and found a quick way to get away from his shamelessness with the shamelessness of your own," She told me, causing me to blush.

I turned to her pinching her growing waist. "His actions were too shameless. I need practice, but I am not free labor." I told her smiling face, "Let's go, our guests are about to learn that the VIP rooms are laced with." I said with a smile. This garnered more matching smiles from my women.

Soon we were in a seat overtop the Auction hall. Ours came with an additional feature. We could hear what was happening. The others could not hear each other, but I could listen to what they said. This was hidden under many enchantments that we had laid down and had no intention of leaving behind to be discovered.

I was entirely secure in the fact they would not discover it. The device was something Tina came up with on the boat while she was tinkering around. The Device used Mana to transmit across a thin type of wood that she had discovered in the Elven forest. It was a common type of wood on the forest floor, making it even more useful to create en masse. That was something for the future that could hopefully be developed into a large industry.

The mana lights dimmed across the room, leaving only the stage brightly lit. A Cute Bunny-kin girl name Sarah stepped out. She was a guard from our Embassy forces who had reached C-rank. She was a charming looking girl though standing five foot three. She had soft gold fur, making her look like a goddess of fortune. She happily announced what was happening for VIP rooms so that they would all feel secure in their purchases.

I could already hear the outrage coming from the auction rooms. Many wizard tower representatives had done underground deals with each other. Now they could only hear the Auctioneer's voice without hearing anyone else's; they could only trust the other party. That was laughable in its own right since many had a self-interest. That, coupled with the fact all someone had to do was outbid one of them, they would instantly stop trusting each other. The enchantments even stopped others from making mana messages from coming in.

Sarah was ruthless also as the Representatives wanted to talk, "Well, With those boring rules out of the way, we can come to why you all came here tonight!" She announced to the room. "We will start with a rarely seen potion tonight!" She announced as another White-haired bunny-kin brought in a cart with a potion. The notion was a dark purple that many in my previous life would consider a sure sign of poison. "This is a Supreme Regeneration Potion!" She announced many in the crowded seats gasped.

"This potion is extremely rare and can even regenerate your head if it is chopped off after you partake it!" She announced with joy. "That isn't recommended since the brain is complex, and a regenerated brain will not have your memories inside it. Other than that, you can bring someone back from the brink of death with this potion. The Starting bid is fifty thousand Gold coins or something of equivalent value. The minimum increase will be a thousand Gold coins!" She announced to the room. Most of the adventurers knew that this would be over their price range. Only the strongest groups would be able to afford this. It didn't stop them from trying either.

The bids started to come in one after the other, with none coming from the VIP rooms. Inside the VIP rooms, many representatives were talking to their attendants about why they couldn't hear anyone but the auctioneer trying to get an explanation. Each attending Bunny-kin said the same sentence. "To protect the buyers of our products, these rules are in place." That was what they were instructed to do and the only answer they could give. I did tell them if they push that, they could talk to me after the auction was over.

While the VIPs argued with the attendants, the Potion was won by an adventurer group in the crowd. I smirked as this was something I was delighted to see. I was expecting no one in the crowd to get anything good because of the Wizard tower's participation.

One thing was for sure; It was going to be a busy night with the first potion bringing in a hundred and ninety-three thousand gold coins.

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