Dragon egg

Just as I was thinking through a voice rang behind me. "So did you find what you're looking for?" The princess's voice rang out behind me and I turned around to find the whole group had snuck in. Moreover they seemed to be wearing completely different clothes and had masks on.

"You guys changed?" I asked.

"No. Virgo drew some formations on our clothes to disguise us and used a spell on the guard." The princess explained into my ear.

"Smart. Say. How much do you reckon the thing will cost to buy in an auction?" I asked.

"It's impossible to know, but a place like this is probably in the range of a few platinum." The princess answered.

"...Can I borrow some money?" I asked.

"Depends on what you want and how much it costs. I can lend about 8 platinum." The princess admitted.

"I have…" I suddenly had an idea and asked the server, "Do you guys accept items as payment?" I asked.

"Of course, though you'll have to get it appraised first if you plan to trade it for an item on auction."

"Where's the appraiser?"

"Down the hall, first room on your right. It's usually empty, so you can get your items appraised right away."

"Perfect." I said, darting to the appraisers room.

Inside the room was a large stone table with an old man standing around.

"I have some items I would like appraised." I said, startling the old man as I threw a dagger down. The system had ranked it as an advanced rank weapon for 400 points, using the same ranks as it did for skills and knowledge.

The old man quickly recovered and began examining the dagger.

After a few moments the old man started mumbling to himself as he checked it over, sprinkling some powders on it and lighting up a magic formation drawn on the table. Soon enough, he cleared his throat. "7 platinum." The old man said.

'7 platinum!?'

"What about this one!?" I asked enthusiastically, reaching into my cloak, buying a specialty ranked robe for 1200 points which apparently provided a large buff for stealth and resistance.

The old man seemed even more impressed. "An incredible item! 42 platinum!" he said.

"Perfect. I would like to exchange them both, how do we go about it?" I asked.

"One moment. Let me call the manager." The old man said, asking one of the nearby servers to bring the manager. Meanwhile, princess Sally and the gang were waiting in the hall outside the room, peeking in from time to time.

After a minute or so, the manager arrived. He was a fat man with a handsome face and good manners. He handed me a bag with 49 sparkling, blue tinted silver coins. I accepted it readily.

49 platinum was 4900 gold coins. Which was my fathers barony's entire income for over two months. Not including expenses, since the barony only turned about 50 gold coins in profit every month after subtracting the expenses. In other words, a literal barony would have to save that 50 gold for over 8 years in order to gather so much money. Assuming they didn't cut down on expenses and didn't have any prior savings.

A moment later, my items were taken away and I held the bag in my hands as I came back into the hallway.

"It's all good. I ended up acquiring 49 platinum on my own." I said to the group who were huddled together outside the room.

"""...""" They all looked at me speechlessly.

"Where did you… You know what. I don't wanna know." my sister started before giving up.

"I'm more terrified I didn't sense the existence of either of those items before he pulled them out of his cloak." Virgo added. 'Cause I bought them from the system and they just phased into existence.' I thought as he mentioned it.

"Don't worry about it. The auctions are starting soon." I said, moving to the auction room, with the whole group following behind me.

The auction room had two floors. One with private booths and one with tables.

Seeing the tables weren't marked with any numbers or anything and no one else seemed to be sitting at a specific table, I chose a large empty table at random, estimating the distance from the stage to be about 12 or so metres.

The table only had 6 seats, after I sat down the princess sat next to me and then I got to watch the scene of everyone else wondering if they should sit down or let Virgo and his apprentices sit down first.

In the end Haiden stood beside my elder sister while Virgo sat beside the princess while I was on her right while his two apprentices stood behind him.

Soon enough the bidding began, starting with the dagger I had just sold. It ended up getting sold for 11 platinum somehow… No wonder they were generous with the price.

The next items were a few artifacts, among which was the cloak I sold, going for 58 platinum. It was around then that the quest marker changed and the item I was waiting for was brought closer.

34 metres…28 metres…18 metres…

An item covered in cloth was brought out and the quest marker held at 12 metres.

"For our final item before the main auction! We have this shadow dragon egg! Imported from a continent too far north for our maps to include!" The auctioneer introduced, throwing off the cloth and revealing a large black egg, covered in grey scales.

I had expected a massive bidding war… but…

"Sold! For 23 platinum!"

"..."

'Really? Just like that?' I asked myself. The price had started at 10 and only went up bit by bit with some mostly uninterested casual bids. Now, the egg in question had been brought over and handed to our table.

"You really bought a dragon egg?" Sally asked.

"Yea… Why? Is there something wrong?" I asked, looking at the quest completion.

<Ding! Completed quest! Stop the rain! Find the thing causing the rain. Controlling the weather allows a new level of laziness control. Distance from target: 0m. Reward: Knowledge on time attribute.>

<Ding! [(Specialty) Blink] and [(Mastery) Acceleration++] have been optimised and become [(Intermediate) time manipulation]. Knowledge on time attribute upgraded to intermediate.>

A truly horrible headache washed over me as I listened to the princess's answer.

"Not precisely. However, it's common knowledge that dragon eggs don't hatch in human hands. You're not the first to try." She explained.

"Now! For the next item! Which you've all been waiting for!" The auctioneer spoke.

Boom!