156 The Auction Begins

Reiko's demand placed Jayde in a real dilemma, how was she suppose to tell the three teenagers not to eat the cakes, nevermind, teleport these cakes to the Proteus❶ artifact without anyone being aware.

It was only after Jayde promised Reiko that she would visit a bakery after the auction and buy him as many cakes as he wanted that he calmed down, although Jayde swore that she could feel his greedy eyes eyeing the cakes.

The glowstones in the auction house dimmed, as glowstones above the stage brightened. A well-dressed man walked out into the middle of the stage on the ground floor.

"Ahem," the man cleared his throat, the people sitting chatting away in the auction house quietened down as they turned their attention to the man standing on the stage.

"Welcome esteemed guests to today's auction," the man's deep baritone voice carried through clearly through the large room.

"The Aeris Auction House prides itself on offering the best and rarest goods available, and today is no exception, so I hope you have all bought full purses as we have some rare treasures up for auction."

At the man's comment, many of the people chuckled, with some of the guests shouting for him to hurry up at begin the auction.

Smiling the man said: "Well then let's not keep you all waiting, today's first item is a red rank seven shield rune cube."

At the auctioneer's announcement, a beautiful young woman dressed in a low cut blue gown walked out onto the stage carrying a small silver tray, in the middle of a tray was a little grey cube. While the woman was walking onto the stage, the people in the gallery broke out into excited chatter.

"A rune cube, by the gods, those are so rare," Raven exclaimed, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

Rune cube, what the hell is a rune cube, thought Jayde. While Jayde had been trying to read up as much as she could about Doha, there was still so many things that she still didn't know.

"This rune cube was found by the Black Knights mercenary group while excavating an ancient ruin in the Frozen Barrens. Our spellmaster has examined the rune cube and guarantees that the spell is still active," the auctioneer said.

"Ah, the Frozen Barrens, that explains it," said Ash, as he sat down.

Jayde had read up on the Frozen Barrens, it was a vast frozen wasteland in the Western Kingdom, that was created during the sundering. There were rumors that many ancient cities had been buried during the cataclysm, and were filled with ancient treasures, but due to the harsh environment and savage beasts that roamed the area very few mages entered the area, even a sizeable mercenary group like the Black Knights must have experienced a considerable loss of life excavating the ruin.

"What is a rune cube?" Jayde asked turning to look at Ash.

"Not surprised that you never heard of them," Ash said. "They really rare in the Lower Realm, only mages in the Mid Realm know how to create them, and they are banned from being importing from the Mid Realm."

"A rune cube is a special piece of stone, that contains a spell. When the stone is crushed it releases the spell."

Picking up a picture plate lying next to his chair, Ash activated it, then tapping of the metal surface, he enlarged the image being shown on the surface.

"See, look here," he said point to the cube being display. "These runes are the spell, which any master rune mage can read, the red color of the rune tells you that it is a red rank spell."

"How powerful is a red rank spell?" Jayde asked. She had heard about yellow rank weapons, but this was the first time she had heard about a red rank spell.

"Red rank, that would mean is a bishop level spell," Ash said looking up at Jayde. Noticing how curious she was, he went on the explain."Spell cubes are divided into yellow, red, purple and black. Yellow is a knight level spell, while purple is a king level and black is emperor level."

"Ah okay, so how can you tell that this cube is a rank seven then?" Jayde asked while examining the cube being displayed on the metal surface of the picture plate.

"Look here," Ash said point to the corner of the cube. "That there is the ancient symbol for seven."

Looking to the area that Jayde could make out a strange symbol, she had initially thought it was part of the rune.

While Ash was explaining, Jayde could overhear the auctioneering telling the mages seated in the auction house, that the shield spell would protect the user against any spell weaved by a Bishop of the Seventh Class.

Thinking through everything she had just heard, Jayde looked up at Ash. "Does this mean that this cube was created by a Bishop of the Seventh Class then?" she asked.

"Mm-hmm. Or a stronger mage," Ash said nodding his head. "Pity though you can only use it once," he went to add.

"There also spell inscriptions as well, although they are different. They are typically written on either enchanted parchment or beast skins. If on enchanted paper, then they are like the cube and can only be used once, but spells engraved into beast skins, depending on the type of skin used can be used multiple times."

"Really? Are they also broken down into ranks like the stone cubes?" Jayde asked.

"Well kind of, but spell inscriptions strength comes from the number of runes written. A one-character spell would be a weak spell, most likely equivalent to a knight of the second or third class," Ash said while shrugging. "But a twelve-character spell, that would be as powerful as emperor of the first class spell."

Ashed sighed audibly. "Spell inscribers are really rare even in the Mid Realm," he said.

"Why?" Jayde asked, from what she understood from Ash's explanations then inscriptions were incredibly powerful tools for a mage to have on hand, it didn't make sense why such a powerful field wouldn't be filled with mages creating them.

"Well like pill refining alchemists,spell inscribers use mental strength to create their inscriptions, but inscribers need to be four or five times stronger than pill refiners, and it just not inscribing the spells, they need to create their own inks as well as the material they use to inscribe their spells on."

"The biggest difference between a rune cube maker and an inscriber is a mage who creates runes can only construct a stone cube weaker or equivalent to his own rank, while an inscriber's spell is dependant on his mental strength and training not on his magic."

"Spell inscriptions can even be used to imbue a mage's weapon with different elemental abilities," Ash continued his voice envious.

"Ash how come you know so much about the Mid Realm?" Raven asked.

Jayde was also curious how come Ash knew so much about the Mid Realm, as far as she knew Ash's Cloudswift clan wasn't a high ranking or even a noble family.

"Um, well my grandfather's brother is a silver, so he was able to ascend, he comes to visit us every now and then," Ash said.

"Really! That is awesome, I never knew that the Cloudswift's had ties to the Mid Realm," Raven exclaimed.

"Yeah, well it's something we don't like to brag about it," Ash said, looking uncomfortable.

"How strange, most families can't stop boasting about their family ties to the Mid Realm," Raven said.

Looking decidedly uncomfortable, Ash pointed to the auctioneer on the stage.

"Look the bidding is really heating up,' he said, trying to distract Jayde and Raven from asking any more questions.

He had already screwed up by saying too much. The Cloudswift clan kept quiet about their ties to the Mid Realm for a reason, and Ash and Nova had been warned by their father and grandfather not to attract attention.

I have become too comfortable with these two, Ash thought. I have forgotten just how much danger Nova, and I will be in if people start to investigate us.

While Jayde and Raven had turned back to look at the auctioneer, Nova threw a warning look at Ash. Catching his look Ash nodded slightly acknowledging his brother's warning.

"Ten thousand, I am at ten thousand, do I hear eleven thousand?" the auctioneer chanted.

"Eleven thousand, come on folks, do I hear eleven thousand."

"No, okay going for ten thousand, going once, once twice. Sold for ten thousand gold to number one hundred ten," the auctioneer yelled.

"Ten thousand gold!" Raven exclaimed.

"Hmm, well the rune cube could save your life, so ten thousand gold isn't that much when you think about it," Jayde said.

Raven acceded with a shrug. "Hmm, when you put it like that, it makes sense," she said.

"Okay, the next item we have is a red seventh rank fireblast rune cube," the auctioneer said.

Jayde watched the auction for a while, after selling seven rune cubes the auctioneer brought out various potions and pills. Bored Jayde turned to Nova. "Hey Nova, pass me that booklet that man gave you."

"You mean this?" Nova asked holding up a small booklet the portly man outside of the auction house had given them.

"Yes," Jayde said reaching over to grab the booklet.

Sitting back in her chair, Jayde started to leaf through the booklet. Jayde was attracted to a page that detailed a strange seed found in the ruins as she was reading through the description, Isha interrupted her reading.

[Jayde you must buy this seed.]

[Huh? Why? According to this, they don't even know what this seed is?]

[If I am right, then this is an excellent find,] Isha stated.

[Ok if you are sure then I will buy it.]

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