Nightmare Realm Summoner

The first second of silence after Sofia finished announcing the Corruption Core felt like it dragged on forever. Not one person in the room with Alex said a single word. All they could do was stand and twitch in anticipation. Even if Claire had been hoping to try her sneaky bid-on-your-own-item strategy again, it was impossible now. Too many of the auctions were just ending after the first bid.

It simply wasn’t worth the risk. The chances of ending up with their own Legendary — and entirely useless — Class Shard were way too high. All they could do is sit around and wait. That or their backup strategy. But that was only for emergencies. Real emergencies. This didn’t constitute as one.

Another second dragged by.

“Come on,” Mite muttered, leaning forward as his foot tapped furiously against the floor. “Somebody buy it.”

Another second came and went. Alex’s heart started to sink in his chest. Nobody was bidding. Maybe people somehow knew how cursed the Corruption Core really was. The auction might not have mentioned it in hopes of scamming some idiot. That could have been why they said they weren’t sure if it would sell.

Damn it. Seriously? I was so sure that this one would be a huge hit. What do we do? Just let it—

“15,000 Credits.” A man’s voice cut through the Auction House from Room 1.

Alex’s eyes widened.

“Yes!” Mite exclaimed, pumping a hand in the air. “Fuck yeah! Buy our shit!”

“That’s a good line. Catchy.” Finley’s staticky voice came from his puppet. “Maybe I should use that.”

“It’s not enough,” Wess said, sucking on the insides of his cheeks. “I’m not happy until I get my dopamine hit. 15,000 Credits was the lowest reserve price. More. Give me more.”

It wasn’t too long before his wish was granted.

“16,000 Credits,” called Thorn from Room 2.

Alex snorted. “You think he’ll keep it? Screwing the same Outworlder family twice in one auction is pretty funny. Feels like it almost might be a bit much. We haven’t even interacted with them outside of this auction.”

“Eh,” Claire said. “They’re Outworlders. They can afford it. And Thorn won’t know it was us that got him either way. There’s nothing to be—”

“18,000,” came the call from Room 1.

Alex blinked. This was a pretty stark change from the previous items that had ended after just one bid. Their Core had already jumped 3,000 Credits in just a few seconds. It was already making a pretty tidy profit beyond what they’d been expecting.

“20,000,” Thorn called. He didn’t say any threats or try to intimidate whoever was in Room 1. That seemed to be exclusively Room 3’s game. It was apparent that he planned to speak purely with Credits.

But… what’s going on here? Why is Thorn of all people bidding so high right now? If he had this much money at his disposal, shouldn’t he have spent more on Wind’s End? He literally offered up a favor to keep us out of the running for it. Why do all that just to start tossing your Credits at an item that you didn’t even realize would be up for auction? Are they just flying by the seat of their pants?

He snuck a quick glance in Claire’s direction. But she looked just as baffled as he felt.

“Why are they bidding so heavily?” Claire’s frown deepened. “Did we get played on Wind’s End?”

“How would we have?” Alex asked. “You don’t possibly think they predicted we would try to screw them via proxy, do you? They gave up a lot more than they lost with that promise to stay out of a bid when we ask them to… unless you think Thorn was lying?”

Claire just shook her head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t really make sense. They might have been lying. But if they were, then it was a lot of effort for functionally no reward. It doesn’t make sense at all. My best assumption is that the circumstances changed. Significantly. But I don’t know why—”

“22,000,” called Room 6.

Alex almost winced. As far as the Outworlders went, Crimson was about as close to an ally as they were going to make. Well, an ally that they’d rinsed for a lot of Credits. If Crimson also ended up wasting 22,000 Credits on a cursed Class Shard, he was actually going to start feeling a bit bad.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Someone else, please. Let’s pass the Class Shard over to some asshole that we actively dislike. It’s not hard. That’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Come on. Someone else.

“25,000,” Thorn called.

“Jesus,” Mite breathed. “Those guys are fucking rich. This was the beginning of the last part of the auction, isn’t it? Why is he spending everything he’s got?”

“I don’t know,” Claire said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe they realized they’re not able to go for any of the best stuff,” Wess said. “What if Thorn made deals with other people over that Wind’s End thing? He might have realized he’s dug himself too deep a hole to try and go for any of the really big ticket items at the very final stages of the auction. If he made a few too many deals with the other rooms… the chances of one of them blocking him is too high.”

Alex blinked. He hadn’t even considered that. But it was a real possibility. If there were only a few items left in the auction, it only took one person who Thorn might have made a deal with stepping in and asking him to stay out of the proceedings for Myrmidan to end up leaving with nothing.

Doesn’t explain much of anything else… but at least that would justify why he’s going all in on something now. Nobody can ask him to step aside if they haven’t already bid. Nobody is going to say the word proving they made a deal with Myrmidan without also placing a bid. And I don’t think anyone is going to join the auction at this point. It’s already at 25—

“28,000,” Called the man in Room 1.

Alex did choke that time.

Holy shit.

“Holy shit,” Aaron said. “Seriously? People have that much to just throw around? There’s no way—”

“30,000,” Thorn called flatly. There was a faint note of displeasure in his words. But even still, he said nothing more.

“35,000,” the man from Room 1 replied without a moment of hesitation.

Thorn didn’t reply immediately. But then his words cut through the air once more.

“38,000.”

A moment of silence hung in the air. Alex held his breath. His eyes darted across the shadows in the other windows as he tried to figure out if anyone else was still participating. Another second followed after it.

Sofia seemed to be doing the very same thing that he was. She held her tongue for about as long as she possibly could have. But it was quickly becoming apparent that nobody else would be joining the bidding.

Thorn had won.

Sofia opened her mouth.

“40,000 Credits,” came the casual call from Room 1. If anything, it almost sounded like the speaker had gotten distracted by something else and nearly forgotten that there was an auction happening.

“No shot,” Mite exclaimed, leaping to his feet and bouncing up and down like a hyperactive schoolchild. “I love this guy!”

Alex was starting to think the same thing. He held his breath, waiting to see if another bid would come from Thorn. But it never did. Silence was all that followed.

“Sold!” Sofia called. “Congratulations to Room 1 for acquiring this unique item!”

A wave of relief and near-hysteric amusement rolled over Alex. He laughed out loud, slumping back in his chair.

“No way,” he said. “Double. Double what we were expecting. Can you believe that?”

“40,000 Credits,” Claire muttered. She ran a hand through her hair. “That’s a lot of money. After accounting for the expected sale cost of 15,000 Credits, we’re up 25,000 Credits. Adding that to the 20,000 profit we currently have… that’s roughly 45,000 Credits we have to work with. We really are rich. That was even higher than I was expecting it to go.”

“The hell was the guy in Room 1 on? He’s a psycho,” Wess said. “40 Grand? On a literal—”

“Class Shard,” Claire said sharply. She sent Wess a firm look. “A Legendary one.”

“Right,” Wess said. He coughed. “Good deal.”

“But even with it being Legendary… that price is insane,” Claire said. “I don’t know if we should be thanking Thorn or our unknown benefactor in Room 1.”

“Not a benefactor for long,” Wess muttered. “Buddy’s going to hate our guts soon enough.”

“All the Outworlders hate us,” Alex said with a shrug. “He can step in line. In the meantime, we’ve got 45,000 Credits to spend. I think that should be more than enough to wipe our tears.”

Claire smirked. “Yeah. I think it might be.”

***

A shimmer of green light cut through the room. There was a clink as a semi-translucent bubble of magical pink energy clinked against the table, rolling until it came to a stop against a gloved hand.

The man sitting in Room 1 picked the orb up, rolling it between his fingers. Then a shimmer of energy enveloped it. Then the Class Shard vanished, sucked beneath his glove and into a spatial ring. Letting out a small chuckle, the man pushed his chair back and rose to his full height.

“Not bad,” he said. “Not bad at all. But we really couldn’t have this getting out, could we? That would have caused all sorts of problems. No more freebies, though. You’re going to have to earn the next one.”

He paused. Then he tilted his head to the side. Even though there was a cloth mask covering his entire face, it almost seemed as if he’d seen something.

“Come in,” he called.

The door shimmered behind him. Then it swung open, admitting a young woman clad in Bleak Night’s colors.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” she said, stepping inside with a plate of food balanced on one hand. “But as we are entering the final stage of the tournament, we’ve brought some refreshments for—”

“No thank you. There won’t be any need for it,” the masked said. “Please pass my appreciation for the invite along. I know it was issued on short notice. But I’ll be leaving.”

“So soon? But the auction is far from done. There are still—”

“There’s no need. I’d hate to waste your food. Eat it yourself and take a break before reporting back to your boss, would you? I’ve gotten what I need,” the man said. “I am more than satisfied.”

The woman blinked, but she was clearly a professional.

“Of course. Thank you for your patronage, Stargazer. It was a pleasure to have you representing the Empty Court tonight.”

“Oh, no.” Stargazer smiled behind his mask and gave the woman a slight bow. “The pleasure was all mine.”

And then he was gone.