The intermission followed almost right after their lot, with only a single item that also incurred a fever pitch of bidding before it was won for fifty orichalcum. Many of the participants took some time to socialize and discuss the proceedings so far. Beth and Blood were content in their booth, happier with drinking and relaxing than with some inane banter. The intermission was a full half-hour, and it was only at the very end that Pierce even reappeared onstage to get ready for the next segment.

Segment two was certainly interesting and entertaining, but they had no more items to sell and didn't find anything particularly appealing. It was a couple hours before they hit the second of the intermissions, with another half-hour segment for people to rest, relax, and, of course, order lots of drinks. The intermission wrapped up precisely on time and rolled into the third segment of the auction. This segment would end with the finale, which had everyone excited, and several people couldn't contain themselves with large bids on items that they might regret. Regrets that might possibly crop up very soon as the finale items appeared and those people no longer had enough money to place competitive bids.

Beth had switched to some alcohol at some point, raiding the very expensive bottles in the room's liquor cabinet. She had a tendency for high-alcohol content, darker drinks when she was in her cups, and there was plenty of that in the cabinet. She had a glass of something dark brown and very alcoholic that was lightly sweet and heavily smoky before getting a different glass of something dark gold and rather umami. She really liked whatever the gold drink was and took a picture of the label so she could go buy some of the exact same thing later.

The third part of the auction wore on, with plenty of strange items on offer. Most of the weapons and armor had already been sold, or so it seemed, as the items in the last part of the auction were all unusual finds. Elixirs at very least on par with the elixir Beth had earned from the Trial of Celestial Awakening were on offer alongside items that improved skills, altered or upgraded Presences, and much, much more. An Entombed Heart of Artifact rarity appeared right before the finale items and drove the fourth-floor guests into a near-breakdown, with the winner spending a mind-shattering two adamantine and seventy orichalcum coins for it. Beth would've said it was something of a waste, especially shooting a shot that big right before the first finale item was wheeled out, but if it was somebody of that aspect that was struggling with their humanization, that heart's value was likely damn near priceless.

The first of the finale items was wheeled onto the stage with basically no fanfare, just an item under a black cloth on a small table that an assistant moved next to Pierce before exiting the stage. Pierce didn't speak, at least, not at first, but instead stepped over to the item and very carefully grabbed the cloth covering. He slowly lifted it up, sliding it back over the object and folding it away. It was very clear that the item here could speak for itself, though Pierce did have to state something according to the auction production rules.

"You are all aware, I am sure, of what this is, but I will briefly name it and explain. It is a Mana Physique Simulation Block, allowing a user to simulate building their Mana Physique with no danger. This Block is an original product of a Divine Engineer, with a full five hundred uses remaining. The starting bid is one orichalcum coin with minimum bids of five mithril coins," he explained.

As soon as he finished speaking the current bid number on the screen behind him turned into a blur as the bids totally exploded. And this wasn't just a handful of people bidding one or two mithril coins at a time. No, people were bidding fifteen or twenty orichalcum coins at a time, the price exploding into the adamantine coin range in a handful of seconds. The bidding was genuinely the craziest Beth had seen yet, with the price shattering one record after another. It took ten minutes before the bids slowed a little, at that point the price having hit thirty-eight adamantine coins. The bids had slowed, but they didn't stop for another five minutes, with the final price an incomprehensible forty-three adamantine, fifty orichalcum coins.

The first finale item disappeared backstage, only to be replaced a moment later by the second of the big ticket items, which was hosted at another of the firm's venues. The second finale item was even less impressive than the first item by appearance. It was a silver and gold sphere about a foot across with hundreds, in fact, thousands of runes etched onto just the surface. Beth didn't recognize it, but there were plenty of audible gasps from the crowd on all floors when the sphere was revealed. She eagerly waited for Pierce to explain why everyone in the venue was losing their minds.

"I can tell that many of you recognize this incredible prize," Pierce said. "Our second finale item of this year's biggest auction is an Item Reconstructor. For those of you who don't know, these items perfectly rebuild an item of your choice from the ground up, fully customized to you, making best possible use of all materials and improving upon them. This item will take a single item and rebuild it to at least Relic tier. If it is already Relic tier, it will be either Relic or Transcendent tier and fully, perfectly customized for the person that uses the device. The starting bid is fifty orichalcum coins with a minimum bid of one orichalcum coin."

Beth had thought the first finale item had driven the venue mad, but this item was worth quite a bit more. At least, according to people's loosening of their purse strings, as the bid rocketed into and through the stratosphere in record time. Beth knew the finale section was way outside her current capabilities, so she just sat back with Blood and tried to get drunk. The numbers climbed well past the first finale item, to a point where they were almost meaningless they were so absurd. The little metal sphere eventually sold for ninety-one adamantine coins, something Beth couldn't get her head around any other way than to laugh.

The sphere disappeared from the screen and the last item appeared right afterward, something a whole lot bigger than the first two finale items. It was a large, rectangular object, or that's what Beth got through the cloth covering the entire thing as it shown at one of the other locations. It became pretty obvious what it was when the cover was removed, naturally, as a large display case was revealed. The Seven Lights firm wasn't selling a display case, though Beth wouldn't rule that out, but it was what was in the case that was on sale. Beth could tell it was an armor set, of course, but the details of the armor presented on the screen and on the tablet in the booth told a much greater story.

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Star Extinguisher Armor Plate

{Armor forged by a forgotten master of the distant past. This armor was created to grant the wearer the strength to wipe out the stars. Wearing the set grants bonuses to STR and END, with the full set further increasing STR and granting the Star Slayer skill.

80% increased STR

70% increased END

25% increased WIS

Minimum level 750.

2-piece bonus: 25% increased STR.

4-piece bonus: 50% increased STR, 25% increased END.

6-piece bonus: 75% increased STR, Star Slayer skill.

Star Slayer: Create rotating waves of mana capable of ripping apart the very stars themselves.}

Beth had to rub her eyes more than once looking at the information, especially because the list of materials used to make the set was included and she had never heard of a single thing in the whole list. She took notes on all of it because if it could be used for something like this, it was sure to be insanely valuable. She'd hate to have something on the list offered as a reward for some challenge with a selectable reward and not pick it because she didn't recognize it. The whole auction hall had gone quiet for a moment when the full suit was revealed before exploding in noise and cries. Beth also admired the armor itself as the hall was in a churn, seeing how each piece was made of multiple segments joined in some way that she didn't understand. It looked like the whole thing would seal together when worn, yet somehow still allow for movement at the joints. It was a deep black color with dark blue and purple lines in certain specific places along the sides of the legs, the backs of the arms, and around the shoulders.

The bidding for the armor set was extremely intense, as it was a full Transcendent set of six pieces requiring at least level seven hundred and fifty. Nothing Beth had fought so far in her time on the Path would be able to scuff this thing's paint, and the skill description mentioned it being strong enough to tear apart stars. No question this was by far the most powerful, and dangerous, suit of armor Beth had seen by an absolute lightyear, and the bidding reflected that. The numbers climbing made the bids for the last two items seem trapped in molasses, and the final bid was shocking, the first time Beth had seen something about neutronium coins. The suit went for two and a half of them to somebody on the fourth floor, who didn't sound at all unhappy about paying that much for a set of armor.

That had been the last of the finale pieces and was certainly a fitting end to the yearly auction. It did make Beth briefly dream of having that kind of cash, or that kind of skill, to be able to craft the armor itself, but that wouldn't happen for a long time. It was nice to dream, however, and she waited with Blood in the booth for a while, letting the rest of the guests get their items and possibly money before doing anything. It proved a good idea to wait for multiple reasons, not least of which was that they got personal service from Azael after some time, who came up to their private booth to hand them their earnings. After the consignment fee, Beth received one orichalcum, nine mithril, and twenty-five diamond coins. It had also let her get halfway through another glass of the quite good, and she was sure really expensive, alcohol in the time they waited, which Azael noted but didn't comment on.

It had been long enough for Beth's taste and so she let Azael escort them out of the building, after which they returned to the CRA Hall. Beth was quite happy and genuinely didn't feel like doing anything else that day but relaxing, so that's exactly what they both did. She did want to pick up a few supplies, though she still had plenty of the cooked food, but they needed some more rations and a few other things. They took care of all that the following morning with a relatively quick shopping trip, leaving Beth a little unsure of what to do next. They could keep training and working towards rebirths, which was always something they would and should be working on, but she knew Blood was burnt out at this point, and she could use a break herself. Not only that, but she figured it was time to get ahold of Mortaine and see what he had for them next that he'd forgotten to tell them.

It turned out Beth didn't really have to worry about any of it, as they found a visitor sitting on their couch when they returned to their room. Beth would have complained about a lot of things, including the invasion of their privacy amongst others, but she didn't think there was really a point. Not until she had the kind of power, and perhaps eccentricity, that someone like Mortaine had, by which time it would basically be a moot point. She sighed as he waved at them on their entry to their own room and took a spot on the couch across from him.

"I'd thought you forgot us. I was literally going to send you a message today," Beth said.

"Good to see you, too," Mortaine replied with a grin. "I take it you had a lot of fun at the Seven Light's yearly auction?"

"Made some good money," Beth said with a shrug.

"Ah, you had a piece for sale?" Mortaine asked, eyes widening just a little.

"The devil essences were ours," Blood explained.

It took Mortaine only a second to put it together. "I see. A slightly clever use of that legacy power."

"As long as we're a little careful, it should be fine," Beth said with another shrug.

"I see you've done another rebirth in the meantime," Mortaine commented. "That rate of progress is rather good, but it's important to take things easy. To that end, I have your next job."

"That was a suspicious segue," Beth commented.

"Hmm, it's hard to tell with some people. I would say you will rather enjoy the next job I've got for you, but then again, you may not like it. Still, one should take chances to rest when they can," Mortaine commented idly.

"Alright, hit us with it," Beth said with a light sigh.

"How much do you know of the Blue Queen?" Mortaine asked.

"Clearly not enough. Why don't you explain?" Beth replied.

"Few people know this, so keep it to yourself, but she is an Exalted, and a powerful one, at that," Mortaine explained. "She's not quite as old as I am, but I've spent a lot more time studying over the last couple of millennia than fighting, whereas she has founded and built a successful business empire while also maintaining and improving her skill in battle. She is a serious force to be reckoned with in the galaxy due to both her personal power as well as her highly successful business ventures."

"And what's her business?" Beth asked.

"Well, of course you already know about the high-end bars and clubs she runs," Mortaine said with an idle wave. "Beyond that, she runs a massive security company that essentially works as a mercenary firm, though she doesn't like when people call them mercs, so keep that in mind. Whether due to the nature of the work or several other factors, she also runs one of the best armor and weapons manufacturers in the core systems that surround the heart of the galaxy. Finally, she's also well-known, among certain circles, and by that, I mean elite circles, to run the best luxury resorts and pleasure houses in the galaxy."

"So, she runs a merc company, is a weapons dealer, and runs hotels and brothels?" Beth asked with a slightly quirked brow.

"That's one way to put it, yes," Mortaine said with a small chuckle. "Though, again, I'd advise you to be a bit cautious about the, let's just say, descriptors you use when discussing her business. I should also note that the part about the resorts was in tandem; she runs a handful of massive resorts that cater to basically anything you desire, though all done within the law and within a few certain bounds of taste and courtesy."

"I'm not sure what that even means," Beth said, eyeing the Exalted.

"Her resorts all offer a very wide range of services, but she never coerces anyone in any of her businesses, particularly the resorts. She also allows all manner of things, but certain acts or, the more common problem, certain recreational substances are highly controlled or banned on her premises," he explained. "Don't worry, you'll have the opportunity to experience it all first hand."

"Here we go," grumbled Blood.

"That's right; the next task I have for you involves business with the Blue Queen, and to find her, you're going to have to go on a little vacation," Mortaine said with a grin which grew even wider when he saw their stupefied expressions.

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