Chương 294: Limitless Path Chapter Three Hundred Eighteen

"Alright, hit me with it," Beth said.

"No need to rush, dear girl," Mortaine said with a grin.

"I'd rather get bad news early than late," Beth said, giving him a dubious frown.

"First, let us see to this fascinating artifact," he continued, ignoring her entirely.

"What have you figured out about this item?"

"I read the basic description my eye power gives me. That's about it," Beth replied.

"Ah, I see," he said, nodding.

"Very well then, allow me to elaborate a bit. This item is rather special because it applies the principles of cold to the principles of space and movement. In doing so it is able to lock down or isolate a particular space, though if you were to be in that space without any countermeasures, you'd find your very bones cracking from the chill. Furthermore, the isolation effect can be countered by heat, but only measures of extreme heat; something related to solar mana, I should imagine."

"And you tell us all that to let us realize the value of the item so we can know if you're giving us a good deal?" Andrea asked while bouncing in her seat, eyes glowing as she stared at this important figure.

"No, lassie, our Lord said all that because he loves the sound of his own voice," Rell commented acerbically.

"I resent the implication of that statement," Mortaine said, pointing at Rell emphatically.

"The truth will set you free," Rell replied while giving his boss a half-bow from his seat further down the table.

"I can sense when I'm not wanted," Mortaine replied, adopting a morose expression with lowered brows and a slight twisting of his mouth.

"Well, after all that talk, you'll certainly give us a good price for the item, right?" Beth asked, trying to get the spacey Exalted to focus.

"How does ten diamond coins sound?" he asked with a big smile.

"Bad," Beth replied curtly before anyone else could respond.

"Come now, this isn't a finished product but a mere resource. A price like that is more than fair, and it would give each of your group members more than an entire diamond from just one item," Mortaine wheedled.

"It sounds pretty good," Andrea said, clearly tempted.

"A diamond coin is a lot," Adam added in.

"You guys are terrible negotiators," Beth said with a shake of her head while Mortaine laughed.

"I was thinking it might bring a much better price at the Seven Lights' monthly auction."

"Ah, but auctions are risky," Mortaine said with a wag of his finger.

"You could get a big catch, and you could get nothing."

"That's true," Kris said quietly with a small nod. Beth shot the others a glower, several of them snapping out of the daze Mortaine's sudden appearance had caused to realize they were being rather unhelpful in the negotiations. Mortaine just laughed before making a small stack of diamond coins appear, purposefully causing them to pop out in midair and fall to the table with loud clinking noises.

The ten coins formed a perfect stack on the table with several of the others staring at them intently, though Beth noted Bjorn's expressions was entirely uninterested.

"Make another one of those appear and it's a deal," Beth said calmly.

"Twenty diamond coins is ridiculous," Mortaine said with a shake of his head.

"I'll make it twelve."

"Twelve? Please, you're rich, two more coins is what you can scrounge up?" Beth asked with a frown and an eyeroll.

"Maybe we'll get thirty diamond at the auction."

"It's great to dream big, but we should always remember what dreams are," Mortaine replied.

"Fourteen."

"Eighteen and I won't say or ask anything else," Beth said with a big smile.

"It's something none of you can even use. How about I just give each and every one of you a nice, humble little two diamond coins and we call it even?" Mortaine shot back.

"Deal," Beth said, picking up the floating cube and throwing to Mortaine.

"Excellent!" he cried, making six more coins appear before the total of sixteen coins suddenly appeared in pairs before each of the other eight people.

"Don't want the gem?" Beth asked, making her coins disappear almost by instinct.

"Not interested," Mortaine shrugged, sitting back on the bench and examining the cube.

"Well then, who wants the elixir?" Beth asked.

"Not interested," Bjorn stated again, shaking his head.

"Not for me," said Itharion.

"No, lassie, not what I need," Rell said. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"It would interfere with my water affinity, likely," Kris said with a small shrug.

"Guess it's mine then," Andrea said with a big grin, reaching for the bottle. Beth lazily caught the short woman's wrist before looking at the remaining two.

"Blood, Adam, either of you?"

"Nope," said Blood, watching Mortaine, who had done something to the cube to make it spin continuously without anyone touching it.

"I'm interested, but I don't really need it. Andrea can have it if she wants it," Adam said, not overly concerned.

"OK," said Beth and tossed Andrea the elixir.

"Shouldn't we split out the value?" Kris asked.

"Oh, right," said Beth.

"How much is an elixir like that worth? I guess we'll have to get it appraised first." Mortaine then held out one hand, palm up, gesturing by flexing his wrist slightly. Andrea picked up what he meant after only a moment and tossed the elixir to him. He caught it quite deftly and brought it close to his face to examine, looking at it carefully for several seconds.

His eyes lit up and carried a strange and mystical glow, something that felt like looking beyond the edge of space, before they returned to their normal, calm look. The elixir then disappeared from his hand and instantly appeared in Andrea's, the girl almost fumbling it in her surprise.

"If I were going to analyze it objectively and give you my best evaluation, I would value that elixir at about twenty-five diamonds. This is assuming it would be directly sold by somebody able to craft such an elixir to a prospective client," Mortaine explained.

"Oh," Andrea said, looking down at the table and the two diamond coins still sitting on it in front of her.

"I can't afford that."

"Look, I'll just buy it," Beth said. She overrode Andrea's protest, saying, "If we make enough that you make the twenty coins or so you would owe the rest of us, you can pay them to me. If not, you'll owe me a favor."

"That's so much, though," Andrea said, glancing up at Beth and fidgeting slightly in her seat.

"It's only, and I can't believe I'm saying this, money. We can always earn more," Beth said with a shrug. She then tossed the other six three diamond coins each, making up for their share of the elixir. Nobody was upset that it wasn't precisely an eighth of Mortaine's estimate, they were just happy with the large amount of additional coin.

"Interested in this?" Beth asked Mortaine, showing him the ring. With a small motion of his right hand, Mortaine made the ring suddenly appear in his palm. Beth had been carefully observing Mortaine's actions, especially now that she had her mana sensing skill, and she still couldn't tell what he was doing. She had some vague ideas of some of the mana involved, but the strange thing was that his actions didn't involve any space mana, at least that she could detect.

It did make a certain kind of sense, as he was a supposed master of dimensional magics, which was not the same thing as space magic or space mana. It was still interesting to see what he did and how he did it, and Beth refocused as he started speaking after examining the ring for a moment.

"Hmm, I would sell this. It carries a latent power of a devil within it, which is not something I would think you would want to deal with at your level," he explained.

"You could get someone to remove the lingering resentment, but that would be quite expensive, which likely wouldn't be worth it."

"So, it's a cursed item?" asked Andrea, eyes slightly widening as she stared at the ring in the powerful Exalted's hand.

"No, not really," Mortaine replied with a shrug.

"It's a powerful item that was created as the result of the defeat of a strong devil. As such, some of the devil's lingering anger and malice remains buried in the ring. If you were strong enough, you could simply suppress the madness and use the ring without worry. Failing that, you would either have to carefully monitor your own emotional state and suppress yourself, or you would have to do as I mentioned before and get someone to rework the ring. Not a cheap proposition."

"I see," Beth said, starting a little as the ring appeared back in her left hand.

"Well, one final time, does anyone have a problem with selling the ring or the gem? And you don't want either, Mortaine?"

"I desire neither item, even to give to someone working for me," Mortaine said with a casual wave of his hand.

"I think we're all good," Andrea said, the rest of the group nodding.

"Alright. Adam, give me all the gems and stuff, same for what you have, Andrea. I'll take everything over to the Seven Lights and leave with them to get evaluated," Beth said. Andrea and Adam made gems and minerals appear from their storage, piling them on the table before Beth made them disappear. The others were rather surprised at the amount, if Beth could judge from their expressions, other than Mortaine and Bjorn, who both remained rather stoic.

When she had everything that they intended to sell, she got everyone up and led the way out of the ship, intending to store it away and head back into the city to stay at the CRA Hall. She was rather surprised when Mortaine didn't spontaneously disappear, but followed the rest out of the ship.

"I have need to speak with you then, my dear," Mortaine said to her after she packed up the ship.

"We can talk now as the others go back into the city," Beth suggested.

"No, no. We can sit down and speak properly later. I'll find you after you finish your business," Mortaine said jovially before doing what Beth had previously predicted and disappearing with a slight popping sound.

"I can't believe I got to meet the Lord of Traversal," Andrea said, bouncing on her toes as she waved her arms around.

"He seemed…nice," Kris added quietly, clearly having been affected by the encounter despite her calm demeanor.

"Our Lord is always a bit mysterious, but he's not a bad person, certainly," Rell added, puffing on his pipe that he had lit now that they were outside.

"Let's get back," Bjorn muttered before forging ahead, clearly not delighted with standing in the open and talking. The group followed behind him, making it back to the city gate in just a few minutes, where they were all able to enter with barely a glance thanks to their various tokens or badges. They split up there, with Adam and Andrea heading to the CRA, Bjorn going wherever he stayed, Kris heading to a compound she was staying at with some friends, and Rell and Itharion going to their hotel.

That left Beth and Blood, Mortaine having gone with a pop, to head to the Seven Lights building. It was early evening, and the trip was a pleasant fifteen-minute walk at the rather fast speed they moved thanks to their enhanced stats, the girls entering the lobby to find it clean and empty. Beth approached one of the two men at the counter and said, "I'd like to see Alex."

"Do you have an appointment, ma'am?" he asked, giving her a skeptical eye.

"No, but I have this," Beth replied, making the emerald token appear in the warm light of the overhead lamps.

"Ah, forgive me, ma'am! I'll get her right away," the attendant immediately came to attention and exclaimed, quickly calling Alex. The tall angel appeared in the lobby less than a minute later, greeting the two girls with a warm smile. She didn't even ask their business to start, leading them back into the building and up to a lounge on a high floor immediately.

She offered them refreshments, which they declined, before making small talk with them for a moment, clearly putting them at ease, though it wasn't really necessary. Beth didn't really mind as, other than the mysterious matter for Mortaine, she didn't really have anything else going on.

"Now, what can I do for you today?" Alex finally asked.

"We have some stuff we're hoping to put in the monthly auction, if you'd be willing to review it," Beth explained.

"The first of which is a bunch more gems and minerals." Beth dumped everything she had, including the chests full of precious minerals, onto the wide, low central table. Alex immediately stood and paced around, giving everything Beth had a quick inspection, likely deciding if it was worth offering as one, or possibly more, lots at the next auction. Her inspection took a few minutes and ended with the chests they had gotten as rewards for the hidden dungeon.

She seemed satisfied with everything, sitting back down and giving them a small smile.

"These can likely be separated into a total of three lots, depending on how we decide to do it," Alex said.

"But you said this was just the first of it?"

"That's right," Beth replied.

"There's two more items, each of which I think could rise to the level of its own spot in a monthly auction."

"Please," Alex said, gesturing at the table with her slim, long-fingered right hand. Beth made the gem appear first, lightly tossing it to Alex, who caught it with a small chuckle. She took a few moments to inspect the gem, clearly having both a very high-level skill to do so, as well as a wealth of experience in handling so many different items. She turned the gem over several times before reaching a conclusion, setting the object down on the table.

"I believe your assessment is correct," Alex said calmly.

"This is a rather rare and powerful legendary item; it would do rather well in the monthly auction."

"Awesome," Beth said with a grin.

"That leaves the piece de resistance." She made the ring appear in her hand and tossed it to Alex, who nearly fumbled it seeing that it was a masterwork item Beth was casually chucking around. She spent some time examining the ring, more than Mortaine had, inspecting it from several angles while a thoughtful frown formed on her face. Eventually, she set the ring down on the table and turned back to the girls, though she focused on Beth as Blood was clearly there just for support.

"This is a bit of a dangerous item," she began.

"It has some inherent properties of a monster, a devil, it seems, still lingering within it. It's certainly worthy of a place in the monthly auction, but I need to caution you that we have to mention the downsides. That will likely reduce the bids by a bit, considering the item's level and other effects."

"We didn't expect any less," Beth shrugged it off.

"Do you need us to come back tomorrow to verify, or…?"

"No, that's fine," Alex shook her head.

"Assuming you intend to participate in the monthly auction, you will see these items there. If not, we can always send you the proceeds at a later time."

"We'll be at the auction, assuming there's nothing crazy that happens in the next couple days," Beth replied.

"Good. The auction is five days from now, the same time of day as last time," Alex said.

"Excellent," Beth said with another smile.

"Do you have anything for us?"

"No, no," Alex laughed.

"We'll be sure to let you know if there's something."

"Thanks so much," Beth said, standing and shaking Alex's hand. The angel then led them back down to the lobby where she bid them farewell.