Chapter 696: The Auction Begins

Grey ended up claiming another 2 sets of Legacy Items before anything about the auction changed. That added 6 more Dominion Class treasures to the growing pile, while Breejara grew less and less amused by how easily he forced each one into accepting him.

By then, even the audience had accepted that waiting for one of the Legacies to reject Grey was pointless. Most of their curiosity had shifted to what the hell he planned to do with all of them once he got back to his private room.

Grey’s answer was exactly the same as before. The moment he got back, he dumped everything onto the dining table for everyone to try.

Sabrina went through every single one, but nothing happened.

What made that harder and harder to ignore was that the others kept finding something.

This time, Amara was the first. A small black dagger reacted the moment her fingers passed over its handle.

It had a shallow, hooked curve near the tip, and it looked almost too simple compared to some of the other Legacies Grey had collected. However, the moment it moved toward Amara on its own, he understood why the match felt so natural.

Grey had never sat down and properly classified her Neural Frame. Though, after watching her phase individual parts of her body through attacks while keeping everything around them solid, Branching seemed like the obvious answer.

The dagger worked on a similar principle.

Its old Dominion let the wielder choose which parts of an object the blade would interact with. It could slip through armor or other defenses, then have one branch of its state turn solid on the other side.

Once Grey understood that, the little hook made a lot more sense.

After the blade passed harmlessly through something, the curve could catch flesh, tendons, joints, or anything else hiding underneath. It would only become real once it was already somewhere nobody wanted it to be.

The weapon settled naturally into Amara’s palm. She studied it for several seconds, then slipped it away with such a calm expression that Grey couldn’t help but nod.

"That one’s fucking disgusting. Suits you."

Amara looked at him.

Grey immediately raised both hands. "Combat-wise."

Several Legacies responded to Elowen as well. However, she turned every one of them down without much hesitation, explaining that her mother had already left her a suitable inheritance.

Considering who Elowen’s mother was, Grey figured whatever was waiting for her was probably better than anything he was randomly buying here, so he left it alone.

Mauve had even less reason to care after inheriting the Blood Witch’s tome. As for Brad, he already had his hammer and had long since started building around it.

Mensah was the only one who flat-out refused to even try. He insisted he wasn’t about to start accepting handouts just because Grey had somehow gotten rich enough to buy Dominion Class treasures in batches.

That argument became a lot harder to hold onto when a pair of heavy gauntlets reacted to him from halfway across the room.

Mensah looked at the gauntlets, then slowly looked at Grey.

Grey was already grinning. "Not really a handout if they’re the ones begging."

"Fuck off."

That set off another round of laughter.

Mensah stubbornly left the gauntlets on the table, while everyone else spent the next several minutes explaining why being chosen by a weapon technically meant he was rejecting the weapon, not Grey.

Through all of it, Sabrina kept trying each new Legacy without making a fuss. By the time the second set had been tested, though, she was the only person in the room who hadn’t gotten even the smallest reaction.

Eventually, she moved to the corner of the room and sat down with the same calm smile she’d worn all night.

Lilac was still quietly glowing over the Bulwark, and Duke had finally stopped complaining long enough to experiment with his whip. Sabrina had no intention of letting her disappointment drag down everyone else’s mood.

She even laughed whenever somebody pulled her into one of the jokes. But, underneath it all, the knot in her chest kept tightening as she watched one person after another find some sign of where they were supposed to go.

Logically, she knew none of those Legacies might have been a perfect fit for her anyway. But knowing that didn’t make it feel much better when every single one passed over her without so much as a twitch.

The auction moved through another handful of lots, and eventually, Sabrina stopped getting up whenever Grey came back with something new.

She had already decided not to force it. If there really was something out there meant for her, then she would find it eventually.

It was at that moment that the format of the auction changed.

Instead of 3 platforms rising beneath Breejara, only one appeared. That change alone was enough to shift the mood throughout the entire auction hall.

Breejara seemed to enjoy the attention.

A small object appeared above the platform, wrapped in several layers of golden light, and her smile widened as the information slowly unfolded beside it.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and those of you currently pretending you haven’t already spent far too much, we’ve officially reached the portion of tonight’s auction where sensible financial planning goes to die."

Grey barely reacted until the final description appeared.

—

Name: Rank UP!

Rarity: Ascended

Class: Ascendant

Accepted Type: N/A

Rejected Type: N/A

Description: An item of great auspiciousness and fanfare. Take any item of the Proving, Established, Vector, Vanguard, Command, Dominus, or Ascendant Classes and elevate it perfectly to the Ascendant Class Ascended Rarity standard.

Abilities: Do you not know how to read? Look up, idiot.

Note: Unlike lesser Rank UP! items, no inconsistencies or weaknesses will occur during elevation regardless of the target item’s original Class or Rarity. Attempting to use this item on an Ascended Ascendant Class Item may garner some additional, pleasant effects.

—

Grey was on his feet before Breejara had even finished speaking, his eyes locked on the platform as the implications hit him all at once.

He didn’t bother waiting for her to explain the conditions, either. He opened the bidding interface immediately and entered the first increase.

His bubble lit up.

Then, another one did.

A third followed almost immediately, then a fourth.

Grey’s expression slowly changed as the names appeared across the main display. Aelthar Infernis, Saelira Othryn and Lyssara-0, alongside his own.

For the first time since the auction began, the other Betting Favorites had entered the bidding.

As Grey sat back down, he couldn’t help wondering. Had they avoided him all night just to save their money for whatever started showing up from this point on?

If this Rank Up! marked the start of Ascendant-level treasures, then everything before now might have been nothing more than a warm-up.

Grey should have been more worried about the competition. However, the moment he looked back at the Rank Up!, every other thought took a back seat.

He needed it.

Ma Famille had already proven how absurdly useful it could become, and Lilac’s situation had made its current limitation impossible to ignore.

The Thousand Door Bulwark had already given her a natural path toward Ascendant. If Ma Famille stayed stuck at Dominus, then something that was supposed to speed up her growth would eventually turn into a chain around her ankle.

Lilac wasn’t the only reason, either.

Duke had satisfied a Dominion Legacy almost immediately, and James had been accepted by the Eightfold Refrain. Amara’s dagger fit her abilities with an almost odd level of precision, and even Mensah had attracted a pair of gauntlets while actively refusing to take part.

Grey had spent so long thinking he was the one dragging everyone around him upward. Only now was it occurring to him that some of them might be far more talented than Earth ever had the knowledge or resources to reveal.

If that was true, then Dominion wouldn’t stay their ceiling for very long. So, Ma Famille couldn’t be allowed to become one.

On top of that, there was a far uglier weakness built into the treasure itself.

When it first appeared, Grey had simply accepted it, since his solution had always been straightforward enough: Nobody under Ma Famille was allowed to die.

The problem was that if even one person besides Grey died, everyone else connected to it would follow. A single failure would mean the death of nearly everyone he cared about.

Grey had no intention of letting any of them die. But that didn’t mean he was stupid enough to pass up a chance to remove the possibility entirely.

If an Ascendant Rank Up! could evolve Ma Famille far enough to weaken that restriction, redirect it, or give Grey some control over the connection, then this item was worth far more than whatever number was showing on the screen.

He bid again.

Aelthar answered almost immediately, and Saelira followed a moment later. Lyssara-0 waited just long enough for the number to settle before pushing it higher again.

As the price climbed, the lesser bidders dropped out one after another. Eventually, the entire auction hall seemed to go quiet around the same realization.

Only 4 names remained.

All 4 were Betting Favorites.

Breejara’s voice carried through the silence, growing more excited as the number kept rising. Meanwhile, Grey leaned forward with his forearms on his knees, watching the other 3 bubbles stay lit across the hall.

"And then there were four." Breejara’s voice boomed.

Grey kept his eyes on the display.

This was the first thing tonight he actually couldn’t afford to lose.