As Pike mentioned, following the competition came the auctions. Once those were settled, there would be the individual competitions and the closing feasts, in which the competitors, Teachers and guests gathered, but others were forced to imagine about from afar,
There were two auctions; the first was where usually the least valuable things were exchanged hands and was only open to students. Students bid using points and as the realm treasures were not always enough to whet the appetite's of bidders, Pills, talismans, simple crystals and apprentice weapons often were placed up for auction as well. The atmosphere was usually lively and the treasures usually not so rare to want to cause mischief following.
The second auction was a closed auction where the rarest treasures could be sold. Again Pills, talismans and the like might find new ownership, but usually these were made by top students or Teachers. The closed bidding system allowed for the privacy of the purchaser and the price agreed upon. The dark emotions of envy and greed could only be restrained not solved, this system having been used the past one hundred or so years was found to do so reasonably well.
Teams decided for themselves what would be sold, what would not. For instance, Roman was very reluctant to part with the small, colour and pattern changing stone and the team were reluctant to take it from him. Indeed, it was just a small treasure and the taking of the pulse of a willing person could give the same results to an expert, no need to rely on the interpretation of a rock.
Leon harvested many herbs, but for a few stalks and seeds, he was happy to exchange the rest for points. They would also add the ametrines and other gemstones into the general auction. The blue mushrooms had value, but only as an exotic food thus suitable for the student auction as were many of the animal parts, be it that they could become armour or adornments. Though there were certain exceptions, such as the peng-kun teeth, far more suitable for the closed auction, giving outsiders the chance to bid on this treasure.
The three cockateal eggs would find themselves as part of the closed auction; Velana, their only beast-tamer was not interested in raising one, she chose a few leathers to take back with her over them or anything else.
Roman took the changing rock and a few interesting pieces of stones that were worth nothing by themselves. Troy's interest lie in the knife blade; he wanted to have a new handle cast for it and use it as one of his weapons. Caelus thought he liked both the magic ring and the broken jade scrolls, but also felt that it would be better to have the first evaluated and the latter fixed to see what actual value they had. It was not good to be too greedy.
Everyone eyed the interspatial ring, but no one stepped forward at this point.
Usually in such situations, the team would have everything valued in terms of points as part of their scores by the judges. Everyone picked a few things of lower value and the highest value things need be paid to the team in points or of things with equal value. For example, if Leon wanted an ounce of raw void stone, he would likely need to exchange with several Jade bottles worth of peak quality Cloudy Spiritual Pills or a bottle of high quality White Spiritual Pills. Such reached value of many gold coins in the merchant world as a mere ounce of raw void stone could alter a small pocket of space into something nearing a mu, once tempered and then the waste material was not thrown away but used in the making of cheap interspatial pouches.
All of their loot was valued this way; on known values. Even if it were say, the unusual skin of a hybrid or a stalk of mutated herb or a magic ring with an unknown array. Basically, it was to simplify things, otherwise wouldn't teams continuously argue over the value of every small thing? So what if none of the peng-kun teeth had chips or imperfections or the horn of an tri-corn twisted left instead of right? If they made exceptions for one team, wouldn't they have to make exceptions for others? A piece of broken silver was a piece of broken silver at the end of the day, no matter what shape it took.
Of course, if the team had successfully identified the magic ring before hand and it was truly worth an increased value, that was different. This was a test for the scholar as well, after all. Roman's expertise didn't lie in this area, but he had already found so much for their team, they could not complain. Just swallow the potential reduction in points and seek outside assistance before the auction.
And then they received some breathtaking information about their treasures.
Roman was the valued student of a certain Scholar Teacher, not someone highly important, but not someone to be looked down on. Eccentric fit her best. She loved interesting things regardless of value, so although she evaluated their things with sparkling eyes, her heart held no avarice. She was often visited by students following the competition, thanks to her traits. No need to exchange points or silver, no need to risk having to make gifts to appease her will. Just let her study it for a bit, she would return it intact before the auctions, her curiosity satisfied. Of courses that all was based on whether one could get her attention in the first place.
Great for most students, a nightmare for Roman and his fellows as they were forced to record all of her notes on those objects for the woman. Of course, this time, Roman was on the other side of the coin and he was quick to take advantage of his connections to her to see her directly, without waiting.
The three rings, the chest filled with coin and the broken jade scrolls were waved beneath her nose catching her immediate attention.
The coin chest would usually hold little interest to a normal Cultivator; the enchantments upon it were old and worn out, it was now just wood with some array lines upon it. The formation was interesting, but nothing actually new. The coins, however, she collected one of each denomination and spread them out, wanting to record this information for prosperity. After all, these represented a bit of history from a realm that had long lost its records. Roman and the others were willing to gift them, if she wanted to keep them.
She just smiled and said nothing, just had one of Roman's 'sister's' make impressions of the coins for her notes.
Otherwise, silver was just silver no matter what was embossed on its surface.
The three rings, they were right to guess that one was a decorative, valuable piece, but without other usage. As for the magic ring, it had defensive properties. The array added a personal layer of protection on its wearer, the equivalent of a permanent leather skin about the entire body, not unlike Abiding Fortitude pills. Of course the latter was temporary, the former worked as long as the wearer had spirit to share with it. This increased its value greatly and would be sought after by many alchemists, scholars and mages not to mention gain interest from other cultivators.
And then there was the interspatial ring.
"Not an interspatial ring," the Teacher told them the following day. "But an interdimensional ring." Even though the tea in their cups was good, they all couldn't help but spit it out in shock.
"Could you repeat that?" It wasn't often that Pike questioned his hearing. An interdimensional ring? Wasn't the chance of forging one like finding natural ice in the desert?
"It's an interdimensional ring, but," the woman continued as she placed the silver ring down on the desk carefully, "there is an additional array upon it. It won't allow its space to be utilised by anyone but a particular bloodline."
"Then it's useless," Caelus couldn't help but complain bitterly.
"Not useless," the Teacher smiled and smacked him on the shoulder as if in comfort. Unfortunately, it didn't comfort, just caused pain. "It's possible that the bloodline exists in one of the other realms, especially consider the high realm. Just..."
"Just that finding the owner requires luck," Pike sighed and smiled. In a way, this was not a bad result. If others found out they had such a ridiculous treasure, who knew if they could keep it for themselves without losing or shedding blood. "I don't suppose there are any clues to guide one either?" The Teacher hesitated in thought, before shaking her head.
"Even then," Caelus continued to mutter, "if we return find the owner and hand it over, whose to say we'll be repaid with any gratitude." Leon and the others couldn't help but nod, this world was not known for its kindness after all.
"What ab-about the b-broken scrolls?" Leon asked, hoping to lift the emotions that had been both elevated only to sink into the mud once more.
"Hmm, oh I had my students working on those, let me just enquire," the Teacher hurried out almost absently, leaving them alone in her study. While she was gone, they chatted a bit about their mixed luck and Leon brewed fresh tea.
"Do you want the magic ring?" Pike asked Caelus as he took the fresh cup of tea, enjoying the scent of it. He wasn't one for tea, but there was something about Leon's tea that was always welcoming.
Caelus looked a little conflicted before finally shaking his head and refusing it. "It's not something I can afford to keep," he chuckled wryly, even though there was some disappointment that in this, his first competition, there was nothing he liked enough to ask for otherwise. The other ring was boring, not to mention it wouldn't fit on his thick fingers, the last ring was useless to him; he knew of his paternal bloodlines going back several millennia since his ultimate ancestors managed to rise from the lowest realms to this one. Even if other bloodlines mixed in, famous ones would be remembered, others not, but all would be watered down to preserve the main line, forget the chance of ownership for him. Plus, even then, it was still a treasure that someone at the peaks of cultivation could bend to his or her will should they chose.
He sipped the fresh brew and grudgingly complimented Leon; "Good tea."
"It's m-m-medicinal t-tea, helps fix d-damaged m-meridians m-more quickly," Leon mentioned, with a smile.
They all took a long drink upon hearing that; meridians could be damaged in many ways, exhausting their energies everyday with little rest, as was their experience of late, was just one. The minor damage healed easily enough, but it never hurt to have an extra aid.
It wasn't long before Roman's Teacher returned.
In the end, they decided to place the defensive magic ring in the closed auction along with the three cockateal eggs, the Peng-Kun teeth and the void stone. The most of the rare celestial tear herbs also entered the closed auction along with a Diaphanous Wildrose seedling that they had discovered on the smaller isle.
Diaphanous Wildroses were rare, though they looked much like an ordinary wildrose plant, but there were minor differences such as the tips of their thorns being blue in colour and the leaves somewhat more delicate. It grew slowly; this plant could already be ten years in age yet it was no larger than a handspan and would need at least a decade more until it produced flowers. Then, much like the silver tea leaf plant, it could be harvested from many times without needing to uproot the entire thing.
The seedling itself would not be worth much if it were any other type of slow growing spiritual plant, it was just that many had tried to uproot and relocate mature Diaphanous Wildroses and each and everyone of those plants had died. A seedling might need many, many more years to mature, thus not be of any use to any alchemist or chef now, but it was far less likely to die in the hands of a clever herb farmer than its adult self.
And as for the scrolls, they turned out to be ancient formulas for two ordinary pills; the Fire Elements Core pill, a pill taken for defence purposes and the One Pulse Pill, which was a healing pill. Both recipes already existed intact in this era, so although the broken scrolls held historic interest, there wasn't much else. "And the One Pulse Pill recipe is missing pieces, but the main contents are readable," Roman's Teacher had told them as she had given them to the waiting students. They thanked her for her time and took all of the things back.
As the silver chest and scrolls were more like trophies and held no real value (unless they melted down the silver coins), Pike decided to keep them for the time being. Later, they would take some of the silver coins to turn into lucky bracelets and an unreasonable martial artist would take Leon's one off his wrist and toss it in a keepsake box that Leon obtained from a market stall and force him to wear a gold and silver bracelet he'd commissioned himself. But one was in the near future, the other some distance off.
As for the interdimensional ring, Leon suggested asking the Headmaster to keep it for them.
Normally no one would think of bothering the Headmaster for such things, but the ring was a bit of a hot potato and though they could hide its existence for a while, it was bound to get found out sooner or later that they had it. Almost as if he was expecting them to make this decision on this matter, the man appeared before them and he took the ring out of their hands without fanfare.
But before leaving he said; "Oh, Leon, I might just pop around for tea one of these days. I heard you brew excellent spiritual tea."
*****
The scholars schools were located in a hidden valley within the Ascending Mountains which was amazingly picturesque considering that the scholars themselves had noses in deep within books and scrolls and therefore were unable to appreciate it. Tucked away between the mountain plateaus and slopes that sheltered the outer martial arts and alchemist schools, the vale was naturally walled by it's neighbours. One of those walls happened to be the sheer mountain side riddled with caves that Leon had discovered during his muddled days as an 'outsider' within this foreign realm.
The vale itself was not one complete piece of land, but a series of plateaus and was further divided by rock teeth and a fairly deep chasm. From the library of which a long bridge stretched out leading into a mountain face, up steps carved in the very rock of a hollowed out tower within that mountain, one would exit into a ornate garden of sculptured trees and potted plants, of calming water features and stone ornaments and benches. Many students, Male and female chatted animatedly while sitting in the gardens oblivious to their beauty. This plateau stretched long and wide and a series of pathways crisscrossed in straight lines leading away from the entrance of the vale. One could also find caverns created to form underground bathing pools at furthest point from the entrance.
Heading one way would lead to the dormitories, of which the facades were built outside of the mountainous walls, while rooms were cosily tucked within. The facades towered upwards with external stairs, each doorway lead into a shared space, which was decent in size and condition. Up to four rooms lead away from this communal living area, each room housing up to four students. All of the students, no matter whether they firmly attended the inner or outer schools lived in this area.
The dormitories were spread over four plateaus; the higher up one lived, the better the accommodation and the less populated the rooms were. However, this came at a price; one either needed to pay the cost of residency with points or find shelter beneath the wing of a Scholar-Teacher.
At the other end of the gardens, the rock floor split to reveal the chasm. Water fell from a precipice at one end into this chasm, vanishing into darkness. Two stone bridges covered the breech and in scholar-like fashion, students would travel over them in a single direction. The bridges led and led from another large and open plateau covered in carved tiles. Small pavilions were set up here and there, each sheltering stone benches and again students were chatting vigorously, often over tea. A circular building fitted into the heart of this spacious area and was set over three floors, much resembling restaurants in town. This was the scholars food hall.
Further past this area and up many wide steps nestled in between a narrower corridor thanks to the natural shape of the mountains either side, another wide and tamed space could be found. This place was where the outer school lie. Much like the dormitories, the outer school's buildings were semi-submerged into the rock walls. Here existed large lecture halls, libraries which held many copies of books that could be found within the main library outside of the school and rooms for experimentation and examinations. Many Teachers and a few select students had their own studies here as well.
The inner school was similar in terms of what type of buildings could be found within, but it held even more precious study tools, scrolls, books and the like for the inner school students to study. It was located on a much higher plateau, built around and over the mountain lake that fed the falls. Many of the Teachers lived in villas beside the lake, on the only grassy space that could be found within the vale and that had been trimmed and trained to conform as well.
Architecturally, the schools were far more advanced and attractive than the other schools, but then, scholars were far less likely to break, smash or blowup the place. Plus, for a Cultivator, it was often an unpopular route, thus it could be considered that offering such surroundings was a way to entice students. Alas, the true scholar cared more about studying tomes than their surroundings. Strong arrays had been set at every point where a youth head deep in a book or their own thoughts could accidentally fall off of a cliff.
Leon had never been here before; his Teacher hadn't brought him here when he came to give the odd lecture (which was rare as his field of expertise leaned towards how to grow herbs, something scholars didn't care much about over the use of them) and Roman's Teacher was eccentric. Her rooms were located in a small valley that could only be reached by griffin or other flying mount.
He only happened to have the opportunity now as the auctions would take place here, within the outer school's lecture halls.
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