Kapitel 337: Chapter 337: I Will Destroy Everything
Ares was practically salivating! One man's trash is another man's treasure and Ares was about to start acting like a raccoon as he dug through the unwanted 'garbage' of rich men! These guys only cared about 'comprehending' business strategies and nothing else! A comprehender selling for a price so low was a slap in the face to people who'd paid way more for theirs or had to go through their own personal hell to even get one but Ares wasn't complaining! If nobody else wanted it, or weren't willing to acquire it for more than they thought it was worth, then Ares would happily swoop in with a bid and make great use of this thing! Of course it was a shame that this would invalidate the Bane and make it almost completely useless afterwards... It was still better than a plain sword, and could chill the air to reduce any issues regarding hot environments to a degree, but almost three quarters of why it was useful would be replaced! Technically the mana cost was still cheaper if he used the Bane as a medium for the art but if he ever found a better sword then there was no reason to stick with this one. He couldn't even keep it around strictly for casting Crystalised arts because it was an artifact and wouldn't scale in terms of output unless Ares dedicated resources to upgrading it... But that was pointless because he would already have what he wanted out of it thanks to this comprehender.
Basically the Bane was on its last legs already, which was kind of a shock to Ares as he expected it to be relevant for longer, but that was just the way the cultivation world worked and the cookie crumbled. Out with the old, in with the new. This was the first artifact Ares had really worked on and developed, with aid from Dabble and Julio obviously, but it was still a bit sad to see it go. He could store it in Primordial Blade and not have to throw it away but it was basically being relegated to a dusty corner where it would never see the light of day again. Up until Ares found a replacement weapon it could still be used, and in Xasca it would do a good job of cooling the surroundings, but after that? Now that he had the comprehender? Bye bye Bane. It had helped him beat Mako, and that was undeniably something to be thankful for, but it's time was nearly up and the light at the end of the tunnel was beckoning.
Ares made a mental note to keep an eye out for a replacement sword but focussed on the comprehender for now as that was the item that would make everything he'd just assumed relevant! If he lost this then the Bane would get to stick around for way longer but that didn't mean Ares was going to give up on the item just so he didn't have to take the Bane out back and send it to work on the farm. "350 high grade." Ares threw out the first bid and raised the price by 250 off-rip for two reasons. First, he didn't want to try and snipe the item and breed animosity with someone who had spending power. He was being upfront about his intentions and proving he was willing to clash fairly for the item in the hopes that people would reciprocate later if he truly wanted something via the C.E.O. As for the price increase, again, this pertained to the first point in that honesty was the best policy when dealing with people he couldn't afford, in the most literal sense, to offend and toy with.
Sure the second item he went for, provided it was actually expensive, would be bought by the C.E.O so it wasn't his own money... But what if the C.E.O couldn't win the bidding war? It's not like he had infinite money or anything and him being in this 1,500-numbered room, as opposed to being in one of the other rooms with a higher number, proved that so randomly and arbitrarily making rich enemies was a foolish decision. Ares raised the price by a decent amount so as not to get anyone else's hopes up on the possibility of a cheap bid. He didn't want to go back and forth with someone over and over, worsening their mood as they slowly realised he was deeply invested. Better to just announce his presence and intentions here and now so they wouldn't go for the throat later when the C.E.O bid. Granted, to Ares at least, 350 was an incredibly low bid for the comprehender but these people seemed to think otherwise and the bidding already slowed to a crawl after he'd expressed his interest. These people weren't the creative types typically so they weren't in the middle of inventing arts or anything of the sort that would warrant purchasing this thing. Maybe if there had been a rare cultivation manual for sale prior to this then the value of the comprehender would have gotten way out of hand as a sort of combo deal but, as is, the potential bidders here were just flat out uninterested.
"360 high grade..." This was a tepid, half-hearted bid and mostly just a check to make sure Ares wasn't trying to bluff his way out of any competition. The person in question might not have even really wanted the comprehender for their own use and could have just wanted to see if he could snag it for cheap and sell it on with crafty business tactics for a better price elsewhere. Ares wasn't looking to do that, however, and paying more than he could potentially get out of a sale was perfectly acceptable because reselling it wasn't the goal. He'd be using almost half of all his wealth of this but it was worth it!
"400 high grade." This much for a 'new' disintegration series of arts that he already knew were highly effective?! Honestly, Ares would have been willing to fork over every piece of stardust he owned! He would inevitably get more for dealing with the various threats to this country in the future so losing everything here and now wouldn't even be a real issue in the long run. He was determined to get this comprehender and was pretty convinced this last bid would disincentivise any further bids given that the increment was another sudden jump.
"Going once, going twice, and..."
"410 high grade."
"Son of a bitch..." Ares recognised this irksome voice. Cash... He was being difficult and paying Ares back for defying him and entering the auction in spite of his efforts to keep him out. This was precisely as expected, so Ares was willing to fight back, but the fact he was wasting an extra twenty high grade thanks to this moron's petty antics was incredibly agitating! "420 high grade."
"four hundred and..."
"Jebben." Ares rudely interrupted Cash with nothing more than a single name and yet all that could be heard out of his private room, after a small pause, was a kiss of teeth and a sigh of resignation. Cash must have been hoping Ares had yet to find out who Jebben was, so that it couldn't be used against him, but his coincidental run in with Onno yesterday had already come in handy. A lot of the other people here were wondering what the exchange between these two bidders meant, as they were all roughly aware of who was in which room, because it sounded like Ares had some serious dirt on cash! Juicy info! A lot of these folk wanted to try and bribe Ares to buy this intriguing intel and make good use of it! They were already planning on approaching him after the auction and getting their grubby hands on the gossip! As for the host...
"I'm not entirely sure what's happening between you two but threats are not permitted during the auctioning process..." Ares was technically at a disadvantage here because of that rule as threatening to blow up Cash's property was not in the cards as he would really struggle to fight his way out of the resulting mess his threat caused comfortably. Causing that much trouble was a real pain in the neck, so Ares was going to have to go the rest of this auction legit, but the Jebben scare ought to keep Cash' mouth shut for a while... Or so Ares thought... The idiot wasn't willing to let this go!
"He's blackmailing me."
This RAT! Cash was being a wretch and tattling on Ares to the auction house! Did this man have no shame!? Wasn't he afraid Ares would blurt out the truth here?! "Only as payback for what you did outside. I've been threatened too!" Ares could play this game! Though the guard stood no chance against Ares in a physical altercation, Cash had ordered him to stop Ares by any means necessary! That was a threat and it would have prevented Ares from even being here at the auction to begin with! "An eye for an eye you damn punk! How about we call it even, you stop pestering me over this item, and we keep the auction going?!" Ares was basically preventing the confused host from getting involved because he held the advantage again and wanted to keep it that way. It really was even in terms of how many threats were levied directly at one another but Ares still had the Jebben info in his back pocket! Also, even if he was kicked out the C.E.O could just stay and buy this while Cash was also booted out for the exact same reason as him!
Crash
The sound of shattered glass rang out from the private room Cash was in but it was followed by an incredibly steady and calm voice. "Apologies, I dropped my glass..." AS IF! That glass was definitely thrown as there was no chance it made that much noise just from being dropped normally! Did this guy seriously think he could still be looked at as a classy individual even after his temper antrum was broadcast to the entire room?! Ares was stunned by the audacity! "I will relent on this bid but I'm warning you now kid..."
"Ahem, there will be no more threats!" The host valiantly stepped forward as soon as the word 'warning' came out.
"Shut the fuck up you rodent!" Cash was getting incredibly mad at having been thwarted at every single turn since he met Ares and he was even lashing out at the host now... "Kid, I'm telling you now I will be bidding on future items even if you threaten me again. I do not care half as much as you think I do about that. If I want an item, you are going to have to find some way of beating me in a bid legitimately from now on, keep that in mind." Not much of a threat, really, just a wrap up to the current debate and debacle. No wonder he lashed out at the host, he wasn't even really making an actual 'threat' and yet he'd been interrupted by the guy... It was funny though, at least from Ares' perspective. The host was incredibly indignant and frustrated right now but he had no reason to complain as the rules were being followed once again which was what he'd been after form the start.
"Going once, going twice... Sold!" The gavel smacked down and sounded out Ares' victory. He was happy to have the comprehender but now he was admittedly a tad worried. If there was something both he and Cash really wanted then how was Ares supposed to win the bid? The C.E.O could not financially outdo Cash, that was a pipe dream... Ares just had to sincerely hope whatever he wanted was another item not appreciated by these people who's priorities were screwed on backwards. Ares slumped back in his chair as fighting Cash wasn't easy... The guy was a man-child! When things didn't go his way he tried to take everyone around him down with him! Sure he won often but Ares was arguably his biggest nemesis of all time simply because he viewed Ares as some kind of dirt poor moron. It was ironic that somebody with no money to his name was constantly dunking on his self esteem but money equating power didn't mean that power didn't also equate to power! Ares had a very different kind of influence, a kind that money could not match, which meant that Cash had no simple way of dealing with him.
Normally Cash would try to get on side when it came to more powerful cultivators. He'd be aware of them from the very moment they stepped aboard the Federation and act accordingly. This was also true of Ares too but he hadn't placed much value in him, due to his age presumably, or learnt anything about his physical details so he had a bad first run in with the kid. It was all downhill from there and things were going wrong at every turn! It was refreshing for everyone else to see Cash struggle but it was also something they wanted no part of because Cash was petty and vindictive. If he wanted payback there were very few lengths to which he wouldn't go to in order to achieve it. Staying as far away from him and his schemes as possible was advisable! Unless you were Ares because then there was no escaping, he was stuck aboard this country and had already earned Cash's ire. Still, this level of pathetic-ness wasn't something Ares predicted! All the tales of Cash's evil accomplishments... And he was just a whiny, ordinary man like this when things went wrong?! That honestly made him even more detectable... There was absolutely nothing worthy of respect about this man in Ares' mind as he wasn't even mentally resilient...
The comprehender was delivered to the room as the auction continued and Ares handed over the 420 high grades on the spot. He could have paid at the end but this was all he was going to be buying today so it was quicker and easier to just do it this way. Ares gave the comprehender a once over, inspecting it from every angle while putting his ear up to the speakers and listening to the static that tickled his brain. Apparently, comprehenders would play music when it was actually working and Ares was curious to know what it would play when it was deciphering his disintegration magic! Ares was willing to bet it would be something on the heavier side! Ares lightly tossed his brand new acquisition into his Primordial Blade for use later and went back to watching the items come out. He could have used it now but he wanted to do it in peace later as he wasn't in any particular rush. It could also be a lengthy process and staying around in this room even after the auction ended was rude. There was even a chance they might try to forcefully kick him out which would be disastrous if he was in the middle of his deciphering. If Ares had been hyper invested in this item, like the golden seed from the last auction, then maybe he would have tried to make it all work out but the item just wasn't of that calibre. It was a great boon but it wasn't something that would define Ares as a cultivator going forward... Little did he know, such an item was going to be coming up shortly...
Fifteen or so laughable items later and Ares had sunken deep into his seat. The items had only gotten more and more ridiculous and the prices were getting preposterous too. 1000 high grades for a watch that runs on stardust... Nothing more than a resource intensive time piece... For 1000 high grades.... And that was just to own it! Running it cost even more! This existed for no reason other than to flex on people who didn't own it. The fact that thing sold for more than twice as much as the comprehender was enough to drive a sane cultivator mad! It's a good thing expert cultivators in the transition realm around Sheryashka didn't know about the kind of crap that happened in this specific auction otherwise they'd bust in, tear down the walls, and spit on everyone here before storming away with the items and giving them a better home. A fool was easily departed from his money and these people, despite their successes in the business world, had zero acumen when it came to managing their wealth. Earning it? Not a problem. Keeping it? These people needed accountants and financial advisors, stat! Actually, now that Ares thought about it, financial advisors didn't seem to exist in this place! He hadn't heard a single thing about this particular job and he was starting to understand why. These spendthrifts would never subject themselves to a financial advisor so long as they lived and breathed as then they would have to restrain themselves and, if they did that, then others who weren't restraining themselves would laugh at them degradingly! It was like peer pressure and had single handedly made getting a job in this country as a financial advisor nearly impossible! Imagine spending your entire life, dedicating every waking moment, to learning how to help people not go bankrupt only to be turned down by some idiot because other people were spending money and he wanted to copy them! Honestly, even if they could get work on the Federation they might just avoid this place for the sake of their sanity anyway...
Ares shook his head side to side to clear out the miscellaneous thoughts but it froze in place when he detected some kind of valuable item coming onto the stage! It hadn't been revealed yet but Ares had a feeling welling in his gut that he needed this thing no matter what it was! It was normally rare for cultivators to feel a connection with some kind of cultivation related object but, when it did happen, it was usually because it was tailor made for the person in question. It required the object to be of a certain grade and for it to also be related to the potential owner in some way, either a strong affiliation or extreme relevance regarding a shared connection would do. A powerful poison wielder would feel this way about a mythical herb that could instantly kill Gods, for instance. Or maybe an earth pillar cultivator coming across a piece of the ground his childhood home was built upon after it became a treasure of some kind, like an earthen shield or something. With Ares, the last time this happened to this extent was the draconic seed. He'd had a smaller reaction to the Backfire Bindings and the Scaled Insulator, due to his annihilation pressure and the draconic relevance of the parka respectively, but the seed was the real must have item that drove him mad. Before that was the Celestial Prisms not because he had an affiliation with them or whatever but, instead, because they belonged to Dominus who Ares pseudo doubled as thanks to having the guy be merged with his soul and then some.
This time was different though from those two times though. This wasn't something that called out to Ares because of his bloodline so it wasn't something draconic like the seed. It also had nothing to do with Dominus because the Celestial Cluster treasures were typically hidden in places only Dominus, or someone of his ilk, could easily access. The chances of somebody finding a Cluster item was rare and, if they did, it would most definitely not be going for auction like this! It would be the very last item even if it somehow did so Ares pieced two and two together and realised that wasn't the case... This felt more like when the Primordial Blade came sailing into his body from millions of miles away! In short, it was something pillar related! Based on the scent rippling through the air in waves that felt like small, hot bubbles and smelt like honeyed sulphur.. This was a destruction treasure of some kind!... But not a weapon? It didn't have that sort of lethality attached to its aura... At least not on the surface level. This thing oozed danger but not in the same way the Blade did... Ares wasn't entirely sure what he was looking at yet, because it hadn't been unveiled, but he definitely needed it and it was time to have the C.E.O do his bidding. Ares turned to the guy and nodded at the item. "It's going to be that."
The C.E.O raised his right eye and felt the need to question this seemingly arbitrary decision. "That? You don't even know what it is yet..."
Ares shook his head side to side. "No but it's destruction related and I have an affinity for it. I can sense it from here, that thing is going to be invaluable for me. Look, I'm going to be completely honest here... If you don't win the bid I might consume a Canis Stimulant and steal it. I have no qualms with breaking the Federation into pieces using Garmr and I assure you he can definitely do it. He will pummel this country's foundations, sink everything, bring along a few people to safety as he runs across the waves, and drop everyone off in Xasca with the item left firmly in my possession. Whatever that treasure is, it cannot be given up under any circumstances. Nobody else should even have the right to it because nobody else has an annihilation affiliation anyway."
"OI oi oi oi... You can't seriously be threatening the safety of everybody aboard the Federation?!"
Ares glared at the C.E.O and gave off an incredibly hostile air thanks to his pressure seeping out unintentionally. "I think you'll find I can. I will destroy this place and the loss of life will be tragic... But would it really be my fault? All I have to do is convince the rest of the world the Firestarters accomplished their goal, killing almost everyone except for a handful of survivors, and I walk away a free man with no vitriol directed towards me. I get what I want and stand to lose absolutely nothing."
The C.E.O gulped because Ares really probably did have the power to back up his claims. The rumours of what happened back during the international suggested this kid's revenant form was capable of such a feat... But to be so evil as to do it and cover it up for his own benefit afterwards! The C.E.O had been very mistaken when he judged Ares the first time around, this guy had a really disturbing side to him that was particularly well hidden... A complete willingness to massacre an entire country for his own gains... That was not a will that was built up on the spot and it really did raise the question of what this guy had been up to in his spare time such that he didn't see this as a compromise of whatever morals he possessed... "... You would really sink this whole country for that item?..."
"I need it for what I need to do. I need as much as I can get my hands on. None of that concerns you so just hope your bid is sufficient. If you can keep your mouth shut, and things go wrong, then I'll consider saving you as well." Ares, with a frown, turned to face the stage as the item was being unveiled. He had a bad feeling that idiot Cash was going to make life difficult. This wasn't like the auction in Red Sun because his opponent might actually want the item this time. It wasn't Bellona messing with him and offering it to him afterwards anyway, this was potentially real competition. Threats weren't allowed but the result of a threat here was the same as the result of losing. Ares would take this item of someone's corpse regardless if he didn't win. It was incredibly selfish but Ares needed to permit himself to take actions like this every now and then if he truly had no other choice but to. His own plans took priority over random people's lives and he would be forfeiting way more innocent people in the future than just a mere country if the need arose. He didn't want to, and Enyo would be mad, but needs must. Ares knew all too well what his future entailed and he deemed this appropriate.
Also... He didn't even have a choice.
The destruction pillar was finally speaking to him again and inciting him. It was threatening to retract support if he didn't acquire this item. It was something the pillar wanted Ares to have at some point in the future anyway but, due to some complications, had wound up in the lower domains, in front of Ares, sooner than planned. The pillar was infinitely close to taking action personally but stopped when it realised fate was doing Ares a massive favour. This thing was on par with the Blade, at minimum, and Ares had an obligation to attain it as the destruction champion. The potential demerits of not owning this, a massive decrease in potential going forward as well as maybe even losing the fundamental pillar entirely should the pillar choose to punish him, meant Ares knew what needed to be done here. Giving up the destruction pillar was not a choice he could ever make knowing what he knew about the world and he refused to leave his burdens in the hands of anyone else. Being beholden to the pillar's whims sucked, and it did reduce Ares independence and freedom somewhat, but he understood where it was coming from and couldn't fault it for its reasoning. It wouldn't be like this forever but, for now, Ares was willing to oblige and do as was asked of him. Purchase the item if possible. If not, threaten the Federation with complete destruction to barter, get the item, and leave with Voidwalk; never returning to this place ever again from then on...
If all else failed...
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
TWC_Guy
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Edit - It's come to my attention that this link is not clickable on Webnovel so I'm currently searching for somewhere to put it such that it can be accessed without fuss. Until then, the link is available for copy and pasting over on the most recent chapter on royal road. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Edit 2 - For now, clunky though it is, I've put a link to the Patreon in the synopsis of this novel right at the very end. I will keep searching for somewhere more convenient to put it.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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Rangliste 
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Stein