Capítulo 338: Chapter 338: Maybe I'm The Problem...
A volcano?
Ares, despite the mounting tensions of the situation building around him that could spiral out of control at any point, couldn't help but be surprised at whatever the hell it was he was looking at... The item up for bid was a miniature volcano, about the size of a football, and seemed to be very real. It wasn't a replica, it wasn't made of plastic, and there was 100% real lava and magma bubbling away inside it... How was this even possible?! Did someone take a shrink ray to a natural landscape?! Such a thing should have been impossible in Sheryashka which lined up with what the destruction pillar had said about this thing... This was the kind of nonsensical item appearing in the upper domains? Ares couldn't help but chuckle because it was almost cute. That the fate of this entire country rested on ownership of a tiny volcano was laughable and almost depressing. It wasn't some mythological creature, a one of a kind herb that granted abilities beyond comprehension, or a weapon wielded by a legendary hero to slay a million venators... It was just a squished volcano... Not even an active one, it seemed...
And yet, Ares could tell this thing powerful. He didn't really know in what way but it looked like it was something that had value beyond measure. It being for sale in a lower dimension was criminal because there was no way this thing was selling for any less than multiple trillions less than its real price in some shabby backwater domain like this. It was like paying pennies for a golden swan and just felt so wrong. Ares wasn't sure where to start with this thing. Should he let the host explain what little he understood about this item? Should Ares inspect it himself with Omniscience? Wait for the destruction pillar to speak up again if it was even going to? Surprisingly, none of those answers was correct as Dominus was the first to speak and clarify because he recognised this thing! His voice was quiet but he managed to get key information out in a few whispers. Ares was close to bloodline awakening now so decent chunks of information could be transmitted if Dominus really tried hard enough and then went quiet for a while after as he rested.
Apparently, this thing belonged to a museum... The same museum that housed one of the scroll segments Ares was after as well! The scroll he had one fifth of! Anyway, this museum had all sorts of items on display that were heaven defying in their own right and this volcano had been one of them. Dominus didn't remember the exact description on this thing's introductory plaque, because reading a wall of text about this thing's origin would bore him to death, but what he remembered about this treasure was that it was incredibly cool. It could infinitely generate energy! At the very least, if a cultivator shoved this thing inside their body, and merged with it successfully, the cultivator's mana would regenerate at a rate that was incomprehensible. Running out of mana with this thing inside you wasn't impossible but it became pretty damn hard. As for Ares, if paired with his Grim Cessation, running out of mana would become extraordinarily unlikely. While Ares was still in the lower cultivation realms, if he owned this treasure, his mana would basically be infinite because there was no way he could spend it all quicker than this thing could generate more.
That was effect one and the simpler of the volcano's two main powers...The other one... It was unlike almost any other treasure ever seen before and, quire frankly, Dominus was, yet again, jealous. Ares seemed to have all the best things in the universe get handed to him on a silver platter! Dominus might have honestly been more jealous of this volcano treasure than he was about Garmr which just spoke volumes about the calibre of this treasure. It was seriously on the level of the Primordial Blade and might even hold more value than it in the long run because it was something that improved itself, and its owner, infinitely. Put simply, when the person who merged with this treasure killed a person, the treasure could absorb and smelt down the soul of the victim. That destroyed soul would then contribute to energy generation which improved the rate mana was recovered but also did something that made cultivators everywhere salivate... Every soul melted down became fuel to further power the user's magic!
This thing permanently increased the strength of magic every time the owner killed someone!
Of course it also provided a pretty sizeable boost to magic instantly upon merging with it but who cared about that when this thing meant even the worst mage of all time could become an unstoppable force after a few billion years?! A treasure like this was the kind of thing that might even help a regular cultivator, under extreme circumstances, outclass a FUNDAMENTAL CHAMPION. This thing was no joke... but it got even crazier because Ares was using his Omniscience on the thing and his jaw was dropping. No wonder the destruction pillar wanted Ares to have this thing... For the wielder of annihilation, as the synergy between that aspect specifically and the soul destroying volcano was so immense... The magic increasing effect per destroyed soul was tripled... Every one kill, on literally any living creature including monsters, meant three separate increases in magical output...
A massive boost in magic output.
A permanent increase to magic output, multiplied by THREE, every time he killed any alive entity and swallowed their soul.
As just mentioned, the ability to destroy souls permanently.
Insane mana regeneration...
...
...
The Federation was so unbelievably fucked... There was no room for negotiation... This was Ares' way of fixing the magic that was lagging behind his pressure currently. After this, and after finally getting a hold of his revenant transformation... Ares would be unstoppable! Ares could maybe even honestly go on a rampage and kill everyone in Sheryashka if he felt the need to. He would have an infinite mana source in the volcano and Grim Cessation to kill the weaker cannon fodder and Garmr could kill the experts and deal with anything immune to magic... How was Ares supposed to be stopped?! Of course he didn't really want to do such a thing but he absolutely had the option to if he so desired... The volcano didn't really do anything for Garmr, other than enabling him to kill souls when he was done with the body, but for human form Ares? For human Ares... This thing was definitely a better treasure than the Primordial Blade. If, for whatever reason, Ares had to pick one of the two treasures it would be this. The Blade had undeniable utility, and would grant Ares immense strength one day when he could wiled it, but this affected Ares personally and for the rest of eternity.
The best part was that the magic enhancing effect of the volcano wouldn't reset on death either so, even if Are was killed and had to regenerate, at the very least his magic would still have some serious oomph to it despite his lowered cultivation. It would mean he could navigate his way back to where he left of with somewhat of a safety net. It didn't guarantee his survivability after regenerating but it increased it multiple times over. The more Ares realised what this volcano could do, the more he wanted the damn thing! Then again, everyone wanted such a thing. There was not a cultivator in the world that such a treasure wouldn't benefit in some manner... So really, Ares needed to pay attention to the damn host and see how he was describing it! Ares knew what the volcano was because of Dominus' knowledge and his own Omniscience... But would these clowns know? It was a higher dimension treasure so that alone would make the price skyrocket if that titbit was already known by the auction house. Also, if the effect of the treasure was described in detail then everyone here would bid for the damn thing. Ares' one solace was that, again, this was NOT the last item to go up for sale. They couldn't possibly know its true value based on that information alone otherwise it would have come out last without question... If these people thought it was just a neat, animated decoration then Ares might walk away with the thing. If they understood it to have some value for cultivators then the bidding would get a bit pricey but Ares still felt fine knowing these people didn't care much about such a thing. The price only went up because it doubled as a tool as well as a decoration... The real issue was trying to figure out what these rich morons cared about! It all hinged on the words that were about come out of this hosts' damnable mouth!
"Though we don't know much about this item..."
Good start! Ares was placing his hands together in prayer that the host's description didn't stray from the path it was currently on.
"... In fact, we don't even know its name..."
Tsk, Extinction Converter... Ares, however, did know the name! It was an extinct volcano that converted souls into energy... While making the souls go extinct... The clues were in the name! That being said, calling the volcano 'extinct' was inaccurate. It wouldn't go off on its own but it would become active when a soul was absorbed. It led to a satisfying feeling of strength bubbling up within the user, culminating in a burst of speed and power that lasted for about ten seconds during the duration of the mini eruption. It wasn't much, and was barely relevant to its primary purpose of boosting magic, but it did happen and was just reason one thousand and one to buy this thing! This was probably the greatest passive treasure that had ever existed for Christ's sake!
"... The one thing we do know..."
Only one thing? That's good!
"... Is that this treasure can provide a never-ending source of energy!"
Ah shit. And the situation had gotten out of hand just like that... Infinite energy for a business? Infinite FREE energy for the rest of time? In just about any business, for which creating a product was the end goal, this thing would basically be a money printer. Hook up all your machinery to this one treasure and bam, you never have to pay for energy bills ever again. Energy prices must have been high on the Federation as getting your hands on reliable energy out at sea like this couldn't be easy. It must have been a sector of business that was heavily specialised and thus quite exclusive. Not many companies meant not much competition and, therefore, higher prices. Being able to cut out the greedy energy companies and run your entire business off the back of one treasure? Yeah, people were going to want this thing...
Had the known detail been that this thing provided a small speed and power boost after killing a person, Ares might have gotten it for an incredibly cheap price... Or, well, the C.E.O would have anyway. Now though? It was anyone's guess how much this thing would go for. The price would end up being whatever the value of potentially hundreds of years of energy bills were worth at minimum! Throw in the decorative aspect and it was going to be a bidding extravaganza. You could host tours of your facilities and have this thing be the piece de resistance you flaunted a the very end. Investors would also flock to such a treasure and the limitless energy generation meant that some crazier promises by the owner could actually be reasonably upheld. They would even maybe become the first stop for anyone interested in developing technology because the energy requirements were guaranteed to be met. Actually, from a technological standpoint, one interested in developing new, ground-breaking creations, this thing was pretty great in that regard as well... This damn treasure was too good at everything and it was causing a massive problem! Forget every cultivator having a use for this thing, basically everyone in existence did in one way or another! Though it had come out early, it wasn't inconceivable that this item was going to sell for the highest price of all the items today...
"This item's origins are rather mysterious. Apparently there exists a spatial pathway in Vraizon that is notoriously tricky to enter and even harder to return from. Nobody knows where it leads to because nobody that has ever gone through it has ever come back. The spatial portal is typically avoided like a plague nowadays but this volcano happened to drop straight out of it a few weeks ago!"
You've gotta be kidding me... And now the treasure had a 'mysterious' background that these nobles could brag about at parties. Great! Fantastic! It had somehow gotten even worse! As for the truth of this matter, and how the volcano got here... Bank robbery? Well, museum robbery anyway. That spatial portal was almost definitely a gateway that lead directly to the museum in some form or another and was probably attached to a treasure that had a specific location in Vraizon set as a waypoint. Dominus had been able to just barely mutter the words 'spatial treasure' over and over again so this was an educated guess but likely to be correct... Actually, correction, it was definitely the reverse. The spatial treasure in the museum was the end destination and the entrance was set up in Vraizon; that made more sense as you couldn't return through it which aligned nicely with what the host said.
Anyway, according to Ares' crackpot theory, the would-be robbers of the volcano must have figured out a way to reverse engineer the spatial treasure on display in a bid to throw in their heist target and retrieve it at a later date by locating and visiting the end point when the heat died down. Maybe they even tried to go through it but got denied or something. Anyway, point being, the volcano in the museum was chucked through the spatial portal, for one reason or another, and wound up in Vraizon. Ares had no idea how the destruction pillar was expecting Ares to get his hands on this thing if it weren't for this incredible stroke of luck, as that museum sounded like it had security out the wazoo according to what Dominus had said earlier, but the world had given him a freebie and he wasn't complaining. Ares could investigate the spatial portal to the museum when he ascended to Vraizon and maybe then he'd be able to get some more answers about how this all came to be... Maybe he could even temporarily go through the portal and set up a nothingness net to slingshot him back through the portal after a short duration! He could escape to the outside world prematurely and have a look around in the higher dimensions for a bit! Maybe even take Mako with him and introduce the world to the Fundamentals in advance as a sneak peek? Who knows! Another problem for future Ares to figure out! Current Ares had much more pressing issues, though, like, 'am I going to have to slaughter this entire country in a few minutes, yes or no?' Unfortunately it was leaning more and more towards yes here! Everyone was doomed! Well, everyone other than Onno, Esme, Hunter, Nibbler, the C.E.O, Aejaz... And maybe Massai if Ares was feeling generous. Garmr could carry these people to Xasca in a few minutes, Ares was sure of it. Ares was also certain Garmr could sprint across the ocean or just swim directly through it as well so it's not like the plan wouldn't work... It was just that the whole 'killing millions of innocent people' thing was a bit of a problem!
"We don't know why the volcano appeared from the portal, and neither does the person who stumbled across it, but from there onwards the story is pretty self-explanatory. The woman who happened upon the volcano was in need of money and came to us to sell it as the Federation is a hot bed of riches, more so than even most places in Vraizon. It's in our hands and we aim to transfer it to one lucky bidder today on behalf of our client who is eagerly awaiting the stardust so she can pay off her debts! You might not care about that last piece of information but neither did we and we had to hear about it in great detail so we're just sharing some of the misery!"
This guy was going way off script! Name the damn starting price already! Ares, and just about everyone else in the building, wanted to slap this detestable punk of a host! Everyone wanted the item and nobody wanted to hear about that infernal thing known as 'debt'! The businessmen almost had PTSD just from hearing that word and Ares didn't give a toss!
"The starting bid is 50,000 high grade and each increment must be at least 5000 high grades."
And, just like that, Ares was priced out of competing immediately! Off to a terrible start! Still, this was to be expected and the exact reason he brought the C.E.O along with him... Even if he still didn't know the guy's damn name! Ares was going to have to ask after this... Anyway, the price was jaw dropping! 50,000 high grade!? Who the hell in Sheryashka, other than the people in this room, could ever afford such a thing even over the course of their entire life?! This auction existed solely for these people and nobody else, it was a private get together to chuck money at pretty looking items and nothing else! To be fair, though, this item did have actual value and the starting bid would basically be considered 'free' in the upper domains... Such a valuable treasure for a mere 50,000 high grade.... There were types of stardust in the higher domains, apparently, that were individually worth more than this amount. One of whatever the highest grade of stardust was could cover this cost millions of times over... Naturally such a currency would be needed by the bucket load for an item of this renown but, really, the volcano was priceless.
The museum in possession of the Converter must have received, and declined, countless offers so there was really no way to ever actually put a proper price tag on this thing. Death and murder was the only real way to determine who would get it... Until now... The second Ares got this thing he was shoving it in his body even if it killed him! And that wasn't a joke because inside him it would be safe forever. Any treasure that merged with body parts was something that could never be taken from a revenant specifically. Some treasures could remove other treasures, even personal treasures, from their owners, but revenants were an exception. The body part, even after being torn out, would regenerate along with the treasure and the fake one stolen would become a dud every time without fail. Put simply, the millisecond Ares put this thing in his body, wherever the hell it went exactly... It was his forever and that couldn't possible be changed just like the Primordial Blade which hid inside his indestructible soul.
You could kill Ares a billion times over and over and rip out the volcano each and every time but it was never going anywhere! So yes, if Ares had to die to incorporate this treasure into himself he would do it in a heartbeat! Screw his current adventure, the morgue awaited! Naturally he would rather not bite the dust, and he didn't think he would, he was just proclaiming his dedication to this cause and his willingness to go to any length for the treasure. Actually, dying might even be the best possible result if things got dicey as he would be reborn outside the Federation and not have to destroy it. His actions would cause trouble for Red Sun, maybe, but not having to murder everyone was still a better outcome overall... Maybe Ares should steal this thing in broad daylight, absorb it, and then kill himself?.. That was a good option too... There were so many thoughts about how to proceed swirling around in his head that he hadn't even been paying much attention to the bidding going on in the background.
"530,000!"
You people have too much money! Give some to everyone else you damn prats! Obviously just handing out money was economically not viable but, seriously, that much wealth should be dispersed in some capacity. It wasn't right damn it! Even Ares, who could be considered rich by just about anyone other than the people in this room, was incredibly jealous! That 530,000 would be such a nice amount to have going forward because yes his assets were important... But so was money when it got to levels that ridiculous! That was not the kind of amount that would be made irrelevant or redundant just by going up a domain or two! How many years would such an amount of stardust even last him?! Also, as an aside, how many dead cultivators was that much stardust worth? Ares had almost completely forgotten about that bit of information already... It really didn't matter to anybody that stardust was dead people, did it? Money was money after all, even if it happened to be blood money...
"800,000."
That was Cash's voice and it signalled trouble in paradise. The lower end of the rich folk were already being shut out of the running for this item and that bid had dealt the K.O blow to a large number of people. The C.E.O Ares was relying on had a lot of money due to his business being as worldwide renowned as it was but he didn't have infinite money to play around with. He could still keep betting for a while longer but it didn't look like his pockets were going to be able to endure this until the very end. Still, he kept his promise, kept bidding, and would keep doing so up until he literally had zero stardust left in the bank. He was a man of his word but, more importantly, there was no price he could put on being able to cultivate in a higher domain. Ares respected the guy's dedication to the bid, and not even hesitating to double down with a bid of 900,000, but it wasn't going to matter much, Ares predicted.
"1,000,000."
One million... What an astronomically absurd number... The fact that Ares had been dealing in mid grades up until a few months back... Hell he'd only reached a hundred high grade after winning that bet... This place really did run on money and the people here almost felt like they came from a different domain. Surely hoarding this much wealth had to breach some kind of law somewhere, right? At least one of these businessmen must have held some kind of monopoly in a market and the C.O should have looked into them, no? Wrongdoing must have been a core part of the business strategies of anyone who could keep betting at this point and they all needed to be investigated pronto! Especially that bastard Cash! As for the C.E.O... Well his hands probably weren't clean either but at least he only took on a business that already existed so he could maybe get a pass. Speaking of the C.E.O, it looked like he was only capable of making one more last ditch bid. It would be a big one, and he was hoping it would scare people off just based on the massive increment, but it was his final shot at winning the bid and protecting the Federation from the mad man in the same room as him!
"1,500,000."
A half a million increase... The number Ares thought was silly had increased by a factor of one point five in the blink of an eye... Did these numbers even mean anything anymore? Were people just throwing out imaginary numbers for fun? Were these fake bidders secretly playing a game of bingo or something?! Ares couldn't believe his ears anymore.
"Going once..."
Wait a minute, is nobody else betting?!
"Going twice..."
Could I be so lucky!? Ares was flabbergasted that the C.E.O's gambit might actually pay off. Sure 1,500,000 was everything the C.E.O owned but that didn't mean he couldn't team up with someone to afford more so the number on his door wasn't encouraging anyone else on the floor despite the fact that it actually really was his hard limit. If this strategy worked then Ares would make this guy a home cooked meal on demand whenever he wanted for the next five years straight! It was ballsy but people weren't responding so they must have been weighing up their options. There did eventually come a point where the infinite energy the volcano provided wasn't worth the cost and many people had already pulled out their calculators and were looking unhappy at this current number. It might be a case wherein people would just be too slow to make a decision and the C.E.O would win after stunning everyone stupid with a high bet! Not to mention there weren't that many people that could even afford to go further than this to begin with! Maybe, just maybe...
"1,600,000."
CASH YOU MOTHERFUCKER! Of course it would be this stubborn idiot! He was so determined to get back at Ares he would wind up destroying the entire damn Federation over his stupid pride! Ares was considering whipping out the Prowler, rushing into that room, and assassinating the guy to end this farce here and now...
"Going once..."
It would save so many lives, Ares' own included as he wouldn't have to resort to his earlier strategy that he'd devised of offing himself...
"Going twice..."
There were too many options to wrack his brain over! Ares still had time to signal the C.E.O to throw another 100 thousand at the bid... He would have to sell something he personally owned but Ares would recompensate him after he murdered this dumb asshole a few rooms down! Ares turned to the C.E.O but paused because all of his other strategies had their own benefits and detriments too and he couldn't pick right now under this stress and pressure... Why was the wait between this host's calls so damn slow? Was he seriously trying to drag this on in the vain hope somebody would bid again?! it gave Ares time to think but no amount of time would ever be enough. Ares had no clue what to do here...
"And..." Sold was supposed to be the next word that left the host's mouth but he was interrupted just in the nick of time.
"2,000,000."
Ares banged his head against the wall and nearly broke into the neighbouring room thanks to how much vigour he'd thrown his head forward with. WHAT NOW?! How could this situation possibly get any worse?! This had turned into a real fiasco...
Were all auctions like this?
Or was it just the ones Ares attended?
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