"750 million firthals!" The auctioneer announced the astonishingly high starting bid! "Number 142 has bid 750 million firthals for the Ancient Sarcophagus!" The huge sum of money instantly caused the audience to fall silent. They expected the round of bidding to rise gradually starting from 10 million firthals. They never imagined a rich tycoon laying down 750 million firthals right from the start! The shock achieved the intended effect. Finlay’s startlingly high opening bid caused everyone who were pumping themselves up to compete over the Ancient Sarcophagus to be pulled out of their competitive moods. A lot of people started to doubt whether they wanted to compete against someone who started at such a high bid. Number 142 indirectly showed his willingness to go to an extreme extent to win the Ancient Sarcophagus. Perhaps some people might have the impulse to screw with Number 142 by placing more bids in order to drive up the price, but there was a huge danger there. What if Number 142 was playing his own game and suddenly dropped out of the bidding war? Spending 750 million firthals to win a mostly-ornamental relic was not worth it to many people! A lot of collectors started having second thoughts as well! Everything would have been a lot more transparent if they knew who was behind Number 142. Since everything took place anonymously, no one could glean much information from the person behind this code name. Unfortunately, not everyone was deterred. The auctioneer quickly lit up as he received another bid! "760 million firthals." Just a 10 million firthal increase over Finlay’s bid did not indicate a lot of decisiveness. Though Finlay must be glowering and gritting his teeth underneath his shadow attire, he did not give up. Not when a major operation was at stake! "800 million firthals!" Silence ensued as Finlay’s second bid did not elicit a reaction. What was the worth of the Ancient Sarcophagus? Everyone would probably quote a different figure. Despite the exceptional origin of Item #1255, to pay more than 800 million firthals for what was essentially a vanity piece sounded crazy! Most pirates and criminals gave up right away. The amount of money at stake was more than enough to raise six or more fully-equipped mech companies with ships and all! To pirate leaders and pirate commanders who purely relied on fighting strength to secure their grip on power, it wasn’t worth it for them to splurge so much to obtain a fancy relic that only provided indirect benefits. Frankly, most pirates didn’t have much good taste. The effect of showing off the Ancient Sarcophagus to a bunch of boorish, uncultured pirate commanders who were only good at terrorizing people was probably limited. Therefore, Ves figured that the few active bidders competing over the Ancient Sarcophagus must certainly be nobles. Even then, these privileged snobs had to take several concerns into account. First, the money they spent might not solely belong to themselves. Perhaps they had the right to draw on some of the accounts of their noble houses, but even then not even the heads of the houses could drain their entire bank accounts for a whimsical purchase! One of the most important limitations of the auctions organized by the Circle of Mota was that nobody retained an active connection to the galactic net. They couldn’t call up the elders of their houses in order to convince the estates from freeing up more money to assist in their bidding. In addition, the only valid currency in the auction was the firthal. Every guest already converted a fixed amount of money into this native Nyxian denomination beforehand. It was not doable for them to supplement their war chests during the auction. No one was allowed to leave. The most they could do was step out of the auction hall for a bathroom break. All of these factors complicated the lives of the noble collectors who still desired the Ancient Sarcophagus. "...832 million firthals. 833 million firthals. 834 million firthals..." Though the bids kept pouring in, a lot of pauses occurred in between. Ves kept his eyes laser-focused on the Ancient Sarcophagus. The more he studied it, the more he became convinced he could derive major benefits from it. Unlike the collectors who merely wanted Item #1255 for its collector’s value, Ves deeply desired it for the spiritual secrets it contained! Something powerful dwelled inside the coffin, and Ves wasn’t talking about the frozen alien body. "850 million firthals." A longer silence ensued as no further bids emerged for a while. The handful of competitors who drove up the prize constantly wavered in their determination. While there were plenty of bidders in the background who arrived with an abundant amount of firthals, the Ancient Sarcophagus was just the first of the final ten items. Nine more items followed afterwards, each of which might be of even greater value! In fact, many auctions frequently put the most valuable prize at last! The auctions organized by the Circle of Mota never deviated from this winning formula, so the most affluent guests with the most amount of firthals still held back in order to remain in contention for the later prizes. "Going once..." Ves held his breath, and so did Finlay. Neither of them wanted a joker to emerge and spoil this bid. The firthals that Finlay had bid already amounted to around 20 billion bright credits! "Going twice..." The tension in the air continued to grow as the end of the bidding round neared. "Item #1255 is a unique relic from the Nyxian Gap that potentially contains many clues about the early history of this region. Are you willing to let its secrets go? This might be the only chance for you to be the first to decipher the aliens that used to rule this contention region..." The auctioneer practically taunted the silent crowd to make a bid with the way he stretched out his words. Ves really wanted to beat the old man up for leaving open such a huge window for a new bid! Still, no new bids arrived. With this much money at stake, even the wealthy Sentinel nobles didn’t feel inclined to joke around. Eventually, the auctioneer realized that his act was only getting more and more embarrassing. He rose the gavel in his hand and struck the air! "Sold! Number 142 has won Item #1255!" The Ancient Sarcophagus sunk beneath the podium now that it had found an owner. Ves watched Finlay carefully as the noble reluctantly placed a data chip into his bidding tool and confirmed the transfer of 850 million firthals. A small chirp sounded as the Circle of Mota successfully transferred the money. The Ancient Sarcophagus fully belonged to Finlay now. Once he retrieved the data chip and stowed it away, the noble decisively turned to Ves. "We have spent 365 million firthals on the sample of Synthra Umbra. Together with what we have just paid for the Ancient Sarcophagus, we have committed 1.215 billion firthals to obtain what you want." Ves silently cursed as he converted the sum in his head. That was around 30 billion bright credits in total! Just two items drove him to desperation! If Ves was a bit more clear-minded, then he might not have been so willing to spend so much money on two objects that were definitely useful but not essential. Perhaps the atmosphere of the auction hall had got to him somehow! Fortunately, Ves hadn’t actually spent his own money to procure the two pricey items. The most he spent was 56.2 million firthals out of his own pocket to secure Item #613. On one hand, it felt good to him that he’d been able to get another sucker to spend an extravagant amount of firthals on his behalf! On the other hand, the debt he owed was very considerable! Not only was Ves on the hook to complete a very problematic commission, he still owed 215 million firthals afterwards! Ves guessed that Finlay already started to form some suggestions on how he could make up the 215 million firthals. The problem was that Ves really didn’t want to owe any more favors to Finlay. The longer he lingered here, the greater the chance he might potentially be caught up in trouble. The sooner he left, the sooner he ended his exposure to catastrophic risks. For this reason, Ves spoke up before Finlay could make a suggestion. "I will make up the 215 million firthal shortfall as fast as possible. I don’t have quite enough to transfer the sum immediately, but I’ll be able to do so once I visit one of the Circle’s exchange offices." There were ways for Ves to anonymously convert his money to firthals through the use of many intermediaries. That was how he obtained his initial pot of money. The only troublesome aspect was that he’d have to transfer billions of credits at once. Hiding such a huge transfer was going to be another hassle and would take some time to complete. "..Acceptable." Finlay eventually said. Perhaps he might have harbored some other ideas, but Ves had already indicated that he wasn’t receptive to them. "Since we have come this far, we’ll approach the Circle of Mota right away to sign a contract under their auspices. Is that alright?" "The contract only has force within the Circle of Mota, right?" "Yes. It will only stay in effect as long as you are still here. Once you finish our commission and leave with your prizes, we can consider our dealings over. That is unless you want to leave the door open for other deals..." Ves knew what Finlay wanted. Once Ves proved his chops as a competent Journeyman Mech Designer who didn’t let his morals get in the way of his interests, his value became evident. Not many Journeyman were willing to taint themselves! Each of them were already successful mech designers with bright futures ahead of them! As long as they kept their noses clean, they would enjoy stable, prosperous lives, all without risking censure from the MTA! This was a road that Ves actually considered as well. Yet the recent visit from his mother caused him to waver. His mother prohibited him from getting involved. His parents did their best to shield him from the threats that hounded them. Since Ves was still too weak to make a difference, they didn’t want him to get caught in their storm! While he understood the concerns of his parents, Ves couldn’t handle the thought of leaving his parents out to try while trying his best to live a comfy life. He did not care about many people, but his father definitely occupied the top of his modest list! As for his mother, Ves hadn’t decided whether she belonged on the same list. Regardless, if Ves wanted to prove his parents wrong and offer some assistance despite his lack of strength, then forging ties with the Nyxian Gap was key. However, he couldn’t do so directly. He was a foreigner with no foundation in the region. Sentinels and Nyxians were both strangers to him. He would also be leaving the region soon and return to the far-away Bright Republic. Under these circumstances, Ves considered another way of forging ties with the Nyxian Gap. He brought up his proposal directly to his temporary business partner. "Finlay... are you open to establishing an ongoing relationship between the two of us?" "You mean.. a partnership?" "Yes." "It is still premature to suggest a longer-term association between us when you have not even proven yourself yet. Being a Journeyman is not enough to earn our confidence." "If you demand me to reveal my identity to you, then forget about it. I won’t accept such terms." "That will make your proposal more difficult for us to stomach." Finlay jerked his arms. "Let us wait until you have completed the commission. In the meantime, I will bring your proposal to the higher ups and wait for their response. I can’t make any promises, however." "Understandable. It is only a start." Perhaps Ves was being reckless by attempting to forge new ties without Calabast’s involvement, but he figured he should strike while the iron was hot!