Nicolai made a quick detour, opting to head to the Slayers Guild before the Auction. Arriving, he nodded to the same imposing guard who stood with arms crossed outside it as last time. The man nodded back to him. Inside, he headed straight for the Guild storage.

It was a large half-moon of a door, made from some kind of seamless white metal, and he stopped in front of it. This was supposedly where he would be able to retrieve payouts and rewards, but he wasn't sure how to actually go about doing that. However, after simply standing there for a moment, the door glowed faintly and slowly began to rise, stone and metal grinding.

Nicolai waited patiently as it slid out the way. Gradually, a counter was revealed. It was set flush in the wall, much like a bank teller's window. Only here the glass was carved with a faint script, barely visible. Some kind of ritual-based warding, he guessed. He noted a setup like a lazy-susan, as well as a grate for speech to pass through.

Behind this sat a broad-shouldered Owl, with mottled, scarred feathers. It wore layered robes with a similar style as the Cultivators wore, though with a more martial lean.

As the door rose the rest of the way, Nicolai considered the room beyond the Owl. It was small, but contained neat rows of cabinets and shelving. Beyond that was another, even larger door. Its heavier construction and the spiritual weight he felt from it suggested it was the true vault.

The Owl had been reading a book, and it only looked up as the door clicked into place above. It didn't look particularly happy to be pulled away from its book.

The Owl wasn't very friendly and, though the Mask made some effort—allowed by Nicolai, who after all felt it would be worthwhile to be on good terms with the minder of the vault—it was far from receptive, giving short and irritable answers.

Nicolai wasn't bothered, he was only here for what he'd earned, and received it quickly. First, the Symbiotes he'd gained from slain monsters.

'Six Symbiotes,' said the Owl, putting a bag on the counter. 'All tier 1, three of them duplicates.'

'No Tier 2?'

'No.'

Nicolai nodded to himself. He had killed a Tier 2 scale viper as well as all the Tier 1s, but the Tier 2 hadn't shown any signs of having a Symbiote.

The bag was similar to the one he'd gained from the Duel Arena and Inheritance, made to temporarily hold Symbiotes. His Mark pinged and a list popped up.

These Symbiotes were harvested from defeated enemies, and held for you:

Red Tendon Cricket Symbiote (x3)

Stone-Shell Beetle Symbiote (1x)

Iron Talon Mite Symbiote (2x)

Caring and feeding fee: 34,600p

'Caring and feeding fee?'

'For looking after those before you came here. If you don't pay, we keep the Symbiotes.'

Focusing on the Symbiotes caused Examine text to appear, and Nicolai quickly read through.

Red Tendon Cricket Symbiote

Tier: 1

Placement: Any limb

Type: Speed

The Red Tendon Cricket slightly increases speed in a given limb when active, and this effect can stack additively, though with diminishing returns.

Stone-Shell Beetle Symbiote

Tier: 1

Placement: Stomach area

Type: Protection

This Symbiote provides a slight reinforcement of the user's outermost layer, be that skin or clothing or armour. It thickens that layer and gives it a slightly stony texture. Though the benefit is only slight, it comes without any loss of movement speed, which is a typical drawback of similar Symbiotes.

Iron Talon Mite Symbiote

Tier: 1

Placement: Finger, hand, or foot

Type: Offence

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When active, sharpens and strengthens any offensive body parts built into the hands or feet, such as claws, nails, or talons. If the user lacks such, the Symbiote does nothing. Two Iron Talon Mites cannot empower the same body part.

Nicolai investigated each symbiote. After checking what they did, he decided he would certainly keep the Red Tendon Crickets. Speed was always useful. There was a possibility of stacking them in his bionic arm, which currently had numerous free spots in his shoulder, elbow, and hand. Alternatively, two of them could join the Wolf Bugs in his legs.

The Iron Talon Mite, too, could be useful in one of his bionic arm's fingers, as presumably it would empower the hand-talon. He might even be able to use it to come up with an alternate version of the Spectral Claw. If he swapped the Spectral Mantis for the Iron Talon Mite, would it instead become an Iron Claw, with a more powerful physical attack? Worth testing.

Finally, the Stone-Shell Beetle sounded to him like it would provide a minor boost to his defence at no real cost.

Of course, he didn't know how much Oma each specific Symbiote would use when activated. It could be that they would be overly expensive. But if not, he figured they would all be worth keeping and activating where necessary.

After telling the Owl that he would be taking them rather than selling them—something that the Slayer's Guild was able to do for him, though they would take a cut of the proceeds for the convenience—the Owl fetched another bag.

This one contained points-tags, his monetary reward for turning in all those monster corpses. It totalled a bit over 413,000 points-tags, give or take a little. 110,000 for the Gorothune, and around 300,000 for the Scale Vipers.

Of that, the Owl subtracted the 34,600 caring and feeding fee, leaving Nicolai with 378,400. That brought him to a total of about 978,400. He was just about a millionaire, at least when it came to points.

After zipping the Symbiotes into one of his more protected pockets, and the point-tags into his storage, Nicolai reflected that, indeed, he was very pleased he'd opted to join the Slayers Guild. It was even more lucrative for one of his skills than he had anticipated.

On the way out he paused he tap his Mark, and check the details his Slayers Guild gave him. Just like last time, a series of lightning bolts rained down.

His bounty had gone up, though only a little. It was verging on 600,000, now.

###

The Auction House was a large, square building, with a bell tower on each corner. Now aware of the underlying powers, he recognised the green flags and occasional strange, rickety skeletal constructs that marked this place as under the control of House Veyron.

Gazing at it, Nicolai knew that one day he might end up fighting over this building. He'd been told that the Houses would compete especially hard for places like this, because the House that controlled the Auction House, Duel Arena, Market, etc., would receive revenue from it. His eyes slid over the building's grand facade, to find and linger on the bell towers. Killing the defenders and seizing control of those would be how one achieved victory.

All this in mind, he looked it over carefully. Drones were sent out to hum around it, and the Modules analysed the layout, attempting to work out whether there were any defences beyond the obvious guards, then determining the best ways in and out. Simulations was working on a 3D map of the city. His Mark possessed its own map, but in his opinion you couldn't have enough detail when it came to potential strike points.

When possible, Nicolai prepared to begin prep work for a job as early as possible. Surveillance was a key part of any aggressive operation, whether it be assassination or something more simple, and he'd learned that the best time to perform such surveillance was months or even years before the job.

Not only did this ensure he had plenty of time to plan, but it also increased the likelihood he wouldn't be recognised by people working in the building, and that security recordings would have been recorded over. These old habits and methods were ingrained into him more deeply than the scars on his body.

This place did not look like a particularly hard target. The building was quite close to its neighbours, providing methods for one such as him to get onto its roof—where the Bell Towers could be found.

He wouldn't go in for a close assault, however. Through drones, he examined the surrounding city. A building taller than the Auction House rose a few blocks away. From there he would have good sightlines on all but one of the Bell Towers.

Nicolai entered the Auction House, his finger twitching as he imagined sighting down the scope of a high-powered rifle and pulling the trigger. The entrance was typically large. He didn't see any signs of an emergency door, and worked to keep his movements casual as he joined the small crowd.

For this, Nicolai wore a different outfit. He'd returned via portal to his base where he'd made the change, before coming here. Of course, that meant the Scoundrels would have been able to work their locator magic on him, but he'd decided to simply accept that they would be learning his rough location. He didn't have any way to stop that, now they had his polearm. At least this way he knew that there would be a Scoundrel, or Scoundrels, coming after him this week. He would be ready.

Back in the cave, he'd left the Blade and Imbued rapier under Aiming's watchful gaze, then put his other recognisable weapons into the Big Mouth, which he'd deactivated so that it disappeared from his chest.

After that he'd changed into a simple, hooded, dark blue robe he'd had the Assembler make from actual cloth, a pack of which he'd purchased from the Trade Link last time. With this were some simple fibre sandals. Finally, a plain white mask covered his face.

Following his last, failed attempt to blend in with Cultivators, he'd decided that simpler was better. They would still be able to tell he wasn't one of them, but at least the simple clothing wouldn't draw any eyes.

The main entrance led into a large central room, which had two exits on either side, leading to the two auction rooms the House was equipped with. The auction he was here for was on the left side, so he headed over.

At the door, there was an attentive female Person holding a clipboard. She was flanked by a tall, robed skeleton hefting a very large halberd.

'This is the weekly Short Auction,' she said smoothly. 'Entrance fee is 5,000 points.'

According to what he'd learned at the Information Guild, there were two kinds of Auctions hosted here. Short and Long. A Short Auction lasted one hour. A Long lasted four. The Information Guild Person had suggested that people would wait until the Long before attempting to sell especially unusual and valuable items, or just if they wanted the best chance of a good price. The Long would likely have far more people attend it, after all.

The Long Auction would occur on the last week of each month, thus there would be one every month. As to the Short, they would occur on the other three weeks of each month, thus three Minor Auctions for each Major.

Nicolai handed over the necessary tags, and headed inside. The room within was very large and reminded him of a theatre. Rows of seating, slightly curving, led downward towards a stage at the bottom. The ceiling was high and arching, and there were private balcony-booths visible up there. Those ones had curtained screens over them.

There were only a few minutes until the start, and the room was quite busy, though not at full capacity. Almost half the seats were filled down here, and he saw movement up in the private booths above. He estimated it to be roughly 60% full of Cultivators, and 40% those from Earth.

He slid into a seat at the very back, in a corner so there were no seats to his left or behind him. It was protocol to limit one's exposure as much as possible. There were People spaced along the walls all around the room, and there was one in the corner behind him. Nicolai and Threat Analysis watched everything through cameras and Soul Sense.

These seats, though all in a row, were each clearly separate from their neighbours, with their own armrests and space between. The moment he put his hand onto his armrest, his Mark activated.

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