Absolute Shopping Addict

These people, however, were more than just division recruiters.

"Greetings and apologies for barging in so suddenly, Master Li. I am Kurt of Skyward."

One of them already took a mug of ale from the counter and took a swig before greeting the old man.

"Long time no see, Master Li! You look as awesome as ever. Still remember your old friend Karim?" the commander of the Berserkers asked jauntily.

Three more awakeners gave the old master their greetings.

The five people who suddenly appeared all had something in common: Jake Smithson was on the top of their list after watching the final evaluation match.

"If you are here for small talk, do it and then leave," the old man declared. "Having to deal with all of you will make my tea cold."

The reason for his sudden change in att.i.tude was plain to see: it wasn"t the leader of the Grand Duelists they were there for, it was for the young men seated opposite him.

"Even a blind man can see you"re chafing at the bit to bring these young men with you… or make sure I won"t recruit Jake."

"How inhospitable," Kurt replied with mock distress. "We have not seen you for some time, and this is how you greet us?"

"If you are not here to chat, then what is your reason for being here?"

"We all panicked when we heard you were trying to poach our novice awakener," Kurt replied, his desire to recruit Jake plainly stated. "If I can"t have Jake, I can"t let him join the Grand Duelists; if he does, then my plans to depose their division from the Ten Stars will suffer a tremendous setback."

"Inhospitable?" the old man asked, "I"m not the one who is interrupting a conversation. If you wish to talk to the young man, at least wait until I have finished. Young people these days…"

"Not until he knows what"s going on within your division," Kurt answered, a malicious smile on his face.

"What situation?"

"That"s unfortunate, asking someone to join a division without knowing what"s going on inside it," Kurt said, turning to Jake. "Wouldn"t you like to know what"s going on within the Grand Duelists right now?"

"Not really?" Jake answered, as he was coming around to asking the old man that question after the matter of the flasks of empowerment, "I don"t even know what the Grand Duelists is like."

"That"s to be expected," Kurt replied. "Well, then – the Grand Duelists is part of the Ten Stars, but they"ve been on a decline as of late. Internal schisms here and there, rumors of the division splitting into two, conflict within the division itself, not being able to devote any attention to external matters, such as recruiting…"

It was quite the bold statement, talking about the internal issues of another division, while in front of the man leading that division.

While Kurt was ranting, the old man returned to his tea, not paying attention to the things being said until he finished his cup… and then he answered.

"I see our reputation has taken quite the hit," the old man said, standing up after putting the cup of tea down, "that weaklings such as this fellow would be so brash as to say those things in front of me," the old man said with a laugh.

When he stopped laughing, the entire inn was suffused with the same chilling and ghastly presence that Jake and Liam recalled in the arena earlier.

"It would take me a blink of an eye to carve that slanderous tongue from your teeth," the old man replied, his voice dropping down to a deadly whisper as all pretense of him being a friendly old man had vanished. "Skyward, is it? I see nothing more than a row of gossiping housewives who can only talk about their neighbors and cannot keep their own house in order."

"I will not stand and let you insult my division when you cannot stop the schism within yours, old man," Kurt replied defiantly, bringing out his own presence in response – he was the adjutant leader, after all, and he would not stand by and allow his division to be called as such: collectively, Skywards could challenge the Grand Duelists for their place in the Ten Stars; Master Li, though, was a different matter altogether.
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"I have been away for longer than I thought, it seems," the old man continued, "now all these upstarts are coming out of the woodwork. Tell me, do you think your insult is worth losing your life and puny division over?"

That was when the presence grew even more oppressive, freezing everyone within the inn.

But Kurt could not pull back; because this was where the attention of four particular divisions within Nohas stays, and this gesture would not go unnoticed.

Skyward"s adjutant stepped back from an outdated figure.

The presence here was a lot different from the presence yesterday, and the awakeners with Skyward also stepped back.

It was here that Kurt revealed his own presence, revealing ten more men behind him.

"This was needed to be said," he declared, as the pride of both their divisions clashed. "After all, don"t underestimate the name "Skyward"!"

It would have been quite the statement from Kurt, if not for the fact that there were several of his subordinate awakeners standing in front of him.

"I see," the old man said, unafraid of the reinforcements Kurt was bringing in, "you seriously want to do this."

The standoff continued for a few more moments until a voice broke the mood of the inn.

"Ladies," the voice declared, "if you"re going to start a p.i.s.sing contest over who gets to recruit me, you might as well do it the right way."

Both of them turned to see Jake still seated on his chair, sipping the last of his cup of tea.

While this standoff was happening, Jake was beginning to think of an idea that would let him go to the division that would offer the most to him.

A fight breaking out wouldn"t suit his purposes, which is why he called their attention.

"What do you mean?" an amused recruiter from another division asked him.

"We"ll hold an auction," Jake replied. "The more, the merrier."

The presences died down and were replaced with confusion as the division recruiters couldn"t make heads or tails of what just happened.

"Auction…?"

"What does he mean by that…?"

Instead of competing with each other, the recruiters from the other divisions began to ask one another what was going on, resulting in a rather odd sight if you were just at the inn to eat at the time.

"So, does that mean you will not come to the Grand Duelists?" the old man asked, just as confused as everyone.

"Well," Jake answered, "if there"s a lot of people who want to buy the same thing, the only logical thing to do is to hold an auction, right? There are quite the number of divisions who would like to purchase my membership into their division."

Jake Smithson just put his division membership up for auction.

"What a load of c.r.a.p," Karim responded, his hot temper only increased by the ale he just finished.

"Well, if you think it"s a load of c.r.a.p, there"s the door," Jake answered nonchalantly. "What is it about this that makes you so angry?"

The answer left the division leader briefly silenced as he went into thought: after all, the novice awakener spoke the truth.

If you don"t like it, you can stay out of it: only those who want to partic.i.p.ate will partic.i.p.ate.

When the awakener named Karim couldn"t answer, Jake wrapped up the encounter.

"Very well, I"ll put something up in three hours, you guys can come back then."

One of the recruiters wanted to object, but since this was the awakener everyone wanted in their division, they had no choice but to do what he said.

"Sorry about that," Jake said to the old man once every other division recruiter had left. "I hope it didn"t trouble you too much."

"No need to apologize," the old man replied. "Maybe this old man has to apologize himself, that was a very ill-mannered display earlier."

"If you want to make it up to me, show up in three hours, sir," Jake said with a smile, and the old man nodded.

"I will see you then," Master Li said, before he turned to leave the inn.

***

This evaluation of novice awakeners had many unprecedented events take place: first, the "greeting" was turned on its head, as a novice awakener had blasted through the ranks in the evaluation tournament, defeating one ringer and putting another on the ropes before a division intervened.

After the intervention, this novice awakener tried to attack the successor of Cheon-Ji-In, a Ten Stars division, and succeeded, if only with the kind of harsh language and threats that large divisions normally dismiss.

Jake Smithson is the type of awakener who was making waves ever since his arrival at Kingsville.

And now, he is holding an auction, and the prize is his membership to the winning division.

Jake and Liam spent the rest of those three hours spreading notice of the auction throughout Kingsville, to get as many divisions as they can to take part in the auction.

Making notices at inns where division recruiters were staying, paying messengers, and other matters were used to make the auction known.

The gist of those messages was thus: "if you want the membership of Jake Smithson the awakener, please head to the town square at 3 in the afternoon".

"It was a close thing, and I haven"t been able to shop, but I"ll try to enjoy this for now."

And now, with 5 minutes left until the clock in the town square struck 3, fifteen division recruiters were seated in a spot in the town square Liam reserved earlier.

After the clock in the town struck 3, Jake stepped out on the stage.

"All right," he announced, "here"s what the rules of this auction will be. We"re not offering money here: you bid with what your division can offer me."

Some directors within the divisions also accompanied their recruiters, but their faces didn"t look too good at this development.

"He"s potentially the best novice awakener, but to auction off his talent? What"s happening?"

"Despite Jake having all that promise… still can"t go with this."

It was unprecedented, the way a novice awakener had every division playing by his rules – and these directors didn"t like it one bit.

Their thoughts were broken when someone raised his hand and shouted firmly: "I"ll waive your apprentice status!"

Everyone turned to the sound of the voice to see Master Li, holding his hand up high, starting off the auction.

"Master Li, holding his hand up? Better follow suit."

"Reputation won"t feed us – let"s do it. We need him, he was able to beat back that Force of Heaven."

"Looks like I"ll end up paying an arm and a leg for this guy…"

The leader of the Grand Duelists raised his hand and started the auction off, not minding the reputation of his division; there"s no reason why others would do the same.

No one here has a better name and reputation than Master Li does.

"I"ll raise you and give you both basic AND advanced footwork, the ones our division"s Chosen can learn!" another recruiter shouted.

"That"s weak sauce! I"ll raise him that and add another sword to it!" a third recruiter added.

And while all this was ongoing, Jake remained seated, his expression impa.s.sive as the divisions began to wager better and better items and skills.

Showing his interest would give away his intentions, and would result in him being given less. By maintaining a calm facade, people will misinterpret his calm as disinterest, and start wagering more items and skills.

Jake ended up playing everyone in the auction like a bunch of fiddles.

"f.u.c.k this, I"ll bid my family"s Sword Art! This is something even longer-tenured members would sell their mother"s pelt to get!" a director yelled, being caught up in the auction fervor.

The director"s family Sword Art? So far, nothing has been surprising in this auction, people betting items and skills to gain Jake"s membership in their division.

"I"ll raise you by my Impregnable Fortress!" Kurt declared, silencing the other auctioneers.

It is perhaps the ring with the greatest defensive bonus, as its defensive capability grows just as its owner does; and it uses its owner"s mana to automatically defend against attacks directed at its owner.

Also, it creates a shield of mana only when necessary, saving its owner mana expenditure.

Within Nohas, only a small number of rings like this exists: and Kurt used it as his wager.

"What?" another director asked. "Is he serious?"

Other officials were flummoxed, as now, they needed to put something better than the Impregnable Fortress ring from this point onward.

"Is he out of his G.o.dd.a.m.n mind?"

As Kurt saw his wager affect the other directors and recruiters, the ghost of a grin flew across his face, the only sign of his satisfaction at how things were going.

"This is the type of investment I am prepared to make, just so the Grand Duelists will not recruit Jake. Tell me, Master Li, how can you overcome this resolve?"

"It seems like a great item, this Impregnable Fortress. What is happening to the crowd? Why is no one wagering further?" Jake asked himself, confused. "What kind of item is that, people are not bidding anymore?"

The announcement had silenced the crowd, and there was a lull in the auction proceedings.

"Looks like that old man is going to throw in the towel… but his eyes don"t look like they"ve given up," Jake thought as he expected Master Li to make a better offer, but since starting off with his initial bid, the old man remained silent. He"s going to make a move soon.

The old man finally stood up, raised his hand, and with a clear voice, announced his bid.

"Disregard everything that has been offered: the skills I plan to teach you will be numerous enough. But that is not part of the two things I will guarantee you in my bid. The first is an Empowerment Pill, which I will grant to you in the name of my division, the Grand Duelists."

Jake mentally grinned, as the item he was expecting finally appeared.

"The Pill? Finally, this auction will have been worth the trouble!

But wait, didn"t the old man say two things?"

Once the audience"s reaction died down, the old man continued.

"I will also guarantee, that during the next event featuring Cheon-Ji-In, I will give you the right to compete not only against the ringers of that division, I will also give you the opportunity to face the heir of that division, the awakener named Timothy, as the highlight of that event! This I pledge in the name of the Grand Duelists, as part of the Ten Stars!"

The bidders turned from the old man to Jake.

Jake"s mouth turned up into a smile.