Time Twister

He followed the man into a specially-designed elevator for special guests, arriving on the 10th floor. He was guided to one of the rooms which was a bit larger than the others on the same floor. There was a middle-aged man outside who was genially smiling at Xander.

The man who escorted him then opened the door and signaled Xander to go in. Once Xander did, the other man entered as well and closed the door gently.

The man was there to introduce the facilities of the room.

"Mr. Simpson, welcome! Do you have any questions relating to the auction?" the man asked, bowing slightly. He was actually one of the auction managers for this event, and the one that processed Xander"s deal.

"Hmm, yes, what"s the procedure of auctioning? This is my first time acting a buyer in one." Xander asked honestly, hoping to hear the details of how to bid. He didn"t want to make any mistakes, after all.

"Esteemed guest, the Koeman Group uses a live auction system, with the items being introduced by an auctioneer, and people can place their bids using the device provided to them when they entered. In the case of special guests such as yourself, you are to use the terminal and set bids for the items being auctioned. After 2 minutes the auctioneer had completed the description of the items, the bids close, and the highest bidder wins the item.

The items are received and paid for by the buyer at the end of the auction for the day. In the case of special guests, they can get the item they want after bidding and pay, before leaving or continuing with the bid."

Xander nodded, as this auction method was quite efficient. This was technically his first auction where he attended as a seller and a buyer, as even in his past life, he didn"t have the chance to even go inside one. In Eteria, he was only the seller.

He then asked the man what was the other benefits of being a special guest of the Koeman Group, which the man enthusiastically replied.

"Special guests have their own, private, and secure room, wherein no one can peek inside the room with their abilities with the numerous enchantments placed in each room, each one different from the rest.

Special guests are allowed to place an initial bid to the items in the list or outright buy the items 100 times their initial starting price. These are only for certain items that aren"t marked by the Koeman Auction House.

For those items marked by the Koeman Auction House as hot commodities, these can be outright bought for 100,000 times their initial starting price. So, an item worth 500,000 Galaxy coins will cost the buyer 50 million if these are non-marked, and 50 billion Galaxy coins if these items are marked.

Special guests are also allowed to purchase items in the special collection of the Koeman Group at a 10% discount before, during, and after each auction day. The list collection can be accessed from the same terminal used for bidding. Once the auction event has ended, the access to the collection is revoked.

Special guests have no purchasing limit. Meaning, they can buy all the items in the auction provided that they have enough money for them. Special guests can pay the amount they are due immediately or within 14 days with a small 5% increase.

Special guests can also avail of different services the auction house, such as inviting other guests to your room, bidding in your stead, or hiding your ident.i.ty when bidding. You will have 2 servers just outside the room, waiting for your signal to serve you anytime you want.

Special guests can also place a small note at their bidding prices, informing others about their bids, to deter others from bidding, or inform others.

As you are a special guest that is a buyer and a seller, you have a current limit of 500 billion Galaxy Coins due to the number of items and their respective values you consigned to the auction house. The amount you spent from that limit will be deducted from your earnings from the auction + the auction house fees of 12% of the total earnings. If the total earnings surpa.s.sed 10 trillion Galaxy coins in total, the auction house fees will be reduced to 10%."

Xander, upon hearing the benefits, was quite surprised by the benefits he had for selling some byproduct items. The two began to talk before the manager left the room, leaving Xander alone.

The manager, upon his exit, instructed the two servers outside, a young man and a young female sprite, to follow the instructions Xander would have for them.

Xander, being left alone in the room, relaxed. He had scanned the rooms earlier and had already had the system disable the camera module in his room; meaning, it will just loop him sitting on the sofa, checking the terminal from time to time. He wasn"t lying that the rooms were designed to isolate magic perception and almost all types of spying abilities. Oh well, time to check the current bid prices of some items he had been eying.

He had 13 items he wanted to get:

Eye of Carmaxus

Crown of Thespileis

Helyn"s Finger Bone

Seed of Chronos

Seed of Narcissus

Eternity Codex Page 2

Infinity Codex Page 2

Unknown Magic Beast Egg - Estimated to be at least a DemiG.o.d cla.s.s once born.

5 grams each of Immortal Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Wood elemental Crystal, a total of 50 grams.

The first 3 items were actually priced between 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 Galaxy coins, and they were listed items. If Xander wanted the three items, he would need to bid a large amount immediately to deter others. These items were actually Cla.s.s-6 artifacts. Xander wanted these 3 items because they had certain properties that he was curious about to investigate and attempt to replicate, specifically, the elements of Order and Chaos.

The 2 seeds were also added to his list to buy because Xander saw the description of where these seeds were discovered.

The Seed of Chronos is said to be from a fabled "Tree of Time" that was said to stop anyone from aging forever if one would take eat the fruits it produced. However, the seed"s germination process and requirements to grow, and the period of time it requires for the fruits to grow and bloom are unknown factors. Not only that, but there was also only 1 seed; what if it required another tree of the same type before it can produce fruits?

The Seed of Narcissus, on the other hand, was said to be produced by another concept type of plant, the Tree of Emotions. What Xander wanted to do with this seed is check if it can hybridize with the Dream and Life seeds.

The prices of these two seeds were also quite high, starting at 10 million Galaxy coins each.

The next two items, for Xander, felt like bait. After all, it involved a mythical ma.n.u.script said to contain the mysteries of s.p.a.ce and time, and no one else was interested in these items? Not even the s.p.a.ce-time cultivators of the other large empires? After all, he had seen in the databases of the empires he had visited information related to the two items, the Eternity and Infinity Codex.

Not only that, when he saw the starting bid, but it was also a measly value of 10 Galaxy coins. He could buy both for 2000 Galaxy coins. He was hesitating if he should directly buy both or not.

The other 6 items were just used for reference and experimental research. He hasn"t produced any Immortal quality elemental crystals, after all. He felt like he was missing something for the process of creation to begin. The starting prices of these items ranged from 10 million to 100 million Galaxy coins.

After a few minutes of deliberation and risk calculation by the system, he decided to purchase them immediately. After seeing that his transaction was completed, he released a sigh of relief. He requested to send the items to his private room.

After a few minutes, the item arrived, both papers placed in a special transparent isolation box.

For some reason, when he attempted to view the item using [Divine Eyes], he felt an impending danger coming from these two doc.u.ments.

Xander decided to ask the system about the item, which then responded,

"The items come from beyond the Universe. There is a 20% chance that it came from the Great Void. There is an 80% chance it came from beyond the Great Void."

When Xander heard this, he fell into contemplation. Could this be a set-up? Probably, from the same G.o.d who transmigrated him and others into this universe? Or maybe, someone like that G.o.d? Or, it could just be a coincidence…

Xander decided to gamble and take a risk. He surrounded a small area where he and the boxes were covered by origin elements, completely isolating the s.p.a.ce from any fluctuations whatsoever.

He then opened the box, which he instantly realized was placed for the safety of the buyer.

Immediately, s.p.a.ce-rendering and time-shattering power emanated from the two pages of unknown material, but Xander disregarded this by forcing it all under his control. After all, although his comprehension was lacking, he was considered the master of s.p.a.ce and time, completely controlling it, but not necessarily understanding them.

This was when he realized that there seemed to be a remnant trace present in the pages, and when he asked the system about it, it was a marker, similar to the markers he placed on the AIs in the digitalized dimension.

"Hmm, so it is a trap… but am I the intended target? This is the main question," Xander mumbled. After further scanning, he realized that the structure of the pages were literally runic writings manifested and condensed in such a point it became material and something interactable.

If someone who didn"t have the power to completely dominate s.p.a.ce-time touched this, they would immediately be affected by multiple time and s.p.a.ce distortions, such as acceleration, slow, reversal, or even time stop, along with the likes of spatial expansion, decay, collapse, and spatial explosion. It didn"t matter if you had the comprehension of s.p.a.ce-time, if you didn"t have complete control and domination of s.p.a.ce and time, one would still be unable to touch this doc.u.ment without any sacrifices.

By this point, Xander already reached a conclusion based on this inference: He really was the target. Could it be, they knew what he wished when that G.o.d transmigrated him? Is he going to be pit against the lackeys of another G.o.d eying this universe, maybe?

Xander began to think about ridiculous thoughts for a while, before shaking his head. There was just too much to process. He was, after all, a measly creature for now. He had no fighting power to speak of.

I immediately attempted to wipe out the tracking marker in the pages; this process lasted for around 1,000,000 years, however, outside, it was only a few seconds that had pa.s.sed.

The reason why it took him too long to remove the markers was that he had to understand and reverse engineer them, which basically allowed him to disable any alarms or methods of self-destruction in the markers. Once he did this, he immediately copied the markers and placed it in two magic crystals, then destroyed the markers in the pages, before destroying the magic crystals, completely throwing them into a void hole he just made.

After this was done, he immediately touched the pages at the same time and began to absorb them.

This process, on the other hand, took a total of 10 million years. However, during this process, an unexpected thing happened to his spell foundation. His body emulated the process of ERMS, allowing him to refine his spell foundation for more than 10 million years while his life essence doll was basically in stasis, which finally changed from a golden sheen color to a transparent one; if Xander were to check only visually, he would have thought his spell foundation had collapsed. However, it had actually reached its peak refinement, returning to the void. Not only that but the comprehension and mastery speed of his primary elements and other elements he had also increased.

When he opened his eyes, his body was completely refined and strengthened, all his attributes greatly increased. His attributes could already rival someone in the Legendary cla.s.s. He would just need a point each to actually demonstrate the strength and dexterity of a Mythic magician. Not only that, but his Divine, Sage, and G.o.d magic slots also increased in number, having 15, 10, and 7 slots now respectively.

He also managed to gain 3 new s.p.a.ce-time spells, [Eternity-Infinity], [Time Shatter], and [Time Extraction].

[Time Extraction] was basically the combined and strengthened version of [Materialized Past] and [Materialized Future]. However, there is an important part of its description that made it stronger than the two.

Time Extraction - Allows the caster to dive into the River of Time (Records of Time), from past and future, and bring anything and anyone into the present, from the same reality sandbox or not. The current limitation is that living beings cannot be more than 3 levels above the current cultivation of the caster. It cannot be used beyond a Universe (for now).

Xander could finally bring back living people from past records and even people from other reality sandboxes. At the same time, the spell seemed to show that it can be used beyond a universe in the future. Xander then had a thought: If he decided to bring a person from the past that is still alive now, what will happen to their information in the ordered system? Will they both survive? Will the universe attempt to cleanse the data?

[Time Shatter] was a bit different from the previous time spells he got, as it tackled three different time representations: Break, Schism, and Destruction, all under the action category. It was a pure offensive spell, compared to that of the other time-based spells before.

Time Shatter - Target"s time will be completely wiped out from the River of Time (in that universe), both past, present, and future, in every possible sandbox of reality. The spell cannot be undone. The caster loses 1 point of vitality every usage under 1,000 times, 10 points of vitality under 100,000 times, and 100 points of vitality beyond 100,000 times of usage. The target can be an area and everyone in it, or an individual being/item/target. It only works for beings born and existing inside a universe (for now).

It had strict limitations of use because the loss of vitality increased the more times Xander used the spell. He would have to use this spell sparingly for enemies he couldn"t defeat.

The last spell, [Eternity-Infinity], confused him, as it was considered to be a Traveler-rank spell. Even the description sounded confusing.

Eternity-Infinity (10%) - Creates a completely isolated and independent s.p.a.ce with a maximum internal size of 1e+35 light-years. s.p.a.ce and time inside the s.p.a.ce are looped. It is possible to create multiple, interconnected s.p.a.ce pockets without a spatial collapse. It cannot be opened by anyone else but the caster.

So…it"s basically a stronger version of [Pocket Dimension] and [Origin Universe]?? Hmm, Looping… Whatever, I"ll just investigate on how to use this once I broke through to Legendary Cla.s.s, Xander mused. Good thing was that his bottleneck on the s.p.a.ce-time elements comprehension was broken through and rose to 42%. Maybe he could integrate this into creating the modified Eden.

Xander canceled the origin barrier around him, returning to the physical dimension once again. He then continued to browse the items, maybe he missed something important.

___________________

Time pa.s.sed, more and more people were entering the auction venue. The first 3 floors only had a maximum capacity of 20,000 people, while the 4th to 9th floors can only hold a capacity of 5,000 people. The last few floors can only hold 108 groups of special guests.

These people weren"t isolated to one another like the special guests; they were able to freely interact with one another, which caused some conflicts in the previous major auction events, so there was one main rule applied to all partic.i.p.ating to the auction: Upon their entry, they have to sign a magic contract that tells them expressively that they cannot damage or cause harm to anyone within their premises for the duration of the auction event. The contract"s power was quite strong, as these were specially produced by a G.o.d cla.s.s cultivator; in fact, his career and business are based on contract creations. He actually had a primary element under the Order origin element, Rule and Commandment, giving him the capacity to create such binding contracts. In fact, Xander had already an idea on how to ensure the loyalty of his subordinates once they reached Divine rank from his experience of signing the contract.

Anyone who breaks the rules would suffer a backlash, severely injuring them in varying degrees, from simple internal organ failure to that of a decrease in cultivation level or even death in some cases. Once they broke the rules, they are not able to partic.i.p.ate in future auctions held. The Universal Auction Consortium, or UAC, had adopted the same structure for all its members, giving them more autonomy and control over their businesses.

Reva and Martina, the two fellow disciples, were mingling out and about in the 6th floor, talking to some of their acquaintances, and even attempting to goad their enemies to make the first move.

Of course, the other parties either greeted them nicely or with contempt, as most of their acquaintances were disciples of other magibiopharmacists that their master may or may not be in good terms with.

At the same time, they were carefully looking at the prices of the items they had their eyes on and double-checking if they had brought enough money from the Universal Bank.

Although the Galactic Empire was not using Universal notes, at least their central bank offered conversion of these notes to their currency, the Galaxy coins. They only had roughly 500 billion worth of Galaxy coins in their bank accounts. Hopefully, the prices wouldn"t be too inflated.

However, everyone"s faces changed when they saw the starting bid prices for all the 19 and 20-star elixirs and elixir pills being sold: all of them started at 2 billion Galaxy coins, and there were only 2 sets of five pills/bottles (liquid) being sold for each type of them.

Xander had set that condition to the auction house, which they wholeheartedly agreed to. After all, a higher price for such a rarity and powerful product would attract more attention.

The people who came for the pills were quite frantic. They expected that the pills were going to be sold per bottle, and not in terms of sets of twos or threes.

Xander had consigned 450 different elixir and elixir pills with an Immaculate Quality at 19 to 20 stars rating, so there were a total of 900 sets for all 4,500 elixirs and elixir pills. He still had around a million of those different pills in his pocket dimension, but he didn"t want to flood the market with his products.

If each set could be bought at the price of 5 billion Galaxy coins, he would gain 4.5 trillion Galaxy coins, which was equivalent to 45 million Universal notes. That"s a good funding amount for when Xander officially travels the universe.

If all the sets were sold for 10 billion, he would gain 9 trillion Galaxy coins or 90 million Universal notes. By then, he"s a millionaire in the empires where the bank exists.

And that didn"t include the consigned Cla.s.s 6 and Cla.s.s 5 magic artifacts.

He consigned 300 Cla.s.s 6 and 30 Cla.s.s 5 magic artifacts, with the Cla.s.s 6 being sold as sets of 4 complementing artifacts. All their starting prices were at 1 billion Galaxy coins, and there were only 75 sets. The Cla.s.s 5 magic artifacts, on the other hand, were being auctioned at a base price of 5 billion Galaxy coins each.