“The auctions held in Deep Harbor attracted the deepest pockets in the world. Players and NPCs alike dropped thousands of gold coins every sixday. NPC heroes could expand their arsenal. Players could find the items to set themselves apart from the crowd and make their mark. Guilds used the auctions to steady their foundations and raise the prowess of their entire membership. Analysts learned to watch the auctions and anticipate brewing conflicts in their zones of influence.”

  From “NEMO – The Beginning” by Anonymous

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 12, 12:45

  The crowds of players streamed inside the auction house. The building’s cavernous interior extended hundreds of feet. Rows of stadium seating were topped by dozens of private rooms. Every seat in the house faced a broad stage. Each player was directed to a specific seat by waiting attendants. Torgon and Hyperia found themselves seated in a small private room with a clear view of the stage and the general seating. A pitcher of tea and a small tray of snacks sat on a table, placed there for them by the auction house staff.

  Before heading inside, the pair consigned 200 enchanted swords and 50 sets of enchanted rings for auction in lots of 50 swords and 10 ring sets respectively. They set starting bids for each lot at the minimum of 5 gold, and they hoped to add more gold to their available funds for any purchases they might make at the auction. Torgon focused on acquiring more blueprints to build up the foundation of the guild. He considered taking individual pieces of equipment if the price was reasonable, but he expected that most of the people attending were focused on their own gear and prowess, not the wellbeing of their guilds.

  Hyperia found it obvious from the way that a few players carried themselves that wealthy individuals had purchased the passes and decided to attend the auction with a view towards their standing in the game. Equally obvious to her experienced eye, several players who served as proxies for wealthy masters scurried about, eager to do their bidding. She pointed out different NPCs scanning the crowd. “I’d wager a tidy sum of gold that cheap bundles of low-level gear are going to fill out the bulk of this auction. The quality of the clothing is on the lower end. More sellers than buyers among the natives. We might have the chance to buy things we’re interested in.”

  Each seat in the auction house came furnished with a magical device linked to the auction house. Every individual bidder was linked to the device in their assigned seat, and it allowed them to enter the minimum increase or custom bids without having to yell or shout. A magitech screen filled the area behind the stage and displayed the current bid, the minimum increment and the time remaining for each auction.

  The auctioneer walked to a podium set to the side of the stage and addressed the crowd, “Welcome to our weekly Deep Harbor open auction. It’s good to see so many new visitors to our world here and many of our regulars as well. Without further ado, I present to you our first auction of the day.” Two men wheeled out an armor stand covered in gleaming steel plate mail burnished to a high sheen. A regal woman in a long dress stood next to the armor as the auctioneer resumed his speech. “This armor is a full set of enchanted rare grade plate mail. The gear itself is level 10, but the enchantments lower the required level to wear it to 5. The individual components of this auction fill the helmet slot, chest slot, shoulders, arms, legs, hands and feet. The exact details of the statistics will only be shared with the winning bidder in order the protect their privacy. This is a set piece that is farmed from the Cells of the Penitent dungeon in the Empire of Acacia. We will start the bidding at 20 gold coins. The minimum increment is 2 gold coins and there will be 1 minute on the clock. Each new bid will increase the time by 6 seconds. Happy Bidding!”

  A flurry of activity among the players resulted in the price of the suit of armor quickly rising above 50 gold. Torgon and Hyperia watched with amusement as the wealthy players competed to spend their money on an item that might serve them a month or two before needing replacement. The official game currency conversation listed a single silver coin at $5 US currency. That made a gold coin worth $500 and put the cost of the armor well above $25,000. The bidding slowed down as the armor passed 75 gold and it eventually sold for 83 gold to one of the men who had accompanied the drunken young master that had embarrassed himself in front of Hyperia.

  Individual weapons and gear sold for high amounts of coin to the scions of the modern world’s nobility. Large lots of basic weapons and armor were scooped up by guild logistics personnel. Every so often, a truly excellent item would appear, and the price would rise well above what the players could afford. NPCs spent hundreds of gold coins on a single piece to improve their kit.

  The first batch of swords the pair posted with the auction house arrived on the stage. Torgon’s eyebrows rose as the price went from 5 gold coins all the way up to a final sale price of 27 gold. The final price came in much higher than his expectations and forced him to reconsider the likelihood of purchasing anything useful today.

  Two hours passed without Torgon or Hyperia placing a single bid. Every batch of items they consigned sold and increased their available funds from under 500 gold coins to more than 800 gold coins. They kept an eye on guild chat for news, but fortunately the siege was quiet today. Stones were being hurled between the siege engines and nothing else of note was occurring.

  Finally, a lot that interested them came to the stage. Chests of books and tomes were brought to the stage and presented by the staff. The auctioneer spoke, “This next lot consists of lore books, ecologies, histories, myths and legends of our world. Many of these volumes have zone maps of varying accuracy. This lot includes multiple written histories of the Forgotten Empire. They are not the most riveting of reads, perhaps that’s why the empire is forgotten.” He paused while the audience gave tepid laughter. “We will start the bidding at 20 gold coins.”

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  Torgon eagerly placed a bid for the 20 gold coin minimum then just watched. The bidding stayed at 20 gold coins for over fifty seconds before it jumped to 22 gold coins. He bid twice more and won the lot for a reasonable 30 gold coins. The coins transferred from his account to the auction house and the books moved to his inventory.

  Hyperia eyed him for a moment then spoke, “You know, we’re going to lose Dusty until she manages to read them all.”

  Torgon chuckled and replied, “I have a cunning plan. We’ll let Dusty organize a small staff of researchers and we’ll reward her for successfully tanked dungeon runs with new books to explore. I know that the system has hinted at it, but I expect that we can find some secret treasure or get relevant information on dungeons we can discover.”

  Auction after auction followed, extracting a considerable sum of gold from the audience. Hyperia took notes and did her best to work out how much available funding from inside and outside the game made its way into the groups represented here. While this might be just a prestige auction, the sheer volume of coins being spent would let her establish a baseline to work with when the regular auction houses opened to the public.

  An auction lot of blueprints for repair kits came up. The lot consisted of blueprints for field kits to repair any equipment and larger kits to repair siege engines. Durability had not been a major issue so far, but Torgon engaged in a short and sharp bidding war and secured the win for 72 gold coins.

  The repair kits for the siege engines would be used in the guild base or in the city of Miller’s Crossing. The kits required a significant amount of resources to craft, but they would give players the ability to fix damaged catapults and trebuchets under enemy fire. They worked on the portable ballistae being obsessively constructed by Mark as well. Torgon and Hyperia relaxed, knowing that the purchase simplified the task of defending Miller’s Crossing.

  Nearing the end of the auction, a lot arrived on the auction floor that made Torgon sit bolt upright. The auctioneer announced, “This lot contains three blueprints. The first blueprint is a basic level 5 field mana bolt cannon. This device functions in a manner similar to other small war engines and is useful in sieges and against very large monsters. The second blueprint is a basic mana grenade. This device may be hurled into crowds of enemies and will inflict damage in a ten-foot radius. The final blueprint is for a mechanical mage servitor that is level 5 and will cast force bolts at an equivalent skill level of 10. It possesses adequate defense and maneuverability if it is limited to defending a fixed position. We shall start the bidding for this lot of blueprints at 100 gold coins. The minimum bid increase is 10 gold coins.”

  Torgon immediately bid 200 gold coins and watched as the numbers flew higher. He locked eyes with Hyperia and she reached out to the other guild leaders from Miller’s Crossing. Torgon kept bidding and watched as the price broke 600 gold. He hit his limit at 700 gold and waited for Hyperia’s negotiations to bear fruit.

  She messaged him, “Torg, the three leaders that took loans from the baron are offering us the coins if we agree to pay the baron back, plus a few other conditions. The first two are offering us the money with the agreement that we pay them back and provide them with twenty enchanted long swords and five sets of enchanted rings. The last leader is offering us his 100 borrowed gold coins, plus an additional 100 coins but his condition is that he and the rest of his guild be allowed to join ours and we help outfit them over time.”

  Torgon mulled it over briefly then agreed to all the offers. Four hundred fresh gold coins were added to his total, and he rejoined the bidding. It rose to 1,000 gold coins and Torgon put in a bid for 1,050, prepared to raise it further if needed. After a tense few seconds, he won the bidding. He shuddered at the thought of spending gold coins worth more than $500,000 dollars on blueprints that would rapidly lose their relevance, but they had an immediate need that outweighed the utility of the coins.

  Torgon and Hyperia gathered their winnings and swiftly left the auction, not staying for any further auction lots with their funds exhausted. They arranged for Dirk to meet with their freshly merged guild and give them the grand tour. They passed out the blueprints and recipes they picked up from their productive trip to Deep Harbor and arranged for the dozens of crafters to work overnight.

  Mark cackled when Ashford joined him in making siege engines. Two boys from the medical program received the blueprints for the automatons. They both loved robots and wanted to build them, now they were building them albeit with magic instead of technology. The guild base gradually shifted, transforming into a hive of industry reminiscent of the cottage industries of old, not the soulless automated lines of modern society that forsook craftsmanship for the cheapest possible materials.

  The guild grew by more than a hundred new members with the merger and the constant trickle of new players joining. A debt of 200 gold coins needed to be repaid, and every quest completion or crafted good sold would help. The system noted the increase in members and helpfully informed Torgon that the next guild base attack would increase to 1,200 monsters per wave from 800. He shrugged that information off. They should have the firepower to deal with the waves with minimal damage, assuming the new toys they build functioned correctly.

  The impending attack on the 14th would serve as an excellent test for the strategies and tactics that Ovarrix continued to implement. They would test the portable ballistae and the new mana bolt cannon. The grenades would be kept in reserve, and he was undecided about whether to risk any of the automatons they managed to build. “We need to find books on golemancy” he thought.

  Dusty ecstatically received the books and dove right into the research materials. She dragged Dr. Masters into it and despite her protests she seemed thrilled to be doing research. They worked on finding out the information for the guild’s next steps after the siege, but the siege still loomed over everything anyone did.

  If Miller’s Crossing fell, it would devastate the guild. It would hinder their ability to grow and force them into the territories already controlled by the Young Master’s Alliance. Torgon wouldn’t let that happen. They would do everything in their power to save the city.

  Darkness crept slowly into the sky with the sun’s fading light. The approaching night felt ominous and filled with portent. The lines of battle had been too quiet and Torgon feared being lulled into complacency. He grabbed Hyperia and Allestor to head out into the city to keep a watch on the coming darkness.

  They would soon find out who owned the night.