Risen World

Chapter 544: First Trip to the Universe Auction House Part 2

As the curtains drifted open in a slow fashion all of the loud chatter from around the auction house seemed to quiet down as the voice that Joshua had been hearing earlier humming became even more distinct grabbing their attention. It was clear that the voice was coming from stage and the odd instrument was as well, the combination of the two was to alluring to ignore. When the curtains had been completely removed a female figure could be seen on the stage with long blond hair that seemed to be an odd mix of both flowing hair and feathers.

The singer's face was almost completely the same as a human except for the fact that her cheek bones seemed a bit higher along with her face being slimmer, but she had a beauty that was hard to miss and a figure that any woman would love to have. What made her even more distinct from any other race were the pair of white and golden wings that shot out of her back and were currently folded up to avoid blocking everyone's view from seeing the rest of her form. She wore a nice long dress that showed off her shoulders, but her voice was still what was attracting Joshua's attention more than anything else.

The woman was playing an instrument while humming that looked like an odd combination of a piano and a large harp that towered high into the stage. Every time she'd press one of the keys on the instrument one of the large strings would vibrate for all to see and create a sound that the angelic woman seemed to harmonize with her voice. She continued her performance all the way up until the curtains finished opening and the count down completely ended. When she finished she stood up and bowed while her wings flared out and fluttered behind her as the crowd applauded her performance. She waved a few times before making her way off stage as the large instrument that she had been using suddenly hovered in the air after she waved her hand in its direction and followed her off stage.

It took a minute for the crowd to die down after the short performance, but it was clear that it had gotten everyone into an excited mood for the upcoming auction. The whole scene made Joshua wonder if it were possible that there were universal scale broadcasts of shows and concerts for all to see. It would be something that he would be interested in watching if only to get a good look at the cultures of other races around the universe. It would be one way to get to know races that he wouldn't be able to interact with anytime soon.

Joshua ended up putting that thought aside as the distinct click of steps started ringing throughout the entire auditorium. They were coming from behind the stage so it was clear that whoever was in control of the auction was making their way up to the stage. Soon enough a figure came into view that caused Joshua to widen his eyes at not only their looks but their demeanor. The person that now stood on stage was a decently tall woman that stood over six feet with her heels on, but her height was definitely the last thing to be noticed. Joshua was surprised how human she looked, but at the same time there were things about her that seemed beyond the looks of what human beauty could achieve. She had a figure that Joshua found fairly unrealistic with how her body seemed toned in just the right places while her assets seemed almost too well-proportioned for someone that didn't have any sort of augmentations done.

Body wise the person on stage looked almost like the ideal form of a beauty from any human's perspective, but there were a couple of things that told Joshua right away that he was dealing with a completely different race. The most striking and obvious clue was that she had a thin black tail that was waving back and forth behind her with each step. At first it looked like it might have just been a portion of her long cascading black hair, but once it started moving it was clearly a tail. The tip of the tail seemed to be able to shift into different shapes with it currently taking the shape of a ball and then suddenly shifting to a heart shape once she stood at the front of the stage.

"I welcome all of our prestigious guest to one of the many auctions of our Universe Shop. Today there were plenty of items brought before us to be put up for show that I believe will catch some eyes. My name is Lilith and I will be your auctioneer for this evening and I hope that we will all have an enjoyable time." The woman now known as Lilith said with a smile that seemed to border on a look between graceful and sexy that Joshua didn't expect would work so perfectly. The moment the woman spoke Joshua was getting the same feeling from her voice and image that he had been getting from the previous singers voice. It was like some type of allure that attracted him even when she wasn't doing anything particularly aggressive.

That's when Henry said something sitting next to him that got Joshua's attention. "I believe this Lilith must be a succubus or some other race that probably has a penchant for alluring others to them through simple actions. She's not even directing her attention specifically at us, but Adrian is already drooling and making a fool of himself." Joshua turned to look around Henry and could see Adrian staring up at the woman on stage with a dumb smile and a look of need in his eyes. Aito slapped him over the back of his head to knock him out of his crazed demeanor, but it was clear that the woman was on stage for this specific reason.

"I'm starting to believe that a lot of the stories of fantasy creatures that we grew up reading about might have some truth to them." Joshua said as he looked towards the woman once more. "I thought it was odd that Dwarves and elves looked so much like we expected of them to some degree, but when I met Garlin and saw a whole new race I thought that might have actually ended up being just a coincidence but now I'm not so sure. Now we've got succubus like people that seem straight out of someone's mature fantasy game."

"It does seem like there might be a reason for that. Maybe in the past some aliens visited and left information on all of these different races. That might be why we keep coming across them now, but that's not something we can say for sure. All I know is that this succubus was the perfect person for this job." Aito said after he finished snapping Adrian out of his enchanted state. Joshua looked around at the crowd and could see many of the men already appeared enthralled by the woman's charms to some extent, but most weren't pushed over the edge like Adrian had been. Even a large portion of the woman in the audience were affected by Lilith's charm so it wasn't something that was dangerous to only males.

It seemed to work through the power of will from what Joshua could tell as he could feel the allure trying to encroach on his own will, but it was only a slight suggestive feeling that he could easily dismiss without using his aura or anything like that. Even so Joshua knew that if he was hit full on with such an ability he might have ended up dancing in the palm of Lilith's hands judging just off how powerful it was being spread out amongst the whole crowd let alone focused on one person.

"Now that we've set the introduction aside let's kick off this auction with a powerful artifact to start things off." Lilith said with smile before the temperature in the room suddenly sky rocketed. Joshua felt as if he was standing in front of an oven that was just opened as waves of heat hit him in the face coming from the stage. Joshua soon found the source of the heat as a powerful weapon was being lowered from the top of the stage. It looked like a large two handed sword in shape, but it was the power and heat that the blade was giving off that was currently grabbing everyone's attention.

The end of the blade seemed to be a searing heated orange tint that glowed violently for all to see. There were some red streaks that cover the bottom portion of the blade all the way down to its large guard. The bottom half of the blade was also a charcoal color that fit well with the lava like heated portion of the edge of the blade. The sword was a good six feet long, but the size seemed irrelevant to Joshua in comparison to the aura it was giving off. It was almost like a real living and breathing being, yet he knew it was a weapon. When the blade reached the stage floor it was stopped in place before it could burn through the stage and cut through the floor.

"This blade is a new work of the legendary dwarven craftsmen Brokkr and Sindri, the talented pair of geniuses that created Thor's hammer Mjolnir. This weapon hasn't been given a name yet as that will be the honor of whoever buys it, but it is a fully functional sentient weapon. The sword has been imbued with the power of radiating intense heat and will give the wielder control over flame based magic or environments well beyond any other weapon." Lilith explained getting looks of awe from everyone in the crowd. Even Joshua was shocked by such a weapon being sold off at an auction. A weapon that could literally control parts of the elements on its own and knowing it was made by the same people that made one of the most legendary weapons in fiction just made the sword even more valuable.

"I think this little anecdote by Lilith has just confirmed our thoughts on someone putting the idea of all these powerful beings into human history somewhere along the line." Henry said with a frown, but Joshua nodded understanding what he was getting at. It was clear that it wasn't just a coincidence that Norse mythology existed on earth and that could also be the same for many other small religions or fantasy like settings from stories of the past.

"The bidding for this future sword of legend will start at eighty million universe coins." Lilith said with a polite bow shocking Joshua and his friends. That one weapon could cost more than thirty of those space ships that they had seen in the Universe Shop earlier. Without batting an eye several people in the crowd started bidding on the sword he could only watch on in wonder when he heard a voice call out to him..

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