Chapter 393: Last Day (1/2)

Zac woke up early the next day and got ready to head out after training a bit more with [Cyclic Strike]. Unfortunately it seemed that the small progress he had attained in the skill over the past weeks had been completely erased after gaining the Fragment of the Coffin. The Fragment completely overpowered the Seed of Trees, making it impossible to maintain a balance.

He could only pause his practice until he gained his final Fragment as well.

At least he could confirm that the odd Dao Fragment worked with his new shield, perhaps even better than the Dao of Hardness did. Hopefully that meant that his Undying Bulwark class would still work as intended.

It was also a decent indicator that Fragment of the Coffin was a Defensive Dao as well, meaning his final skill quest was also most likely completed. He didn’t dare change into his Draugr-form to make sure though as he was still in the Base town. He would be stuck in his undead form for roughly an hour after shifting which might cause unintended problems. But he was heading for the Tower soon enough, and there would be ample time to go over things in there.

Today was the last day before entering the tower, so getting the additional fragment ahead of time was a huge boon. Zac and Ogras had already decided upon what to do. They would visit the weekly auction once more in hopes of finding anything of value. It was their last shot before returning to Earth where they were limited to Calrin's selection once again.

No matter the results of the auction they would immediately enter the Tower afterward. They would spend one day inside, leaving one day afterward for networking. Provided that Zac managed to reach a floor high enough to warrant the attention of the larger forces, that is. In either case, they would have to return to Earth since their ten days were up.

The auction was pretty similar to the first one, though on the second-to-last segment an item that piqued Zac’s interest appeared. It was simply called a [Heaven’s Secrets Array] and was said to upgrade Nexus Nodes.

“What is this?” Zac asked Ogras, but the demon shrugged with confusion as well.

“It's normally called an [Information array], but perhaps this is a special variant,” Galau said, not showing too much interest. “It acts as a substitute if you’re unable to upgrade your Nexus Node for your town.”

“Upgrade the Node?” Zac asked with interest. “What does it do?”

“At the lowest level a Nexus Node doesn’t provide almost any information about the skills it sells or details about Class Choices. But if you manage to upgrade the status of your force then all its nodes will be more helpful. This Array gives that kind of effect as well, but only to one Node,” Galau explained.

“Buy it,” Ogras said without hesitation.

“What kind of information?” Zac asked with interest, also pretty interested in purchasing it. “Does it provide better Classes?”

“No, it can’t help there. But it gives information about the type of classes, their main attributes and things like that. It’s doesn’t display everything, but enough to get a better idea of what the classes represent. It is a bit hard sometimes to understand the description after all,” Galau shrugged.

“Is it rare?” Zac asked, completely agreeing with Galau's assessment of the cryptic descriptions of the Class choices.

“I guess these things are slightly rare, but it’s still not too valuable,” Galau said. “Most people that visit this place are from forces that have upgraded their crystals the normal way and have no need for it. It’s meant for weaker and newly established forces as a stopgap until they get the real thing.”

Zac was immediately interested, and he would make sure to buy that thing unless its price got out of hand. It would help him to choose a class better in line with his goals.

“Next up is the [Heaven’s Secrets Array]. I know what many of you are thinking; ‘Isn’t this just an Information Array?’ Truth be told, the array itself is just that, but this specific array is still a bit special. It was crafted by a cultivator adept on the path of Karma, which has given the array a slightly mysterious effect.”

The auctioneer saw that he had managed to catch the attention of quite a few people, and he continued with a bombastic voice.

“It not only provides the benefits of an Information array, but it even gives small Karmic hints of which choices might be best for you. It would be a marvelous opportunity for the youths of your factions who are unsure what path to pick for themselves,” the man said.

Zac was a bit disappointed in the extra function, as that wasn’t something he needed for himself. He only had two options at the moment, and he wasn’t so sure it would expand all that much even with his new seeds. Besides, he had already had a high enough Luck stat that his gut feeling was at least as effective as some small Karmic infusion into the array.

He had rather hoped that it would contain some hacking function that would give access to better structures in the Town Shop or better Classes, but he wasn’t that lucky. Still, it would be an item that would prove greatly beneficial for Port Atwood, especially since the system was so new for everyone. Most established forces followed heritages to choose their classes, but this was a great option for his people.

The price on the screen immediately jumped up to 200 million nexus coins, but the bidding already slowed down after 300. It clearly wasn’t a too valued, and Zac finally snatched it for the price of 380 Million Nexus coins. This was one of the types of items that might be very valuable on the outside, but here it went for a discount since people were more interested in items that could help them climb further.

Soon enough they reached the final segment, but Zac didn't found anything else he wanted. The treasures were extremely good, but they were either too expensive or not things that weren't suited for himself. A set of six small Spirit Tool axes appeared that Zac felt would be perfect for Emily, but they ended up with a price-tag of 3 billion, quickly forcing Zac out of the bidding.

Soon enough they reached the final item, and it wasn't something that Zac could recognize either.

“Our final item in today’s Auction is something that might only enter our halls once every few years. It is the crystallized eye of a Pathfinder Oracle,” the Auctioneer said before he paused for dramatic effect.