188 CH57 (187), The Auction (3)

The second day of the auction was a bust for our family. The only Pokemon that fit dad's purpose was a 5-star (high) silver-stage Lombre, but dad did not bid for that one for obvious reasons.

Weiss's parents bought her a 5-star stageless Spheal for 23.500.000 Poke. The funny thing was Ace's family participated in the bid for Spheal as well, but they decided to leave it to Weiss in the end.

That one was actually the opening item of the second day, and coincidentally Lombre had been the last item of the day. After the auction closed, and the Schnee's got their Spheal, we went to a nice restaurant. This time around they partook in dinner with us, since they had no prior obligation.

The bill caused another argument, but dad "succeeded" in paying for that one. I actually think he delivered a low blow when he decided to use the question if they were looking down on him. Implying him being in the lowest position strength and status-wise, was the reason they did not want him to pay.

Everyone knew that was not the case, but they had to concede once the question was brought up since it was one of those questions you could not answer correctly. We split after dinner and everyone returned to their hotels.

Right now, we were sitting in our seats waiting for the auction to start. Today was the third and final day of the auction, so if no suitable Pokemon showed up, dad would have to return empty-handed.

Still, I trusted dad's luck, so I was pretty optimistic on that front. A minute later Mary appeared on stage this time in some form of "modern" Kimono, the short variant that stopped shortly before her knees. Her emerald kimono with purple flower motifs only highlighted her natural beauty.

It seemed the auction house went all out for the last day since her beautiful appearance caused an excited murmur among many of the men in the crowd. Seems like Mary was going to succeed in raising the price of many goods today.

Still, my father showed no reaction at all and one look in my mother's direction explained why. I had to stifle a laugh at that. I swept my gaze around the hall and could see a few similar situations. Those were most probably serious couples since I also saw quite a few men ignore the threatening stares of their female company.

I heard a sigh of relief and saw that mom had retracted her stare causing dad to involuntarily relax. This time I couldn't stop myself from releasing a chuckle, which attracted his attention.

"Enjoy the moment, kiddo. Your future is going to be much worse." He mocked me.

"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion, and he released an ominous chuckle, obviously enjoying the situation.

"Oh, you're going to have to endure what I did from at least three fronts." He laughed and I saw mom listening in at our conversation in amusement.

"Three?" I echoed in confusion. Was dad expecting me to get multiple wives?

"Yep," he replied popping the p, "your wife, your mom, and your mother-in-law." Dad finished his answer, simultaneously shedding light on my suspicion.

I was going to argue that mom would definitely side with me, but Mary's beautiful assistant appeared with the first item of today's auction, and as it had been during the previous two days the opening article was a Pokemon. So, I just released a snort and focused on Mary.

"Welcome back everyone to the final day of our auction. We naturally have a lot of great items for all of you today as well, and our first one is especially precious. Even I was tempted to buy it, alas it seemed to be destined for a lucky member among our guests." Mary began hyping up the crowd.

"Item no.1 is a stageless 5-star Munna." As soon as she said that the crowd got really excited, and she latched onto that excitement and continued even more enthusiastic than before.

"Yes, you've heard right. It's one of the rare pure psychic types. We all know how hard it is to meet and catch psychic types in general, even more so pure ones. Meeting one in the wild that is stageless and thus not yet sapient is nearly impossible."

When she said that I looked over to my dad who noticed my gaze and knew why I was confused.

"Slowpoke and Natu are pretty much the exceptions in this case since they belong to the more common psychic type and even among them, Natu are not that common. You were pretty lucky with Horus. Moreover, the biggest reason psychic types are so rare is that they can detect danger and run/teleport away." He answered my unspoken question.

Thinking back to my many encounters with psychic types, I seem to be pretty lucky on that front. That has probably something to do with my psychic talent. Shaking my head, I refocused on Mary who seemed to have finished the introduction.

"The starting bid for Munna is 10.000.000 Poke." She declared and as soon as she did bids were raised.

"11.000.000!", "12.000.000!", "15.000.000!", "16.000.000!", "20.000.000!", "21.000.000!", "25.000.000!"

Before she could voice anything the bid went straight up to 25.000.000 Poke. I was thinking of trying my luck as well since Munna could absorb dreams and ensure perfectly restful sleep. However, the idea died in the cradle.

Mary actually mentioned that point to entice the crowd into raising the price and succeeded. Munna sold for a whopping 45.300.000 Poke, which was the second-highest price so far for a stageless Pokemon, with only the Squirtle of the first day having sold for more. Heck, it was the overall fifth-highest price so far.

Could I have afforded it? Definitely, but it wouldn't have been worth it due to mainly two reasons. Number one, I already had three psychic types and was considering getting myself a female Ralts.

So, the only psychic Pokemon that I would really go all out for would probably be Beldum. Well, Beldum and maybe an Exeggcute. Reason number 2, I personally thought spending 45.300.000 Poke for a Pokemon I thought would make a good dream catcher was a tad wasteful.

Furthermore, spending too much money may arouse suspicion. Since my parents have to buy stuff as well. This one was not a big problem, and may not be a problem at all, but you know it made for an acceptable excuse.

After that grand opening, the goods were brought up and sold one after the other. Personally, nothing attracted my attention enough for me to bid for them.

That was mostly because Mary managed to hype the price of those items way above their market price, and until now nothing made me think that I definitely needed to have them.

Just like that the halfway break came and went by, with Ace and Weiss's families going out for lunch with us. Our parents got along pretty well over the last three days and we three were pretty happy with that.

Still, while I was sitting here waiting for Mary to resume the auction I had to admit to being a bit disappointed. We were halfway through the last day of the auction and I had yet to witness any cliche auction situation.

Where were those arrogant young masters? Why was no one trying to throw around their family name to suppress their competitors? Where were the face-slapping reversals? I had not even seen a mysterious person nonchalantly suppress the competition by throwing out lots of money.

I mean it was great that stuff like that did not happen, but how do I say this without contradicting myself? I kinda expected it to happen and found myself a teeny tiny bit disappointed that I did not get to see it.

The funny part was that I would be pissed if it really happened, which was why I said that my feelings were a bit contradicting. Anyway, the auction continued, but nothing aroused my interest until the picture of a pretty large skull was displayed on the screen.

"Item no.58 is an ancient skull unearthed in the wilderness. Specifically, outside the official route system around Mt. Moon. Our experts have determined that the skull is over 6000 years old.

During their examination, our experts determined that the ancient skull either belonged to a variant or more probably to an evolution of the Ursaring line that had been lost in time, at least in the human regions.

No matter which one it is, the skull shows a clear resemblance to that of an Ursaring but contains energy signatures a regular skull does not have. Maybe you could find a way for Ursaring to evolve and become famous, or you could find a way to evolve Teddiursa into a variant Ursaring and still get famous."

Mary went all out with hyping this one and the skull deserved it, even if I would have preferred it if she hadn't done that. This could help me with my promise to Mars/Ursaring, so I had to buy it.

I turned to my parents and whispered that I was going to bid for it so that they would not get surprised when I began offering high sums.

"The starting price for this undoubtedly rare ancient skull is 4.000.000 Poke. Each increase has to be 10.000 Poke minimum," Mary announced but unlike before no one seemed in a hurry to bid.

Mary still looked relaxed when no one spoke up after 30 seconds but seeing the temporary silence I decided to go first.

"4.010.000!"

I decided to go with the minimum increase. Who knew maybe I was really the only one interested in the skull.

"4.010.000!", ..., "4.500.000!", ..., "5.010.000!", ..., "6.000.000!", ..., "6.200.000!", ..., "6.480.000!"

Well, that hope died pretty quickly. It seemed my bid had signaled the start of a bidding war. Bids were thrown one after another, with no one waiting for Mary to speak up before raising the price.

Only after the price reached 6.480.000 Poke did those from the first floor stop bidding. I noticed that none from the second or third floor had bid yet, but I did not for one moment believe that none of them were interested.

"A bid of 6.480.000 Poke, from the Mister in seat A21!" Mary repeated before asking if there were any further bids.

Not wanting to listen to her hype up the skull even more I decided to interrupt her by raising the price before she could continue.

"7.000.000!"

I decided to even out the number and hopefully discourage everyone else by showing my determination to buy the skull. No one spoke up for a good 20 seconds after Mary acknowledged my bid, making me hopeful that I would get the skull, but alas a new bid still came.

"7.500.000!"

As I had expected, the upper floors decided to get involved after everyone else on the first floor gave up.

"10.000.000!"

I decided to bid, hoping that it would stop them, but it didn't.

"12.000.000!"

Someone else from the upper floors raised the bid, which was followed by a few others joining in.

"13.000.000!", "15.000.000!", "18.000.000!", "20.000.000!", "30.000.000!"

The last one seemed to think like me raising the bid straight to 30 million. The price was starting to get ridiculous for a single skull no matter how ancient and special since no one could really guarantee that it would be useful.

"Room 24 has raised the offer to 30.000.000. Are there any other offers?" Mary asked in a happy tone, no doubt delighted by the high bid the skull had risen to.

I hesitated a lot but thinking of the possibility the skull could provide I grit my teeth and raised the praise.

"31.000.000!"

My mother clasped my right hand while my father threw me a dismayed look.

"Honey, don't you think this is too much for a simple skull? You could get a rather rare 5-star Pokemon for that price." Mom whispered in a worried tone.

Still, moments after she said that Room 24 raised the price again.

"40.000.000!"

Whoever, that was just round up the number, as if saying I am so poor all I have is money. I began to waver but ultimately decided to give it one last shot. My mother seemed to have noticed that since she increased her grip in worry, but I whispered to her that it was my last try.

"42.000.000!", "50.000.000!"

My bid was immediately followed by a higher one, so I gave up. When my mother saw that I stayed quiet she released a sigh of relief and relaxed her grip. I also saw dad's body losing a lot of tension.

"Room 24 has raised the bid to 50.000.000. Are there any other offers?" Mary asked still trying to hype things up, but no one spoke up.

"...going three times. Sold to Room 24 for 50.000.000 Poke." Mary finally closed the bid after waiting for 30 seconds.

I felt quite disappointed but there was nothing I could do if the other party was that generous with his/her bids. I had no real interest in the following items and just watched the show. I felt dad's worry increase with each item that turned out to not be a grass type that was at the silver stage.

However, he was able to release a sigh of relief after item no.84 was presented. It was a 4-star (low) gold-stage Tangela that according to Mary's introduction behaved rather indifferent towards humans.

At least it had done so towards the auction house's personnel after the seller had entrusted it to them. Dad was really determined to get that Tangela, so he kept bitterly raising the bid after the starting bid of 22.000.000 Poke was announced.

He managed to buy it for 61.000.000 Poke which while pretty high, was nothing compared to the Forretress that sold for 288 million but was at the same stage.

Well, admittedly that one had 5-star potential, so there was that. Nonetheless, my dad was satisfied and that was all that mattered. Anyway, none of us had any interest in the items that followed, but the auction house really went all out for the last one.

"The closing item for our auction this time is something extremely special, and I really envy whoever manages to acquire it. Item no.100 is a 5-star (high) gold-stage Drampa."

As soon as she said that pandemonium broke out. There were excited shouts everywhere.

"You've heard right. The last article is a 5-star gold-stage dragon type. Not only that, it is a member of the most docile and friendly dragon species known to humankind. It even counts as one of the friendliest species overall.

So, whoever buys it will have no big problems training and bonding with it. The only other species that comes close to that is the Altaria line and that is said to be due to the fairy type locked in their genes." Mary fanned the flames and raised the excitement of the crowd even further.

"The starting bid is 80.000.000 Poke. The minimum increase is 1.000.000 Poke," she announced before the bidding war began.

"90.000.000!", ..., "140.000.000!", ..., "250.000.000!"

The price kept rising until it finally happened.

"300.000.000! Everyone, the Clifton family would be really thankful if you would let us win." Someone from one of the rooms on the third floor said.

I could see Mary flush at that person's move, but before she could protest someone else from another room on the third floor interfered.

"James, don't go around intimidating everyone. This is an auction, so use your money if you want to buy it. Don't try to use your family name." The second person scolded that James guy, before raising the price.

"310.000.000!"

"Thomas, don't go around accusing me. I was simply politely requesting something." James or whatever protested proving his thick skin.

Still, he got ignored and the other rooms on the third floor began raising the bid as well, showing their disregard towards the latter. I had finally witnessed one of the biggest auction cliches, even if it did not escalate and was taken care of pretty quickly.

Once the final price was acknowledged and the bid closed I could not believe the sum that Drampa had reached. The Forretress that held the highest price before that, had nothing on Drampa.

869.000.000 Poke, that was the final price. Mary literally glowed when she announced the official end of the auction, wishing everyone a nice evening.

We went to the reception where dad paid the money for his Tangela. Weiss's family had prior commitments, so we said our goodbyes to them and went for dinner with Ace's family.

Afterward, we split with them and made our way to the Teleportation Hub to return to our home in Rota. It was 9:45 p.m by the time we were back home, and the first thing dad did was to go back outside to speak with Tangela with Titan/Nidoking by his side.

When he came back in 15 minutes later with a smile on his face, telling us they came to an understanding, I couldn't stop myself from asking if I could see it. He thought for a bit before he motioned us to follow him outside since obviously, my mom came along as well.

He called out Titan, obviously purely as a safety precaution, before he released the Tangela. I quickly checked its status with my telekinesis while circling him with interest on the outside.

'Species: Tangela

Gender: Male

Type: Grass

Potential: Deep Green

Stage: Gold-stage (low)

Genetic variation:?

Abilities:?

Talents:?

Affinities: ?'

I nodded my head in satisfaction before returning to my parent's side and thanking dad for letting me see Tangela. Dad's luck helped him once more since Tangela had deep green potential, but due to him being stronger than me and my Pokemon I couldn't see anything after his stage.

Anyway, dad recalled Tangela, who was no doubt wondering what that was about. I told them that Tangela gave me a good feeling, and we returned inside. After talking for a while we went to bed.

My parents left after we ate breakfast together. However, they were going to return in two weeks.

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