A Favour Quickly Repaid

"Five Hundred and Fifty!" The red dressed Lord from earlier counter bid.

"Six Hundred!" The bronze armoured Lord bid back.

This continued with multiple bids, with some other mid level and higher level Lords bidding until it reached the one thousand mark and started to slow down.

"There is definitely a lot more interest in items this time around." Dom said, as he himself prepared to bid.

"I am surprised that some of these Lord's have as much gold as they do." Crassus replied.

"It's an important item to upgrade your men." Xun Yu said, "Iron is around twenty percent lighter and more solid than bronze. Bronze is more flexible, but I would much rather an Iron sword in my hand and Iron armour on my body."

"As would I." Crassus agreed, "I am sure that the Spartans would appreciate this if we can win it."

"They deserve it." Dom said, "The Hoplite's have been with Riverside since day one, it would be nice to give them a permanent upgrade."

"One thousand one hundred!" Another Lord bid as the bids continued to rise. 

"One thousand two hundred!" The bronze armoured Lord bid back, a visible frustration at this stage at how high the Parchment was going.

"I think it is best that I bid." Crassus stated, "It will give you an air of mystery."

"That is a good idea." Xun Yu agreed.

"I was quite looking forward to it." Dom said, shrugging his shoulders, "but I trust your judgement."

Soon the bids reached the two thousand mark and the Short VIP Lord, who they believed was GeneralSlaughter671 finally placed a bid of two thousand one hundred. Unlike earlier, the Lords on the middle and higher parts of the auditorium did not counter bid straight away, instead waiting to see what happened at the VIP level. 

"Two thousand five hundred." Another VIP bid, instantly raising the bid by five hundred gold coins. The voice came from a female with a strong voice from a room to the right of Dom.

"Two thousand six hundred." GeneralSlaughter671 bid back.

"Three thousand." The woman bid back.

"Why such a large jump?" GeneralSlaughter671 argued back, as he bid "Three thousand one hundred."

"Because I want this item." She said back strongly. "Three thousand five hundred."

"As do I!" GeneralSlaughter671 shouted as he bid again, "Three thousand six hundred."

"This is my item." She said teasingly. "Four thousand."

"No, it is mine." A new voice said, "Five thousand."

Dom looked to his side again, this time seeing it was Prince Dong Cheng that had bid from his room beside them. Dom felt that most people would not dare to bid against Prince Dong Cheng for his real life personality, as well as the fact he was both in the Top Ten Players and Second in the Lord Rankings. 

"I won't bid against you your highness." GeneralSlaughter671 said, obviously not wanting to press him.

"I really need this your highness." The woman said, "I hope you don't mind me bidding?"

"Of course not, this is just some fun." Prince Dong Cheng said back kindly.

Everyone in the room had gone quiet when Prince Dong Cheng had placed his bid, some impressed to be in the same room as royalty, whilst others knowing that what ever happened, it would be the Prince's item.

"Five thousand five hundred." She bid with a smile, causing those below to secretly give her a thumbs up in the heart for still trying to win.

"Ten thousand!" Crassus said loudly, interrupting them before any further bids could be made.

Silence hit the whole room, with all eyes now looking up to the main VIP room above them which had been silent until now. The woman with the strong voice was silent, waiting to see what Prince Dong Cheng did. Where as Dom just gave Crassus a smile at his was of entering the bidding. 

"If Lord Lazarus want's this item, then I shall back out." Prince Dong Cheng said evenly as he did not counter bid. Causing there to be whispers below at the unexpected result.

There was a couple of seconds of silence before Linus spoke. "Any further bids? If not then the item will be sold to the VIP in Room One. Selling once, Selling twice."

Dom kept calm as he waited to see if anyone would bid against them, and unexpectedly no one did. 

"Sold to the VIP in Room One!" Linus announced as he placed the Parchment back in it's box. 

"Congratulations Lord Lazarus!" Xun Yu said with a smile, "A successful win in more than one way."

"Did we need to spend that much?" Dom asked Crassus.

"No we didn't." Crassus replied, "But we have confirmed we have the funds to do so. So others will be wary when bidding against us."

"We do owe Prince Dong Cheng a favour now, or at least he will expect it." Xun Yu added.

"We will have some very happy Hoplite and Spartan's when we return." Dom commented.

"Yes we will." Crassus agreed, "Let's see what else we can get!"

Whilst they discussed the Parchment, Linus pulled opened the second box, lifting the lid and pulling out something that Dom had seen before, a Golden Token. 

"This is a Golden Token, A Special Mission spawner that will take you to a historic scenario that you can impact." Linus explained, "Depending on your success during this mission, your rewards can range from materials to gaining a new force. Each Mission is random and can vary in scope and rank."

The crowd erupted at the sound of this item, with those on the lower rankings lamenting that they wouldn't get a chance to touch such a game changing item for them. Those in the higher and middle tiers rubbed their hands together, but some eyes were cast to the VIP seats where they expected the real bids to come from.

"We already have two of these." Dom said, "I don't know when we will get chance to use them with our current plans. It will be at least a few more weeks. I'm not sure if we need this item currently."

"We should still bid for it." Xun Yu said, "We can pay back our favour to Prince Dong Sheng quickly."

"Unless he also has Golden Tokens." Dom replied.

"Well, we will see through this bidding." Crassus commented. 

"Bids will start at five hundred gold coins, with increments of fifty gold coins." Linus stated.

"Five Hundred Gold Coins!" GeneralSlaughter671 shouted.

The bids steadily increased until it reached two thousand gold coins, which is when Crassus placed a bid. The bids then continued until it reached five thousand gold coins.

"Six thousand gold coins." Prince Dong Cheng bid.

"So he does want this item." Xun Yu said quietly.

"Do we let him have it?" Crassus asked Dom.

"Give it to him." Dom replied seriously. 

"You can have this one Prince Dong Cheng." Crassus said calmly, "We shall not bid any further."

There were no more bids and it was quickly sold to Prince Dong Cheng, who thanked Lord Lazarus as he won the bid.

"He'll either be happy that we have let him take this and started to build some form of understanding." Xun Yu commented, "Or he'll be frustrated that he has used his favour so early."

The next few items that came up were of varying interest, with Crassus bidding for some, but not over committing on many of them. There were a collection of high level armours, that was of a lower level than the Tang Forbidden Guards. There was also some varying mid grade buildings, however they were all buildings that Dom already had such as a Bank, Barracks, Mine, Blacksmith and a C grade Dock.

They had successfully won the additional Barracks for four thousand gold coins and the Mine for five thousand two hundred gold coins. They had allowed the Blacksmiths, Bank and Dock go to other Lord's so as to not create too many enemies at once.

"The next item we can unfortunately not bring to you due to it's size, however please see the image behind me." Linus said, as his two younger sisters brought out an elaborate painting of a Bireme on some calm water. "This next item the ship you can see in the painting, it is a Bireme called the Eirene. This is from around three hundred BC and was used by Athenian's. Bids will start at six hundred gold coins, with an increment of fifty gold coins."

"We could always do with another ship!" Dom said excitedly. "We have one Trireme and three Bireme. Plus the fishing boats."

"We could." Crassus agreed, "However we have no crew, or people to train to crew it. We also have the other Trireme's being built. We could quite quickly have lots of ships and no one to sail them."

"Let's see how it goes." Xun Yu replied. "We could see if the merchants would be interested in moving from merchants shipping to military ships."

"There is a difference between lots of rowers and sails." Crassus said with a shrug.

The bidding quickly grew high and finally GeneralSlaughter671 won the item for seven thousand gold coins, which Crassus commented was rather high and they had received three for free by just offering the sailors a place to call home.

"The next item is a Warriors Hall for a D Grade Unit - 6th Century BC Etruscan Spearman." Linus announced, which caused lots of interest again, as additional Warrior Units were key to any of the forces. 

"This is a good item, even if it is a low grade." Crassus commented, "Etruscan's are one of the many early tribes from Italy and became Roman Citizens whilst I was still there. There are some decent warriors that we could add in to our Legion."

"This is true, however they are from about five hundred years earlier than the Ninth Legion, so may not be as much an asset as we would hope." Dom replied.

"The Shang's, Egyptians and Hittites are currently going through the training." Crassus counter argued. 

"Let's give it a go and see what happens, the daily numbers will be low and it may or may not be worth it." Dom added.

"We also need to take in to consideration the overall growth, and adding a lower grade unit may add an unnecessary weakness in to our growing elite force." Xun Yu commented. "We need to look for what our weaknesses are currently, and fill those gaps."

"We need some agility and foot archers at least." Crassus replied, "We are becoming a heavier and heavier force in our infantry." 

"We also need to have some Cavalry versatility, as here we are the opposite." Xun Yu stated, "We have Horse Archers and some Lancers, but we need a heavy blow."

"We have the Tang Forbidden Guards riding on the back of Sabre Tooth Tigers." Crassus replied with a raised eyebrow.

"We also need Naval troops." Dom agreed. "Let's see what else comes up after we bid for these."