Damon's Ascension-Chapter 66 - 100 Year Auction 1

This amount was not that great. It was enough to pay for his next upgrade, but was not enough to carry him to level ten, much less to take him to level 20. The ability to obtain Worldly Essence would only get worse as time went on because they only had two decades of free farming.

Not to mention that so far, Damon was only frolicking in customized tier 1 instances, where the Universe Will was obviously tweaking his scenario to try and show him something while also creating favorable conditions for him to succeed.

But wait, forget all that, did you just say that Instances had tiers?

Well dumbo, of course, they did!

That was why all the instances that Damon had visited had the number ’1’ after them. They were the first tier of such instances, meant for those between level 1 and level 10, and once one passed level 11 and entered that same instance, they would be introduced to tier 2 of it.

Tier 2 was naturally for those of level 11 to level 20, and the difficulty scales accordingly, with the weakest foe being as strong as a level 11 player who earned 10 stat points and allocated them based on their own nature.

So the scenarios are naturally different. Tier 1 instances could be about British redcoats with muskets, something not too difficult for a low-level player to deal with, but from tier 2, you might be dealing with minor mythological characters.

Damon was looking forward to seeing the scenery above tier 1, which was why he always measured his Worldly Essence gains against the amount needed to cross level 9 to level 10. It was likely that the moment he achieved this, he would start measuring himself against the barrier to level 20.

But that was for the future. Right now, it was time to deal with the ongoing matters, as Damon’s eyes opened slightly when he heard the backstage door slide open smoothly to admit two new people.

Turning around with a smile, Damon was met with two ladies, one a young woman with messy blonde hair that reached her thighs, a small and beautiful face as well as lazy dressing that was not very attractive without being conservative.

Beside her was a cute and slightly diminutive lass who wore a white and blue one-piece dress that had a flowery design, her bright eyes scanning the room with interest while the smile of a troublemaker played on her lips.

"Welcome, dear friends. Have a seat and let’s prepare to take the universe by storm today." Damon greeted as he captured the attention of the two.

Felicia nodded with a smile, her gaze toward Damon complex. She was well aware of the actions of the factions behind the control of the world, including her own family, in darkening this man’s reputation to try and pave the way for her.

However, apart from guilt, she also felt exasperation. No matter how many times she explained it to those fellows, they did not seem to understand the scope of changes that the human world was about to undergo.

In the face of the galactic society and the Universe Will, family clans were completely irrelevant. In the current world, each individual human was a precious resource that all factions wanted a part of, so humans no longer needed to band together as part of a group to achieve growth.

There was value in being Prime Representative of the human race, but the burden was even higher. Felicia trembled whenever she thought of the battles Damon fought to keep the human race off the chopping block and had no intention of stepping in that ring, which was why she happily waived her own rights to the position for him.

"Nice to see you again." Felicia managed to say with a smile and sat down to his left, fidgeting slightly.

As for Xela, she did not have such qualms. She was born in a slightly bourgeois family, not enough to be called a one-percenter, but enough that she could live a rather luxurious lifestyle compared to half of her peers.

Apart from the growing media presence for her due to her special EX ability, she did not much advocate for anything nor did she try to manipulate anything. She just spent her time exploring the instances in her hometown of Texas.

"Hiya, bossman~" Xela replied with a giggle, plopping down on her seat beside Damon, crossing her legs, and glancing at the crowd with interest.

As it were, enough time had passed and it reached the critical hour for Damon to start the auction, so the auction hall darkened slightly as each floating platform became silent, the chattering dying down.

Without an introductory speech nor any grandiose gesture, the auction began, efficient and functional, typical of a technologically advanced galactic society.

The first thing that appeared on the auction list was actually the assumed main event, which was the license to contract with the human race. This was what many came here for and thought that the humans might throw something else out to sell to pass the time, but it seems they overestimated this new race.

Yes, after all, what could they even sell at this point?

The licenses were split into tiers and durations. There was the Bronze Tier License which granted a single faction the right to contract up to a hundred humans for a period of ten years. The license itself lasted for a hundred years and had to be renewed at another auction or could be forcefully renewed at a premium of 200% the original auction price.

The Silver Tier License granted a faction the right to contract up to a thousand humans for 30 years and the license lasted a hundred years as well. The premium to renew it was 300%, which was definitely eye gouging.

The Gold Tier License was for ten thousand humans for 50 years, the license duration same as the others while the premium increased by one level, being 400%.

The Platinum and Diamond Licenses followed the same structure, increasing the amount of humans contractible by a factor of ten, the years of contract increased by the next odd number in sequence within the tens and the premium going up by a fold.

Looking at these prices, the various factions of the universe were speechless. Did you think that these things were cheap? On the contrary, Damon was exceedingly cruel with this method, forcing them to pay for just the right to contract a limited amount of humans.

Even the highest Diamond Tier only gave access to a million humans out of the nearly 9 billion population, which was pittance to these factions whose business stretched across the universe. This emphasized the preciousness of humans as a rare resource given their specialty and many of the factions wished to immediately drop aphrodisiac all over the earth to get humans to copulate crazily and spawn more ’workers’.

The battle was immediate and silent. Factions fought using their money and confidence, as well as their desire. The main seven factions immediately fought for the limited Diamond Tier Licenses which numbered only 3, meaning that out of them, 4 top companies would have to settle for Platinum Tier, which granted access to 100,000 humans for 70 years.

Meanwhile, second-tier factions fought cruelly because the Platinum Tier Licenses only numbered five!!!

This meant that four would go to the failing top factions whose reserve of Essence Coins was far greater than theirs, so among the hundreds of second-tier factions, only one could get a Platinum License!

Could you imagine how fierce the fighting was?!

The Gold Tier Licenses numbered 10, the Silver Tier were 30, and the Bronze Tier being 50. Those who should be part of those tiers were having to fight for one tier down or to stay within their tier given their numerous numbers, so even Bronze Tier Licenses were something that fourth-rate factions were investing all their liquid funds into.

And to think, they hadn’t even yet gotten down to actually negotiating with the humans they wanted to contract, of which the Prime Rep’s office would be their ’agent’. This meant that Damon would not allow them to buy the license high and contract the humans cheap.

Getting each human, whether a pauper on earth or a lord before the advent of the IUAS, would cost these factions a pretty penny, all to buttress the preciousness of humanity in the eyes of these factions. In a few generations, humanity could possibly achieve the status of reverence among the galactic civilizations, seen as a top force through and through.

In that moment, like a certain purple-skinned galactic tyrant seeking balance in the universe, Damon could tiredly walk towards his chair on the mountainside, sitting himself down after all his hard work to view the rising sun, looking over a universe where humans were not seen as slaves and products, but as a status symbol and a group of superior beings.