Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Hal placed a hand on his face and shook his head at the unproductive (for Ehrlich) battle. 

For the supplier, however, the value of his mutating technique just shot up and if there was anyone excited about this, it would be the Sheik.

He stood up suddenly once Ehrlich had been punched right out of the auction Hall, 

"Guards, seize that man who dared to attack someone in my home. What galls!" He roared and it was even louder since he infused his voice with cosmic energy.

All guards across the residence rushed towards where Ehrlich had fallen in hopes of capturing him but they were only met with a cracked courtyard floor.

Although the attack by the supplier had been painful, Ehrlich was actually glad he had been hit right out of the auction Hall. 

After all, the hall was where the most powerful of the Sheik\'s forces, namely he and his advisor, were. It would have been difficult to escape after causing that much ruckus.

That said, Ehrlich gritted his teeth in anger and frustration because he knew why he had failed to defeat his opponent and at the top of his list of mistakes was that he had underestimated the power of the mutating technique.

He had been confident, NAY, overconfident in the fact that the princess had bestowed him with a token that held her harnessed and weaponized pressure.

Oh well, broken as he was, he could still make it out of the Sheik\'s residence without getting caught and for now that was paramount.

Not to mention that he also needed to regroup and figure out his next move...

Meanwhile...

Inside the hall, there was a buzz of excitement as everyone on the scene now wanted to acquire the imitating technique. The excitement of the night before was nothing compared to this.

Even Hal was more than a little intrigued by the technique but had no interest in bidding for it, especially since the technique value must now surpass all that he had with him. Even before he made his two purchases.

The supplier\'s hand returned to normal just as a grey fog exited his arm and returned to the scroll.

Elsa walked back onto the stage and offered to auction the scroll, after all, it was her job but the supplier shook his head.

"I\'ll do it myself" he said and Elsa shrugged in a \'suit yourself\' manner and made her way towards the honor row the Sheik was seated in.

The Sheik welcomed her arrival with a respectful smile, harboring no thoughts whatsoever that he had any right on her despite him hiring her.

"Lady Elsa" he said to her and actually stood up when she was close to him.

Elsa smiled sultrily and looked over at Hal whose eyes were trailing her delectable figure, 

"I\'d like to sit beside him" she said and pointed towards Hal.

The Sheik nodded, 

"If that is what you want, then by all means" he said and Elsa walked away from him without a second glance in his direction to take the seat beside Hal.

Throughout it all, Hal never stopped looking at her and it was clear that Elsa loved the attention. Even then, she decided to use it as an icebreaker and conversation starter.

"Haven\'t you stared enough?" She asked with a smirk on her bright red lips.

Hal shrugged, 

"Honestly, no I haven\'t but I\'ll stop if it\'s making you uncomfortable" Hal said and true to his words, he did not look over at her again.

Elsa pouted at him making a point to ignore her. However, she said nothing and contented herself with staring at him instead.

Hal could feel her eyes on him and even though he had many questions to ask her, he also felt this was not the time.

Lucile looked over at Elsa and the eyes of the two women met, with Elsa grinning at her before going back to staring at Hal.

Lucile\'s eyes narrowed as she felt almost as though the sexy lady was messing with her.

She was not sure how to feel about that.

However, it did please her that Hal was ignoring Elsa and looking at her with a teasing smile.

It pleased her in a way she was not entirely sure she liked.

Anyways...

The supplier waited for the crowd to settle down and eventually, once it was noted that he was still being quiet, the crowd slowly quieted down.

And then the supplier began, 

"My name is Beldar and I am a native of Dystopia. I will not be hiding my identity from you all because I highly doubt any of you will decide not to bid because of where I am from.

In fact, many of you would have suspected my identity already but wanted to live in denial. Well, I will not have that.

I am a Dystopian and I am proud of it.

My reasons for selling this mutating technique will remain mine and I will not entertain questions or suspicions.

The same goes for how I arrived in the Haron continent.

You have seen what this technique is capable of and I have also demonstrated how it renders runes powerless.

With the mutating technique, you will be unrivaled on the martial path and even those pesky Astral runes will not be able to stop you. You can also use it to mutate subordinates. Whether partially as you have seen me do just how or completely as the Sheik already demonstrated"

What Beldar said caused eyes to widen all around as many understood the implications of his words which was that what he had displayed was merely the tip of the iceberg.

The transformation of one arm had been so powerful, how unrivaled would the transformation of the whole body be?

This was the interpretation those in the bidding crowd gave Beldar\'s words but Hal narrowed his eyes as he felt it was a wrong interpretation.

He felt and was almost completely certain that the only thing a full body transformation would do was to give all-around protection but would not result in even more powerful feats.

The power that had been witnessed with the transformation of one arm was quite certainly the power that would be witnessed by full-body transformation.

Also, when the technique had been used to transform the servant in the arena, the power while impressive was nothing compared to what Beldar just displayed.

Although it could be argued that the one at the arena was merely a demo, Hal felt it was simply the situation where the one truly in control of the technique was more powerful than his/her mutated subordinates.

It was the classic case of the master being more powerful than the underlings.

Before, the Sheik had only been interested in making money off this technique\'s sale but he was now starting to feel interested in it himself.

He would not bid for it of course, but he was now considering asking Beldar for another copy of the technique which he was sure the Dystopian native must have.

Beldar continued, 

"There is no reason to waste any more time, the starting value of the mutating technique is 400,000 Blue gems." He said and folded his arms as he waited for the bidding war to begin.

"450,000 Blue gems!" Called a voice out of the crowd and the one who had spoken was trying his best to keep his excitement under control.

Especially since he knew this was not the end and someone else was bound to bud higher soon.

And sure enough.

"460,000 blue gems" called someone else but he did not even have the time to savor his bid as someone outbid him almost immediately, 

"470,000 blue gems" 

As the bidding continued, Hal began to eye all those in the honor row and found the Sheik\'s advisor, Gavin\'s face bright with excitement as though he was close to winning the technique.

But that made no sense since just like the Sheik, he was not bidding...