Limitless Path

They did a whole lot of nothing that night, Beth and Blood both hanging out on the couch and watching the wallscreen, happy to be out of the underground finally. The only work Beth did was a bit of studying on the gems she had turned over to the trading firm, just so she had some idea of what they were and their rough, very rough, values so she wouldn't entirely have the wool pulled over her eyes. The two eventually fell asleep on the couch, Beth always impressed how even the couches in a CRA suite were more comfortable than her bed before the Path appeared.

The next day they were up early, but there was no rush to do anything, so they took their time getting ready and getting some food. After lounging around for a little, Beth decided it was time to get on with it, so she led Blood out of the Hall and over to the Seven Light's building. It would be a good idea for the wolf to be read-in on what they were doing with their resources and Beth's new status at the Trading Firm, as well as participate in the review of what they were selling. Beth figured the easiest way to accomplish all that was simply to have Blood join her for the review of their haul and whatever discussions came afterward.

They found the building the same as yesterday, though with different people manning the counter, and Blood looked around in interest at the wealth on display. While the lobby itself wasn't gaudy, by any means, whether it was the finely cut and rare crystal of the lights, or the very expensive marble of the floor, or even the expensive woods the counter was made from, everything practically screamed wealth. When they got to the counter, Beth presented the attendant with her emerald token and informed the now very nervous worker that she was there to speak with Alexandria. The front desk worker nervously stammered that she would contact the angel and get her down to the lobby right away.

It didn't take very long for Alex to show up, though she was not alone, and Beth knew the woman walking behind her was even more important than Alex. The front desk workers had been respectful of Alex the day before, but when they saw the demonic woman walking behind her, today's batch of workers all went pale as a sheet and all bowed to her quite deeply. Beth quirked at brow at this and took a closer look at the woman, wondering just what it was about her that inspired such fear and awe. A quick Identify certainly answered part of that, though at the levels they were talking about it shouldn't have really been that much stronger of a reaction than they had had for Alex.

Selene Darkdream, Level 445 Great Demon Death Lord

Level four hundred forty-five alone meant Selene had done at bare minimum thirteen rebirths, meaning she was at least an Enlightened, if not an Ascended. That might explain some of the shock and awe, but Alex's next words cleared up even more of the confusion.

"Miss Beth, please allow me to introduce Selene Darkdream, the Branch Master of this branch of the Seven Lights Trading Firm."

"It's good to meet you, Miss Beth," Selene said as soon as Alex finished speaking, her voice like a silken caress on a moonless night.

"Nice to meet you, too," Beth replied with a smile. "This is my bonded companion and someone who I consider like a sister, Blood Bell."

Both of the women greeted Blood politely before Alex gesture to the hallway with a small bow, "If you'll follow me, we'll return to the meeting room we used yesterday."

Alex and Selene led the way, with Beth and Blood walking behind the two of them, though Selene glance back at them several times to say something trivial, giving Beth plenty of time to study the woman. It was slightly amusing, but with Selene being nearly seven feet tall, not considering either her shoes or horns in the equation, their group of four was very tall, with Alex being just a little taller than Beth and Blood being around six-foot-six. Selene had two sets of pitch-black horns sticking up from her raven black hair, one set right above her temples and one above and slightly behind her ears. Both sets curved in a spiral shape for one twist before bending back towards the back of her head. She had eyes with dark red pupils, golden irises, and pure white sclera that it took Beth a second to realize were so bright because they glowed faintly. Her face was oval-shaped and incredibly beautiful, with large eyes; a large, shapely nose; full, broad, dark red lips that were constantly curled in a small smile; and prominent, pretty cheekbones that gave her even more of a regal air. Beyond that, she had two pairs of large, dark, silky black wings that extended from her back, which she kept folded as she walked. Her body, beyond being tall and muscular, was very curvy, which Beth could easily see through the light robe the woman wore, with her having large breasts, wide hips, a thick and plump posterior, and thick, shapely legs that went on for days.

Alex had seemingly noticed Beth's inspection, for as they entered the room from the day before and she shut the door, she said, "My wife is quite a glorious sight, isn't she?"

Selene's small smile grew quite wide when she realized Beth had been checking her out, and Beth replied quite calmly, "She's not the only one. You two make an incredible pair."

"A real charmer, this one," Selene giggled as the four took their seats. The demon woman slumped back on a couch next to Alex, lifting her legs to thump them down on the table, Beth noting her shoes disappearing into some other space before her legs flopped onto the tabletop. Selene had long feet with long toes, all ten having long nails that were somewhat reminiscent of claws and all painted a bright red. "Red Pit, it's good to relax for a minute."

"You're very…chill?" Beth said, giving the two a long look.

"Oh please, you're a valued Emerald Member, thanks to my lovely wife. You shouldn't be too shocked by rich and powerful people acting how they want," Selene waved one long-fingered, red-nailed hand airily. "Besides, you're the cause of our exhaustion, anyway."

"Me?" Beth asked with a surprised lilt to her voice.

"Yes, you," Selene emphasized the word with a grin. "Do you see anyone else bringing in forty-five hundred pounds of high value minerals I had to stay up all night helping appraise?"

"Oh, you," Alex said with an eyeroll, slapping Selene's thick, muscular thigh through her robe. "You're a damned Ascended; you can stay up for weeks at a time before getting tired."

"But if I'm up for weeks, when will I have time to spend in bed with you?" Selene whined at Alex with a plaintive moue.

"Oh, you," Alex said again, giving her wife another playful tap before leaning over and kissing her cheek quickly. "Behave while we deal with our customer's loot."

"It doesn't bother us," Beth said with a laugh. "You two are really, really cute."

"Aw, thanks," Alex said with a faint blush, Selene's smile just growing as she took Alex's left hand and held it in both of hers. "But really, let's go through what you brought here. And might I say, a good thing you brought it to some skilled Appraisers to deal with."

"Is there any difference?" Beth asked. "I figured anyone who works with gems would do…"

"Well, yes and no," Alex replied, tilting her free hand back and forth. "A place like the jewelers you took these to originally would be able to give you a fairly accurate assessment, but they aren't necessarily highly qualified experts. Indeed, there are many shops where most of the professionals in the shop simply take the word of people for what quality something is."

"Amateurs," Selene scoffed caustically, Alex giving her hand a hard squeeze at the interruption. "Yes, sorry, my dear."

"Anyway, that's another thing that separates highly skilled professionals from those who have trouble even moving beyond Expert; their ability to inspect materials in a way that they fully understand just what they're looking at. It's even more of a tilted field with many merchants and individuals; appraisal is such an important and often overlooked skill," Alex lectured. "While there is no Appraisal profession as a skill, it's still incredibly valuable as its own field. Determining what a resource is, its age, composition, mana density, any inherent special properties, and so much more are part of accurate appraisal.

"For example, you found quite a lot of deep amethyst. Normal amethyst is a form of quartz that has iron in it, giving it that purple color and often additional hardness. Mana amethyst is just like many other resources, the normal version of that with mana added in. Deep amethyst, on the other hand, is a special form of mana amethyst that is only produced deep underground in high mana density environments. Likely, the lodes you found actually originated much deeper in the earth and were pushed up over long stretches of time by geological and magical activity. Anyone with an advanced enough identification-type skill, even the base Identify, could tell you that it was deep amethyst. Not anyone, however, could tell you the mana density, mana properties, age, workability, and much more. That's where we come in."

"That's a lot to take in," Beth said, ruminating on it for a minute. "There aren't, like, courses in this, are there?"

"Absolutely, there are," Selene answered. "Our Trading Firm offers such courses to members of a specific rank. The basic is a one-year, basic course that covers the field and contains a massive amount of information about the basics, including covering a very broad range of materials. Beyond that is a two-year, expert course that includes everything from the basic course but also has far more specialized information about rare resources and how to determine the properties of new or unknown resources. Finally, there's a four-year, master appraisal course, but that's incredibly technical and in-depth; I wouldn't recommend somebody who didn't intend to do the kind of work Alex and I are doing constantly to take that one."

"Maybe something to pursue later," Beth said with a shrug after listening to Selene's explanation.

"There are plenty of books about the trade you can study on your own," Selene said with a shrug of her own. "It wouldn't be a bad idea to buy a few of those and download them to your communicator. They're much more accurate than the random crap you get doing a search on the net; you never know, might be helpful to have reliable information when you're adventuring, or when you're bartering."

"Can you recommend us some?" Beth asked then.

"Sure, I'll send you a basic list," Selene replied affably, flicking Beth a file.

"Thanks so much," Beth said, giving the very powerful, very beautiful woman a huge smile.

"No problem," Selene said, grinning back while vigorously caressing Alex's hand, Beth noting a faint blush on the angel's pretty face.

"Anyway, your materials," Alex said, trying to get them back on the main topic. "Let's cover what you brought us and what we recommend."

"Sure," Beth said with a nod, seeing out of the corner of her eye that Blood had mirrored Selene's relaxed slouch, including her bare feet on the table, which only got a broad smile from the demon lady.

"The first and most obvious is the deep amethyst," Alex continued, getting into her professional mode. "The amount of crystal you've brought us is pretty staggering, and varies in quality, though all deep gems are valuable. We've compiled lists detailing every item and our analysis of them, and I'll pass those to you now." So saying, Alex flicked her fingers and sent Beth a group of files detailing the appraisal of everything Beth had brought, all of which was still sitting on the low table, joined by Selene and Blood's long legs.

"As you can see, you collected just over twenty-five hundred pounds of deep amethyst. All these totals, by the way, are after we've cut away or carefully disintegrated all the excess rock and slag materials. Deep gems are graded into ten grades, and the lowest grade of deep amethyst you have is grade two, while you have nearly a hundred pounds of grade nine deep amethyst. All told, just the deep amethyst alone we would buy for thirty-five diamond coins, though that's what we would offer as a lump-sum transaction. If you want to take your chances on the auction in a few days, all these prices we're about to go over could vary wildly, in either direction.

"Next, you brought us a decent amount of both deep topaz and deep citrine. These are each slightly more valuable than the amethyst, particularly locally, as amethyst is more common. You do have much less of these than the amethyst, however, meaning the total value is much less. What's on the table here is worth about ten diamond coins for the deep topaz, and just over eight diamond coins of deep citrine. Finally, out of the gems, there are a number of clusters of deep ruby. If you are not aware, ruby, emerald, and sapphire in all their forms are quite valuable, and the deep versions of these certainly no less so. Despite bringing only a fraction of the amount of deep ruby as compared to the amethyst, the uncut deep ruby on the table is valued at thirty diamond coins."

"Holy shit," Beth breathed in response. "That's not even everything and you'd buy it for close to one mithril coin?"

"Yes, and we haven't even gotten to the good part yet," Alex replied with a nod and a grin. "I mentioned the crystallized titanium last time, yes?"

"I do remember you saying something yesterday about titanium, correct," Beth answered with a small nod.

"Right. What you have here is crystallized titanium. Normally, without the influence of magic, titanium is found in a mixed ore with other elements, and pretty much always as titanium dioxide. It can also form a type of titanium quartz that looks rather interesting but doesn't have any particularly high value. With the inclusion of magic, however, things change. Titanium itself can develop in a crystallized form due to magic, and it's incredibly valuable to smiths and to enchanters. Alchemists and other professions, such as Leatherworkers, have some use for it, but it is chiefly highly sought after by smiths of all kinds, from those making armor to jewel smiths, to those working on more industrial applications. Due to its rarity and value, this is one item I would recommend, regardless of if you want us to buy the rest directly or not, that you place as a lot in the upcoming auction. Years of doing this tells me an item like this will be hotly contested and could go for multiple times what we would pay. If you want us to just directly buy it, this twenty pounds of crystalized titanium would go for twenty-five diamond coins," Alex explained.

"What would happen if we sold everything in the auction?" Beth asked. "What would be your best estimate on what we could get?"

"Based on everything you have here, we would buy it for about one mithril, fifteen diamonds in total. If you auctioned it, it's hard to say…" Alex hesitated, biting her lip with a faraway look in her eyes as she scanned the table. "I would conservatively say you would get about one mithril, thirty diamonds, and that's after our consignment fee. If it really sold like hotcakes, and the crystalized titanium is valuable enough it could bring out some heavy hitters, you might pull in over two mithril coins from all of this."

"You know what? Fuck it, put it all in the auction," Beth said with a wave of her hand. "I assume you'll divvy it up to sell best?"

"Oh yes, we'll take care of all the additional procedures," Selene said with a near-feral grin. "As an Emerald, you don't need to pay any fee to consign the items, and we'll take only five percent of the sales. Normally, you'd have to pay us a one-point-five percent total value fee for the appraisal, but since this is both your first appraisal and, especially, your first time using our auction, I'll simply wave that fee."