Mind Demon's Path of Domination

After a few minutes of the impromptu auction, Mark smiled. Now, most of the people had called a bid or two, and even though some of them might be fake bids, he inwardly calculated what everyone had called bids for.

The succubus had increased her bid to four Seals of Destiny, which was apparently all she had in hand. She even subtly hinted at selling her body to him, but Mark had no interest in her.

Then, the Lion-Headed Dwarf bid with a Trait Stone from the World of Inbreeding.

The Blade Guy bid with a Spiritual Sword Aura Art, which Reol’ran explained could improve Mark’s aura and make his normally useless ’presence’ useful in certain situations.

The winged humanoid bid with a Magic scanner, a tool that could read other people’s stats. It was somewhat like Mark’s violet screen, but only somewhat. It had a limit of Tier 3, and it only had that one feature, whereas the Violet Screen was ever mysterious.

The enigmatic self-declared dragon bid a Blue Dragon Flower, but Mark had decisively shouted out he wouldn’t do business with him.

A demon with skin that was like turtle shells said he could sell an Inner Sun, a Sun that could bring night and day cycles to the World Space.

And finally, a giant pig-like demon bid with a tool called Lightning Wing Rod. A tool that could enhance the flight speed of winged creatures by 10% till Tier 4!

Others had nothing that could equal those bids, so they didn’t bid at all. Waiting for a demon among them to get the nine Keys, so that they could negotiate with them.

In total, 8 people bidded for the Keys.

It was all so conveniently good for Mark, almost as if this was a truly lucky day!

Almost as if the River of Destiny was not his enemy but a friend!

That was a bit too suspicious to Mark. But even if all these treasures were in front of him, the demon owners wouldn’t give it to him easily and if they physically caught him, they could overpower him in battle.

"Let’s see how many treasures you can scam," Reol’ran said, curious. "But anyway, now we know what kind of treasures all of them have."

Mark spread out his arms. And the chaotic bunch of demons grew silent as they watched him—so many of them had such desperate eyes, so wonderfully afraid for themselves. If they end up not getting a Key, they might as well be called corpses.

The ones who bid were not especially confident in themselves either. Who would get the nine Keys? What would they give the one who got it to get one key? Such questions ran rampant in their heads.

"I—" Mark grinned. "Am not going to sell the nine Keys to one demon!"

Many demonic faces turned grim. Especially the Lion-Headed Dwarf and the Winged Humanoid. What did this Middle Demon mean?

"I will not sell all nine to one of you so that someone can profit from my assets more than myself. What are you all thinking, are you all truly this dumb?"

Mark chuckled, and the self-proclaimed dragon chuckled with him. Most other demons had cold expressions now—even the succubus. That meant that for what they bidded with, they would not get nine Keys.

"Okay, so you have atleast as much treasure as the one you bidded with," Mark said. "All good treasures, I like them all. So, here is the deal. Give me the thing you offered and I will give you one Key. All eight of you can have a Key!"

Mark didn’t understand, but coping with the chains connected to them that were constantly absorbing their vitality was making their judgments fail. Usually, these demons would have been much more cunning and capable.

Still, the self-proclaimed demonic dragon was all jovial.

"So, I will also get one Key for the Blue Dragon Flower, right?"

Mark nodded. "Why not? You can have one key. But first of all—I want you all to hand over the offers to me, and then, I will give you all the Keys one by one."

"Never!" The Succubus sneered. "You are a cunning little fox, are you asking us to trust you again?"

The others were all with her on that.

Lion-Headed Dwarf said coldly, "First give us the Key and then we will give you the offered price."

"No," Mark replied firmly.

For a while, they all had a heated argument with each other, and the Demonic Dragon—Lanky—finally cleared his throat. Strangely, everyone grew silent when he made any noise.

"It’s simple, isn’t it?" he said. "We can do one trade at a time. One of our people will give the Middle Demon his offer first, he will give back one of the Keys to that person, too. Then, the next person can go and deal with him, until all of us have had one Key."

The Succubus nodded. "If we trade with him one by one, we can also prove that his Keys are not fake."

All demons agreed, though some of them seemed rather nervous. They were looking for ways to get out of their predicament. If they couldn’t get a Key from Mark, should they ask the demons who will go out of this place to bring reinforcements?

Should they ask the survivors to warn certain forces? Should they beg them?

Meanwhile, Mark sighed inwardly. They wouldn’t let him have all of them for fools either—when the first person to get their Key gets a fake, his plan would be blotched if he goes according to what they said.

If he resisted doing what they said, they would understand that the Keys in his hand were fake, too. Or he could, in fact, try instigating them more by the fact that they would all die otherwise and make them desperate to get a Key in hand.

Then, they might stop caring about rationality and all give their treasure for fake Keys.

Sadly, none of his mental Demonic Tricks were effective on them due to their Mental Resistance.

Suddenly, a chill went down Mark’s spine.

Something.

Something had pierced into his sole from under the soil and he could feel it gnaw his leg bones to climb higher. In a panic, Mark jumped back and his face paled as he noticed what it was. A chain had climbed out of the mud and crawled into his soles.

"The tree’s chain got him, too!" Many demons exclaimed. "He can’t fly anymore, we can catch him in some time when he gets treed out by the chain’s absorption!"

Mark paled as he felt the chain absorb something from within him. He was being drained dry—his Mind Power, vitality, and everything seemed to vanish slowly.

"What’s... going on.." He gritted his teeth.

Looking around nervously, he said to Reol’ran. "Fuck. We can’t stay here much longer. I will use the Portal Key."

"No time to be greedy, Mark. Choose one of the best offers from them, and we will leave. You can use your Puppet to negotiate with them once we are gone—your Puppet can say the main body will bring reinforcements for them."

Now, Mark had a choice. Which person’s treasure was he going to take? After they get the Key, more than likely, they will expose him. So he would only get one, but that one had to be the best treasure.

In hindsight, the Blue Dragon Flower was the best but that might be a counterfeit and Mark didn’t want to lose his chance of earning something worthwhile, so he thought about all the other choices deeply even as his mental and physical stamina began to lessen.

The Black Water in his World Space replenished his energy just as quickly. But, that would get emptied if he used it so rampantly. If other chains cut into him, it would only become worse.

What should he choose?

4 Seals of Destiny

Trait Stone from the World of Inbreeding

Spiritual Sword Aura Art

Magic scanner

Blue Dragon Flower

Inner Sun

Lightning Wing Rod

What could help him the most?

The answer was clear to Mark. It was the 4 Seals of Destiny—that could help him get all the other thighs as long as he found reasonable Demonic Tricks to absorb.

"Okay, I am willing to sell the Keys one by one," Mark shouted, sweat beading down his forehead. "Succubus, you come first. I will sell the Key to you and you all will understand that the ones I am selling are not fakes!"

The Demonic Dragon said calmly, "I don’t mind being the first to do the trade."

Mark sneered. "No, I don’t want to be fooled first. You will go last, and since I am being lenient, let’s go in the order I say. Miss Succubus, if you want the Keys, come forward, if not, we have more people in need."

She ran forward from amidst the demons with much more speed and many demons tried to run with her so that they could steal her prize. But with one whip of a sudden tail that sprouted out of her back, all the followers fell back and she separated from them.

Mark moved near her, not too close, and demanded. "Give me the seals, I will give you one Key."

She stared at him dead in the eye, and nodded.