All onlookers were startled by this apparition, whether they were here to seek employment, spend money, or just to take a look around.
Many had largely refrained from causing trouble because they knew bigshots would be arriving.
There were also wild speculations about the entity that created the goods that were going to be auctioned, and no one wanted to offend something clearly powerful for no reason.
However, the envoys of the two strongest continents would naturally not be so hung up on something like this. They had the strongest possible backing behind them, and whatever stood behind Darius could not deal with all those they represented.
This gave them a feeling of superiority and carelessness towards the city and what it stood for. However, under the scrutiny of this strange energy apparition, they felt as if they were gazing at their divine - or demonic - masters in the flesh.
The energy lifeform glared at the group before shouting in a strangely warped voice.
"All those disturbing the peace of this city shall suffer death!"
Leaving behind this warning, it dissipated. It was likely that it had been summoned due to the dangerous aura the two parties had created when they stood off.
Given the speed at which it had appeared, both groups understood that it could reappear before they could do anything funny. As such, they glared at each other one more time and each went their separate way.
However, for those in the outer section, that declaration had been like a strike of thunder that lanced their ears. Many had to clutch them in pain while those with a weak life level directly fainted from the intensity.
Those in the inner and core section did not hear or suffer from this naturally as they were deemed a different class of people. Even Darius was unaware, though he had already predicted something like this would happen given the kind of people who would visit.
This was why he could examine his Apprentices in peace without rushing up and down to make sure his city wasn't buried under the weight of its visitors.
This was something he had spent 5 years preparing, and with the goods created from Transmutation being used for everything, it was a piece of cake to create such a thing.
In truth, the arrays carved into the city walls were some of the most powerful in the entirety of Faust. Funny enough, despite having the largest wall, the outer section's defenses were actually the weakest.
This meant that should the same type of apparition be summoned in the inner or core section, its power would be many folds higher.
Chastened, the various visitors from afar who had been harboring feelings of superiority were no longer willing to cause any trouble whatsoever. After all, they didn't know if they alone could deal with such powers or if something even worse may lay behind.
Besides, they didn't come here for war… well, not the kind of war one would expect. The battle was to be fought in a different way and on a different battleground.
After getting their HoloBraces, they then exchanged their various currencies to Supreme Coins. Darius had a log of all the currencies and their value thanks to God Krona's library, so he could offer rates that were universally bullshit for each of them.
The astute among the various visitors saw through what he was trying to do and smiled bitterly, helpless to go against it.
The Divine Envoys especially were the most bitter, as their Dius had long since been the most powerful currency, but it seemed that this Supreme Coin was going to rule over the world if things kept up.
Many others who couldn't even trade for one Supreme Coin, or could only get one or two were shaken when they saw the kind of wealth these powers removed. They changed less raw currency and rather traded in precious items, minerals, and resources.
If Darius saw the amounts with his Analyze, even he would be shaken. He had assumed that his stuff would get them to fork over some good stuff, but they were truly going all out.
As the AIs were a good enough substitute since they had a wide knowledge base able to recognize the value of many things, they gave accurate valuations to such items. As such, the various powers amassed hundreds of thousands of Supreme Coins quickly.
Previously, Darius had been forced to fork over almost 50 tons of pure gold only getting 500 Dius in return. Yet, here it would merely give him 5 Supreme Coins.
Even with this blockade in place, the powers from Kiel, Ludo, Unryis, Houto, Pan, Armadon, and Elysium were all easily able to raise such amounts.
Those from Gravitas and Pokterr got much less, but they had mostly come here to scout things out. The interesting thing was the reaction of the Gravitas citizens who saw the tech Darius was using.
They were extremely incensed, but after being struck by that apparition, they didn't dare to lash out.
Apart from a few who remained to watch the auction events, the rest quickly returned home to report their findings and seek countermeasures against this leakage of their technology, starting with the HoloBraces they brought back.
The Molemen of Pokterr were a good-natured bunch, but they were absolutely piss poor. It couldn't be helped since they shared a continent with those damnable Insects. That bloody race had just about eaten everything of value there which was also why they had attempted to invade the rest of the world.
The Molemen were lucky that evolution had saw it fit that their race was poisonous to the insects, otherwise forget sharing the continent, they might have long since been genocided by the Insects.
As such, the Molemen were often looking for ways to reinvigorate their continent with life and also strengthen their people so that they could fight for resources. This was why Darius' goods were so important to them, yet they had no way to purchase them.
Like many others, they planned to contact Darius and see if they could offer up something else in exchange for some private orders.
After the various powers had settled the issue of funds, the largest Pandora's Box Auction House that was meant to host the event opened its doors for customers.
As the various parties filed in, Darius had just finished testing his Apprentices and was on his way over.
