Taking a shuttle to the planet's surface, they could feel the effects of the intense gravity nearly immediately. Sil was able to easily adjust, but Layla had to use her sword as a cane to keep herself upright. This did not go unnoticed as Sil gave a quick glance in her direction.
"Having trouble?"
"I'm fine—" Layla blurted out.
The ship landed in a forest, and by then Layla managed to acclimate to the planet's atmosphere using her ability to lighten herself.
Leaving the ship, the atmosphere felt as thick as the gravity itself. Sil set the shuttle to camouflage itself, and it was invisible to the naked eye. The trees were large, spikey, with large but minimal leaves, and the foliage had large stems to keep themselves upright. The environment was brightly lit unlike planet Umbrae, and the sky was khaki colored without a singular cloud. EIther that, or the atmosphere was so thick that the sky was a giant cloud.
Traveling through the forest, they came across a town in the distance. Utilizing qi in their eyes, they both noticed that the habitants of the planet all looked like humanoid beatles.
Taking out his soul weapon, the pages flew by and Sil picked out a transformation ability. His body transformed to resemble the townsfolk, his once golden hair going into his scalp, eyes bulging out into black eyes, and a giant carapace shell formed on his back. His height shrank, and the normally tall Sil now became someone who Layla had to tilt her head down to look at.
Layla found herself a little disgusted by the sight, her face visibly scrunching up, but she had unfortunately seen worse.
"As much as I would've loved to just go in guns blazing, I wasn't able to gather as much information about this planet's celestial and where they're located. We need to keep ourselves hidden while we gather information."
"Wait, what am I supposed to do?" Layla replied, "Sorry, but I'm not as much of a Swiss army knife as you are."
"Swiss army knife? I'm sure Vicky has called me that one before," Sil scoffed, placing his second set of arms on his hips.
Layla pinched the area between her eyebrows and groaned, "I'll figure something out, just go in and talk to people. I'll scout around the local area. Let's meet up at the ship when we're done."
"Are you sure about splitting up?" Sil replied.
"Of course I am, otherwise I wouldn't have suggested it," Layla retorted, "and if I'm going to be with you, then I need to do some things myself."
Sil begrudgingly nodded, and the two split up, with Sil entering the town. The buildings used a blueish gray stone for its main material. Looking around, the beetle-like people were teeming with some sort of anticipation. Sil did his best to act natural, however, after a while, they started to leave one by one. The beetle-like people were all traveling towards somewhere, and Sil followed suit.
On his way he heard a few of them chat amongst themselves.
"I heard there was a recent find around here."
"Really? Well maybe it wouldn't sell for a lot since it's gotta be worn down or something."
"That's the thing! It was in near mint condition, except for some scratches here and there, but it was apparently found near a river."
"That doesn't sound real, I'm going to need a source on that."
"If we see it, I'll point it out to you."
Heading to the town's center, the large crowd formed at a large building, a few screens showcasing several items, to which he didn't pay much attention to. Entering inside, the large room resembled an auditorium. The large crowd took their seats. The lights dimmed and a beetle-like person stepped onto stage wearing a top hat along with a flashy business suit.
"Welcome everyone to our 476th annual auction! We've managed to acquire quite the exquisite finds! As always, raise your hand to bid 10% more than the previous bidder, after 5 seconds if no one else's bids then head backstage and we'll discuss the purchase. Starting off today, we have an ancient weapon in great condition."
The showman stepped to the side and the curtains were drawn to reveal a beautifully detailed sword that looked like it was made of lapis. It had a curved handle and a curved blade. Using qi perception on it, Sil realized that the sword didn't exude any energy found from a typical beast weapon, meaning it was purely decorational.
"Going for 10,000, we got a pretty Meimane over there with 11,000, another raising it to—"
A few beatle-like beings raised their hands, before the price settled on 13,310k. The sword was taken back and the bidder was told to come by after stage to discuss the payment method.
Sil wasn't interested in buying anything, and was only here since he thought that this event would have provided much more information about the world he was in. He decided to stay just in case they decided to sell any demon tier gear. However, what he saw next brought a big surprise.
Wheeling in something covered in a purple cloth, the auctioneer began speaking into their microphone.
"This one is a rare and very well preserved beast armor set that came in to us about a few months ago—"
Sil froze hearing that word. Month. Why was an alien species talking about a human measurement of time? He didn't have time to linger on that as an assistant Meimane removed the cloth to reveal a beautifully crafted crimson red armor set. Its appearance was very distinctly human, with only two holes for arms, unlike all the Meimanes around him having 4 arms.
Not only that, but he recognized the armor. He'd seen it before 500 years ago, and even more before that.
"The starting bid is 500,000 credits!"
'Credits?!' Sil thought.
The currency wasn't made of something to do with gold, beast crystals or anything of the sort. It was credits of all things, the very currency that everyone used back in military school, and was still in use back in the human solar system to this day.
A horrible thought came to mind about this realization, but first he wanted to make sure this wasn't just a coincidence in the terminology used, and he needed to figure out where that armor came from. Sil was likely able to find out if he purchased the item and talked to those in the back.
Sil raised his spindly hand, and the auctioneer pointed out to him.
"Going for 500,000 credits!"
Unfortunately, several others rapidly bid on the armor, raising the price to 1,296,870 million. Sil was just gonna hope that they accepted beast crystals for currency.
He raised his arms again, but a few more would bid, further increasing the price.
Sil's face mandibles twitched, and raised his hands again and again until…
"4,070,130 for the crimson armor! Going once… going twice… sold! Come visit us after the auction is over to discuss your goods."
Sil let out a sigh of relief, and continued to watch. This auction trip was going better than he thought.
The armor was wheeled away, and next came along another wheeled table covered in a cloth.
"This ancient artifact has been created with a unique material that has lasted for many generations but we have been unable to recreate. It is genuine as we have checked with our top of the line experts in appraisal techniques."
The assistant removed the cloth, and underneath was a little plastic toy communicator device. It was scuffed over the years but still looked to be in decent condition. The starting price was 10 million credits, and as the bid began, nearly everyone in the auction house raised their hand.
Sil meanwhile was thinking hard about what everything meant. Linda's armor, the human artifact, and the usage of 'months' and 'credits' could only mean a few things. He was going to need to meet up with Layla and see what she figured out after the auction was over.