Ethan was making good progress buying up all the slaves he could get his hands on through the noble house we'd taken over. The excuse they'd spread as to why they needed so many slaves? Illness had spread through their old slave workforce, and the whole group had to be culled. I smirked to myself as I stretched slowly. The poison crystals were slowly becoming more, and more popular.
The applications of a weapon that could become poisonous with a small injection of mana were limitless. Some of the more powerful cores even took on some of the traits of the poisons I could create. The traits of basilisk poison was particularly dangerous. Turning your enemy to stone, and regaining some of your mana in the process. It took a certain concentration to turn someone into a proper statue, but that didn't limit the possibilities.
Word started to spread of what Sekka's unusual slave was capable of shortly after the group we'd travelled with arrived in town behind us. More, and more elves were expressing an interest in purchasing me from Sekka for ridiculous amounts of money. Sekka declined every single offer. I didn't care. Sekka didn't technically own me so he really couldn't sell me even if he wanted to.
Those elves could dream all they wanted. They would never get someone as strong as me no matter how hard they tried. I wasn't as human as I pretended to be. I would never be as human as I pretended to be. Not that having a human appearance didn't have it's benefits.
Something had changed during the time I was sleeping. Something I had yet to grasp properly. I was only noticing it now that I'd left earth. It didn't feel like something was wrong, but I didn't understand it, and for some reason that bothered me. What was different?
What had changed? I shook off the feeling, and moved forward to catch up with Sekka. I'd fallen behind in that moment of deep thought. Sekka was heading toward one of the bigger blacksmith shops in this godforsaken city. I hated all the slaves I saw here.
A rare few were properly dressed, but that wasn't for the good of the slaves. It was more of a status symbol. I'm rich enough to give nice clothes to my slaves. Even my slaves are better dressed then you ha ha type of showing off. My lip curled up slightly, but I managed to stop myself from letting the disgust fully reach my face.
Sekka thought we could get some good business here so I needed to be well behaved. We entered the shop quietly. The number of well crafted weapons on the walls was more then a little impressive. Each, and every one of these weapons was crafted with such care that I found it hard to believe that an elf was capable of such craftmanship. I scanned through the building a second time with my spatial senses, and found that this particular elf had a rather unusual slave.
The craftmanship didn't look beyond his ability because he was just that talented. It looked beyond his ability because he had an unusual teacher, and slave to help him keep up this kind of craftmanship. I stared at the weapons carefully examining each, and every pinstripe, and hidden signature. This particular slave had hidden his signature on everything he could. The hidden string of runes on each blade told me what his name was.
I kind of doubted that anyone had called him by his name in a very long time. I was tempted to tap my fingers on the counter, but knew that wouldn't be received well. I stayed behind Sekka, and waited patiently. Just like I was supposed to. I refrained from smirking when the shop owner came out.
He clearly had put in some work, and had the muscle to prove it, but he clearly hadn't been working recently. The dwarf in the back was hard at work at what appeared to be a sword to my spatial senses. My magical senses told me that the blade was infused with a great deal of mana as well as three different magical cores. I stepped back when the shop owner looked at me. I played it off as a respectful gesture.
Really I just didn't want his aura blocking the aura of the dwarf. It would take me some time to memorize his particular emotional state. To him it appeared as if I was staring into the space off to his right with interest just to avoid looking him directly in the eye. Sekka launched into the normal sales pitch. I'd given him one of the good cores.
That one was going to fetch him a decent amount of money. If he sold it short I was going to kick his ass later. This distinct level of interest was unusual for me.
"You have a dwarf back there don't you?" Sekka acknowledged my interest suddenly, "Your craftmanship is well above the average. You would need a proficient craftsman to teach you to forge so efficiently."
"You're interested in my slave," he smirked at Sekka, "Dwarves are both expensive, and hard to get ahold of. Although I've heard that you have your own highly valuable slave." he looked at me briefly, "Perhaps we can compare the value of our slaves."
"Sure," Sekka smirked, "Mine can kill you with ease while yours can make the blade he might use to kill you."
"I doubt that," he smirked.
My gaze sharpened as I looked right at him for the first time since we entered the shop. I oozed murderous intent. One word, and I would kill him just like the dutiful slave I was pretending to be. That, and I kind of wanted to kill the guy just to kill him. The distance between me, and him suddenly didn't feel like enough.
He was physically strong, and he had to have a decent command over mana to be able to forge at a level that was anywhere near that of a dwarven craftsman. He was probably close to my level, but not combat oriented.