The city was shrouded in the shadows of night, the bright moon hung up high in the sky, street lights were lightening the way.
The whole road was quiet, pedestrians can be seen peacefully walking in the streets, but…
..Swooosshhh...
A pale blue Lamborghini dashed through the quiet and peaceful road like a made buffalo, throwing the pedestrians in a daze, a few even freaked out and fell on their butt.
"Hahaha… This baby got some speed," Layal laughed as she changed the gear and kicked the accelerator to the limit.
Kale looked outside through the side window, he was wondering if tonight was the end of his reincarnation journey. He could swear that he just saw an 80-year-old hunchback uncle throwing away his stick and jumping back almost doing a backflip to make some distance from the car.
He calmly looked at the way she changed the gears then at her face and asked "Just confirming, how many accidents have you encountered so far?"
"Huh?" Layla glanced at him, then after a moment of thought, she removed her right hand from the steering wheel showing three fingers "Only three times,"
Kale nodded but he still felt uneasy and asked again "And… How many times did you drive on the main road?"
"Seve- No, ten times, yeah ten times," Layla said but after seeing the dark expression on his face, she quickly added "What are you looking at? I was just fooling around at that time, furthermore two of the times, it was the other party's fault, and the remaining time was my trainer's mistake, she confused me a lot when I was driving,"
Kale nodded, he quietly tightened his seat belt and started checking the airbag safety system.
He didn't know if the heavens had mercy on him or it was fate's doing but no innocents lost their lives on the street that day and he safely reached his destination.
***
Layla parked the car in the basement of a shopping mall.
Both of them took their mask from the bag and put it on their faces, Kale wore his usual mask and covered his hair with the hood, Layla brought a fox mask in advance, bluntly entering the Black Market while studying in the most prestigious Academy in the kingdom would be just like giving others a free chance to mock them. This time, Layla not only brought the mask but a hooded coat too, to cover her orange hair albeit she still left the front part open like usual to maintain the airflow.
After making sure, they had hidden their appearance to an extent, they locked the car, moved out of the building then headed on a street near the main road.
Kale didn't know anything about the place so he quietly followed behind. They changed the streets several times, at one point he thought if they were just moving in circles. At last, they arrived at the end of a street which was blocked by an iron gate, somehow it looked like an entrance to a shady slum area, the gate and walls were big enough to completely block the vision on the other side.
Layla stopped in front of the gate and knocked on it three times, after a few seconds, a small window slit opened at its upper part and a bald man peeked through it.
He didn't speak, Layla took out two gold coins and tossed them at the small window, the bald man easily caught them and closed the window, after a few seconds, metal rubbing noises cane and the door opened giving a way for the duo to get in.
Layla walked in without saying a word, Kale followed her. The path ahead was an empty street.
After walking for a few minutes, Kale looked ahead and saw exhibition shops on both sides of the streets, the street was quite crowded and on the other end, it was further divided into three streets.
People were bustling in the street as they eyed the items on display outside the shops, the shopkeepers were behaving like street vendors trying to pull in customers with a fawning smile, although some of them were wearing masks but most were blunt and had the temperament of thugs who were looking for a fight.
Kale observed the items displayed and realized that most of the items that were being sold like cabbages were at least at Enlightened Mortal-Rank.
The prices in Black Market were different from the main market, Black Market doesn't have to maintain fairness or follow a lot of rules when trading, some products were way cheaper than the main market while some were too expensive, but the Black Market definitely had more verities of products that are not available on the main market or either need high authority and connections to buy.
But there is no guarantee that the products sold in Black Market were original or fake. One couldn't hire a lawyer to file a case or complain to the Order Of Knights when trading in Black Market.
Layla saw Kale observing the products around and said "Don't bother with them, most of the things at this site are either fake, haven't been verified yet, or are second hand,"
"Hmm… Where are we going?" Kale said.
"We are going to a better place that has some quality trust at the very least, I wouldn't have used this entrance to enter the market but this one had the least eyeliners so it's easy to enter without getting noticed," Layla explained.
Many big factions, keep their eyeliners in Black Market to keep track of people who enter or exit it. Trading of information was one of the most profitable businesses, and if a big figure becomes regular at Black Market then their information can be sold and bought by others who can use it to put a black mark on their name.
There was a saying for such a thing in the Black Market.
The one who steals isn't a thief, it's the one who gets caught.
After several minutes of walking, Kale came to a street with fewer people but more sophisticated shops.
The quality and grade of the items and equipment on display were way better compared to before, there wasn't a single Mortal-Rank product, they had already been eliminated, the least rank was Enlightened Mortal.
"Hey, see it's a street auction," Layla said in an anticipating tone.
Kale followed her light of sight and saw a group of people crowding around a shop, the shopkeeper was wearing a gorilla mask, he held an item in his hand and raised it up in the air so that everyone can have a look.
Street auctions were common, both in the main market and Black Market, it was just that they were more frequent in Black Market.
Just as the name says, the auctioneer randomly starts an auction after spreading the news a few minutes, hours, or a day before starting the auction on the street, people can bid on the item they like with the price they can offer, the highest bidder gets the item.
Shopkeepers do street auction when they want to redeem their old goods or get rid of some illegal products as soon as possible.
Almost every shop in the Black Market has a secret influential backer so people don't dare make trouble here… At least inside the market.
Kale approached the group with Layla and saw the gorilla masked man, the owner of the shop was holding a wooden box with a black pistol in it.
He moved it to let everyone have a proper look then explained "This is modified Dark Falcon - 17, a Tier 3 Uncommon-Grade handgun, it a versatile product that can work with both 5.5 mm Psychonic and Magic Bullets. It's a lethal weapon in 450 ft range, you will get one magazine free on purchase. But it is slightly damaged and needs a little repairing so I won't ask for much, the minimum bid is 18 Gold,"
As soon as he finished, several bidders started their bid.
"18 Gold and 50 Silver,"
"Humph, why did you even bother to bid, 20 Gold, give it to me,"
"21 Gold,"
The reason for such high bids wasn't completely because of the grade or the rank, but the fact that it was a gun, which doesn't require the host to use their own energy.
'Tier 3? Do they follow the Magic Civilization system in this shop?' Kale thought.
Globally most civilizations use the same grading system as practitioners for their product like Mortal-Rank, Enlightened-Mortal and above…, but most magic civilization still uses the old ranking system passed down the ages, where…
Tier 1 ~ Mortal-Rank
Tier 2 ~ Enlightened Mortal-Rank
Tier 3 ~ Elemental Mortal-Rank
And so on…
Whether it was Layla or Kale they didn't bid, such a product was useless for them right now, because even if they hid it inside and took it to the academy, they couldn't hide its traces when using it. Moreover, an Elemental Mortal-Rank gun's bullets were expensive and it wasn't easy to wield due to the recoil.
The third bidder succeeded in buying the product.
The next product was a sword, a Tier 2 Rare-Grade Dual Edged Shadow Sword, it was pitch black in colour and lighter than the unusual sword, it wasn't bad but Kale had no interest in swords, nor can Layla start to wield a sword while being a Beast Tamer.
Layla was wondering if they should wait or go to other shops instead of wasting time as it was already night. But the second, the man took out the next item, her eyes shined.
Kale noticed it and curiously observed the fist-size cube in the man's hand, it was a red cube that was made with crystal-like material, it had very low transparency but he could barely see spell formula like pattern inside it. The main difference was that in Crystal plate, the spell formula was in a 2D-like circular shape but in this cube, it was in a 3D-like round shape.
The man noticed that everyone's attention was focused on the cube and his hope rose "Many of you should already be aware of what it is and how much it can worth, it's a Tier 3 Rare-Grade Magic Cube, it can store up to three Tier 3 spells or five Tier 2 spells or seven Tier 1 spells. Every mage knows how precious magic cubes are, so I think it at least worth's 30 Gold, you can also bid using origin crystal or magic crystals,"
Kale's eyes brightened after hearing his words, he had the urge to bid but after he saw that in just three bids the price escalated to 50 Gold he gave up, he knew that it was a forgone conclusion for him by now. He had Origin Crystal but he didn't think it was worth it to spend all of the like this.
The competition was strong at first but with time, many voices disappeared and the biding became slow, now only two people were fighting over it while slowly raising the bid.
"55 Gold 30 Silver, just give up you fool,"
"Do you think you became king after raising the bid by 5 Silver? Now see me, 55 Gold 40 Silver,"
"What is there to see, you just increased it by 10 Silver, I can also do it, 55 Gold 50 Silver,"
"Just a copy cat and…"
The last two bidders were just bickering when a girly voice made them froze.
"60 Gold, I want that,"
Kale turned to Layla, who was raising her hand as she bid in an impatient tone.
'I did hear that Beast Tamer was the profession for rich but to think it was that true,' He inwardly thought.
Beast Tamer requires a huge amount of assets to buy the land, turn it into a habitat for the beasts, raise them, treat them, train them, and many more. It all requires a lot of money that's why normal people can't do it easily without good support. Although it's expensive and hard to walk on this path but once they achieve even small success they can stop carrying about money, just selling a domesticated beast can let them earn several times the money a hunter would get when selling an alive beast of the same type.
The most active bidders had long lost their hope of getting the cube after hearing her bid.
The gorilla masked man heard her bid and quickly counted from one to three for fear of her changing her mind. Of course, it won't end just like that, Layla had full right to check the product right now if she thinks that something is wrong with it then the deal would be canceled and the image that the man had built for so long would shatter at once.
The Magic Cube wasn't the last item, the auction continued, more and more items came out.
Kale observed from the sidelines, the item that he liked were too expensive for him to buy, even bidding for them would be just embarrassing himself.
But nevertheless, he chose to see it till the end.
The actionist was in a good mood today, he saw the profit coming in from all sides, but he wanted more, he looked at Layla's side, she bought a magic tool so it was obvious that she was Mage, he eyed her body built and realized that she can also be a Martial Mage, he started guessing what items she may like. Hence, he changed the order of items on the auction and decided to auction magic items she may like first so that she doesn't leave early after losing interest.
It was a street auction, there are no strict rules, he was the actionist, what he did was the rule.
He reached out his hand in the bag and took out a thick leather book with a magic circle enigma on its cover.
"This spellbook contains a Tier 2 general spell known as ‹Mana Resilience Cycle›," He said.