HAMIL'S POV***
Entangled by this ginormous size of a tentacle, it was hard to take in the air when all of my body was getting squeezed by this monster's arms. Even when passing through the gate to the entrance of the Black Ridge Market, it took about ten seconds before I was fully pass through the phase of the middle section of the gate. By th
But after those seconds that came, I passed through the entrance and was brought into the world of the Black Ridge Market.
"!!"
And the first thing to catch my eye was none other than the big kraken that was handling my body and pulling down with such a pace. With no gentle touch, I was tossed right down to a direction that I could not even begin to comprehend.
*Boom!*
"Khk!"
I crashed right down at the very floor that was as hard as steel.
'God dammit! I knew this was going to happen, but still…the welcome process isn't so nice in this place.' I thought to myself as I began to stand from the ground.
If there was one thing I could ever describe the look this place…it was could probably be one that screams nightmares to some. It was a dark and nightmarish place that almost feels so dream-like. But with most of the customers coming here are hunters, not a lot of people were so scared by its look since hunters have a reason for coming here after all. And that's to come and gain something in hopes of strength. The Black Ridge market offers that chance.
"Welcome to the Black Ridge Market, dear customer!" suddenly, I heard the voice of a girl who sounded like she was pure and cheerful. Not something you would find in a place like this.
"Hmm?" when I looked to her direction, I was caught in by the gaze of a girl who wearing a very cute dress of a cat-maid outfit. Even her head accessories had that iconic cat-ear factor.
"Areh? Are you a new face in this place?" asked the girl as she looked quite endeared by my presence. Her head tilted so cutely as she came to try and look at my body up to down.
"...Yeah, I'm new to this place." I said as I tried to dust myself off from the dirt from the ground.
"Well then, if that is so, would you like a tour to the whole market? Just a cheap price of 20,000 ence would be enough to garner your knowledge on this place." she said as she posed a peace sign up above her head. It may have looked cute the way she did her stunt and it may have been a bargain to have information on you about this place for such a price, but I can tell that she was more or less here to check out any new faces on the market.
This happened the same way in the novel where every new face of the market gets listed on by the employees, to try to gain information from the costumer and evaluate their worth to the market itself. After the evaluation, the market will decide whether or not this particular person has every right to be watched over and cared upon by the employees.
Naturally, Arthur was able to gain their favor…but I'm not here for that kind of attention. Its only best for me to just lay low…
"No thanks, I don't have any money to spare on a tour on this place…" I said as I tried to decline her offer.
"My, if that is so, then as a complementary gift for your first time visiting the market, we would like to give you a discount coupon, available to use on any market at 50% off on your first item of selection." she said as she cutely handed me a piece of paper.
But before I could ever receive it, I can already tell that this was another way of gaining information on the customer. The paper handed to me was one that marks your location, the moment you came in touch with the coupon. Knowing your location was a way to study your needs and wants as a customer. And having given such a big bargain, a normal person would have accepted it…but I won't.
"I'd like to accept it, but I'm afraid I'm not here to buy anything…I'm just here to meet someone." I said as I did not touch the coupon.
It was normal for people to use this place as a meet up for anything not so normally accepted by the rules of the kingdom. It could either be a scevy exchange on drug transactions, or a trade out on illegal materials between scummy people…but all is accepted in a place as illegal as this. No one has the right cause violence in such a place, so it is the safest place to do these kinds of transactions.
"...I-I see…but you must accept. After all, this is just a complementary gift to your welcome to our market." she said as she tried to push to me, the coupon.
"No thank you." I said directly as I could not care less about their promotion on such a tactic. Being hard in this place is a tactic that makes people avoid you…and using it on them might as well happen so that I don't waste any time at all.
"I-I see…" knowing how she felt like she failed, she might back off from me. Marking me as a mystery to the market and a possible threat seeing as how they don't know anything about me. So to try compensate, she might do this the hard way.
"Well, I hope you enjoy your stay at the Black Ridge market." she said with her smile coming from ear to ear.
The moment I turned my back on her, she disappeared into the shadows and watched as I went on my way to the needed location.
"..." I can already guess that the girl resorted to having watch me physically from a distance. And knowing her position as a worker in this market, it was only natural to see that I could not tell where she was at all…her profession as a scouter, made it almost impossible to look for her direction. But luckily, I had a skill to lose her altogether.
So making my way at a certain crowded part of the market, as I turned to the corner, I quickly turned on my skill "Light's Reflection." and I blended in with the crowd.
'...He's gone!?' following through the rough crowd, the cat-maid was shocked to see that I was no longer there. But she did not give up, and instead picked up her phone to report a special case for a visitor.
"...He won't be gone for long. As long as he doesn't leave the market without our permission, he's going to be here until we find him." she said to herself as she disappeared back into the shadows.
Meanwhile, I was just continuing on my way to a certain market that handles any illegal pouching of monsters and plants. Vexus said that his creation was an animal, so there's a high chance that the beast that I'm looking for might just be there.
The more the dangerous an item is needed in the black market, the harder it is to find. You couldn't buy the information of the location of any particular store if you didn't have the necessary requirements to learn it from an acquaintance. Even with the offer from the cat-maid back then about the tour all over the market, she would not easily give up the information for things that are actually worth something. Information is just more valuable than anything here in the black market ridge.
Luckily for me, with my knowledge on the novel's information, I am already making my way to such a very valuable part of the market. It as a market inside the market.
As I looked around, I finally came to the view of one particular place. A hole that leads to the sewers.
Without hesitating, I jumped in to the hole and landed on the awful, wet and disgusting sewer water. There, I was meet with a bunch of sewer rats the size of a 4-year old child. I didn't hesitate to cut my way through.
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
One by one, they fell as easily as they came…and not before long, I arrived at a certain dead-end of the sewers.
Here, I came to utilize another piece of important information. A code only known to a few…
"...Turning grand with wealth not mine..." I spoke.
"...And creeping by to tell a tale…" a voice spoke on the other side.
"...A thief is but a thief if caught…" I continued.
"...And the judgement from his god…" he answered.
"...Will not be heard by the justice of this world…" I talked.
"Willow Fall…"
"The Greatest thief clan there is…"
After this exchange of code, the wall opened and showed itself a man who was simply tending to a bar…
"...Come in." said the man who was polishing a glass cup.
No one else was here, except for the man who was eager to look me in the eye, filled with blood-lust.
"What will it be?" asked the man who wore a proper outfit that show's his professionalism on tending a drink.
"...The Safari." I said as I look ever with a willful expression to him. Sending him a message that I was not soft or inexperienced.
"Hmm, I see. Follow me to the back." he said as he walked out of the bar and into a door that lead into the deeper parts of the market.
The door was leading down with its stairs…and as we continued to walk down, the cold environment of this place continued to lower itself to a point that I could see my breath from my mouth. It was like we were in a freezer in this place.
After making it to the end, we finally came to a door that was highly locked with a powerful magic spell. But the bartender easily opened it with a chant from his whispered call.
The door opened…and the first thing I heard was the roar of an animal who sounded so first, it swallowed the rest of the screams from the animals.
This room showed me a variation of animals that were locked in a cage strong enough to accommodate for their own strength. By then, I saw that this place was neatly designed to separate the animals by their race. Some were joined by their features…others by their elements.
It was named the Safari for its sole purpose to keep the animals and this place could have easily been a zoo if it weren't for the fact that the animals were only meant to be sold at some high price for their materials and any other needed necessity for their kind.
"What are you looking for?" he asked.
"An animal that's hard to catch, one that jumps from shadow to shadow and is known for its hard scale-like skin." Vexus has already told me its name, so to make it more specific, I told the bartender just that.
"It's called the Azimar." I said its name.
"...Ahh, I see. Its in the Dark section of the safari. Follow me." he said as he brought out a certain equipment from his storage. It looked like it was some weird lamp that had this surreal design to it. And also along with it was a pair of very dark sunglasses.
"Please wear this." he said as he handed me one of the glasses.
As we walked deeper into the Safari, we came to a section of it called "The Dark Zone" where he immediately turned on the lamp, and by my surprise, the light that it expelled out was so bright it was devouring every inch of shadows there was in this place. Not a speck of a shadow was found when the lamp was turned on.
But because of the glasses, I wasn't blinded by its light. Still, it was quite hard to see even with the glasses on.
The Bartender didn't stop from here, he continued on his way deeper into the Dark Zone. Passing by a few animals who had the same characteristics as the shadow. And by the passing lamp, they cowered in the corner…it felt disturbing to me as I watched them show a sense of fear and hate.
But we continued.
And after a while, we came to the end of the Dark Zone…by their, he turned off the lamp and another light source appeared over our heads. It was just as strong as the lamp.
By then, he directed his hands to a small hole with lenses on the wall.
"The Azimar is found on the other side of the wall. Trapped and confided by the lights at the same quality as this lamp. Because of those lights, he won't have the chance to step into a shadow to escape. The lights are simply too strong for it to hide in a shadow." explained the bartender.
When I peaked inside, all I see in there was a small glimpse of its eye staring blankly at the walls. I could hardly make a guess of what its shape was or its look altogether.
"Do you think that this animal might have been damaged because of the long exposure to the light?" I asked.
"...Azimars are blind creatures. They don't have the capability to see and instead, they are capable of sensing almost anything at a certain radius because of their nature to live in the dark. Even now, it is capable of noticing our presences even when it is not looking our way. Or even when this wall stands in its way…it knows that we are here." said the bartender, showcasing the amazing feat of this animal.
I can see why Vexus was confident that I could not catch this animal even if I did have the permission to make one. Its just impossible to catch one without the proper tools.
"...Is there a way for me to get inside there?" I asked.
"...I highly recommend that you do not do that. Azimars are very territorial and are capable of ripping you inside out with its claws the moment it comes in contact with your shadow." advised the Bartender.
"Hmm, how strong does one need to be to have to catch an Azimar?" I asked.
"When it was commissioned to be hunted down, it took Ten C-rank hunters and three B-rank hunters to be able to block its path and trap it even with the proper equipment. Ten days…the hunters tracked this animal down for ten days…" he said.
So it was that hard huh? I wonder if I have a chance of even capturing one.
"...How much?" I asked directly.
"Five Million Ences…" he said.
"Is it that expensive?" I asked
"The commission was made five years ago, but the client didn't deliver on the promise of fully paying its worth. Back then, it should have been about twenty-five million, but five years has passed since then…the Azimar is getting weaker by the month…five million is only the right price to pay."
"...fine, but I don't have the money to pay it off…instead you can have these." as I raised my silver storage ring, I let out all of the equipment that was inside it.
There, the hall was flooded with piles of weapons and armor that I made when I practiced using genesis. Although some of these equipment were generic, there were some that would catch a pretty penny.
"Hmm, we do accept a trade at times…fine, I'll see to it that these items well be properly evaluated. Please wait while we try to sort out your items."
*snap*
With a snap of his fingers, a dozen personnel came rushing and with a pen and paper by their hands. They were professionals at the worth of checking the materials. It won't take long for them to sort out the mess.
So I waited by the side of the wall where the Azimar was waiting.
I waited…
Until finally, the hour came when the bartender approached me with sweat dripping from his face.
"We tallied everything that was given by you…at a total of 4,509,890 ences…you came short sir." he said.
"Don't worry, I'll pay the rest in a transfer." I said as I pulled out my phone to show them that I still had enough to pay for the finish of this transaction.
*Di-det*
As the money transfer completed, the rest of the people left quietly, and me and the bartender handled the animal ourselves.
The Bartender wanted to transfer the animal in a special container that would contain its ability to jump in the shadows, but I had to stop him from doing it.
"...I won't need a container, I'm going to use him, right here…right now." I said to the man, but he came with a shocked reaction.
"Are you sure about this!? I warned you about his ability and power to be able to tear anything with his claws…you should reconsider." he said.
"...I only came here with one purpose…and I hope you would at least respect that."
"So open the doors and let me in." I commanded him…and by his answer, he slowly went to approach the door. He pulled out his key and there, he twisted it open.
*Clank*
As the key clicks, and the door opens, a bright lights overbears my view.
There was only one reason why I came here…
And that was to get stronger.