A middle-aged man wearing a good-looking robe sat on a chair with an emotionless face.
Inside his shop, various items, equipment, potion, pills, books, etc were displayed on the different shells.
Despite having this many things on display, only flies were roaming around him. With an irritated face, he drove away those flies and waited for customers.
Black market and morning, of course, no one will dally carelessly. Despite the black market operating 24 hours, only a minority of people come here.
Why? A black market is an illegal place, of course, the big house wouldn't want to have anything to do with them, even if everyone knows about it. They still had to keep face.
And the majority of good stuff is sold at night, and only useless or low-tier things are sold in the morning. Naturally, it is more active at night. There are more reasons, but there is no need to explain every one of them.
"Excuse me."
A soft polite voice reverberated inside the shop.
The nearly sleeping shopkeeper widen his eyes and showed a bright merchant smile. A smile indicating to consume every money out of people.
"Yes, my dear customer. How can I help you?"
With polite words, the shopkeeper approached Allen. Allen looked quite surprised since this is the first time he came to the black market.
He had only heard about it from others and knows about the way, but he had never done any business here.
The shopkeeper examined Allen from top to bottom.
'From his outfit, he seemed to be a mage.'
He thought putting his hand on his chin and again looking at Allen with another flattery smile.
"Distinguished customer, you seem to be a mage. Are you here for pills, potions, or spellbooks? Should I show them to you?"
His words were humble.
Allen who was a little surprised raised his eyebrow, and with an indifferent face, he said. "Yes, I am here for some potions and pills. But, I am also here to sell monster cores."
"Oh!"
The shopkeeper's eyes stretched.
"Can you please show me the cores?"
"Yes."
Allen put his backpack, which he was carrying the entire time, down. He opened the zipper and took out 10 Tier 2 cores and 2 Tier 3 cores.
Just as he showed those cores to the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper's eyes widen. His respect for the unknown mage increased a little.
And when he held the core and checked it, all the cores were in perfect condition.
Since he was a mortal, he naturally couldn't know the tier of Allen. But he did know, that Allen was powerful.
Not everyone could hunt Tier 3 monsters easily. Except for powerful magicians or other powerful professionals.
Mage is the most respected profession in this world. There are many reasons but those are for another day.
"How much?"
Allen asked straightforwardly.
"These cores are of good quality, so for one Tier 2 core, 1200 gold coins, and for Tier 3, 1500 gold coins is all I could offer."
The shopkeeper's words stunned Allen. But he quickly regained his sense.
"Ok, I accept the deal."
Allen knew the market price of cores, he had studied them carefully, so no one could scam him. He thought at most his Tier 2 core will sell for 1000 gold coins and Tier 3 for 1300
Whatever the era is, money is the greatest.
Allen's hands trembled, as he received 15,000 gold coins. In his entire life, he had never seen this much money.
He immediately regained his cool.
'If I get shocked just for this much money, how will I handle myself in the future.'
Allen thought, his future is bright. Very very bright.
After getting money, Allen bought some healing pills for future use, and two mana strengthening pills.
Healing pills cost 200 gold coins per pill. Not for bottle, for a single pill, and mana strengthening pill was worse. It cost 500 for a single pill.
Even if the healing pill is a low tier, it can heal small injuries at an incredible speed that one could even see the recovery with their naked eyes.
and mana strengthening pill is a great thing for a mage. Mana strengthening pill, as its name suggests strengthens mana. And raise their chance to break through Tier 2.
However to break through Tier 2, one needs quite a lot of mana in their body. One could increase their mana by cultivating. Cultivating means medicating and also through practicing spells.
But for Allen, his mana wasn't a problem. The problem was the strength of mana. Mana will strengthen as long as one practice and medicate.
Allen had practiced spells for many days continuously, but despite that, he hadn't advanced. So, he thought of using this pill to break through Tier 2, learn more powerful spells, and upgrade the learned ones.
"That will be 20,000$."
"H-Here."
His heartache as he reluctantly gave 2000 gold coins to the shopkeeper.
Showing a painful smile, Allen said farewell to the shopkeeper and returned to his dorm.
"Haah, I should get used to spending big amounts of money."
Allen sighed.
He entered his room. Without wasting a single second, he ate one of the mana-strengthing pills.
Just as he crushed the pill with his teeth, a huge amount of pure mana invade his body. His body filled with energy glowed.
He could feel his mana becoming pure, and after 1 minute, half of the mana became pure. Impure mana in the form of sweat excreted from his skin, and a bad smell filled the room.
Allen opened his eyes, wiping his head.
He hadn't broken through. So, he took another pill.
Again, his body glowed.
Boom!
His mana exploded. And pure powerful mana filled his body.
"Yeah!"
Allen pumped his fist in the air and smiled joyously. He had broken through Tier 2. Until one week ago, breaking through Tier 1 looked like a dream.
Now, he has not only broken through tier 1, but he took a step into Tier 2.
His excitement and happiness skyrocketed.
However, he returned back to reality.
"Eww!"
He pinched his nose and showed a disgusted expression. A bad odor that smell like rotten eggs were emitting from his body.
He rushed through his room and ran toward the bathroom.
Students that were in the hallway pinched their noses and glared at the running figure. They scolded him in their heart and returned back to their business.