Before anyone could notice him, Zareth pulled a brown hood made of cloth seemingly out of thin air and swiftly draped himself.
Of course, this hood was pulled straight from his inventory, which he had full access to at all times.
Currently, his inventory dimension was 20ft by 20ft in storage size.
As he walked in between the several round tables inside the tavern, each of which held about eight drunkards holding wooden cups full of booze, most of whom were clothed in adventurers' gear, Zareth's eyes were set upon the long bar table at the back.
The bustling atmosphere inside the large tavern was fantastically lively and warm, simply buzzing with laughter and high emotions.
So much so, that no one even noticed the small ring created by the hooded midget entering the establishment.
On reaching the bar table, Zareth immediately pulled up one of the tall chairs before hopping up on it.
Accessing his situation, Zareth noticed beside him were a couple of drunk-blushed fellas laughing to themselves as they hiccupped.
He surveyed the entire tavern to locate any figures who stood out at all. At first glance, there were some who looked interesting, however, none caught his attention enough.
On the other side of the rather wide bar table was a short but burly man wearing a black apron over his messy work clothes and a pair of glasses atop the ridge of his nose.
Behind the man, you could clearly see shelves full of liquor barrels yet to be opened.
Zareth could only assume this man to be the bartender, as he was cleaning a glass cup with a white rag at this very moment.
For a split second, Zareth glanced at his eyes and held eye contact with the burly man. His gaze was stoic and calm, showing no anxiety or stress.
The bartender matched this eye contact for only a moment before quickly looking back at his glass, seeming to completely ignore Zareth.
Suddenly, after a short pause, the bartender spoke whilst still looking at the glass he was cleaning.
"Can I get you something, sir?" He said with a nonchalant tone.
"Sir? Do you not see that I am a kid?" Zareth hastily replied with a light smirk on his face.
The bartender paused for a moment, continuing to rub the glass with his white rag.
"People come in many shapes and sizes. My job here is not to judge them. So... can I get you something?"
Zareth chuckled on hearing this. From the abandoning of eye contact and demeanor in speech, he could tell that this man was clearly a professional.
After letting out a long exasperated sigh, Zareth's expression returned to one of stoicism.
"My business has to do with him... let's complete this with haste." He said in a slightly quieter tone, looking to inspect the bar table in front of him as he spoke.
Zareth had done this type of play many times before. Right now, he was trying to lure the bartender to chase after his eye contact, and not the other way around.
However, it seemed that the man was not budging.
"Him huh?" The burly bartender said before having a light chuckle to himself.
Zareth gave no reply.
"And why would he ever hire you?" The man said, emphasizing "You" with a tone of judgment.
'Ah, so he exists?' Zareth inwardly grinned to himself.
"Did you not say your job isn't to judge? What, do I seem unprofessional to you?"
Indeed, Zareth's confident and cunning way of speech was that of no amateur.
Although he didn't look the part, Zareth sounded as though he had done this sort of dialogue thousands of times before, which he had indeed done.
Finally, the large bartender gazed at Zareth in the eyes. This was a sign of him taking Zareth's words seriously for the first time.
Zareth's expression was purely professional. Although having the face of a kid, his eyes gave a look of certainty and trust.
"Look, kid--"
The man's speech was swiftly stopped as Zareth pulled a cloth pouch from his waistband and plopped it onto the countertop.
Out of the pouch rolled three glowing blue cores, with seemingly hundreds more inside from the sound of the rattles the pouch made when being dropped.
The man's eyes slowly widened as he stared at the pouch.
"Follow me." He quickly said, resting the glass in his hand as he made his way out from behind the bar table.
A grin appeared on Zareth's face as he collected his only three cores and threw them into the pouch full of small stones, before beginning the follow the burly man.
Of course, this was a deception. Zareth most definitely did not have hundreds of beast cores at his disposal, however, it was enough for the bartender to trust him.
This would not have been the case had Zareth pulled out the pouch at the beginning of their conversation, however, with his cunning speech and trustful expression, it was enough to sway the bartender.
Zareth followed the man through a door to the side of the bar table, which lead to a flight of stairs leading down into the dark abyss.
The burly man grabbed a lit lantern before making his way down the stairs with Zareth right on his tail.
On arriving at the bottom, Zareth found himself in the basement of the tavern which was a liquor storage area.
Many dusty barrels and boxes of goods could be seen spread across the room.
The burly man set the lantern on a nail in the wall before walking over to one of the walls of the basement and laying his right hand on it.
Although Zareth was slightly confused, he played along nonchalantly.
After taking a deep, slow breath, the man pulled back his fist before quickly releasing it at the wall.
It was a powerful and swift blow, however, the wall was not affected at all. Instead, the force of the punch caused a green barrier of sorts to appear and fluctuate through the impact zone.
After this, the man grabbed the lantern and began heading back upstairs, leaving Zareth in the darkness.
"It will open up soon." Those were his last words, which were eventually followed by the sound of a door slamming shut.
After a couple of seconds, quiet and minuscule tremors reverberated throughout the basement, leaving dust particles to fall from the ceiling.
Before long, the wall that the bartender punched began opening up like an elevator.
Zareth stepped inside a small stone room on the other side of the double-elevator doors that had a couple of lit lanterns inside before the doors began closing once again with a light tremor.
After a couple of seconds, the room suddenly descended extremely fast, almost as though it was dropping down without being attached to anything.
After only a minute or so, the elevator finally ceased moving. During this, Zareth was just surprised how his feet managed to stay on the ground the entire time.
Before any longer, the doors to the room slowly opened up once again, and Zareth was immediately introduced to the thick of the black market and living up to its infamous name, this was truly a market indeed!