The Black Market

'What was that? it suppressed my mana.' Her eyebrow arched.

Touching the wall, she tried to do it again but she fails once again. Just as she was thinking about a solution, she was then surprised that she felt a presence just above her.

'He's alone?'

She tries her best not to act suspiciously, lowering her hood more.

What surprised her wasn't the sudden appearance of the person, but the thought of that person's intention of obviously revealing his presence to her. It was as clear as glass that she was being monitored longer than she expected already.

'so it really was a visual orb' She thought, she turns away from it and walks away, not minding being monitored.

She didn't care if Gregohar became a ghost town, she was only there for one purpose.

She stops in front of a huge alley. 'The black market.'

As she came in, she felt several enchantments being cut off, enabling for her to hear and see a lively common cafe, the light dimmed to add more ambiance to the place.

There were a few groups of people eating and drinking around the place.

'What the hell, this isn't the black market.' She says irked. 'There was concealment magic in this place, so maybe all of the buildings are like this. But that's really weird, this didn't happen before.' she thought, puzzled.

Although she doesn't know what was going on, she headed towards the bar table, a barista cleaning one of the cups.

She sits quietly, she pulls her hood down more. "Excuse me, do you perhaps know where is the black market located?" she then places a pocket of gold in front of her.

The barista smirks. "You're not from here sir?"

She was about to get the pocket of gold if it wasn't for the barista suddenly gripping it tighter.

"It was just a question, sir" He smiles "don't be impatient."

Helena lets go of the pocket. The barista quickly hides it underneath him, he gets a cup and pours the unknown man a cup of coffee. "The Black market has been relocated just last month, it's now being held underground near Kaletha, there should be a guy there sitting by the alley. Show him this."

He pulls out a card.

"What is this?" She scans it, only a symbol of a pentagon, and an unreadable magic circle drawn into it.

'There's mana inside' She thought confused.

"It's given to our most valued customers for identification." He smiles.

When she turned the card around she was surprised when her fingerprint appeared at the center of it. "What the.."

"Don't worry it's just a simple verification step, so you're the only one who can use this card." The barista enthusiastically stares at her. "Mr. Red Magician."

She turns her head. "What did you say?"

"There's no need to be cautious valued customer, every person who comes in this land is always identified by the higher-ups." He smiles.

Everything was starting to make her confused. Since there was no such change in the past she lived before, she never expected such magic development could occur so early, what's more surprising is the heavy security Gregohar was showing.

'What the hell happened to this town?' She thought.

"Is Mr. Kelly present at the moment?" She asks. Knowing that Mr. Kelly is the one who owns all the black market branches all around the continent, and he is usually staying in Gregohar since it's the farthest to the capital.

"oho." The barista amusingly chuckles. "That is considered as level A information, it comes with a high price."

'how greedy.' she thought.

"Just who are you?" She says irked.

"Ah, that's level C information customer, it isn't that pricy."

"You!" She stood up angrily.

It was not because she was out of money, but she just felt that it was needless to spend so much money just for asking information to a common restaurant.

"Please calm down customer." He gently says. "I think you're mistaken about something. I'm not the one selling information, I'm just an employee after all."

"An employee? a barista is employed to sell information?" She scoffs.

He smirks.

"Don't waste my time." She says irritated.

"Ah, since we're still a developing business, not many are informed about our unique consumables." He places a cup down.

"Mr. Red magician, you didn't enter an ordinary restaurant. This is an information hall, we sell information according to the identity of our clients."

Her eyes widened.

'so that's why he gave me a weird card'

That was right, there was no such thing as an information hall even in the future, just the thought of it made Helena flinch. Selling information has never been made as a business even in the illegal dealings due to its high threat level against both the Abuneian and the obsidian nation. Establishing a business like this is like raising a flag for both the nations to kill you.

'Just What happened to Mr. Kelly?' She thought.

As she was given the information she needed she stood up and left , but not before hearing the last words of the barista. "Do come again, we'll open a special door for your next visit."

She quickly heads to the Black market, using spatial magic to arrive in Kaletha.

After her eyes lands on a person sitting just beside an alley, she approaches him and shows him the card. The guy then looked at both sideways. "You alone?"

She nodded.

The guy then opened a portal on the ground, ushering Helena to go down as possible. She didn't hesitate and quickly jumps into the portal.

She lands softly on the ground, her eyes scanning the area.

"Finally." She sighs, she was finally in the black market.

A person approaches Helena. "Mr Red magician, we've already been informed about your visit, what business do you have with the market?"

"Sell." She spats out.

"Splendid choice! here follow me Sir, i shall assign you to a room to wait for an appraisal, may i ask what item would you sell?" He said, walking towards a hall, she followed along.

They finally arrive to a room.

Helena turns her head to the person. "Stones."

"Then please wait here dear customer." He smiles then tooks off in a hurry.

Even though she finally arrived at the black market like she intended to, she was uneasy at the fact that someone was monitoring her. It's not like she can interfere either since it looks like it was an important protocol to consider for foreign visits like hers.

It was not long before the man came back with the said appraisal, he sits down in front of me.

Helena then took out a Python stone she had in storage, placing it on the table.

"A 6-level beast's python stone!" The appraisal gasps. "This is extremely rare!" He took out a krypton needle, as the needle strongly reacts to a python stone.

Helena's eyes widened as she heard the remark, not expecting for the appraisal to know a python stone at that year.

He even had that krypton needle, as if he already appraised a python stone before.

"May i ask, when was python stone discovered?" Helena asks.

"Hmm it's already been 6 years since."

She quickly stood up. '6 years?! that's impossible. There were clearly no hunter markings at the Mist Valley.'

"Who?" Helena asks impatiently.

"Lucky you customer, we were given special permission to reveal any information regarding the hunted items of our boss to valued customers" The other person cuts in between us.

She looks at him puzzlingly. "So you're saying your boss discovered the python stone 6 years ago?"

"Yes." they nodded.

"Then.. this is not even rare anymore." She chuckled bitterly, she was about to pocket the stone if it weren't for the appraisal stopping her.

"What do you mean sir? You're the second person to sell a python stone, of course, it is still very rare. We only currently have one python stone in our storage, and it's not for sale since it's needed to aide in our appraisals. So please reconsider, do sell us the stone." The man desperately urges her.

'So they don't even sell any python stone currently?' She thought before placing all the stones in the table.

All 57 stones, in the table.

"S-So many?!"

She smirks at their reaction.