Illuminite on the Black Market

It did not take long for Elodia to arrive before a pair of brightly shining double doors made from black-stained glass and silver.

A pair of men in flashy uniforms were waiting at the doors. They nodded upon seeing Elodia.

"Welcome to Hotel Vain's Haaven Hall." They greeted her.

Klaris watched her take a deep breath before lightly pushing herself forward and into the venue.

Casually, Klaris went in as well.

But as he entered, he could feel a gaze linger on his form for a moment. It was a familiar gaze of vivid crimson.

Klaris froze.

'Was I discovered?' He thought.

It seemed like his stalking skills required honing.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" A sweet yet piercing voice sounded out from behind him. Seemingly appearing out of thin air.

A deep sense of death washed over Klaris. He felt a needle prick his skin through his robes. An arm hooked around his arm in a seemingly seductive manner as a familiar face emerged before his eyes.

It was Elodia, and she wasn't even sparing him a glance. She seemed busy as she looked around the extravagant hall filled with people dining on delicacies and tasting wine.

"Speak, or this poison will kill you in seven minutes. Only I have the antidote." Elodia said.

Klaris wasn't sure how to answer. Thus he kept his silence. To him, a death threat like this was nothing.

Normal people would surely fear the timer, but Klaris did not.

He stood there with a regal air, uncaring for the poison that seeped into his veins.

"Hmph, you have no right to know." He harrumphed as if courting death.

This feeling of wanting more danger to encroach upon him...

Ah...

It was Magnus' influence.

From within the Hivemind, Magnus was telling Klaris to goad Elodia further. To see just how painful a death would be from her poison. To see if he could survive longer than seven minutes.

He wanted to tempt fate as much as he could.

All for a little thrill.

Elodia's eyes narrowed, but she still clung to Klaris' arm as if the two were lovers.

"Do you not care for your life?" She asked softly yet her tone was veiled with threats. She pulled her poisoned needle out of Klaris' flesh. "Answer me, and I will let you live."

She glanced at Klaris from out of the corner of her eye, and said, "Tell me who sent you."

Klaris smiled leisurely. His carefree demeanour contrasted greatly with Elodia's rigid and dangerous aura.

"I do not care for my life at all," Klaris answered with a chuckle, "So you will never know who sent me."

Hearing this, Elodia clicked her tongue.

"Very well. Then you have six minutes left to live. Make the most out of it." She said as she pulled away from Klaris and disappeared behind a curtain of satin.

Klaris laughed.

And yet he continued to follow Elodia in.

This irked Elodia slightly. A dying man was following her around as if the poison inside him wasn't a threat at all.

'Does he have the confidence to win against a 4-star concoction?' She thought to herself worriedly.

If so, then it was likely that Klaris was beyond 5-stars in strength. Elodia would have no way to win against such a being.

Cold sweat trickled down her back.

'I'll lose him in the black market,' She thought, 'As long as I make it there, I will be safe.'

Violence wasn't permitted in the black market or some people would get really mad. She only hoped that whoever Klaris was, he didn't have the same poisons that she had.

'What weapons does he use? What is his fighting style? His Spirit Technique?'

Elodia had zero information on the man. It caused her a large amount of stress as she went through the motions of entering the black market.

After moving past the satin curtains, Elodia walked through a long hallway and picked up the items that were neatly folded along the way.

A cloak, a mask, and a card.

She donned the cloak, hid her face with the mask, and pocketed the card in a swift and habitual motion. Klaris was several steps behind her, having a bit more difficulty in putting things on.

'Is he unfamiliar with the black market..?' Elodia thought.

Happy that she was able to scrape up this little bit of information, Elodia continued forward until she made it front of a cloaked person.

[ Welcome to the Midseer's auspicious Hall of Patience. ] A flat, almost robotic tone emerged from the cloaked person.

'One of the black market's puppets...' Elodia was surprised to see such a personage here. 'It seems like the master has gotten stronger again...'

The master of Midseer's black market was famous for his Blessing, Lesser Demon Puppeteer. A Blessing that was originally only one line. It was through a series of fortuitous encounters and great hardship did it finally reach four lines.

No...

Perhaps it was a 5-line Blessing already.

It was a Blessing that allowed the black market master to summon and control a variety of puppets. The limits of such weren't clear to the populace, but to those familiar with the black market knew that the master could command a platoon of puppets. That was about 50 of those mindless beings.

Now, however, it seemed like the puppet population had increased.

Thinking to here, Elodia shook her head as she bowed to the puppet and made her way into the Hall of Patience.

Once she was inside, Elodia breathed a sigh of relief and disappeared into the crowds of the black market.

.

.

.

"So this is the black market..." Klaris inwardly nodded to himself.

The landscape before him was interesting. The moment he finished bowing to the weird robot person at the doorway and entered the Hall of Patience, he was greeted by a dynamic landscape.

Klaris was in a large space that he found impossible to have been built inside the hotel he had entered from. Some mysterious Blessing was currently acting on the area, bending space. It expanded the area within while at the same time creating waves and warps that caused buildings to look wavy.

The black market that Klaris saw now reminded him of the Warped City of Gallery.

But instead of being inside a sphere, the entire place looked to be built on a rough, unmoving ocean.

At the peak of many waves were stalls and small constructs where people exchanged goods.

At the centre of the entire space was a tower. A beacon that shone light unto the entire area.

Cloaked beings roamed around as a crowd. Some cloaks were less beautiful than others, as if accentuating the place where they entered from.

'It seems like the hotel isn't the only entrance available...' Klaris thought as he scanned the area.

He had no idea where Elodia had gone.

'Oh well,' He shrugged, 'At least I got what I was looking for.'

Klaris was able to locate the black market. That was all Magnus wanted him to do.

'I can now die in peace.'

Klaris went over to one of the benches in the black market, summoned Javelin, and sat down.

He then waited until his minutes were up. A searing pain grew as he waited. He could feel his joints become jelly and his vision start to blur. His head felt as if it was being hammered by a hundred nails.

"Damn," Klaris cursed as he began foaming at the mouth.

But he bore it all and did not make a scene. He leaned back, as if the pain was nothing to him.

And then, just like this, he perished. He died sitting peacefully on one of the black market's benches without anyone noticing.

.

.

.

In another place.

Still in Midseer.

The original Klaris felt the death of his clone and sighed. He swiftly stole another body of his from the Mirror World and assimilated it into the Hivemind. The body he stole was a Klaris just before being stabbed by a poison-filled needle.

[ Was such a sacrifice really necessary? ] Klaris asked within the Hivemind.

[ You could say it was, ] Magnus laughed, [ It was fun. That's all that matters. I wonder how that little Miss Elodia is feeling? Does she know that your clone died? I hope she doesn't. ]

Magnus wanted to mess with Elodia a bit longer by weighing an imaginary guillotine over her neck like this.

[ You're a sadist, ] Klaris remarked.

[ Haha, perhaps I am. ] Magnus patted Klaris' figurative shoulder, [ Now, let's see if this Elodia is truly as capable as she makes herself look. ]

.

.

.

Javelin roamed the Hall of Patience as cloaked figures bustled about. He hid in corners and dashed through the shadows, using his small figure to avoid being noticed as much as possible.

The feline was swift and stealthy as he continued gathering information through eavesdropping and spying. There were a lot of items here that he could steal using Mirror World Thief in the future. From unique Scrolls to weaponry and armour, the black market had a bit of everything.

It took a few days before there was any change that could catch Magnus' eye.

Refined Illuminite was on the front page of the auction pamphlets.

"There it is," Klaris whispered with satisfaction as he was summoned into existence.

It was time to attend an auction and see if there were any other materials he could clone and monopolise.

In fact, the pamphlet already provided him with an idea.

There was a material he could get, and it was called a Phantom Rose.