Slave Market (4) - Causing trouble

Stigma was currently walking in the market, from what the guard explained the layout for the residence was outside by the gates.

But there was a problem that cause his plans to be delayed.

From time to time, Hilda warned him that there were some people following him from behind a few stalls ago.

To make sure on her assumption, he stopped at a few stalls and waited.

From the distance he can already tell they were aiming at him, so after leaving he ordered Dusk to help him out with some plans by using whatever means in forming accidents.

He had to admit though, Dusk was more nimble than he last saw it, when he first summoned it it was extremely stiff, but after training for a while in his transformation it change completely.

He had one get buried alive in manure from a store selling plants, one got kick behind by a horse from a stable, one appeared as though he had caused a shelf to fall backwards and so on.

When he saw the accidents he wasn't faking his surprise, Dusk's movements were faster than his own, even if he ordered it to cause them he was surprised the damage they had done to all of them.

Since about ten or so people were responsible for the damage, Stigma made it look like he was no part of it and walked away, the series of 'accident' caused quite a scene which split him away from the stalkers.

On his way he asked a middle age shopkeeper on where the registration on the private tents and pointed the way, for the troubles the shopkeeper accepted a silver coin as payment and Stigma then waved goodbye.

When he went to the registration tent he saw some men grouped together, he heard them saying something about the job they got so he brushed pass them and made his way inside.

He can tell they were not cultivators, since they gave no energy when he used his skill.

What greeted him were two people in uniformed clothes sitting behind a wooden table with some books and scrolls piled behind them, one of them saw someone enter when they heard some footsteps on the grass.

"Good Evening! Young man, how may I help you?"

A young woman with short brown hair with a few freckles took the position of the receptionist and greeted Stigma with a smile, she was considered cute if she were to be compared to the girls on his world, by rating she should be a six out of ten.

Beside her was another receptionist who was checking another book and looked at some keys, not paying attention to Stigma.

In front of her was a book with a quill and ink, Stigma guesses it was for recording the check in and check out dates for any of the current residence.

"Excuse me, may I know if there are any available private tents, if there are please give me the pricing in each one."

"A moment please."

She open the book on the desk, and started flipping a few pages in the back, then started pulling on few bookmarks with symbols on them.

"Certainly, we have about about six private tents available, their prices range increase on ascending order: two on the copper class ~100 - 200 gold coins~, one in the silver class ~ 300 - 500 gold coins~, and three golden left class ~500 - 2000 gold coins~."

Huh? Why is there no specific price range.

Seeing his surprised face the girl saw that and laughed inside, while the other employee was rolling his eyes.

Since Stigma saw that action but ignored him, he must have implied, he was glad he wasn't talking to a country bumpkin.

"Are you confused about the price range, since its your first time here I will explain to you."

'Hehe, look at this poor boy, I ought to teach him a little.'

She then answered with a smile, with half-closed eyes setting her one hand on her face.

"To clarify on the pricing let me explain, each room is ranked by the size of each tent, the copper is about two meters in dimension, the silver is about four meters, the type furniture in each one have is a bed and a oil lamp but the quantity is different, if you want a meal you will have to go get some yourself in the evening, only breakfast will be served in the morning."

She then pointed to the tents with golden leaf flags.

"As for the golden leaf one, the prices are set since each one of them have a custom made design in case one of the guest has preferences in their style of living, the basic furniture provided are as follows, a bed, a large pit of fire, a bathtub, a table, a chair, and a closet with a safe."

She then placed each one of the golden leaf ones, describing each one:

One was nearest to the entrance to the market and was vacated not long ago, its main feature is that you can have extra storage room.

One was a two story type, the spacing is about six meters in dimension and used a large caravan as the base and had the tent to act as the roof, necessities are included but its main feature is that they can have the entire view on the whole market.

One had a large base in were about ten or so residence can settle in, its main feature is that it had an open bar and a wide space for extra baggage it had some extra beds and a kitchen along with a personal bathroom, but due to having no residence they price had to go down a little.

After describing each one, Stigma made his choice, he would pick the largest one.

Since he can't go out of the forest every now and then, he had to get a base in the market and a place to store most of the supplies he would get for now and leave once he found a means of transportation.

"The largest one will do, what's the price."

When she heard him say the largest one she smiled in the inside.

"As you wish, the price on that is about 1000 gold coins, by the way, this is the cheapest I can go since it was custom made and the manager would not allow it the price to lower, I hope you understand."

After saying those last words, she bowed her head to the table hiding her face.

'Must be a boy with a sponsor if he choose it, in that case let me wring up a fortune once your master gets here, hehehe.'

Unknown to her, Stigma was figuring out if he had enough at hand, but he needed the remaining ones for tomorrow.

Left with such a dilemma he suddenly remembered he had something of great value.

Grabbing something in his sac he fished out a large stone made of crystal with red blood vessels like veins, the size was about a full grown melon, when he brought it out it caught the attention to not just the receptionist looking away but including the men outside.

"I'm sorry, I have a budget I need to stick to, would using this be enough as payment."

In Stigma's hand was 2nd Tier core of a Heavenly Beast, due to Stigma involvement, a Great Predator Tiger went on a rampage for awhile.

During its berserking fit, it had killed about a number of Heavenly Beast in the Second Tier, letting Kirin and Dusk to find them and brought almost all of them to Stigma.

When Denis came, Stigma panicked and stored it all in his space ring and had no time to check until he separated from Dusk.

When he collected cores from the wolves, they had some red lines, but due to the size he couldn't tell accurately, after getting the larger ones he saw them completely and double checked all his cores and confirmed all of them had the same vein like pattern.

Since he was going to the market, he had harvested some of the cores in the 2nd Tier ahead of time as he had no use for them and was in no rush in selling them, but with the men following him it had delayed him in selling them to the proper merchant.

Dazed by the sudden appearance of the core, the receptionist girl was stuttering from her response.

"P-p-please wait a-a moment d-dear sir, I-I w-w-w-ill find som-some-eone tt-to ver-veri-ify it."

She then dashed out from behind, leaving Stigma with the other receptionist.

The later was so stunned that he was not moving and left his mouth hanging open, and the men outside watching from behind stunned from the development.

A few moments later, she came back dragging a haggard old man, wearing a monocle with a sloppy appearance.

"A-ah moment, please!"

It took him a while to get dressed since he tucked in his robe as well, so he looked a little fat with the excess clothing.

He then cough ignoring the gazes of the others and walked toward the desk and bowed down.

"My name is Carter, I will take responsibility in inspecting the authenticity."

Curiosity came over Stigma, he was quite curious on what methods he would use so he placed the core on the desk and stepped back.

The whole process was similar on how a jeweler worked using his monocle and using a magnifying glass for a second check.

After a few short breaths the old man was breathing erratically and gave his assessment.

"I-I have confirmed the core is authentic, the large branching veins tell the Tier of the Heavenly Beast, from what I can see the Veins all fall in one two roots, as I see it the Core is on the second Tier, and the price falls within the 5000 to 7000 gold coin range!"

Everyone was stunned from the sudden announcement of the price, even Stigma he still had about nine left so if he sold them all he can make a fortune.

When he was about to say something, a man shouted fro behind.

"You little thief! So this is where you were!"

Stigma turned around and found a man pushing behind some men then followed behind him all giving an evil grin.

The man had a cross shaped scar and an oversized great sword hangin on his back, the men behind him numbered about seven.

"That's my Heavenly Beast Core so give it back, if not, I will tear you to shreds."

To proves his point the men beside him inched closer with blades ready, while the employees were panicking and wanted to beg, if they had known they were messing with a thief they would not have went so far as to help him get fortune and gave the core back.

As for the female receptionist, she wanted to double cross him by stealing most of his money and change the living arrangements with the excuse that a guards leading him made a mistake or he misunderstood her.

Yet she had not expected him to have a Heavenly Beast Core which was worth a fortune, but ended with him being a thief who stole from a mercenary group.

The employees were panicking, but Stigma was not amused.

"Your core? Can you prove it then."

"Pah! Prove, why do I need to prove anything."

As he said that he spat and grabbed his sword then raised it in the air, with a glint of madness and greed in his eyes.

"Even if I say it you would deny it, besides why would anyone believe a child have a 2nd Tier core, we were hunting outside a while ago then killed a 2nd Tier beast, exhausted by the long battle we had no time to stop a thief who stole the core, we only remembered that the figure was small and had a rusted sword, then you showed up here a few days later with a 2nd Tier core."

Around him his men were shouting in unison from his statement.

The employees then looked at Stigma with scorn once they heard it.

All of what he said was a lie, but with him using his own group as a witness no one can vouch for them except another witness which didn't exist.

He was just a bandit facading as a mercenary and only intimidated some weaklings.

They were only here to cause trouble.

When he saw the core in Stigma's hand, he immediately ordered his men to follow his lead once they confirmed if it was real.

He had already done this to loners most of the time by destroying their reputation and earned them quite a fortune, now they found a big fish, they would never think Stigma gained that by himself.

They believed he either found it with some luck or someone else else gave it him out of a trade.

While tension and disgust rose in the air, Stigma gave an unexpected response.

"Oh, I see, there were witnesses, I see, I see."

"Eeeh?"

The leader was stunned, most people would try to deny and prove their innocence, some wanted to fight back but with their numbers they won most fight, now the facing someone going along with his rolls that cause him to be tongue tied.

"O-oh, so you admit to your crimes! Now give me back my cor - "

*Swish*

Before he can finish his sentence, he felt a thud and cold sensation on his chest, when he looked down he found a knife sticking to his chest.

With the unfamiliar sensation of being stabbed he dropped on his knees and screamed with all his might.

"Ahhhhhh!!!!!"

His men were stunned from the sudden bellow, when they followed the scream they found their leader clutching his chest covered in blood with a knife sticking out of his chest.

Before they can do anything, they heard a voice of indifference.

"My apologies, I assumed you were nothing but small fry, it was my mistake so I should kill you right now."

When they looked they found Stigma playing around with two knives standing far from them.

"Ki - kill this brat!"

Although hesitant they all readied themselves and charged, except they were not aware of one thing, they were facing a monster child.

When they tried to make their dash, Stigma was already looking at them but didn't use his skill since he wasn't going to kill them.

He was going to hurt them, really, really, really bad[1].

He immediately stopped playing the knives and made a quick dash, with their current weapons they were just moving to slow for Stigma so he didn't bother doing any big move.

One man stepped forward and did a side swing with his sword trying to cut Stigma in half as he ran at him, only he didn't feel anything, when he looked up he found Stigma in the air and did a heel kick on his head.

Stunned from the sudden kick he couldn't guard himself from the continuous slashed form Stigma's knife work and had multiple lacerations on his cheeks, chest, and legs and fell down face first screaming in pain.

When they saw him get slashed in a few breaths they felt their back got cold, three then started to panic rushed at him, only to have him take on their three attacks head on.

When Stigma blocked each one, he smiled then stepped in between them.

He then followed by doing multiple slash marks on their legs, but he didn't stop there.

He went between two and stabbed them right by their spines and twisted the edge making them feel the knife, leaving only one behind with Stigma using the knives as a foot hold gave a knee to the last one and knocked them out with a caved in face.

The rest started to tremble from his vicious work and wanted to back out leaving behind their comrades and run for their lives.

But Stigma wasn't going to let them, after pulling the two knives he threw them at the two infront and stabbed them in their respective eyes.

Afterwards he charged, giving those two another punch to the throats.

The remaining two were given each three fast body blows which sent them up in the air for a few moments, only to return with faces turned purple.

Clearly they were suffocating from being punched in the gut.

Stigmas actions were too fast that they had no time to properly fight back, he was fighting like a specter.

All that moment lasted about one minute and he fought without hesitation.

What cause them all great fear was that Stigma gave no response after brutally assaulting them all.

He then gave a smile that sent chills down their spine, and gave them nightmare when they slept.

"Now then, how shall I deal with you lot."

[1] Imagine Jared Leto as the Joker in Suicide Squad saying this.