16) The Underground Market (I)

That night, Ryker was lying in his bed at the inn. When he placed the bead in between his eyebrows, it melted and seeped through his pores and into his brain.

[Dream bead acquired]

[Opening portal to coordinates 04.01.03 north, 25.05.02 east of the dream realm]

From his forehead, a purple glow started spreading over his body. His body then started to shrink slowly, until it was just a speck of purple light. It then shot through the roof and into the night sky above. Only people who have traveled to the dream world would be able to see that light.

He soon found himself lying in the grass. It tickled his palms and his arms. He opened his eyes and looked at the sky. Huge whales were swimming in the sky, two huge violet moons were hanging in the sky. A green sun was in between the moons.

As he stood up he saw a huge doorway with the letters [Underground Market] at the base of a mountain. He looked around him and saw other lights descending from the sky just like he did. These were people from all over the world. The Underground Market was a global trading place. That is why it was so important for people to have access to it.

[Dream realm mantle equipped]

He had a blue long mantle that everyone in this world had. It was a staple of this society. He walked through the huge door and into a hall so big one could not see the walls. It was filled with tents where people sold literally everything.

Just as he entered he saw one floating sentence in midair.

"If you steal, you'll die."

He didn't want to find out if it was correct. He put up the hood of his mantle and followed the crowd into the market. There were a ton of different races here. There were orcs, goblins, dwarves, elves, dark elves, fairies, beast people, centaurs, satyrs, and all other types of fantasy creatures. Shouts could also be heard coming from everywhere.

"Get your frozen wastelands snow here!"

"Buying beast cores from the sky islands at 200 gold!"

"Spell crystals sold here! Come before they run out"

From the northern continent, Mervin, to the south. From east to west. Ryker heard tons of names he didn't recognize. The Undead Forest. Thunder Valley just to name a few. He walked looking at weapons, equipment, some spell scrolls which he learned held one spell and could be used by any type of caster independently of their affinity but they were a one-use item.

He soon felt the prickling stare of someone. Just when he was about to turn around he heard a voice coming towards him.

"Esteemed sir! Esteemed sir! I knew I would find you here. You managed to enter the underground market earlier than I expected"

Yes. It was the elf lady who told him about the market to begin with. She was accompanied by another two beauties. They looked so similar someone would've thought they were either triplets or clones. The only difference was their personalities.

The middle one was the one he knew. She was friendly and gave off an innocent aura that would make anyone want to protect her with their lives. The one to the right seemed more hostile and had an aggressive aura. He realized he had learnt somewhere along the way to slightly feel people's auras. The one on the left hand, had a certain coldness behind her eyes. Her aura was almost nonexistent, as if she was a ghost.

"Hello again, I am sorry but I didn't get your name last time we met. Anyways, thanks for letting me know about this place."

"Interesting"- she said as she scrutinized him. "You have changed and it has only been a day. What happened to you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. Well anyways, I have things to do so I'll see you later"

Just as he was going to walk away the lady on the left shouted at him to stop. He, however, did not listen to her and disappeared into the crowd. Who did she think she was to tell him what to do? He might've changed slightly but he was still arrogant in his core. Or at least that's what he wanted everyone to think.

He walked until he found what he came here for. It was a small food stand. There was a young man with a big round belly behind the stand cooking what looked like some type of skewers in a grill. The weird thing was how Ryker could not smell a thing even though it looked delicious.

"Excuse me, what is it you're cooking?"

"…" -the man didn't even glance at him and was focused on the meat.

"Umm hello. Sir, I am talking to you"

"I heard you the first time brat, what do you want? You think you can just come here and disturb a chef when he's clearly working? What if my meat got ruined because of you? Will you pay for it? I assure you it is not cheap"

Even though Ryker hated being looked down upon, the man kind of had a point. The meat looked very fragile as if it would dissolve at any moment.

"I am sorry to disturb you sir, you are the first good stand I see and I was wondering if you would be interested in some forest jackalope meat?"

The eyes of the man widened as large plates and one could fit an egg in his mouth.

"Do you know how rare it is for the first jackalope to drop its meat? Do you have any idea how valuable it is?"

"I had some ice, water and electric jackalope for 50 gold coins, I thought it was worth around the same thing…"

"Are you crazy?! Comparing the forest jackalope to its lake cousins! Such a disgrace! You don't deserve to have such precious ingredient with you now hand it over"

"What?! No! It's mine! If you want it, pay for it!"

"You don't know anything about food, tell me brat what is your affinity?"

"I am not supposed to reveal that information…"

"Alright, so mine is food affinity. I am a high leveled food caster. Why do you think you can't smell anything yet? Just pay attention."

As he said that he moved his hands over the food and mana flowed into it. Seconds later a delicious smell started to spill out and gradually it filled a huge area around the food stand. It made anyone's stomach rumble and people started to rush in the direction of the smell.

"That was the Tier 2 version of [Aroma]. Now brat, what is your affinity? Tell me before my customers arrive."

"I also have food affinity, sir. But I had no idea it could do something like that" -he was clearly salivating at this time. The spell didn't affect him as much as the others due to him also having food affinity but it was a Tier 2 spell while Ryker only had Tier 0.

"Mmm, interesting. I'll make you a deal. Give me the jackalope meat and I will prepare you a meal that will raise one of your spells' level. Deal?"