Stolen Goods Are High Quality

Arlo stood in the forest with his new bow. Years of practice in his previous life made the bow already feel right in his hands. He examined the arrows more closely.

"Hey Blacky, what are these made of?" Arlo asked running his hand along the black wood with an essence similar to his shadow dagger.

"Shadow wood, almost all archers use it unless they have an even better one. It's a type that auto returns after hitting the target."

"Auto returns?" Arlo asked. "Heck this is just like a video game no way I was dreading how irritating it would be to pick them all up."

"What's a video game?" asked Blacky.

"Oh ah nothing important." Arlo picked up the first arrow and aimed for a nearby tree with a hole it in. Pull back the string pause to aim and release. The arrow hit its mark with ease and Arlo smiled. Yep he still had it.

"Oooh fancy your skill resembles that of a level 25 ranger." Blacky wagged his tail.

"Archer, Blacky, remember we are headed to the human world we have to start using their terms." Arlo paused then added, "I cannot believe how cheap this bow was. Its quality is insane."

Blacky laughed, "Just make sure you don't run into its previous owner, granted most bows look very similar to that one, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Still just in case." Arlo picked up the marker he had recently acquired to make a new claim mark if necessary and use it to alter part of the bow's appearance. Changing the wavy pattern of the wood on the bow was easy enough and when he finished with just a few lines it looked like a different bow.

"Okay, human world here we come!" said Arlo happily.

"You still need to find an access point unless you want to try sneaking through the main gate."

"Yeah black market it is, I don't think my stealth skill is high enough to get past demon guards just yet."

They walked along the streets of the town that looked the poorest. A black market traveler was hard to find for sure. Well it was an illegal activity in both the human and the demon world so it made sense that it would be hard to find one. By illegal of course it was mostly demons going to eat a human snack or a human with a vendetta against demons.

Arlo did admire all the various stalls selling goods in the torn up streets. Lower class demons were everywhere most with servant claims but some without.

"There looks promising" said Blacky nudging Arlo to look to the left.

An old pub sign hung above the door with letters that Arlo could only partially read. His time with Sho had helped, but he was still illiterate. Luckily Blacky was like a personal translator.

Arlo entered ordered a drink he had no intention of actually drinking and sat in a booth by the edge.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Arlo asked using his hoddie to cover his mouth so he didn't look like he was talking to himself.

"Let's see, my mother remembers a man with a black hat and a cane with a snake head. The pickup phrase was 'if only the snacks here were a decent as pepperoni'"

"And how do we know the pickup hasn't changed?"

"We don't."

"Great"

"Ooh there!" Blacky yelped as a tall man with a snake headed cane entered the room and sat down at a booth not far from Arlo.

His demon sight activated showing [????? Level 34] Arlo also spotted a gold chain on his neck.

"Is that how the necklaces work?" he whispered.

"Yes, his is set to unknown, you can set to human, demon, monster, or unknown" Blacky replied.

Arlo paused waiting and just as he suspected another person rose not far from him and walked to the man with the cane.

"The blackbird flies in the midnight"

"Please have a seat, it will be 400 silver"

The man nodded and joined him. Arlo waited until another main joined him.

"The blackbird flies in the twilight." He then also joined them.

Arlo slowly rose to his feet and walked over.

"The blackbird flies in the early dawn." He commented. He held his breath waiting.

"400 silver" the man commented.

Arlo removed the money and handed it over. He was nearly out now only 100 silver left. Have to get to the human realm and start earning some dough. Arlo smiled.

Another man walked over "the blackbird flies in the day" and joined them.

Another man walked over as a more upper class demon followed a little behind him. Arlo had given up not calling them men, it was too much effort to constantly correct his brain.

"The blackbird flies in the evening." He joined them.

Arlo originally thought the other man was with him but with the way he was hanging back it now seemed more like followed. He slowly came over.

"The blackbird flies in the evening." He said.

"Apologies but I am not sure what you are talking about." Stated the man with the cane. Arlo smirked, he liked puzzles thank goodness.

"My friends and I were just about to take our leave." The cane man rose but was forced back by the other.

"Don't think I don't know your secrets. Take me as well or I'll notify the proper authorities."

"400 silver."

"Fine."

With that the men all rose and Arlo hurried after them. Finally his ticket out of here was leaving the station.

They walked quite a ways north following the large border wall. Until they left the town behind. Then the cane man stopped.

"Wait for a bit please while I prepare." He went to the wall and started drawing in chalk on it and adding in little rune stone looking things. Several of the man sat in a circle and one started a small fire and even had drinks. They began chatting over it, and in minutes they were mostly drunk. By the look of it, they did this often.

"Did you guys all here about the idiot chief ranked Whitewolf?"

"Haha yeah, that was hilarious."

"Whitewolf?" asked Arlo without thinking.

The man looked over at him, "Yeah, you've heard of the famous Whitewolves right? Anyway their branch's leader Talon went and did something that made the ultimate demon's furious. So they ripped off his head. I mean I'm only ranked as a manger but I can't imagine anyone trying to fight a ultimate. They are basically living deities."

A different man started laughing then added, "the Whitewolves are basically now all doomed cause the ultimates are hunting them all down. If they don't die in the struggle they take them to the dark caves region to die a slow painful death."

"Dark caves?" Arlo asked.

"What you live under a rock?" said one looking at him.

"Uh no sorry, just surprised." Arlo quickly answered.

"Shouldn't be I mean, the dark caves are basically the ultimates prison area where they send demons who they want to have a slow death."

Arlo gulped. "So they are taking out all the Whitewolves?"

"Yeah I think most of them are dead already actually. Past two days have been a killing spree, far as I heard only one is still alive and two were caught. Some guy named Fangy which they killed for trying to escape the prison and oh what's the other's name?" he looked at his pal

"Something foreign, it sounded like toe."

"Sho" Arlo practically whispered.

"Yeah that was his name, poor guy got dragged into the mess by his parents. Well he's as good as dead now. No one comes back from the dark caves."

Arlo felt like he couldn't breathe. This whole country was already a nightmare, the dark caves as he called them, what could they be. Sho....

"You…." Arlo stuttered "The dark caves kill slowly why is that?"

"Prison made to poison the inhabitants."

"How long would you say a person with level decent would last?"

"Not sure maybe two months, the place basically slowly drains energy. If the guy was smart and had energy pill stabilizers on him he could easily last two or three months. Not sure if he'd actually want to though."

"How long would traveling there take?" Arlo's lip quivered.

"No idea how fast is the steed you are on? The place is as far south west as you can go before hitting the sea. It's basically sea caves. Maybe a month." He looked to his buddy "Pass me another!" he yelled.

Arlo felt sick to his stomach. Sho's face wouldn't get out of his head.

"Alrighty time to go!" Yelled the man with the cane as the runes started glowing and suddenly the wall had a tunnel going through the middle.

The men got up and hurried to form a line. Arlo sat at the back still stunned. His freedom the life he wanted so badly was right in front of him...…

"Oye you coming or what?" asked the man looking at Arlo.

Arlo quivered all over, "I'm sorry" He practically whispered then he turned to the man with the cane and rose to his feet. He was shaking all over.

"I'm sorry, I cannot go." He said raising his voice a bit.

"You sure? I don't do refunds."

Arlo nodded, "Thank you, I will be back in the future." With that he turned away walking back to the forest and the monster filled nightmare.

He owed Sho his life already.

"Blacky." He whispered his voice cracking, "Tell me everything you know about the dark caves."