Chapter 6

The first day was going fine, they had breakfast together on the deck. Murk proved to be a quite good talker and it felt like everybody was getting along fine.

"What's that?" Murk called out, pointing towards a small dot on the horizon.

Ash got his scope out and looked at the thing. It took him a little while before he registered what it was.

"I can't believe it," he said to himself when he saw the banner of what was a ship coming towards them. The ship looked old, it was covered with rust and green vines, it also looked pretty peculiar as it had what looked like several houses on top of it built here and there.

"well, what is it?" Ryla asked impatiently.

"It's the floating town of Emeranth" he replied.

"It's huge" Ryla commented as it came closer, even though it was still a distance away, the huge shadow the tall buildings were creating, covered their ship.

"Are we going near it?" She asked as the distance between them reduced.

Ash was still amazed to find the town here, he had heard it floated around in the easter seas, nevertheless, the town was famous for buying and selling black market products and artifacts. He had the gold he thought, maybe he should take a look, he could find something useful. The town had a docking area of it's own there were already several ships anchored at the harbor.

"get ready to dock, I am going to take a quick look in the town" he announced.

He left Ryla in charge, which was not entirely responsible of him as the captain, but he was too distracted by the prospect of seeing one of the world's most prominent black markets.

The streets of the floating town were full of shops on both sides and they were crowded as hell. All kinds of races were roaming around in the streets. He dodged a giant troll's leg barely as he was distracted looking at a shop whose front gates were covered with all sorts of swords and weapons. He entered the shop at once. There was no one in it, which was really weird because he had just seen someone enter before him.

"Ah, a first timer" a small yet sure voice came out of behind one of the glass counters. Ash moved over to see a small portly man sitting on a chair, smoking what looked like a pipe made out of actual bone.

"How did you know, it's my first time in the town?" Ash asked. The man was wearing very peculiar clothes and even though his height was like dwarves, he didn't look like one.

"But I didn't, I only knew this was your first time in my shop, the shop remembers every customer that has ever placed a foot in it,," he said blowing out green-colored smoke.

"I thought I saw someone enter before me."

"Another specialty of the shop it makes sure you get the best attention and service; you won't find any unnecessary crowding here; every customer gets his time slot" he got out of the chair and moved in front of the counter. "Tell me young man, what are you looking for."

"I don't know, some kind of weapon or something, I am on a sea voyage, so something that might help out on the sea," Ash said hopefully.

"A sailor! Very well, very good. I think I might have the right thing for you, it came in just a week ago, the seller didn't know its true nature and I got a pretty nice price on it" The man muttered as he brought out from out of nowhere a wooden box, he opened it and there was a dagger, with a blade as red as blood.

"It's a blood dagger"

"What?"

"A blood dagger, very ancient and strong magic, the blade is made out of the victim's blood, the more blood it drinks, the stronger it gets, it even lets the user take on the abilities of the victims, but it lasts depending on how much blood of the said person it has consumed" he replied.

The blade looked and sounded amazing, but it wasn't really what he was looking for, and it definitely didn't seem like something he could use on a ship. The shopkeeper sensed his reluctance and spoke up "Don't worry I have a knack for these things, I am very intuitive and I am sure the blade will help you on your journey, and just for five gold".

"Five gold? Well that does it, I don't have that much, I only have one gold, maybe something cheaper would be better"

"Hmmm fine, Three gold, I bought it for one gold after all"

"Good then, two gold should be fine" Ash said, the shopkeeper sighed and agreed, Ash knew that he was still making a profit but he didn't want to argue too much anymore, he'll find something somewhere else, or sell the thing somewhere else.