Chapter 111: Black Market
The three werewolves reached the black market, it was bustling with members of different races roaming the streets.
The streets themselves had lamps lighting them up as there was no natural light in this place.
John looked up and saw nothing but darkness from two hundred metres up, he felt like he was staring into the abyss.
The three covered their bodies with long cloaks and started walking around, they needed a connection that sells body parts.
Something like that existed outside of the black market but they sold only Gadra meat, that was not enough.
Just like Fayera and human blood was better for vampires, Fayera hearts were better for werewolves.
They haven’t tried human hearts yet so they couldn’t tell. They saw stalls lining up the sides of the streets with vendors shouting for customers.
Some stalls sold descent things making the three wonder why they needed to come to the black market.
Upon asking one vendor they learnt it was to avoid taxes. The realm beyond the mist was controlled by different factions.
Whichever faction you were under, you still had to pay taxes and they were not cheap, they were calculated like the old times.
Instead of percentages based on income or purchase, it was a set amount and you had to pay it regardless if you made enough of not.
If you can’t pay you’ll become a slave, whether for mining or planting black elk trees.
The werewolves wondered how planting trees could be bad until they learnt under which conditions black elk trees grow.
They needed a place with low sunlight, high ambient esper and hard soil with a lot of metallic residue.
The worst part was that it also needed extremely hot places and therefore, only caves in volcanic mountains would do.
It was worse than mining and finding wild Gadra in such places was common which led to a lot of deaths.
They gave the vendor a black elk coin as a thank you but he gave it back saying it was too much.
Then he took out a bunch of grey coins and exchanged them which confused the three Werewolves.
The vendor explained, these coins were made from the stem and branches of the black elk tree.
They were less valuable than the coins made from the roots which had more esper energy.
And even less valuable than those made from the stone fruits that grow on the elk three.
Learning there were two other coins surprised the three of them. " Are we rich?" John asked.
Their situation was like if somebody only knew silver coins but not bronze coins and at the same time did not know gold coins.
Diego shrugged, they exchanged the coins and left after inquiring further about stores that sell body parts.
The vendor told them where to go and they went there. " This place is a bit creepy." Isabella shivered.
She had never been a fan of creepy things, she even hated horror films which Diego loved for some reason.
There were stores lining up the sides of the streets and all of them looked shady, finally they caught the scent of blood.
But it smelled strange, John knew what this was and told them to hide their faces and they did.
A group of people passed by them and only spared them a glance, leading them was a level 3 powerful man.
John could tell his ranking was even above that of a baron, there was no way he could fight against that guy.
" Lets go." They walked faster and entered the first store that was open.
" Welcome customers, what can I get you?" The owner greeted them with a huge smile, turning away now would be awkward.
Plus this was the black market, something like that could offend somebody and killing her was not exactly banned.
This place was a den of criminals and fugitives who care not for the law of the lives of others.
They looked around the shop and saw it sold paper, John raised his eyebrow in confusion. " Can I ask what these are?" He asked.
" Oh right, I guess you’re not familiar? These are talisman, a type of one use magic artefact created by the witches and those who can use magic.
Of course there are exceptions amongst the humans who are born with the ability to create talisman as well but those are rare and mostly belong to a particular clan."
His answer confused them even more," How do they work exactly?" John couldn’t imagine how something like this would work.
The store owner pulled out one talisman and held it in front of them. " You see here, do not read it outloud.
These words are the activation spell, you say them while holding the talisman and the spell inside is released.
These runes drawn here are the spell in question, it’s similar to the enchantment of magic artefacts."
John nodded even though he had no idea what magic artefacts were, which was ironic considering he had one in his pocket.
He grew interested in these talisman and bought a few then they left the store with a smiling owner.
They kept looking until they finally found what they were looking for. Diego and Isabella went inside to talk to the owner.
After inquiring they were led underground where the real business was to be discussed, even in the black market, illegal business was held in secret.
Since Diego and Isabella wanted body parts of even Fayera, naturally that had to remain secret.
" So, how many do you need and what are your requirements?" The owner asked, he has his connections to acquire them.
Diego and Isabella looked at each other, they didn’t know exactly how many were needed or what the budget was.
" The exact number can be discussed later but they should at least be level 2, Espara and witch hearts are not included."
" May I ask why?"
" You may not." Isabella answered and cut the own off. "We’ll come back for further discussion."
Diego told him and they left
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Near the talisman shop, a group of five was searching around carrying some form of object.
" They were here not long ago, they cannot be far, spread out and find them."