Chapter 12: The Black Market

A/N: To start off with, I obviously haven't updated this story in a while, so forgive me if I make a few mistakes here n there. I've skimmed through the first 11 chapters coz I'm not dumb enough to atleast do that.

Also, due to reading it back, it appears that I DID in fact make a mistake (That someone pointed out originally, so sorry for ignoring you and thank you for the comment) and MC should have another 10k in his magic stat, so it is now [Magic: 63,080 -> 73,080 Points] [Magic Rank: B -> B+] 

Another thing is in the auxiliary chapter, I asked for help about the physical stat scaling, and I liked a guy's idea, so expect auxiliary chapter to be updated at some point. As of now though, his physical stats is that of a 'peak human' (Rank B), so I'll say that's about wall level strength/durability, and peak human speed (10.03 - 12.43m/s in terms of vs battles wiki), and peak human stamina - without magic, just pure physical body.

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Having received their first pay as a magic knight, Asta and Suzaku both decided to send half of their money to Hage village.

Suzaku would've sent it all, as he had promised, but due to going shopping with Vanessa, Noelle and Asta, he decided to save half for himself - whatever he had left would also be sent to the church later on.

About an hour or two passed when the 4 of them had arrived in the castle town. As they walked through the busy street filled with stalls and people, they eventually arrived in an alley with nothing there, confusing Asta and Noelle.

"Somewhere special...? But this is just an alley-" Asta turned his head, but unexpectedly saw no one there as Suzaku peeped his head back through the wall.

"A magic alley, come on through" Suzaku pulled Asta which caused him to stumble a little until he managed to balance himself.

With the 4 now standing side-by-side, Vanessa began to introduce the 'special place' to them all, "Welcome to the black market.

It's a teensy bit dangerous, but they've got some super effective stuff" She welcome as they all began to walk through the market and look at every stall they walked past.

Noticing Noelle's surprised face, Vanessa couldn't help but chuckle as she nudged Noelle "Surprised? Nobles and royals won't come near this place, out of prejudice. So it's not that shocking that you're surprised" She then turned her head as she tried to look for the white-haired newbie, "Hey, where'd Suzaku go?" She asked Asta.

"I dunno, he said something about going to gamble, I think" Asta shrugged as he looked at every stall with stars in his eyes.

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Arriving near the gambling area, not too far from Vanessa and the other 2, Suzaku walked toward a familiar face and an old, wrinkly, short lady versing each other in cards.

"Dang it! I lost!" Sekke, the familiar face, shouted in distraught as he slammed his hand of cards on the mini table they were playing on.

"Hoh Hoh Hoh~" The old lady opposite him laughed, "Care to play again, young man? Though I must warn you, I can see the future" She said, triggering Sekke.

"Damn it! Again!" Sekke picked up his slammed cards and handed it to the lady who began to shuffle the deck.

Minutes passed as Suzaku spectated their gambling match which, to no surprise, the 'old lady' ended up winning.

"I lost again..." Sekke muttered silently, ignoring the elderly's chuckle, "I quit" Standing up, Sekke went away to pester Vanessa and Noelle, leaving the seat opposite the woman open.

Suzaku looked at the empty seat with a smirk before getting rid of it as he walked over to it, "Excuse me, mind if I sit here?" He asked politely.

"Of course not, go ahead young man" The 'old lady' replied, allowing Suzaku to sit down which he did.

[You have successfully made contact with Julius Novachrono. It is detected that Julius Novachrono has Time Magic... Activate Talent?]

Looking at the message, Suzaku smiled mentally.

'Activate' He thought, causing another message to appear

[Talent successfully activated! User must stay within 5 metres of the target for 30 minutes total. After 30 minutes, the ability will be copied]

[P.S. Does not have to be 30 minutes in a row]

'Not a bad requirement at all' He thought, not noticing Julius calling out to him.

"Young man!" Only after getting up close to his face did Suzaku snap out of it as he fell backwards off the chair, "Oops, sorry" Julius gasped apologetically.

"It's fine, that was my fault, haha..." Suzaku embarrassingly laughed as he picked himself up off the ground and sat back down, "Shall we continue?"

"Of course... do you know how to play?" Julius, still in his old lady form obviously, asked.

"Not really, no" Suzaku chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, causing Julius to explain the rules quickly as he shuffled the deck, before finally giving Suzaku his hand.

Looking at his hand, Suzaku couldn't help but inwardly sigh

'How the fuck do you play this game-'

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The old lady, A.K.A. Julius, won - Super, duper shocking.

"Wow... young man, not to be rude of anything but...

You're really trash at this game" Julius stated, causing Suzaku to begrudgingly lower his head in sadness.

"My money..." An imaginary tear dripped down his face as Suzaku muttered to himself, "Thanks for the game... but I'd rather not lose anymore money" Suzaku slowly stood up as he bowed and thanked Julius for the match.

Walking away, Suzaku turned around to see Julius look and play with his money playfully. Though the tutorial/match took about 10 minutes, Suzaku was happy to see as a hooded began to sneakily approach Julius.

He smiled some more when he saw Asta and the others right next to him as well.

'Just like the canon for now... that's good. Let's let the canon play out for a bit, shall we?' Suzaku thought, remembering how Asta had caught Julius's interest due to cutting the wind magic and getting the magic back... at least, that's how he remembered it.

'If that doesn't happen, I'm pretty sure that means no dungeon arc, and I'm DEFINITELY not letting that not happen' He thought as he silently spectated the scene.

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"Thief! My winnings... Stop!" The old lady's scream got Asta and Sekke's attentions as they began to chase after the thief with wind magic.

Suzaku slowly followed them from behind, leaving Noelle and Vanessa to comfort the old lady.

"HOLD IT, YOUUUU!!!" Asta screamed, causing the thief to turn around whilst riding his wind magic.

The thief's face revealed one of shock as he thought 'This boy is only running... how is he keeping up!?'

Asta then threw his sword.

'Heh... as if he could cut through my wind mag-' The thief cockily thought, not expecting his wind to be sliced in half, "Eh?" He released a weak, surprised noise as he began to fall.

Out of nowhere, Sekke appeared on his bronze magic ride, ramming into the thief.

"GAGK!" The thief gagged, winded by Sekke's bronze magic colliding with his chest at full speed and power.

As he weakly fell on to the floor, still conscious, the thief thought 'Damn it...' as he put his hands in his pocket.

"HAR HAR!" Sekke laughed and cheered, 'Now the credit's all min-'

*Zap!* A purple lightning streak zipped past him, hitting the thief who could be seen holding a poison-tinted dagger.

'Poison...!' Thankful for whoever did that, Sekke turned around to see Suzaku and Asta approaching him, followed by Vanessa, Noelle and the 'old lady'.

[User has defeated an Unranked Magic Knight, congratulations! 50 Points has been awarded!] 

[User has defeated an Unranked Magic Knight for the first time! Double points awarded!]

[Points: 8100 -> 8200]

With the thief now knocked unconscious, Suzaku looked to Sekke as he ordered, "Take the thief with your magic, and hand him in. Thanks for the help" He thanked, causing Sekke to look at Suzaku with wide, teary eyes.

'I... I got thanked' He giddily smiled on the inside, but forcefully hid it on the outside so as to not embarrass himself, "Ehem... No problem, it's what a magic knight as strong as I does!" He said, picking up the unconscious thief and placing it on his 'Sekke Shooting Star' spell.

"Till we meet again, Asta, and..." Sekke waved but came to a halt as he looked at Suzaku.

"Suzaku"

"And Suzaku! Har har! Goodbye!" Sekke rode off on his spell, leaving the black bulls and the old lady by themselves.

Having taken back the bag of cold from the thief, Asta handed the money back to the old lady.

"You won all this from gambling!? That's awesome, granny! Don't let nobody take it again, keep a good hold of it!" Asta said enthusiastically as the old lady took the money back.

"Ho ho ho... Thank you, magic knights" She then turned to look at Suzaku, "Especially you, thanks for the money, ho ho ho"

"Ha ha..." Suzaku went depressed mode again, 'I don't like the feeling of losing money... I'm never gonna lose money ever again!' He declared for himself.

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"Take care, grandma!" The group of 4 waved the lady goodbye, leaving her by herself as they headed back to the Black Bulls base.

Knowing she was now alone, some particles began to flow out of the lady.

Seconds passed, and a tall, middle-aged man with short messy blond hair and purple eyes with a blue six-pointed star on the left side of his forehead revealed himself as he had a smile of interest on his face.

"Magic negation, hm?.... I've never seen that magic before... And that other kid, that must be the infamous 'Suzaku', one of the two popular new magic knights who aced the magic knights exam and got the interest of every captain...

Looks like Yami got himself some interesting new members" Julius Novachrono, the 28th Wizard King of the Clover Kingdom, muttered to himself with a smirk, making sure to memorise the faces of Suzaku and Asta in his mind.

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A/N: I've finished my computing exam, and took a few days break after it, but here I am! 

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