The Black Market [3] [EXTRA]
****
Entering The Black Market, Amon tried to ignore everything around him and focus on his main goal here.
Walking forward, he kept his gaze strictly focused on buildings rather than stalls.
Unfortunately, entering a place of this kind also meant that you could never escape those clingy vendors.
He felt a sudden hand rest on his shoulder and he looked back only to find a prostitute trader looking at him with greedy eyes,
In his hands was a chain that led to a young naked woman bound by restraints.
She was ugly and her face was covered in dust and sweat.
The man quickly spoke.
"Well hello there young man, would you care to have a round with this beautiful lady? Only 2k Exlor, I tell you."
Looking at him, Amon's face contorted with disdain and rage behind the mask.
Raising his arm, he let out a small thin whip of electricity on the trader and the prostitute, electrocuting them.
The duo shuddered with pain and the trader instantly realized his mistake.
Without any word, the trader quickly retreated, also pulling the weak woman along with him.
This action of Amon also alerted the other traders who were also nearing to grab some money, and they quickly backed off.
Without wasting any more time on them, Amon turned and continued on his way, his cane tapping down on the cobblestone.
After several minutes of walking further and ignoring the stares that were cast upon him, he finally arrived in front of the building he was looking for.
Nathan's Blacksmithies.
It was an average building with nothing special for it to stand out. Even its board outside was an ordinary one made of wood.
It wasn't even mentioned about much in the novel.
But it was only ordinary from outside.
Originally, this place was suggested to Michael by Athena as the best blacksmith shop in Eldergrove, however it wasn't mentioned any further because Michael wasn't an armentist.
Which was why this place never came into use in the novel.
However, for an avid and top reader like him, he had remembered even this smallest bit of information.
Without any further ado, he quickly headed inside.
The furniture inside was beautifully organized and clean, a wide contrast to how the shop was from outside.
However, the special part here was the cobblestone stairs heading to the basement of the home.
And so, Amon quickly headed down the stairs.
Arriving in the basement, he instantly felt the sudden high rise in temperature, making him sweat in just couple of seconds.
He felt a small pressure bearing down on his body from the heat.
Simultaneously, he heard the constant clanging of metal against metal resound in his ears.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Moving his gaze forwards towards the source of the heat, Amon saw a large furnace, glowing orange and golden, emitting large amounts of heat.
But the special thing that caught his attention was the man standing right in front of it, with a large hammer in his hand.
He constantly brought the hammer up in the air and then down on the metal in front of him, producing large echoes in tandem.
Suddenly, the man's body went completely still, rigid. As if he had sensed the small presence behind him.
Setting his hammer aside, the man turned back, his face finally coming in full view for Amon.
With a large bulky body comparable to Maxwille, his skin was fully tanned, and multiple scars ran across his wide muscles.
The man was Nathaniel Blake, a 6th Tier Armentist.
An Armentist was ranked from 1st Tier to 10th Tier. When an armentist's body would reach the pinnacle of physical strength with help of mana, their body would break their limits, making them advance to the next tier.
"Hmmm, what brings you here young man?" Nathaniel questioned, his voice deep and calm.
Just by staring into his calm eyes, Amon felt the pressure on his body increase a couple folds.
This was the strength of an armentist. A 6th Tier at that.
He felt that he would die in a second if the man before him so wished and he wouldn't be able to even see it.
Suppressing a gulp of nervousness, he voiced.
"I request you to forge me a weapon."
At his words, the bulky man replied back instantly.
"And what makes you think I would do that?"
Trying to ignore the nervousness from his piercing gaze, Amon answered.
'Here goes nothing…' He thought internally.
"Because I come here with the recommendation of Athena Silvermoon."
He saw a flicker of shock and surprise pass in Nathaniel's eyes at that moment before being replaced with calmness once again.
"And why would that matter to me?" He asked back.
Without any hesitation, Amon replied back.
"To repay the debt you owe her, the debt of saving your life."
He saw Nathaniel's face contort with embarrassment for the fraction of a second.
Technically, what he was saying here was information that was later revealed to Michael but never put to use.
In this sense, maybe he wasn't changing the timeline.
All he knew was that this man owed Athena a debt for saving his life in a dungeon once in the past.
She had later given Michael the opportunity to go make himself a weapon from him by using this debt.
In Amon's eyes, Nathaniel was probably judging him to see if he actually knew Athena or not.
And when the man spoke next, he knew that he had passed the test.
"Alright, what weapon you want me to make?"
Nodding internally with satisfaction at his plan working, Amon replied.
"A sword, basically an odachi."
Nathaniel's eyes flickered with interest.
"And what are your affinities?"
"[Blood] and [Lightning]." Amon revealed the truth.
The man in front of him was a retired hunter that never went out of his house.
He kept forging weapons and metals all day and had never set a foot outside of this space.
With this information, Amon thought that he could trust him and reveal the truth about his affinities. He had nothing to do with the information anyways.
He might even think that Dual Elemental Clovists were normal in today's world now. After all, it has been decades since he set foot outside of the Black Market.
And he doubted that the man would threaten him with revealing this information was he probably thought at this point that he was closely related to Athena.
And of course, nobody dared to offend the second strongest clovist in humanity.
He saw Nathaniel's face contort with anger.
"Are you playing games with m-"
Before he could rage further, Amon chose to just show him as he quickly bit on his hand, drawing some blood.
And right before the man's very eyes, he manipulated blood with one hand and produced lightning with the other.
He saw the man's face contort into utter shock with his mouth turning into an 'o' shape.
It was the first time in his life that he was seeing a Dual Elemental Clovist after all.
Seeing Amon stare at him waiting to recover from the shock, Nathaniel quickly composed himself with a cough.
"I'll need some materials for the weapon. Get me the materials and I can try to make you a weapon for both elements."
____________________________
Thanks for reading!!
Join Discord for illustrations and more! (Link in Synopsis)