Lower Market

A young black robed youth moved in silence along a paved road. A black haired woman in a green dress and with countless little scars on her body and face followed him closely. Behind them came a moving pile of bags, under which could be barely seen a little white creature.

Sif looked calmly around. The first district of the Fort, the one directly next to the exit, seemed to be a place filled with taverns and inns. Naturally, whenever alcohol and Fighters came close to each other, arguments and fights would follow, but the people in charge of the Fort didn't seem to care that much.

The youth already saw plenty of drunken Fighters sparring with each other, with guards looking at them from far away and doing nothing to stop them. At the same time, he saw them intervene immediately when a group of fighters started to argue with an old fat man sitting on the back of a giant black bull.

'They won't care much if Fighters start beating each other, but they will intervene immediately if a Summoner is involved…'

That was understandable. Summoners were unpredictable and they mostly came from established forces. Nobody wanted a raging Summoner between their hands. The youth also came to understand why the group of warriors from before was so extremely accommodating. It looked like the guards would give preferred treatment to summoners.

'I should have taken something else from them, hahahaha… next time'

The road that brought Sif and his companion to the Fort, suddenly split in three different ones at the entrance, one going north, one east and one west. Following the instruction of the old guard at the entrance, the young man in black took the road going to the west.

On the side of the road, there were tall platforms surrounded by arcane symbols, on top of which there were triangular shaped yellow crystals. A dim light came out of the yellow construct, illuminating the flow of people moving towards the western side of the Fort.

After a dozen minutes or so, Sif started to hear the familiar sound of haggling and merchant calling costumers to inspect their merchandise. He continued moving along the road until he came across a small arc in black stone. A large sign on the top of the construction read "Lower Market".

"Here we are…"

On the other side of the arc, there was a street filled with stands with people buying and selling the most disparate things. Sif started to walk around the market, closely followed by Blue and Luna.

An invisible ripple moved out from the young man, stretching around his body and inspecting the various wares offered around him. A vast selection of weapons, armor and miscellaneous items appeared in his mind.

Although there were a couple of things that attracted his attention, he didn't have that much money. Tong and Juil left behind what could be considered a small fortune for a couple of random rank 3 Fighters, but for Sif it was not even worth mentioning.

In his pocket, the young man had only nine bronze coin shards. It wasn't even enough to make up a single bronze beast coin.

The youth kept moving, following the principal path until he came in front of a large square building. It had a large entrance, protected by a dozen guards in black plate armor. Large gray mastiffs were patrolling the zone together with the guards.

'Bronze ranked beasts? I don't think that they are all summoners, not with those heavy armors… so they should be some special breed that can be trained and given to common Fighters'

Some summoners were also Breed Masters, capable of crafting their own breeds of magic beasts. Naturally, they would prefer creatures that were more easy to control and strong.

The old guard at the gates had precisely recommended this place as it was controlled by the Iron Gates Fort itself. Dealing with the people of the Fort would be way better than dealing with the merchants and the random summoners and fighters selling and buying things in the lower market.

Sif passed between a few people that had put out stalls on the street in front of the large building. Most of them were selling herbs and feeding material for magic beasts. That made sense, they tried to capitalize on their position in front of a structure where beasts were sold and bought.

However, there were also a couple of people selling also random things. A couple was not even offering anything that had something to do with beasts at all.

One that attracted particularly his attention was a hairy bare-chested man with a small black gecko on his shoulder. He was sitting before a small piece of white cloth that held a single old looking leather scroll.

As he had done with most of the things that he had seen across the market, Sif sent his willpower to investigate the scrolls.

"Hmm?"

Sif eyes didn't show any surprise, but inside he was flabbergasted. The scroll wasn't written in any of the human languages that he knew of. The young man stopped in front of a close by stand, pretending that he was checking the wares in front of him.

He didn't even think of going to the man and asking the price of the scroll. That guy wasn't actually selling such a strange item on the streets. Most probably he was fishing for someone that knew what was written in the object. It was one of the older tricks, something that Sif himself had done plenty of times.

Sif moved from stand to stand, pretending of caring about the random herbs and other supplement offered by various merchants.

Instead, his willpower was checking the scroll offered by the gecko-owner, trying to get a sense of what it was. There were four large runes on the surface of the scrolls, each one more complex than the others.

Sif was able to read the first one and he tried to memorize it, even if he couldn't understand much of what it did, other than realizing that it had something to do with accumulating energy.

The other three were even more complex, the young man didn't even know where to start to read them. He tried for a while to examine the other three, but they were way too complicated for him.

Although he was unwilling, in the end, he had to retract his Willpower. If he kept going around in circles around the man, he would attract his attention.

'Whatever, I don't even know if it is a useful thing… it could be just a random rune'

Trying to console himself, Sif started walking towards the entrance of the large structure. The guards saw him coming, but they didn't stop him and he rapidly went inside.

He found himself in a large hall. Depictions of large wolfs and dogs could be seen on the walls, painted as they fought under the commands of black armored men.

Sif walked to one of the various counters, where he was greeted by a man with whiskers and cat ears. "Sir, I welcome you to the Iron Gates Kennel. What can I do for you?"

'Cat?'

Although people with bestial features weren't that uncommon in Illusory Thunder, especially in the territory of the Harmony Faction, the young man was surprised by the cat features.

Judging from the painting around the halls and the mastiffs outside, it would have been way obvious if he had canine features.

Sif smiled and grabbed a little bundle from the side of the moving pile of bags next to him. He placed it on the counter. " I want to sell this little thing…"

The cat-man put his hand on the bundle, revealing a small black bat cub. His eyes shined with a deep light and his expertise in determining the exact species of magic beast immediately showed up. "Bronze ranked beast, Bloodshed Bat. A good catch, sir, good indeed."

Sif nodded. He tapped on the surface of the white counter with his fingers. "It's a mutated specimen… it has feeble soul devouring abilities."

The cat-man showed some surprise at the words of the young man. Mutations weren't rare, but soul-related ones? "I see, then I must ask you to wait for someone that can determine the value of the bloodline…" He then went to call for a superior.

Sif stood there in silence, watching other summoners come and stop at counters. They all had their familiars walking next to them and seemed in a rush. They sold rapidly their things to the cat-people at the counters, taking the money and rapidly going away.

'Why all the rush?'

He kept waiting for another couple of minutes, but no one came to see him. Sif didn't bother hiding his displeasure and was even considering going away. This wasn't the only place that bought and sold magic beasts!

'Oh well, I guess it's time to search for some other place…uh?' Suddenly, Sif heard something that made him abandon any intention of going away.

It was an argument between two people. The first coming in was a bald man in yellow robes walking next to a large gold-haired monkey. Probably a member of the Yellow Temple. The other was a thin short woman in dark blue hooded robes, with a serpent curling up her waist.

The bald man patted the head of his monkey, while talking to the woman next to him. "I told you, the Golden Ghost has killed two young masters from Ivory Tower Fort and they are giving a prize to anyone who..."

"Giving out a silver ranked beast to avenge a couple of brats? Doesn't the Ivory Tower Fort's Lord have dozens of descendants?" asked the woman with a cold tone, interrupting him.

"They were the most promising, both bronze ranked summoners at the age of twenty." Explained the yellow-robed monk. The thin woman wasn't convinced. "Even so, why he isn't offering a prize on the guy that killed his children?"

"You wasn't there, so you can't understand. Not even the Ivory Tower Fort's Lord was able to capture the Golden Ghost. He's a golden ranked Summoner and he couldn't capture him!" The man had a look of admiration in his eyes. Escaping from a raging gold ranked summoner wasn't that easy.

"Then why put a price on this girl's head?"

"She was seen traveling with the Golden Ghost... their father said publicly that he would find her and skin her alive… uh?" The yellow-robed monk suddenly felt an insane amount of killing intent in the air. However, it appeared and dissipated so rapidly, that the man thought that he just imagined it.

The woman to his side looked at his vacant eyes and grinned "What? !you remembered that it is against the precept of your order to hurt mortals?"

The monk shook away the confused state he fell in for a few breaths. "Mortals that don't interfere in cultivator's lives... Don't mock the Temple, little sister… it's not a wise thing to do… let's go! We need to get to the Third Level if we want to join the hunt!"

The two summoners moved out the hall, leaving behind only Sif. The youth was gently tapping with his fingers on the counter of the desk in front of him.

'Motherfucker…'