Dangerous Business [I]

He had assumed from its name that it was a very dangerous place, but if so many people were planning on heading there, did that mean it actually wasn't?

~No, they're just desperate. I've seen how wreckless people can become when things get bad. It's likely that whatever's down there is worth more to them than their own lives,~ he realized, right as he reached the door at the end of the room.

He noticed that the children here worked silently, and not one of them had even stopped to look at him. They had the same dronish demeanour as the denizens from the higher floors.

It was likely that they had been drugged to work obediently. And based on their tiny frames, it wasn't too far-fetched to guess that they weren't being fed either.

~Keeping the margins tight I see,~ he thought to himself before opening the door.

Perhaps someone else would've been shocked at this. However, even back on Earth, children were being forced to work under such conditions, yet no one batted an eye so long as they could have their fashionable clothes or cool devices.

The world was inherently disgusting, and only those with power could decide what was too repulsive to allow. At this moment, Edric wasn't in a position to decide anything. That's if he even wanted to.

The door led to a larger room, where the temperature was noticeably higher. There were furnaces here, and older boys fed metals of all different sorts into the roaring fires.

On the far end of the room, were the finished products, cleaner looking pieces of metal.

Here the boys seemed to be more aware of their surroundings. Some of them even stopped to regard him for a moment, before carrying on with their work. Still, they were probably under some sort of drug as well, as the heat permeating from the furnaces should've been too much for a child to bear.

~No fish-humanoids here, they must not be able to handle intense heat,~ Edric inferred, before walking towards next door.

The next room was an assembly room like the first, however instead, there were older women here. They worked quickly, assembling the parts made in the previous room into neat-looking goggles.

The goggles were then polished, before being placed into a basket in the centre of the room. These products were of noticeably higher quality than the ones in the first room, which made him wonder who they were meant for.

~Certainly not the normal denizens of the undercity,~ he concluded. This meant that there were likely more organized individuals heading into the 'dark depths' as well.

~The other syndicates,~ he realized. Things were going to be more dangerous than he had initially thought.

After looking at a few of the products, he went through towards the next room.

Here there was only a single person, an old man sitting on a workbench with multicoloured gems sprawled all across it.

He was fitting the gems into the goggles, likely giving them their 'night-vision' capabilities.

~So this is how it's made,~ Edric thought to himself. He couldn't help but wonder how much profit this store made. How many connections they had, and how much influence they enjoyed over the undercity.

"Are you the tinkerer?" he asked, as he closed the door.

"You're the one Monique sent?" the tinkerer replied, his tone cold.

"That's right."

"Here you go. Don't die before you pay me back," the tinkerer said, tossing Edric a pair of goggles.

~Pay him back? She never mentioned anything about that,~ Edric thought to himself, catching the goggles mid-air.

"The gems are in the earlier sections, blue ones are okay, but red ones work better. I need 10 blue ones or five red ones," the tinkerer continued, his hands still working on the goggles in front of him.

"If you're trying to get on my good side, get me the green ones in the deeper sections. But that's a private deal between me and you, Monique stays out of it. I don't want her smelly fish mouth saying that I owe her something," he finished.

"Blunt and straight to the point, just the way I like it," Edric replied, ignoring the remark about the smelly fish mouth.

He noticed that there was a door at the other end of the room. For a moment he wondered what was behind there, after all this should've been the final phase of the goggles production.

"What'll you give me in exchange if I get you 10 green ones?" he asked.

Even if the boss-lady, or Monique as everyone was calling her, hadn't mentioned going on an extra quest he wasn't going to complain. Especially since it seemed there was a chance to do business here.

"Have a death wish, do we? Fine," the tinkerer laughed hoarsely, he sounded like an old chain smoker.

"If you get me 10 of the green ones, I'll give you access to my proto-type builds. But pay me the initial amount first before you go on your suicide mission."

"Proto-type builds? How sure am I that it's going to be worth it?" Edric asked, trying to squeeze a little more information out of the old man.

"I used to be apprentice to South Port's magesmith, and I've far surpassed my old master. Don't ask me about worth, when you wouldn't even know if it smacked you across the face," the old man replied coldly, turning to look at Edric for a moment.

"You're big, just means a bigger meal for the creatures down there," he commented snidely.

"Bring the blue gems first," he added, before gesturing for Edric to leave.

~The great Edric Averus chased out of an office like a mere intern, how funny,~ Edric thought to himself as he left the office.

"Though things won't stay this way forever," he whispered with a wild smile, placing the goggles in the pocket of his cloak.