Marked

"I am here to sell some items. That's all."

"…"

The gaze in the man's eyes could only be described as 'utterly unimpressed.' After a short period of awkward silence, he finally decided to break the ice.

"And you couldn't do this at the front counter because…?"

"Two reasons," Zane replied, holding up his index and middle fingers. "One, the compartment in front is too small for the amount of treasure I have to sell. And two… anyone who sees my method of retrieving said treasure either dies, or becomes my slave."

The man immediately tensed up at this, and gulped.

"What…?"

As if to demonstrate the meaning of his earlier words, Zane snapped his fingers, and from his shadow suddenly arose a dark and ominous figure, towering over him. Its ghastly, frightening appearance caused the man's heart to stop for a moment as his eyes widened, and he immediately reached for the phone—but Zane, who'd already teleported beside him like a shadow, caught his arm tightly.

"Calm down," Zane whispered, quiet like death itself. "He won't hurt you."

"Ah… ah…!"

Naturally, the ominous shadowy figure hovering in front of the table was Dahrka, the Fallen Paladin—who instead of carrying his usual dual daggers, was holding onto four treasure-filled bags at the moment.

Of course, this was the [Infinite Inventory] skill that Zane had at work, granting him the ability to store an infinite amount of items inside his shadow by converting it into an endless pool of blood. Unfortunately, he couldn't summon his items directly as of yet, so this was the only option.

Zane put a finger to his mouth. "Shh… just watch."

As if to prove his point, Dahrka promptly dropped the four enormous bags onto the floor, three of them containing gold and the last filled up with blue Monster Cores. They clattered to the ground with a single heavy thud, and immediately after, the fallen paladin retreated back into Zane's shadow.

The man, witnessing all of this, gulped once more in fear as his entire body was frozen in fright.

"Just… who are you…?"

No normal Level 13 Hunter would be able to do this to him. He was Michael Hawkins, manager at the Hunter's Association branch of City X. Of course, like most office workers, that meant he did not have the opportunity or motivation to level up in strength, so even an E-rank Hunter would be able to overpower him. That, combined with the lack of security cameras in the room, was why Zane wasn't afraid to act this boldly in the first place—he'd used his System to inspect the man upon initially entering this place, and discovered that he was merely Level 1.

Cold sweat streaked down the man's back as he remained perfectly still, scared to even budge an inch. But the next few words that came out of Zane's mouth, were even scarier.

"Zane Silverdale. E-rank Hunter."

'E-E-E-rank?! Impossible… no, no way… you're telling me that monster… it's being controlled by an E-rank?! And wait a minute, that name… the Porter of Porters?!'

Due to how the System's inspect worked, unless someone introduced themselves to another directly, their name would not be visible to them, and would instead be simply listed as 'Unknown'. Their level, however, would still be shown, resulting in the man's surprise when Zane finally told him his identity.

"Now… here's what's going to happen," Zane whispered beside the man's ear. "Remember what I said just now? You've seen my abilities now, so you either die, or you become my servant. Pick your poison."

The man gulped. "I… I…"

"Go on. Say it."

"I… will become your servant!"

"Mm… good."

There it was. The acceptance necessary for [Blood Mark] to succeed.

Zane, satisfied, gently set his hand on the man's head. Then, focusing his mana, he used [Blood Mark]. The skill went through successfully without a hitch, and a scarlet sigil of some sort appeared on his forehead before quickly fading away seconds later.

He had been Marked.

To confirm, Zane inspected him with his System once more—and sure enough, beside the man's name was the '(+)' symbol.

"You should know what will happen if you try to tell anyone what happened here today, yes?" Zane whispered, squeezing the air with his hand. "Before the words can even come out of your mouth… you will suddenly, magically die, with no explanation whatsoever. The doctors will eventually mark it off as a simple heart attack, as you are already quite elderly. Does that story seem believable?"

"Y-Yes," the man quickly responded, forehead lined with sweat. Zane, seeing this, smiled, and the oppressive aura around him immediately disappeared.

"Good. Now then…" Zane continued, turning to the filled duffel bags of treasure on the ground. "Is there a bigger compartment I can place all of these in, or should I go to another buyer? The Hunter's Association isn't the only place that will take gold and Monster Cores, you know."

Reminded of the terrifying sight just now, the man swallowed saliva fearfully, and quickly nodded.

"R-Right away, sir."

Within a few minutes, the process was done. The manager had Zane go around back to the branch's storage room, where he dumped all of his treasures and a machine calculated their worth.

In the end, the total price for all of them turned out to be $25,600. The majority of that came from the Monster Cores and not the gold, as ever since the appearance of Dungeons and the treasures that lay within, gold and jewelery has become less valuable. This total price wasn't exactly as much as Zane had hoped for, but it was satisfactory for the time being.

After being told that the money would be transferred directly to his bank account, Zane returned to the front of the association branch, where the Scarlet was waiting right near where the receptionist girl's desk was.

"Your business is finished?" The receptionist asked, tilting her head.

Zane nodded. "It wasn't much."

"I see… sorry about my manager, by the way. He can be a bit… grumpy sometimes."

She seemed genuinely apologetic, and Zane waved her concerns off like it was nothing.

"Don't worry about it. I'll be taking my leave now."

Turning around, he prepared to leave with Scarlet in tow, but at that moment, the receptionist suddenly blurted out another series of words.

"B-By the way… that… Dragon Familiar of yours… she is quite cute. May I ask what her name is…?"

At this, Zane paused. "She…?"

The receptionist nodded. "Yeah. She's a girl."

"… Huh." Zane, looking down at Scarlet, who nodded in agreement. "… I've always thought Scarlet was male. How did you find out?"

"O-Oh, that's… well…" The receptionist cleared her throat. "My Specialization is Beasttaming, you see. I can identify the species and genders of animals, mythical or not, with a simple glance."

"Does that mean you can also speak to them directly?" Zane asked, lifting an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"Ahaha… I'm not quite that advanced yet," the receptionist replied with an awkward laugh. "You don't need to worry, though. From my knowledge, Dragons will eventually be able to speak human tongue on their own, and also adopt a human form."

"I see… thanks for the info."

"N-No problem!" The receptionist replied giddily. "Also, erm… if you end up getting any purple Monster Cores, try feeding them to her. It'll accelerate the maturation process by a lot."

'Purple Monster Cores… those will only drop from Monsters Level 30 and higher. Pink is Level 50 and higher, white is Level 70, and lastly, black is Level 100. This girl's knowledge is quite useful… I'll test it out sometime.'

"I'll keep that in mind," Zane replied. "Thanks again."

With that, he and Scarlet set off with the receptionist waving behind him, and the looks of envy from the other Hunters in the room followed them.