Merchants

Everyone finished their meals and started getting up when the intercoms screeched to life

"Crsshhhhh-eccqu" 

Everybody winced in pain as the loud static hurt our ears for a few seconds before quickly disappearing just as fast

"Attention. A merchant group is out the front, feel free to trade if you have anything worthwhile. I repeat a merchant group has appeared out the front of our base"

'Hmm, maybe I should get a new weapon?'

I looked down to my rusted and small dagger that seemed to be only a hand long in its makeshift sheath barely being held together by hundreds of different materials all stitched together just like everyone's clothes that had been cut and ripped over the years

"I think I'm gonna go check out the merchants, how about you two?"

"I'm still heading back out there, I've got more monsters to defeat"

John quickly ran off after leaving his last words behind

"I'll join you Lucas"

Turning to my side I saw Charlotte slightly bending around my shoulder appearing in the corner of my eye with an optimistic smile on her face

"Then let's get out the front, last one there loses all their parts"

I started sprinting off towards the exit of the cafeteria before I even finished my sentence and yet it was still in vain

Within a few seconds a purple flash sped straight past me before turning back to give me a small wave and disappearing in the corridors

'How is she so damn fast?!'

I ran as fast as I could, pushing my body just as hard as when I ran away from predators while scavenging and yet I couldn't even get a glimpse of that long purple hair

I had completely lost her, her speed was impossibly unimaginable

She was much faster than tier 1 monsters as she knew how to properly manipulate the MR energy as well as having intact intelligence to do the logical movements and actions to move even faster 

I looked completely useless compared to her who had already mutated to this extent

After a few minutes I reached the front gate completely soaked in my own sweat and feeling as if my lungs were being burnt inside of me

"H-how a...Are you. So f-fast!"

I barely blurted out in between my wheezing and huffing, it felt as if the air itself was refusing to enter my lungs and help me regain my strength

"Please, I got here and guess who was bored and waiting"

She pointed behind her towards John who was slowly browsing through the different items that were all laid out on pieces of fabric like a back street vender from old times

After regaining my breath and strength I was finally able to form coherent sentences

"He's still here? Wasn't he leaving to hunt a beast?"

"That one's got me stumped as well haha"

I stared dumbfounded at him, this was the first time he had ever stopped or even slowed down when he went out to fight monsters, a superiors orders barely even worked 

He picked up a sturdy spear and tossed it up and down in his grasp, examining it thoroughly like a veteran appraiser

If one wasn't careful in this world they were bound to get scammed, stolen from and left for dead after all. No one outside of the base can be trusted, everyone that lived here was like family after all

"This is a pretty good spear, how much are you thinking of selling it for?"

"Since its made out of a tier 1 level pole and has an extremely sturdy end it has to at least go for a young tier 1 corpse"

John seemed to be in careful thought before replying 

"An arm of a tier 1 monster"

"Half a body"

"The body and a leg"

"A torso, head and arms in good condition"

"Deal"

They threw bargains back and forth before finally agreeing

Grabbing the small satchel bag tied tightly around his waist he untangled it and undid the knot that held the bag closed before reaching into the bag and pulling out a pure silver metal cube devoid of any marks or engravings

He slid open the lid before reaching his entire arm magically disappear into it before dragging out the different monster body parts as they slowly went back to their original size the further they got away from the cubes entrance

"Here you go, they should be up to standards, are they not?"

"Hmmm... Yes. Yes"

The man with wood brown skin and a scruffy tangled blonde beard took out his monocle and shifted through a bunch of different lenses as he carefully inspected each part of the monsters limbs so as to ensure he wasn't cheated

"All seems to be in order, you may have the spear"

As he responded he pulled out a medium sized storage cube that was slightly wider than his average sized palm and was a completely perfect shiny silver metal cube

he lifted up the lid causing a shimmer of blue to emerge as he fed the cube the different body parts one after another before he closed the lid yet again

What they used were stashes, they were containers that utilized the new science that was discovered allowing one to create a large space by bending the space within an enclosed item, this allowed one to carry around at least a storage space of a five by five meter room whilst the most advanced was around a two hundred by two hundred room

It may sound insane but that little cube could store more than a large room like the cafeteria, although they can only be found and sold in some of the most populated places, like the five major cities

'Haizz, to bad even the cheapest one costs an entire tier 2 corpse or fifteen tier 1 corpses. no they're too rare in these kinds of areas anyway'

I started walking around lamenting about my own inability to do anything worthwhile, like hunting monsters

There were many different vendors all selling a variety of different items ranging from peak tier 2 weapons all the way to different accessories and materials, some even offered food and water although it was pretty high priced

I carefully scrutinized everything I passed by hoping to find something I could afford but I couldn't find anything no matter how hard I tried, even a regular weapon seemed too expensive for me to get

'I guess not being an awakened stops me from buying anything, I can't even hunt a tier 1 monster let alone bargain for one's body part with all of my savings' 

"Hey Lucas, come look at this"

Charlotte appeared out of nowhere and dragged me by the arm, she suddenly brought me to one of the vendors out of the way from all the other merchants, he was tucked away and for some reason I didn't notice him earlier

He had long shoulder length grey hair and wore pure black circular glasses that completely hid his eyes and gaze, he wore a ragged cloak wrapped around his body hiding his body as he sat down in front of his items laid messily on a dirty cloth

"Welcome to my little store lass, boy. do you see anything you might like?"

His voice was deep and gravely making one believe he had lived a long and strenuous life almost enticing pity subconsciously

"What are all of these items? I've never seen them before"

I quickly scanned through his stock of different and bizarre items. There were amulets, daggers, rocks with weird indescribable symbols, small vials containing different coloured mixtures and more indescribable items all neatly arranged in front of him

"Here we have amulets that will strengthen your powers, a few weapons, some tonics that will give different effects such as healing and strengthening"

We carefully followed his hand as he pointed and explained the items that he had laid out making us even more interested in what he was selling

"But what are those indescribable symbols on these rocks?"

Charlotte asked after he had finished talking as it seems he had avoided the rocks imprinted with lines and dots that looked much like constellations

"These are ruins, they allow you to do certain things like this one here"

He reached out and grabbed a stone with a symbol resembling a question mark, as he held it, it suddenly began glowing all different red colours and yet wasn't glowing any colours simultaneously

Hundreds of orange screens appeared and disappeared, yellow triangles formed and spun into oblivion, the space around the stone was glitching but everything only lasted two seconds before returning to normal

"This one causes a spark of fire"

When the entire space around the stone stopped 'glitching' a small lick of fire appeared in the air a few centimeters in front of the engraved rock facing towards us

"Wow"

"Amazing"

After a few seconds the flame slowly went out and the rock cracked and crumbled in his hands before collapsing inwards and falling downwards into dust as if it was pulverized into sand 

"These charms can create effects similar to an invokers power, although they are only one time use as you can see"

"What effects do the other charms have?"

Charlotte looked over the stones that had an arrangement of three different engravings

"As you can see these ones create a small fire"

Reaching out he picked up a stone with an engraving that resembled the letter z

"These ones can cause items to come towards you like a magnetic pull although it has to be a small item and will stop as soon as the stone crumbles"

Putting the stone down he picked up the last one with a line that looked as if it was a jumping wave on a seismograph

"This one here can make the earth form a palm sized spear that they can either grab or launch towards their enemy"

Charlotte and I stood there captivated by his explanation