"Luke, Hank, Leonard and Nik," Marcus shouted after getting the old man's answer, "You follow me, and the rest, protect this place as best as you can."

  Watching the four people he called come towards him, Marcus turned to Old Raily and said,

  "It would be best if you stayed here, take control of the situation."

  The old veteran just nodded at him before joining the group beside the tenders. Marcus saw someone come and whisper something to the man, before he went into one of the lifeboats, returning a couple of minutes later, wearing the full body vest and helmet.

  When he called for the ones going with him, Marcus willed for the Translation skill to activate, and he knew it worked as he saw the people who were watching stiffen up a bit, some even took a few steps back.

  "Let's go." He turned to Jared.

  "Didn't you-" Jared was about to say something but he just shook his head, "You know, never mind."

  The old man then led them off the docks. The walk itself was quiet and uneventful, but Marcus saw many of the people they passed by stop and stare or even make way for them. He was sure that before the sun rose the next day, news of what had happened that night would reach the most important and influential people. It most likely wouldn't take long for the Empire to know about it, the Dynasty was a given already. Marcus knew that there was a third power called the Alliance out there, but he didn't know much about it to care.

  "What was that language you used back there?" Jared asked after they had walked for a while. "I'm not quite sure I know it."

  "It's our native tongue," Marcus answered offhandedly, "We are from a faraway place, I doubt many people would recognise it."

  "Is that so," Jared said lightly. He didn't push anymore though, the rest of the walk was in silence.

  "We are here," Jared said, dragging Marcus from his vigilance, "It would be best if not all of you go in, it might give him the wrong idea."

  Marcus looked at the storefront they found themselves at, it seemed like an unassuming building, no signs or banners, just a normal building, and that was the weird thing about it. Almost every other building in the black market had a sign or banner advertising what they were and what they did, rare were the ones without anything like that.

  "Luke and Hank." Marcus turned to the guards with them. "You remain outside, if you hear anything from inside you know what to do."

  He noticed Jared just shaking his head, but he wasn't taking any chances, their safety was a priority. The old man then knocked on the door.

  "It's you, baldy, what is this about?" The one who opened the door was another old man, he looked quite short but had a healthy complexion. His eyes scanned Jared first before focusing on their group after. Marcus was surprised to see that his gaze held no wariness as he looked them over.

  "I brought you some business," Jared said as he pushed himself in, the short old man shaking his head at the intrusion, "They should have quite the collection from what I saw."

  "Oh." The short old man raised an eyebrow, his eyes once again scanning the group as he went through their armour and guns. "Well, what are we standing here for? Let's go in."

  The door led to a spacious hall, nothing about it seemed off, it was more decorated than Marcus would have thought the place needed, with paintings, decorative weapons and other such oddities all over the place, there were even a few shelves full of vases and other curiosities. But again, he didn't know how things were in this new world after all.

  Marcus, Nik, George and Leonard followed after the two old men who continued their bickering, leading them to a side room. Once inside, Marcus realised how naive he was in thinking that the hall was too decorated. The room they found themselves in was too decorated, you basically couldn't see the walls at all, every piece of it was covered by something or the other. The lower parts of the walls were also full of small shelves that had too many curiosities to count. It was to the point that Marcus had the feeling as if whatever he might search for, could be found there.

  "So what do you think of my small collection?" The short old man smiled in pride, "This is just a small part of it. If you're interested, and our deal here goes well, we can have a tour later."

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "It certainly is impressive," Marcus said, and he was being truthful, what they were seeing was pretty impressive.

  "It is, it is." The old man smiled. "Now then, why don't you sit down and show me what you have? I'm pretty sure that this old idiot wouldn't have brought you here personally if you didn't have something pretty interesting."

  Marcus gave a glance to Nik as he shook his head lightly. Even though the man was wearing the full head helmet, there was no mistaking who he might be with how hugely built he was. He didn't want him to bring out their whole treasury yet.

  "Tell me what you think of this first," Marcus said as he brought up the same pieces of goods he had shown Jared before.

  "Interesting..." The old man took one of the rings into his hand, bringing it close to his face as he studied it closely. The more he did, the deeper his frown became, eventually, he even turned to Jared as he gave him a deep look, the bald old man just returning a small nod.

  "How much of this do you have?" the short old man finally said, "The style is nothing I've ever seen, and the craftsmanship is... weird. Plus I don't know how or why they managed to get the mana in it as low as it is, it's in a minuscule amount, almost impossible."

  "So I take it you're interested?" Marcus questioned, "And let me say, there's almost no chance that someone else would bring you what we are offering, it's one of a kind."

  The old man didn't answer right away, he just looked at Marcus for quite a while, then a smile appeared on his face as he chuckled,

  "Who am I kidding, of course I'm interested. So go on, show me what you have."

  "I just need to know how much you want?" Marcus didn't call for Nik to bring it out straight away. "We brought quite a bit, are you sure you're going to take it all?"

  Marcus was there when the vaults to the gold shops were opened, he knew exactly how much they had and how much they agreed to bring to this exchange. All in all, they had around 20 kg of jewellery on the Voyager, around 350 pieces in total. It wasn't all pure gold, but as Jared said before, having it like that might add to its value.

  In that trip, they didn't bring their whole storage, only around 4 kg, and of course that didn't include the showpieces that the shops had, those were kept for other chances. And they didn't even expect to sell all they brought on this trip, it was brought just in case there was something that truly caught their eyes.

  "I'm sure that I can take whatever you show me," The old man said dismissively, "So give it to me boy."

  Only then did Marcus turn to Nik, willing for the Translation skill not to activate, he said,

  "Only bring up 1 kilo for now, only after seeing how much we are getting for it, and whether it's going to be enough for our list would we consider selling the others."

  Nik just nodded, before he raised his hand and seemed to push it to a different space entirely. It was the first time Marcus saw Nik's skill in operation, and seeing half an arm disappear into thin air was quite the experience.

  "An inventory skill?" Jared raised an eyebrow. "Those are quite rare."

  The short old man just nodded as he looked with interest, waiting for what Nik would bring out.

  What Nik brought out was a big jewellery box, which in itself was quite exquisite, giving importance to what was inside before even opening it. As Marcus accepted the box, he turned to the old man and opened it.

  "One kilo," he said flatly, "Same quality as the ones I gave you. Name your price."

  The short old man didn't comment as he extended his hand to the box, Marcus understood and pushed it to him without any further interactions.

  Again, he studied the pieces one by one. After each piece, he would think for a few seconds before putting it aside and picking another. It took quite a bit of time, but they didn't rush him, he seemed to be serious about it and since Jared brought them to him personally, he was probably trustworthy.

  "Hmm." The old man finally put the last piece aside as he fell into deep thought. "I'm done, and I have an offer for you."

  "Okay, go on," Marcus straightened up as he prepared himself.

  "If this were just normal 2nd-hand jewellery," the old man said slowly, "I would have given you around 1100 to 1300 gold coins, maybe even lower. That isn't the case though, I'm just using it as a way for you to understand what I'm basing this on, and how much I'm appreciating this. On the other hand, a kilogram of pure gold would have been around 2000 gold coins. Now, for our current situation, I'll be direct with my offer, 3000 gold coins, take it or leave it."

  Marcus didn't show it outwardly, but he felt relieved when he heard the price given. Even though he didn't know much about the prices of materials and all that, he was almost 100% sure that that would be more than they needed, by a huge margin. Allowing himself a nod, he said,

  "Okay, we will take that." He then turned to the people behind him as he asked, "Do you have the list with you?"

  Nik moved as he again took out 3 papers filled with writing, handing them to Marcus.

  "Would you help us get these materials?" he said after he went through them. Then passed the papers to Jared.

  The bald guy raised an eyebrow as soon as he took hold of the papers, after staying silent for a few seconds, just reading them, he finally passed them to the short old man who also looked them over with a light frown before saying,

  "I can have them prepared for you. Where do you need them? At the side passage or the docks?"

  "Just like that?" Marcus asked, he was quite surprised by the efficiency.

  "Wait, this idiot didn't tell you who I am, did he?" the short guy said with a chuckle, "Let me introduce myself, my name is Oswin, I'm the head of this black market."