Marcus found himself looking at Jared in true surprise, he never would have expected that he would lead them to the head of the black market himself, it felt like a few steps had been skipped along the way.

  He then remembered how there were no guards or the like at the door, even the house seemed to be empty of anyone else but the old man, Oswin it seemed. That was one of the reasons that made Marcus lower his guard a bit, but he realised that he had overlooked something, in this world you didn't need guards if you reached a certain level of power. A memory of how the man looked more intrigued and interested than anything when he laid eyes on them at the door flashed through his mind; it might be that he didn't consider them a threat at all.

  "Don't worry, don't worry," the short old man, Oswin, said, he must have noticed them stiffening a bit. "It wouldn't be right for me to hurt you after making a deal with you now, would it? Let's just continue with the matter at hand alright?"

  "Okay." Marcus brought his nerves under control as he nodded. "So how much do you think the materials there would set us back?"

  "About 1600 golds, give or take," he replied as he shrugged, "It's quite the huge amount that you're ordering, should be able to cover the needs of a small guild, with their production Classes and all, for a month or two."

  His heart calming down a bit, he finally allowed a measure of comfort to start growing inside his heart. It wasn't just because it seemed that the deal was going well, but also because they got a confirmation, and from quite the character too, that what they had was going to be enough to keep them occupied for a month or two. It meant that no matter what would happen, they had enough to survive for a good while in the open water, while growing stronger still.

  While he was still lost in his thoughts, he felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned around to see one of the guards, who he guessed must have been Robert, nodding at him. Closing in on the chief officer, he only heard one sentence,

  "Double the metals, chemical and alchemical materials."

  He frowned at the request but still nodded. When Dan wasn't there, Robert was the highest authority on the administrative side, if he saw that they needed to double their metals and the other components, then he would do as told.

  "What would be the case if we double the amount of metals and alchemical and chemical materials?" he asked as he looked at Oswin.

  "That's quite an interesting request." The short old man raised an eyebrow, but just waved his hand as he said, "Let's see, I'm going to round it out to 2000 gold coins? Is that alright with you?"

  "It's alright." He nodded. He didn't care about how many gold coins they used, what mattered was what they turned it into. Money and jewellery would mean nothing if they were caught one day, they would only be spoils for their new master.

  "Okay, great doing business with you." He extended his hand to Marcus. "Let us have some light conversation while waiting for everything to be prepared. Here Jared, go see about getting everything ready."

  "Making me run around for you, at this old age?" Jared looked pretty ruffled by his request. He still got up and left the room though, grumbling all the way.

  "So tell me," Oswin said, "Where did you get those pieces of jewellery?"

  "Home." Marcus saw no need to lie, especially considering that the man might have a way to detect that. "They were brought by us from home."

  "Interesting," the old man murmured, "I take it it's the same for your friends' weapons and getup? It's quite interesting really."

  "Yes." Marcus just nodded, he honestly didn't want to stay there that much, he would prefer to get moving to the docks, and await their cargo there.

  "Where is your home exactly?" Oswin pushed, "I don't think I've heard anyone use the language you spoke before, not to mention the distinct style of jewellery you brought me. I wouldn't say I'm familiar with all the greatest jewellers in the world, but it wouldn't be far off if I said I was. Their pieces are easy to spot, rarely would something like mistaking a master's work happen, do you know why?"

  "Mana?" Marcus thought back to the word the old man said before.

  "Exactly." He smiled. "It's mana. All the greatest masters are people who are quite high levelled in their Classes, it's to be expected really, the more you make, the more experience you get, the more experience you get the higher your level rises, it balances out. But the pieces you bought me though? They had none of that. They weren't as well-made as some of the pieces by the greatest masters, but a few of them were close, and for that to be achieved without any hint of mana or magical shaping? It's quite interesting indeed."

  "Our home has a few different customs here and there," was all Marcus could say, "It's not a surprise that you would find our approaches different or unique."

  "Where is your home exactly though?" Oswin suddenly asked what Marcus knew was coming, "I don't think you've mentioned that yet."

  "It's far away." Marcus again tried to give statements that wouldn't show up as lies. "So far that I'm almost sure that you've met no one from there."

  Oswin looked at him deeply searching for something from his expression, but he must have seen nothing because he just chuckled lightly as he said,

  "You can come in you old bat. Don't you think that eavesdropping at your age is quite disgraceful?"

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  "What eavesdropping? I just got back." Jared's shameless laughter sounded out as he pushed the door open.

  "Is everything done?" Oswin asked.

  "Yes, I've put someone on it." Jared waved his hand dismissively. "You didn't expect me to be running around finishing your tasks at my age, did you?"

  As he watched the exchange between them, Marcus realised something. The reason Jared left without any resistance after Oswin told him to wasn't because of the order itself, but because it was something he himself wanted, it gave Oswin the chance to question them without his interference, sending him away even lowered their guard. Only after realising that he could get nothing else from them without pushing too hard, did Oswin call him back.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw Robert stiffen too, as if he had also realised what had just transpired. Marcus tried not to show anything on his face as he looked at Oswin,

  "We hope to have a walk around the market, something not on our list might catch our interest."

  He left it unsaid, but he was basically asking for the 1000 gold coins. He just hoped the old man wouldn't try to hold them back.

  "Oh, of course." Surprisingly Oswin didn't even seem to have thought about that, he agreed straight away. "Let me go get your coins."

  He then stood up and left, leaving them again with Jared who just sat down again.

  "If he's the black market's master, then what are you?" Marcus was surprised to hear Robert's voice from behind him. He didn't interfere though, the question was one he had too.

  "I'm his vice," Jared answered carelessly, "Deputy, 2nd hand or whatever you might call it."

  Marcus's surprise wasn't that big this time, he kinda expected it. From the way the old men spoke to each other and how he approached him in the beginning, he guessed that Jared must have held another important position in the market.

  "Here is your money," Oswin said as he returned to the room, putting a big bag on the table with a thud. "Happy doing business with you."

  "Same, it was our pleasure," Marcus said as he stood up and took the bag from the table. He expected it to be heavy from the sound it made when it was dropped. Surprisingly though, other than a bit of resistance he felt at first, the bag was extremely light.

  "It's a gift for me," Oswin said, "Don't worry about it."

  Marcus just nodded as he passed the bag to Nik who put it into his Inventory.

  "We will be leaving now," he said to the two old men, "Again, thank you for making this as easy as it was for us."

  "No need, no need." Oswin smiled. He was about to say more but Jared beat him to it,

  "We will join you, we have nothing to do after all, might as well."

  Marcus watched as Oswin stopped mid-speech then looked at his deputy. It was just a glance, a split-second when their eyes met, but it must have been enough, because Oswin did a 180 as he continued with the same smile,

  "Yes, might as well."

  "Okay," Marcus eventually said. It was all he could do at that point, he couldn't possibly say no, he was sure that they would just join anyway.

  With that, the group left the building. Marcus had just used window shopping as an excuse to get their money and leave, but as they walked through the market things appeared here and there that aroused their interest.

  From different magical weapons, swords, spears, javelins, bows and arrows, to some books that they didn't include in the list like some literature in the native language of the Alliance, which turned out to be quite close to the Empire's. All those and more were things that they went for. It also helped that they were shopping with the master of the black market and his deputy. Turns out that having such people with you made many things easier.

  After their walk, they made their way to the docks again. Along the way, Marcus wondered if he should ask about whether they would buy those sticky weeds from them, but he eventually decided against it. It would help to know that they have a buyer for the material before even getting it, but that could make them guess their coming destination, it was too much of a risk.

  "Well that's something," Oswin said once they were close enough for the tenders to be seen. Marcus didn't miss the glance he gave to Jared who nodded.

  At that point, carriage after carriage was already arriving at the docks, dropping different materials to be loaded into the tenders. Marcus didn't miss the uniformed people that he found out to be the guards of the black market. He knew that they were there both for them and for the cargo being dropped, it wasn't an insignificant amount after all.

  Things went fast from there, other than an episode when Oswin asked to take a look at the tender from the inside, Marcus refused, nothing major happened.

  They weren't just waiting for their cargo to be brought without doing anything, Nik used his Inventory to haul their cargo to the tenders, making it quite quick.

  They did leave all the metals and heavy materials last though. Their plan was both to see if they could maybe leave a full tender for them, and to see whether Nik's Inventory could maybe hold them all. After all, it didn't care about weight. Eventually, Nik managed to put 2 thirds of the heavy materials in his Inventory, they really bought too much.

  They paid farewell to the two old men, Oswin seemed to still hold some interest in the tenders, but he fortunately didn't try to force anything. Just as they were about to separate for good, Robert again spoke from next to Marcus,

  "Tell Corgan that we accept the olive branch."

  Marcus saw Oswin freeze at the mention of the name, it was honestly the same for him, he didn't know where Robert came up with that.

  "Okay." It was Jared who answered, his expression serious.

  With that, they left the black market, the stone wall closing behind them, but the glowing line was still there. Marcus casually noted how it seemed to be a different path this time.

  The mission finally ending, Marcus allowed himself to relax a bit. It was probably the most risk they took so far, fortunately, it ended well.

  The tenders were a bit slow and wobbly from the weight, especially the ones they modified, removing the seats must have messed with their centers a bit. Still, they left the range of the glowing line without trouble, making their way to the Voyager.

  They moved for a long while, getting close and closer to their destination, as he thought he maybe saw the shape of the fog covered Voyager in the distance, Marcus suddenly heard,

  "We are being followed."