Everyone within earshot of Nicolas and me glanced in our direction and studied me from head to toe with upturned noses. No one seemed particularly thrilled to see me alive. Drayek had mentioned there was a lot of distaste toward Drayek’s choice to bring me on that hunt in the first place.

“Maybe the other Hunters in Drayek’s party wouldn’t have died if they hadn’t been distracted by an UnMarked.”

I couldn’t find who had whispered the rude remark and felt my face burn with a mixture of anger and shame.

After a few moments of silent disapproval shot in my direction, the crowd went back to ignoring me and continued with their business.

“What have you got in your sack today, Rayden? Any cores? Monster hearts?”

I nodded and scanned the wares he had displayed in his booth. Nicolas also had monster parts, cores, and a few pieces of Tier 1 armor. When shopping at the Markets, you could often make a trade with the items you had on hand or purchase goods with Edronan currency, Euridicean Coins, or just “coins” for short. The denominations of the coins progressed from copper to silver and then to gold, gold being the highest valued Euridicean Coin. One gold was worth 10 silver coins, and one silver coin was worth 10 copper.

I peered into the sack Drayek had given me and found three small monster hearts, all from smaller Rockcrawlers, and a larger heart from a Nagari. Among the hearts, I counted four cores glowing a dim white, dim because their power had already started to fade since their retrieval from previous hosts. I also had 10 gold coins, 30 silver, and 20 copper in a small leather pouch tied to my trousers just above my hip.

I pursed my lips as I studied the wares Nicolas offered and shrugged. “I’m not sure you have anything of value for me to trade, but I can offer you some things for coins if you’d like.”

I held the sack forward and opened it up for him to see. He narrowed his eyes at my offering.

“Eh… I can give you one gold for each heart.”

The Record Keeper, a frail woman with beady eyes, sat poised with her quill as she waited for the two of us to strike a deal.

I’d been to enough Markets with Drayek to know how to haggle. So, I laughed.

“Oh, no. One of those hearts is a Nagari heart, and the others are worth two, at least.”

Nicolas rolled his eyes. “Fine, two gold each heart, three gold and five silver for the Nagari heart, and you throw in one of those cores.”

I tapped my chin thoughtfully, then eventually nodded. It was as fair a price as I’d get from him. First, I handed him the four hearts wrapped in sturdy paper to keep any unwanted juices from spilling out, and then I reached for one of the smaller cores.

As the tips of my fingers brushed across the smooth surface of the orb, I felt a rush of warmth dash into me like an internal breeze on a hot day. It felt like I had just absorbed a good deal of essence.

I stared at the core I had just tried to retrieve and noticed the orb’s glow had disappeared entirely. Had I sucked it dry of all its power? Usually, Edronans had to swallow a core to absorb its essence, but I had merely touched it with two fingers. Did my Tier 1 Skill make it this way? Maybe I had an easier time absorbing essence just in general….

I scooped up the now dead core, hiding it within my trousers quickly before anyone could notice, and gestured for Nicolas to just pick one of the others from the sack. Even with all I knew about her, I found myself praying to Euridice out of habit–praying that Nicolas wouldn’t notice one of the cores had suddenly gone missing. Not revealing the missing core’s existence to a Record Keeper would get me into trouble.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Thankfully, he didn’t notice. And, of course, he picked the largest core, about half an inch in diameter, but I couldn’t avoid the Tradesman picking my best core after I’d offered him the choice.

The Record Keeper scribbled away on her parchment, recording our transaction, as Nicolas counted out the agreed-upon coins from his own pouch and placed them into my outstretched palm. Lady Euridice’s profile glimmered on the silver and gold surfaces of each coin, making me think once again about Lord Solomon and the truth he’d revealed about the goddess. But I pushed those thoughts away and tucked the coins into my money pouch.

After leaving Nicolas, I quickly sold the other two cores for coins at other Tradespeople’s booths. All the while receiving cold stares and unfriendly whispers, but I ignored them. In the end, I came away with 27 gold coins, 38 silver, and 10 copper in total jingling at my hip. Then, throwing the now empty sack over my shoulder, I went to find Drayek.

I found him leaning over a booth with planted hands, the veins in his forearms pulsing as he drew in closer and closer to the Tradeswoman to further yell in her face.

“You think that is fair?” he shouted. “Really? Explain to me why you think one gold for a core–any core–is a worthwhile trade?”

I chuckled. Drayek always got heated at the Markets, but it worked for him. Seldom did he not get his way in the end.

As I reached his side, the Tradeswoman rolled her eyes and finally offered him five gold coins for a decently sized core–maybe even an inch in diameter. He gave a curt nod, tucked away the money with glaring eyes, then led us far and away from the woman’s booth.

“How’d you do?” Drayek said as we maneuvered our way through the packed crowd.

I relayed my totals to him.

He shot a glance back at me. “Respectable but a little low….”

I nodded. “Yeah, I–may have accidentally absorbed the essence from one of the cores you gave me, so I couldn’t sell it.”

“How, may I ask, did you accidentally absorb a core’s essence?” He pulled me over to the side and away from the crowd. “Did it jump out of the sack and land in your mouth?”

I shook my head. “Apparently, I don’t have to swallow a core to take its essence.”

Drayek’s brows rose. He rubbed his chin and glanced around to make sure there were no listening ears.

“That is beyond incredible, Rayden. And curious.”

He continued to study me. I could see the many thoughts churning within his dark eyes.

But all he said next was, “Let’s make our final purchases.”

We continued our shopping, this time finding things to buy with our money. We bought fresh bread, dried meat, and other food to keep us going for about two weeks.

“Rayden, come look at this!”

I returned to where Drayek stood and found him studying a set of immaculately polished armor. An abundance of smith-made silver scales made up the breastplate in a mesmerizing pattern of swirls. The rest of the armor matched, and it came with a pair of night-black leather gloves and boots.

“Blacksmith Gerald made this?” Drayek asked the Tradesman.

The old man nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, yes! Finest Tier 1 armor he’s ever made, he said. “I also used my Skill to add Echoing Defense to the armor.”

I perked up. I’d always wanted a set of armor enhanced by a Tradespeople Skill. Many of the Tradespeople had Skills that allowed them to upgrade the wares they sold, especially weapons and armor, in order to charge more for the pieces and make further profit. This Tradesman, Leander, was known for his Echoing Defense spell–a spell that allowed him to place a defense enhancement into armor. Echoing Defense triggers when an enemy strikes the armor, thus repelling 10% of the opponent’s force back onto them.

“I’m only asking for 44 gold coins or something worthy of trade,” Leander said.

I knew what Drayek was thinking. I needed another set of Tier 1 armor. The set Drayek had lent me for the disastrous hunt had been lost in Solomon’s cave.

“But Drayek,” I whispered, “that’s almost all we have left.”

Drayek and I had only 45 gold coins left between the two of us and a few silver and copper, which would mean Drayek would have to bring back a lot of good loot from his hunts before we needed to go to the Markets again.

“This is important,” Drayek murmured back.

The old Tradesman wrinkled his brow at us, more than likely suspicious as to why Drayek would need to buy a Tier 1 armor when he was Tier 3, and I was UnMarked. But he didn’t argue as Drayek procured both of our money pouches.

“I will give you 38,” Drayek said.

“43.”

“40.”

“Done.”

Drayek deposited the money into the man’s hand as the nearby Record Keeper jotted down the deal, all the while glancing up at us curiously again and again.

Drayek took the armor from the booth, and we retreated from the Markets before anyone could stop us with any unwelcome questions.