John closed his seals and recovered from his use of devil transformation. He made sure to change out his clothes which had gotten messed up from charging through the ground.

He was surprised to see that in this seemingly random town, there was artifacts for sell in the market! He used his spiritual sense and not a single person was a mortal! Even the children were acolytes, that somehow had a magic core.

John had acquired a map from the principal. He found out quite quickly the name of the town and knew his location. He flew towards the high level gathering point!

He eventually saw a giant black tree. It reminded him of the old tree that was once in his sea of consciousness. This tree was a kilometer tall!

It seemed to be completely hallow. He walked to the entrance and somebody asked him for the password.

John simply walked away... waited for his mental energy to fully recover.

Used Creature Illusion to become invisible.

He then teleported through the checkpoint.

He was in the market!

He cancelled creature illusion and a kid ran up to him.

"Sir... I have never seen you before. Is this your first time in the black market? I know all the places! I can take you to any of the shops. I charge 1 magic stone a day."

"Good."

John reached into his storage dimension and threw out a low grade magic stone.

The kids eyes lit up.

"Do you know where they sell astral stones?"

The kid frowned.

"I do. It is in the infinity shop. The owner is a bit eccentric though..."

"What rank is he at?"

"Rank 4, I believe."

John took a deep breath. It was time for him to meet someone of a similar power as him!

"Lead the way!"

Soon John was brought to a magnificent shop.

Sitting at the counter drinking tea was the rank 4.

"What do you wish to buy?"

John pulled out a pouch from his storage dimension and threw it at the rank 4.

"1000 mid grade magic stones?"

The rank 4 didn't seem to be impressed.

"This is barely enough to buy a low grade astral stone. What was it you were buying?"

"Exactly that."

"Hmm..."

It seemed that the rank 4 wasn't planning to give him the astral stone.

John let out some of his killing intent as a nascent soul.

The rank 4 took it as a domain.

"I see... you're a rank 4 hiding your power!"

The rank 4 pulled out an astral stone from his spatial ring and threw it at John.

John caught it and put it in his storage dimension and then left.

His guide was waiting for him outside.

"Where do they sell rank 2 spell models?"

"Models? What is that?"

John was surprised.

"The passive spells needed to breakthrough?"

"Aren't those inherited from your bloodline?"

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John had forgotten that most people here were warlocks.

Of course they didn't have spell models here.

He was a bit disappointed at this fact. He supposed he would need to continue to stay at the academy to breakthrough to rank 2.

Surely the entire subterranean world had to sell spell models somewhere.

It was just this guide didn't know about them, as they were very niche.

As John was about to walk out of the black market.

He walked past some slaves for sell.

The slave seller saw him look and waved at him.

"Are you interested in buying some? 100 magic stones for one. They are all warlocks with a rank 1 bloodline."

John was surprised.

"Mages are being sold?"

They were the same rank as him! It seemed that those at rank 1 were at the bottom of society in this layer.

John thought about it. But he simply didn't need a slave. He could create bodies to do any grunt work he needed. Or he could simply do it himself.

The person seeing his hesitation said:

"I'll sell them at a 50% discount! 50 magic stones for each one."

John figured he could do a good deed.

"I'll buy all of them."

The man's eyes opened wide in shock.

"Sir, I have 20. That'll be 1000 magic stones..."

John took out 10 mid grade magic stones and paid for them.

"Sir! Please wait! This is a big deal for me. I'll ensure quality."

"What do you mean?"

"They all have slave collars on. Each one is unique. Allow me time to get the controllers for them."

The man ran away and came back after a few minutes.

He was out of breath and holding a box.

"Here you go."

John took the box and put it in his storage dimension.

After seeing him access a storage dimension, the seller became even more respectful.

"He could potentially be a rank 4..."

Spatial artifacts were only used by the cream of the crop. The people that were high up in power.

The guide was surprised at John's wealth.

"How many entrances are there to this market?"

"There are dozens."

John made sure to exit a different way to avoid trouble. He did attract some attention from the line of 20 slaves following him. Half were men, the other half women.

A man ran up to him.

"I see you are a man of culture. I have a princess that I'll sell for 500 magic stones. She is untouched. If-"

"Sorry, not interested."

The person was a rank 2!

But when he looked into the eyes of John, it was as if he was sucked into a blackhole. He became dazed for a moment and then backed off.

John looked like a mortal. But those were extremely rare and wouldn't have such wealth.

Nobody knew John was capable of creating mid grade magic stones with a simple cast of a tier 6 spell.

He essentially had infinite money.

It just took time.

John left the market as the guide looked for others to guide.

The twenty people he had with him were depressed and not looking forward to their futures.

But John had no need for slaves.

He bought them on a whim. After walking a few kilometers from the market he started to talk with them. He took out the box from his storage dimension and read the instructions.

He took off their slave collars and destroyed the controllers.

"You all are free!"

John waited for them to run away at the prospect of freedom. But they just stayed there in a daze.

"Do you guys not want freedom?"

One of them spoke:

"Is this a test? Those that leave will be killed by you!"

"Not a test. You are all free to go."

"Where can we go? We have no homes anymore, no family. There isn't even a point to continue living..."

John gave each of them a mid grade magic stone.

"There, you now all have quite a bit of wealth."

Another spoke:

"I'll just get captured again. There is no future, the path is cut off."

"We are the scum of society. Our limits are rank 1. We'll never be able to break past the bloodline shackles. What bloodline do you have?"

John laughed.

"I am not a warlock!"

They all gasped in surprise.

It had been thousands of years since this layer had seen a regular magus!

In this environment. Their future could be limitless!

They just needed to latch on to this once in a lifetime chance!

The twenty people knelt down on their knees and bowed.

"We greet the master! Please don't abandon us!"

They each came up to him and handed him back the mid grade magic stone.

John didn't think he would all of a sudden have so many servants.

"I suppose, they could help me explore other worlds... I'll just need to train them."

Warlocks didn't pull magic from the magic matrix. They got their energy from the originator of their bloodline.

John still needed to build an astral gate.

But who was he? He was a formations 'god'! He could fabricate a gateway using ordinary materials.

John was interested in exploring chaotic space using the astral. Although he could explore other worlds using his ability of his skeletal body that had fused with the laws from that blue cube on that mysterious throne.

But he still had to bother going through the afterlife, if he wanted to use his spells.

From what he had read. You had to be able to withstand the spatial fluctuations in the chaotic space to crossover to other worlds.

This wasn't something a rank 1 could withstand.

So these former slaves would likely die.

Unless...

He found a way to strengthen them. Wasn't that one of his main issues? He was a glass canon that could dish out a lot of damage, but in turn would damage himself in the process.

What if he used these people and started his own organization?

That's it! He could use the immortalize spell on them! He could build up a force. He could also experiment with forcefully cultivating bodies besides his own.

They lacked spiritual roots. But they still had dantians.

If he made progress in this direction. Perhaps he could find a way to speed up the accumulation of his bodies durability.

John was quite excited at the prospect of creating his own network of people.

There was a benefit to doing this. It put less strain on his soul system.

These people would likely be loyal as well!

He had so many experiments to try.

For example. He was proficient in messing with his own soul. He could even search the soul of others or inject information in them.

He could store their souls out of the Otz room and store them in his Infinite Maze. Locked away safely.

Warlocks were shackled by the bloodline? What if John could figure out a way around this?

These people all had the native attribute on their souls.

The world will wouldn't reject them, just like it wouldn't reject him.

John decided to build a base in this subterranean world.

It was time to build his organization!

As for its name?