The group of four people were walking through Astoria's noble district. There was an awkward silence between them. In class earlier, before Darrick could finish his question he was interrupted by the professor so what he asked certainly didn't sound good.

After the class ended, as per their agreement Leon set out for the location they had to be in. Leon and Darrick had to go but Jasper and Jasmine were also following them. They were a step behind these two and weren't talking.

Not like Jasper would have talked but Jasmine who was talking with Leon the whole class was quiet. Not even a single word with Leon and he also wasn't trying to talk to her for some reason. Darrick didn't know if she was mad or not.

She was neither glaring nor doing anything obvious to indicate her fury. However, Darrick knew the root of the problem was himself. If he had just finished whatever he was telling them nothing like this would have entailed.

It was too late to finish the sentence but it was never too late to apologize and clear the misunderstanding from the lack of communication so he opted to do just that.

"Uhh.. I'm sorry guys, I know what it sounded like but I swear I don't do racism. I was just asking about you guys' origin because I didn't know anything about you guys, so uh.. sorry again."

The whole tense situation melted like butter the second he apologized. Leon let out a sigh of relief. Jasper like always was quiet. He would have considered Jasper as a mute if Darrick didn't know better and lastly Jasmine, she just nodded.

What does that mean? Am I racist now?

"Phew, I really hoped you weren't some kind of racist. Thank the heavens I was right," said Leon relieved.

"Sorry If I overreacted but most of the commoners I have met would look at us like we were some museum piece and talk to us like we are some inferior existence who was somehow born in this world." Jasmine's face fell when she informed Darrick how they are treated in some places.

"That's.. fucked up! I didn't know it was that severe. I just heard you were from the central region from him but didn't know much about it."

"Some hate on us for the single fact that we aren't the same as them. Everyone assumes something about us but some assumption stems from their deep seethed hatred while some from ignorance. I can always forgive the latter one."

Leon was a bit surprised but Darrick was the one who was most shocked out of them all because he assumed Jasper wouldn't say a single thing but he gave a whole philosophical paragraph.

"Wow! You can talk in sentences! I thought you talk in one or two worlds, that's awesome."

Jasper just shrugged at the response and Leon and Jasmine laughed a bit. That was good, whatever the bad thing was there between them was probably not there anymore. At least that's what Darrick hoped.

"Okay, that's all aside what I was asking was what are you people? I'm not just referring to you two, I also included Leon in the question."

"That question was for me too? Why though?"

"When you guys just came and sat with me so many noble children also came and sat in our surroundings. That just means they want to appease you or something like that, right?"

"Oh, that? All of them are from noble families but we three are from great clans so they are trying to befriend us to get in the circle. Most people know all of us as just nobles but the status of great clans is higher. My family is one of the six families in the council of the Archon clan."

Hearing Leon was from a great clan he also expected the other two to be from some different great clan. Darrick didn't know much about this clan business but it definitely sounded like something big and he wasn't disappointed by what he learned from Jasmine.

"We both are from the Vasilleus clan. I don't think they were approaching us, we are pretty much isolated from the outside world, unlike the Archon clan. They are the ones who have the most connection in the outside world."

"Hmm, our Archon clan left the central region a few hundred years after the dark age so naturally we are better on this front."

"All of that is good and well but I think I lost the conversation somewhere here. That would be enough for me right now, I will ask if I need anything more on that. But I have a little problem here,"

Darrick heard names like central region and dark age which he had no idea about so rather than learning more about it, he dropped the conversation and picked up something else, something that is important right now.

"Money"

Their brows furrowed, Leon scratched his head thinking what it was all about. The group was attentively waiting for him to tell them what the little problem was and when they heard it they were confused at first and then slowly realized what was the actual problem.

"Ah! You would need a good amount of money to buy the blueprints, I didn't think about that at all." Jasmine gasped at the situation for some reason, she probably thought it would rub the wrong way to Darrick who probably didn't have much money.

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"To be completely honest with you, I had forgotten about that but I just thought of something else that would help in the situation. it would help all of us really."

Darrick was anticipating what it was. If this was something that would help him financially then it was good and the other two were also listening because Leon said it was beneficial for everyone.

"Dungeons."

Leon suggested the one thing Darrick hadn't even started studying about as his solution to the money problem. Darrick didn't question anything, he just looked at all of them in a quick passing but not so quick that nobody noticed.

"Do you want all of us, not just him to go for dungeons to earn money? Can't we loan him some money for now and he can return it someday."

"Of course, we can lend some money now but what about the next time, what about after that? The dungeons would be a great help to earn stable money with relatively moderate risk. Also, it's not just about him, we also need to fight some monsters in a real environment to get the gist of our powers and consolidate them." Then he turned towards Darrick.

"For now we can just lend you some money to buy the things and we will go to a dungeon tomorrow afternoon to fight some monsters. You can have all of the monster parts, it doesn't matter if you sell them for money or use it as materials in artifact making. How about this?"

The situation was unfolding very fast but when it pointed to him his answer was already decided.

"I.. love this plan! To be honest, I didn't have any idea about how I was supposed to make money so why would I refuse it at all? Let's go with it."

Many may be averse to the idea of taking money from you but Darrick wasn't. He just has to earn and return it, that's all. No interest rate, just return as much as you have taken. just be sure to return it, even if your friend is very rich and wouldn't ask about small amounts.

"Darrick there is no pressure on when you have to return it so don't try something dangerous like artifact making without any supervision. I heard it's really hard and dangerous at the beginning of your learning."

"Really!? It wasn't that tough when I created my first artifact yesterday. It wasn't easy but I wouldn't call it that much of difficult either. For what it's worth, it was nothing." Darrick replied to Jasmine in surprise as he brought out the artifact from his pockets.

I really forgot to put it back in inventory today morning. It was there in my pocket all morning. This shouldn't warrant much attention since it's just a common artifact.

"Wow! That's awesome of you to make an actual artifact. Were you studying the artifact-making from before?" Jasmine's eyes were glowing with curiosity with the revelations.

"I have seen some artifacts before but I haven't witnessed any artifact being made. I just thought up a design and mechanics for this artifact, then I just made it. It turned out great in my opinion for my first successful artifact."

"Can I touch the artifact if you don't mind? I won't do anything to it just checking on surface level."

"Yeah, of course. I would love to have someone else's opinion on my artifact." Darrick handed her the artifact. "His name is Fulminar."

She carefully took it and examined it from all sides. She was more interested in the patterns on them than the shape or function of the artifact.

"Your runes are really good. This level of work for the common artifact is just above and beyond. The rune carvings are so intricate, it's actually better than the most magic engineers who claim to be at tier 3 or even 4."

And her praises turned into questioning as they kept walking.

***

Leon stopped abruptly. The invitation had a map so he was the one who was leading the group but now they were in front of a rundown store. It looked very old and was mostly made up of wooden materials. The ceiling had a lot of holes and walls were cracked wherever the eyes could see.

The group looked at each other's faces not knowing what to do. If this was their supposed destination then that was disappointing. They didn't want to judge the book by its cover but in this case, they couldn't help but do it.

"Is this the store or are we in the wrong place?" Darrick questioned.

"I think we are at the right place, I'm not hundred percent sure though. It's illegal business so this maybe the cover but inside it maybe vastly different so let's just go in." Leon said positively hoping.

Darrick headed there first. He pushed the door very carefully so as not to break it and stepped inside, the wooden floor below creaked loudly, very loudly. It even woke up the shopkeeper who was sleeping on the counter.

The guy stood up and looked around him like someone came to kill him. The worry and fear on his face were evident about how dangerous this place was but there was nothing here. Behind Darrick, everyone stepped inside making loud creaking noises. Leon was the last to come in, when the store owner saw him he deeply bowed.

"Respected Sirs and Madam, I hope you can show your invitation before I open the door." Said the shopkeeper still in a bowing position and stretching out his hands. Leon pulled out the invitation out of nowhere, likely from the spatial ring of his and handed it to the guy. He straightened back up and gestured for them to follow him as he went deeper into the store.

Jasmine slowly crept up to Leon and whispered, "What is this place? Where are we following the guy?" although everyone heard her whisper.

"We will know in a minute."

The shopkeeper was doing weird hand signs and was sending some unique pattern of mana towards the door in front of him covered in runes. It was a magical door, the path to somewhere.

There was no sound whatsoever when the hand signing was done and the door opened with a silence. The shopkeeper stepped inside after he said, "Please, come after me." and everyone stepped inside without any question.

What if this place is dangerous? We are going inside like mindless bums. We should have been more cautious.

There was a bright light hitting his face when Darrick passed through the door. Darrick winced a bit, he was expecting to face the darkness because of what he had in mind about a 'Black market' but it was nothing like that from step one. It was like every other market he had seen, people had installed their stalls at the side of the road beside one another. However, whatever they were selling did meet his expectations of the black market.

There was a large pile of white powder in the glass container. The vendor was filling the bag and handing it out for the big pouches of money. Darrick couldn't contain his curiosity and asked, "What is that white powder?"

The shopkeeper who was working as their guide right now answered right away, "That's flour made of Kurki wheat. That is monopolized by a certain company and they only sell it in very short quantity in outside markets. Someone got the seeds for it and is selling it here, they are too afraid to sell it in the open."

"Oh.." Darrick was disappointed about his first guess being so wrong but when he carefully looked around there were just common food items and things. They were trailing behind the shopkeeper while looking around the market and they arrived at their destination.

"Jimmy's whatever you want store."