"Mr Lionheart, right on time. Please have a seat." The adventurer from earlier in the day said as he motioned towards an empty chair.

As Ryan drew the chair he glanced around the room, taking in the visage of the other adventurers, they were a small group of two males and two females.

A man, a male dwarf, a fairy and an elf.

It was alittle weird seeing a representative of two thirds of the races in the Eternal Realm seated together in harmony. It was as though they had in a way managed to form a strong bond over... Dungeoneering?.

"We have been expecting you, Mr Lionheart." The dwarf said.

"Indeed, it has been difficult finding a promising merchant that is unaffiliated at this point. Ah, where are my manner's. I can't believe that I have become as Ill-mannered as the boys," the fairy cackled, covering her mouth in mock shock before continuing.

"I'd like to introduce you to our merry little group. My name is Sasha, the dwarf over there is Uro, My field sister here is Freya and finally the leader of our ragtag group of adventurers is Cicero. Feel free to call him Cici," The elf said with a melodic laugh that made Ryan blush.

"Heyy, Sasha we've discussed this before, haven't I told you before to stop telling people to call me cici. It's bad enough you guys have refused to stop calling me that. Now the other group leaders think I'm a sissy because you guys keep calling me cici, and now look, even the merchant is laughing" cicero said while pointing at the still blushing Ryan.

Ryan tried to speak but all that came out was a bunch of gibberish as he was still tongue tied by the sound of the elf's voice.

"Aha, he can't even form a sentence because he's so caught up in the absurdity of it all,". Cicero said while mock glaring at sasha.

"Oh give it a rest cici, you know she does it out of love, it isn't as though we don't hear you guy's going back and forth at night," Freya said with flourish, winking at Ryan.

Sasha and Cicero's faces turned a bright shade of red as the pair looked like they'd had their dirty laundry aired out.

" Acc-usat-ions, fal-se acc-usa-tions," Cicero managed to splutter out.

"Yer two should know that my warhammer makes less noise during battles, than the pair of you make during... Night battles." The dwarf said with a smirk as he caressed his braided beard, as though he was lost in thought.

If the pair were mildy red before, they were probably as red as ready to harvest tomatoes at this point, Sasha even seemed to gasp for a second there, before composing herself.

"You short bastard, how could you say such a thing. Infront of dinner guest for that matter. I wholeheartedly apologize for this unruly behavior Mr Lionheart. I assure you we are professionals on the field." Cicero said while looking at Ryan as though expecting the merchant to save him from his current predicament.

"Professional he says, maybe if you'd actually slept instead of doing, you know, during the night before our big fight I might not have need of this sling." The dwarf lamented while holding out his arm in a sling.

At this point Ryan burst out laughing, not as loud a laugh as he would've in the messy inn but still loud enough to be picked up by nearby patrons who shot him withering and judgmental glares.

Holding up his hand to signify an apology he faced the group, still bickering amongst themselves and Ryan couldn't remember the last time that he'd had random conversations like this.

It was usually just him and his ale and rickety bed, that begged the question, what fun was making money if there was nobody to spend it on.

"...eart, Mr Lionheart," Cicero called.

Ryan's mid snapped back into focus as he heard his name being called.

The entire table was quiet as the occupants of the table stared at him intently.

"I told yer all, the man was bored out of his mind of all yer problems" Uro said.

"I'm sorry, I assure you that wasn't it. I just lost focus for a moment there, and please, call me Ryan" Ryan said.

"Well, Ryan. I suppose it's time for us to get to the crux of the matter, yes?" Cicero said with a serious face. A stark contrast to the personality he'd just showcased minutes ago.

"Yes." Ryan answered unsure what the answer to that question was.

"Sasha, please do your thing," Cicero said.

The nearby sounds that had been cause by the other patrons shut off abruptly.

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Ryan looked around and noticed that the other patrons were still talking but he couldn't even hear what they were saying. Infact he could barely hear anything but his breathing.

"Neat trick aye." Uro rumbled with a smirk, the dwarf somewhat giddy.

Ryan was a little dumbstruck. It was his first time seeing something like this.

He heard about thing's like this, they were adventurers that had skills that could cause effects like this and there were also artifacts that could mimic the same effect, although at a much lower efficiency.

"What was that ?" Ryan asked in awe.

"A little something to ensure privacy while we share … crucial information. No sound comes in, and nothing goes out," Cicero said with his aloof expression back on.

Ryan became more concerned and interested in whatever information that required this level of privacy.

"Well, you've got my full attention." Ryan said

"Fantastic, where to start, where to start. Uro... You take this one," Cicero said as he leaned into his chair, staring intently at Ryan.

An action that made ryan feel really uncomfortable. It was as though he was being interrogated or interviewed.

"Could you please tell us about your experience with the Looter's Heaven ?" Uro asked.

Ryan had to stop himself from letting out a stream of profanities directed at the infernal institution.

One reason was because of the Inn he was currently in.

The second was the fact that he didn't exactly know who these adventurers were working for. Most high ranking adventurers didn't go far without affiliating themselves to one house, faction or institution.

They were of course, adventurers that were unaffiliated but you'd have an easier time finding a needle in a haystack.

So, he had to be neutral and careful with his words and tone.

"They're the biggest franchise in this part of the Eternal realm and they are rumored to have fronts scattered throughout the eternal realm." Ryan said calmly.

Uro let out a snort at the answer receiving a look from Cicero in return.

"What ?, the Merchant is clearly hanging over the fence with those words. I've seen more emotion from a child losing their candy, meanwhile he's supposed to be a business man competing with a franchise that can crush him without even trying." Uro said.

"Take it easy Uro, not everyone is as hot headed as you and perhaps you could learn a thing or two about using words from the merchant," Freya said with a sigh.

"I think he just wants to make sure he's on the safe side no matter what he says, smart man." Sasha said flashing Ryan a smile.

"That might be, but Ryan, we need alot more than that. Tell us what YOU think about the Looter's Heaven, what you really think about them, without holding back a single thing." Cicero said still staring at Ryan.

At this point, he didn't really have much to lose, he had to be smart but his senses was telling him this was something of a safe space.

"They're nothing more than parasites, killing the merchanting world, destroying anything and anyone they touch, they are killing the free spirit of the market and they need to be stopped." Ryan said coating each and every word with as much anger and bitterness as he could muster.

"Yassss, that's what I'm talking about. This lad right here is the real deal, the Looter's Heaven is nothing but a cancer. I knew yer had it in you lad" Uro said excitedly.

"Give it a rest Uro, you're scaring the man," Freya murmured. The fairy trying but failing to keep the smile of her face.

"Bahh, the man clearly doesn't like them at all," Uro retorted.

"Would the two of you stop flirting, we're trying to have a serious conversation," Cicero said pausing to make sure the message reached the intended targets before continuing."I'm glad you share the same sentiments as us Ryan. I'd like to tell you that we've actually been looking into the workings of the looters heaven and we think that there's something odd happening with their potions"

Well, well , well. Ryan was as curious as the cat. Cicero's last statement had caught him like a bait gets the fish, and like the fish and the cat he wouldn't let this escape him.

"What does that mean?"

"Well, the potions seems to be a little bit too addictive to those on the lower levels. We thought it was just us being a lit bit over critical when we noticed those low level adventurers drinking minor health potions at every opportunity that they had." sasha said.

"You should see how they behave in the dungeons. Drinking a potion even that moderately priced at every small cut is suspicious, but opening up wounds on their bodies just to drink potions was what set off alarm bells in our heads." Freya said.

"We suspected that there was a new outbreak that we'd have to deal with. After carefully following most of the people that we could to confirm if it was an outbreak, we found out that two thirds of the people that behaved like that were patrons of the looters heaven," Cicero sighed

"Uro here even had an episode of his own recently. I decided not to take any risk at the moment with the rest of the stock, so we only drank potions from our stock pile. Eventually leading to us emptying our stores,"

"Now we need a merchant that we know isn't affiliated with the Looter's heaven, to supply us with potions, in exchange we would be open to sharing the word about your shop to other adventurers," Sasha said.

Cicero's arms rested on the table as he waited for Ryan's answer.

"So if I'm getting this straight, you guy's think that Looter's Heaven are intentionally tainting their potions to make adventurers get addicted to it." Ryan asked.

"Are yer daft lad? We aren't saying anything, we suspect, but it isn't facts at this point," Uro said harshly.

That was the first time he'd seen the dwarfs tone shift to serious during their conversation and the atmosphere at the table immediately became tense. The tension at the table was so thick and palpable that you could cut it with a knife.

"Listen Ryan. We can't really say for certain that Looter's Heaven are tainting their potions. Heck, even if it was true, we couldn't exactly just go out and start screaming it." Cicero said easily, dropping the tension down to zero.

Ryan sighed and rubbed his temple.

"Why can't you guys just band together and challenge them?" Ryan asked.

"That seems like the reasonable solution, no? However, when we take into account the amount of adventurers that have seemingly disappeared during dungeon runs after challenging them, we get cold feet." Sasha said, pausing for effect.

"So it's lead us to believing that we need an inside man, or at least someone who is into that field, someone who has the potential to rival them. From what we've heard, you fit the bill."

Damn, Ryan could feel a headache coming on right about now. His entire being screaming danger.

As a normal static, he couldn't even fathom the kind of clangers one needed to go against Looter's Heaven.

"I just assumed that adventurers usually 'disappeared' during dungeon runs. It's surely not the fault of the Looter's Heaven?" Ryan asked, hoping that he was right.