“Well, if it isn’t the return of the tiniest gladiator.”

The figure projected on the wall was distorted, and his voice masked, but Lydia knew Marcos well enough to hear friendliness in his tone.

“And look at you with a fancy new promotion to junior management. I was worried you forgot about me.”

“How could I ever forget you, young mistress?” He nearly burst into laughter at his own sentence. “Now, what brings you to my door? I’m sure you didn’t reemerge to pay an old friend a visit.”

“That would be correct. I’m representing a buyer and need someone that I can trust.”

There was a brief pause. “Does your family know you're… doing business?”

“No, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Okay… I’ll keep it as quiet as I can, but contacting the Union wasn’t smart if you're trying to stay off the board.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, well, what do you need?”

Lydia read out each item on the list: crafting stations, spell books, medical texts, diagnostic equipment and many others.

“Good Goddess Lydia, what is your client trying to do?”

“Does it matter?”

“No… but do you have any idea how much that is going to cost?”

“We can cover it. Can you get the goods?”

“Sure. We should have most of it in stock, and can acquire the non-lethal items we don’t, but the spell books, if we can get them, will take some time.”

“The spell books are why I came to you.”

“I didn’t say we couldn’t get them, but these aren’t things that we can rip off from a monastery or disappear from a senile noble’s library. They will require accessing restricted areas, cracking copyrights, and duplicating the texts.”

“Got it. Can you estimate the price?”

Marcos grabbed a pen from out of frame and asked her to restate every item, writing them down. When he was done, he shouted for someone, presumably his secretary, to call for an accountant. Lydia wondered about the Union accountants. She could not see the appeal in spending all of one's time raising memorization and calculation skills.

‘They do get paid well, so I suppose the risk to reward isn’t bad, but still.’

Lydia and Marcos chatted while they waited. It was a pleasant conversation in which they both conspicuously avoided divulging any personal information whatsoever. Instead, they reminisced about Lydia’s youthful enthusiasms and Marcos' prior harebrained schemes.

Eventually, a door creaked open, and Marcos waved someone to the table.

“Price this for me.”

The male figure looked down at the list, then back to Marcos who nodded. The man shrugged and began to read. Upon completion, he began to rock back and forth while muttering to himself. A moment later, he stopped, wrote on Marcos’ paper, and left the room. Marcos reviewed it and began to speak.

“It will be 50,000 GSUs for everything except the spell books and 100,000 GSUs with the introductory cosmic spell books. We cannot acquire intermediate or advanced ones."

Lydia raised her eyebrow. “Didn’t you just tell me you could get them?”

“Apparently I was wrong. When the accountant tried to price them, his memory returned a blanket prohibition on stealing anything greater than beginner texts. The rest must be sequestered in royal treasuries and guild vaults.

“Cosmic spell books are on the level of national treasures?”

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“It would appear fucking with reality has more downside potential than errant fireballs. On the plus side, it means we should be able to get everything by the end of the week. Now, can you actually afford it?

Lydia smiled. “You’ll need to bring additional money to the exchange.”

“Oh really?”

“The buyer has an unregistered A ranked core from an adamantium elemental.”

“Lydia… what the fuck organization did you get involved with?”

“It’s an individual, not an organization.”

“What person could possib- shit! Lydia, are you working for an awakened!?!? Do you hate your family that mu-”

“Yes. I do hate them that much. However, no, I’m not working for an awakened. I enjoy living more than I loathe my parents. Anyway, since when does the Union care about a buyer's identity?”

“We prefer to avoid high treason.”

Lydia smiled, “The guy is powerful and supported by various interests but nothing that far outside the norm.”

“If you say so… It should take about a week to gather everything. Do you have a place in mind for the exchange?

“Hmm…” Lydia thought for a moment and chuckled.

‘It would serve that little shit right.’

“Possibly. Can you see if the Union has ties with a gray market merchant named Magum? His store is located right at the border of the slums.”

“I’ll check the files. Come back in a few days, and we’ll confirm the details of the handoff. Oh, and if we get all of this but you don’t turn up with a core… it will be both our necks.”

“Have I ever let you down?”

“Is that a serious question?”

“Have I let you down recently?”

“You’ve been gone for seven years.”

“Exactly. No let downs in seven years!”

Marcos sighed. The pair then generated explicit terms and numbers for the transaction, signed a contract, and finished the call.

*************************************************

I was pleasantly surprised when Lydia returned and relayed the agreement. Before she left, I had priced the items on the list, and we were getting a better deal than I thought we would. It appeared that my skill could not measure black market values. I guessed it was because the prices could vary dramatically from buyer to buyer, especially for more expensive items.

Then, for the first time in a long time, there was nothing to do but wait. Lydia, under stern persuasion, spent the week amusing herself by shopping and watching (rather than participating in) various martial tournaments. I, having had my fill of gladiatorial combat, spent the week reading and slowly raising Text Memorization. It was an EXP sink, but I felt the payoff was worth it. The skill would form the foundation for all my spell, recipe, and medical acquisitions.

The results were fascinating. At first, it only reduced the effort needed to commit the information to memory, but, as it got higher, the time required dropped to almost zero. By the time it reached level 8, all I had to do was study the text once. While I couldn’t recite the passages verbatim, I could list all the important details of an entire book and roughly where in that book each detail was located.

During this process, I acquired Speed Reading, but declined to raise it. I wanted to be cautious until I had a better understanding of what my body could withstand without driving me berserk and drawing massive attention to myself, which was even more important after the results of my previous excursion had been announced.

At a press conference, Pendragon Arena announced that “Mr. Goliath forewent his earnings and gave the single largest donation ever made to the city's orphans.” It then further announced the founding of the “Goliath Orphanage for Young Adventurers,” a joint venture between the arena, the Adventurers’ guild, the Mages’ guild, and the city government. The facility, once opened, would act as a normal orphanage, open to all who needed it. However, if an orphan so desired, he or she could also receive magical and/or combat training from guild approved instructors.

It wasn’t a bad idea. This was a much harsher world than the one from where I came, and even there, orphans fell through the cracks or were otherwise taken advantage of. These kids would gain a marketable skill, and, more importantly, would become much harder to exploit. Being able to beat the average criminal to death would provide far more safety than the city guard ever could. However, while I intellectually understood the positives, I couldn’t help but feel like I was creating child soldiers. Since this one was entirely my responsibility, I would need to watch carefully and make… corrections… if needed.

Finally, several days later, Lydia confirmed that the transaction would occur at Magum’s. It would provide him a nice little headache in exchange for my, now recovered, case of purpleness. Initially, I was hesitant. After all, he did provide the goods we needed, but Lydia assured me that he would be well compensated for hosting the transaction, so it was just a bit of fun at his expense.

Eventually the day came. We arrived wearing full robes and with our faces obscured by porcelain masks. It was then that something shocking occurred—nothing. The deal went exactly as planned. Our counterparts arrived on time. Magum acted like an unhinged, but harmless, carnival barker. We gave a spatial ring containing the core to the Union representative. He gave us a large number of spatial bags containing all the goods requested. They left. We left.

There were no raids by guards, no double crosses, and no misunderstandings. Magum turned no one into a cultivating rooster or an improbably cute slime. Neither Lydia nor I manifested hereto unknown powers that wreaked mayhem. It all went according to plan. I was stunned.

‘Well, something had to go right eventually. Now, time to play with my new toys.’