"How...how much do you want for this?" The shop owner of one of the largest business within the greatest black market in all of Silent Lambs Empire, found his mind to be a complete blank and he asked Kairos.
This question truly threw Kairos off, he had no prior experience with the black markets, though he had heard of their steep prices. In return for the risk of operating under the law, they charge an arm, a leg, and sometimes one's own old mother, and still you'll find yourself short.
Without knowing the true value of his item, he would lose out a lot in bargaining with an experienced black market dealer.
Therefore, pretending that Fritzgen's question is as expected, he spoke with mock confidence, "You should know its worth by now. If you are trying to get a better price from me by asking that question instead of giving me a good offer yourself, I will immediately take this blade to another who is more capable than the Treasures Pavilion"
The shop owner's face turned instantly pale, all rational thoughts are thrown out of the window when he heard that he could lose the beautiful blade in his hands. How could he allow anyone to take this away from his hands? Not even over his dead body, and definitely not to those scumbags, the owners of the 8 swords armoury and the Pillar of light hero armoire, the greatest competitors to the Treasures Pavilion.
"O..Of course! This sword is truly peerless, and anyone who couldn't offer a proper value is just insulting its worth. I assure you, you'll find my offer much more than the others in the market. Young master has picked our Treasures Pavilion because of our good reputation, isn't it? Then we certainly couldn't let your expectations down. How about I show you around to our greatest treasury and you can pick any 10 items you wish to in exchange?"
"That's a bit too little in exchange, isn't it?" Vouno spoke up when he heard that it is only worth 10 items, and when Fritzgen saw that Kairos did not object to who he thought is the family's protector, he immediately gave a higher counter-offer.
"How about 12 items? ... No wait, I'll be happy to give you 15 items from our best stock" He had believed that Kairos is a young master from a high ranked family, and Vouno, the protector sent by his family to protect a young talented pugilist. For the other children following Kairos, he had keenly observed their reactions and now concluded that Jim, Edward, Tommy and Alan are also young masters of noble houses, while the others are young talents from guardian families. Never in his dreams would he expect that he is dealing with a group of commoners and a young 3 months long Viscount.
With this amount of presence they are giving off and the estimated power of their family, no matter what, Fritzgen believed he must not offend them. He had no idea how could his idiot of a brother-in-law could have believed this group to be of no matter.
Vouno saw Fritzgen's reaction and quickly caught on, then shook his head several times and said to Kairos, "Young master! You mustn't be hasty, we can definitely find people with better offers than this blind shop owner. He is holding a treasured sword, passed down since ancient times, yet treating it like a stick"
"An ancient sword?! But how is it so new?"
"Well, I can't blame you for your ignorance. This is an ancient sword belonging to a soldier of the prehistoric Golden Sword Empire. You do not know of the enchantment placed on the container that stored it, and our family had inherited the entire ancient treasury of it.
Our young master here simply wanted to get some things which he can use to impress a girl he has a crush on, and thought you would have the good judgement to give him a good offer. What are 15 items from mortal rankings compared to an ancient immortal sword with history?"
Kairos raised an eyebrow when his father so blatantly lied.
"Which girl am I trying to impress? How come I know nothing about it?.. and is there truly such an empire in the past?"
However, Fritzgen broken his train of thought with an urgency on his voice, "T...t....that's true. Such delicate craftsmanship is something I have never seen before, simply revolutionary. Perhaps it is made of the lost art of blacksmithing from the Golden Sword Empire. And this sealing and runic abilities. Completely unheard of! I'll give you 20 items from my treasury. It is the most I can afford.
Please, sell it to me, there are not many people who love swords as much as I do"
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A smile danced on Kairos' lips. It seemed that the trade has become largely successful, but this is still not the end of the negotiation to him.
He suddenly took out a ring, and poured its contents all over the padded ground.
"These are the extra items I've found lying around in my house. I want to trade them away as well"
The shop owner's eyes sparkled when he saw all varieties of items that he had seldom laid his hands on in the past.
"These items..! The Solitary Blades Clan? This must be that rumoured peerless genius, the young master from that great clan. Just who is it he set his eyes on that brought him out from his martial pursuit?
Hmm, could it be the young mistress of the Phrixus house? If they hitched, then it's even more dangerous to offend them"
Fritzgen shook off his thoughts and then offered with a fawning attitude, "I'll offer an additional 20 percent above the market price for each item, will that do?"
Kairos nodded without bargaining. He already felt bad for taking advantage of this merchant with a phony story behind the sword. And in the end, the items he traded for earned him another 5 items to pick out, making the total to 25 items.
Although it sounded quite little, but in fact, they did not know what is within the stores of the treasury that Fritzgen offered them. If they had understood what items one of the wealthiest establishment within Silent Lambs Empire had acquired and judged the valuable enough to keep within their stores, they wouldn't have thought that the initial offer of 10 items in exchange for this immortal sword as a cheap offer.
Fritzgen quickly called in an attendant to tally the items Kairos wanted to sell, and then he personally brought them to the basement where they kept items of the highest grade.
They went down a hidden stairway to the largest underground room they had ever saw.
The grand entrance was enough to silent even Vouno who had been looking down on the offer.
"Uhh, maybe I had been too quick to judge this shop owner's sincerity?"
In the middle of the wall, in front of them is a great circle made of complex runes and powered by high grade spiritual ores. A few steps led them up a platform which consisted of a single door, tiny when compared to the room and the gigantic rune engraved on the wall above it. The entire set up seemed to be the lock protecting what is behind this wall, and sealing the door for no one else except the owner.
On both sides of this platform are gigantic stone statues that are as tall as the height of the room, about 20 times the height of a normal person. The details of every part on the statue made them believe these statues could become alive at any time.
They are golems~
Aisa said simply to his mind, and Kairos immediately understood just how powerful the protections are in this place.
After half an hour of unlocking the runes, the door finally opened to welcome them. Before any of them could enter, Fritzgen wrote a runic symbol in the air with his Ki, then sent one to each of them.
"Just a protective measure to allow you to enter the room. Even if the door is open, it doesn't allow intruders who do not know the runic passcode to enter"
Then Fritzgen excitedly went towards the opened door. A great orange lightning struck him. Then he flew away coughing out blood.
"GAH!"
The rest stared at him in shock. In his excitement, he had forgotten to give himself the same runic passcode. In his mind, he was only thinking of spending some time with his new purchase, and the quicker these esteemed guests could choose their items the faster he could have the privacy he wanted.
"Ack.. D..d...don't mind me... I'm alright... Haha" He said and picked himself up. He corrected his mistake, covering himself with the rune he drew himself, and the entered the room again.
"T..that was frightening! This room is truly well protected.... What items could it be keeping in store?!"
The guys could not help but wonder.
When they walked into the room, it was merely a dark hall with windy cool air. Then with a snap of finger from Fritzgen, several crystals with a silvery light graced the area around them. Then slowly, one by one, more crystals lit up the great hall.
As the darkness recedes, they saw before their own eyes just how grand the entire place actually is.
Yet within the spacious treasury, only a pathetic amount of items could be seen with a glance.
"Haha, don't be surprised. There are only about three hundred different items in this place, but some of them are so extremely large that we needed such a wide space to store them. There isn't that many items that deserves to enter this place after all"
When they looked carefully at the place, they realised it is categorised into different sections. There are weapons and armor, rare pills and herbs, spirit ores, talismans, seal stones, skill manuals and artefacts. Many of which are stolen from powerful families or found from ancient ruins, and all of them of the highest tier found from the black markets.
Almost at once, Kairos felt a throb in his heart, and he walked away from the rest of the group, confidently going towards where he believe to hold the item that called out to him.
Then he stopped in front of a beautiful shelf which held merely one item. A single glove for his right hand. Blue like the deepest crystal, and exuding a heavenly aura similar to the items within Old Ye's ring.
Though he does not know exactly how strong it is, but it is undeniably an immortal ranked item.
"What is this?" Kairos asked curiously, all the while his eyes did not turn away from the object.
"Oh? It's a beast tamer glove. A magical artefact that creates spiritual armor for contract beasts by weaving the owner's mana. Of course, without mana you cannot activate it"
"Okay, I'll take this as one of them" He said confidently, surprising the rest. None of them knows about mana, much less how to use it. It is after all a technique as secretive as their cultivation methods and heavily guarded by the southern nations. Or more specifically, by the mage guilds controlling the south.