Sage grunted as she glared at the house in front of her. It was a small building located barely outside the slums of Rupheus, likely only holding two or three rooms. No one with a rational mind would ever believe this was the base of one of the city’s most prolific information brokers; Sage would definitely not have believed it she had not spend the last two hours visiting slum gangs and subsequently following up with trips to shops rumoured to fence stolen goods.
Her visit to the slums and its gangs had started on a bad note. However, after minutes of persuasion- which included a bit of violence- they had willingly cooperated. They had even offered her some of their valuables. Sage had only accepted their cash though; the rest was drugs and other nonsense not worth having.
While the slums had been initially hostile, the fence shops had been the opposite. The people who managed these shops had smiles so wide they could not be genuine when they welcomed her into their shops, before bombarding her with all sorts of useless items they desired to unload on her at ridiculous rates. But when she asked what actually interested her, they balked and changed their tune, becoming more restrained. When she had followed up by asking for directions to the best information broker, almost all of them had pointed her to her current location.
She lifted her hand and tapped the door lightly with her knuckles. First twice, then thrice and then twice again; this was the secret code given by some store keepers after parting with a few silvers. After she was done, she took a step back and waited. Less than three seconds later the door opened slightly to reveal the youthful face of a pre-teen boy.
“Er…” he stared her up and down. “Can I help you ma’am?”
She took a deep breath before responding. “Don’t you recognise me? It hasn’t been that long since we last met. Is your father in?”
What a stupid fucking password! At first, Sage had been extremely sceptical, but when she visited a few more shops and received the same phrase, she had no choice but to grudgingly accept it. It did not hurt to try it and if it did not work, she could always return to the shops to retrieve the silver she had spent.
“He is in and well,” the boy replied, opening the door wider. “Please come in.”
After she stepped through the door, the boy closed and barred it. Then he requested she follow him.
As she had guessed while outside, the place had no more than three rooms. The first was the living room which she had entered through, the second was a small kitchen with a tiny fireplace and the third was a bedroom with only a miniature stable and a medium-sized hay-bed. There was also an out-of-place large wardrobe, which the boy immediately walked to after leading her into the room. He flung the doors open and stood to the side, revealing a stairway leading down.
“He is waiting for you in there?” he said to her.
Sage nodded and entered the wardrobe. The stairway she entered was the spiralling sort with walls on both sides and torches lining them. Reaching the bottom, she found herself in front of a door that was ordinary in almost all aspects except the fact that it was made of metal. She did not hesitate to open it.
The room she entered was much bigger than the all the rooms at the top combined. In this underground room- or rather cave- five men laboured, hauling crates into a tunnel. Although they turned to her when she first entered, their eyes only lingered for a second before they went back to their job. For the two spear-carrying guards watching the working men, it was different. Unlike the serfs, when she stepped into the room, their gazes did not retreat after a while but persisted as they approached her.
“The boss is waiting,” one of them said after they got within a metre of her. “This way.”
Sage followed them without uttering a word as they led her to the far side of the room, where she was obstructed by another door.
“In there,” the guard pointed sternly. “Don’t try anything funny or we will enter.”
His words caused her to roll her eyes, not caring if they saw. Were the threats of a Grade 3 warrior supposed to scare her? She deigned not to pay any more attention to the man and his partner as she grabbed the doorknob and twisted.
The door opened to reveal a room different from the ones she had just passed. This one actually exuded luxury; from its gleaming metal to its polished wood. Silver ornaments lined the table, which was covered by a cloth that looked so smooth it was probably made of silk.
The person on the other end of the table sat in what was almost a throne, wearing gold rings on all his fingers. He was a fat bald man in a brown suit so nauseatingly ugly that even the someone with horrible aesthetics would refuse to wear it; if this guy’s sense was not completely retarded, the reason he donned it must be because of the magic fluctuations it exuded. In his right hand was a thick cigar, the edge of which constantly knocked against a silver ashtray, while his left hand grasped a clear glass of liquor, the source of which was a crystal bottle on the side.
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The man did not say a word and remained silent until she took a seat.
“So you are the one who has been asking about me?” he asked.
Sage deigned not to answer. Of course he already knew she was coming here; she was not surprised.
Race: Human (Human)
Physique: Grade 4
Mana: C (Brown)
Davor Harn; according to the ones who directed her here, that was the broker’s name. He was basically an underground kingpin known to have a hand in every shady enterprise in Rupheus. From smuggling to theft and the illegal activities of nobles, he was involved in all of it. According to one of the shopkeepers she had spoken to, the man even had ties to the clergy. Clearly, Harn was not a man of small influence in Rupheus.
What Sage had not expected was that this man was actually magically active, the first such person she encountered in Lethia if the cannibal crone was not counted. If it was so, then perhaps she would be able to purchase spells from him.
“What brings you here today?” Han’s voice brought her out of her thoughts. It carried a little impatience, probably from the fact that she had yet to say anything.
“There are several inquiries I would like to make,” she began. “Regarding several items and pieces of knowledge.”
“Then you have come to the right place,” the man replied. “However before we begin, I would like to tell you up front that different sorts of knowledge are valued at different prices.”
She nodded. Of course she knew.
“First,” she began. “Are you in possession of Nutrition programs?”
Nutrition was a branch of alchemy that dealt with creating diets and exercises to strengthen the body. Compared to regular alchemists, Nutritionists were extremely rare and much more revered than normal alchemists. In Ysh, the aristocracy had a tight hold on them to prevent the formulae and training methods from becoming widespread; to the point where they even forced magical contracts onto the buyers to prevent them from sharing their training regiments with others. In all honesty, their actions were a shitty means maintaining control of their powerbase.
From what Sage had seen so far travelling Lethia, the number of people with physiques beyond Grade 5 were on average at least five times that of those in Ysh. It could only mean there were less restrictions on Nutrition regiments in Lethia than there were in Ysh.
“I am,” Harn responded casually, taking a swig from his glass before following it up with a pull from his cigar. “Which grade are we talking about?”
“All of them,” she replied without hesitation. “I would like to get my hands on the methods for Grade 4 to 1, male and female.”
Her response caused his smile to dwindle a little. “That… is quite the request. I can give you the programs for Grade 4, 3 and 2 for males and Grade 4 and 3 for females, but I don’t have the others.”
“That’s fine,” she told him. “How much will these programs cost altogether?”
The man tapped the smoking butt of his cigar against the silver ashtray, taking a seconds of contemplation before responding. “Grade 4 training programs cost on average five gold while Grade 3 costs around thirty. Grade 2 costs somewhere around a hundred; so the total price will be one hundred and seventy gold.”
Fortunately, much of her face was covered; so she did not have to put in much effort to hide her expression from the man.
The price that he had quoted was not false. One of the shops she had visited before coming here was an alchemist’s shop with no shady side-business and likely no connections to Harn. There, she had asked the for hypothetical prices Nutritionists charged and the responses she had gotten were in the range given by Harn. Still-
The prices were a fucking rip-off! What sort of black-hearted arseholes sold what was basically instructions at such exorbitant prices and then later charged for ingredients needed to carry out those instructions? It was a fucking scam!
Fortunately, Sage was simply interested the methods and not in need of them. There was no need to buy them here, she could obtain the information elsewhere.
“Do you have access to spell models of the 7th Order and higher,” she changed the subject.
This question made the false smile on the man’s face to die and caused him to bring the cigar to his lips to take a long drag. Then he thrust it into the ashtray and gave her a stern look. “You know very well the status of magic in the land. Practising it alienates everyone and paints a target on your back. Why would I harbour such knowledge if it can prove detrimental to myself?”
She was not playing this game. “Cut the crap! Not only are you a black-market dealer, you’re also sorcerer. So, do you have spell models or not?”
“Only up to the 6th Order,” the man said after staring at her silently for a while.
The response was disappointing, but it was something. “I’d like to check them out.”
After she said this, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, preparing to ask what she had been most eager to learn after entering the city.
“Is there a necromancer in these parts?” she asked. “One researching something, with a bit of expertise in alchemy maybe?”
This questioned caused the way Harn eyed her to turn wary, although he did his best to hide it. He picked up his cigar and took a drag from it before taking a huge gulp from his glass.
“The answer will cost you ten gold,” he said silently.
Although her new leatherwear was tight and did not offer space to pocket items larger than a paper, Sage made a showing of entering her pocket and came out with a large coin purse. She then opened its drawstrings and dumped ten gold coins on the table. To this Harn sighed and responded.
“There are no necromancers around Rupheus,” he said. “However, there has recently been zombie sightings near Io. If you want clues to a necromancer, that’s a good place to start.”
“Thank you,” she said, standing up. There was nothing else to do here. “I’ll be going then. Though I still wish to see the spells in your possession. As for the Nutrition programs, I’ll come for them at a later date.”
The last part was a lie; Harn was probably not fooled by it.
Ten minutes later, after shaking the tail set on her the moment she left the broker’s place, she strolled into an empty alley. Looking around to make sure there was truly no one present; she performed the Zero Order spell [Contract Summon]. The summoning circle appeared and a second later a bewildered Mylah materialised.
“It’s afternoon,” she said to the child. “Let’s go eat.”
While they do that, she planned to take the time to understand the child’s abilities.