“Umm… What?” Leon asked, his eyes narrowing in confusion.
“I can provide you with plenty of money,” Rees said casually. “I’m a very rich Lich. Before I died, I was a nobleman. Though that didn’t help much—my charming siblings stole my share of our father’s inheritance and split it among themselves after i died.”
Leon raised an eyebrow.
“But when I started crafting magical equipment and sold a few of them just to fund my experiments… well, those items got popular. Like, really popular. I made a fortune from them,” Rees explained as he looked at Leon.
“How much are we talking about ?” Leon asked, arms crossed.
Rees paused, doing some mental math.
“If I add everything… around thirty thousand gold coins is what I earned.” He spoke raising his finger in the air.
Leon’s jaw nearly hit the floor. His eyes widened in disbelief. “What ?! Are you serious !?”
“What?” Rees blinked, confused by the reaction.
“What the fuck did you make that sold for that much ?!” Leon asked with a confused expression.
Rees looked thoughtful.
“Ah… a lot of things. Communication orbs, advanced spells, and most importantly… Voo-Doo magic. One of my original dark arts that I sold for twenty-five thousand gold coins.” Rees replied immediately.
Leon frowned. “Wait—what do you mean you made Voo-Doo magic? I thought it was a god gift—something only people with the Magi class could use or something like that.”
“No, no,” Rees waved his hand immediately. “Magis just have a natural affinity for dark magic, so they are a little better at it then the others.
But Voo-Doo isn’t bound to any class, it’s not a specific skill, it’s an Art. Anyone can learn it. And seeing how sharp you are Mr. Leon… I could probably teach you to master it in two week or less.
Would you like me to teach you ?” Rees asked as he looked at Leon with a curious expression.
Leon squinted. “If you invented it… how come Elves know it ?”
’If my memory is right, Reina’s brother Rubin also knew this Art. I am sure I readed it in his description.’ Leon thought in his mind as he looked at Rees.
“I sold it to them,” Rees replied casually as he looked at Leon. “The Stinson family, to be precise.”
“You what? Why the hell would you hand over something like that to them?” Leon asked with a shocked and confused expression.
“Because they supplied me with rare materials for my experiments from their forests,
I mean, it was a fair trade.” Rees said simply.
Leon’s face darkened. “Wait. Is your dungeon… inside the Elf Kingdom, Ress ?”
“Yes,” Rees replied.
“What about the gold?”
“It’s in the last room inside my dungeon, we should go and get it.” he spoke immediately.
Leon groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Why did I even talk to you…?”
“What? What’s wrong?” Rees tilted his head with a confused expression.
“Rees… what do you think the current relationship is between the Human and Elf Kingdoms ?” Leon asked with a sarcastic smile.
“Umm… friends maybe ?” Rees replied hesitantly.
Leon stared at him like he’d grown another skull. “Are you stupid? Human kingdom and Elf kingdom are at war, Rees. Elves are the enemies of humans right now.”
Rees blinked. “But an Elf slave I talked to recently told me that the things were going perfectly fine between the kingdoms. He also said humans would pay for it soon… I assumed that meant trade was going well between the kingdoms.”
Leon shook his head. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Why didn’t you build your dungeon in the Human Kingdom ?”
“Sure, why not? Every human that saw me screamed ’unholy abomination’ and ran away from me.
Even my own family tried to kill me after I turned into a Lich, Mr. Leon.” Rees looked away, voice tight. “It was humans who raided my dungeon, stole my necroheart, and looted every single one of my equipments while I was gone. You’re the first human I’ve met in years who hasn’t come at me holding a god’s symbol, a wand, or a sword.”
Leon let out a slow breath. “Fine. Whatever. What ingredients do you need ?”
“Here,” Rees said, pulling out a folded paper and handing it to him. “It’s all listed on this paper.”
Leon unfolded it and scanned the items. “Heart of a dead Frowl… sixty-four vampire teeth… ten vampire hearts… red, blue, and green gulios solutions… mana-infused wooden dolls… fourth-grade Frek tree bark… Trisum flower sap…”
His eyes narrowed immediately. “I don’t think, I can find even a single thing in an alchemist’s shop, that you wrote on this paper.”
“Of course not,” Rees said. “But there’s one place where you can get everything. The Black Market. Have you heard of it ?” Rees asked as he looked at Leon.
“I’ve heard of it,” Leon replied with a neutral expression.
“Have you ever been there ?” Rees asked.
“No.”
“Well, that’s where we’ll find your ingredients. But to get there, we need a special kind of black sand. I know a few guys in the Human Kingdom who can sell you that sand and—”
“I have the sand,” Leon interrupted, opening his inventory and pulling out the pouch Adeline had given him.
Rees blinked. “Huh. That’s convenient. Why haven’t you used it yet ?”
“I was waiting for the right time—”
“You don’t know how to use it, do you ?” Rees interrupted.
Leon sighed. “Yeah, I don’t.”
“If you want, I can accompany you. But, that pouch only has enough sand for two trips. If I go with you, we’ll need to buy more sand from the market to come back.”
“Do we have the money for that ?” Rees asked with a confused expression.
“How much is the sand worth ?” Leon asked with a confused expression.
Rees nodded toward the pouch. “That amount of black sand is worth fifty copper coins.”
“Fine. Let’s go.” Leon tossed him the pouch.
“Wait—hold on,” Rees stopped him. “You can’t go looking like that. You’ll need to cover your face. The Black Market isn’t kind to humans.”
“Right…” Leon pulled a white cloth from his pocket and wrapped it around his face. “This good?”
“Perfect.” Rees nodded. “Now, take half the sand from the pouch.”
Leon dipped his hand inside and scooped out roughly half of the sand.
“To activate it, throw the sand on the ground and say the words: Blasious Marcious. Got it ?” Rees asked with a confused expression.
“Got it.” Leon replied with a serious expression.
“I’ll go first.” Rees turned the pouch over and spoke the words, “Blasious Marcious.”
As soon as the sand hit the ground, blue flames roared up and swallowed him whole.
*Boop*
Rees vanished with the flames, it was as if they ate him.
Leon blinked, clenched his jaw, then followed in the same manner. “Blasious Marcious!”
He tossed the sand to the ground. Instantly, a blue fire coiled around his body like a living serpent.
Leon immediately closed his eyes and hoped for the best.
*Boop*
—
“You can open your eyes now,” Rees’ voice echoed in Leon’s ears.
Blink. Blink.
Leon opened his eyes—and what he saw made him go still.
They were on a cold, narrow street shrouded in darkness. The buildings were crooked and stacked in impossible ways, as if some eldritch creature had rearranged a normal town into a fever dream. Glowing symbols shifted on the walls like runes that refused to sit still. Floating lanterns burned with green and violet fire.
There was a huge crowd on the street and it was… terrifying.
Demons with twisted horns. Goblins pushing carts filled with bottled organs. Elves with tattoos glowing like cursed circuitry on their whole bodies. Masked spirits hovered silently above in the skies. Dwarves and human Alchemists bargained over crates of bones. Even beastkins walked among them—everyone wore hoods or masks on their faces in order to hide their identities.
*Whoosh*
Suddenly a black-robed figure materialized out of blue flames beside Leon, his silver mask carved into the shape of a grinning skull. He glanced at Leon for a brief moment—and walked away without a word.
’What the fuck is this place…?’ Leon thought, eyes darting around the nightmare market.
Vendors whispered from shadowy stalls, peddling forbidden things—cursed weapons, preserved monster parts, rings with bloody fingers still inside them.
“Come on,” Rees said, pulling his cloak tighter. “We need to get the ingredients—and more sand. Standing on one position and observing like that can get us in trouble.”
Leon nodded, keeping close. “Why aren’t any of them attacking each other?”
“They can’t,” Rees said quietly. “Anyone dumb enough to cause trouble here died immediately. The owner of the Black Market is a demi-god. No one wants to piss him off and no one dares to steal from him.”
Leon watched as a demon with six eyes walked past a human without so much as a glance, it was as if they were just normal people passing by.
“Only intelligent creatures come here, dumb ones die outside,” Rees added.