Cain took a glance at the papers Mary gave to him, the area was more filled with dungeons than he expected, and some were closer than a couple of hours’ walk. The monster separation was also amazing, he was more interested in goblin camps and Slime infestation holes, those things might be useful for leveling up quickly.
“This is amazing, are there any quests for them?” Cain asked, leveling up was good but getting money on the side was even better.
“Well, it’s complicated. There are missions but both The Cobra’s fang and the Dragon’s fang are forbidden from taking quests by the lord. He said that you need to rest and be in top shape.” Mary said with a stern face, she knew Cain wouldn’t like the news.
“We can’t take quests? Very well.” Cain didn’t seem bothered at all which made Mary a bit scared of what he was about to do.
“I have a feeling that you’re about to do something dangerous.” Mary voiced her concerns.
“If I can’t sell the kills to the guild, I will sell them to the black market. There are other competitors to the guild and the city when it comes to buying monster corpses and giving quests.” Cain talked as if it was normal, Mary’s face turned pale.
“But that’s illegal!” She gasped and Cain frowned, “Who’s the idiot who is preventing us from working? The black market appeared because the guild and the city sometimes gave unfair prices for monsters. I would call them less of a criminal organization and more of a private business.” Cain thought about it for a moment.
“No, they are! They are breaking the city’s economy and dealing with smuggled goods and dangerous substances!” Mary almost lashed out. Remembering the countless trade deals and exotic items that got sold in the black market instead of the guild, it was a real headache keeping track of them all.
“You better get off your high horse. Let’s say I want a vial of ogre blood, can I get one at the guild? For how much?” Cain asked trying to prove his point. Mary looked at him for a moment before replying.
“Ogre blood is rare so we don’t have it at the time, When it’s available it will be 2 gold coins for a single vial.” Mary replied and Cain gave her a sharp look “And you buy it for around a silver coin per vial from adventures, usually as a corpse of course.”
Mary frowned and gave him a sharp glare, “There are multiple processes to extract the blood. It’s not simple!”
“In the black market, I can sell it for up to 3 silver coins and buy the finished product at a single gold coin. And I don’t have to deal with the annoying paperwork of the guild. There isn’t a shortage of ogre blood, you just lost all your customers to the black market!”
Can explain this was just a single case, examples are far and wide. He even reminded her of the scam rat extermination quest, the guild has some nasty practices that rival that of criminals.
“But…” Before she could finish Cain turned around, “Keep that attitude and the guild will be the first one to get sacrificed!” Cain turned around and turned around, the girls seems to have picked up on the commotion and wanted to check what is happening.
“Are you training?” Sofia called Cain, being followed by Alice, Selena, and Sebas. “Have anything we could help you with?” Alice asked.
Cain lifted one finger and was about to suggest something before changing his mind, “Actually, I haven’t trained in a while, care to have a match?” It will serve him well to both train and get to know how they fight.
“Do you want me to be your opponent-nya?” Selena crackled her knuckles, “We two haven’t fought face to face before-nya!” She grinned, her fangs glowing white as her eyes sparkled.
“We did, and you ended up burnt to a crisp.” Cain scratched his head, Selena wasn’t considering that fight as she was under the druid’s control.
“Come at me all at once, I shall take on the five of you!” Cain dropped his weapons and magic started to crackle from his fingertips.
“No matter how I look at it, there are only three of them. Even if you counted the maid there are four.” Zaleria snorted at his bad mathematics, how could someone like him miscalculate like this.
“You’re in as well, just stay in that form.” Hearing his words sent a spark down her spine, and her draconic brain started to tremble. A mere human is challenging her.
“Do you want to die?” She growled sending shivers in everyone except Cain who just stood there smiling at her. “You’re the most experienced, you will be a good teacher.”
“So you want me to fight with them against you so you can train and have them train as well by following me?” Cain slowly walked to be in the middle of them, “Also remember that we’re in the middle of the city, don’t let stray magic burn anything.”
The girls looked at each other still hesitating to attack, no matter how strong he was taking on the five of them was impossible.
Tuf! If not for the sound Cain wouldn’t have noticed it, a white blood was flying toward his face followed by a maid. ‘Not a shred of bloodlust, attacking me with a dagger is like cutting vegetables for her.’
“Spitting on master, Gracie watch your manners!” Sebas screamed as he saw her spit again on her blade.
“Good!” Cain deflected her strike by hitting her wrist with his palm. At the same time, he noticed that Sofia and Selena are rushing toward him at an incredible speed. Then a heavy pressure engulfed his body, it was Alice’s cursed aura.
Sofia’s flying fire kick comes from the right and Selena’s powerful slash comes from the left. In a split second, Cain used his trump card, each of his eyes looked in a different direction and locked on Sofia and Selena. His body started to twist and refract as if it was made of shattered glass.
Selena’s instincts told her that Cain was dangerous. The cold feeling that came when her claw passed seemingly through his body was enough to make her hair stand.
Suddenly she felt a hand grab the back of her neck, the next thing she was the ground in front of her face which she fell on.
“Skilled, using both blur and mist step to dodge and threw opponents is not something an amateur will think off! He even protected them from bumping into each other.” Zaleria who was still observing commented. Sofia and Selena’s charge was a stupid move, if Cain didn’t go out of his way to teleport Selena away they would have hit each other.
Behind Cain Gracie appeared wielding two daggers, each of them was coated in a generous amount of her spit. ‘A single scratch and I will be laying on the ground, even if she doesn’t have the skill to deliver a good blow I would still lose.’
Sofia was about to cast [Scorching rays] when Cain’s menacing eyes glared at her, she froze in place, and her magic disappeared. Behind Cain were the streets where houses were built and people love, a fire ray coming through their window would cause a problem so he used [Counterspell] to prevent her from casting magic.
Sofia didn’t give up and followed with a [Fireblade] which she was able to cast.
Cain felt the curse pressure getting heavier at him, Alice was behind that.
A fire blade coming at his face, two daggers at his back, and Selena rushing at his legs, this seems to be his ends but then… Clang! A sword appeared in Cain’s hand, he was supposed to be unarmed but now he had a blade of stone. With a single his he knocked the daggers from Gracie’s hands and pushed her away as he jumped. Selena missed and Sofia’s blade was about to slice his back but quickly blocked it.
Cain’s body disappeared again when he blocked all of their attacks, they looked around they all were there he didn’t take any one of them with him. “Where did he go?” Sofia yelled.
“Behind You-gaw!” Selena screamed as she saw him standing behind Alice, as the girl turned around Cain’s hand lightly touched her back, “You’re out.”
VROOBOOM! A loud rumbling noise shocked the mansion as a ball of flame raced toward Cain fast enough to create a shock wave. Alice suddenly found herself teleported away and Cain’s body zapped with lightning and dodged the ball.
Cain stopped at the side of the garden and the fireball stooped on the other side facing him, She was Zaleria flying the same way Sofia does but better.
“That was dangerous, what if you hit her?” Cain asked, if he hadn’t teleported Alice earlier her back would have been scorched.
“With you around? You might be weak but you hold enough strength to protect them, right?” Zaleria smiled as she started unleashing fire around her body.
A wide grin crossed Cain’s face, he has seen her fight before and always thought she was monstrously strong. Now facing her made his hair stand and his body start sweating.
“Then I won’t hold back against you, please hold back against me,” Cain said as he know the difference in strength between them. He stood in his place as a lightning sword got conjured in his right hand with [Elemental Weapon], and lightning crackled in the other from the [Lightning strike]. Casting [Lesser Empowerment]
, [Swiftness], [Haste], [Fly], [Blink] His body started glitching in place as blinding lightning covered his body.
Everyone looked around in anticipation of this clash between fire and lightning.