“For a ‘secret’ black market, isn’t this place… too obvious?” Ashton mumbled as soon as they got past the gates. 

“I never said it was a secret place. Everyone knows that this market exists. But only a few know what goes inside.” Rose replied with a smile.

The place was crowded unlike any place, Ashton had seen previously. At the same time, it wasn’t lively either which was a bit strange. No one was even looking at each other.

It almost felt as if they were a bunch of undead walking around. Not to mention, they had just stepped in and the eerieness of the place was already exceeding charts. 

But the first thing that Ashton noticed was the presence of what seemed like hundreds of armed personnel. They were strong, maybe even stronger than the city guards. Which was nothing to be surprised about, considering that the black market was not affiliated with the merchant association.

So unlike them, the owners of the black market could not depend upon the security provided by the city guards. As a result, they had to hire mercenaries to protect their territory and keep it fairly quarrel free. 

“Don’t look at them so intently if you don’t want them to kick your ass. You don’t want to get banned from here as well, do you?” Rose mumbled and ushered him in.

Ashton shook his head and followed behind Rose. The Black market was the only place in Contingent he could buy and sell things now. It would be bad if he ended up doing something like what happened in the merchant’s shop. 

On top of that, Ashton had a feeling that these mercenaries would not be as forgiving as the merchants. Ashton had a feeling that they were the reason why everyone in the market was behaving with utmost discipline. After all, causing trouble there would be like committing suicide. 

‘You got that right.’ Ashton heard Rose’s voice but surprisingly her mouth wasn’t moving.

‘Telepathy?’

‘Something like that. Also, it is better if we communicate like this. Much secure and undetectable form of communication.’

‘Is it a Vampire ability?’

‘Nope. It’s an innate ability.’ Rose corrected him, ‘The ones having one type of gene do not have such ability, as these abilities only pop up when two different genes intermingle with each other. All hybrids have an ability exclusive of their own. However, since you’re tribrid… you should have, not one but three of these abilities.’

‘Three? I don’t think so.’ Ashton shrugged his shoulders.

As far as he knew, he only had one ‘innate’ ability and that was his detection skill. But the thought of having more than one such ability sure felt nice. 

‘Haha, innate abilities take time to manifest. It’s like you have a weapon that you don’t even know you have. But they’ll reveal themselves at the most opportune time.’ Rose chuckled, ‘You can also say that these abilities are plot armours.’

‘The heck is a plot armour? Is it stronger than Nemean hide armour?’

‘…You’ll get to know soon enough.’

Although they were surrounded by countless shops selling excellent weapons, Rose kept pushing forward. Every now and then, Ashton saw something that caught his eye, but Rose ushered him ahead. 

‘You know we are here to buy some stuff right?’ Ashton retorted when he finally got pissed. 

‘We are here to get you some gear, yeah. But I never said anything about buying them.’

‘Eh? Don’t tell me we’re going to steal!? Didn’t you see those guards? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to cross them.’

‘What? Why would we steal? Didn’t Lucifer tell you anything at all?’

‘I’m afraid he didn’t.’

‘You know what, just go and check the price tag on those things. In the meantime, I need to have a chat with someone.’

Ashton left to do as he was told to, but before that, he turned around to see Rose was lost in her thoughts. But Ashton knew she was trying to get in touch with a certain mutual acquaintance. 

“She can call Lucifer whenever she likes… interesting. Well, let’s see the priceeeeee!?” Ashton got shocked to see the price of the gears.

The gears were genuine, and so were their prices. Almost all of them were either uncommon or rare with permanent effects. But the prices of them… were a bit out of budget for him. Even the least expensive gear there had a price of 10999 blue units.

‘The heck is wrong with these prices!? Are they made up of some mythical material or something?’

‘Now you see why we’re not here to buy anything.’ Rose said as she walked up to him, ‘Since the weapons are authentic, the prices are authentic as well.’

Ashton had been previously wondering why the others did not come to buy things from the black market, rather than buying shitty stuff from the merchants. The answer was clear.

While the merchants sold shitty stuff, those gears were actually affordable. Unlike the things that were sold in the black market. The weapons, materials, and potions everything in the black market was authentic and they didn’t fool their customers. But these things were not affordable for most people. 

‘I can’t buy anything here… and I was thinking I’m set for the rest of my life with the money I have.’ Ashton scratched the back of his head and stepped back, ‘So, what are we going to do now?’

‘We? We are not going to do anything. You are.’ Suddenly an ominous smile crept on Rose’s face as she said those words, ‘It’s time for you to show your skills, boya.’

Ashton was visibly confused. He had no idea what the hell Rose was talking about. What skills was he supposed to show? Skill to be confused all the time?

‘I’m talking about your combat skills of course…’ Rose shook her head, ‘Selling and buying things is not the only thing the Black Market is famous for. Its main attraction is not the things the shops have to offer, but the underground fights.’

‘Wait what? I’m supposed to fight?’

‘Why, you don’t know how to fight?’

Ashton shook his head. That was not the point. The term underground fights itself meant that the thing was dangerous and probably illegal. He wanted to enter the academy and he didn’t think anyone would be pleased to know what he had been up to.

He might even get thrown out of the academy as well! And that wasn’t a risk he was willing to take. 

“Relax. I got you covered.” Rose put her hand into a subspace and pulled about a mask out of it, “Here, wear this. It’ll hide your face and then you can use your other genes to fight. That way, your identity will remain safe. Now let’s go before it’s too late to get you registered.”

“So I’m going to make money off of fighting?”

“Not money, nope.” Rose mumbled, “Here people fight for gears. Although there are monetary rewards, I’ll be taking those as convenience fees.”

“Why will you take the money when I’ll be the one to fight?”

“You think I’ll be helping you for free, boya? Nothing’s free in this world. the sooner you get used to it, the better it will be for you. Now let’s go.”

‘And here I was thinking she is helping me in Lucifer’s place…. greedy bitch.’