Chapter 128 – Black Market

Noah and Brianna walked through the wide unnatural stone cave that was lit with dim light exuding from occasional shiny crystals embedded into its walls, noticing that it had a small descent angle, making them go even lower than the level of sewers. As the group moved in silence they heard the sounds of the crowd that the tunnel walls carried from the darkness in front and a few minutes later they reached a small bend in the path that after a few minutes ended with an arch path into another tunnel.

Multiple carriages surrounded by groups of people, similar to their own group, with their faces covered with clothes, showing only firm gazes, passed through that new tunnel, throwing gazes at them as they passed Noah's group. Their eyes were ever vigilant and jumped from person to person that they passed. These people wore clothes of all kinds, clearly many of them even from different countries. And all of them were armed to the teeth. Even if they wore a long coat covering their whole body, Noah could notice the handles of knives and swords sticking from under the cloth.

As Noah's group exited into a cavern that had multiple tunnels exits similar to the one that they just passed through they saw a crowd of people moving through that cavern in the same direction. Carriages full of crates barred cages with people in chains, and cages with monsters streamed through that cavern into an enormous cavern that could fit a whole street where Noah saw countless structures that looked like warehouses. Many of these structures had different emblems on their walls, announcing to all which dark guild they belong to.

Armed people were everywhere. Although Black Market had rules barring thievery, or any conflicts within its walls, criminals, and outlaws living their lives with one hand constantly on the dagger handle, would never trust these laws, preferring to rely on their own strength for defense than the personnel of Black Market, that would come to dissolve any conflict that may occur.

Even with the rule banning conflicts, there were still many idiots that considered themselves too important to abide by it. These idiots were quickly taught a lesson, that this is not a city market where a city guard would try to arrest the suspects and investigate the cause of unrest. Here they would be turned into porcupines, filled with arrows from the deadly magically enhanced crossbows before anyone asks a question about the reason for the conflict. The best way to behave here was to defend yourself until the cutthroats of the Black Market came to solve the problem. Usually, these conflicts were solved in the only way these thugs in uniforms knew how - with even more violence. Avoiding conflicts and showing that you were not the cause of the problem was the main survival rule here. No matter how strong you are, as long as you are within the dungeon, you would never leave alive if you were marked as a "problem".

Abiding by the rules, however, did not guarantee your safety either. Even if robbery and fights were forbidden inside the Black Market Dungeon it did not mean you would not be followed outside when you exit it and would not be robbed outside the dungeon. So people coming here made sure to keep themselves safe. Almost everyone had their faces somehow covered and had angry-looking guards around them.

Walking through the crowd, Noah's group tightened around their small carriage pulled by the lizard, warily watching the people around them. Pretending to be checking his surroundings, Noah carefully studied the Black Market, listening to the conversations of the people that they passed.

He listened as they passed one structure that looked like a shop with chained women in light clothes struggling while a merchant-like looking man showed them off as merchandise, grabbing some by the chin and pointing their faces to the customers that had wicked shine in their eyes.

Women in this shop were all exotic beauties. Noah saw some olive skin of the desert people from the south country, some fox clan beast women, and even elves.

"This one is untamed yet." Said the merchant with a smirk on his lips looking at his customer while holding a beast woman with long raccoon ears by the fur on her head "Still unbroken. See that fierce shine in her eyes? She would be wild, struggling and fighting. Just the way some people like them. But I would not place anything in her mouth if you know what I mean." He added with a small laugh while the customer smirked in return.

"This slut here was a noble lady, she is meek and obedient now and will satisfy your every wish." Said the merchant grabbing the chin of a dark-skinned woman and pointing her face upward.

"What about this one?" Asked the customer pointing at a woman with pointy ears that had a stick in her mouth with a strap holding that stick fixed. "Why is she gagged?"

"Elves are very intolerant of being soiled and dirtied by 'lower beings' as they call us. They would rather bite off their tongue than live as sluts. Gags prevent them from killing themselves. But they are worth it, dear customer. Bedding such a slut even once is a must for any man. You would never experience such a woman anywhere else. Kings and Lords dream of fucking them, but here in our shop, you can have that dream realized. I hear our Black Market branch is the only one in the whole Moonstar Kingdom that has Elven sluts."

"How much?" Said the man with a gleam in his eyes.

"One thousand an hour."

"Damn, isn't it too much?"

"Dear customer, this is not some street wench. This is a noble race of elves we are talking about." Explained the merchant making an offended face which Noah perceived as simulated.

As they passed the shop, Noah turned away, not listening to their dialog anymore, however, he noticed a shop just across the road from the previous. In this one, the women were all with dead-like eyes, sunken malnourished faces, and all of them were hurt in many places. Many had bandages on their hands and body with still fresh blood spots as their wounds did not heal yet, some had eyepatches and some even had their limbs amputated. Many of them had piercings on their privates and wore chains that brought them pain with every move. Some women were bound to some kind of stand with no way to move while their privates were stuffed with all kinds of things, their bodies full of wounds and scratches.

This was the place for the customers with the most wicked of tastes. A place where the customers came to torture and scoff at the poor women rather than have a nice sexual experience. Most of these women were the ones sent here from the previous shop or another shop similar to that one that did not need them anymore or had a better or newer stock of captured people. The people sent here did not live long, making it their last workplace. Captured people that got into the black market did not live to see freedom anymore. As Noah turned his head back to the previous shop they just passed, he noticed women there watching the girls in this shop with fear and trepidation. Being sold here was their greatest fear and nightmare.

Noah shook his head to get the images out of his head. The evil and wickedness of the people here were beyond shocking.

The worst thing however was that cruelty and savagery were all over this place and no one seemed to mind at all. People just passed by without looking at it at most, but on many occasions, they would stop and jeer at the poor captured people feeling joy from their misery and shame.

Noah noticed that he was holding his breath the whole time they were in that place and breathed out heavily as they finally passed it. He looked around to move his thoughts away from that shocking scene looking at other shops doing business nearby.

In some other shops, Noah saw weapons and accessories on display. At first, he was confused, about why people would try to sell

them here rather than in the city, but then noticed spots of dry blood on some of them. Stolen goods, many of which were taken from the hands of their dead owners, were all over the place here. Many of these things, Noah noticed, had styles less common in this country and probably were brought from outside the country.

Some of the objects however piqued his attention even more. Thanks to his dark energy skills he was quite sensitive to the dark and evil energy emanating from these objects.

Cursed items and demonic artifacts that might be found in dungeons or ruins left of the old world. Many of such items were the leftovers from the times of previous demon wars. These items could have wondrous effects that tempt people to use them even knowing the wicked and horrendous side effects such items would enact with their every use.

The Church strongly forbade these items as many of them were the tools left by the demons to seduce the humans to their side. Many of the demonic items possessors in the previous demon wars were fighting on the demon's side, not always of their own free will. A lot of these wicked artifacts would influence the minds and enslave their owners. Still, there were always those who desired their power.

Walking further down the market Noah saw the cages with monsters with people shouting their bids to the merchant that sold them to the higher bidder. Some of them were sold alive, while some were slaughtered and butchered on the spot and their parts were sold fresh as ingredients to different bidders.

Many monster parts are used in alchemy,  enchantments, and craft, however, the ingredients would have to be bought from guilds. For many reasons, some crafters could not attain them by legal means. Some of these people ventured on the path of the forbidden art and wished to hide from the guild the list of ingredients they used, some were already kicked out of the guilds for similar transgressions and some just wished to prove themselves with ingredients that their guild status did not allow them to procure yet. Here in Black Market, these ingredients could be gained for a higher price, but without the additional hassle that buying from a legal guild would pertain.

The most shocking thing was that many beast-man of the Beastman kingdom were sold here as monsters too. Noah did not want to even imagine the pain and torment they would live through after being sold here.

Some shops were selling monster cores. But unlike the ones that could be bought normally in the city, these ones had dark spots on them. Unrefined cores were a lot cheaper but were also unstable and often brought strange and horrible side effects to the potions and alchemy products that they were used in, but some wicked merchants would not be stopped because of that when pursuing money.

Further down the cave, there were houses that did not do any open trades. People would go inside and go out silently, making their deals away from the surrounding people's eyes. The Thief Guild, Assassin Guild, and Mercenary Guild crests adorned the walls of some of these buildings. However, there was no Crescent moon signature of the Dark Association seen on any of the buildings in this cave.

As they walked through the crowd Noah noticed some of the people in the crowds standing leisurely while scanning the people passing by with their eyes as if looking for prey. The Thief guild would not act within the Dungeon, but finding prey to follow outside was not forbidden. A few moments later he noticed some of these people starting to stalk some novices coming here for the first time or too overconfident nobles that came here without much protection, that would, without doubt, face some problems the moment they leave the Market.

In some places Noah noticed whole caravans of carriages being loaded and unloaded, selling and buying stolen goods in bulk.

Many pirate and plunderer gangs attacking caravans would sell the goods at the Black Market at half the price or even lower to quickly convert the stolen stuff to gold, with many dirty merchants jumping at an opportunity to profit from this.

At first, Noah wondered how they got these huge caravans here but then noticed that at the end of the cavern where these warehouses stood, there was a separate tunnel with a wide path that must have led somewhere where a dungeon entrance with a wide path could be opened. Somewhere like a warehouse in the flying ships berths he assumed.

Noah remembered the Vega village near Greenville town or what was left of it and wondered if this was the fate of it. Women were being sold as cabbage while all their belongings were resold by these wicked merchants to the next batch of settlers that would go to Greenville town to situate a new village.

/Are you ok?/ Sounded Brianna's voice with concern in her tone inside Noah's head.

/Yeah. It's just…this place…how can people be so wicked./ He answered looking back at her. Their faces were hidden under the capes so they could not see each other's expressions, but Brianna was sure that Noah was full of distress.

He once told her that his father brought him up as a just and honorable person, so he was clearly unaccustomed to this side of civilization. Seeing it was a kind of an eye-opener for him.

/Maybe Ugy was right./ Thought Noah. /Maybe I am really too naive in my views. This world…it's a lot darker place than I thought, living my life in the family mansion./