The Black Market (1)
Slurp... suck... slurp!
"Hmm... recommended clear level of a hundred and twenty. Looking at the number alone, there's no way we could take it. But..."
I sat at my desk, going over the intel on the next dungeon we planned to run. The information had come from Montblanc, of course.
After clearing the Catacomb, the dungeon our party had settled on next was the Hall of Fame — a popular prize that plenty of Masters had tried to claim before Montblanc locked it down. Three neighboring cities, Littleberry among them, had all insisted the place belonged to them. Nobody was willing to yield, and the air between the three cities had gone poisonous in a hurry.
Then, at some point, the hostility simply eased. They reached an agreement: nobody would attempt a full clear of the Hall of Fame. Of course, leave a dungeon completely untouched and its monsters start spilling out into the world, so the three cities had settled on taking turns running it once a month.
Slurp... haah... haaahn~
"That woman Montblanc really is something else."
I was certain she had pulled strings behind the scenes. There was no other reason those greedy kings would have walked away from a Hall of Fame flowing with milk and honey. The place was valuable enough to go to war over.
Ordinarily, aside from Growth Stones, the only things you harvested from a dungeon were byproducts — monster tendons, hides, bones, that sort of thing. The Hall of Fame was different, both in how you cleared it and in what you walked out with.
First, the clear method. In a typical dungeon you advanced room by room, cutting down whatever was waiting inside, then finished the boss in the last chamber. The Hall of Fame followed that same general shape, but the details were another matter entirely.
The dungeon held ten rooms including the boss chamber, and each room contained exactly one monster. One person from the raiding party would fight that single monster one-on-one. Win, and you moved on to the next room. Lose, and you were forcibly expelled from the dungeon. Worse, if you lost and got thrown out, that same person could not challenge the same monster on a retry — another party member had to take it. Ignore the rule and try anyway, and the monster would be invincible. You could not deal a single point of damage.
It was a clear method that truly lived up to the name Hall of Fame.
Next, the loot. You could not harvest byproducts from the Hall of Fame. Instead, a victory let you claim one piece of the enemy monster's equipment — a sword, a suit of armor, a helm, a pair of boots, anything the monster was wearing. The gear they used was high enough quality that a little work was all it took to make it usable. Expensive equipment just for knocking a monster down: that was why so many Masters had wanted this dungeon.
"Aaaah... Master..." Suck... slurp...
"We need to clear at least through the sixth room. That's the only way we'll get anything worth using."
The Hall of Fame's recommended clear level was a staggering one hundred and twenty. Looking at the number alone, it was a dungeon our party had absolutely no business attempting. The reason Montblanc had offered it to me anyway was that the recommended level had been calculated against the boss.
As I'd said, the Hall of Fame had ten rooms including the boss chamber. The monsters in each room were different levels, and the closer to the entrance, the weaker they were. Naturally, the equipment they carried climbed in grade the closer you got to the boss room. At our party's current strength, we could push as far as the sixth.
"This is our chance to fill in the gear we're missing... nngh... ah, I can't hold it. I'm gonna come — swallow all of it, Aquaril."
"Yeees... hngh~!"
Pulse—! Pulse—! Pulse—!
The climax hit, and I dropped a hand under the desk, fisted it in Aquaril's hair, and emptied everything I had been holding back into her wet, warm mouth.
"Nngh... haaung!"
Aquaril worked her throat, swallowing the load that filled her mouth. I poured out the last drop, then idly pressed the head of my cock against her soft cheek a few times before I let her go.
"Open your mouth."
"....."
Her face flushed a deep red, Aquaril closed her eyes and parted her lips. A healthy pink, glazed with pale streaks of semen like a topping.
Damn... that is filthy as hell.
A scene I had only ever watched in porn, happening in front of me — and on a beauty I would have been lucky to glimpse in my last life. My cock, which had started to soften after one round, began to harden all over again.
"You can swallow now."
"....."
Gulp.
Satisfied, I gave the order, and Aquaril swallowed what was left. The flush in her cheeks only deepened.
"This is actually great."
A beautiful woman under the desk sucking me off while I worked. I had assumed there was no way I could get anything done in a situation like that. I had been wrong. If anything, Aquaril working so diligently on my cock made it easier to concentrate. It was not that her technique was lacking — it was that I wanted to bury myself in her so badly I threw myself into the paperwork just to get through it faster.
"Having you suck me off like this is really something, Aquaril. Keep it up from now on, yeah?"
"Yes, Master..."
Her eyes went hazy at the praise. She buried her face in my lap and started licking me again.
"May I keep sucking Master's...?"
"Mm... that would be nice, but..."
I let the sentence trail off and looked down. I had pulled her panties off to put her to work, and a small puddle of her juices had gathered on the floor. Whether it was the water attribute or not, Aquaril ran a lot wetter than Oralisa or Kanisia.
"I already enjoyed your mouth. I want to enjoy somewhere else now."
"Yeees... to be honest, I prefer that too, Master."
Once the switch flipped, Aquaril was painfully honest. She shivered, already imagining the pleasure coming for her, and started to crawl out from under the desk.
"Wait."
"Yes?"
I stretched a leg out and blocked her path.
"There's something I want to test. Don't come out. Just turn around where you are and get on your hands and knees."
"Yes, Master."
She understood at once and turned. Her flexibility was ridiculous — her head nearly touched her ankles. With her most private place laid bare for me, she slowly began to lower her hips.
A round, pretty ass like a full moon sank toward my cock, hunting for it. A feast for the eyes, honestly.
"Ah... aaaaah..."
I did not move, which meant Aquaril had to take me in herself. Trying to line it up without being able to see was brutally hard. She missed, and the head jabbed her ass or her thigh, and every time it did she let out a pleading little moan. She worked her hips with stubborn focus, hunting for the right spot, and before long she found it.
Schlick—!
"Haaauuunn~!"
A lewd moan spilled out from under the desk. My cock split her slick walls in one long stroke and sank all the way to the deepest part of her.
Smack—!
"Hngh!"
"Move."
"Yes, Master..."
Schlick—! Schlick—! Schliiick—!
Aquaril's ass began to rock slowly back and forth. The position was awkward; she could not go fast. But the slow grind was good in its own right. Her walls squeezed and released me in a soft, rolling rhythm, and the pleasure was dizzying.
"Let's see..."
I watched her work herself on me with open satisfaction, then went back to planning the dungeon run. I had already confirmed that getting head while I worked improved my efficiency. What I needed to test now was how much that efficiency climbed if I was actually inside her.
Schlick—!
"It's all one-on-one fights, so I need to get Kanisia and Abraham their fourth skills..."
Schlick—!
"Question is whether I can even find skill stones that fit their styles..."
Schlick—!
"Our gear's thin too, so we should bump everything up by about half a tier..."
Schlick—!
"And my own skill set is overdue for a change. What would work..."
Schlick—!
"...hah. Yeah, I can't do this."
Smack—!
"Hnnnngh~!"
I brought my palm down on the moon working so hard between my legs. A red handprint bloomed across that white ass like a flower. I grabbed her hips, shoved the chair back, and stood. Then I pulled Aquaril up out of that cramped, bent-over position under the desk and set her hands on the desktop.
"Yeah, no. I cannot work while having sex. I can't focus at all."
Getting head while I worked made me more efficient. Actual sex did the opposite. It felt far too good to keep my mind on anything else.
Schlick—! Schlick—! Schlick—!
"Hngh~! Nngh! Haaahn~! Master! I love you, Master! Aaaaah...!"
I tossed the papers I had been holding somewhere behind me, seized Aquaril by the waist, and started driving my hips in earnest.
I was in the middle of talking through Kanisia and Abraham's fourth skills with the two of them when a messenger arrived.
"The head of the Mayami Trading Company requests your presence."
"Now?"
"Yes."
"Hm... I wonder what this is about. All right. I'll be ready shortly."
Montblanc — the head of the Mayami Trading Company — had summoned me out of nowhere. I felt a flicker of unease, half-convinced she was about to drop another mission on me.
I went to see her, and...
"I'm sorry — the black market?"
The offer was not what I had expected.
"Yes. It opens in three days, and I wondered if you might be interested."
"The black market..."
A black market was where you found items no ordinary shop would ever put on a shelf. It was called a black market for a reason. People were bought and sold there. Fairies. Even monsters.
The sole ruler of the Gaiarium continent — the emperor of the Ferdium Empire — had issued a stern decree that anyone caught operating a black market, and anyone caught using one, would be punished. That had not made them disappear. A black market was a secret space known only to those already in the know; the emperor's dogs could comb the streets all they liked and they would never root out something run in the dark.
Use it, or leave it alone.
"Of course I'm interested."
I ran the numbers in my head and gave Montblanc my answer. I had already been planning to take the party up a full step before we hit the Hall of Fame. Getting Kanisia and Abraham their fourth skills — their ultimates — was part of that. A black market would have skill stones far better than anything I could find in Littleberry, and since Montblanc herself was offering the introduction, I did not have to worry about imperial informants. There was no reason not to go.
"Heheh~ I figured you'd say that, Alan. Then you'll come with me in three days."
"You'll be going in person, Lady Montblanc?"
"Yes. I run the place, so of course I have to go."
"That makes sense... I'm sorry. You run it?"
"Yes."
"The black market."
"Yeees~"
"....."
I stared at her, blank, while she smiled that playful little smile.
What did this woman not have?
Even if the trading company was just a public-facing identity, she owned one. And on top of that, she ran a black market?
Seriously... how the hell am I supposed to take this woman down?
Someday I would bring Montblanc down with my own hands. But she was not an onion, and yet every time I peeled back a layer of her power there was another one waiting underneath. I had known catching her would not be easy. I had not known it would be this.
"...Lady Montblanc."
"Yes, Alan?"
"Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty."
"Heheh. All of a sudden?"
Squeeze her for everything she's worth before we become enemies.
"Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty!"
"Heheh~"
I was going to wring her dry. Right up until the day she saw what I really was.