The Black Market (3)

The inventories posted in front of each stall were so neatly arranged that hunting down a shop that sold skill stones took almost no effort at all.

Fuck, these prices are goddamn criminal.

Even so, we had every skill stone we needed in thirty minutes flat. This was Montblanc's black market, after all — the merchandise was the real deal. It just happened to cost a fortune.

First up was Kanisia's fourth skill: a Special-grade monster of a technique called Solar Ray, purchased for a staggering thirty million gold. When you considered that the only things sitting above Special were Mythic and the one-of-a-kind Unique grade, this was, for all practical purposes, the highest rank a Master could get their hands on.

You got what you paid for. The grade was high, and the effect was just as nasty. The restriction to daylight hours was a real drawback, sure — but any enemy caught in that area attack got slapped with Mana Extinction.

Mana Extinction stripped away the target's mana. It couldn't wipe the tank in a single hit, but it kept eating through it for a full ten seconds, like a damage-over-time effect. Cutting down how many times an opponent could fire off ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their skills was an absurdly good trade.

Running the Catacomb had shown Kanisia exactly where she was lacking: she had no real wide-area skill. Not that she was completely empty-handed — she did have Mana Javelin — but she couldn't fine-tune each spear, and enemies dodged them without much trouble. Clearing a crowd with that thing was a nightmare.

"I'll pay you back later for sure, Alan. Thanks for lending me the money."

"Don't mention it. Take your time — it's not a big deal."

"Still… thank you. Really."

"If you're that grateful… you know, right? Tonight…"

"…Okay."

I dropped my voice to a murmur, and Kanisia's face went scarlet. She squirmed, looking thoroughly embarrassed.

A moment later she was staring at her status window, humming under her breath, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.

She'd spotted a skill she wanted desperately, then tried to settle for something cheaper because she couldn't cover it. But her getting stronger was the same thing as me getting stronger, so I'd happily floated her the thirty million.

"I too am grateful, Lord Alan. This debt shall be repaid."

"No need to call it a debt. Just keep holding the line as our tank, same as always."

"Lady Kanisia is my only Master, but from this day forth I shall regard you as my second. I will grind my bones to dust in your service."

"Sheesh. Lend you money twice and I'll be knocking Kanisia out of first place."

Abraham, standing at Kanisia's side, bowed his head in thanks. Calling someone a second Master was about the highest praise a fairy could offer. That was how deeply he felt about the gold I'd lent him.

Abraham had picked up a Rare-grade skill stone called Ironclad Beetle. He'd borrowed seven million gold from me to cover it.

The Catacomb had shown Abraham his weak point too. His rear guard was soft.

Among the things we'd fought down there were the Acolyte Zombies. Those bastards moved with acrobatics that could put a circus troupe to shame, leaping high and constantly going for Abraham's back. It was the first time he'd ever faced enemies that fought like that, and he hadn't been able to answer them properly.

We'd covered him in the end, but it had sat with him. For his fourth skill, he chose something that would harden the back of his body. We probably could have found a better stone if we'd kept digging through the market, but this wasn't a bad call either.

"Master."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"When do we return to Littleberry?"

Aquaril's eyes were blazing. I took one look at that face and a laugh slipped out of me.

She was burning that hot because she'd picked up her fourth skill and upgraded another on top of it. She was itching to put the new kit through its paces.

First, the upgrade.

Aquaril had been running a skill called Swift Blade that doubled her attack speed on use. We evolved it into Iai Draw. Since Iai Draw was a strict upgrade, learning it erased Swift Blade and folded that skill's level straight into the new one — which meant she opened Iai Draw at level 15. For reference, the lingering attack-speed boost that rides for ten seconds after the draw climbs by 10% with every level.

Next came her fourth skill. Her ultimate.

A spirit, on a swordswoman. You'd be forgiven for wondering what the hell that was about. In truth, having Aquaril learn Spirit Summon was something of an impulse — I saw the stone and I pulled the trigger. But it wasn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a thoughtless decision.

The moment that skill stone hit my eyes, I thought of the Spirit Swordsman I'd raised back when I was playing Fairy Masters in my previous ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠life.

I'd spent nearly three months glued to that single fairy, trying to build her right. It hadn't been easy. More than once I'd been tempted to half-ass the rest of it and move on — but I'd started, so I was going to see it through.

To raise a Spirit Swordsman I'd farmed mana Growth Stones and run the same spirit-monster dungeons over and over, chasing a trait that boosted spirit affinity. And that wasn't even the half of it. I'd had to hunt down affinity-boosting items on top of the rest.

Three months of mind-numbing grinding. And then, finally, it paid off.

I landed her final class: Mother of the Sea. Every stat sitting at 200. She could summon a Spirit King armed to the teeth with devastating support and attack skills. That fairy, bloated with my time and my money, became the ace of my first-string roster.

This is fate.

Aquaril's swordsman class was still stuck at level 30, never having evolved. And in that state, we'd just bought a skill stone that could summon a water spirit matching her own attribute.

Coincidence? Not a chance. This was destiny. A revelation from the heavens themselves: take the Spirit Swordsman you birthed on your phone and make her real.

So I had Aquaril learn Spirit Summon.

"Master! Oralisa wants to go home too!"

Oralisa planted herself at Aquaril's side and made her own pitch, just as desperate to get back. The look in her eyes wasn't any different from Aquaril's.

Oralisa's skills didn't need touching yet. She was already loaded with traits and techniques that hit like a truck in the dark, so the play was to keep leveling what she had and swap up later when something better came along. Instead, I overhauled her gear.

Leggings and gloves that boosted Agility. A bracelet that padded Luck. Leather armor that raised Vitality. Everything she was wearing got swapped for pieces with actual stat effects. The result looked like this:

Clearing the Catacomb had padded both her level and her skill levels by a healthy chunk, and the gear she was wearing now stacked on top of that. A stronger Oralisa was dying to find out what she could actually do.

"Just hold on a little longer. The second we're done here, we're heading straight into a dungeon."

I was in the same boat. My upgraded skills had my fingers twitching.

In my case, there was no point buying gear with stat bonuses. That money was better spent firing off Molt one more time.

Even expensive equipment barely moved the needle. But every time I used Molt, every single stat went up by one. Once I thought about it that way, the thousand gems it cost to trigger the skill didn't feel so painful.

Convert a thousand gems to gold and you're looking at ten million. And among all the items I could buy with ten million gold, not a single one had caught my eye. So I poured everything into upgrading my skills instead.

Heal (Common) became Multi-Heal (Advanced). Wind Arrow (Common) became Black Barrage (Rare). Firefly (Common) became Will-o'-the-Wisp (Rare).

If I'd been the party's off-tank and healer before, I was morphing into a mage-healer this time around. Mages were the class that used the power of attributes better than anyone.

Of the five attributes I currently possessed, two — Darkness and Fire — had already evolved a full stage beyond what anyone else was walking around with. To make that advantage scream, I picked up skills tied to those two attributes.

"We've still got some time, so let's look around a bit more. Window shopping counts as shopping, right? And Lady Montblanc said she'd call us when the time came."

"Understood, Master."

"Nngh… okay, Master."

Aquaril and Oralisa both looked like I'd just taken away their toys.

Gotta admit, the black market delivers. The whole party's a different animal now.

Wandering the stalls with them, I couldn't keep the grin off my face. Skills and items you couldn't touch in a regular shop had kicked the party's fighting strength up a full notch.

If things break right, we might even push past Room 7.

The next dungeon on our list was the Hall of Fame, and I'd set Room 6 as the target. But the party had jumped so hard that, if we played it well, we could crack Room 7 or further. Pull anything decent out of there and we'd climb another step on the spot.

Keep getting stronger like this, and I could take her down in the not-too-distant future. And once I had her… if I could, I'd make her mine.

Ahhh… I love you, Alan! My Master!

The thought of Montblanc belonging to me dragged a filthy little laugh right out of my throat.

"Huh?"

The appointed time arrived, and in the blink of an eye we were standing somewhere else entirely.

"Where the hell is this?"

"This place is…"

The others looked around, faces blank with confusion. Spatial magic had taken us before any of us even noticed.

…Yeah. This is the first thing I need to prepare for.

A cold little spike of fear went through me. What if Montblanc had dropped us over a river of lava? Strong as we'd gotten, none of us were tanking magma that melted everything it touched. If I was going to fight her someday, I needed countermeasures in place well ahead of time.

"Did you enjoy browsing the black market?"

"We did. Clean and well-organized — exactly what you'd expect from a market run by Lady Montblanc herself. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Lady Montblanc."

"Heheh~"

Of course, for now I still had to keep the mask on.