The Author's POV

Chapter 23 - Black Market [3] Seeing the numerous people going to and fro between each stall, I couldn't help but feel my heart race at the extensive number of goods that shone brightly under the street lights.

Each one looked more tempting than the other.

Going through each stall one by one, I made a mental note of the things that seemed interesting.

This way, once I went through the majority of the stalls, I could decide which thing I needed to buy and which thing I didn't.

Since I was planning on venturing inside of a dungeon, I require several things.

Arriving at a stall, I went forward and picked up a slim necklace that had a purple stone imbued in it.

--- Name : Necklace of tranquility Type : Artifact Rank : G Use : Allows wearer to have better sleep.

Description : Artifact created by an unknown blacksmith.

--- With the aid of the status window, I could see the detail of each artifact I touched, making it easier for me to look for what I wanted.

Looking at the necklace in my hand, I thought 'This could indeed be useful, as sleeping inside of a dungeon can be challenging' Dungeons were essentially portals that connected earth to the demon world.

Their harsh environment means that only monsters or strong individuals could survive inside of them.

With its harsh conditions, one needs, alongside good equipment, to be in their best possible shape.

If one lacked sleep, then it became much harder for them to continue venturing inside of the dungeon as a sleep-deprived person's reaction time becomes slower.

Thus, this necklace could definitely be of good use inside of dungeons.

"Excuse me" "Yes, how may I help you?

" Calling out the stall owner, who wore a black hood to hide his features.

I pointed at the necklace in my hand and asked "How much is this?

" Carefully inspecting the necklace in my hands, the stall owner paused for a second before saying "That necklace?

3000 U" Placing the necklace down, I went to the next stall.

Sleeping was for the weak.

Slower reaction time?

Heh, I say to hell with that!

3000 U?

My word.

Talk about daylight robbery.

Although the effect was good, there's no way a G rank artifact was worth that much!

Trying my best to forget about this accident, I ventured deeper into the market.

As I was walking, I remembered the number of certain stalls that had some interesting items up for sale.

Because of my limited budget, I needed to be careful when buying stuff.

Right now, more than anything else, I needed a sword.

Because for obvious reasons I couldn't bring the school's katana with me.

I had no choice but to look for a new sword.

Moreover, I also needed to buy some sort of dimensional storage that could help me store the corpses of the monsters that I killed.

If not, how was I supposed to bring back the corpses of all the monsters I killed?

Unlike the MC who has a system that comes with an enormous storage space, I didn't have such privilege.

Fortunately for me, the black market was filled with such items.

Plus, if I was lucky enough, I might get some good deals.

Well, not so much for dimensional storages as their price was fairly inflexible.

The bigger the storage provided the more expensive the artifact would become.

And since I was short on money, I probably couldn't afford to buy myself a high-end storage device.

In fact, even purchasing a low-end one was challenging for me with my current budget.

If I couldn't purchase one, I would have to literally walk back to the entrance of the dungeon and drop the monster bodies in front of the gate.

That would be total hell.

Plus, since I would most likely not be the only one entering the dungeon, I risked the possibility of getting my spoils stolen.

In short, dimensional storage was a must.

Arriving before a weapon stall that I had previously passed by, I quietly looked through their sword section.

Various swords were neatly displayed in the stall, allowing me to get a clearer view of how they looked like.

Each sword and weapon had a different brand imprinted on the sheath or body of the weapon.

This was because different weapons were forged by different blacksmiths.

The weapons created by famous blacksmiths could be considered the blacksmith's brand, and branded goods… were naturally expensive.

The price was also not something normal people could afford, especially for someone as poor as me.

...

But I still decided to test my luck.

Maybe, just maybe I could find a sword that perfectly fit my style and didn't cost much.

"Excuse me" Calling out the shop owner, I pointed at a slim sword that looked both robust and light at the same time.

Although it wasn't a katana, the [Keiki style] wasn't a sword art that could only explicitly be practiced by a katana.

All it required was a slim and firm sword that could move at incredible speeds without breaking.

"Sure" Nodding his head, the stall owner went to the back and picked up the sword.

Handing it to me, I quietly admired the sword.

A slim straight blade with black aesthetic patterns deeply etched on the main body of the blade, quietly rested on the palm of my hands.

It had no guard, and unlike the katana which lightly curves, this sword was straight.

Carefully tracing my fingers along the edge of the blade, I could feel incredible sharpness coming from the sword that made it seem like it could cut anything.

-ku!

Twitching my brows for a second, I quietly looked down at my finger which was now bleeding.

'This is a fine sword' I thought, as I grabbed a napkin and wiped my finger.

Even after healing my wound with some light ointment, I could still feel a stinging sensation coming from the finger that got cut.

This sword was incredibly good.

Well compared to the academy's katana this was not as good, but that was simply because better materials were used when forging the weapon.

However, although the academy's weapons were good, they were in fact not artifacts.

They were specifically made for training, and therefore the academy deemed it unnecessary for the training equipment to be artifacts.

With regular weapons, the school could more or less keep the students in check, but as artifacts contained certain powers, the risk of injury during a duel would drastically increase.

Therefore, aside from their exceptional firmness and low density, the academy weapons did not have any special effects.

Although they were indeed top-of-the-line swords, they would still lose out against a similarly durable artifact.

Also, since the academy's weapons weren't artifacts, their stats were unknown.

--- Name : Silver edge Type : Artifact Rank : F Use : An extremely sharp sword that can easily cut through the toughest metal.

Description : Artifact that was found inside of the demon world, and is a sword that had previously been used to slain several demons.

--- Surprisingly, the sword was not made by a famous blacksmith but was actually found inside of a dungeon.

Looking at its clean body, I instantly knew that this was a refurbished sword.

"May I try it?

" Turning my head towards the shop owner, I saw him shake his head at my question.

Well fair enough.

I was careless as well.

I asked without thinking, if by accident someone recognized the sword art I was using, a massive headache would be coming my way.

"Does it have a scabbard" Feeling the blade in my hand, even though I couldn't try it, I could feel the sword being really compatible with the [Keiki style] Not only was it light, but it was also extremely durable.

"Yes" Nodding, the shop owner went to the back and took a black rectangular scabbard.

Placing the sword inside of the scabbard I nodded satisfactorily.

Because the sword did not have a guard, the sword neatly fitted the scabbard making it look like I had a long black stick.

It sort of looked futuristic.

'Low-key, just the way I like it' "How much is this?

" "5,999 U" "...

" Looking at the sword that rested on the side of my hip, I hesitated for a second before handing him my black card.

"Thank you for your purchase" "Yeah, yeah" Leaving the store with a new sword and 6,000 U down, I couldn't help but grumble at the price.

I just used 75% of my budget on a sword.

This means that I only had 2,001 U left within my card.

Now I had to be especially careful about what I purchased next, as my budget has become even more constricted.

Stopping for a moment, I thought for a while and decided to go to a stall which I had previously passed.

The stall I was going to was a stall that only sold dimensional storage-type tools, which was essential for me alongside my sword.

The selling of Dimensional storage-type tools was actually illegal.

That was because, when dimensional storages were first introduced a lot of copycats tried to imitate their technology.

This resulted in disastrous events where out of nowhere the tool would break, due to their poor quality, and as a result of this, a lot of people got injured or even died.

It had to be noted that dimensional storages dealt with the laws of space and time, meaning that the consequences of them breaking was disastrous.

At a certain point, it became so bad that the central government illegalized the production of dimensional storages and only allowed certain licensed individuals to produce them.

Because of this, the prices for dimensional storage inflated and became much higher than their production cost.

But fortunately for me as I was in the black market, the prices were far lower than for what I could get them outside.

It didn't take long for me to arrive at my destination.

Looking at the stall that sold things like storage rings, storage bags, storage pouch, etc...

, I first looked at the prices.

Since prices were based on the storage space dimension, with only 2,000 U remaining, I could only afford 25 cubic meters worth of space.

Storage dimensions started at 5 cubic meters for 300U and increased a further 300U for every additional 5 cubic meters added.

In my case, since I wanted to purchase a 25 cubic meter storage device, the total price was around 1,500U.

It came out at a total of 1,800U though, as I decided to purchase the storage device in the form of a bracelet.

--- Name : Storage bracelet (25 cubic meters) Type : Artifact Rank : G Use : A device that stores items inside of dimensional space.

Description : Common artifact which was crafted by a low-rank blacksmith.

--- Since storage devices have many forms, such as bags, pouches, rings and etc...

the smaller the medium was the more expensive the price was.

In my case, since I choose to go with a bracelet instead of a bag, I paid an extra 300U totaling the price at 1800U Looking at the black leather bracelet that rested on my wrist, I nodded satisfactorily.

If one didn't look carefully they would think this was just a regular bracelet.

It was best to disguise dimensional storages as it could potentially be a target for thieves or people looking to make easy cash by robbing someone.

Since no one knew what went inside of dungeons, as there were no cameras, nobody could verify if someone had been robbed or killed inside of a dungeon.

Dungeons were basically 'lawless' zones, where be it human or monster, they could all be your enemy.

It was always best to keep a low profile.

Since I only had 200 U left on my card, I decided to spend the rest of my money on some potions such as the [stamina recovery potion] and [Mana recovery potion].

Then when I felt like I had enough potions I proceeded to spend the rest of my money on some ointments which I would need in case of flesh wounds.

Because they were relatively low-quality potions, I managed to buy everything I needed with my 200 U remaining.

Satisfied with what I got, I decided to head towards [Dungeon seekers].

The place where I could get access to dungeons.

An organisation that was worth over a trillion U, and was one of the main forces operating in the black market.

It could be said that the main reason people entered the black market was not because of the illegal goods and services that were being sold, but because of [Dungeon seekers].

Because guilds tend to monopolize dungeons, not allowing external parties into them, people who seek to become stronger or strike it rich and were not part of a guild have no choice but to come here.

Since [Dungeon seekers] allowed access to anyone, whether they were heroes or villains, people from all over the world came here.

Moreover, the entrance fee and commission proposed by [Dungeon seekers] were not outrageous, which in turn made this place even more popular amongst the general population.

It could be said that without [Dungeon seekers] the black market wouldn't have been as popular as it was now.