34 The Slave Market 1 (1/2)
It had took him days to travel, but now he was here.
What he can see was a valley with nine mountains, on top of each ones were carpeted with Red Lilies, going downward he saw a flat land with the mountains acting like a natural wall.
Looking around he saw Dusk pointing towards the right, he then saw a red gate and a natural formed slope leading down in a zigzag pattern from the cliff to the lands below.
At the end of the road he saw something like a checkpoint with a gate, about a dozen or so guards were standing by with spears by their hands and swords strapped to their waist, equipped with a helmets, breastplates and greaves made from iron.
From the side he saw some men armed with different weapons standing by as well, he guessed that they even employed mercenaries since they are bringing a lot of merchandise.
Guessing from the length and height of the cliff he was standing on, he estimated the time it would take him would be half a day to reach the bottom, by then it would already be dark.
So he ran to down the slope at top speed to make up for lost time.
Going down, he can see roughly the entire lay out of the market, he would describe it as an hourglass figure with the top being larger than the one below.
Most of the facilities be it the stalls, guard houses, toilets, store houses, public areas and the lounging were all tents.
He did see a large carriage, but no one was going near them, since they are surrounded by armed guards.
From what he can see, the lower part was were the general public could enjoy meals and entertainment, while the larger part was where the market was selling their inventory.
He then double checked his current inventory.
To make make it appear as though he had hunted in the area, he changed from his baggy clothes to a tight fitting outfit, using the the excess fabric he tied it to fit him.
He doubted that they would allow a child that looked like a beggar, so he had to look like a professional to fit his reason for being in the wood.
What he carried were two sacs one filled with all the core he hunted excluding the higher tiers like the Tiger, another was filled with dried rations, and some jugs of alcohol he planned to sell.
He also had a small bag filled with the shiny stones he found on the ground along with some of the rings that had no value to him.
Strapped beside his waist was a coin purse filled with 20 pieces of gold coins, 100 pieces of silver and about a 500 pieces of Copper.
He can't show his space ring since it would draw unwanted attention, so he wrapped it with his hands with rags torn from the extra clothes.
His attire was altered to look like he was a scout like in rpg games, wearing a bandanna on his head, with a scarf to cover his face, using the extra cloak, he fashioned a shorter version to cover his body with a hody.
His weapons consist of Hilda, the three knives he kept on using and the black shield, in the space ring there were other weapons like a bow and a 100 arrows, but he decided to sell them if he had the chance.
On a side note, he had Dusk jump down first and waited for his orders at the general area.
While he was at it he tried to look for a man dragging a large sac, but he couldn't find him.
”Master, were almost there!”
Looking down he saw the gate and some guards with the leading one lifting his hand warning him to stop and slow down, while other guards and mercenaries are gripping their weapons.
When he turned his head he saw a large dust cloud.
He never realized that his running speed was fast enough that he was leaving behind a dust cloud, so he slowed down after hearing him and skipped forward stopping before the guards.
He then looked at the guards and waited as the dust cloud disappeared from behind with the wind following behind.
The guards were obviously baffled in seeing such a display that they had left their mouths open wide, enough that an egg can fit inside.
”Excuse me...is there a problem.”
The leading guard snapped out of his surprised and looked at Stigma's figure top to bottom with a wary expression, from behind he can hear guards mumbling about him.
The mercenaries were looking back at the largest man behind them, indicating that was their leader.
Slowly the guard asked him some question, such as who was he, what is his reason for coming here, and why was he running at that speed.
He was already prepared with his such questions so he answered diligently, the scarf that was covering his mouth and bandanna on his head were removed to show he was a young boy.
Seeing the face was a child made the tense guards relax a little.
He answered truthfully using the name Stigma Falsus, his reason for being here was to buy slaves for labor since he heard it from a passing merchant that it was nearby so he took his chances, and the reason for running at top speed was him mistaking his route and thought he might miss the time limit before they left.
The guard was a little wary but he still followed the procedure, he had him do a routine inspection from checking his things and a pat down while listing his weapons.
The mercenaries were watching the scene unfold and eye bold his money and core, they are worth a fortune to non cultivators.
They didn't check his hand, but they inspected the coin purse to check the contents and were surprised that they found a lot of money and questioned him.
”I already told you that a merchant told me about this place, I sold him some meat and cores and he gave me some liquor for a trade since he didn't have enough at hand.”
They believed it since a lot of merchant do those type of deals so they just accepted it.
The other leader was grinning with an evil expression, clearly he had some intentions to take advantage of him.
Stigma saw the grin but ignored him, compared to con-artist using dirty deals and scare tactics, he looked like an amateur who had no idea on how to keep his excitement in his pants.
He had already dealt with this type of situation so he was not afraid, since they were employed they won't do anything that would jeopardize their future payment and reputation or they will be in trouble.
With all the inspection done along with the questioning, all they did now was warn him about the rules and penalties, layout on the surroundings, and the time limit.