The sun was slowly tilting toward the horizon, and the shadows of the Academy’s tall buildings stretched across the paved grounds.
Lian stood by the dormitory, watching students leaving their evening classes.
His mind was still occupied with Aldric’s words. A creature that even satellite images had failed to properly capture.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt this was like a jackpot for him. If it really was a Fallen monster, then did that not mean he could gain a lot of stat points and new skills by killing it?
Besides, if he was lucky, he could even level up.
But he still did not know why he felt uneasy about this mission. As if something unexpectedly dangerous was going to happen.
Just then, a familiar voice came from a distance.
"I hope this request for help isn’t about borrowing money."
Lian raised his head. Kain was approaching in the same Academy uniform. His hands were in his pockets, his messy hair was moving, and his usual smile was on his face.
A smile that seemed like nothing in the world could wipe it off.
"If I wanted money, I wouldn’t come to you." Lian answered without changing his expression.
Kain immediately made a fake frown.
"So rude. Does our friendship mean nothing?"
"Nothing."
"Damn it..."
Kain dramatically placed his hand on his heart.
"You really broke my heart today."
For a moment, both laughed. Seeing Kain always felt like this. As if a part of normal life still existed.
A part that had not been swallowed by monsters, death, and ruined realms.
Lian had known him for years. Among the Academy students, Kain was almost an exception.
He was not the son of a great family, not the heir of a legendary guild, and did not have noble blood.
His family was completely ordinary. A middle-class family that had worked for the government for generations.
His father was a specialist in evaluating Awakened equipment. His uncle worked in the logistics department of the Ministry of Defense. And his mother was in charge of purchasing and transferring rare equipment at a state-owned company.
Their jobs might sound glamorous, but government salaries were not that high. However, this had allowed them to know almost the entire market for Awakened equipment.
From official shops to places the government pretended did not exist.
Like the black market.
"I want to go to the black market."
Hearing his request, Kain fell silent, and for a moment, he felt like he had misheard.
"The black market? Why do you want to go there?"
"You’ll find out when we get there." Lian answered vaguely.
Kain was quiet for a moment, then nodded. He knew his friend, and he saw no reason to stop him or change his mind.
They started walking and chatted along the way.
"Still haven’t learned any elements?" On the way out of the Academy, Lian suddenly asked.
Kain sighed as if all the world’s sorrows had fallen on his shoulders.
"Unfortunately."
"Still?"
"Still."
Then he continued angrily.
"You don’t understand at all. Warriors have it easy. They pick up a sword, kill monsters, and level up."
"But me? I’m a Mage."
Lian smiled. He knew Kain’s class. A two-star class. A Mage.
Mages are powerful and very skilled in ranged combat. If they are lucky and their class evolves into a rare class in the first evolution, they can become among the strongest Awakened.
But there was one big problem.
Cost.
Mages do not just need experience to progress. They also need resources. Spell books, mana crystals, materials for making talismans, monster cores, and dozens of other materials.
"A warrior just needs a sword. I have to sell half my organs to learn a new spell." Kain said with a sad face.
Lian laughed.
"You’re exaggerating."
"No."
"The price of the last book I wanted to buy almost made me sell my organs."
An hour later.
They were no longer in the student district. The buildings had become older, the alleys narrower, the street lights dimmer, and the crowd stranger.
Awakened in blood-stained armor, hunters who smelled of blood and gunpowder, information sellers, smugglers.
And people who gave you a sense of danger just by looking at them.
The further they went, the heavier the city’s atmosphere became. Finally, they stopped in front of an abandoned house.
A two-story house, broken windows, worn-out walls, and an appearance that looked completely abandoned. But Lian immediately noticed two muscular men by the door.
Men who looked even stronger than many third-year students of the Academy.
One of them smiled as soon as he saw Kain.
"The Arkan kid."
Kain waved his hand.
"Good evening."
The guard glanced briefly at Lian but said nothing. A few moments later, the door opened.
They entered the house.
Then they passed through a dark hallway, and after that... everything changed.
For a moment, Lian stopped. His eyes widened slightly, because the abandoned house was gone. In front of them was another city.
Another world.
An independent small dimension.
As far as the eye could see, stone streets, magic lanterns, massive markets, buildings with architecture that looked like ancient times.
Thousands of people were coming and going. Some human, some Awakened, some so strange that they were hard to identify.
In the distance, massive buildings could even be seen. Stadiums for underground fights.
Betting halls, secret illegal auctions, and centers where probably no official law applied.
"This..." Lian whispered quietly.
"Welcome to the underworld. Now that we are here, what exactly do you want?" Kain smiled.
"I don’t want to buy anything. I want to sell something."
"Then I think I know a good place."
A few minutes later.
They entered a shop. A shop whose walls were covered in weapons, armor, and monster cores.
The old shopkeeper did not even raise his head.
"What do you want?"
"We have a deal." Kain said.
The shopkeeper impatiently glanced at them. When he saw two young students, he smirked.
"Let me guess. You came to sell a wolf skin?"
A few customers laughed.
"Or maybe a strange rabbit?"
Kain just smiled and looked at Lian.
"You guessed right. In a way, I want to sell a wolf." Lian also smirked.
The shopkeeper laughed louder when he realized his guess was right. These stupid young Awakened thought they could bring their first hunt and sell it here for a higher price.
"We don’t buy normal monsters—" But before he could finish his sentence...
Lian moved his hand without a word. Suddenly, the light of the storage space appeared in the air.
And a moment later...
The massive corpse of a Fallen monster fell to the ground.
BOOM!
The sound of its impact shook the entire shop.
Absolute silence took over. The shopkeeper froze. The customers froze. Not even the sound of breathing could be heard.
The old man’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.
"This..."
He stepped forward.
He ran his hand over the monster’s skin, then suddenly his face changed color.
"Fallen?!"
One of the hunters shouted in disbelief.
"Damn... is this real?!"
"Where did these kids get something like this?!"
The shopkeeper no longer dared to look down on them. He was now looking at Lian as if seeing him for the first time.
A few minutes later, the initial inspection was over. The old man took a deep breath, then shook his head.
This was a Fallen Wolf! A real level ten Fallen monster!
"It’s from the tenth realm." Lian added.
And his words made the shopkeeper even more shocked. If this was true, then this was the first sample corpse of a Fallen monster from the tenth realm.
"No... I can’t price this."
Lian raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"
The old man looked directly into his eyes.
"This level of goods is beyond my authority."
"The owner of the market needs to see it." He then said quietly.
Even Kain was a little surprised. The owner of the market? This rarely happened.
But he was more shocked about how his friend had obtained a Fallen corpse and stared at Lian in disbelief.
The old man came out from behind the counter and went toward a large metal door at the back of the shop.
Multiple locks opened one after another. The sound of metal echoed in the space. Then the door slowly began to open.
Beyond the door... absolute darkness could be seen. And in the depths of that darkness, faint golden lights were shining.
The old man gestured to them.
"From here on... only special people are allowed entry."
Lian and Kain looked at each other, then stepped forward. The massive door closed behind them.
With a heavy sound that echoed through the entire hallway, the real world of the black market... had just begun.