Max and Anna walked into a small pub on the corner of the Bazaar and immediately their entry caused the gazes of the entire bar to fall on them.
The bar was only a front, in reality it was an information trading and mission posting hub of the infamous thief jathi, but only a select individuals connected to the underworld knew it, which is why every new entrant into the bar was viewed with scrutiny.
The only reason why Max knew the secrets behind this place was because in his past life ' Benedict Dinivorum ' , his longtime rival and one of the people he hated the most, was the human who was credited with the bust of the timeless thiefs network.
It was his crowning moment, one that brought him immense glory and prestige and the incident that cost Max to lose many nights worth of sleep from being green with envy.
The frail looking hobgoblin who was polishing the glass at the far end of the room was actually Jathi himself, but none of the criminals gathered in the pub knew of his real identity and treated him as an ordinary bartender.
" What can I get you today? " Jathi said with a smooth voice as he waited to see if Max knew the code or not, because if Max said anything except the decided code words, the entire bar would attack him and kill him now.
Sitting across the bar table, Max calmly pulled down the hood of his robe as he looked at Jathi and said " It's pretty hot out on the streets today, I'll take what you suggest, my friend will do the same "
Jathi relaxed when Max recited the code perfectly and everyone in the room went back to focusing on their own private conversations.
Soon Jathi walked back with two glasses of chilled beer as he said " Two hundred gold coins for general information, 50,000 for special requests "
Max placed a pouch on the table with exactly two hundred gold coins within as Jathi silently took it and left a form for Max to fill as he said " Head over to table 7 "
Grabbing their drinks, Max and Anna sat on table seven blending in perfectly with the rest of the crowd as the duo began chatting in hushed voices.
Anna : 50,000 gold coins for a special request? Ridiculous pricing!
Max : He should be pretty rich, no doubt about it.
Anna : You noticed his aura? He's tier4 at least because he has an aura, but it's so faint… almost non-existent, is he really the legendary thief? Are you sure you are not mistaken?
Max : That's his ability, his skill is an inferior version of the ability master Jhonny has, where instead of becoming formless he can become undetectable, literally one with the surroundings... the benefits of his ability are that no spell in the world can detect him when he is in his ' Stealth ' mode, where he is completely invisible and impossible to detect, however, the drawback of his ability is that he can never ascend to tier5 and is locked at tier4 strength for the rest of his life.
Anna : You sure you need an information bureau when you yourself are a walking information department?
Max : Ha- careful now, if Asiva heard this comment she might think you are flirting with me intentionally
Anna : Oh you so wish I were…
Max : Okay, Okay, let's focus on the task at hand first, look- this paper is where we write down what information we are seeking and what specifics we need. Once we are done filling the form the waiter will come and pick the card up and come back with the information we need after a while, or ask us to visit again in some days.
Anna : A very cool system, the criminal world is more organized than I give it credit for.
Max : Yeah, not even the best library's function this smoothly.
Anna : So what do you plan on writing in the paper?
Max : Oh nothing, just a friendly threat.
Max chuckled as he wrote on the paper provided by Jathi that he knew about his identity and was ready to expose it to everyone in the underworld unless he agreed to meet him in private.
Wanting to sound legit, Max wrote in a few details about Jathi's specific skills in the form as well so that the old goblin understood that the enemy had a strong understanding of his skills and meant business.
Soon, the waiter came and collected the card as Max patiently waited with Anna sipping his beer, thinking how Benedict's hard work was bearing fruit for him this life.
Uptil this point Max had not used much of his reincarnation knowledge to his advantage, however, he felt that now he was sufficiently strong to take actions on the knowledge he possessed and walk away with the proper intended results.
Prior to this he had given up some key money making and auction information up to his brother anonymously as he hoped that his brother could make a lot of money and had even asked his brother to ditch earth and move to some other planet which he did.
Back then he knew that he could not partake in some of the key events that he had the knowledge of, because he was either lacking in status or in strength to take part in big events, but now he was a lord and a much stronger warrior which gave him the freedom to act on his accumulated knowledge.
Just as Max completed sipping on his beer, Jathi stood across his table as he studied Max with a half threatening- half fearful gaze before relenting as he said " Follow me to the cellar "
Max put his robe back on, as he and Anna followed the old goblin to the back of the bar, away from public eyes.
" Who are you? What do you want? " Jathi asked in a chilly tone as he demanded answers from the vampire lord.
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/// A/N - Chapter 4/30, a new day, let's go! ///