The Black Market II
Fredrick Jason was the illegitimate son of the Williams family.
As one would expect, he was born out of wedlock as his mother was a simple maid in the house, but she ended up being forced by one of the sons of the family, causing him to be born.
His existence was, unsurprisingly, looked down upon.
Fortunately for him, his uncles and aunties weren’t able to do too much for him because their father was a sowhat decent person, and he asked Frederick’s father to take responsibility. Naturally, he wasn’t given any sort of special privileges. After all, he didn’t even get their surna, but for the most part, he and his mother were treated well.
He got older and beca a beast tar. Nothing too impressive, but he managed to get two Adept rank beasts and was fairly well established on his own.
In short, while it wasn’t all fine and dandy, he was doing alright.
But then his grandfather died, and that’s where everything went to wrap.
One of his uncles beca the family head, and as soon as such a thing happened, he was banished from the family. It seed like they could no longer handle having such a stain on the family’s reputation.
However, Fredrick anticipated such a result when his paternal grandfather died. So, while it was infuriating, it wasn’t like he hadn’t prepared for such a scenario. He was happy as long as he could be with his mother, and with his beasts, making a good living wasn’t hard.
However, his family didn’t just want to banish him. They wanted to ruin him.
He had joined a small hunting party that set out of the Citadel, only for him to get ambushed by the William Family’s people.
He was beaten to an inch of his life, and one of his beasts was killed while the other had essentially been crippled.
The only reason Frederick survived was because a single one of his aunties who was actually fond of him had a feeling her siblings were going to pull sothing, so she sent soone to help him.
Sadly, the amount of help she could give him was limited. After all, her standing in the family wasn’t great, and if her siblings noticed she was helping him too much, she’d face pressure. Moreover, Fredrick didn’t want her to help him too much either.
Fredrick was, unsurprisingly, pissed. He didn’t like his family, but he didn’t think there was much beef between them. He hardly interacted with them growing up, and he was even eager to leave so that they wouldn’t start demanding things from him like he owed them.
But for so reason, they couldn’t just leave him be, and they killed one of his beloved beasts and severely injured the other.
He wanted to buy another beast egg, but he couldn’t as they had screwed him over in that departnt, too. No matter where he went, the mont they saw his face, they’d tell him that they couldn’t sell an egg to him. So gave dumb excuses like ’All the eggs have been bought already.’ While others just flatly told him no.
The Black Market was an option as well, but everything he tried to buy an egg and succeeded, the mont he returned, soone would co and beat the hell out of him before stealing the egg. It was horrible.
His accumulated funds had started to dwindle, and his mother wasn’t as strong as she used to be. He knew that she was still trying to work herself to the bone to earn so money for them, and he felt useless all the way through.
Many tis, he thought of just giving up and finding so normal job. He was educated after all, so it wasn’t outlandish for him to get so office job. But he was angry. He wanted to make the Williams family lay for what they did to him and his beasts.
Since buying a new beast was out of the equation, he sought out another avenue. Evolution.
It was obscure, and the chances of it working were close to zero, but if he could evolve his remaining beast sohow, he’d have a chance.
But there was another issue. The lack of funds. He managed to scrape up 300,000 credits for this venture. But all the prices he’d heard so far were simply astronomical. Sothing that was made worse by the fact that there was a high chance the evolution attempt would fail anyway.
His logical mind told him to leave it. To stop struggling so much and just accept his reality. But he was stubborn but also desperate. He couldn’t give up just like that, not after everything they did to him.
Moreover, his aunt told him that the number of referrals she could give him to go to the black market was going to be cut severely from now on. So if he didn’t succeed now, who knew when he’d get another chance?
It was a naive hope. Who knew how many other people were in his shoes before? What made him think that he had a chance? He knew these things. But he refused to fold. He refused to let it happen just like that.
But what could he do?
’Dammit.’ Fredrick had to stop walking and looked up, his eyes behind his mask tired and weary. He was reaching his limit.
He sighed with exhaustion and frustration, resisting the urge to run his hand through his hair. He didn’t know what else to do, and he hated it.
"Hello there." A voice snapped him out of his moping temporarily, and he turned to see who it was.
The person was wearing a suit and had an average build, but their black mask indicated their status as a vendor.
"... Yes?" Despite his inner turmoil, Fredrick managed to keep his voice level. He was a tad annoyed by being approached like this, but he wouldn’t hold it against the guy since more vendors in the black market had to actively seek out their custors.
"I couldn’t help but notice that you were moving around and observing stores that dealt with evolving beasts. Maybe my services could be of so assistance?" Hearing this, Fredrick narrowed his eyes.
"Were you following ?" He asked sternly. His beasts may have been out of commission, but his Adept rank strength never vanished. His senses were more acute than most, so the fact he hadn’t noticed this person before ant–
"On the contrary, my stall is right there. You kept moving around this area, and I just noticed you." The person pointed at a Stall a few dozen ters away.
"... Oh." Fredrick forced an awkward cough. Seems like he’d assud too quickly.
"So you deal with beast evolution too, huh?" He decided to change the subject and folded his arms.
"Correct, if you’d be willing to humor , I could provide my services. You can take my words with a pinch of salt, but I promise that my services are and will be satisfactory." When he finished, Fredrick stared at him for a few seconds as he pondered.
’He’s well-spoken, at least. As for his offer...’ He shifted his gaze to the stall he pointed at.
’Limitless, huh? Sounds like soone trying too hard to be noticed.’ He didn’t like it. But quite frankly, he didn’t have a choice.
’The other ones I looked at seed worse anyway. It can’t be much worse.’ He sighed in his heart before asking.
"How much do your services cost?" At this, the man didn’t show the sa sudden excitent he’d seen before whenever he indicated interest. Granted, he was wearing a mask, but there were other ways to tell soone’s emotions through their body language, for example. But he showed none of these signs.
"What is the rank of beast you’re trying to evolve?" He asked, and Fredrick lingered before answering.
"Adept." At this, the man nodded.
"Let’s go to my stalk. Discussing this in the open isn’t too good on the mind." Without another word, he turned and walked towards his stall.
’Confident.’ Fredrick noted the lack of hesitation in his movents and decided to follow.
They quickly reached the stall and entered the waiting room where the man gestured for Fredrick to take a seat.
"To answer your question, evolving it will cost you 200,000. The materials are on you. I will show you what you need, but how you get them is your business. I don’t mark up prices I don’t set." The man said in a calm, almost flat tone, and Fredrick couldn’t help but be surprised.
Before now, the lowest he’d been charged was 500,000, but this person’s prices were quite reasonable, almost suspiciously so.
’Maybe he’s keeping things cheap since he’s just starting out. needing to buy the materials myself makes sense though.’ He mused but simply nodded.
"So how will you show the materials?" He asked.
"Well, I need to see the beast first." The man replied and Fredrick hesitated. He didn’t like showing his beast to people, not after what happened, but he also understood that the evolution couldn’t be done without the man knowing what he was working with.
"Step back a bit please." He said and the man obliged.
Then Fredrick took a breath and opened up his Beast Space.
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