’So fucking predictable,’ Julien thought to himself.
He let out a heavy sigh and slowly raised his empty hand in the air.
"Relax, guys," Julien said, keeping his voice totally calm.
The ten ard n stopped for a second, looking confused.
They expected him to panic or beg for his life, but not to look bored.
"Why is it that whenever you people see sothing good, your very first thought is to just steal it?" Julien asked out loud, looking around the tight circle of thugs.
"Think about this logically for a minute. So here is what happens if you rob . You kill us and take the cart. Great job. You get maybe twenty high-quality potions. What exactly are you going to do after that?"
The thugs just stared at him.
Kelly frowned from behind her counter, her hand still raised from clapping.
"After using my products, you will get used to having actual, high-quality gear," Julien explained, talking to them like they were slow children.
"And that stuff is going to be extrely hard to find after I am gone. A twenty-sothing product haul inside my cart is not going to help you survive for long. You will run out in a week. Then what are you going to do?"
The big n holding the rusted swords looked at each other.
They clearly had not thought that far ahead.
They just saw a shiny red potion and wanted it.
"And also," Julien added, his eyes narrowing as he dropped the friendly act.
"Just because I look weak does not an I actually am. If you rush us right now, I will at least kill five of you guys before I go down. And then Kyle will at least kill half of this entire public market before he finally rests, too."
Right on cue, Kyle grinned.
The giant rcenary reached over his shoulder and pulled the Ruined Knight’s sword from his back.
He did not swing it at anyone, just let the heavy black blade drop and tapped the tip against the solid ground.
Bang.
The sound echoed through the entire stadium like a gunshot.
It imdiately alerted literally everyone in the market.
People stopped haggling, dropped their goods, and turned around to look at the standoff.
The entire bazaar went completely quiet.
"Now," Julien said, smiling politely at the crowd.
"We can sit down and talk like civilized human beings, or I will wipe you all out and then carry on my way anyway. Your choice."
Kelly looked completely shocked.
She stared at Julien, amazed that soone so weak-looking could talk like that while surrounded by ten ard killers.
"You bastard," Kelly sneered, gripping the edge of her wooden stall.
"You think you are all that just because you have a big guard—"
"Stop it, Kelly."
A new voice cut through the tense air.
It ca from the side of the busy market path.
The ard hunters imdiately lowered their weapons.
They all moved respectfully to the side to make room.
A tall man walked through the parted crowd.
He had long hair tied neatly back behind his head, and wore a clean, dark outfit that looked exactly like a priest’s dress.
It was a very strange look for a dirty scavenger camp.
He glared at the woman behind the counter, then he looked at the ten thugs surrounding the cart.
Everyone imdiately moved backwards, creating a wide circle of space.
They were clearly terrified of him.
"How many tis have I told you to treat our custors with respect?" the man said softly.
He walked up to the counter and placed a pale hand on Kelly’s shoulder.
"I am sorry, sir," Kelly stamred, her voice shaking badly.
"I didn’t an to..."
She did not get to finish her sentence.
Within a few seconds, her face had lost all colour.
Her eyes rolled back into her head, and she fell hard behind the wooden counter.
Julien watched her drop.
He did not see any magic flash or hear any spell.
The guy just touched her shoulder, and she went down like a rock.
The man in the priest’s clothes turned around to face Julien.
He offered a very polite, warm smile.
"Who might you be, kind sir?" he asked.
’Bro, your fake personality is way too over the top,’ Julien thought in his mind.
’Nobody talks like that out here.’
"I am a rchant who ca to sell so products," Julien replied, keeping his guard up.
The guy clapped his hands together once, looking delighted by the answer.
He leaned forward and offered his hand for Julien to shake.
"I am Eric," he said.
Julien looked at the offered hand for a few seconds.
He did not reach out.
Instead, he looked right into Eric’s eyes and silently activated his new Examiner skill to get a read on the market boss.
Nothing happened.
No blue text popped up.
No stats appeared.
The system just gave him a blank error.
’His skill level must be incredibly powerful to block the system like that,’ Julien realized, feeling a drop of sweat slide down his neck.
Eric laughed softly and took his hand back.
He did not look offended at all by the rejection.
"Very well," Eric said, nodding his head.
"You are cautious. I like that. Let’s go talk sowhere private."
He turned around and started walking.
He walked right past the food stalls and went straight toward the place where the crazy astrologer was sitting on her woven rug.
She was currently performing a reading on an old man, probably telling him how he managed to survive this long.
Eric did not even say excuse .
He just crouched down next to her rug and pulled up a hidden wooden trapdoor set into the floor.
It revealed an iron ladder going straight down into the dark.
"Follow ," Eric said, climbing down into the hole.
Julien looked back at the cart.
The three bald thugs were still standing there, looking absolutely terrified and very confused.
"We are leaving the cart here," Julien told them.
"Don’t touch it."
Eric’s ard n were already stepping up to keep a close eye on the wooden wagon. Nobody was going to steal it now.
Only Kyle and Julien followed the market boss down the ladder, leaving the useless thugs behind on the surface.
The ladder went down for a long ti.
The air got colder the deeper they went.
"Is this actually safe?" Kyle asked quietly from above him on the ladder.
"Well, he at least seems decent," Julien replied.
"And we need to talk to the guy in charge anyway."
They both reached the bottom and stepped off the iron rungs.
The underground area was massive.
It looked like an old subway maintenance tunnel.
But the first thing Julien saw made him freeze in his tracks.
Twenty people were standing in a wide circle in the middle of the room.
They were all sweating heavily and holding thick, heavy iron chains.
The chains were attached to a massive steel cage sitting in the centre of the floor.
The cage was shaking hard.
Sothing huge and angry was moving around inside the dark box, pulling against the chains.
"Keep the pressure stable," Eric called out casually as he walked past the struggling workers.
"Or he might run again."
The workers just grunted and pulled harder on the chains, refusing to let go.
Eric did not even look back at the shaking cage.
He just walked over to a heavy door on the far wall, pushed it open, and stepped into a clean, quiet private room.
Julien watched the cage for a second, feeling completely uneasy about whatever was locked inside.
Then he followed Eric into the room and went to sit down in a cheap plastic chair.
Kyle walked in right behind him, staying on his feet and standing by the door, constantly looking around for hidden threats.
Eric sat down behind a desk, crossed his hands and looked right at Julien with that sa creepy, polite smile.
"So," Eric said.
"What do you want to talk about?"
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