Chapter 157: Chapter 156

Chapter 156

The plaza was filled with people trying to pedal goods. Weapons, armor, potions, enchanted jewelry, wards, totems, and more were all on display at expensive looking shops surrounding the sandstone circle placed underneath the shifting stone cube overhead.

There were also pubs and smoke shops where people congregated to eat, drink, and watch participants in the cube labyrinth try to figure their way out of an ever changing maze full of puzzles and monsters. Being this close to the cube even Riven could see many family members of participants inside the cube watching their own individual instances, saw mourners and celebrations, and saw many betting pools as money exchanged hands.

Surprisingly enough, one of the hottest topics for the betting pools was none other than the one with both Chalgathi participants. Riven was even able to access the live feed himself this close to the puzzle box, but instead he decided to visit one of the smoke shops where dozens of people were yelling and screaming at the video footage that’d become such a popular topic of conversation across numerous establishments.

“This is where I’ll be.” Riven stated, turning his back to the room and looking his minions over. “You can all take some time for yourselves, but be back here within two hours or I’ll have to collect you. Go tit?”

“AYE AYE!” Athela said cheekily, sticking her tongue out and giving a mock salute. “I know we talked about it a little bit earlier, but could we get an allowance? Not having any money to spend and walking around the city just for exploratory purposes isn’t nearly as fun as actually going into the shops.”

Fay scowled at the other demoness. “Athela, you can’t be serious. We already have a great opportunity just by being here to level up without fear of a true death, to ask a warlock master for money as well? That’s absurd. Especially when he has already supplied us with items of our own like the tiara you’re wearing!”

But Riven only smiled. “You’ll be able to keep your hallucinations going even at a distance across the plaza if we split up, right?”

Fay paused, then nodded.

Unhesitatingly, Riven drew out his bag - the one Negrada had modified for him before leaving to increase its space. But the only outward appearance change of the purple satin was that of an added sigil - that of a flaming black eye similar to Negrada’s own. Out of it he drew four more sacks and handed one to each of his minions. “Already on it. Inside you’ll each find a couple thousands worth Elysium Coins, mostly kept to gold to decrease the amount of actual weight you have to lug around. There are also health potions for each of you just in case of emergencies. Go have fun, but stick in pairs of two.”

Fay’s eyes popped with surprise when Riven handed her a bag of her own, and Athela only cackled mischievously while fist-bumping the succubus.

“Thank you Riven, it is appreciated.” Luke stated with a bow upon receiving his own sack of coins. He turned to look up at the barbarian at his side. “Azmoth? Do you wish to accompany me as we go find things to buy?”

Azmoth grunted his acknowledgement, literally flinging aside a smaller drunk man that got too close and bumped into him. “Yes. I follow. You lead.”

“Thanks Riven!” Athela said, coming up and hugging him before she and Fay turned around and excitedly began chatting about what they wanted to find before blending in with the crowds.

Azmoth imitated Luke’s bow and waved before the two men also started off towards other shops around the plaza, though Riven didn’t have any time identifying them even at a distance due to the sheer size of Azmoth’s figure.

Standing alone at the saloon-styled entrance of the smoke shop behind him, Riven hummed in contentment. Glancing at the groaning drunkard Azmoth had thrown into a hay bale nearby, Riven shook his head and turned around to walk into the establishment.

It was rather well kept and very much like any hookah lounge he’d ever seen back on Earth, but it had a heavy amount of drinking and drugs present as well. Scantily clad maids served customers whatever kind of drug or drink they wanted, two male bartenders kept tabs on bets, and the central image conjured in the center of the room was magnified on full display to show the two people Riven had an interest in.

It was why he’d chosen this place to begin with.

“I’LL INCREASE MY BID TO 600 ON THE LADY!” One of the customers called out, half high on the purple fumes he was inhaling from a hookah-like contraption. “600 ON THE LADY!”

A shirtless young man in a simple green linen shorts at the bar nodded, took up a piece of chalk and changed the number on the board next to the older customer’s name. “Noted! Cynthia, please collect the additional coins Rebbis wants to add!”

A petite young woman with blonde hair trot over to the table with the better, took a hundred coin’s worth of money, and then walked back to the bar to where one of five bouncers scattered across the room was located. The large muscular man of dark skin took the cash and placed it somewhere behind the counter before settling back into a watchful position to make sure no brawls or fights erupted between the intoxicated customers.

Riven hobbled inside while playing up the role of ‘old man’. Coming to an open seat at the bar and pulling out a stool, he huffed and yanked himself forward with exaggerated effort to the amusement of another man on his left.

“You alright old timer? Looks like that took quite a bit out of you!” a friendly younger warrior in studded leathers and a longsword across his back grinned over. “What brings you out to the plaza? Looking for some good powder?”

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[Swordsman, Level 13]

“You could say that!” Riven replied with a smile and a croak to his voice. “More than anything I was just curious about the show going on! I’d heard from my grandson that some intense battles were being fought between these two strapping youngins and felt like I might as well enjoy the rest of the day with a show. Name’s Riven.”

“Tahm!”

The other man extended his hand to shake, but Riven avoided the gesture by pretending not to notice and ordering a drink for both him and the swordsman. Riven had a heavy gauntlet on underneath Fay’s hallucination, and he didn’t want to give it away with a handshake.

Tahm’s initial frown upon not having his gesture reciprocated quickly faded when the drink arrived though, and the young man gave Riven a nod of appreciation while starting to sip on the ale - clinking glasses with Riven not long after. “That hits the spot! Thank you!”

“Not a problem!” Riven laughed, turning to look at the large display of the instance event he’d come here for. He’d already done a little bit of digging, though not much, but what he had found indicated that this particular trial had been going on for days now. “Tahm… I’ll buy you another drink if you can give me some answers about these two.”

Riven gestured up at the visage where a dual-wielding axe barbarian was trying to catch a more nimble female rogue. The axe barbarian had a band of cloth over his eyes, was quite muscular, riddled with sigils he’d carved into his skin, and bulldozed over various spawning monsters inside an ever shifting room of platforms. Occasionally he’d let out devastating attacks of unholy might, shattering entire platforms and causing the visage to shudder - while the more nimble, hooded rogue wearing goggles fired off empowered high-speed shots from a shadow-infused longbow. The rogue continually shifted between platforms, jumping up or down - dashing across chasms in the air as the swarm of tiles continued to change the landscape. It was very apparent though that the rogue was on the backfoot, as even when she did make solid hits the barbarian just healed and shrugged it off like it was nothing - and the body language of the barbarian made it very obvious that he was the hunter, not the hunted.

“Another drink you say!?” Tahm grinned mischievously, sloshing the ale in his mug. “Sounds good to me! I’ve actually been here three days now waiting for my guild to take up a contract, so I should be able to fill you in. I’ve got to say, your grandson is right on the money. These are probably some of the highest-level people I’ve ever seen, and it’s even rumored they’re part of one of the world events and carry powerful artifacts. Has the betting rings in an uproar. That man with the two axes originally chased the other woman into the cube after killing a bunch of bystanders in their fight, and he's been hunting her through the puzzle box ever since - going room to room. He's also killed every single person who tried to get in on the action when the king has placed a bounty on their heads - increasing the bounty twentyfold for whoever brings the bodies and all their items back for evaluation. I have no idea what they’re going to do even when they get out, because whoever wins between the two is going to get swarmed when they leave. In fact, I think there’s another group heading in later today to try and collect the bounty. It’ll be the 7th group since the bounty came out.”

***

Athela rummaged through the materials one by one as the watchful eye of the clerk made sure she didn’t steal anything. Piles of various types of threads, wools, strings, and even plant-based ropes were tossed here or there with Athela huffing and puffing about how she couldn’t find what she was looking for.

“He’ll love it either way.” Fay stated with a bright smile, ignoring the lustful looks they were getting from a group of six men at the shop’s entrance. “It doesn’t need to be perfect you know.”

“BUT IT DOES!” Athela exclaimed with an exasperated moan, flinging another ball of wool to the side in irritation as others in the shop shot curious glances her way. “I want it to be perfect because it’s the first thing I’ll give him! He’s so good to us and he even gave us our own gifts already, and I’ve been working on this for a long time now. It needs to be great.”

Fay’s smile softened, and she nodded once while walking around to another crate in order to help Athela look. They’d already gone to the Elysium Altar and had zero success, but then again Elysium Altars were more for the basics than they were anything else - at least until upgraded. And it was unlikely any Elysium Altar on the planet was upgraded at such an early stage in the integration process. So pushing one of her slender hands into the mix of wares, she started rummaging around as well. “Fine. But I think he’s going to be absolutely head over heels for it regardless of if you find that particular ingredient to use. There are many substitutes, and he’ll not even notice the difference if you use one of them instead.”

Athela glowered at her friend, but continued with the digging and huffing. “I just want it to last, you know? I don’t want it to get old.”

“Everything gets old Athela, especially in the realm of items like these.”

“But I don’t want it to.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want him to ever throw it away.”

Fay’s smile widened, and she chuckled to herself at Athela’s reply. “I see. Well then I guess we’ll just have to keep searching then.”

Behind the two women, a gruff clearing of a throat was heard - and Fay turned to see a rather handsome older man in rich linens looking her up and down. He had many golden rings on his fingers, and he was flanked by two servants in similar but less gaudy attire. “Madam… Miss…”

The man bowed slightly to each of them, and then straightened again when he had their attention. “Is there something you’re looking for? I’m the owner of this shop, and I see you may be in need of assistance. If there’s something that you need and it isn’t here, I can even send over one of my employees to check other merchants for you.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Fay raised a suspicious eyebrow. “You’d check other merchants? That’s very generous of you. My friend Athela is in need of something called ‘Kenwit Thread.’ Ever heard of it?”

The man hesitated, put on the fakest smile Fay had ever seen, then quickly nodded. “Of course! I have heard of it, though I am somewhat unfamiliar with the properties. We may have some in the back, though I’d have to take a look. Would you mind following me?”

Athela and Fay exchanged glances, shrugged, and then wordlessly followed the merchant and his two servants through the store and through a large door. Following the man deeper into the establishment through a large hallway and coming into a storage unit through yet another door, Fay came face to face with a rather unexpected sight.

Hovering there above the ground and staring back at both women with many slowly blinking eyeballs was a car-sized, purple-skinned beholder demon - grinning wickedly back at them with a toothy smile.

“Do tell me…” The beholder demon stated in a deep yet sophisticated-sounding voice as the central-most eyeball dilated. “What in the world are a level 60 arshakai and a level 39 succubus - both contracted to a master - doing in my fine establishment this wonderful afternoon? I must admit, I’m quite interested to see you both here… and if I’m right on the money by just who you are - I have a very interesting proposition for the two of you.”