"Al!"
Charlotte’s clear shout pierced through the oak door, accompanied by a series of none-too-gentle knocks.
"Time to get up!"
Elias buried his face into his pillow in agony, taking a deep breath.
Misfortunes truly never come alone.
"Lottie, you go downstairs first! I’m going to lie here for a bit longer!"
He tried his best to make his voice sound like that of a simple sluggard.
The knocking outside the door stopped.
Charlotte stood at the door, her brow furrowing slightly.
She was about to knock again when she suddenly felt a wave of inexplicable dizziness.
Strange.
She instinctively took a step back, bracing herself against the hallway wall.
"Lazybones!"
She muttered softly under her breath.
Curiously, as she turned and walked down the stairs, moving away from that closed door, the uncomfortable dizzy sensation vanished instantly.
Sunlight poured in through the first-floor windows; everything had returned to normal.
...
By the time Elias finally finished grooming himself and pushed his door open, it was nearly noon.
The sky over Hope County remained a lifeless grayish-white, with heavy clouds hanging low as if they intended to press down on the lightning rods of the gabled buildings.
Arthur had long since left for the police station.
Charlotte had changed into a proper long dress to go catch up with several young ladies from the neighborhood.
The house was empty.
This was the perfect time for Elias to take action.
Stepping out onto Ash Street, the noisy atmosphere of the city rushed toward him.
The rumble of carriage wheels over cobblestones, the shouts of newsboys waving their papers, and the dull roar of factory whistles in the distance intertwined into the background noise of this industrial city.
"Activate Spirit Vision and look for a hand-shaped symbol along the street."
Old Ed’s voice rang in his mind, carrying the calm of an old horse that knew the way.
"That’s a signpost."
"It represents the location of the Arcane Black Market."
Elias pulled his hat brim lower and activated Spirit Vision.
The originally vibrant world instantly faded in his vision, turning into a black-and-white silent film.
Only things containing spirituality would emit a unique glow in this monotonous world.
He looked around the street, his gaze scanning the dusty walls and lampposts.
Finally, at the entrance of a deep alley in the West District near the Central District, he found the symbol.
It was a mark painted on a signpost there.
In the eyes of ordinary people, it was just a regular street sign.
Elias looked up at the sign.
Jester Alley.
"This symbol dates back to the Era of the Seven Kingdoms or even earlier. It represents the family crest of the Iseryon family—the masters of the Tower of Magic at that time."
Listening to Old Ed’s rambling narration, Elias stepped into the alley.
Edmond seemed keen on sharing this transcendent knowledge, his tone filled with a mix of nostalgia and showing off.
It was understandable, of course.
An old man had been trapped in a void-like hamster cage in the spirit world for fifty years without anyone to talk to. Now that he was following Elias, he was naturally willing to chat more, even if it meant bickering.
"Although the Iseryon family has vanished, the underground trading rules they established have been preserved."
Elias didn't interrupt him, merely keeping Spirit Vision active the whole time while vigilantly observing his surroundings.
The alley wasn't deep, and he soon reached the end.
It was a dead end.
Before him was a red brick wall covered in withered vines. There were no doors or windows; it looked completely ordinary.
However, under Elias’s Spirit Vision, the wall presented a different scene.
Beneath the withered vines was a hidden relief in the shape of a cat.
Under the shroud of spiritual radiance, the cat emitted a pale blue light, appearing both sacred and eerie.
Notably, the relief cat’s left front paw was raised high, as if it were beckoning.
Is this a Lucky Cat?
"Place your palm under the cat’s paw,"
Old Ed instructed.
Elias looked at the lifelike stone cat, his mouth twitching slightly.
"The 'paw on top' rule, right? I get it."
He was about to place his hand on it when his movement suddenly froze mid-air.
"It won't do anything to me, will it?"
He asked in his mind.
"It won't scratch me?"
This kind of mechanical trap design was usually the prelude to losing a hand or leg in horror movies.
"Don't worry! This is a formal entrance!"
Old Ed said irritably.
Elias looked at the stone cat suspiciously, shifted his center of gravity back, and slowly extended his palm, placing it beneath the raised stone paw.
His muscles were tense, ready to pull his hand back and bolt at the first sign of trouble.
However, the expected pain did not come.
The moment his palm touched the cold stone, a familiar suction emanated from the cat’s paw.
Hm?
This feeling... was exactly the same as when he gripped the elemental revolver.
The spirituality within his body seemed to find an outlet, surging uncontrollably down his arm to be greedily absorbed by the stone cat.
Kaka-ka—
Accompanied by the sound of grinding rock, the cat that had been a mere relief actually stood up from its stone base!
Though its body still possessed the texture of stone, its movements were as fluid as a living creature's.
It shook off the stone dust, and its eyes, which had been carved stone, now lit up with a faint blue light as it stared down at Elias.
"Old Ed, is this right?"
"My curse isn't acting up again, is it?"
Elias was indeed becoming a bit neurotic due to the dream demon curse.
He now instinctively associated any moving inanimate object with hallucinations produced by the curse.
It wasn't a good habit, yet it was unavoidable.
After all, nobody wanted to be a fool in a world full of hallucinations.
"No, stay calm,"
Old Ed’s voice carried a hint of helplessness.
"This cat has been enchanted with a permanent spell called 【Animate Objects】."
"As long as it's provided with enough spirituality as fuel, it will help you open this door."
Following Old Ed’s explanation, the stone cat stretched elegantly, then turned around and waved its paw at the wall behind it.
Immediately after, the red bricks on the wall began to vibrate violently.
As if possessed by life, all the bricks moved and folded toward both sides in a synchronized manner.
In just a few seconds, a dark passage appeared before his eyes.
"That’s pretty magical."
Elias raised an eyebrow, looking curiously at the stone cat that had squatted back down to act as a doorman.
He had seen plenty of movies in his previous life, but seeing it happen before his eyes still made him marvel.
"It’s actually quite polite!"
"Hmph, get inside."
Passing through the short tunnel, his previously dim vision suddenly opened up.
It wasn't the grim, terrifying dungeon scene he had imagined; instead, it looked like a bustling underground market.
A wide street appeared before him. Overhead were inverted stalactites covered in glowing moss and unknown luminous crystals, illuminating the place like twilight.
The sides of the street were lined with various stalls and small shops of wildly different styles.
Elias walked along, stopping occasionally with great interest.
Even though he only had a measly 26 gold crowns in his pocket, that didn't stop him from broadening his horizons.
Window shopping was still shopping; looking didn't cost a thing.
As he passed a stall covered in parchment, his gaze was suddenly caught by a yellowed page.
The label on it read: 【Scale Two · spirit vision potion recipe】.
And the price tag below it read: 2 gold crowns.
Elias’s heart gave a sudden leap.
Only 2 gold crowns?
"A Scale Two spirit vision potion recipe for 2 gold crowns? That cheap?"
He suppressed his excitement and was about to reach out for it.
"Why don't you take another good look?"
Old Ed’s somewhat mocking voice suddenly rang in his mind.
"What?"
Elias’s movement paused.
He used Spirit Vision to look closely at the paper.
Elias narrowed his eyes, leaning in closer.
Under Spirit Vision, at the bottom corner of the label, was text written so small it required a magnifying glass to see.
"Scale Two spirit vision potion... fragment?"
Elias read the line aloud, his mouth twitching uncontrollably.
"Exactly,"
Old Ed laughed.
"A fragment also includes the blank margins of the recipe page."
Elias was stunned.
Even as a transmigrator, wasn't this kind of scheme a bit too advanced?
"You mean if I spend 2 gold crowns, I might just be buying a corner of white paper that has nothing but a page number on it?!"
"Smart!"
Old Ed praised.
Elias instantly gained a new understanding of the Arcane Black Market.
What kind of high-end mystical trading venue was this?
This was clearly a scam distribution center full of deception and fraud!
"If he cheats someone like that, won't they come after him?"
Elias asked in disbelief.
"Kid, don't be so naive,"
Old Ed’s voice became a bit more serious.
"Why is the Arcane Black Market called a black market?"
"Because it's a case of 'the buyer beware'!"
"The ancient laws of trade are followed here—your discernment is also a part of your strength."
"If you buy a fake, it only proves your spirituality isn't sharp enough."
"Besides, he'll just change locations after the scam. With so much turnover here, do you think he'll wait for you to come back and find him?"
"By the time you want to find someone, the stall will have changed hands long ago."
That did make sense.
Elias curled his lip and withdrew his hand from the "recipe."
As a modern person, he felt like a country bumpkin entering the city.
He actually missed the Market Supervision Bureau.
This place wasn't even as good as Redbeard’s shop.
Essentially, this was a gray area where the Seventh Agency turned a blind eye, an outlaw territory where all sorts of people converged.
Even if you were scammed, you couldn't report it to the police. At most, you’d have to keep your eyes peeled next time; not getting cheated was the best way to survive.
"Then how do I make sure I’m buying the real deal?"
Elias continued walking while humbly seeking advice.
"I can't just rely on guessing, can I?"
"Use ritual magic to pray to the gods,"
Old Ed provided a solution that sounded quite high-end.
"For instance, we ascetics usually use the 'Dream Prayer Ritual'."
"In a dream, you can pose questions to the Origin Web."
"You need to prepare a silver pocket watch, along with soothing incense and dreamlily to assist the transition into sleep."
Elias was dumbfounded listening to this.
"From what you're saying, if I want to appraise something, I have to take a nap on the spot?"
In front of a busy black market stall, he’d have to lay out a bedroll, light some incense, sleep, and then wake up to say, "Boss, this thing is fake."
"If you're willing to do that,"
Old Ed said dryly.
"And what if I encounter danger while I'm asleep?"
"The same way; you can set up a ritual spell beforehand—【Sanctuary】."
Old Ed simply went along with it.
"It’s a defensive ritual field that can shield against external negative spirituality and physical dangers."
"It’s a ritual spell that believers of any god can use."
"Of course, the Dream Prayer Ritual isn't a 'sleep whenever you want' situation as you understand it."
"It merely puts you into a state similar to 'sleepwalking.' Everything you experience in the dream actually takes only an instant. I was just teasing you earlier."
Edmond’s voice sounded rather mischievous.
"You damn old man!"
"Why didn't you mention such a good thing earlier!"
"Even though I'm poor and the island has nothing!"
"It’s your fault for not telling me!"
"I said I’d tell you things as I remembered them!"
Old Ed hurriedly defended himself.
"It’s fine, I just wanted to scold you."
"You teased me first!"
"..."
Rate on N.U.
