BXBX NOVEL Chapter 43 The Black Emporium
After the feast had ended, Samiel took up Nefertari, who was like a small ball, as she had eaten everything she could, drank more than two liters of milk from Bronze-Tier Twin-Horned Cow, and immediately fell asleep.
Yvraine kept feeding her until she literally couldn't eat anything more and was barely able to move. However, Samiel knew that she would be okey. Right now, Nefertari was in her growth phase and was just a young kitten, so she needed to eat a lot to get stronger, bigger, and evolve into a proper Divine Elder Cat.
She would, by a few hours, be okey and probably be hungry one more because her metabolism was very fast for this.
Then Samiel was led by an elven maid to his quarters which had been assigned to him. Yvraine was meanwhile staring at the maid who came to lead Samiel to his chambers with emotionless looks that were colder than the void itself; the maid shuddered when she saw the looks Princess was giving her before quickly collecting herself and signaling Samiel, who was holding Nefertari to follow after her.
After Samiel left, Lanlaris looked at the Crown Princess, who was fuming with anger. For the first time, the stoic and cold Crown Princess of the Nesser Dynasty and Silvermoon Elven species revealed such intense wrath and anger, and jealousy about something.
"That was scary... on second thought, I was in that you will kill the poor maid."
Said Lord Daragan jokingly, but he quickly regretted his joke very soon.
"I swear that bitch was flirting with him; he is mine and mine only."
Said Yvraine darkly, as if something dark had woken up inside her the moment she saw that palace maid flirting with Samiel.
In Yvraine's mind, there was no man worthy of her; for her, all of her suitors were weaklings and trash, and she would not marry anybody from inferior races, which was for the Silvermoon Elves, practically the majority of them.
But when she met him, it was different. An Old Deus, a person with the potential to easily become Transcendent, and on top of that, his outer madness was only in the form of split personality, which was like winning a jackpot when it came to the worshippers of the Outer Gods.
Not to mention, she could see that Samiel was untrained, and yet he was very strong. She wanted to see what he would imagine if the Hall of Kadath properly trained him and what heights he could achieve.
And on top of that, he was able to tolerate her, so Yvraine, in her self-reflection, was able to tell that she wasn't the best person to be around, so this was a big plus for her. She also didn't know how to behave around someone who didn't really care about her status or practically didn't care about anything.
After spending some time with him, Yvraine decided that he was a perfect specimen, and she unknowingly claimed him. And during her observations, she noticed that he was pretty undeveloped or traumatized when it came to human relations, which could be a two-sided axe. At least most of the annoying flies and thots won't have success, but on the other hand, her own advances would be the same.
Hearing those words, it sent shivers through High Elves Lord's spine, as he saw something different and terrifying in the Crown Princess of Nesser Dynasty today, but in the end, it was not his matter to stick his nose in, so he chose to leave and return back to his chambers before he would be returning to the 91st Floor of the Tower.
Of course, he knew this would greatly interest the Emperor of the Nesser Dynasty; not only that but also other factions would be greatly interested in this development. Because this simple and yet complicated act of unusual companionship could totally break the balance between the most powerful mortal factions and even affect the Transcendental Factions.
***
The next day, Yvraine took Samiel to give him a tour of Zephystrand City.
They were currently strolling through the lower part of the City, where most of the shops, restaurants, inns, and merchants were located. The entire City was divided into several parts. The first was the outermost Lower City, then it was the inner Upper City, and in the middle on the biggest Tree of Life was the Zephystrand's Citadel.
The Lower City was a place where ordinary people lived; it was divided into Residental Area, Merchant District, and Industrial District.
The Upper City was a place where those of Noble Standing were living, together with high-ranking Military Officers and other important people, and also houses spaces for the Armed Forces of the Zephystrand City were built there.
Of course, they weren't just touring the City, but most importantly, Samiel was going to sell everything he obtained as loot from the 2nd Floor, from the participants of the Slaughter Trial, which he killed.
He obtained a lot of things there because he took the majority of the Spatial Equipment and other things, while Yvraine got the majority of the Tokens of the Asura Tribe.
And now, he needed to get rid of them, and thus their first destination was the Merchant District of the Lower City. Yvraine was looking for some high-class shop that would take care of all trouble for a good price and welcome exclusively those of higher social standing only.
And as they were strolling the alley and chatting suddenly, Samiel stopped in his tracks and looked directly at the seemingly empty back-alley shrouded in the darkness.
From it, only a single sign was shining, written in a weird alphabet that was seemingly familiar to him; in a gold letter, it read "Black Emporium".
"Come here, do you see that?"
He asked Yvraine, who looked in the direction he was pointing in, only to see nothing, just probably some bunch of bricks and trash.
"No?"
She answered uncertainly, not knowing what to say, as Samiel grabbed her hand and dragged her together with him. Instantly as they entered the vicinity of the small shop located on some backward street, Yvraine could see it clearly, and at the same time, she was washed by a sense of dread.
But what Samiel found interesting, countless people passed it without even noticing its existence.
"So you have noticed?"
Samiel asked her, awakening her from her stupor as she unexpectedly strongly gripped his hand. At the same time, she pressed her body against his in an attempt to hide from the malicious aura of the Void she was sensing.
Only Samiel was totally unaware because, for him, this aura seemed like home; it wasn't soul-freezing cold or filled with malice and dread like Yvraine was feeling, but for him, it was a warm feeling, that he was exactly there where he belonged.
"So it shows itself only for those it considers worthy based on some kind of criteria."
Samiel stated quietly as he opened the shabby-looking, black wooden doors of the Black Emporium's shop as they entered inside. It was a relatively small antique shop filled with countless books, ancient-looking weapons, body parts of various monsters stuffed in jars, and arcane runes inscribed around the walls.
"Customer?"
Sounded a ghastly voice from the back part of the shop; it was the cold voice, like from the coldest depths of the Void itself, penetrating their very own existences through and through, seeing all the secrets; nothing could escape the coldness it brought with it.
"Silvermoon, you not the one we await... but you, you are the one."
Said the voice once more, as Samiel turned around to see a weird creature, it had a mummified appearance, only a mouth and without a face, with single pair of pitch black wings with eyes on the wings, and its head looked like a split mushroom in half?, at least that was what Samiel thought.
'Dum.'
Samiel immediately knew what that creature was or what it should be, as he heard his hearts beating several times faster.
This creature before him was an Eldritch Creature of the Void, walking leisurely through the Material Plane. It was Eldritch Creature at the Transcendent Level. He felt it innately, and not even Yvraine was aware that they were talking to the Transcendent Level Being.
Even though the conditions of the Tower were better than most of the worlds across the Cosmos, and even the High World could hold a few Transcendents, in the Tower, there was a rule. Transcendents were strictly forbidden to descend onto the Mortal Floors, and if they did, they would pay a terrible price for that.
But this Trasncedent before him didn't seem like paying any price considering his attitude here and there. He seemed like he could spend here time till the end of all things, not bothered by anything; perhaps he was one of those who found some bug in the "system".
'Hooman... don't antagonize this one... he is far more terrifying than Elder Goddess Bast.'
Samiel heard the voice of his familiar in his head as he subconsciously nodded in agreement.
The Eldritch Creature scrutinized him from tips to toe before it revealed a very creepy and disturbing smile that sent chills through their entire beings, but Samiel was way less affected than Yvraine was because he could see she was shaking from the vicious and cold aura of the void that the Eldritch Creature released at them.
Samiel took her hand to calm her down, as his aura negated the pressure on her as well.
"Indeed, you are the One! What services do you require from this old one? Of course, everything comes with the appropriate price."
Said the creature creepily at him; while he felt a grip on his hand tighten, he could clearly see that Yvraine was feeling very uncomfortable just by being here and under the pressure of the Void Aura and Eldritch Aura of the Transcendental Level Eldritch Creature... even some weaker Legendaries would probably be either killed or pass out.
"I have a lot of items I need to dispose of and exchange them for something useful. What can you give me for all of this?"
Samiel said while he threw a Dimensional Ring with thousands of items to the Eldritch Creature as it scanned the content of the ring, and soon enough, it weirdly smiled before it waved its hand and summoned three items.
From the moment he entered the Black Emporium, Samiel instinctively knew that he wouldn't get here Gold Coins or Mana Crysltas or anything like "standard" merchants would give him in exchange for these items.
He somehow innately felt that here, here he would obtain something that would help him much later in his Path to the Transcendence... how would one say it?
A fortunate encounter.