BXBX NOVEL Chapter 59 - Dwarf
Elora explained as the duo walked into the market. "The market is divided into different parts. This place is a Vegetable and Fruit Market. There are other similar places, such as Herb Market, Cloth Market, Food Market, Accessory Market, etcetera etcetera."
Kadyn nodded and looked around at the different vegetable and fruit shops, selling apples, mangoes, grapes, potatoes, tomatoes, and many others. Though he had no intentions to buy anything.
The duo crossed the Vegetable Market and arrived at the Metal Market. The sounds of iron hitting iron reverberated from different directions. Kadyn was interested in metals as he could use them to forge artifacts.
Elora, who was beside him, seemed to understand his thoughts and said. "This is the Lower Town. Though they sell metals, they are of the poorest quality. They are adulterated. If you want something of good quality to forge artifacts, go to the Upper Town. These low-quality alloys can only be used to forge normal weapons; they won\'t be able to bear the pressure from an Inscription(Array) and shatter in no time."
Kadyn was surprised that Elora knew this much about the Artisans. As if knowing his thoughts, she replied. "Though I learned little about magic in school. I could learn some common knowledge about the magic world."
Hearing her words, Kadyn nodded and said. "It seems it wasn\'t completely useless to send you to that school of perverts."
Elora turned red at his words. It seems he was still angry at Miss Tombend for insulting her.
Not bothering with her, Kadyn looked around and went to check out the metals to different vendors. Alas, he failed to find any decent metal. All of them were mixed with hundreds of impurities; even he could not purify them. Even if he could, he won\'t, as it required a lot of hard work. Profit didn\'t match the investment.
After ten minutes later, Kadyn arrived in another place.
"Snap!"
"Ahh!"
He narrowed his eyes when he heard a mournful screech. A man was standing with a whip in his hand while hitting people in front of him from time to time. He had a cruel smile on his thick lips; he had a dark face and curly black hairs. He cursed and smirked and kicked people in front of him, laughing and taking pleasure in other\'s misery.
"This is Slave Market," Elora whispered from behind him. "Maybe they are going to sell them."
Kadyn\'s face changed. Slaves? He had never thought that this place would be selling humans. After all, Avibria City was well developed and civilised. It was not like any primitive place from legends. It was run by people and had laws...ahhh, yes, laws were just in name here. Kadyn remembered the incident with his mother and could not help but shake his head.
The guard led a few slaves to the podium and stood at the side. Then a fat man dressed in wealthy attire walked on the stage. A smile appeared on his pudgy face; he turned around his round and heavy frame and looked at the gathered people about the podium, clasping his hands and rubbing them in anticipation.
"Haha, hello everyone." He said, eyeing the people. "Today we have five slaves to sell. These are just ordinary people and can\'t use magic, but don\'t look down on them. We\'ve captured them from Western Mountain Range from one of the Barbaric Tribes there. Not even four or five ordinary people would be able to overcome them in strength."
Everyone\'s eyes started to shine after hearing his words. Kadyn stared at five men on the stage, groaning furiously at the guard near them, showing their teeth like monkeys in defiance, and realised that they really looked like savages. They were tall, wearing animal skin, hiding the lower part of their bodies; their upper part was open, bulging muscles could be seen.
"I\'ll be taking these five people." A man said from the crowd. "For each person, I can pay a thousand dollars. Five thousand aren\'t bad. What do you say, huh?"
Kadyn peered around and saw a man with a small build; his body was filled with muscles and he wore tattered clothes, covered in black shoots. A hammer was placed on his shoulder. "He is a most famous blacksmith in the Lower Town, Black Hammer," Elora whispered from beside him.
Kadyn looked at the middle-aged man and nodded his head. At this time a burst of laughter sounded from the crowd. "Haha, Black Hammer, I didn\'t expect you to come here to bid. It just so happens I need some manpower and these five qualify the criteria. After all, I need some strong hands to carry our herbs from one place to another."
Black Hammer frowned at hearing the voice and replied in a cold tone. "Why so much nonsense? Bid more than me if you want to buy them."
"Then I won\'t be polite," the middle-aged man who looked like a merchant smiled and said. "Ten thousand."
"His name is Ofor Irable," Elora explained. It seemed she knew quite a bit about the market. "He is the largest dealer of the herbs inside Lower Town."
"Someone from House Irabel?" Kadyn said as he glanced at the man, who had an evergreen smile on his face. Though Kadyn could tell that this man was more cunning than a fox.
"Yes," Elora nodded.
"I wonder if Black Hammer would like to increase the bid," Ofor said. "If you can increase the bid, I would forfeit."
"Hmph!" Black Hammer snorted but said nothing.
The slave-dealer saw their confrontation and smiled before announcing. "Does anyone want to bid higher than Sir Ofor?" he waited but no one replied. "1...2...3...SOLD!"
"Thanks for letting me win." Ofor turned towards Black Hammer and said with the sincerest smile on his face.
"Humph!" Black Hammer\'s eyes turned cold. Though his voice sounded sincere, he could see the mockery in his eyes.
Just as everyone was about to scatter, the slave dealer said. "I\'ve got an announcement to make."
Everyone halted and looked at the smiling slave dealer in confusion. The man looked around and said. "Tomorrow there will be a slave auction in the Upper Town. This auction isn\'t something that could be compared with this puny auction here. According to my sources, I\'ve heard that there is a dwarf."
An uproar broke out in the surrounding area. No one had ever guessed that a dwarf is going to be auctioned tomorrow. Dwarves were the legendary existences in the eyes of these people.
"How\'s that possible?" someone couldn\'t hold himself and asked. "There\'re no dwarves on our continent\'
"Yeah, I\'ve also heard that there are no dwarves on the Eozen Continent."
"I wonder how someone was able to capture one."
"Furthermore, why would someone auction him in Avibria City? He should have gone to one of the great cities and he would have earned a fortune from this."
"Dwarves are born artisans and have great knowledge in the way of forging. Any artisan would go crazy to get his hands on a dwarf and their secrets."
The brother-sister duo looked at each other in shock. Kadyn had never thought that he would be able to hear such shocking information here.