The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 945: Good Friends

While Karl had thought that exploring a new city would be a relaxing experience, he had forgotten one vital factor.

Who he was travelling with.

Moments after they entered the market, Rae was gone, off to haggle with a dress merchant, using cloth as a tool for barter.

The people here would most likely accept the Bara Gold Coins that they had gotten from the Dungeon, but for Rae, it was more efficient to offer the dressmaker fine silk in exchange for mundane clothing with new styles that she did not already possess the patterns for.

And she was not afraid to drive a hard bargain.

Karl could see that the Dwarven woman running the stall had an iron hard expression on her face, and the crowd was avoiding the area, as Rae was letting her aura slip.

But their words were still civil as they argued about the relative worth of the dresses made of regular cloth versus the value of fine silk.

There really was no need for Rae to go so hard on the woman, as the final price was likely to be one bolt of silk either way. But Rae was determined to get one more dress out of the bargain.

When the old woman began to get annoyed with her haggling, Rae relented, and the deal was finalized, then she moved on to a stall selling leather satchels and purses.

The man running the stall gave the dressmaker a pleading look, but the old woman simply smirked at him and left him to Raeʼs tender mercies.

Karl suspected that he was not going to get off as easily as the first vendor had, but he had no use for silk, and they were arguing over the price in gold and silver coins.

”Rae is going to traumatize the vendors.” Dana noted as the rest of the group went to look at stalls selling bulk stone for crafting, as well as rare magical herbs that Remi could use, or Thor thought might be tasty if he grew them in his space.

A disappointing amount of the product was dried, but some was fresh, and many of the plants were harvested with flowers in full bloom, and still had their seeds.

The seeds themselves were part of the medicinal value of the plants, but for Remi and Thor, they were also the best way to regrow the rare herbs and plants.

Butterfly nudged Karlʼs mind, indicating a lonely stick set aside in the vendorʼs stall and labelled {Branch of Rejuvenation Bush}.

”How much for the branch, plus these six Underdark Roses, and the death cap fungus?” Karl asked, picking items that he thought Butterfly might approve of.

The Death Cap fungus was one of the plants that she had picked from the Bara Dungeon, but there wasnʼt much of it there, so another cap full of spores might be valuable to her.

The roses were just pretty, jet black with blood-red rims on the petals.

”You have much less expensive tastes than your Naga friend. Sixteen silver for the lot.” The shopkeeper insisted.

”She is an Alchemist. I am a gardener. Our needs are somewhat different.” Karl joked, then passed over the coins.

The shopkeeper frowned when he saw that Karl gave him dungeon silver, not local currency, or even Bara coins. But he didnʼt argue about the value of the metals, and just let it go.

As they moved through the market, Karl caught a bit of conversation between a pair of dragonkin mages that immediately captured his attention.

”Stay away from Azil. The whole area is crawling with undead. Theyʼre not attacking the city, just spreading out inland. I donʼt know what theyʼre searching for, but they still kill anyone who gets close.” One of them quietly warned the other.

The second mage nodded. ”I just brought a group here from the southern tip, and theyʼre there as well. Nobody ever sees them land, but there is dead grass, and multiple sightings of Necromancers.

The Trollish Shamans said that they think someone put the fear of the gods into the Necromancers, and theyʼre hiding. But I think that theyʼre hunting for something.”

Another mage, wearing similar robes to the two dragonkin, but with his hood up so Karl couldnʼt see the species, stopped beside them and shook his head.

”I managed to overhear a group of Necromancers the other day. Theyʼre not searching for something. Theyʼve already found it, and theyʼre mapping the extent of the effect. I think itʼs a System Related change or item. But they were being all cryptic about it.” He added.

”Well, thatʼs not creepy at all. Do you think that it might be something that happened within their nation?”

The third mage shook his head. ”I think itʼs continent wide, and theyʼre looking for the epicentre. The undead are sensitive to life magic, including the system. If my guess is right, theyʼre trying to find the lost System Stones, or something similar.”

That tidbit was enough to intrigue many sensitive ears nearby.

Finding the System Stones, or something else that could boost the effects of the System, would get them the sort of power and recognition that the average person could only dream about. But it might also boost their growth to unprecedented levels.

It was said that the complete System Stones could awaken the fortunate few at the peak of their speciesʼ potential.

Karl kept moving, and didnʼt hear any more about the undead, or the monster spawns. But the general mood in town was somewhat depressed. The crops had been poor last year, due to lower than usual river flow, as everything needed to be irrigated.

With the river levels low, most of the canals wouldnʼt flood. That meant the crops didnʼt get watered for months at a time, and nothing grew.

And that was a money making opportunity for Karl and the Darklight Host. All he had to do was task the crew at the Guild House, and he would have the means to make a fortune in a matter of minutes.