Chương 56: Night Eye

"Welcome to the black market." Luke said with a deliberately lowered voice. Kyle's pupils contracted. Below them, an underground hall stretched in every direction, bustling with masked and cloaked figures. Stalls selling monster organs, glowing crystals, cursed weapons, and unknown creatures stretched as far as he could see. As they walked deeper into the market, Kyle glanced at the shops with closed doors before shifting his gaze to the more common stalls.

Some creatures were alive, twitching inside glass jars, while others floated in murky liquid with vacant eyes. Kyle's eyes met a pair of eyes floating inside a jar on a stall to the side. He stared, mouth open. He could swear that they were following him.

"Many things that can't be circulated out in the open can be found here," Luke whispered. He pointed at a stall selling dried-out monster organs and said,"That stall sells processed troll hearts and liver. Eating them can result in a temporary explosive burst of energy. Even an apprentice can become as powerful as a level 1 or 2 professional for a few minutes." Luke paused for a few seconds, his expression turning serious.

"However, the side effects are horrifying. Losing the ability to sense and manipulate mana is the lightest effect. Some people even mutated into troll-like monstrosities, eventually losing their minds and dying," Luke solemnly said. Kyle's eyes widened.

"People actually buy this stuff?" He asked with a look of disbelief. He carefully examined the figure silently sitting behind the stall, but he couldn't glean anything. It was a masked and cloaked figure with no defining features.

"This is the black market." Luke simply said before continuing to move forward. Kyle took another glance at the stall before following. The next stalls were no better. Some were selling hallucinogenic drugs; others were selling organs, both human and monster. Others dealt in stolen weapons and armor, which almost felt ordinary by comparison. He stopped by the stall selling the eyes inside jars. Their colors varied, and mana fluctuations occasionally emanated from them.

'Human eyes? Why would anyone buy something like that?' Kyle wondered. He took a few more glances before walking away. As they walked deeper, Kyle even saw one of the few open shops selling slaves. Kyle looked at the shackled figures lying in cages, his eyes widened, his expression somewhere between disbelief and disgust. Humans and beastkin lie shackled on the ground.

Some stared blankly through the steel bars at the passerby, their eyes devoid of hope, while others curled into balls, trembling whenever footsteps approached. They were filthy, wearing nothing but rags, and smelled horrible. Kyle's brows furrowed as he unconsciously took a step back. He quickly stopped Luke and whispered in his ear.

"Hey, wasn't slavery abolished and forbidden? Look at that!" He urgently pointed at the slaves in the cage. Luke followed his finger and naturally saw the slaves, but there was no sign of surprise in his eyes.

"Indeed, slavery was forbidden in most kingdoms after the fall of the United Human Empire and the end of the century of strife, but that doesn't stop it from being conducted secretly in many regions." Luke paused for a second and glanced around furtively. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"As long as there are powerful people who need slaves, slavery will always exist," Luke whispered. His eyes briefly met Kyle's before looking away. Kyle immediately understood.

'Nobles.' He thought internally.

'That makes sense; only the rule makers can bend the rules to suit their objectives.' Kyle silently followed behind Luke, still deep in his thoughts.

"We've arrived," Luke said, snapping Kyle out of his thoughts. Looking up, a three-story midnight-black stone building came into his sight. Apart from a single door, it had no other entrance or window. Its only defining feature was an eye symbol above the door. Kyle spotted a few shady individuals entering and exiting. Luke pointed at it and said,"This place is the reason I brought you to the black market. It's called 'Night Eye', and it can be found in almost all black markets.

It's a dark hub for assassins and informants."

"This is the place to go if you have a question that you can't find an answer to or if you want to get information about someone." Luke paused for a moment before finishing with a faint chuckle.

"Of course, it's a bit pricey."

'A hub for gathering information!' Kyle immediately realized why Luke brought him here. Since he couldn't determine the nature of his bloodline himself, he could start from its source instead. His mother.

'This guy…' Kyle glanced at Luke, the corners of his mouth faintly raising.

'I just mentioned this in passing, and he immediately took me to a place that can help me find out my origins.' Kyle didn't thank him. He just kept it in mind.

'I owe him a favor.' Kyle thought as they walked through the open door. The interior of the Night Eye building was different from what Kyle expected. At the entrance was a small space, illuminated by traditional animal-fat-made lamps. On either side of the open space was a long corridor, with brown doors lined up on both sides.

"The left is for information; the right is for assassinations." Luke pointed to the symbols of an eye and a knife, respectively, carved into the entrances of the left and right corridors and said. He took the lead, walking into the left corridor before stopping next to one of the doors near the edge of the corridor and directly opening it. Kyle observed that each door had an eye symbol on it. A few of them glowed red. The one Luke opened didn't. The two of them entered the room and closed the door behind them.

The room inside was relatively simple. Illuminated by only two lamps on each wall, it had a chair, a desk, and an opaque glass on top of the desk with a small opening in it. Kyle could see a faint silhouette behind the opaque glass, but he couldn't even discern whether it was a man or a woman. Luke walked to the desk and pointed to a stack of papers and a pen on top of it.

"You write your questions on the paper and pass it through this opening. The informant will write back the grade and price of each question. You pay, and they will write the answer. It's that simple." Luke pointed at the stack of papers and explained.

"I see." Kyle nodded before walking to the desk and sitting in the chair. He picked up a piece of paper and the pen and pondered for a moment before writing down a question. [What non-human bloodlines can manifest in humans while having no prominent physical characteristics?] Pausing for a moment, Kyle remembered his father's brown eyes. His father Darius once told him that he inherited his mother's eyes. Kyle tapped his shin for a moment before deciding to add it. [Possible characteristic: Blue eyes.] He wrote before pushing the piece of paper inside the opening. A few seconds later, the piece of paper was pushed back. [Class D] [20 silver] Kyle's eyebrow twitched as he looked at the price.

"You weren't joking when you said that it was pricey," Kyle said through gritted teeth. After his splurge back in Mirevale, he was left with 76 silver and 94 copper coins. The caravan escort quest had a reward of 1 gold coin; adding the 50 silver bonus after repelling the bandits made it 1 gold and 50 silver, split between the five of them; that left 30 silver coins per person. In the end, his total net worth was just over 1 gold coin. 20 silver was a fifth of that, and that was just for such a simple question.

Kyle hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth and pulling 20 silver coins from his pouch. He slammed it on the desk before pushing it into that opening. The room fell silent. The faint scratching of a pen echoed from behind the opaque glass. A few seconds later. A new piece of paper was pushed out; picking it up, Kyle carefully read the entries on it. [Sea Spirit Bloodline] Characteristics: Usually blue or tan eyes. Rarely manifests physical traits.

[Forest Elf Bloodline] Characteristics: turquoise eyes or blond hair, slightly pointed ears in rare cases. [Moon Elf Bloodline] Characteristics: blue eyes or silver hair, slightly pointed ears in rare cases. [Frostblood Bloodline] Characteristics: Pale skin and light blue eyes, slight affinity to frost. [Storm Giant Bloodline] Characteristics: Blue or silver eyes. This bloodline requires a trigger to be activated. [Note: These bloodlines can exhibit prominent characteristics in high concentration.] Kyle slowly read through each entry. He immediately dismissed the Frostblood bloodline. He didn't have an affinity or liking to the cold. In fact, he hated it. That left the other four.