Mastery Is Earned

The Old Harbor District lay beside Brightwater's outermost wall. It had once been the city's first port, but after Brightwater built a deeper harbor with better facilities, the old port gradually fell into decline.

From the outside, there was little to see beyond a few dilapidated warehouses, boat-repair workshops, and small vessels coming and going.

The place looked perfectly ordinary. There were no mysterious thieves dressed in black or hiding their faces. Only a handful of silent dockhands moved goods in an orderly fashion, while a skinny young man in a thin shirt sat yawning on a fallen mast beside the harbor.

It seemed no different from any ordinary port, but after watching for a while, Raymond began to notice a few peculiarities.

Men who regularly did heavy labor were usually sturdy, but dockhands who often went hungry still tended to be thin. These men, however, were all broad and powerfully built—far more solidly built than ordinary men.

They also worked very slowly, unlike normal dockhands, who rushed around as though they wished they could grow an extra leg just to earn one more copper coin. Every so often, these men glanced into the distance as if watching for anything unusual.

Raymond and Henk's arrival naturally put them on alert. The skinny young man who had been yawning walked over and asked, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“We're looking for someone called Black Snake.” After studying him carefully, Raymond decided he matched Bob's description.

“That's me. What do you want?” Black Snake regarded Raymond suspiciously, then glanced at Henk. A trace of unease flickered through his eyes.

“A little business.” Raymond took out a handful of copper coins and passed them to Black Snake.

Black Snake visibly relaxed after accepting the money. Only after counting carefully and confirming there were twenty copper coins did he address Raymond and Henk. “I don't know who sent you, and I don't want to know. But I expect you to follow the rules here. Otherwise...”

The threat in his words was unmistakable, but Henk seemed not to understand. Looking down at Black Snake, he asked, “Otherwise what?”

The skinny young man looked up at Henk's immense frame and swallowed the threat he had prepared. “Nothing.”

Black Snake led the way, with Raymond and Henk following behind him. They passed several shops that appeared abandoned, though some kind of illicit dealing seemed to be taking place inside. Whenever the people within saw them passing, they stopped what they were doing and watched warily.

Black Snake appeared accustomed to this and never even raised his head. Raymond and Henk had no intention of causing trouble either, so they kept their heads down and continued onward.

At last, they reached the entrance to a long, dark passage squeezed between several crumbling buildings. A heavy iron gate barred the way. Four burly, armed guards sat nearby talking, and all of them rose when the three men approached.

Black Snake pointed into the long, dark passage. “The black market is just ahead. Go in by yourselves.” Without another word, he turned and left.

The four guards did not immediately move aside. One looked Raymond and Henk up and down, seemingly about to speak.

Henk acted as though they were not there. He looked back at Raymond with a slight smile, baring his canines, then strode to the iron gate, seized it, and hauled it open in one motion before walking inside. Raymond followed closely, his expression unchanged.

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The four guards clearly hesitated. After exchanging several glances, none of them stepped forward to interfere. They could only watch as the two men entered the passage.

These guards were plainly accustomed to demanding an extra toll from unfamiliar faces visiting the black market for the first time. But once they saw Henk's build, none was willing to take a risk for a few copper coins.

The passage was so narrow that only one person could walk through at a time. A man as broad as Henk even had to turn sideways in places. Fortunately, it was not very long, and the two emerged from the other end in less than half a minute.

The space before them suddenly opened up. Several enormous warehouses had been joined together, their side walls knocked through to form a passage running across them. Vendors had crowded both sides with all manner of miscellaneous goods.

Raymond and Henk emerged near the center of the market. There were not many customers. In fact, the vendors considerably outnumbered the people browsing their wares.

Seeing a black market that looked little different from an ordinary marketplace, Raymond relaxed a little. It seemed nowhere near as terrible as he had imagined. After exchanging a glance, he and Henk began exploring with great interest.

The black market certainly dealt in some bold and unusual merchandise. Besides common spices, strong liquor, and strange jewelry that could not be sold openly, there was a surprising amount of military equipment: military crossbows and long swords with their insignia ground away, along with all kinds of armor plates dismantled and sold separately.

At one ground stall, Raymond even found a vendor specializing in monster materials. Necklaces made from monster teeth, poison sacs of various colors, soft tissue from unknown creatures, and scales of every kind lay on display. The collection truly opened his eyes.

“Feel free to pick anything up if it catches your eye,” the vendor said. He was a man whose hat concealed most of his face. Raymond could not make out his features, though his voice sounded young.

Raymond ran his fingers over the scales displayed on the stall and asked curiously, “Where did all these scales come from, and what are they used for?”

“These? They come from all over,” the vendor said. “If you like them, you can keep them as curios. Some old men enjoy collecting scales like these, though they won't take just any kind.”

Raymond paused, then took the small wooden box from inside his clothes. He removed the small black scale and passed it to the vendor. “What creature do you think this came from?”

The vendor examined it carefully. “It looks like it grew on some kind of terrestrial, lizard-like creature, but the pattern seems wrong. And it's very small and looks soft. Probably from an immature juvenile.”

He flipped it over for another look. “It doesn't look like a fish scale or anything from a known giant lizard. I've never seen this particular color before either. How much do you want for it?”

“Is it valuable?” Raymond asked.

“Not really. There's only one, and it's so small.” The vendor shook his head and returned the scale to Raymond.

Raymond accepted it, then glanced around and realized Henk had disappeared. He quickly got up and went looking for him. Henk's size made him easy to spot. Raymond soon found him standing in front of a stall, staring blankly at a nearly naked woman locked in a cage.

The slave stalls spanned a sizable area. Raymond looked around and saw not only women and children, but also several cages holding goblins and monsters he did not recognize.

The woman Henk was staring at was half-seated on the ground. Even so, her solid muscles and powerful build were obvious. She was remarkably robust for a woman.

“Interested, gentlemen? This one here is a half-orc. We had quite a time capturing this warrior—” A young man approached to make his sales pitch, but stopped short the moment he saw Henk.

The half-orc woman heard the commotion and lifted her head to look over.

Only then did Raymond notice her protruding canines and other distinctive features. Clearly, she was also a half-orc.

“Henk.” Raymond tugged at the silent Henk and called to him in a low voice. He was worried that seeing one of his own people caged might stir something in him. If Henk lost control and went on a rampage here, it would be no laughing matter.

Henk slowly shook his head and looked away. “I'm fine.” He turned to leave, but before he did, he shot the young seller a vicious glare. The man shuddered, stumbled back two steps, and fell to the ground, then scrambled inside in a panic.

“Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!”

Raymond looked toward the sound. A monster in a nearby cage was barking at him, sounding much like a dog, and seemed highly agitated.

It was smaller and thinner than a goblin, with fine scales covering its body. Its muzzle protruded, revealing small, sharp teeth, and two short horns grew from its head, one of them broken. Its orange-red eyes had slit pupils and glimmered faintly gold. Behind it, a long, slender tail twitched soundlessly.

The creature stared at the black scale in Raymond's right hand and barked excitedly. “Dragon! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Dragon scale!”

Dragon scale?

Raymond looked down at the black scale in his palm.