A Black Market LitRPG

Chapter 21: Perfect Underlings

Kyle arrived at the Culdao Peaks Town by foot, walking all night along the main road while chugging Stamina Recovery Potions whenever he was exhausted.

It was the crack of dawn by the time he arrived, but he did not enter the town immediately, instead tossing the bloodied clothes into a ditch nearby before changing to a clean set from his backpack.

He entered the town as normal, acting like a traveller who had walked from the city due to missing the caravan. No one cared about him appearing, with Culdao Peaks being a regular stop point for travellers on foot or by wagon.

Culdao Peaks Town was a small place of close to eight hundred people, mostly hamlets and a few high streets of shopping stalls and a central market. Already Kyle could see the stall owners working hard, dragging out items unsold since yesterday and hoping to make a quick buck.

Looking around for an inn, he found the best inn he could get, paying with rakels on the spot no matter the price he was quoted. Why should a crime lord live in squalor or stinge, after all? Kyle could already imagine Keith nagging him for spending two hundred rakels for a single night.

The inn was quiet in the morning, and the sleepy attendant who had barely woken up led him to his room, which was furnished with a queen-sized bed and a private bathroom. While not much in the Galactic Era, this was a luxury, especially when this was not the city.

As he walked through the inn, Kyle had been keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. It became even more in-depth when he was finally left in the room, where he checked every nook and cranny for any engravings, enchantments or devices. A habit from his former life.

Kyle finally loosened up after an hour of searching, lying on the comfortable bed. His mind recalled the system message about him receiving a class upon reaching level 10. Classes… what are they?

What? Terminal? Class Change? Milestones? Kyle had never heard any of these terms before at all. He tried asking more, but no more system messages appeared. It seemed like that was the only question that had triggered an active response from his interface so far.

Kyle glanced through the classes, none of them even being mildly interesting. The biochemist class seemed interesting, but there was more to running a criminal empire than just drugs alone. Nothing short of Crime Lord or equivalent is good enough to satisfy me. Kyle thought, which suddenly prompted the system message to disappear, and a new one to appear.

A few minutes passed before a new system message popped up.

Kyle’s face twitched slightly at the mention of ‘self-preservation’. Is this interface mocking me? He begrudgingly accepted the class mentally, causing the message to disappear and a new one taking its place.

Huh? Kyle barely had time to worry about it when a sudden jabbing pain erupted at the nape of his neck.

The fiery pain shot through the nerves, spine and bones like lightning, causing him to double over terribly. He gritted his teeth, trying to bear the pain but it was unlike anything he had ever experienced. Not even the Dynasty’s training nor the imprisonment in his former life could inflict this much punishment onto his body.

His arms felt the prick of a thousand needles inside every vein, capillary, and pore, while his abdomen cramped up. Kyle bent over as he rolled on the bed, his back beginning to sweat profusely, his head thumping with the sound of his accelerating heartbeat in his ear.

It was even just painful to breathe, forcing him to take short, measured breaths to withstand whatever was happening to his body. “GRRRRHHH!” Kyle grabbed a rolled-up piece of the blanket and clamped down hard on it, his hands gripping anything he could reach in sheer tension.

His body began to swell and contract in a grotesque fashion, as though something alien within was remodelling his body from within. It felt like a hot iron branding him from within, causing him to nearly cry out in pain.

As the pain continued, Kyle became more and more aware of something that felt foreign in his body, somehow integrated into the very fabric of his body. Too many effects and processes were happening internally, making it hard for him to focus on what was exactly happening, not to mention the mind-numbing pain.

Kyle had no idea how much time had passed until the pain finally subsided, allowing him to finally take a breather. His body felt exhausted, as though it had burnt all the energy he had in a single instant. Kyle quickly activated the Necklace of Healing and drank the Stamina Recovery Potion without checking his stats. Better to be safe than sorry.

Kyle didn’t bother checking the skills in-depth, immediately checking the time. It was almost night-time now – the class integration had taken the entire day. His body was covered in sweat and blood, prompting him to take yet another shower.

He glanced at his face in the mirror, realizing his facial structure had slightly improved, with the former Alvin’s face being boosted with a charismatic effect. What the hell is this interface?

The bed was soaking wet with sweat and bloodstains from his hands, so he got the room service to change it out. Keeping his belongings with him, he left the room while they cleaned up the place, heading down to the lobby of the inn for dinner.

This time, the inn was crowded, filled with many of the townsfolk. Kyle noticed the three merchants and the gruff driver were already in the same inn, telling stories about a monster attacking the forest bandits.

One of the merchant’s eyes landed on Kyle’s face for a brief moment, before looking away and continuing to tell the story to enthralled listeners. Is my face really that different, or did they just not pay much attention? Well, that saves me some trouble at least.

Kyle found an empty table and sat down, peering at the menu that had been carved into a board above the bar. Ordering his meal, he glanced around the inn, listening in to some of the conversations around.

“Got shaken down again by Fred. Fuck man, he used to be an alright enforcer, until the Sanctum of Yual sent one of their priests into town. Now he’s all righteous and holy, unwilling to even look the other way for even a moment. We used to drink in this town all day and night, now not even a single drop!”

“Mate, my hands are already shaking from the lack of card games here. It’s only been a week but I’m dying right now. Maybe I should just head and join the forest bandits.”

“You serious? After hearing about the monster that attacked them? What would Mary say? You can’t just leave her and the kids.”

“Bah, the three merchants are off their rockers. Fuck it, I’ll bring them all along. Maybe I’ll join the slave traders too when they make their next pass-through.”

“Don’t count on it. The next time they come around, Fred and his cronies would probably be all over it. A bust like that would be big on their record.”

“HAH! Fred won’t stand a chance against them guards, he barely swung a sword in his life!”

Looks like the prohibition bans are being enforced in the neighbouring towns too… Kyle took note of the conversations in town, marking them in his head for future reference. If he wanted to establish a proper supply line of Euria Seeds, this town might have a big part to play in it.

Euria Seeds had yet to be deemed prohibited, so Kyle did not have to worry too much. But seeing how the Sanctum of Yual was willing to ban many things outright, he was certain they would soon start banning Euria Seeds, especially with the way he was about to develop the business.

There was not much else going on, mostly just other people complaining about the enforcers moving into town. Kyle did not see any idea of a local mob or mafia existing yet. There was a chance for business here, but he could not do anything until he got a better picture of the town and made some more connections. Perhaps I could set up a few shell companies here to handle the trade of Euria Seeds.

He was on a strict time limit as well, with the repayment of the debt coming up. For now, he decided to focus on finding the habitat of the Euria Seeds as well as the goblins who supposedly lived in the same area.

The next day, Kyle immediately left the inn as early as he could, continuously checking behind him for any tails or people watching. He was not sure if any of the city gangs had posted someone to watch over him, but he already knew that if the Violet Demons learnt of him killing their forest bandits, he would have a problem.

Using a replica map bought from the town, he navigated his way through the dense forest, trudging through the foliage and dead leaves. He spotted a few animals, noticing that most of them were similar to those of Ancient Earth. Squirrels, deer, wild pigs and rabbits were seemingly common here. He slightly expected a bit more of a fantasy twist, seeing as there were already goblins around.

As he walked through the forest, a bloody stench soon wafted through the air, becoming stronger over time. It put him on guard, forcing him to keep his hammer at the ready, his eyes darting all over the tree branches to check for ambushes.

Pushing his way through a few dense bushes, he soon finally got a glimpse of the source of the smell. It seemed to be a mass grave of sorts, except the bodies were all fully decomposing and rotting, clear signs that they have died quite some time ago.

Three goblins were crouched over in the mass grave, sorting through the rotten human meat and limbs. They used their little green grubby hands to scoop something out of the meat, stuffing it into dirty pouches made of leather and skin patches, grunting to each other.

Kyle decided to hide and watch, seeing as the goblins did not notice him. The three goblins worked their way through the pit, scooping continuously. Soon, Kyle finally understood what they were doing. They are harvesting the maggots from the decomposing meat as food. Interesting…

Suddenly, a loud rickety sound could be heard, with the three goblins immediately scampering away towards the mountains. Kyle hid even more, laying low in the bushes as he spotted a wheelbarrow coming through a small path. It was two forest bandits, one escorting and one pushing two dead girls on the wheelbarrow.

They dumped the bodies into the mass grave pit, with one of the forest bandits peering over the edge. “Hey look. Your former girl Krisna is doing pretty good.”

“Cheh, thought she would have been reduced to bones now. Guess the maggots and goblins don’t even like her. What a waste of rakels that one was.”

They didn’t converse anymore, simply heading back the same way. Kyle did not move at all, continuously observing his surroundings. He soon saw the three goblins reappear, obviously not having collected enough.

He paid more attention to their loadout this time. Each one was barely armoured, with only a flint or stone knife hanging from a loose cloth belt. Only one of them had a decent metal knife, which seemed to serve as the only weapon they had.

When entering a new environment, observing how the locals worked was the best way to get the lay of the land the fastest. Kyle decided to follow the goblins back to the den, before deciding on a course of action. Maybe they can be the perfect underlings…