Banshee? No, an ogre!

Chapter 9 ：Black Market

And Ogg would never know what fate awaited him a month later.

But for the moment he was quite happy.

Little Ogg, why did you come out so quickly today?' the guard at the back door asked as usual.

Master Yade told me that he had found a more professional mural restorer, and I was assigned to clean the utility room,' Ogg lied casually without blinking an eye.

Does the utility room still need cleaning? Has little Ogg been paid for today's work?' the guard reminded him.

'Er, I seem to have forgotten. Oug touched his head, the information he had just received was a bit too much and he had forgotten everything.

Acting the whole package, getting paid, Master Yade should be able to understand that, right?

Young Oug, how can you forget this? Here, take it, it's the balance from before.' The guard said, pulling a small bag of coins from his waist and throwing it at Oug.

Oug instinctively caught the bag of money with his body, opened it and counted it on the spot.

One, two... a total of twelve copper coins and two silver coins.

One extra silver coin... Ouge looked up and took a silver coin out of the bag.

'It's an extra one.' Ouge had a scale in his heart for what could be taken and what couldn't.

That stupid boy, he wouldn't have kept the extra one for himself... really.

The guard grunted and waved his hand. 'I'll make it up to you. You need to eat well while you can't find work. You can't make up for lost time when you're young.

Ouge was about to say that he didn't need another silver coin.

But after a moment's thought, he accepted the guard's kindness. Thank you, guard.

After Ouge left, the guard looked at the empty back hall and let out a somewhat despondent expression.

'Alas, youth is truly wonderful.

...

Since he didn't have to continue working on the painting, Oug had some free time and went to the black market early.

At a relaxed pace, Oug walked all the way to the more chaotic slums.

Compared to the main city in the sun,

the chaotic and cramped slums looked a bit out of place - not even the light of truth and dawn shone on this land.

In Oug's opinion, this area near the Demon Forest was essentially no different from the Demon Forest.

Turning a corner, the speckled mask reappeared on Ogg's face.

Where truth and dawn do not shine, might is right.

Vulnerable little Ogg is better off in the capital.

And the Gourmet is better suited to the gladiatorial arena and this chaotic place.

Even though the slum is next to the Guild and the Kingdom Army.

But the Guild and the Army don't really care what happens inside - unless there's a monster invasion or someone's massacring people.

The very existence of the slums serves as a buffer for the monsters.

At first, the people who came here were homeless wanderers. The main city wouldn't take them in, so they settled near the safer guild.

Over time, the number of drifters increased and the outer buildings grew larger.

This was mainly because the church only took in young orphans.

Children with potential could be nurtured.

But adult vagrants were different. Whatever happened, they were not cost-effective. If they were lucky, they might be hired as day labourers, but if not, they would have to enter the area and try their luck.

In almost all slums, when a young girl becomes pregnant and gives birth, she will choose to send her child to the church.

This has become the norm.

As the slums grew, many criminals were able to hide among the refugees, and gradually some shady businesses developed within this 'protective wall'.

As to whether nobles are involved in this,

it's hard to say.

After all, nobles rarely bother with commoners, let alone these tax-evading slum dwellers.

The black market Oug goes to is deep in the slums.

It is a place where many illegal apprentice wizards, second-hand dealers and intelligent beings of other races gather.

Many things that cannot be bought locally can be bought here - including slaves of various races, for a price that is... hard to say.

Of course, the source of the goods is even harder to say.

Their quality is not guaranteed either.

Perhaps the only thing that stands out are the various jobs on the black market, which often pay much more than those in the Association of Professionals.

It was made for those exceptional people with questionable status.

Ouge was sure of it.

The Association of True Professionals had definitely placed people here, and it was even possible that the black market task organisation was run by the Association of Professionals - all for the purpose of exploiting these money-grubbing people who would risk their lives.

In a sense, this area of the black market was still the safest place in the slums.

The black market protects the rights and interests of both buyers and sellers. If you're really not sure about safety - the random distance teleportation array at the exit is available for use as long as you pay.

I don't know who came up with this idea.

Exchange all this for money," Oug said, taking a few miscellaneous items out of his bag - mostly jewellery and gold teeth.

Some of it he had collected in the forest, some of it had been 'given' to him by ruthless people who liked to prey on the weak.

Ouge tends to pick up the more valuable materials because they are easier to turn into money, but the downside is that only the exchange at the entrance will recycle them.

Oh yes, there's that. Ouge took out the rest of the half-bottle of Restoration Potion.

'This potion is of good quality, a good product. The gnome in charge of the appraisal rubbed his hands together. On the black market, the price of high-quality recovery potions is often inflated, and they are not hard to sell.

Even though it was only half a bottle, if mixed with a low-quality recovery potion, it could be diluted into at least five bottles!

Half a bottle was worth half a gold coin on the official market, and at least three gold coins on the black market.

Were it not for Oug's lack of a 'stall' and his own magical resistance, which would dilute the potion's effect, he wouldn't have exchanged it directly for gold coins.

'Exchange it all for gold coins,' Oug said.

Okay, just a moment, this customer,' the gnome appraiser began to calculate the price.

Compared to dwarves, the race of gnomes is less stocky and appears to be much more shrewd.

Although legend has it that dwarves and gnomes share the same ancestors, their talents with weapons are obviously different. Most importantly, gnomes don't like to drink and rarely grow beards, and if they do, they are very short.

Compared to similar creatures such as goblins, gnomes are not as greedy, although they do have the talent of stealing.

However, dwarves are much more popular than the cunning gnomes that look like goblins.

Dwarves don't like to steal money as much as gnomes.

Even the Church of Truth has many dwarf members.

A total of twelve gold, fifty silver and fifteen bronze coins, my guest," the dwarf deftly handed Ogg three small black bags containing the three types of currency.

The bags are free for transactions of this level.

Og collected the currency, then took ten copper coins from the bags and gave them to the dwarf in exchange for a unique wooden identity tag to enter the black market.

These wooden tokens are engraved with magical runes that identify the bearer, and can be used to pass through the black market barrier once.

Although the barrier is not very protective, if you try to enter by force, you will have to weigh your strength.

Here is your identification token, good customer.

After receiving the wooden token, Oug entered the black market.

He came here mainly to buy exceptional food for 'eating'.

As for the black casino inside, which had some devious props, Oug had no intention of touching them.

In short, the ogre's lunchbox was ready.