Gabriel made his way to the Player Bazaar that was next to the Auction house, after [Lil Tiger] split. As he walked away, Gabriel was tailed by a couple of players, some which weren’t discrete at all and a select few were much more subtle. He expected as much, as some of the ones tailing him would be guildies. They would be reporting his actions at the behest of their Guild Masters and only a couple other lone players would be just looking to score some benefits; if they found out some useful information on Gabriel.

Gabriel entered a side alley between two buildings that were only 10 feet high. Once in the alley, Gabriel ran and jumped his height. With one foot to kick off the left side wall, he propelled himself to the top of the opposite wall. Grabbing the roof with his hands, he quickly pulled himself up and rolled onto the roof. As he looked over the roof’s edge, he saw multiple Players run into the alley. Noticing he wasn’t there they must have thought he ran out the other end and took off after.

Gabriel didn’t notice any of the Players until the last one entered the alley. With a more casual bearing, the player entered the alley and looked around. Gabriel noticed the sickly-looking thin man, with narrowed snake like eyes. A memory from his past replayed in his head at the sight.

A gaunt man, in tight black leather armour was covered head to toe in blood, his two curved daggers unsheathed in his hands. The tips of the blades were dropping fat droplets of blood on the wooden floorboards every few seconds. He had a sadistic smile on his face, as he looked over three bodies at his feet. They had so many slices decorating their body and face, they were unrecognizable. The bodies appeared to be three human women.

The three corpses looked like they had been tortured for hours before death, going by the old and fresh blood splattered on their bodies and walls.

A crash sounded behind the gaunt-man, as the door to the small village house was broken down. Gabriel stood in the door way, looking at the horror before his eyes. His face twisted with rage; he rushed the gaunt-man a moment after. Who cackled at the sight of Gabriel’s unsightly face.

“To late again lad, Mistress Natalie sends her well wishes.” The gaunt-man laughed out before entering Gabriel in combat.

Gabriel was far stronger in direct combat and slayed the man in moments, who hadn’t stop laughing the whole time. Gabriel sheathed his blade and walked to the bodies. Kneeling down, he laid a gentle hand on one of the girl's faces.

“I am so sorry girls. I should have stayed away; I knew they would come after anyone I befriended. I stupidly thought if you were NPCs, they wouldn’t go through the effort but I misjudged that sadistic bit*h again.”

Gabriel pulled himself away from the memory. He watched the gaunt man walk through to the other side of the alley and after seeing no more people. Gabriel got up from his prone position. With a leap over the next two connecting roofs, he came to another alley. Gabriel peered down to check if the coast was clear, before leaping down into the alley.

Exiting the alley, he looked both ways and saw none of the previous people tailing him. Re-joining the crowd of people in the street, he made his way towards the Bazaar again. Walking with a carefree stride, he blended smoothly among the many others on the street.

Just before he approached the Bazaar, a loud shout made Gabriel and all the other people surrounding him turn towards the road that led to the Noble district. Looking at the bizarre scene that was unfolding, Gabriel was flabbergasted.

“Tom?” Gabriel muttered.

Tom just ran past the Guard post that separated the Merchant and Noble district. With his short, stumpy legs working over time, he had a hand full of what appeared to Gabriel coloured cloth. Next to him was an old Dwarf with an equal size load of colored cloth in his hands. He had a greasy grin on his grime covered face and was running slightly faster than Tom.

A group of Guards and furious looking Noblewomen were behind them. The guards were chasing the pair, while the Noblewomen were yelling insults.

“Dirty Scoundrels!!”

“Perverted Cretins!”

“May [Hades] rise from the Underworld and take you back with him!!”

“Stop running so fast Old Man! I don’t know where to go. If you leave me behind, I will not share the plunder with you!” Tom shouted as the old Dwarf started leaving him in the dust.

“Come on Apprentice! This is all part of your training. I am trying to build up your stamina and increase the thickness of your skin!” The Old Dwarf yelled back with a cheesy grin.

The two getaway Dwarves ran past Gabriel and disappeared into the Merchant district quick. Tom didn’t even notice Gabriel, a piece of cloth fell out of his arms and landed near Gabriel’s foot.

Gabreil bent down and picked up the folded pink coloured cloth. Unfolding it, he realized it was a lacey pair of panties. With a wide-open mouth and an abrupt laugh, he turned back to look where Tom and the Old Dwarf ran off. Shakin his head, a dainty hand shot out and grabbed the panties that were in Gabriel’s hands.

“Don’t touch a lady's undergarments! You Cad!” A young Noblewoman with rosy cheeks, gave Gabriel a furious glare.

Gabriel raised his hands in the air to declare his innocence.

“I would never do such a thing to a beautiful young woman, such as yourself. I hope you find those two little perverts and roast them over some coals. That chubby one especially looks like he needs a good beating. If I had the time, I would surely accompany you to catch them.” Gabriel said, shamelessly throwing his best friend under the bus.

“Good. Now Guards we must hurry, if they get away almost half the Noblewomen in the city will have bare bottoms under their skirts!” The Noblewoman declared.

The description led many of the Guards and the people in their crowd to take a subconscious glance at her bottom. The Noblewoman realized what she said, with a blush and huff, she continued the chase herself.

After the scene became quiet, Gabriel didn’t know who but someone among the crowd began to laugh. Eventually the whole crowd began laughing, splitting away to tell their friends of what they just witnessed. Gabriel also laughed until he had tears in his eyes, while making his way to the Player Bazaar again.

He entered the Bazaar, that was littered with Players, checking out requests, Guild recruitment posters and Player run stalls. There was a round shining globe on a stand, many Players were walking up to in and touched it before walking away ac couple of steps. Gabriel also approached the large globe and once he touched it he received a notification.

[You have entered the Player Marketplace – All items on sale must have a timer and it cannot extend longer than 72 hours. Would you like to access the [Buy] or [Sell] lists?]

Gabriel selected [Yes] and put up the [Guild Token (Gold Rank)]. Setting the starter price at 1000 Gold and 12 hours until bidding closed. Gabriel knew once the larger Guilds caught wind of it, they would issue a firesale of items and mass buy of Gold to grab the Gold ranked [Guild Token]. As it gave prestige, better benefits and more options for where to purchase your land.

Gabriel checked the [Buy] lists and looked up the [Guild Token]s for sale. Currently there was one was up for sale, it was a bronze rank [Guild Token]. It was already at a ridiculous price of 4000 Gold and it had been up for no less than an hour with twenty-four hour auction timer. Gabriel left the Bazaar after scrolling through a couple of different items for sale. Leaving the merchant district, he caught a gondola towards [Manius] workshop.

After Gabriel left, a player from the Guild [Eden] who was stationed at the Bazaar to check for people selling [Guild Tokens] on the marketplace. As he checked for the 100th time today, he saw something that made him freeze. A [Guild Token (Gold Ranked)] up for sale, the seller was classed as [Unknown] and it just been posted.

He looked around but didn’t have the foggiest clue on how to figure out which Player posted it. Quickly sending a PM to his team leader, who at the sight of the message sent it up the chain of command. As [Eden]’s main Guild Members and Guild Master, were stationed in the Free Cities of Maderva. They couldn't bid on it personally until the portals were opened.

The larger Guilds had members in almost all Capital cities, while keeping one as their main focal point. The upper branch used the Guild Members as proxies when needing to trade or buy things. You could send items and Gold via magical deliveries through any God’s temple. They priests took a small fee for using the God’s powers to teleport your items.

The news of the gold ranked [Guild Token] on sale created a firestorm of activity. Gabriel didn't know all this but had expected it. With a carefree smile he entered [Manius] workshop and went to [Manius]’s office, seeing he wasn’t there.

Gabriel poked his head out the main doors and asked one of the guards if [Manius] was inside the home.

“No. [Master Manius] is at the Imperial palace.” The Imperial Guard replied without looking at Gabriel.

Gabriel nodded and went back to the workshop table. He saw that their was a barrel full of [High-Steel Spears] with a note stabbed through one of the spearheads. Gabriel grabbed the note and it read.

‘Hi Osiris, if you are reading this. I have left 20x High-Steel Spears to be Runed with Armor penetration and Toughness Runes. They should help to increase your mastery. Remember when inscribing Runes on spears, put the Toughness Rune on the shift and the Armour Penetration on the spear head.

Regards,

Your generous Master Manius

Gabriel chuckled at the way [Manius] was blatantly shoving his boring work to him. After reading the note he received a notification.

[Profession Quest Received – A Master’s Slack – Part II (Chained)]

Task 1. Engrave [High-Steel Spear] with Armour penetrations and Toughness Runes - 0/20

Rewards:

10 x Gold 2000 EXP to [Runesmith] profession

Gabriel got to work on engraving the spears. He did a quick warm up session first, on a blank steel square before working on the spears. Being well accustomed to these two [Runes] now, he moved through the spears quickly. The longest part was waiting for his Mana to regenerate. Gabriel had put no points in Wisdom, as he didn’t need much Mana during fights.

Being a Melee based class, with more Skills than Spells. Gabriel focused his (AP) distribution on high attack with the Strength stat and a high Rage bar. Drinking [Minor Mana Potions] to substitute for his usually slow recovery of mana instead. Gabriel took a little longer this time, his Mana Regeneration was still locked from the [Mana Boost Potions] he had earlier. Gabriel finished the spears after a little over two hours.