In the dark of the night when the streets were silent and not a single soul was in sight, two people exited an inn. Karen and Eliza were wearing their disguises so as not to draw any attention.

Under the faint blue light of the moon, they navigated their way through narrow alleys and roads. Eliza was leading the way while holding Mystis’ note in one hand whereas Karen followed closely behind.

Strangely enough, nobody was wandering the streets and all the shops were closed. It was such an unnatural occurrence even for such a small city.

After walking for some time they reached their destination. It was a broad alleyway whose end was shrouded in darkness and nothing was visible.

“Are you sure we are at the right place?” Karen asked, a little worried.

“Yes, this is the right place,” Eliza confidently answered. “The Night Market should be just beyond that,” she said while pointing at the darkness ahead. She caught Karen’s hand and started to move towards it.

“I guess it can’t be helped then,” Karen sighed, and silently followed. From the beginning, Eliza had not shown her the note given by Mystis so she was worried that they had lost their way. However, her worries were unfounded.

When Karen and Eliza reached deep enough into the alley they felt a spatial distortion in front of them. It was so minuscule that no normal person would be able to perceive it. However, they both were familiar with this kind of magic.

"It's a disguise formation, right?" Karen asked with an uncertain expression. She had encountered it before but wasn't sure as only elves and humans specialized in it.

“Yes, and it’s a very large scale one at that,” Eliza confirmed.

They both tightly held each other’s hands and walked through the spatial distortion. The sight in front of them suddenly changed. The darkness completely disappeared, replaced by a narrow tunnel. There were burning lamps lining both sides of the tunnel illuminating it. The end of the alley was also visible in front of them. They quickly walked towards it.

As they reached the end of the tunnel, they were completely astonished at what they saw.

They were standing on a slightly raised wooden platform from where they saw the Night Market spread before them, its end nowhere in sight. All the people and stalls here made the name Night Market seem like an understatement; this place looked more like a festival fare. ‘So this is why we didn’t see anybody’ they both thought.

There were stalls spread in rows that were selling many recognizable and even more unrecognizable things. The temporarily paved roads between shops were flooded with different monsters such as Orcs, Goblins, Lamia, Kobolds, Oni, and more. Small lights were floating in the atmosphere, illuminating the whole area.

Eliza lightly nudged Karen and said with a disbelieving voice, “You didn’t tell me it was like this”

“I am also seeing it for the first time,” Karen replied with an equally disbelieving voice.

“First let’s get our work done.” she continued. “We will sell all those plundered weapons and buy suitable ones for us. Then we can look around”

They quickly came down from the raised platform. While they standing on the platform, Karen had marked the locations of several weapon stores in her mind and was making her way towards them along with Eliza.

Normally it was impossible for Eliza to roam freely among monsters but their Aura Disguise skill made it achievable. However, the level of the skill was just too low and they didn’t know if there was a monster present here who could recognize that she was a human.

“What if someone realizes that I am a human?” Eliza worriedly asked Karen. If they were discovered among these many monsters, weapons would be the least of their worries.

“Don’t worry, nobody will discover you,” Karen hurriedly replied. The place was much more crowded than it seemed, which made it difficult for her to move while holding Eliza’s hand.

“What if somebody really does?” Eliza further asked.

“Then we will either kill him or escape,” Karen replied matter-of-factly. If they wanted to escape it would be nearly impossible to track them down in this large crowd.

Soon they reached the first weapon shop on her list. Its appearance was a bit shabby. Karen spoke with the shopkeeper for a few moments before continuing to another shop.

“What happened?” Eliza asked curiously.

“He said he doesn’t buy weapons but only sells them” Karen replied.

“Oh,” Eliza had an understanding expression on her face.

They started to make their way towards the center of the Night Market. They encountered several more weapon shops but none of them were buying weapons. After enquiring, Karen got to know that only one place buys weapons in the Night Market.

“Why is that?” Karen asked the shopkeeper in front of her.

“It seems that you have come from the outside. Let me give you one piece of advice. The less you know, the better” the shopkeeper warned the pair.

Karen put the warning at the back of her mind. “Then tell me where I can find that shop”.

“You just need to go towards the center. You will notice a rather large tent at first glance. It’s the largest one in the Night Market” the Shopkeeper told her. “But remember what I told you before if you want to survive here.”

Karen nodded at him, “I’ll remember”

She then held Eliza’s hand and started moving deep towards the center. After moving a short distance they suddenly heard a commotion from behind them. Looking back they saw two guards catching a thief, who was stealing a very expensive potion.

“The security seems to be tight around here,” Eliza commented while observing the thief being carried away. “He will definitely die”

“Of course. The prices are steadily rising and the crowd is also thinning. This area must be for the rich people here” Karen emotionlessly replied.

“Let’s go” Eliza simply nodded her head. They had already experienced so much in their life that they couldn’t spare their pity over a thief.

A few moments later they finally arrived at their destination. A very large white tent was erected at the very center of Night Market. Several guards surrounded it and kept a close watch on everybody coming in and walking out. Karen and Eliza approached it and showed their mercenary cards to get an entry into the tent. While entering the tent also they felt a slight spatial distortion.

The inside of the tent was twice as large as observed from outside and filled with people. The inside was divided into several areas and each area sold different types of weapons. The weapons ranged from long weapons such as swords and spears to small weapons such as darts and daggers. In one such area, there was a line of people selling their weapons in exchange for money.

Karen and Eliza quickly joined the line but there were still several people before them, and everyone was haggling to get more money for their weapons. After what felt like an eternity their turn finally arrived. Eliza quickly took out their weapons from her inventory.

The two Beastmen who were at the counter looked at them with narrowed eyes. “Just a spatial pouch. You should know that such things are not shown to others easily” Eliza said to them.

They let down their guard after hearing her reply. It was true that spatial items were rare and very difficult to find so nobody showed them to others. And as Eliza and Karen were disguised the Beastmen didn’t question further.

One of them checked all the weapons taken out by Eliza. They were the weapons she had collected from the dead orcs in the forest and from Dij and his group. After thoroughly examining them he said, “You have 23 weapons and all in a fairly acceptable shape. 50 yellow deniers each”

“Hey, isn’t it less than half their original price?" Eliza burst out after hearing this. She had checked the weapon prices here and they all cost more than one Orange Denier. This was simply daylight robbery.

“If you have any problem, leave and sell them somewhere else.” The second Beastmen mockingly smiled, “Oh, forget what I just said. No other place is buying weapons except for us”

Eliza wanted to retort but was stopped by Karen, who put her hand on her shoulder. ‘Now is not the time for this. We don’t want to draw any unwanted attention’

“Okay then. I am selling them. Quickly give me my money” Eliza controlled her anger.

“ See, there was no need to waste my time,” the Beastmen had a smug smile across his face as he counted the money. ‘I will definitely beat the hell out of you’ Eliza thought while looking at his smile.

After taking the money, Karen and Eliza began checking the weapons with their Identification.

Iron Knife – Normal Iron Knife

Steel Daggers – Sharp Daggers. Don’t rust easily.

Iron Sword – Long-Ranged Iron Sword

And similar types of weapons made from normal metals were displayed. The pair instantly knew that this place was just for scamming people. These weapons were good but less efficient against monsters. They decided to search for weapons elsewhere.

Just as they were about to exit the tent, Karen’s mind was drawn towards a pile of junk weapons. She blinked her eyes a few times to see if she was imagining but the sight in front of her remained unchanged. She quickly walked to the pile of junk weapons. Eliza was confused by her behavior and followed along with her.

‘What is it?’ Eliza telepathically asked.

‘I think I might have found something really good’ Karen cheerfully replied while rummaging through the junk. She picked out a rusty sword, a rusty spear, and a half-broken ring from it. Looking at the Lamia standing beside it, she asked, “How much?”

The Lamia was startled to see someone buying that junk. These weapons were checked several times to check if they had and special uses but none were discovered. ‘Maybe this idiot is thinking of winning big with less money’ she smiled in her mind.

“50 Yellow Deniers each?” she nonchalantly said, hiding her true emotions.

Karen quickly grabbed enough money from Eliza's hand and handed it to the Lamia before she could say anything. Then she hurriedly picked up her purchase and exited the tent.

Eliza rushed behind her. “What was that?” she angrily asked.

“I was__” Before Karen could finish her sentence her sight landed on the person she least expected to see here.

“Eliza I will answer your questions later." Karen rushed towards that person, "For now, just follow me quickly."