Taming Master

Chapter 224: Slave Marketplace (1)

Creak- Crea-crea-creak- Thud-!

After a fricative sound that was uncomfortable to hear and a heavy sound that was loud enough to make the whole basement ring rang out, the giant iron door that was blocking off Ian and Dice began to go up slowly.

Keu-keuk- Keu-keu-keuk-.

And inside, a golden, shining staircase greeted Ian.

‘What kind of entrance that leads to a slave shop looks this showy?’

The door did open, but the two eyes of Ian, who didn’t know what to do, blinked as he stared at Dice.

At that, Dice smiled as he opened his mouth.

“If you go down through these stairs, there will be the lowest floor of our slave marketplace of the City of Rage.”

Ian nodded his head.

“I see.”

Dice’s words continued.

“This is not applicable to other places, but in the case of this lowest floor, when you enter, there is a rule set that you cannot contract more than one slave each time you enter.”

Ian nodded his head as he replied.

“I’ve heard quite a decent amount of content from Seraphim, so I know about it.”

“Is that so? Then, it will be easy to explain.”

Dice slowly began to go down the stairs, and Ian followed suit.

“You have a quarter of a day. Within a quarter of a day, you must decide on the slave that you want to contract and contract them. In the case that your time is up or if you’ve contracted a slave, you will automatically be warped to the top floor of the slave marketplace.”

Ian, who remembered one of Seraphim’s precautions, mumbled to himself.

‘He said that I’ll be tight on time, but they give more time than I expected.’

Ian responded shortly.

“Understood.”

As they finally went all the way down the stairs, an open space appeared, and Ian’s two eyes slightly grew due to surprise.

‘They said that it was the lowest floor where only rare slaves are gathered together, so I thought that it would be smaller in size compared to the other floors that we passed by, but… It’s even bigger instead!’

And he began to scan the space quickly.

A quarter of a day was not a lot of time at all if he wanted to check all of the information of the slaves inside of here.

While watching Ian, who looked around as soon as he entered the lowest floor, Dice grinned.

“Then, I pray for your success. I truly hope that you find a slave that’s at least a Heroic-rank, Ian.”

Just like retainers or Familiars, or even items, the rank of a slave was a system that was divided from Common-rank to Mythological-rank.

However, when it came to their rarity, it was a different story.

In the case of slaves, most of them were Common-rank, and Rare-rank ones were, literally speaking, rare, so starting from the Unique-rank, their rarity was incredibly high to the point that they were hard to find.

As that was the case, a Heroic-rank slave that Dice spoke of was at a level where it was questionable if they even existed.

Ian grinned as he nodded his head.

“Thank you, Dice. I will make sure that is the case.”

Dice smiled back as he responded.

“Alright. Still, in this lowest floor, as there are only slaves that are Rare-rank or higher at the least, there won’t be a case where you will be completely devastated. Hahahat.”

Dice, who finished speaking, disappeared as if he was being blown out, and Ian quickly walked towards the prisons of the slaves, which were lined along everywhere.

* * *

A small, 2-floor building in the southeast of the City of Rage.

In the hall of the 1st floor of that building, what roughly looked to be around fifteen people were sitting in a circle.

And the man that was standing in the middle of that circle was Shyakran.

“You may all know, but… This guild quest is an opportunity like no other to us, the Titan Guild.”

The gazes of everyone were on Shyakran’s mouth, and he continued his words.

“We are the first ones to have received a guild quest in the Devildom, and thanks to this quest, twenty people from just our Guild have been able to enter this City of Rage, where not many have even been able to step foot in yet.”

Thanks to the Premium Seal of the Devil, Ian was able to step foot into the City of Rage without any particular obstacle.

However, in order for the other users to enter the City of Rage, they needed to complete the quest of the public order of the city.

And as the difficulty level of the public order quest boasted a tremendous difficulty level to the point that most couldn’t even conceive the idea of doing it unless you were a decently top-ranking user, even just a couple days ago, the City of Rage was a space where not even five users could enter.

From the beginning, as there weren’t even ten users that had passed through Zone 110, it could be considered obvious.

On top of that, as it was a quest with a condition where it could only be done on your own or with one other as a duo, it was a situation where multiple rankers could combine their strength like when they faced the chief gatekeeper of Zone 110.

Even Shyakran, who was the strongest of the Warrior-class users, and Ceilron, who quarreled over top place in the Knight-class rankings, needed to squeeze out all of the strength they had in order to narrowly clear it.

However, in that process, an unexpected piece of luck came and found the two people.

If there was the Guild Master and Sub-Guild Master of the same guild within a party that was proceeding with the public order quest of the City of Rage, a system that would invoke a hidden quest was hidden within it.

On top of that, that hidden quest was the first guild quest of the Devildom.

And the payment they received as their first guild quest activation reward was enormous.

A somewhat small, guild-affiliated party was all summoned into the City of Rage, and at the same time as that, they earned the right to enter the city.

As the maximum number of people that could be in a party was twenty members, that many members were transferred and had entered.

At a glance, as they didn’t even receive substantial goods or anything like that, it could seem like nothing much, but to be honest, it was incredible.

Since, within the City of Rage, which was full of an infinite amount of new content, only the Titan Guild was able to enter with a fighting power that could make up a full party, that is.

“We must not throw away this opportunity no matter what.”

The eyes of the users that were affiliated with the Titan Guild shone brightly.

As they were the ones that were always labeled as the 2nd place guild because of DarkRuna, they didn’t want to lose this chance even more.

“Understood, Master!”

As the energetic response of someone rang out, shouts burst out from here and there.

Shyakran, who slowly looked around at his guild members, grinned as he unsheathed his sword and lifted it up.

Chuk-!

“The instant that Ceilron returns, we will move in order to finish the quest.”

* * *

Ian had already been checking the information of the slaves for 2 hours now.

“Hmm… It looks like it would be best to pass on this one. It is the first Moon Elf species that I’ve found in a while, but there’s no Racially Specialized Option attached to its inherent ability.”

The structure of the lowest floor of the slave marketplace was a little unusual.

There was not much difference with the upper floor when it came to the fact that there were a countless number of prisons that slaves were locked away in, but the slaves of the lowest floor all had their own rooms.

On top of that, it wasn’t normal bars, but something like a transparent magic wall that was keeping them in.

However, despite it being a structure so transparent that the inside could be seen very clearly, based on the fact that they didn’t even glance at Ian when he passed by right next to them, it seemed like it was a magic wall that prevented those inside from seeing the outside.

“Ha, as expected, just like what Seraphim said, it seriously isn’t easy to find a slave.”

The species that Seraphim recommended Ian were Moon Elves, Dark Phantoms, and Kargons.

Even amongst the tons of slaves, the number of slaves of these three species was so low to the point that Ian seldom found them.

On top of that, it wasn’t like he could just pick those species either.

‘Since there’s no point if it’s not one that has a racial inherent ability…’

The reason why the species that Seraphim recommended were good was because of the inherent abilities that their specific species could only have.

However, it wasn’t like they had a Racial Inherent Ability no matter what just because they were of that species.

The information that Ian could check in a slave’s information window was for example, like this.

• Irela

Level: 105

Race: Moon Elf

Classification: Slave

Rank: Unknown

Personality: Meticulous

Offensive Power: 2125

Defensive power: 1455

Agility: 2512

Intellect: 3312

Vitality: 132,450/132,450

Inherent Ability A (Racially Inherent)

• Unknown

Inherent Ability B

• Unknown

A fairy of the night that receives the energy of the moon and creates beneficial effects to its teammates.

The fairy of the night is an incredibly rare species, and although small and cute, they are powerful, so it is known that even vampires, the aristocrats of the night, cannot take them lightly either.

The part that Ian was checking carefully one by one were the slaves’ race as well as the words that were within the parenthesis next to their inherent abilities.

There were a total of five different kinds of phrases that were within the parenthesis, and the meanings that they had were as followed.

1. Racially Inherent – Meant that the relevant inherent ability is an inherent ability related to the slave’s race.
2. Racially Specialized – Meant that when a race related to the relevant inherent ability used it, the inherent ability was invoked twice as powerfully.
3. Rare Ability – Meant that the relevant inherent ability was a rare inherent ability.
4. Fortified Ability – Meant that the relevant inherent ability was an inherent ability that was fortified up one level.
5. Evolving Ability – Meant that the relevant inherent ability was an ability that could develop depending on the levelling up of the slave.

The 3rd, 4th and 5th phrases were definitely options that would be nice if they were there, but the phrases that Ian was looking for carefully were the 1st and 2nd ones.

The 2nd phrase especially, which was the Racially Specialized one, was only significant when as its preceding condition, the 1st phrase, the Racially Inherent one, was attached no matter what.

Simply put, when a slave whose race was a Moon Elf had an inherent ability that was not related to its race, no effect would be applied even if the ‘Racially Specialized’ option was attached.

He was able to learn about all of this information through Seraphim, and Ian, who was quick-witted in these things, had understood the system completely after hearing it just once.

However, as that was the case, the process of Ian picking a slave couldn’t help but become even more painful.

‘Goddammit. I will pick a slave that satisfies all of my conditions no matter what!’

The slave that Ian currently wanted was a slave that at least had one inherent ability with the ‘Racially Inherent’ as well as the ‘Racially Specialized’ options attached, and additionally had an inherent ability with at least the ‘Racially Inherent’ option attached.

‘Or even if there was just the Fortified Ability option attached to a Racially Inherent one, it wouldn’t be bad.’

Compared to the ‘Racially Specialized’ option, the amount that an inherent ability would be fortified with a ‘Fortified Ability’ option instead made it lack about one level, but still, it was much better than not having it.

‘But, by any chance, would there be one that has at least 3 options attached altogether?’

He had seen cases where there were 2 options attached next to an inherent ability at the same time.

However, as he hadn’t seen a case where there were three options attached, Ian shook his head even after thinking about it himself.

“If I raise my standards too high, I may not be able to even properly pick one slave before my time is up.”

Since Ian needed to find a rare slave that satisfied all of the conditions that he made himself as well as being one of the three species that Seraphim pledged to.

However, as long as he just found one, Ian did not doubt that it would definitely be a slave with a high rank.

“I still have 3 hours! I will find one within that time no matter what!”

Ian opened his eyes wide and began to walk again.

And shortly after, a slave with a black, murky body caught his eyes, which were full of determination.

‘Oh, is it the first Dark Phantom I’ve seen in a while?’

Ian quickly ran up to the wall that it was within and hurriedly checked the information of the slave.

However, in the next moment, Ian’s two eyes rounded.

This was because of the information of the slave’s race that popped up in the top part of the slave’s information window.

• Race: Karga Phantom