Lord Evolution: Starting With SS-rank Skills

After disappearing from the surface of the river, Dragun and Vishirk's vision blackened. When their sight returned, they found themselves standing in the midst of a very busy hall.

The hall was enormous and almost as wide as Yellow River City's market as a whole.

In fact, the only reason Dragun and Vishirk knew they were in a building was because of the roof above their heads and the magic crystal bulbs lighting up the place.

If it wasn't for the roof, they would have thought they were in the middle of another market like the city's.

Unlike the market where sellers went around announcing their wares, in this place, each seller had their own stand with large signboards depicting what they sold.

The only people walking around this vast hall were buyers looking for stores selling the specific items they wanted. The place was orderly.

Dragun and Vishirk also noticed that more than ninety percent of the people in this place were wearing masks to hide their identities.

Fortunately, both of them already had their identity-altering masks on and were not afraid of revealing their true identities to anyone.

"You two are newcomers?"

A gentle female voice came from behind as both of them observed the ginormous hall.

They turned around and spotted a young girl around the age of twelve, smiling at them patiently. She was dressed in a white dress, her long blonde hair framing sharp blue eyes that fluttered innocently.

Dragun was surprised to feel the strong mana presence radiating from her.

'She is not a mage, but she has a strong magical item equipped that's radiating such strong mana. She is no ordinary person,' Dragun noted.

Vishirk, on the other hand, wondered what a young girl was doing in such a place.

"You are newcomers?" she asked again, snapping them out of their wandering thoughts.

Both of them quickly nodded and replied to her with smiles.

"My name is Melissa. My uncle owns this place. I can show you around if you'd be kind enough to buy me sweet candies."

Hearing her introduction, Dragun and Vishirk exchanged surprised expressions.

"Alright, Melissa, you can show us around, and we promise to get you delicious candy," Vishirk replied.

Melissa's eyes brightened excitedly at the promise.

She hurried between them and held their hands, a bright smile spreading across her innocent face.

Dragun and Vishirk felt pretty uncomfortable with the looks a few passersby gave them. There were looks of disgust, surprise, and a little bit of admiration.

The facial reactions of the passersby were so different and random that they found it difficult to interpret.

"Uncles, what item do you want to buy? I can take you there immediately," Melissa asked.

Dragun and Vishirk immediately told her the major item that brought them here—Awakening potions.

"You are very lucky, uncles. Yesterday, a lot of high-quality Awakening potions were supplied to the market," she replied.

"Is that true?" both of them said in unison.

"Mm-hmm," Melissa nodded.

"I'll take you there right away," she added.

They were about to reply when they felt the world around them spin for a split second.

Before they could understand what was happening, they found themselves standing in an entirely different location—she had teleported them!

"A twelve-year-old using a teleportation item?!" Dragun muttered.

The situation was just too surprising. Even as a senior mage, using common teleportation magic slips always drained more than half of his mana reserve, and yet a twelve-year-old without a mana core was able to activate one.

Dragun turned to look at her—her face was still as lively and excited as before, as though she hadn't done anything unusual.

At this point, Dragun began to wonder if she was actually human.

Taking his eyes away from her, Dragun observed the signboards of the stores around them, which all sold Potions and Herbal Concoctions.

Vishirk was still in shock, looking around.

Melissa was still holding their hands.

"Uncles, here is the spot; you can find what you want here," Melissa spoke up.

Dragun turned to her with a gentle smile. "Thank you very much, Melissa. Do you know anywhere we can get you candies?"

Melissa nodded. "Melissa knows a lot of places to get delicious candies, but Melissa doesn't want to disturb uncles and would get the candy herself."

Dragun sighed upon hearing this.

He dipped his hand inside his spatial pouch, brought out a silver coin, and handed it to her with a smile.

However, the moment Melissa spotted the silver coin, her mood turned sour, and she gave him a disgusted look.

"Not enough," she said coldly.

'Not enough? What kind of candy are you getting?' Dragun wondered inwardly.

He kept the silver coin and brought out a gold coin, trying to hand it to her.

But she rejected it once again.

Vishirk, who had recovered from his stunned state, observed their interaction.

"One gold coin is not enough for your candy?" Dragun asked Melissa.

She shook her head.

Dragun didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this moment.

He dipped his hand into his pouch and tried handing her five gold coins, which she refused again.

He tried with ten, fifteen, twenty, and kept increasing the number by five coins each time.

Some of the passersby even stopped to watch the interaction with interested expressions. Some chuckled from time to time, confusing Dragun.

After several attempts, Dragun reached one hundred gold coins.

Before he could hand it over, Melissa grabbed it from his hand.

The previous disgusted and angry expression on her face was nowhere to be found as her usual innocent and pretty smile appeared.

"Thank you very much, uncle," she thanked him cheerfully.

Dragun didn't know how to react and just looked at her with a blank expression.

Some of the people who had watched their interaction started laughing heartily.

Dragun was still wondering why they were laughing when Melissa teleported away.

After she disappeared, some of them approached him.

"Do not worry; we all have had to experience this at least once."

"When I first came here, I only wanted a small potion worth less than two hundred gold. She helped me find it and ended up demanding two hundred gold coins for candy!"

"You all are very lucky; she took me to three different places and requested five hundred gold coins!"

They began consoling him and sharing their stories.

Dragun smiled casually and couldn't help but ask, "Who is she actually? How can she teleport so freely without a mana core?"

However, his question triggered another round of laughter.

"No offense. I thought I was the only one foolish enough to think she was human; turns out I'm not alone. Hahaha!"

"You thought she is human?"

"Hahaha!"

They laughed at Dragun.

One of them, a middle-aged man wearing a mask like the others, took time to give a serious reply after laughing.

"She is an Automata owned by the founder of this dark market. Basically, she's just there to rip newcomers and earn extra income for the black market," he explained.

Dragun was not new to the existence of Automata—they are simply magic artifacts made to act like and interact with humans. He had even worked with some Automata during his missions with the cult.

But he had never met one so perfect.

To be able to deceive many mages into thinking it's an actual human just shows how perfect it is.

"Just try not to fall for her traps again in the future." They laughed and patted him on the shoulder before moving on with their business.

Vishirk, who had been standing behind during the commotion, joined Dragun, and both of them entered the nearest potion shop.

After greeting the owner, a young lady wearing a mask, they told her what they came for.

"You're in the right place, gentlemen. A lot of Awakening potions came into the market yesterday, and luckily I was able to get my hands on some pretty high-quality ones. In fact, I have the purest Awakening potion. I'm sure you already know, the purest ones are always the most expensive," she revealed with a smile.

She brought out a set of Awakening potions.

The potions all had glowing golden colors, but the brightness of each differed. Some had duller glows while others were brighter.

It is popularly known that the brightness of an awakening potion is directly proportional to its purity.

Thus, it wasn't difficult for Dragun and Vishirk to figure out which was the right one to purchase.

Dragun picked the brightest one.

"Judging from its brightness, it should be at least 90% Pure. We'll take this one."

The lady smiled at them.

"That one in particular goes for One point one million, since its your first time buying from me, I'll sell it for One million." She said with a smile.

The price was good, but Dragun still bargained with her and took it down to nine hundred and fifty thousand before paying.

Afterwards, he purchased a few other potions and left the store.

Both of them were about to go find the spell section when Melissa appeared once again. .

"Uncles, would you like me to show you the way?" She said with a smile.

Sadly, this time, her innocent charm failed to have an effect on them as they rejected her immediately.