"Come on… come on…!" Pell muttered, his jaw clacking faintly. His soul-flames were glued to the interface panel of the Marketplace. Several listed items populated the screen, each scrolling down one-by-one. He organized the current list by cheapest price. And when there was an item listed low enough…

"There!" he exclaimed, before tapping on the panel before him.

Without a second thought, he tapped confirm.

"Alright, finally!"

He laid out his hand, and a moment later, his purchase appeared in his hands. A pair of small, dull green spheres.

Alkali Slime Cores.

Monster cores dropped by Alkali Slimes. He was quite familiar with these slime cores. In the past, he had used a few of them, and could verify their worth and effectiveness. Their primary use was as fertilizer, and they were extremely effective.

Despite their usefulness for farming, they were entirely ordinary, not mythical or anything of the sort. They could fertilize a five by five meter area if successfully extracted. They could even be used twice, if conserved well enough. That, and the actual quality of the core. They even came relatively cheap. Each core was worth about 2 silvers.

And yet, some idiot had actually listed a pair of them for 1 silver and 70 coppers. Knowing the actual price of the item, Pell could now go to the marketplace and haggle to sell them for about 2 silvers and 30 copper. Not a fortune. Just a little over half a silver's worth of profit. But it was clean, quick, and easy. No market fee, too.

"Alright… alright, let's see what else is here…"

He leaned forward again, eyes scanning over the ever-shifting panel of listings. Each item that appeared only stayed briefly, until another took its place.

He had to calm down and play things smart. Take advantages when he saw them. Things like going out to a dungeon and conquering it, looting valuable resources and items from the sanctum of a necromancer—these were opportunities. But opportunities didn't always appear.

Yes, he had an item that could sell for anywhere between 66 and 100 gold. But that was a fluke. He knew this deep in his missing heart. Valuable items weren't just going to magically appear for him every time. If he took things for granted, and became jaded he'd eventually lose everything. He still had to work and earn his share, lest it get to his skull.

There were also two important factors about the Marketplace skill that Pell hadn't initially noticed. Two subtle perks that gave him a bone up on other non-merchant classes.

The first: unrestricted marketplace access.

The Merchant's Guild, like any other guild, operated by ranks. Just like adventurers, registered merchants could climb from F-rank to S-rank. Though, in practice, the terminology wasn't thrown around as much. Most folks just called each other "low-ranking" or "high-ranking" merchants and left it at that.

Low-level merchants like Pell were normally restricted when browsing the guild's marketplace. High-tier items, platinum and above, were off-limits. You had to earn the privilege to even see those listings. Once your rank climbed high enough, the guild would slowly grant access to the upper tiers.

But that wasn't the case with his skill. Pell could see everything. Even the elite obsidian-tier listings.

Which meant, so could anyone else with the same skill. There was most likely a hidden club of merchants who ruled the market with unfettered access—able to monitor the best items, assess trends before others even saw them, and exploit the market with precision.

The second benefit, was something Pell already knew about, but only now caught its importance: Real-time access, without a queue.

Ordinary citizens could still use the Merchant Guild's consoles—up to the gold tier, at least. It was technically free. But console space was limited. So for the general public, the guild operated on a queue system.

If someone wanted to buy or sell, they'd file a request. Their name would be recorded, and once it was their turn, they'd be called in to use the enchanted terminal.

One hour. That's all the time they got to do their trading.

This meant that most sellers were racing against the clock—pressured to finalize their listings, only seeing real-time market data during that narrow window. Prices could spike or drop at any moment. And if that happened mid-session, they'd be stuck either undercutting or overpricing their goods without knowing it.

Pell, meanwhile, could refresh the board as often as he wanted.

"Let's see… are people looking for dungeon co—"

"Whatcha doing~?"

A voice chimed out behind him—right before a bundle of hair crept into view, peeking just over his shoulder.

"Gah!" Pell shrieked, flailing sideways off his chair with a heavy thump on the wood floor.

A smile played on Enya's lips, a snicker brewing, ready to escape, until Pell stared at her.

"Don't you even dare," he warned.

Enya slapped both hands over her mouth, trying to stifle the laughter.

She did a terrible job. It still echoed through the room anyway.

He groaned, slapping one hand back onto the chair and pushing himself upright. With exaggerated effort, he brushed himself off—even though there wasn't a speck of dust on him. The fall had been pitifully soft.

"Woke up from your nap, huh?" Pell grumbled.

Enya forced the laugh to die in her throat before answering—but not before letting out a wide yawn. "Y-yeah. I don't know why, but eating a lot of food makes me feel sleepy."

Pell flopped back into his seat. "Yeah? Can't relate."

Without missing a beat, he turned his attention straight back to the marketplace listings.

Enya leaned in a little, peering over his shoulder. "Oooh! That's a pretty flower!" she chirped, pointing to the glowing display before tapping the interface.

"H-hey!" Pell exclaimed.

Death-Kiss Lily Seller: Lady Carol Seller Description: My bastard sister tried to kill me with this flower. She was jealous of my fiancé and gave this to me as a gift. Luckily, my retainer found out and confiscated it before it ever came close to me. Just give this flower to someone you hate. If they breathe in the aroma of the petals, they'll grow violently ill and die within a week without an antidote or purification. Price: 88 platinum, 73 gold, 99 silvers.

Confirm Purchase? [Accept/Decline]

"Decline!" Pell yelled. He immediately grabbed Enya's arm and swatted it away before she could bankrupt him. "You little—! Don't mess with my—" he scolded, before freezing in place, "—wait, you can see this?" His skull flicked back and forth from Enya and the marketplace screen.

It had been a long time coming, but now came the return of her signature move.

The head tilt.

"Huh? Yeah?" she replied, confused, head leaning sideways like a curious cat.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"That's… odd," Pell remarked.

Usually, status screens were invisible to others. Anything visually represented by the system was only visible to the specific person it belonged to. There were some exceptions—special skills that allowed others to see it, or even manipulate the system in some way. That explained the terminals in the Merchant's Guild, and the communication bracers that the guards wore.

"It's moving really fast," Enya commented, eyes following the listings as more and more items were bought and sold.

He turned his attention away from her and looked back at the screen.

"So what is this anyway?" Enya asked.

"It's my new class perk. Lets me access the Merchant Guild's marketplace. Everything you see is a listing—items people have put up for sale."

"Oooh," Enya cooed. "Are you selling anything?"

"I have that Spectre Cloak listed for now at 95 gold," he replied.

"95… that's… a lot more than what the guy at that one place offered, right?"

"Yeah. He offered 66 gold. Most likely the buyout price for what he and the Merchant's Guild would offer."

"But I thought you and him have that skill? The one that lets you see prices on things? Will anyone buy the cloak for 95 gold if it's only worth 66?" she questioned.

Pell chuckled with a breathy cough. "You're naive, kid. Just because the skill gives that guy a price—it doesn't mean he told us the correct one. People that go see an appraisal most likely can't appraise items on their own, so they can lie on the numbers they give us. Most of the time, it's close. But not always."

Reconfiguring the marketplace interface, he typed the cloak's name back in. Two entries appeared: his, and another seller by the name of "C. Jennings."

"And when it's a rarer or even unique item, no one knows the actual price of it—besides an appraiser, or the maker, if it's a crafted item. If I took the cloak and tried to sell it in the market square here for 100 gold, no one would be the wiser about its value. It'd be all based on my word."

"What if a merchant came by and appraised your item?"

Pell shrugged. "It can certainly happen. Most of the time, someone with the appraisal skill, like a merchant, will just ignore it. If someone's selling an item for slightly higher than market price, it's not that merchant's business if other people are willing to pay for it. But if they want to buy the item themselves, they'll most likely try to arrange a custom deal with the seller."

He rubbed the back of his skull. "In those cases, it's a bit of an… under-the-table thing. And if it's rare? Well, the seller has leverage. They can name whatever price they want—even double the usual. Either buy it, or you don't. Appraisal price doesn't matter in that case."

Enya put a finger to her lips, quietly absorbing the information. She began humming, processing it all.

A few minutes passed as Pell continued scouring the marketplace.

Enya hopped back onto the bed and pulled open her status screens, flipping through them alongside the pages within The Grim Pullet.

Name: Enya Empyria Health: 100/100 Mana: 30/30 Soul-Energy: 28 Level: 15/5 Class: Necrosmith Innate Class: Visionary Skills: Bonecarver's Quill [D], Transfiguration of Soul, The Grim Pullet, Absolute Focus, Visions Past, Recast, Mana Detection [D+], Mana Control [D+], Perception [C], Sage's Insight [B] Spells: Summon Skeleton [D-], Bone Spear, Bone Shift [F-] Titles: High-Noble, Realm Hopper, Apprentice of Terran, Limited Holder

It had been a long time since Enya checked her entire status page. She wasn't sure, but her growth was on track and normal, right? She didn't really have anything to compare to.

Quest: Craft a Skeletal Goliath.

Quest: Construct your own summon spell circuit.

Quest: Skill Insight fails on a target.

Quest: Use insight on 100 unique targets.

Quest: Skill Visions Past activates while in Absolute Focus.

I really need to get these dumb quests done, she thought. Of the three original quests she obtained for her necrosmith class, she'd only been able to finish the first, where she crafted her first item. There was one quest for her Visionary class that would just simply take time before she could finish. The other two were a bit more troublesome to work towards.

Constructing her own spell circuit might be doable by tinkering with Summon Skeleton. Maybe she could ask a magic association mage for help—or just buy another summoning spell, bundle the two together, and see what happened.

Maybe she'd even be able to make a zombie-skeleton Pell.

But speaking of buying…

"Hey, Pell," she asked, looking over to the skeleton at the table.

"What?"

"Do you think you can buy me some materials so I can craft something?"

A few seconds passed as Pell just sat there. Eventually, he spoke.

"Do you think I'm made of money? I just got all my debts cleared, but I'm still basically broke. We are basically still broke. Most of our money was spent on you getting your new equipment and that ice thread in the market square. We have enough to keep paying for this inn for about two weeks, but we'll need to scrounge up some more coin to keep staying here."

"Can't you just… sell something? That's what you do, right?" she asked meekly.

"Sell what?" he asked rhetorically. His words slouched out, like it was a heavy, tedious task to do. "I already have the Spectre Cloak on sale. I don't want to lower the price just yet. If I rush things, I lose out on all that potential extra coin."

"What about your bones? Can you sell those? They're Soul-Forged."

Pell turned his skull back 180 degrees. "I ain't selling my body, kid."

Then he promptly continued turning, until he faced back toward his marketplace interface.

He began grumbling at the insane idea, until an epiphany hit him. Once more, he turned his head completely backwards.

"Hey. What's the name of that band that you crafted? The ice one."

Enya looked down at her fingers, wiggling the one with the band on it, before meeting Pell's gaze. "It's called the Gravecaller's Band," she answered.

With another complete head turn, Pell tried searching for that specific name. Nothing showed up. There was no item listed with that name.

"Hmm… no matter," he mumbled, before reorganizing his search.

The marketplace was a genius invention, most likely created by someone with a system-modification class. As such, the actual interface was extremely intuitive and had many features.

When listing an item, it was common to list the actual name of whatever it was you were selling. However, the only way to know the name of your item was by either appraising it, or being informed about what it was. Either that, or you crafted it yourself. Unless it was one of those three things, sellers had no idea what it was they had.

Kill a goblin and a monster core dropped? It was safe to call it a goblin core. However, there would also be a slight chance—that it'd be something else.

Unknown items always carried a risk, to both buyers and sellers alike. But with risk, came potential profit.

The list repopulated.

This time, Pell searched by the term "summon" as a tag. Now, it showed every item where the seller had tagged it with something summon-related.

"Hmm… a lot of armor… artifacts… a lot of damn pet food too," he mumbled, scanning through the list.

Enya stood up and walked over, examining the screen quietly by his side. She placed the ring on the table next to him. She wasn't all too concerned with losing the ring. After all, it was technically a failure. The quality wasn't as good as the recipe had said it would be.

After about two minutes, Pell stopped scrolling.

"Alright. Based on these prices, and the fact your item is what? A low-rank silver-tier item, right? I can probably sell it as a summoner's ring that allows pets to use some form of ice magic."

A wince from Pell; he was a summon, and he had just called himself a pet. Grumbling, he got ready to list the item.

"Alright… I can probably get about 10 gold from it, since its low tier and amateur work, but it does work. Might be a bit high, but it is still pretty effective. Maybe if you craft a better one, I could double—"

"Uh, Pell?"

"What is it?" he said, bone-finger halfway about to register and list the item.

"The ice only comes out of you because I use Soul-Energy. Can other people use Soul-Energy?"

He paused, staring at her. "What?"

She tilted her head again. "The Gravecaller's Band creates ice and makes the air colder around you if you pour mana into it. But if you use Soul-Energy, it comes out of my minions instead—and they gain, uh… ice attribute? Magic? Powers?" she mumbled, trying to find the right words.

Pell's shoulders fell.

There was no way anyone else could use Soul-Energy, aside from other necromancers. He doubted there was even a large market for them to buy things like this, as necromancy was extremely rare, and even taboo in a lot of cases.

"Two gold it is…" he said, exasperated. "Guess it can serve as something people can use in the summer…"

Truth be told, there were already items that could do that. Large crystal devices that regulated temperature. These were usually bulky and meant to stay in houses, so the only advantage here was that the ring could be used on the go—worn right on someone's finger.

"Ah, to hell with it!" Pell suddenly said. He registered the item for 10 gold anyway.

With a mental thought, he described the item as something that could freeze the air when imbued with mana, but that it could also buff summons—such as skeleton minions—if the wearer had a special mana-like resource to use. Pell hoped that by mentioning the word skeleton, he could possibly entice a necromancer into buying it. And with his vague wording, maybe someone else with an energy similar to, but not quite the same as Soul-Energy, would also take the bait.

"Did it sell? Can we buy some things now for my bone Goliath?" Enya chirped, peering over his shoulder.

Pell's soul-flames flickered, dimming at the unsettling sound of "goliath," but he quickly recomposed himself, rolling his eyes and glancing at her. "I'm selling it as a niche summoner item, targeting necromancers. Do you realize how rare necromancers are? I don't even know if all of them can use your Soul-Energy—or if it's unique to your class. But besides that, no one's gonna buy an item like this that quick—"

"Hey, it sold."

"—WHAT?" Pell's skull snapped back over to the marketplace, his skull almost about to detach from the sudden turn.

System Notification: An item in the marketplace has been sold. Items Sold: 1x Gravecaller's Band : 10 gold

Market Fee: 0 gold Funds received: 10 gold

As he finished reading the new popup on his marketplace panel, several gold coins clinked into existence—falling right in front of him, scattering across the table and rolling to the floor.

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