Chapter 256
The moment we stepped inside, he realized that everything he had seen until now was nothing in comparison.
This was the fish market exclusively for necromancers.
The stalls were lined entirely with monster corpses.
Some seemed freshly caught, with blood still flowing from harpoon wounds, staining the floor into a crimson sea. Some were hanging upside down, others had their mouths bound shut with rope.
A paradise of gore and brutality.
There were no merchants calling out to customers like in other markets. Only people in work clothes, silently going about their tasks.
And the visitors here were all necromancers. An old woman could be seen scooping up monster organs into a pouch she had brought, leaving with a satisfied expression.
"The undead materials you see at necromancer shops have already gone through a round of processing. Here, everything is raw and unrefined."
Benya explained as she bustled about energetically.
"I’ll admit, this place is quite divisive even among necromancers. But if you know what you're looking for, you can find hidden treasures here. Especially the aquatic-type undead you need, they fall under the ‘special’ category, so buying them at a shop would cost a fortune. Here, you can get them at one-tenth the market price."
Simon looked at her with a gaze full of admiration.
"As expected of you, senior."
"I'm still just a student, you know? I just happen to be more interested in this field than others. Ah! Let’s head that way next."
With every step, the blood on the ground made a sticky squelching sound. Even if these were just monster corpses that had harmed humanity, it was hard not to feel a visceral discomfort.
"Do professional necromancers come to places like this often?"
"Not really."
Benya shook her head.
"Just like how people enjoy eating meat but turn their eyes away from the slaughterhouse, necromancers are the same. Everyone prefers things to be neat. We're only here because we're putting in the legwork."
She shrugged and added,
"Still, I think it’s good to visit places like this once in a while. It’s educational for world domination."
"R-right..."
Simon walked around, trying to treat it as an educational experience in a new culture.
Looking around with a student’s eye, he began to notice things he hadn’t seen before.
"Do you know how the undead brought to the market are categorized?"
Benya, like a tour guide, offered a series of explanations.
"I don’t really know."
According to Benya, monsters that could become ‘special undead’ were slathered with preservation magic circles and transported in wagons or boats.
Undead suitable for becoming ‘zombies or ghouls’ needed to undergo decomposition, so they were moved to dedicated storage facilities.
Those that could become ‘skeletons’ had their flesh stripped immediately on site to harvest the bones. The remaining byproducts were sold for necromancer research, as catalysts for black magic, or as materials for artifacts.
Regular livestock or animals could be made into undead too, but they were weak. Most undead came from monsters.
Monsters were absolute evils, beings that harmed humanity, and they had yet to be completely conquered.
That’s also why local lords supported necromancer training. The more necromancers there were, the fewer monsters would remain.
‘Just like she said, this really is educational.’
Of course, to even step foot here, you had to be culturally tolerant.
People from Lethe or the Holy Federation would probably foam at the mouth and faint.
Clang clang clang!
Just then, a vendor clashed two butcher knives together loudly. In front of him, a crowd of wrinkled, elderly necromancers had gathered.
"The time is now 13:00! Cyclops dissection begins!"
The vendor stabbed a knife into the monster’s abdomen and sliced it straight down.
Just like slicing paper, the belly split open with a hiss of hot steam spilling out in thick clouds.
"Oooh!"
The necromancers watching wore innocent, childlike smiles, as if opening Christmas presents.
Soon, they began scrambling to grab what they needed. Though their hands were soaked in blood, their eyes sparkled with curiosity as they eagerly scooped contents into bags. Then they weighed the parts they’d taken, paid, and walked away satisfied with their frugal shopping.
"Those are all ingredients for potions, chimeras, haematology tools, poisons, and more."
Benya explained.
"Normally, those need specific processing steps, but those folks must prefer handmade goods."
In truth, while necromancy had a long history, necromancer shops and undead factories were relatively recent developments.
In the past, people didn’t trust others’ work and insisted on making everything themselves.
Taking in these first-ever sights, Simon looked around in awe.
"Alright, shall we get serious with our search now? You told me what you're looking for, right?"
"Yup."
Poloran, Wulphes, Rodocetus, Gamban.
Among aquatic monsters, these were ones that could be turned into skeletons.
The two of them carefully searched the area as they walked.
"Ah, senior! Look over there!"
There was something that looked like a whale skeleton over six meters long on display.
Jagged teeth jutted out, and most strikingly, the long vertebrae that connected the head to the fins, like a train, maintained a beautifully balanced form.
"That’s a Poloran. A grade-5 threat-level monster."
"...If you met that in the ocean, it'd be game over."
They approached and examined the Poloran. This store seemed to specialize in skeletons, with most items on display being bones.
Just then, a man wearing a metal mask, seemingly the shop owner, silently approached.
"Today’s Poloran is in great condition. Defatted, bleached, dried. The skeletal structure is excellent too."
Benya knelt down and thoroughly inspected the bones.
"Hmmm. You really took good care of this."
"I’m a professional. Naturally."
As she slowly traced the vertebrae with her fingertips, she suddenly paused.
"The 174th vertebra is missing."
The man’s previously expressionless face twitched for the first time.
"Looks like you made a mistake when removing the organs. More importantly, the 207th is also missing. Without that, if you connect 206 and 208 for use as an undead, the fin movement becomes stiff and rigid."
She winked at the man.
"Unlucky day for you."
"...You’re a real expert. I’ll give it to you for half price."
"Not even buying it for 30%~"
She waved her hands.
"You can ignore me if you want, but Polorans have bones and organs fused so tightly together that removing just the organs with a knife almost always damages the bones. Instead, dig a deep pit and bury the Poloran in the ground. Then cast a ‘Decomposition’ spell. After two days, the muscles and organs break down, and you can cleanly extract only the bones."
"...!"
The man scanned Benya in genuine surprise.
Realizing how young she was, he asked,
"Keyzen?"
"That's right."
"Elite, huh. You're on another level. Thanks for the advice, I’ll keep that in mind."
"Sure thing! Take care~"
Benya led Simon away to another stall.
“?”
When she turned to look, Simon was staring at her with sparkling eyes full of admiration.
"Ahaha! What? Don’t look at me like that, it’s embarrassing."
Simon couldn’t help but feel that Benya was on an entirely different level from Andre, a true second-year upperclassman.
He’d never felt the wall of seniority this strongly before.
"Do you think I could become like you if I study summoning harder?"
"You don’t need to become like me."
She shook her head.
"Creating undead requires a ridiculous amount of study, it’s nearly impossible to master it all. I just do this because I’ve grown up around it and enjoy it. But you don’t need to memorize all these nitty-gritty details. You should focus on how to fight and win using undead. And—"
She grinned and pointed her thumb at herself.
"Leave the tedious stuff to ‘us’."
Simon was impressed.
She was exactly the kind of person you'd want in your network as a necromancer.
He was glad he met her here at school, not out in the world.
"Alright, shall we continue conquering the market?"
"Yup!"
* * *
At the same time.
Chaos had broken out at Ballot Port, where countless ships were docked.
"Okay! On three—one, two, three! Move it!"
"Yes!"
"One, two, three!"
Twenty strong men were mobilized. They were using disembarkation magic equipment to unload something from the ship.
Thud!
Finally, the object was lowered from the ship on a wooden platform, and people rushed toward it.
"What the heck is that?"
"A baby Underworld Whale."
"Did you say Underworld Whale?"
What had been unloaded along with the wooden platform was the corpse of a baby whale.
Its exact name was Deimos, the only monster that could be turned into the special undead, Underworld Whale.
An adult Deimos was a level 8 threat, nicknamed “The Ruler of the Sea”.
“There are wounds on the ship. Must’ve been attacked by other monsters.”
“Too bad it’s still a baby.”
“Of course! If it were an adult, would it even be dead?”
The small baby Deimos was about 5 meters long.
Though much smaller than an adult, it was such a rare monster that one might be caught once in a decade. Adult ones had only been captured a handful of times in all of history.
"Alright, alright, step back. Don’t touch it."
A man who looked like the ship’s captain jumped down from the boat and moved the crowd away.
“We’ll be holding an auction in the fish market in two hours, you can get a good look at it then!”
As the captain waved his hand and ordered the sailors to move it quickly—
“Excuse me.”
A robed, unidentified man strode forward. He spoke to the captain.
“Are you the person in charge?”
“That’s right.”
“I’d like to purchase that item.”
The captain frowned.
“Didn’t you hear what I just said? It’s going to auction.”
“I want to buy it now.”
“Are you deaf or just slow?”
“I’ll pay more than what you’re asking.”
“Look here, mister... Huff!”
The captain stopped mid-sentence.
The moment he saw the two ominous, glowing eyes within the robe’s darkness, a chill ran down his spine before he could stop it.
‘That heavy robe and those eyes... this guy’s no ordinary person.’
Not wanting to cause unnecessary trouble, the captain held up three fingers.
“Hmph, this much.”
He named a price, double what he’d originally intended.
“If you know the price range, then step as—”
“I’ll pay twice that. Right now.”
The man took a chest of gold coins out of subspace and set it in front of him.
‘What the hell...! How rich is this guy?’
The captain’s hands trembled as he counted the coins.
It was four times the amount he had in mind, a fortune that no auction could possibly bring in.
“F-f-fine! Let’s do it your way! No backing out later!”
The deal was struck. The man who had successfully purchased the Deimos approached its corpse.
“No matter how big your subspace is, it won’t fit. How will you move it?”
“I only need specific parts. You can take the rest.”
The man placed his palm, glowing with a magic circle, on Deimos' body.
* * *
‘Mmm, it’s hard to find a summoning beast I really like.’
Simon and Benya continued to roam the market, but there were issues.
The aquatic monsters they were searching for, Poloran, Wulphes, Rodocetus, and Gamban, all had bones that were highly valuable black magic materials.
For them to become skeletons, their bones needed to remain intact, but most of the crucial parts had already been bought by other necromancers.
Those left untouched, like earlier, often had issues with how they were processed.
‘It’s hard to find something with the exact conditions we need.’
Just as he was considering whether they needed to find another solution—
Murmur murmur murmur...
A crowd was forming. Naturally, Simon and Benya walked over to take a look.
“It’s Deimos!”
Benya gasped, examining the monster corpse lying on the wooden platform.
“No way! This is crazy! It’s my first time seeing one at the market too!”
“What is it?”
“It’s the only creature that can become the top-tier undead Underworld Whale! A level 8 threat monster, also called the ruler of the sea.”
“U-underworld Whale?”
Simon blinked at the 5-meter-long whale corpse.
“It’s pretty small for an Underworld Whale.”
Simon was, of course, thinking of the Underworld Whale he had ridden when arriving at Keyzen.
“It’s just a young one. But—”
There was a hole where the heart should be.
It looked like the heart and related organs, the most important and valuable parts, had already been purchased by another necromancer.
“With this, we can’t even make a small Underworld Whale.”
“...Yeah.”
Other customers also glanced at the Deimos materials and moved on. Since it could no longer be made into an undead and only the external parts remained, its value had dropped significantly.
“We’ll begin the auction in ten minutes!”
The auctioneer was trying to hype up the mood when Simon turned to Benya.
“Senior.”
“What?”
“Instead of trying to turn that Deimos with only the outer shell left into an Underworld Whale...”
He continued seriously.
“What do you think about making it into a skeleton?”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters