The city of Dafur.

Eren found himself in a store for rankers. It seemed to display anything and everything a ranker might and might not need.

From rare spell scrolls to vials of potions, from runestones to elemental gems, from mana-superconductive metals to various weapon-type and non-weapon-type artifacts, it had everything. The shop was so full of stuff that the patrons barely had space to walk around.

It took Eren some time to reach the place. Then he got held up at the entrance to the city because of the long queue. By the time he reached the place, the rune-powered street lamps had lit up the streets. It was around 8 PM when he managed to find the shop.

"Anybody in here?"

Eren asked as he furrowed his brows, seeing an unmanned shop on a seemingly busy street. Apparently, the shopkeeper was pretty trusting of their potential customers.

"Hm? Give me a minute."

Someone called from the back of the shop where a closed door was located. There was some noise about stuff getting moved elsewhere as if a big trunk was being pulled from one side to another. In the next moment, the door opened up and a man came out.

Meow!

It seemed the man was not alone. There was a domestic cat in there with him. It purred at Eren before heading in a different direction. The pet was soon lost amid loads of stuff arranged in an untidy manner by the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper himself was a bald man with unbelievably muscular arms. He had a very large nose with the tip of his nose turned red as if he had been punched. He had a square-shaped jawline and a belly that didn't quite fit the image his muscular arms were trying to create.

He measured up to be 5.10 ft, around the same height as Eren. However, his baggy clothes made him look short and stout.

"How can I help you, dear customer?"

The man greeted Eren with a merchant-like smile. Something Eren was very familiar with from his life in Latvia dealing with shopkeepers who dealt with counterfeits. Eren smiled back and responded.

"Am I talking to Sir Malcolm Merlot?"

Eren asked and received a nod from the shopkeeper immediately. Malcolm managed to find two chairs from his messy shop and sat on one chair before offering the other one for Eren to sit on.historical

"You can call me Mal. What's your name, boy?"

"Eren. Miranda Bloom referred you to me."

Eren said while taking a seat. Malcolm pursed his lips and nodded at Eren before clapping his hands. In the next moment, the shop's door was shut, and the glass windows turned opaque.

"What do you want to sell?"

Malcolm immediately got to business. Eren was impressed that the shopkeeper understood his intentions well. He was about to ask him. But it looked like he didn't have to. Malcolm provided him with the reason all the same.

"You must have come here from the city of Ludan if you were referred to by that little girl Miranda. It's a long way with no teleportation points in between. You won't travel here just to get the same goods you'd get from a reputed shop in the city of Ludan.

So you must be here to offer me something you'd rather not sell openly. So tell me, boy, what do you want to sell?"

Malcolm said and clapped again. The table beside him had a teapot that soon started releasing steam from its spout. Malcolm took two cups from his storage and placed them over the table before pouring hot tea for himself and Eren.

Eren took the tea but didn't drink it. Seeing this, Malcolm chuckled and took a sip of his tea first. Eren smiled before displaying one of the items he had got from the underground space– an old Rank 1 sword that looked old and rustic.

"How much for this?"

Malcolm didn't even look at the sword and commented.

"Don't try to test the waters, boy. If I want to drown you, nobody in the city of Darfur can stop me from doing it. At least not the forces on the surface.

Now out with the whole thing."

Eren was slightly taken aback when he heard Malcolm's bold statement. But his instincts as a hustler told him that this was the guy who knew how the business worked. So he sighed before looking around him.

"This place is too tight. We need something more spacious."

This time, it was Malcolm's turn to get shocked. He flashed a wolfish grin at Eren before clapping his hands once again. The shop's ground lit up and the stuff that Eren was seeing disappeared into a different space. The shop immediately got empty. It was as if this wasn't the shop Eren had seen just a few moments ago.

Eren shrugged his shoulders before taking most of the stuff from the underground space that he wanted to sell. Some of the stuff he had found in the underground space was indeed rustic. But the other stuff seemed more crucial. Because Malcolm scanned it with his mana sense and immediately got excited.

"This.. this is good. You want to sell everything or just want to inquire about the price?'

Eren pondered a bit before replying.

"Sell everything. Whatever you think is right, give that to me."

When Malcolm activated his mana sense, Eren came to know that he was an Awakened ranker. Even when he didn't intend to use the mana sense on him, the fact that he mixed his mana signature with it, and the fact that he was very close to Malcolm when he used his mana sense, told him that he was not just a simple man.

Malcolm laughed when he saw the change in Eren's behavior.

"Respect born out of fear for senior rankers. And an ability to change your approach as per the situation. Most rankers of your caliber and age are always full of themselves, not understanding the reality of the world.

You are alright, Eren. I'll try to give you a fair deal. Hahaha."