nownovels Chapter 33 News from the Black Market
Chapter 33 News from the Black Market
The weather isn't very good today.
When Viktor entered the academy, it was at the end of summer, but now the air is already filled with the scent of autumn.
As the autumn wind blew, Victor entered the laboratory and found that Nina, who should have been a free woman, was still there. When she saw him, she even raised her hand to greet him.
Viktor curiously leaned closer:
"Senior, aren't you...? Why are you back?"
Nina chuckled softly:
"What? It's only been less than a day, and I've already become an outsider?"
That's not what I meant...
Viktor chuckled to himself:
"Well, if you're coming, I'd be more than happy to welcome you."
"I just thought you were preparing to explore the astral plane right now, senior."
"What I'm doing now is preparation," Nina said, patting Viktor on the shoulder before pointing to her worktable next to the production line. "And you don't think I'm just going to throw these things away, do you?"
"It's all my savings from all these years, I have to take it all with me."
"That's true... So, do you need my help?"
Viktor looked in the direction she was pointing and then remembered that Nina's worktable had indeed not been moved.
Even if the entire worktable can't be moved, the instruments on it are still very valuable. Nina, who now cherishes every magic stone, certainly wouldn't abandon all of these.
"Of course, if you'd like."
Nina didn't stand on ceremony with Victor and promptly treated him as a laborer.
But in reality, even if you disassemble all the instruments and tools on the workbench, there isn't much left.
After about ten minutes of disassembly, Nina had everything done. She took out a storage bag and packed all the instruments and miscellaneous items into it.
Viktor looked at the spatial bag in her hand, wondering what the equipment attributes would be if he equipped it... However, Nina clearly misunderstood, and asked with a smile, "What, you want one too?"
Viktor snapped out of his reverie, looked at her with a wry smile, shook his head, and said:
"This thing costs at least a thousand magic stones, how could I possibly afford it!"
"If you were to give me one, I wouldn't mind."
Nina rolled her eyes slightly:
"You're not being polite at all... But dream on, even if I had it, I wouldn't give it to you."
"If you really want one, do the academy's tasks to exchange for it. The cheapest one you can get with academy points is only fifty points."
Viktor shook his head again upon hearing this:
"Then let's forget about it."
"Academy points are much more valuable than magic stones."
Nina shrugged:
"So, you have neither magic stones nor want to use points, but you still want to get a space bag?"
Victor nodded:
"Yeah, senior, do you have connections?"
Nina glared at him:
"If I did, do you think I'd be here talking to you?"
But after a pause, she spoke again:
"However, if you don't have many magic stones and want to get a space bag, you can check out the black market; you might be able to find a bargain."
"black market?"
Viktor was somewhat surprised and looked up at Nina:
"A black market among wizards?"
"I thought with so many vendors and shops on the street, there wouldn't be any black market or anything like that."
Nina smiled:
"How could that be... It's precisely because there are more vendors and shops that the black market exists."
"These shops and vendors may seem unrelated, but many of them are actually backed by a chamber of commerce that secretly controls the prices of most things on the market. This is something that any wizard with a little experience would know."
"Therefore, the wizard black market will naturally emerge."
Viktor nodded; that made sense.
Even in the wizarding world, market economics still applies. Wizards have long lifespans, so the merchant guilds run by wizards can last for a very long time. Over time, this naturally leads to a monopoly-like phenomenon.
"But won't the academy regulate the black market?"
"Since it's a black market, there should be some contraband items, right?"
Nina smiled dismissively:
"Contraband?"
"Do you think there are really any forbidden items for wizards?"
"They're nothing more than some low-quality mutation potions or special magical items with strong side effects. If someone gets scammed by these things, they're either an ignorant mortal who wants to gamble, or they're not worthy of being a wizard and don't have the qualifications to be one."
"So what if he's dead? The academy wouldn't care."
"Besides... do you think anyone would be bold enough to set up a black market right under the academy's nose without the academy's tacit approval?"
"I see." Viktor said, indicating that he had learned something. "So, senior, where is the black market located?"
Since Nina brought up the black market, she naturally had no intention of hiding anything; otherwise, it wouldn't be doing a favor, but rather causing trouble.
"In the southern part of the city, underground streets."
"However, the black market doesn't exist all the time. It usually appears around the middle of each month, but not necessarily at other times."
Viktor nodded, memorizing the location and time.
If he has the opportunity and time, he plans to go and take a look. If he can find any suitable equipment, that would be a pleasant surprise for him.
......
Nina and Victor chatted for a while until the production line malfunctioned. Nina then took the opportunity to leave and made an appointment to have dinner together again in a while.
Viktor readily agreed and then saw the other person out of the laboratory building. Watching the other person's departing figure, he knew that this was probably the last time the other person would come here.
But this wasn't a TV drama plot, so he naturally didn't feel any regret.
After seeing Nina off, he returned to the laboratory building and began working as a repairman, handling the alchemical parts that had been replaced.
I worked like that until the afternoon, around two o'clock.
Mentor Manuges appeared and called Victor to the third floor again. This time, however, he was not asked to continue working as a maintenance worker on the production line. Instead, he was asked to stand by and watch him perform body alchemy on half a corpse.
Although Victor is now completely clueless about physical alchemy, he only knows that the other party is modifying the body, but he has no idea what exactly is being done.
But Manugs was very generous, explaining things to Viktor while he was busy.
Viktor had no choice but to widen his eyes and try to remember everything he saw.
Nearly four hours passed before Manugs completed a physical alchemy transformation... turning the test subject on the operating table into a monster with a human upper body and an alchemy golem lower body.
Only then did they let Viktor leave.
Looking at the sky, it was still early.
However, Victor was still thinking about the bounty hunters, so he stopped working early and headed home to see how Gar was doing...