Flying in the skies of any Chaos Abyss level would never be a pleasant experience for any ordinary flying creature. The clouds would forever be pitch-black, thunderbolts and hail would make the journey hazardous, the air was always filled with sulfurous stenches, and even the rain had the taste of corrosion.However, black dragon Hakas was as comfortable as a fish in water. For him, this was the feeling of home.
The ground was beneath us, and everything that I could see was in monotonous colors. There was nothing but gray and black, although there was a patch of grayish-green on the horizon.
That was a peninsula surrounded by countless gray trees. There was actually a rather lively market in the middle of the swamp.
This was the Onibaba Market. The name was simple and direct. This market was the largest market in the 75th level of the Chaos Abyss. As one of the few intelligent species in this dimensional level, the Onibabas ran this market.
"Those Onibabas aren"t easy to deal with. Even for those much stronger than them, it"s common to fall victim as they"re villains and scammers with pure evil in their blood. Any resident of the mortal plane who brings treasures here will end up dying."
Onibabas were a species that was almost completely extinct in the mortal plane. They were an entirely female species, similar to the wood spirits. But while wood spirits had cute appearances, all Onibabas looked like wrinkly old women or aged witches.
They would have strangely shaped noses filled with warts, scraggly and disgusting hair, wrinkly skin, crooked magic staves, black capes, and pointy hats. They basically looked exactly like wicked witches from fairy tales.
Back when they still lived in the mortal plane, most of the time they also acted as evil witches. Most of the Onibabas had signed contracts with powerful devils or demons in the lower planes, and acted as their representatives. These witches and their magic spells were quite famous… for trapping people and setting pitfalls.
The Onibabas were greedy, sly, and jealous of others. That wouldn"t have been a problem if they still acted as proper merchants, as there would always be a potential buyer as long as their products were good enough. However, the Onibabas were stupid enough to be the type to try and scam both their buyers and their suppliers. Not only did the Onibabas make enemies out of everyone in the mortal plane, they even attempted to scam their own demon or devil backers. This was truly foolish of them.
In the current day, not only were Onibabas almost completely extinct in the mortal plane, they were also quite rare in the Chaos Abyss. That was because demons weren"t idiots. Being scammed once counted as your own fault, but if someone tried to scam a demon repeatedly, that demon wouldn"t be a demon if it didn"t take revenge.
"Come take a look! This is a SemiG.o.d magic sword for sale! It possesses three different curse magic enchantments of great power! I"m selling it for only 200 soul coins, or will exchange it for a product of equivalent worth!"
Souls were forever the best currency in the lower planes. Now that part of the River Styx had changed course to flow through h.e.l.l, the lower planes finally felt the costs of inflation. Souls became even more valuable than before.
Seeing that I appeared to be an unfamiliar dragon knight, the green-haired Onibaba who was selling this magic sword was so eager that she was basically trying to hand the magic sword to me.
It was indeed rather cheap to purchase a SemiG.o.d equipment for only 200 soul coins. I could also sense the powerful curses upon that gray magic sword. However…
"…One of those curses is actually a Curse of Extreme Low Intelligence. This curse will automatically be activated when I touch that magic sword, so I"ll be handing her all my valuables without knowing what"s going on?"
Without changing expression, I kicked away that Onibaba right as she was about to take out a potion to throw on me. The potion instead spilled on another Onibaba next to her, and actually transformed that Onibaba into a toad.
It would seem that there were zero product or customer safety guarantees in this market. The Onibaba merchants here would evidently scam as much as they wanted.
"Here, you take it…"
I let out a powerful aura of ice from under my dragon armor, along with evident waves of death magic from my eyes. I was showing off that I was a high-level dark knight who was capable of controlling a black dragon, which meant that no low-level Onibaba who was attempting to sell fake goods would be able to deal with me.
I lifted up that Onibaba and took her fake sword, directly inserting the hilt into her mouth. After a short few wails, that Onibaba fell victim to her own Curse of Extreme Low Intelligence, and started kneeling on the ground while imitating toad calls.
The sounds of business around me stopped for a short instant, but everything instantly became lively again as if nothing had happened here. Such occurrences would actually be commonplace.
I had also been in such environments before. In a place like this where everyone treated you with enmity, pretending to be weak would bring far more trouble than it was worth. A small display of power would actually make things far easier.
If I had been scammed and died here, all the Onibabas and other demons absolutely would have rushed over, selling off all my equipment on the spot, selling my flesh as food, and compressing my soul into a soul coin. Nothing would be wasted.
I looked around and saw that the Onibabas weren"t the only ones peddling wares here. In fact, all the Onibabas" stalls had barely any customers. Only a few lizardmen were walking around back and forth in front of their stalls, likely their servants. And, the Onibabas seemed to be in no hurry. Their devious gazes kept looking around at any new customer that showed up as if they were only selling wares as a side business to running this market.
"A new magic steel axe, an excellent product from a dark dwarf master smith. Selling for only two soul coins!"
"Dragon bones, dragon feces, dragon eyeb.a.l.l.s for sale! The powerful Bloodspear Tribe has obtained a great harvest this season! We"re only selling in exchange for female slaves that can give birth, soul coins, or powerful magic weapons. Onibabas and Onibaba products are unwelcome here with us dragonlizards!"
It seemed that stronger dark dwarf and lizardmen tribes lived around here. No small tribe would be able to raise a master blacksmith. Mining, refining, and smithing would require a full-scale dwarven society. The fact that a well-produced weapon was being sold was an evidence of this.
And, a lizardmen tribe that was capable of hunting down a dragon would require a population of at least two thousand. They would also need high-level mages such as prophets or witch doctors. It was possible that they had even tamed some baby dragons. Only then would a lizardmen tribe dare to call themselves dragonlizards. Of course, dragons would never admit to them being their relatives.
Behind me, the elf form Hakas had a displeased expression as he saw how proud those lizardmen seemed. A fellow black dragon"s body had been taken apart and was for sale on their table, yet Hakas didn"t dare to say a single word. It seemed that he knew and was scared of this Bloodspear Tribe.
Dark dwarves, lizardmen, and demons. They were all evil species that would instantly be attacked if they appeared in the mortal plane. But down here, they could be considered honorable in comparison to the Onibabas. In fact, there was even a high-level Berserker Demon who was more than three meters tall who was attempting to sell himself. He had put a sign around his neck which said "Feed me, and give me succubi to mate with. I"ll kill whoever you want."
His sign was quite simple and direct. His logic was also quite simple. He was a high-level Berserker Demon with great combat strength compared to most of the residents here. This seemed like a great deal, but n.o.body actually dared to hire him despite many onlookers.
If he had been a high-level devil instead, he would have found an employer almost instantly. However, Berserker Demons were well known for their tiny brains which were the size of walnuts. n.o.body dared to accept his services.
That was because there was no certainty when this Berserker Demon might receive too much of a high from battle, or maybe felt like he didn"t have enough of a high in battle. Then, he would simply kill off his employer. If you really trusted the promise of a Berserker Demon which had the reputation of being a single-celled organism even among demons who were known to be simpleminded, then it was your own fault for dying.
Seeing that this market was livelier than I"d thought, I started hesitating. I had originally intended on making a trade with an Onibaba, but those witches were well known for being truly outrageous scammers. Since there were other species here, perhaps I should try talking to a different species first?
But no matter what, if I wanted to purchase information, I would need to have some money. Right now, I didn"t have even a single soul coin.
And so, I kicked away the Onibaba who had been cursed to have a toad"s intelligence, and tossed all my items onto her counter and directly began selling my products.