After the rifts appeared, tearing open the sky and spewing both monsters and essence into the world, everything changed, down to the very shape of the continents themselves.
The violent surges of essence reshaped the land, shaping the world into two massive continents.
The Southern Continent became the heart of order, where the Alliance ruled, it was a bastion of civilization and martial structure.
In contrast, the Northern Continent turned into a wild, unpredictable expanse, a place brimming with both unimaginable opportunities and nightmarish dangers.
Between the two lay one of the only two oceans left on Erdes.
Oceanus Minus.
A vast body of water so deep that even powerful martial artist dared not cross it lightly.
It was upon that Northern Continent that humanity made a discovery that changed the understanding of life itself, the Essential Races.
These were beings whose very existence depended on essence.
Unlike humans, classified as members of the Non-Essential Race, members of the Essential Race could not survive in areas where essence concentration was low.
And, as history would have it, human greed soon followed discovery.
Members of the Essential Races were captured, bought, and transported across Oceanus Minus to serve in the Southern Continent, treated as little more than exotic tools.
In Sector 516, however, Essential Races had been a rarity, at least until the Mission Hall was established.
After that, their presence grew, quietly but steadily, mixing into the underbelly of the city's economy.
Adam's gaze drifted to one such figure now, a fox-eared woman.
Her fur-tipped ears twitched slightly as her auburn eyes caught his distant stare.
"Sir, would you like to buy something?" she asked, her tone polite but practiced, snapping Adam from his thoughts.
"Yes. I'd like to purchase a corpse." He nodded.
Stepping closer to the transparent stasis cases filled with preserved monsters he added.
"But I'd like to check the quality before deciding on which one to buy."
The fox woman, Juli, as her name tag read, smiled faintly and reached into her breast pocket, retrieving a small silver key.
"That will be no issue, sir," she said, bending over to unlock one of the cases with a soft click.
Adam's heart beat a little faster as he watched her work.
Finally.
In truth, he didn't have the money to buy anything.
He was already drowning in debt; the very idea of "purchasing" a corpse was laughable. But that wasn't his goal.
He needed to test his theory and his talents. Once that was done, he could simply claim he'd changed his mind and walk away.
There's no shame in window shopping, not when the window might just open the door to power.
****
[No Talent].
The cold blue notification flashed across Adam's vision.
His hand was pressed against the chest of a goblin corpse, fingers tracing the leathery skin as if assessing its quality, but in truth, he wasn't examining it at all.
He was trying to equip its talent.
Another failure.
Adam clenched his jaw, suppressing the urge to curse out loud.
This can't be, this is the seventh corpse and still, there's no success.
His brows furrowed as he forced his face to remain neutral.
Seven corpses. Seven failures. And the same infuriating message each time.
[No Talent].
Behind him, Juli's soft, clear voice broke the silence.
"Sir, are you satisfied with this corpse? If yes, I'll package it for you immediately."
Her polite tone carried an edge.
Adam forced a rueful smile and pulled his hand away from the goblin's chest.
"The quality of this one isn't good either," he said, feigning mild disappointment.
Juli's fox ears twitched slightly.
Her tail flicked once before she took a deep breath, silently chanting in her mind:
Calm down, Juli. Calm down. The customer is always right.
But when she looked at him again, her smile was the kind that screamed otherwise.
Adam, however, didn't even notice.
His thoughts were tangled in frustration and disbelief.
He replayed every attempt in his mind.
The stasis cases, the conditions of the bodies, his approach, nothing seemed wrong.
Yet [Equip] refused to recognize anything.
"Sir, If you describe the type of monster corpse you're looking for, it might make it easier for us to find one that suits your preference." Julie finally suggested.
Adam blinked, then nodded at the suggestion.
"You're right."
He had thought about that earlier.
There were several aisles in the market, some sold monster parts, others sold whole corpses.
He had chosen this aisle specifically because the corpses here were intact.
He wasn't entirely sure, but he felt that the corpse's condition also mattered, because a complete corpse might still carry traces of the soul's residue that allowed his Equip talent to function but a damaged corpse might not have a soul residue leading to his equip talent failing.
This was just a theory though, he would need to actually test it to prove it.
But the corpse still has to be the problem, not my talent, he thought firmly. The notification says [No Talent], not [Action Impossible]. That means [Equip] is checking, but it's not finding any talent to equip.
The realization reignited a spark of determination in his chest.
Before he could tell Juli what he wanted, however, a noise rippled through the market. Shouts, clattering metal, and the distinct hiss of containment units cooling systems.
Adam turned instinctively toward the sound.
It was just a group of workers pushing heavy trolleys into the aisle, each carrying freshly retrieved monster corpses, their bodies still faintly radiating essence.
Adam's eyes lit up.
"I'd like to inspect those corpses as well, hope it's okay." he said quickly, turning to Juli.
The fox woman hesitated, her gaze flicking between the new arrivals and Adam's eager expression.
After a short pause, she sighed softly and nodded.
"That won't be a problem, sir."
A small, satisfied smile curved Adam's lips as he followed her toward the newly arrived corpses, the faint glow of residual essence reflecting in his emerald eyes.
****
{Authors Note}
Bonus chapter if we reach 10 reviews