The most famous black market in the world was probably the one in Rivira.
It was located down on the 18th Floor of the Dungeon, which was a safe zone.
Because it was deep inside the Dungeon and not on the surface in Orario, neither the Guild nor the ruling Familias could interfere with it.
The best thing about this black market was that the merchants there would sell absolutely anything, no matter where it came from.
Inside his workshop, Noah was getting ready.
Noah put on Constructs C3 and C0 and then slipped a silver-white bracelet onto his wrist.
A faint red light glowed inside the bracelet, shining through the hollow, carved patterns on the outside metal.
He raised his arm and whispered.
"Annihilator... release."
Instantly, the silver-white bracelet flashed with red light and burst apart, breaking down into tiny rectangular blocks.
These blocks automatically connected in mid-air.
They quickly changed shape, shifting and locking together until they formed a long white, heavy sniper rifle.
Noah grabbed the reassembled Annihilator.
He checked the magazine and the safety switch, then spoke happily, "Very good. By adding the slime material, the Annihilator is much easier to carry around now."
He let go of the gun.
Instead of falling to the floor, the long weapon floated right beside him.
Noah focused his mind and controlled the weapon.
The white sniper rifle actually changed its shape, shrinking down to become much shorter.
At the same time, the gun barrel opened up wide like the petals of a flower.
"Funnel mode is working perfectly, too."
After testing the new function, Noah raised his hand and commanded.
"Annihilator, lock."
The white cannon immediately broke apart into rectangular blocks again.
They packed tightly together, turning right back into a bracelet on Noah's wrist.
He used his Spell-Weaver skill to spread out the weapon's heavy weight, so it barely affected his movements at all.
Next up was the Raven Feather.
Noah looked at the dark gray gauntlet resting on his workbench.
When he fought the toad woman, he had turned his old Raven Feather into a bomb and blown it up.
Strictly speaking, this new Raven Feather was the third generation of the weapon.
Its power had also been upgraded.
It was now three times stronger than the first version, able to punch with a maximum force of 1,750 kilograms.
However, this new version was also much larger, becoming just as bulky as the very first generation.
The second version of the Raven Feather was meant to be a backup tool.
Noah had made it smaller so it was easier to carry.
But because he had pushed it past its limits against the toad, it was completely destroyed.
Now that this new Raven Feather used slime technology, carrying it was no longer a problem.
The larger size gave him more room to carve magic formulas inside of it.
It was also much better at handling heavy impacts, meaning the violent recoil from his own punches would not break it so easily.
Both the Raven Feather and the Annihilator were his own personal weapons.
After all, they could not even be turned on without his Spell-Weaver skill.
Even though he could make weapons like the Life Devourer and the Exhaustion Devourer, those items were insanely expensive to craft and completely useless for him to wear.
The custom gear he made for Bete, Tione, and Tiona were exclusive weapons.
They were specially built to match their exact stats, fighting styles, and personal skills.
Take the Amazon sisters' gauntlets, for example.
Having over half of your life force eaten all at once would make a normal person pass out immediately.
Someone with a weak body might even die on the spot.
Tione and Tiona could stay energetic even after losing that much health because of their extreme Amazonian skills, Berserk.
Noah did not have skills like that.
The second his health dropped by half, he would have collapsed instantly.
As for Bete's full-body armor, it was designed to make up for the werewolf's low defense.
At the same time, the acceleration magic boosted his natural speed, allowing him to get the most out of his Solmani skill, which made his attacks stronger and faster the more he accelerated.
Compared to pure fighters like them, Noah's Truth Seeker and Spell-Weaver were simply not meant for combat.
It looked incredibly cool when he knocked out eight enemies on the street using his acceleration magic, but in reality, it was incredibly dangerous.
If he had not beaten them all in one single strike, he would have been completely defenseless.
His body could not handle the stress of using that acceleration magic a second time.
A big reason he took that risk was because of where they were.
They were on a public street.
The Ishtar Familia would never dare to actually murder him in broad daylight.
Because he knew he was safe from being killed, he confidently used his Moonwolf armor to take them all down.
But fighting in the Dungeon was much less forgiving.
A single mistake in his tactics could lead to a total disaster.
Putting on the newly forged Raven Feather, Noah realized he had grown used to the heavy feeling of wearing metal gauntlets on both hands.
Haruhime came out of the kitchen and handed him a packed lunch.
"Noah-sama, I will be waiting for you to come home."
"Okay," Noah said, gently patting the little fox girl on the head.
"Do not worry, I am only going down to the 18th Floor. Plus, my bodyguards are so strong, I probably won't even have to lift a finger."
During his talk with Finn, Noah had finally agreed to meet with Jura.
Of course, Finn would be right there with him, and Jura would be locked securely inside a prison cell.
And no matter what Jura said about Evilus, Finn had promised to send his people to escort Noah down to the 18th Floor black market to search for a Grimoire.
In other words, he was getting free bodyguards.
For a Level 2 adventurer, trying to cross the Middle Floors (from Floor 12 to Floor 17) all by himself was basically suicide.
Starting on the 13th Floor, the number of monsters grew like crazy.
They spawned in massive swarms.
Once a fight started, the noise would quickly attract even more monsters from all around.
On top of that, the layout of the Middle Floors was much trickier than the Upper Floors.
If you got stuck in one place during a fight, you would quickly get surrounded by a huge horde of monsters with nowhere to run.
Even if you were strong enough to kill them, new monsters would just keep spawning.
If you were not fast enough, you would eventually run out of energy and die from exhaustion.
The last time Noah went through the Middle Floors, he was traveling with the Loki Familia's backup team.
They were so strong that they blasted through the area in the blink of an eye.
But Noah was not foolish enough to think he could do that alone.
"It is time to meet up. I wonder who Finn sent to protect me."
....
Noah sat on the steps in front of the Babel Tower, looking out at the main plaza.
A few minutes passed before several adventurers walked into view.
They were impossible to miss—they were the core members of the Loki Familia, the strongest faction in the city.
The younger Amazon girl flashed a bright smile and started waving her hands wildly from far away.
Noah could not help but smile at her energy, and he waved back.
'Wait... isn't this team a little too high-class just to babysit me?'
The werewolf, Bete Loga.
The Amazon sisters, Tione and Tiona Hiryute.
And... why was she here, too? Ais Wallenstein.
The golden-haired swordswoman still had her usual blank, dazed expression.
But had she gotten a little taller since the last time he saw her... In contrast, Noah's own height had not changed at all in the past year.
"Yo," Bete grunted.
For the grumpy werewolf, that counted as a very polite hello.
Noah was honestly shocked that Bete was the first one to greet him after what happened yesterday.
"Noah, we are here!" Tiona cheered. "You are going down to the 18th Floor, right? Do not worry, with us around, we will blast right through the Middle Floors in a flash!"
Tiona pumped her fist in the air, and the new black bracelet on her wrist jingled.
"That makes me feel very safe," Noah said honestly.
This team was strong enough to kill a Floor Boss, let alone just walk through the first 17 floors.
Out of the five people in their group, everyone except him was a Level 4 adventurer.
And every single one of them was strong enough to fight like a Level 5.
"This is the perfect chance to test out our new weapons. We are killing two birds with one stone," Tione smiled fiercely, brushing her hair out of her face.
Noah was still saying hello to the twins, but Ais had already walked straight up to him.
Staring at her beautiful blank face—which was now mere inches from his own nose—Noah broke out in a cold sweat.
"Ais... you are standing a little too close," he said nervously.
"Am I? I do not think so," the golden-haired girl replied flatly.
"No, it is really bothering me!"
Ever since the elf Riveria told Ais to protect him closely during their last expedition, she had been taking the word "closely" way too literally.
"Hm?" Ais finally took a step back.
She tilted her head, completely confused as to why she was making him nervous.
She had no idea how intimidating it was to be stared down by one of the strongest fighters in the city.
"Wow, you two are really close! I am surprised," Tiona said happily.
Noah just gave Tiona a helpless look that clearly said: 'I have no idea what she is doing.'
"Ais is not very good at showing her feelings. I noticed that even the other people in our Familia do not understand her very well, but she seems to really like you!"
Since Tiona had only recently joined the Loki Familia, she had been very interested in the famous "Sword Princess."
Tiona was the one who had walked right up to Ais and become her friend.
Tiona knew that Noah had made Ais's armor, but she never expected them to be this close.
After all, saying the name of the "Artisan Spirit" was strictly banned inside the Loki Familia's home base.
That silly rule was made by the goddess Loki herself, who seemed to hold a massive grudge against Noah for some completely unknown reason.
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