“You… are you an idiot or just really arrogant? If you were anyone else, I’d have killed you by now, heh-heh~.” Darius shook his head as he gazed down at the absurdly expensive alchemical products that were covering his desk.

Michael snickered, asking “Even if I was someone else, you still wouldn’t, cause it’d be way more beneficial to form a long-term relationship. Anyway, how much for all this shit? I’ve still got a bunch of other drugs to sell and I don’t wanna get ripped off too badly…”

The Crimelord sighed, activating the golden ring on his left hand middle-finger and made a pitch-black coin appear. He casually tossed it over to the curious Nephilim and said “You’ve probably never seen one of those before, but once you scan it, you’ll understand. Is that price high enough for you?”

“Obsidian Doubloon: A coin with the value of one billion copper, ten million silver, or one-hundred thousand gold. Equivalent to 1e+15 MP.”

He yelled “Holy shitballs! That seems like a fuck-ton of money! Are you sure that these drugs are really worth that much? I mean, we literally got the materials in less than two days, and then my girlfriend concocted it all just as quickly… Well, we did have to kill a bunch of pretty high-level and ranked assholes to get the ingredients, but still, I’d feel bad if I ended up ripping you off.”

Darius’ bright-blue irises were suddenly visible, as his glasses lowered slightly, and he muttered “I’ve seen a video of you massacring hundreds of people while singing obnoxiously… You can kill without hesitation, but you’ll feel guilty if you sell narcotics to a Crimelord at a slightly high price?”

“Well, did you go around crucifying innocent Warbeasts or try to murder little babies because their parents were ‘Heretics’? Nope, you’ve only killed other drug-dealers, hitmen, some dirty cops who were working for you and a decent amount of magical-beasts… At least that’s all I can see from ‘Identifying’ you. Hmmm, besides, these alchemical concoctions wouldn’t even be considered illegal in most countries. It’s not like they’re harmful, and even if they were, we ain’t forcing anyone to take them, right? There’s nothing morally dubious about this business transaction, so I’d prefer to keep from being a douchebag and charging too much for my ‘products’.” Michael was smirking the entire time he was speaking, making it difficult to tell if he was serious or being sarcastic.

The Dark-Elf chuckled, admitting “If it makes you feel better, I’ll probably make a few hundred obsidian from what you’ve sold me so far. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re a terrible merchant. You aren’t the ‘worst’ one that I’ve ever met though.” Then he reached his left hand out and activated a crimson ring on his index finger, which caused all of the drugs to instantly vanish, being stored inside.

Once the table was cleared, the Nephilim said “I have no idea if these are technically ‘illegal’ in any way, but like you said, I’m not a merchant. I’d rather sell stuff to you and lose a bit of money, than have to fuck around with auctioning this kinda shit off normally. Now, the question is: Are you interested in this kinda merchandise?”

He pulled a miscellaneous leather satchel out of his inventory, placing it on the desk. Darius grinned as he opened it up and ‘scanned’ the four items that were stored within.

“.38 Caliber Snub-Nose Revolver: +30 Attack rating, +2 Agility, +2 Dexterity. Can hold six rounds at a time. Baseline maximum effective range is 100 meters. Created by Master Gunsmith Adrian Alexander. Previously owned and used by Jasmine Jade. Rare Quality, requires level-10 to use.”

“7mm Flintlock Pistol: Increases the wielder’s Dexterity and Agility by one point; raises Attack Rating by ten. Baseline maximum effective range is 100 meters. Created by Jasmine Jade. Previously owned and used by Jasmine Jade. Uncommon Quality, requires level-3 to use.”

There were pairs, so they could be considered as two separate sets. A few seconds passed, before he asked “Are you sure you would rather just sell these to me? You should know that each of them could go for a fairly high price as collector’s items. It’s a good thing you didn’t just walk into a pawn-shop or ‘legitimate’ auction house, because these guns would be considered illegal. Not only do they lack serial numbers, but they haven’t been ‘sealed’ to prevent non-Dwarves from using them. Well, you aren’t a citizen of The Dwarven Republic… Although, since Nekoshire declared its independence, the laws are a bit unstable at the moment. Still, the DR’s Gun Restrictions are currently in place, so they would likely ‘try’ to arrest you. It’s just a lot simpler if you let me handle the sales of ‘potentially’ illegal contraband, heh-heh~.”

He spent a few minutes closely examining the four firearms, before glancing over at the adorable purring cat-girl on the Nephilim’s lap. Darius asked “To tell you the truth, I’ve been a fan of Jasmine Jade for at least six years now, not to the extent that I would pay a couple obsidian for a pistol that she used or created, but I know a few people who definitely would. Hmmm, how about… five WJ for the flintlocks that she personally made, and two for the revolvers?”

Michael shrugged, casually mentioning “I have no fucking clue what that acronym means, but sure?” The guns vanished into a pitch-black storage ring on the Dark-Elf’s left middle-finger, and then seven coins flew from his right hand.

After ‘Scanning’ them, he yelled “Oh, wow, nice! Hahaha~, yeah, this is way more than I was expecting from JJ’s shitty guns…”

“White Jade Doubloon: A coin with the value of one-hundred million copper, one million silver, or ten thousand gold. Equivalent to 1e+14 MP.”

There were obviously many more different kinds of ‘Arcane’ currency aside from the five types that he had encountered so far. In fact, in ‘lower’ planes, where mana was available in much smaller quantities, a single copper would be considered a fortune. Thus, there would be many magical doubloons that would never even appear on the planet Arcana.

Between gold and obsidian was only Platinum and WJ, but afterwards, there were plenty of other kinds of coins. Some people even used mana-cores as currency, such as the various Sects and Clans within Chu Xu Forest.

Darius snickered, casually revealing “Money is power, literally and metaphorically… Most people don’t know this, but the reason why The Dwarven Republic is suffering from such extreme inflation, is mainly because they’ve been closed off to the world for so many years. They occasionally trade with other nations, but it’s all far too strictly regulated… In each of these huge underground cities, there is an ancient and ridiculously powerful ‘Mana-Forge’. It harvests power from… somewhere; no one really knows how those things work anymore, but they’re constantly running. Every single day, they constantly spew out tons of copper coins, especially in times of war. There are some smaller ‘Mana-Forges’ that can convert those into silver, gold, platinum, white-jade and obsidian. There are also ancient devices that function by transforming currency into pure mana, then turning that into matter or energy.”

Michael smirked, asking “Thanks for the random trivia facts, but do you mind if we move onto the next item? Okay, so this thing… is pretty fucked up, hehe~. Not sure how much gold its worth though?”

“Long Wang’s Cursed Soft Short-Sword: +200 Attack Rating, +5 Strength, +5 Dexterity, +5 Agility, +5 Perception. Able to curse the target with ‘Impotence’, ‘Incontinence’, ‘Depression’, and ‘Infertility’; however, if the target has more Luck than the wielder, the curse with be inflicted upon them instead. Created by Long Wang. Rare Quality, requires level-30.”

The Crimelord carefully examined the flexible and incredibly thin, straight-sword, noticing that it was practically in pristine condition. Chaotic weapons were obviously illegal, but also in high-demand by his ‘associates’, so he didn’t hesitate to offer “I’m willing to pay… one WJ for it, deal?”

It was such a huge difference in quality from Jasmine’s guns, but rather than as a ‘collectable’, the cursed blade would actually be sold as a weapon. Either way, Michael still accepted the ten-thousand gold and moved onto the next item on the list of things that he wanted to get rid of.

After that, a gigantic, three-meter long and extremely wide Silver Scimitar was placed onto the desk. Darius muttered “Hmmm, well, Dwarves wouldn’t be able to use this… but Orcs and Ogres would probably be interested. Three-K, since it’ll take me a while to sell it.”

Then he pulled out a Rare Red Robe and Crystalline Fire-Staff, each of them were level-twenty, so he was able to get seven-thousand gold for the set. Oddly enough, the ten-thousand gold coins didn’t automatically transform into white jade doubloons.

Michael snickered as he carefully placed the most dangerous and expensive ‘product’ onto the table. The moment that he ‘Scanned’ it, Darius’ expression changed from a grin, to a scowl. He asked “How the hell did you get your hands on something like this? Actually, I already know it was concocted by the same person who created the others, but still… This, what exactly do you expect me to do with this? Quickly put this back into your storage-device and don’t ever bring that shit back into ‘my’ city!”