The Archaic System 29 Another Meeting

The sun was bright high up in the sky but there was a nice breeze blowing keeping the bazaar from getting too hot. The streets between the stalls were made of dirt and due to the recently dry weather the dirt was loose making the bazaar dusty. As the crowd moved from place to place the dirt would get kicked into the air forming small clouds of dust around everyone's feet. With the bright light shining down it felt like you could make out each particle as it swirled in the air.

I began to walk around the bazaar and most of the shops I pa.s.sed had the usual wares. A lot of items were replicas of those you could find on Earth like, pottery, cutlery, clothing, with a few native plants mixed in here and there. For the most part it was just like any bazaar you would have found on Earth long ago.

Without modern technology people were forced to make things the old fashioned way and many skills had been lost. This made the quality of most the items for sale very low and even if I had the time to spare looking at them I wouldn't have bought any. Over time the quality would rise. Humanity would relearn how to make items and new technologies would be discovered that took advantage of things unique to Agartha.

For instance, on Earth most of humanity relied on electricity in almost every aspect of everyday life, but on Agartha electricity was more wild and hard to control. Even ten years in the future humanity hadn't discovered a way to harness it in the way we had before. On the other hand, we had newfound items that in some aspects could replace it. Like sun stones, in the south there are fields that contain a type of stone that harnesses energy and can release light for long periods of time afterwords. They work a lot like solar panels absorbing the sun during the day afterwords they release the energy in the form of light.

The Fey already use sun stones for lighting, however, humans here in the plains don't have access to them yet. A large portion of the south has been conquered by the Fey and they control the trade of sun stones.

In the future due the effort of many humans and at the cost of many lives trade will become more abundant and many items will become available.

I continued to move around the bazaar, however, I was continually disappointed. The quality of items was just too low and the lack of trade routes made the resources available limited. Even with future knowledge none of the items I saw in the bazaar were useful to me in any way.

At this point I only had about 30 minutes left before my fight with Sauer begins which means I don't have much time left to search the bazaar.

I was just about to start heading back towards the arena when an elderly figure caught my attention. I almost didn't see him, but before I turned I caught a glimpse and swore I had seen him before. I headed towards the old man who was sitting in a lotus position beneath a stall that read "Lucas's Wares." As I got closer I could make out his features.

Shocked I walked up to him, "Fancy meeting you here."

The old man had his eyes closed and his head tilted down. When he heard my voice he looked up at me and squinted, "Well this is a pleasant surprise, any chance you have some more roasted fish."

I couldn't help chuckling, "Do I look like I carry them around in my pockets?"

The old man smirked at me, "No, I guess not."

This was the mysterious old man we ran into on the beach. The one that told us the story about Gilgamesh. I looked around at his wares and noticed a shiny green stone with black marking etched onto it. For a moment I was stunned. How had something like that end up here?

I looked up at the sign and back at the old man, "Are you Lucas?"

He smiled and sarcastically said, "No I just like to sit under other people's signs."

"Touche." I replied, clearly he was giving me lip for my earlier sarcasm.

"In that case is there any chance I can buy that green rock off of you?"

"Oh this?" He picked up the stone tossing it up and down in his hand.

"Why would you want a simple rock like this?" He devilishly smiled at me.

Simple? Does he have any idea what that is? Or is he messing with me? I had the feeling this old man know's quite a lot more than he is saying.

"I simply thought it looked nice and wanted to give it as a gift to a friend," I stammered.

"Ohh.... in that case I can be convinced to part with it. For 15 gold."

My jaw dropped, now I know this old man is messing with me. He clearly knows the value of this stone. He must have put out the 15 gold price because he doesn't think I'll be able to pay that much. If he really knows the true value of the stone he wouldn't actually sell it for 15 gold even 100 gold may be too little. I looked down at the sack on my waist, in it was my gold, 59 from my last bet, 13 from win in the arena, after paying 4 for my latest bet it left 68 gold total.

"Fine! I will take it." I simply couldn't pa.s.s this up.

This time the old man was the one whose jaw dropped. He looked me over seeming to a.n.a.lyze every inch of my body.

"You have secrets don't you boy?"

I couldn't help but break out into a sweat. That piercing gaze sent shivers down my spine.

"I simply came upon some money recently and have taken a fancy to the stone."

"Uh huh," he replied cooly.

"Here's the money," I put the gold in his hand.

He placed the stone in my palm and suddenly grabbed my wrist, "Be careful boy, some transactions aren't this simple."

I nodded my head then rushed out of the bazaar heading back to the arena. That old man gave me an extremely eerie feeling. After I was out of the bazaar and the eerie feeling the old man gave me went away I looked at my palm, a smooth green stone with black etchings was lying there. A big grin came over my face. With this Sauer doesn't stand a chance.