Smugglers and Dungeons!

Basila looked at the hilts on offer. They were many, and the goblin didn't even bother pointing at the price tag when she had asked.

No, there weren't even any price tags!

"Wait!" Basila finally said. She had been in a Black Market a couple of times before. But she knew that each one was different.

Did this one deal in bartering?

"What does Icarus need to pay for a hilt? Where are the price tags?" Basila asked.

The strange tall goblin sighed and snapped his fingers. Finally, Basila saw the price tags, but…

"One thousand gold coins?" She picked up the golden hilt. It heated up. She dropped it, only for the goblin to catch it.

"Don't," the goblin said, as he gently placed the hilt down. "You are neither the Mistress nor the Master. The anti-theft rune will think you are stealing, my lady."

The goblin nearly spat the last part out, but Basila thought nothing of it.

The being was a goblin. What did it know about manners?

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, as the price tags disappeared once more. "But! We need to know how much something costs before we consider buying it!"

Basila's protest was met with a chuckle from Gilbert and scratching behind the head by Icarus.

"Basila… this is Ingrid's shop," Icarus said finally, as he looked at the runes on the hilt Basila had tried to pick up. "And Ingrid won't charge me for anything I need from it. Provided I really need it and can hide it."

Basila began to blink.

"But… you eat moldy bread!" she protested once more.

"Yes, I do," Icarus said, as he shook his head. "No, Gilbert. No more gold. You know I can't hide it. Please, something out of wood will do."

Basila saw as the goblin grinned and showed them to a dusty part of the store.

Something pulsed to her right.

Basila rushed to the mana signature. This was glow wood!

"No, Basila! I can't hide that one either!" Icarus called after her, as she began to look at the hilt without really touching it.

"It is just wood painted pink," it wasn't. Both knew it. And any guard worth his salt would know it as well.

Heck, even those who weren't wouldn't be fooled!

"My lady, please, listen to the Master. He knows what he can hide, and what he can't," Basila almost heard something like mocking in the voice of the goblin, but she still thought nothing of it.

Soon, she was waving Icarus over.

"Yes, I bet he does," she said. "But does he know what I can hide?"

Basila had always prided herself on being a mana sensor. Sure, before she just knew how to use mana for runes, but now, after Master Tang had given them his books, she had managed to create something like a skill.

And just like any skill, her mana had to get the exercise so she could improve!

"Do you mean you can hide the glow wood, just like you hid Baldwin?" Icarus asked, already taking out Order. "I think this can be made to fit. But… I don't really want to take it, Basila. It is worth a lot. A normal wooden hilt will do. Something for a knife? Or I can carve something!"

Basila narrowed her eyes. She took out one of the weak mana stones. A ruby as big as an egg.

She showed it to Gilbert.

"Master Goblin," she began because the goblin had not introduced himself to her. "Would this be enough payment for the hilt?"

Gilbert looked at Icarus, who was shifting on his feet, then took the gem.

It was a mana stone. Gilbert could tell as much. But a defect one.

It could be repaired and sold for at least ten glow wood hilts!

Gilbert nodded.

The silly girl was going to fill the Mistress' coffers. Not to mention, she would soon lose the Master.

And Gilbert…

He could dream on.

 Because no matter how much he wanted to be the man by Ingrid's side, he couldn't hurt her by killing Icarus.

He didn't have it in him.

"Then, it's settled! We are buying the hilt!" Basila proclaimed, as she took the hilt off the stand. It didn't heat up.

Icarus soon had it in his hands.

"Ok! Now do your thing and merge them!" Basila knew that the original hilt had not been glow wood. It had been a piece of a meteor which had fallen eons ago.

But she doubted that she had enough of the gems for a hilt like that. Besides… she probably didn't have enough mana to hide something like that.

"Do my thing?" Icarus asked, as he began to slowly place the hilt around the dagger. "It is just a matter of placing this part," he showed her something like a plank. Or at least, that was what Basila thought. "In this part."

As soon as he placed the hilt over the metal hilt, Basila began to clap.

Gilbert wanted to laugh. Man, that girl was silly.

"Which is something similar to what happens when he lays with a woman," they heard Ingrid's amused voice from the end of the corridor. "Hello, Icarus."

Icarus was rushing off towards Ingrid the next second. The legendary dagger, hilt and all, falling to the dusty floor.

Gilbert looked at the elven girl.

She was looking at the dagger with a torn expression. So, as if she was realizing that using Icarus for whatever she wanted to use him was not going to be easy.

Gilbert took a step towards her, but he didn't comfort her. No, he picked up the dagger and showed her his back.

Letting her know that she was the outsider here.

The goblin put on the mask of the kind servant. The loyal puppy.

"Master! You dropped this!" Gilbert said, as Icarus was peppering Ingrid's face with kisses.

"Not now, Gil," Ingrid chided, as she waved the goblin away. Only for her lips to be claimed next.

Gilbert looked at the elven girl.

They were the same. But she had a chance. He did not.

As small as it was.

He pitied her for it.