I am an Eldritch Entity

In case he needed it later, Eryndor went up to his room, and gathered all the wealth which included the remaining bottles of various pills and the spirit coins.

It was a pity that Clarence had no other treasure other than the daggers and the light armor.

The Training Camp had a relatively well maintained black market.

Eryndor had no idea if it was established by the Training Camp itself or by a different force.

However, the fact remained that it provided a degree of cover and things weren't as transparent as in the main building of the Training Camp.

Naturally, he got this information from the memories of the disciples.

Not all of them knew about this though, making it apparent that even among the disciples, the black market was a term only known to a select few.

Eryndor didn't know what would happen if the information, items or anything being traded at the black market was harmful or dangerous to the Training Camp.

Would the Training Camp intervene? Well, of course they would, but to what degree?

Eryndor hadn't come across any memory which mentioned such an event happening in the past, else he could look at the amount of intervention Training Camp did in the black market and then deduce if they were the ones who organised the black market, or if it was some other organization, or if they at least had a share, some investment, or some authority in the black market.

Eryndor naturally only scanned a few recent memories every time he activated Cognitive Scrying on some disciple.

It was partly because he couldn't use his Spatial Sight in the main building in fear of being found.

Due to this, he had realized that he could only use his Cognitive Scrying while looking at the target.

This wasn't a problem while using his Spatial Sight because technically he was always 'looking' at them through the Spatial Sight.

However, now that he wasn't using it, he had to use his eyes to look at the target directly while activating his Cognitive Scrying.

When scanning through the memories, he could afford to not look at them.

Even if this was a not-so-difficult task, he could still not afford to scan the memories deeply due to reasons mentioned in the past.

He was afraid that those memories might inevitably influence him if he looked too deep into them.

When he was in his eldritch form, such concerns never appeared because he felt extremely safe whenever he used Cognitive Scrying in that form.

It was as if there was a layer of film protecting his psyche while scanning the memories of others.

He felt no such thing when using Cognitive Scrying in his base form.

Eryndor knew that it might be an issue with his mastery of the ability, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it immediately. He could only continue practicing his abilities, and hope for a change.

Eryndor walked along an unfamiliar route in the forest, one he hadn't passed through while hunting the beasts in this humongous forest.

The trees in this area were denser than usual, and their leaves were on the brownish side, as compared to the usual green.

No, they weren't withering, or drying up, it was just how the leaves of this forest looked even in their healthy condition.

There is no one else on this path.

He realized, when he used his Spatial Sight once he was sufficiently deep into the forest.

He didn't plan to use his Spatial Sight in the black market though as he still didn't know the involvement of Training Camp in this shady establishment.

What if it was indeed the Training Camp itself which was behind the black market, and the head of the Training Camp alternated between staying in the black market and the main building?

Yea, I'd rather exercise some restraint.

As he walked deeper and deeper into the forest, the leaves turned from brown to green, but the soil beneath his feet began turning increasingly muddy.

At a certain point, almost the entirety of his shoes were submerged into the soil before he could take them out to put the next step forward.

Naturally, it annoyed Eryndor to no end. His eyes lit up while he was getting more and more frustrated.

How did I not think of using Cloudstride movement art?

He immediately controlled a certain amount of Qi from the dantian and began circulating it among the route of meridians corresponding to Cloudstride movement cultivation art.

Indeed, he felt his legs not sinking as much as before, giving him a level of relief, but it was still annoying.

A moment later when he felt the ground was getting firmer, he cancelled the Cloudstride art, but immediately after, he sensed a few arrows being shot at him.

Holy fucking shit this goddamn route.

Eryndor easily rolled forward, dodging the arrows.

He didn't stop though, he activated the Shadowstep and launched himself like a rocket, covering massive distances in seconds when he sensed more arrows being shot at him.

What goddamn route is this?

Eryndor cursed mentally. His mind immediately came up with a theory though.

Could it be that along with the location, one must also know the route to the black market?

Since I only glanced at the surface memories, I only know the location, but not the specific route, therefore I took the route according to common sense, but apparently this route with the highest probability of being chosen among those who only know of the location is filled with traps?

Is this another way of protection the black market has taken for itself?

As he had thought, Eryndor furrowed his brows.

No, if the members give out only a location and not any corresponding route, wouldn't they get beaten up the next time they meet the person who asked about black market?

Eryndor's expression darkened as he realized what that meant.

Naturally, they wouldn't be threatened if there was no 'next time'.

Which is, this path is a death trap?

However, he shook his head shortly after, contradicting himself.

No, the Training Camp wouldn't allow black market to put up such a blatant death trap would it?

Therefore it is more like teaching a lesson or weeding out disciples who are too weak to even enter the black market?

Eryndor swallowed back his anger and frustration and continued passing through the obstacles which popped up on the path.

No wonder there are no other disciples walking along this path.

There would obviously be someone or the other looking to enter or exit the black market at all times given how many people know about it, so there can't be a situation where the path was empty, so it was only obvious that other regular members knew the correct routes and wouldn't take this path.

It took Eryndor around thirty minutes before he finally sensed a gigantic door in the distance.

Its location corresponded with the location of the black market which Eryndor extracted out of the memory of a disciple.

It was just that, a door. Nothing else. Just a huge door with its knob at the height of six feet, brown at the edges, and white in the center.

There was an eye in the middle, with no unusual colored iris or pupils, but one look at them and it felt like you were being seen naked.

He calmly dealt with the remaining traps and finally arrived in front of the door.

This door reminded him of the one which was used during their survival tournament of the Academy back on Earth to distribute the students across different places of the secret realm.

After arming himself with the Azure Tortoise Shell, he pushed open the door.

Suddenly, his vision brightened to the point that he had to close his eyes.

Teleportation? Damn, they are really well hidden. This lessens the probability of Training Camp being behind this black market, as they wouldn't need to hide so much.

There was no other abnormality though like the sensation of his body being squeezed and such.

After a moment when he felt the brightness fade, he opened his eyes.

The first impression he had was that it definitely wasn't 'shady'.

Well, since it was a black market, not many people knew about it, it operated in the darkness as compared to the Training Camp which was in the light, and it also had that brutal filtering method out there, one would expect it to be a dark and gloomy place, right?

However, the first impression he had of this place was that it was bright, and was designed like a mall back on Earth.

His current location was probably one of the entrances, therefore no one looked his way in the beginning.

But when they glanced at his dirtied shoes and disheveled state, they revealed faint looks of disdain.

It was apparent that this fellow had arrived from the path filled with traps. It meant that whoever gave him the information didn't want him to be here.

Eryndor only gave them a single glance before he began browsing through the various shops.

Naturally, he was here to ask about the three badges which he obtained from the now dead three disciples.

He had already tried scanning the memories of the disciples, but maybe because he was unlucky, he didn't meet a single killer, therefore there was no memory about how to use the badges.

He wasn't willing to waste much time, since those three badges were akin to a hot potato.

Who knew if there was some kind of location sensing function installed on it?

Disciples could pay to modify their badges, therefore it wasn't uncommon for there to be unusual modifications.

Therefore, he didn't waste much time trying to find a disciple who had killed before, but immediately headed towards the black market where the solution for such a thing would most likely be found.

Maybe I can even find information about the threat about three months later?