Chapter 51: Shopkeeper’s Revenge
’Why is this place even open in the middle of the night? I just came to take a look.’
Just looking at the open door filled with nothing but darkness made Jinn regret his choice of coming here.
He may be a devil, but the men inside gave him the chills he did not like.
’But I have no choice since I am missing the main ingredient.’
After a very biased debate in his mind, Jinn decides to enter the store.
Once he stepped in, the darkness swallowed him whole.
Jinn could see the inside of the shop, but not as well as he thought.
’This is weird.’ When he came here before, Jinn was not an awakened being, but now he was, and yet... his vision inside the shop remained the same.
’What is going on?’
Before he could think more about it, Jinn felt a cold gust of wind brushing past the back of his neck, making him shiver.
"What do we have here?" The chilling voice devoid of any emotions echoed from all sides of the shop. "A debtor?"
Jinn kept a straight face despite a storm of emotions he was feeling on the inside.
"You have a different scent from before? Did you already awaken?"
His eyes darted around the room as he searched for the owner of the voice; he was greeted with nothing but a fog of darkness.
"No, this is not the wretched scent of those hypocrites. This is different... Interesting."
From time to time, he would see a shadow flickering in different spots.
His words struck Jinn like a bolt of thunder. His heart almost jumped out of his chest in panic. ’How did he know? There is no way anyone should be able to know that, right?
"I hope you are here to pay your debt, or I might just use your body to pay for it." Jinn spun on his heel and turned around only to see a blur moving with two streaks of green light trailing behind.
"Don’t be so dramatic, Mr. Raul." Jinn held himself better than he did the previous time, but there was still a faint tremor in his voice.
"I have come to settle our debt and also to purchase some ingredients I am in dire need of."
Jinn slowly turned around while scanning the room and froze when his eyes landed on a shadowy figure standing behind the counter.
He could only see the piercing green eyes and that pale skin of the man as he stood there watching him intently.
"What ingredient?" The shopkeeper narrowed his eyes as he leaned forward slightly.
Even from the distance, Jinn could feel a deep pressure boring down on him, drenching his back in sweat.
’He is definitely an awakened one, and a high-ranked one at that. An Elemental type, from what it seems.’
Gulping down his fears, Jinn stepped closer to the counter. He did his best to maintain eye contact with the man.
As if seeing through his inner struggle, the thin, colorless, and cracked lips of the embodiment of darkness curled up ever so slightly.
"I need... I know this is a long shot. From what I can tell, you probably hate the gods." Jinn arrived at the counter and looked at the man; his words made Raul’s eyes narrow in their hollow sockets. His faint smirk vanished as he waited for Jinn to finish his words, "But I do really need the blood of the gods."
Boom!
Jinn jerked in surprise when everything—every single object or item in the shop—shook once those words left his mouth.
He stared back at the shopkeeper, who made the shadows around him twist in fear. His eyes seemed to be burning with a higher power he could not even fathom.
But despite the horror he was living, Jinn held his ground. He needed the blood for Agnes’s awakening, as it was the main ingredient for a mortal to connect to the divine.
"You are bold." "Shopkeeper Raul," he said faintly, his voice echoed throughout the place, calming the whole place down.
"And correct... I do hate some gods." The man said, removing one of the white-colored silk gloves from his hands to reveal a bony hand and a set of claw-like black nails.
He turned around and traced his nails on the left apothecary cabinet behind him. Sparks flew from the areas where his nails grated until he stopped.
He picked up a drawer, opened it, and a bright light filled the room. The light was so bright that it pushed back the darkness in the shop, something even the sun failed to accomplish.
Raul glanced at Jinn and spoke with a grin, "but I do love selling things that they do not want others to get their hands on."
He raised his exposed hand and dipped the tip of his nail inside before saying, "you might want to look away."
Jinn did not hesitate and turned his head. He could hear faint chants coming from the sides, the sounds of divine music. But it all vanished along with the glow after a second.
"Okay, you can look back now."
Jinn turned his head only to see the scary shopkeeper standing right in front of him with his hand stretched.
The glove had already covered his hand, and now it held a vial of shimmering liquid.
"I assumed you would need the diluted blood, as you might not be able to afford the pure drop."
Seeing the knowing look on the man’s face, Jinn no longer felt surprise and just nodded. ’Please, just let me go back and scheme in peace.’
The shopkeeper lifted the vial of diluted divine blood and swirled the liquid inside before speaking.
"Each drop of this diluted blood is worth 100 Tula. How much do you need?"
Jinn almost spat a mouthful of saliva, but his mouth was too dry from all the gulping down. He could feel his heart bleeding even before he paid for the item. ’Those are gold coins!’
With a wry smile he said, "Just a drop is fine."
Raul paused and looked at Jinn, revealing a menacing grin as he said, "200 Tula then."