The slave trader's smile widened. "Sir, you might not know but slaves with Active Skills are incredibly rare. They won't be caught easily after all. So, you can only afford a single slave like that with the amount in your hand."
Ryan's brows furrowed.
She immediately added: "But if you are okay with passive abilities, almost all Fiend Race slaves have some of those. Do you want to check them?"
Ryan thought for a second, then shook his head. "Show me the best you have at my range."
Nodding, the woman brought him to a room, incredibly hospitable in her actions.
Inside the room, there was a veritable amount of cages, and in all of them stood a single captive each. All of them, may they be male or female, were stripped naked to show all their private parts.
"We have bound all of these things with suppression collars," she said, "so they can't use their skills on you, your highne—cough—sir."
Ryan ignored her deliberate miss and walked through the place.
The slaves eyed him with dead gazes.
"What kind of skill would you like, sir?" she asked.
"Hmm…" He pondered. "Are there any appraisal type?"
"Yes, we have many of those but they are high level slaves. Way out of your current budget." Then, her expression changed. "I wouldn't have given this product much thought but since it is someone as esteemed as you, I will show it to you. We have one low level slave with appraisal skills but that slave is quite the troublemaker."
Ryan's lips curled up in intrigue.
"Oh?" A troublemaker slave. That was the bread and butter of your average isekai. Ryan felt an urge to tame the chaos. "What kind of troublemaker?" he asked.
"He is a homo sexual, sir." She coughed into her fist. "He has violent sexual urges that require men to be sated. He was returned by his previous owner after a very… bad experience. You can tame him easily, though, if you let him sate his needs with your bod—"
"Shut up. Just shut up, okay?"
This woman spoke about some profound stuff with that straight face of hers.
On god.
"So, you do not want him." She nodded. "Straight pe—"
His face became a brutal shade of grey and blue. "Bring me to him."
The woman's face faltered for a second before she nodded professionally. She then wordlessly took him to see a man with a body of rippling muscles. He was in sleep, brutally sedated for now—and disgustingly enough, he was naked.
Ryan wanted to gag. Even the beautiful naked women he had seen on the way couldn't match up to this disgust. Go kill yourself! All of you!
The woman watched him. "Sir, this slave would usually cost you about four gold coins, but considering its flaws, we are selling it for two coins."
Ryan ignored her and, eating his own shame, inserted his hand into the cage. He just touched the filthy thing's back with his finger.
One had to sacrifice one's own comfort to live happily, after all.
The woman remained profoundly silent.
I wanna kill myself.
Maybe I should.
Ryan remained just like that for exactly eight minutes, silent, touching reluctantly, each second feeling like an hour.
Sweat had also matted his forehead.
"Sir," she spoke. "Is this important?"
His face became incredibly profound as well.
"This is incredibly important."
Her own face inherited that profound look.
She nodded.
"I understand. I've encountered a few others who liked to do their own tests."
Ah, I wonder if jumping from the ninth floor is enough.
Just like that, a few more minutes passed.
He had remained like that for twenty minutes, and just then, to Ryan's complete chagrin, the man woke up.
"Darling," he muttered sleepily.
A shiver went up Ryan's mind and instinctively, he activated another of his skills. Vitality Theft, and as soon as he did, he felt a wave of energy fill him to the brim.
Meanwhile, moaning groggily, the man went back to sleep.
[Mana: 11/16]
The woman's profound look became much more profound.
"Sir, you are an expert at handling people like him. You must be familiar with such slaves—as expected of one with your status."
Ryan wanted to cry. You are the expert, your whole family is the expert!
Finally, thirty of the most awkward minutes in his life passed. And right as that happened, Ryan felt a pulse in his heart and an immense hunger. An invisible abyss opened up inside him, pulling something from within the sleeping man into his own body.
[Appraisal Lv. 1 has been plundered]
[This skill allows the user to pierce the veil of the unknown, revealing basic information about a target—be it a living being, an object, or even a mysterious force. But it can only reveal information of equal or lower levels]
[Mana Cost: 1]
[Skill Plunder ability going into cool down for the next 24 hours]
Ryan frowned, blinking.
"Sir," the woman said hesitantly, "do you want to buy him?"
"No." He did not elaborate, walking away from the cage. "Show me something feminine and purifying, I want to bleach my eyes with those."
The woman blinked, confused, then nodded.
She led him past the main floor, down a dim corridor where decorations of dragons and bound figures hung heavy.
The air thickened with incense as she parted a beaded curtain, ushering him into a hidden room. It was small, lush—black silk walls, a single chandelier dripping crystals. In the center, a low platform held a goblin girl, bound tight.
The sight of her made Ryan's heart clench.
In the end, slavery was indeed a disgusting thing.
Poor thing, his mood was immediately ruined.
Ropes dug into the goblinette's scrawny arms, yanking them back to arch her spine, while her legs were splayed wide, thighs tied to iron rings, exposing her completely.
She was small, starved—ribs jutting under a flat chest that rose with shaky gasps.
The traders had angled her just so, thighs forced apart to bare the space between, a shameless display of her untouched state. The soft, green flesh between those thighs gleamed under the light, untouched and vulnerable—a virgin, the sign beside her bragged: "Virgin Runt – 1 Gold."
"She was taken in as an outcast of her goblin tribe. A pitiful thing she is, right?"
"Silence, you whore," Ryan said coldly, rushing towards the cage. "I do not want to listen to your filthy tongue. Not once."
Even he didn't know why he felt so agitated.
The trader nodded, becoming silent.
Ryan said, "Give the girl to me."
The Goblinette, awake, stared at Ryan with a distant pair of yellow eyes.
"She might not exactly be to your needs, milord." The trader folded her arms, obviously much less hospitable. "She does not have a manhood down there. And she is malnourished, so she might not even be able to handle a night. I have a better option. This girl is just a good eye candy—"
He flicked a gold coin at her face with his thumb. "Do what I said."
The woman pocketed the coin, then shuffled to the cage, slicing the ropes with a dagger.
The goblin girl collapsed, trembling, and Ryan stepped forward, hauling her up by the arm. Her skin was cool, rough, smelling of earth.
Those yellow eyes locked onto his, blank with terror, as he steadied her.
He grabbed a silk shift from a nearby rack—part of the luxury—and draped it over her. It clung to her bony frame, and she gripped it with clawed hands, staring at him like he was going to eat her alive.
Ryan moved his hand towards her, making her freeze. Then, feeling a pang of emotions, he ruffled her head, startling the girl.
The woman touched the back of Ryan's hand with her fingers, annoying him. As she lifted her hand, a small indiscernible mark appeared on the back of his left wrist.
"That is the girl's suppression marking. With that on you, she cannot disobey you."
The goblinette was still frozen in place.
Ryan smiled at her. "You look hungry, come let's go find you some good food. These bastards must have starved you."
He took the goblinette's hand and walked towards the entrance.
The trader remained silent, detached. Disrespect was normal in her trade—she was happy as long as she got the money.
As he passed by her, Ryan looked at her with a squint.
Appraisal.
[Beast Tamer]
[Level???]
[Skills???]
Appraisal level insufficient.
[Mana: 10/16]
Ryan humphed as he left with the goblinette in tow. She followed, barefoot, the silk whispering against her skin as they left the hidden room.
The trade woman's cackle trailed them.
Ryan's mind slowly drifted as sunlight hit his face.
One skill stolen from a random idiot in a gilded cage. If he could take this, who else could he rip from this world—slaves, nobles, gods?
Mugen ran on strength, and he'd just claimed his first piece.
The world awaits.
He heard the sound of a grumbling stomach from beside him. But before the world, an empty stomach needed filling.
"My place has the world's best chefs," he said, raising his chest proudly. "Come, let's go home."