DCFM – Chapter 028: Black Market and What was once human

TLN: Change is going to begin soon~


“…You again, huh. What brings you here today?” 

This store was in a pretty secluded location even within the alleyway.

At the time when I arrived in this city, my finding this store was practically a coincidence, but since then, I have been using this place when I want to sell things.

This is probably a place that people with scars use all the time. 

It was convenient for me since the old man doesn’t try to pry into my matters and just buys my things straight away. 

As for how much he buys it for, as you can tell already, I don’t know the market price, so I don’t really care that much about it. 

I am calling it the black market myself, but I don’t know if it is the black market or not.

“There’s quite a bit more today.” (Hikaru)

As I said this, I lined up the things that I got from the explorers. 

1 longsword and 2 daggers. Leather breastplate, leather hat, and a roughly made gauntlet.

From my experience until now, all the explorers that died in the 2nd Floor had similar equipment.

The people that normally shouldn’t be coming to the 2nd Floor were pushing themselves and would end up dying. 

That’s the kind of impression it gave me. 

“Hmm…even this kind of equipment has a demand by newbies. I will buy it… I would say it will all be for 30 small silver coins.” 

“No problem.” (Hikaru)

Each head is around 10 small silver coins. 

It is pretty sad when you see it as the price of a life. 

By the way, a small silver coin can be exchanged to a silver coin at a rate of 8 for 1 silver coin. A silver coin is normally way too much for a regular lifestyle, so it is rarely used. It would be another story if you were to make a big purchase, but it is possible to go about your life as long as you have small silver coins and copper coins.

“…Also…this…” (Hikaru)

After receiving the 30 small silver coins, I take out the Spirit Stones left by their dead bodies on the counter.

Until now, I have been keeping the stones that the corpses left, so this is the first time I sell them. 

For me, who doesn’t really find this world bright, the meaning of these ‘stones that were left by the dead at the end’ is unknown to me. 

I could have asked Grapefull yesterday, but I forgot.

That’s why I decided to see how the old man reacts here.

“Stones, huh. They are small. Are they stones of skeletons?” 

“…No, they aren’t. They were left by explorers. I don’t know how to deal with this stuff.” (Hikaru)

I decided to be honest here.

I don’t think it is unlawful to take the stones of the dead, but it wouldn’t be strange for there to be a custom of burying them in the proper place.

“Aah, explorers, huh… Judging from the size, I would say they were newbies. Well, no problem here. I will buy them.” 

“There really is no problem?” (Hikaru)

“The people themselves must understand this as well. With them doing a job like being explorers and all.” 

“Is there nothing like bringing these stones back to their parents or burying them at graves…?” (Hikaru)

“Hm, well…it is not like there aren’t people like that, but there’s no need for explorers to worry about that. More so for people who die at the 1st Floor or 2nd Floor. They are all people who don’t have anywhere to go to begin with anyways.” 

A difference in values. 

For example; in Japan, it is mostly cremation, so almost no one questions it, but in Europe and America, there’s apparently people who would go ‘Burning corpses is unbelievable!’.

That’s why I thought there would be practices like those in this world like burying the Spirit Stones in graves or something, but looks like that isn’t the case. 

“I can’t do much with stones of this size though. Even so, by using it as energy, it circulates to the world, and their souls are purified… Well, I am just retelling what others told me.” 

“I see…” (Hikaru)

“To think you would be bothered by stuff like this. You are a peculiar one. This city is filled with outsiders, but you stand out from the rest. Well, you are a good customer for me though.” 

Saying this, the old man laughed and placed 1 small silver coin.

“If it were like the Spirit Stones you brought me before, they would have gone for a decent amount of coin despite being pure. As for today’s stones, this is as much as they are worth.” 

“The Spirit Stones vary in size even among people?” (Hikaru)

“Challenging dungeons is basically changing yourself into a monster or a monstrosity after all.” 

“I see… That much is enough.” (Hikaru)

“Thanks for your patronage.” 

I tried to avoid asking too many questions, but I managed to hear important stuff.

In the end, there’s no distinction between the Spirit Stones of people and monsters. At the very least, it can’t be differentiated by their appearance. In this world, people and monsters might be basically the same beings. 

The Spirit Stones that were once people were thrown into the same haphazard bag the old man had.

(Small Spirit Stones, especially the transparent ones, are worth little… For skeletons, you have to defeat 10 in order to finally get a small silver coin… I see. It is because the 1st Floor doesn’t give that much earnings that everyone ends up heading to the 2nd Floor…) (Hikaru)

“By the way, if you brought the equipment of explorers, that means there should have been identifications, right? What happened to them?” 

“Identifications…? Aah, do you mean this?” (Hikaru)

I take out the bluish metal name tags from my pocket.

Necklaces that would almost always be dropped close to the corpses of explorers. I could instantly tell at a glance that these are to show the affiliation of the people and their own information. 

If not for the old man pointing this out, I was thinking of ignoring it though…

“That. If you bring them to the guild, they will buy them. Well, a tag from bronze people would only be worth around a few copper coins though.” 

Is that guild he mentions the place that manages the explorers? 

Whichever the case, I don’t really want to approach that place.

“Then, please buy these too. It is fine to buy them cheaply.” (Hikaru)

“Huh? Hmm, looks like you’ve got quite your circumstances, huh. Well, fine. If we include the extra work, it would be around 1 small silver coin.”

“That helps me greatly.” (Hikaru)

Honestly speaking, if IDs can be turned into money, the next time, I won’t pick them up and drop them tastefully at easier to find places. That way, other people can pick them and take them to the guild. 

Anyways, with this, I have managed to secure my lodging fee for a while.

I put the money I got into the Shadow Bag at a place where no one can see, and head to the dungeon.

It is a plain and dark livelihood.

But the current me finds this comfortable. 

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38 thoughts on “DCFM – Chapter 028: Black Market and What was once human

  1. This chapter is quite an informative one. This one can depict that the whole city are reeking of crimes or carelessness to each other when in comes to being an explorer. This is how i feel from the talk of the two. In any case, this affirm that MC is quite in dir3 situation wherein he will find it difficult someone who really can trust him, or like a mother figure who had unconventional love regardless who you are.

  2. Wait, they’re buying back the explorers’ tags?
    What for?
    Is it something like compensation for bringing back information on deceased explorers?
    Or is it really that transactional that they just want tags back for material costs?

    1. Probably incentive to help track deaths for taxation purposes, or for if the explorer has people that would like to get accurate info on the individual, including the presumed date of death, like you said.

      People don’t leave bodies, so something to identify them is helpful.

      1. Those are probably the official reasons for buying back the tags but from the information gleaned this conversation it does seem like it truly is for the more cynical reason of material costs. I mean they don’t have any custom of burying the deceased explorers’ magic stones and don’t even differentiate them from random monsters.

  3. It seems like the price of life is pretty cheap in this city since there isn’t any real custom of burying the spirit stones of deceased adventurers you find or returning them to their relatives or comrades and you can just sell the stones like any old spirit stone from a monster. It’s the same with their identification tags which you can just sell to a random store and the guild seems to pay only the price of the material the tags are made from since they mentioned that you can only get a few coppers for a bronze tag of an adventurer.

    1. Turning into spirit stones after death is one thing but indistinguishable with the monsters’? That’s a bit scary. So all the people there are not much different than monsters then..

      1. Are you different from dog? After dog death a corps are left, after your death only corps are left. So, in this world humans are not much different than animals. And in biology humans are classified as mammals.

    2. Nor people, nor monsters turn to spirit stones. Monkey in forest did not turn to spirit stone, wolfs too did not. But they had spirit stone in they bodies. In dungeon bodies disappear and only items and spirit stones are left, but they don’t turn to spirit stones.

    1. hmm, his lifestyle isnt bad though… even though quite cowardly, he’s not actively killing these people so its not bad. And he’s getting the money soo

    2. He’s not killing anyone and doing his best not to attract attention. Paid with the fact that being there lets him use his abilities easily to prevent viewers from watching him is really convenient.

  4. I checked my likability points for our dark boi, they increased before I knew it.
    P.S: I was wondering why this was on stuff like “The girls who traumatized me are looking at me, but it’s too late”, but now I know.

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