Markets and Multiverses (A Serial Transmigration LitRPG) Chapter 203: The Old Market

With Old Mo on board with helping us set up Anise’s ‘ability potion,’ the four of us went to bed for the night. Anise quietly crawled back into the tent with her parents, Sallia did the sa, and I quietly tended to my mother, who, according to Old Mo, had stirred a few tis during the night, but hadn’t erupted into a full on withdrawal seizure - although it seed like she might, if a few more hours passed. After returning to the tent I shared with my mother and Felix, I imdiately dumped a bunch of healing magic into her.

After that, I laid down and got ready to sleep for night, but a few thoughts started to intrude into my mind as I prepared to go to sleep. I couldn’t help but wonder if Old Mo knew we were hiding things, or if he knew anything about the rest of the Multiverse.

I wouldn’t have considered it before we had entered the ruins, but now that we had seen soone else from the Market on this world. If one person from the Market had set up an ‘inheritance’ on a planet we had visited, perhaps other people from the Market had done the sa? I found myself wondering if people from less dinsionally aware worlds might still be aware of the Market. And if they were aware of the Market, I wondered how hard it would be for them to put two and two together if they observed us for long enough. Old Mo certainly knew that sothing was weird about us, and he had also spent nearly two years acting almost like a parent for . If anyone was in a position to put everything together, it was him.

Of course, there was also a good chance that Old Mo didn’t know anything about the greater Multiverse at all. I had no idea what the governnts of this world knew about other dinsions, and I only had my speculation and imagination to go off of. It was food for thought, though.

Eventually, after thinking about the Market and Old Mo for nearly an hour, I gave up on getting to sleep. I just couldn’t turn my brain off and go to sleep for the night.

I asked through the communication bracelets.

said Sallia, after a few monts.

said Felix, wriggling slightly on the other side of the tent to let know he was awake.

I asked, after a few monts.

said Felix.

I hesitated, and then sighed, and nodded. It didn’t sound like Sallia or Felix could put my worries to rest. I hesitated for a mont, before I changed the topic a bit.

I asked the two. I hadn’t been able to tune into the conversation as much as I might have liked, since I had been so focused on Anise. I had still heard a few snatches of conversation between them, though, and was more than a little eager to know what Felix and Sallia had managed to figure out. Even if it was in a fragnted form, this was the first ti we had actually been able to talk with a real mber of the Market, since the Market itself was in ruins.

I was more than a little excited to know what information the two had managed to dig out.

said Sallia. Even though I couldn’t see her face, I could almost hear her frowning.

I frowned.

I asked.

asked Sallia.

I asked.

said Sallia. said Sallia.

I wasn’t quite sure where Sallia was going with this yet, but a certain suspicion was starting to form in my gut. One I was very much hoping was not accurate.

said Felix.

I froze.

I felt sick.

Had the Market done that in the past? Part of hoped they hadn’t, and that it was all a misunderstanding of so sort.

At the sa ti, part of knew that the Market of the past would have done practically anything to get more Achievent. Even wiping out a planet didn’t seem very surprising, when I thought about so of the other records that we had recovered from the Market. My ti constantly dying and reincarnating had started to warp my perception of life and death a bit - after all, I knew exactly what was coming after we died, and I didn’t find death to be quite as tragic as I might have in the past. But I still retained enough of my original moral compass to believe killing innocent people was wrong. But I could see how, after dozens of lives, people’s understanding of death might get very twisted. Combined with the constant desire to improve profit margins, it all made a twisted kind of sense.

said Felix.

I fell silent after that. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond, and I definitely didn’t want to think about any atrocities committed by the old Market.

As if sensing my disquiet, after a few minutes, Felix got up, walked over to , and gave a quick hug, before patting on the shoulder.

said Felix.

That was the end of my questions about the Market for the night. Sallia and Felix had probably learned other things about the old Market from conversing with the hologram, but I wasn’t ready to hear it yet.

It took many more hours for my restless thoughts to finally calm down enough for to drift off to sleep.

* * *

The next day, as the group began moving again, I found my thoughts turning over what we had learned about the Market. Anise had been asleep while the three of us had talked, and I hesitated a lot when thinking about what to say to her. I eventually decided to wait until Anise had made so progress in her magic studies before broaching the topic. Anise was so, so excited to finally have access to magic again - she was practically bouncing as we walked through the mountain. I didn’t want the information we had gathered to put a damper on her mood, so I would wait a bit before broaching the topic.

For now, I didn’t ntion it to Anise, and also did my best to put it out of my mind. Regardless of whatever the Market had done during its heyday, it was destroyed now. What mattered was keeping my friends alive. The Market’s actions could be processed later, when we had our own existence as transmigrators figured out. I had people I cared about, and they mattered much more to than whatever the Market had done hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands of years ago.

That night, after our group settled down to make camp once again, we once snuck out of camp - although this ti, Old Mo left with us, while Sallia stayed behind to tend the fire and make sure that nothing dangerous attacked our parents while we slept.

Old Mo helped us set the stage for a very ‘lucky’ find, by helping us find a rather out of the way place, and then helping us create a ‘corpse’ of a scout from the Coalition army. Which, of course, ‘Felix’ created by practicing how to create an illusion and stick it to a pile of rocks. Since Felix’s ability was supposed to be related to ntal communication, I didn’t think illusions were too out of whack for Felix to be able to employ - and as long as we kept pretending that Felix was doing everything, I could use my illusions in plain sight, which might be important in the future. Old Mo gave all three of us a curious glance once Felix asked Old Mo to coach him on what a coalition scout’s campsite should look like. This only deepened my suspicion that Old Mo knew sothing was up - but now that I knew what I did about the Market, I was more hesitant to broach the topic with him. If Old Mo knew what the Old Market had done, would he be afraid of us, if he knew we were also from the Market? I found myself worried about Old Mo’s opinion of in a way I had never been worried before.

I did my best to keep putting it out of my mind, as Old Mo slowly coached ‘Felix’ through how to create an illusion of a Coalition army scout. The coalition army was composed of several different nations working together, so Old Mo opted to coach ‘Felix’ on setting up an Ennalian scout camp, since they were the backbone of the coalition army. Old Mo seed to know every detail of what their uniforms and campsites should look like, from what kind of tent they used to what an Ennalian Scout’s campfire looked like.

Of course, Felix didn’t actually do much of anything during Old Mo’s coaching. Instead, I quietly warped nearby rocks, plants, and patches of snow by plastering illusions on top of them, all to create the illusion of a ruined Ennalian scout camp.

Once I was done dressing up the campsite, we stuck an ‘ability potion’ into the pockets of teh ‘corpse’ - as well as Anise’s orb, and a few books from the ruin. Old Mo’s background as an assassin lent a lot of his words so level of credence, especially when it ca to more valuable objects such as ability potions. So the plan was for Old Mo to verify it was a real ability potion, before giving it to Anise.

Of course, the ‘ability potion’ was actually just colored water, but after drinking it, Anise would be able to openly use her magic missiles, and we would also have an excuse for Anise to openly carry her orb and magic books around.

With the orb and books added to the campsite as well, it would look like the scout had been trying to get Zelyrian artifacts and send them back to the coalition, and had frozen to death before returning ho. At least, that was the hope.

With everything set up, we returned to camp, and prepared for our big discovery the next day - as well as the chance to finally get Anise the ability to use her potions out in the open.