Rise of the Darkness Tycoon

Chapter 8- Elemental Stone Gambling

There were markets where people sold Artifacts, items recovered from ruins and special pocket spaces scattered across the land known as ‘Rifts’.

A large portion of these 'Artifacts', due to the nature of their origin, were coated in faint elemental energy, which often made it difficult to tell whether they truly held special abilities or were simply ordinary items that had absorbed too much elemental energy without proper appraisal or analysis.

Because of this, it was easy for counterfeit artifacts to appear, with people coating them in elemental energy using real artifacts or elemental tools, then selling them to unsuspecting buyers at outrageous prices.

This district contained both shops and markets selling genuine and fake artifacts, but unlike reputable businesses that would not want to be caught dead with even a single fake, the open markets were filled with far more counterfeits than originals.

Buying artifacts from the open markets carried a high risk, and there was an unspoken rule of “No anti-counterfeiting” in the business. You paid and received the goods on the spot without any after-sales service.

If you were lucky enough to get an authentic item, it was money well spent, otherwise, you could only swallow your grievances.

Calvin walked through the market, scanning the many “artifacts” laid out across stall tables and even the ground, shaking his head silently.

‘Fakes, all of them.’

His heightened elemental sensitivity was enough for him to easily see through such poorly made imitations.

‘But unless I increase my Rank as an elementalist, a good enough fake can still fool me.’

That thought brought back an artifact he had once tried to buy, one he had been convinced was genuine, with several experienced appraisers confirming its authenticity.

However, after the expedition where he obtained the Elemental King’s Core, Calvin had been shocked to find out the artifact wasn’t real at all, and that the elemental energy he had sensed from it came from powder scraped from an S-Rank elemental stone smeared across the inside of the item.

‘It’s crazy how far they go just to make a fake. If someone can handle the energy from an S-Rank elemental stone, they should be able to make real artifacts and sell them for millions, but somehow they think it’s better to make fakes and claim they came from ruins.

Oh well, artifacts taken from ruins and Rifts are worth more. So I guess that’s part of their motivation.’

Calvin shrugged at the thought, moving through the market and heading toward his destination area.

‘Elemental Stone Gambling.’

A venture as risky as buying artifacts from the open market, but for Calvin, it was perfect for finding what he needed right now.

‘Either I get lucky and find a darkness elemental stone I can use to empower myself, or I get an elemental stone I can sell for money. Either way, it’s a win-win.’

The world was filled with special pocket spaces called “Rifts”, often compared to dungeons in video games, though that comparison was only partly accurate.

Rather than confined labyrinths or enclosed structures, these Rifts were vast stretches of land with fully formed environments and ecosystems, containing forests, rivers, plains, and mountainous regions that stretched for kilometres.

Many of them also held ancient ruins scattered across their terrain, remnants of long-lost civilisations, and were filled with elemental beasts that had adapted to the concentrated elemental energy that permeated every corner of these spaces.

Over centuries, humans had mined the mountains of Rifts for special ores and elemental stones, breaking off large sections of rock and transporting them back for processing, where they were later cracked open in search of valuable deposits. Eventually, it was discovered that in all mountainous regions within Rifts, elemental energy naturally condensed within the stone itself to form elemental stones.

The problem was that detecting these deposits was extremely difficult, as many of the mountains were made up of special ore-bearing rock that distorted and blocked the elemental senses of elementalists, making it almost impossible to tell what lay inside a chunk of ore before it was broken open.

Miners began to gamble with the ores they mined out, betting on which pieces contained elemental stones and which were nothing more than worthless rock.

What started as a small-time miner’s pastime eventually grew into a massive industry, with entire markets forming around ore selection, public cracking events, and high-stakes wagering on whether a given chunk of Rift ore concealed an elemental stone within.

‘But I have an Elemental King’s Core. Depending on how thin the ore surrounding the Rift ores is, I may be able to just barely sense elemental energy within an ore and tell if it has a stone or not.’

Calvin stepped into the first shop with such thoughts in mind, and within 30 minutes, he dragged his feet out with a disappointed expression.

‘Damn it, I couldn’t sense anything!’

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and entered the second building, coming out another half hour later while scratching his head lightly.

‘Did I overestimate myself and the power of the Core?’

He sat down on a public bench and held his head, taking time to go over everything from scratch.

‘The Elemental King’s Core boosts my sensitivity relative to my base, so I suppose this should be expected. I’m just an F-Rank now, after all.’

Still, there was a part of him that hoped there would be at least one Rift ore thin enough for him to sense elemental energy within.

Sighing, Calvin got up and headed into the next shop, one with a far higher concentration of elementalists than before.

The majority were F- and E-Ranks, but Calvin could see a few D- and even C-Ranks around. Considering Dand City’s strongest elementalists were B-Rank, C-Ranks were fairly high on the ladder in this city.

‘Perhaps there’s something about this particular shop drawing their attention?’

There was a large monthly fair in this market district that drew many visitors, and it was happening soon. In preparation, shops like this brought in more Rift ores, increasing the chances of people striking gold, so the crowd naturally grew.

Calvin didn’t know about this, and with the crowd gathered around the posters announcing it, he couldn’t see them clearly. He took note of those crowded spots to check later before turning his attention back to the Rift ores on display.

‘Come on, come on…!’

He silently extended his elemental energy across the platforms, his elemental sense overlapping with that of dozens of others attempting the same thing.

After finding nothing on the first platform, Calvin moved to another with little hope, but just as he expanded his perception, the core in his chest trembled.

‘!’

Calvin barely kept his expression unchanged, crouching and acting like he was simply looking around before reaching out and picking up a basketball-sized ore.

He glanced at the price tag for all the ores on that platform below, then reached out and took three more Rift ores.

Calvin walked to the nearest counter, joining a line that quickly shortened. When it was his turn, he placed the Rift ores down and paid 1500 dollars in total for the three, before heading over to the next most crowded area in the building, the section where Rift ores were cracked open to reveal their contents.

Special machines were arranged in rows to split the ores with laser beams of elemental energy, and once again, Calvin joined a line to wait his turn.

Of course, using this machine cost a f*e, and after paying it, the hole in Calvin’s wallet would become completely see-through.