Home / Fantasy / The Apex Awakening / Chapter 13: The Black Market Harvest
Chapter 13: The Black Market Harvest
Author: Shugaboi
last update2026-08-18 15:16:04

​The silence inside the wrecked Iron Vanguard warehouse was heavy, broken only by the hiss of rain dripping through the ruined roof and Vorstag’s ragged, wheezing gasps.

​Leo stood over the broken B-rank tank, looking down at him without a trace of pity. He didn't waste time delivering a dramatic execution; he simply turned his back on the coughing captain, stepping over the splintered crates to inspect the depot’s primary haul.

​Rows of steel-reinforced shipping containers lined the rear vault. Leo walked up to the largest vault door—a reinforced titanium portal sealed with a heavy digital mana-lock.

​He didn't bother looking for the keycard.

​[Target Identified: Reinforced Guild Vault Door]

[Structural Integrity: Extremely High]

​Leo raised his right arm, flexing his fingers inside the D-rank Void-Infused Kinetic Gauntlet. The black metal settled into a tight, dense grip. With a quick, brutal drive of his hips, he smashed a straight punch directly into the center of the heavy locking mechanism.

​BOOM!

​The titanium door buckled inward with a deafening screech of tearing metal. Leo grabbed the crumpled edge of the breach with his bare hands, his muscles flexing as his 90 Strength flared to life. With a single, explosive pull, he tore the entire three-inch-thick vault door clean off its hinges and tossed it into the courtyard like a sheet of cardboard.

​Inside sat rows of stacked wooden crates glowing with concentrated energy.

​[Scavenger Class Passive Active: Scanning High-Value Loot...]

​[High-Grade Refined Mana Stones x50]

​[Unrefined Void-Steel Ingots x20]

​[Class Skill Scroll: 'Seismic Stomp' (B-Rank)]

​[High-Grade Health Elixirs x10]

​Leo immediately swept his hand across the stacks. The blood-red interface expanded, pulling the materials directly into his expanding inventory slots.

​[Item Stored: Refined Mana Stones x50]

[Item Stored: Void-Steel Ingots x20]

[Item Stored: Skill Scroll 'Seismic Stomp']

[Item Stored: High-Grade Health Elixirs x10]

​He held the B-rank skill scroll in his palm for a second. The parchment crackled with heavy blue earth-elemental energy.

​[Item Analysis: Skill Scroll 'Seismic Stomp' (B-Rank)]

[Requirement: 70 Strength, 60 Endurance]

[Status: Requirements Met!]

[Class Compatibility: Incompatible with Standard Mana Engine. Converting via Infinite Trial Protocol...]

[Skill Converted to Passive: Impact Resonance!]

[Effect: Every kinetic strike delivered by the user emits an additional 25% shockwave through the ground, damaging all adjacent targets within a 15-foot radius.]

​The skill scroll dissolved into glowing blue dust in his palm, surging straight into his forearms and legs. A low, heavy rumble echoed in his bones as his physical framework absorbed the technique, permanently integrating the shockwave capability into his base physical attacks.

​Leo turned back toward the courtyard.

​The three C-rank guards were gone—they had dragged their wounded bodies toward the perimeter fence, abandoning their captain and fleeing into the rainy night. Outside the depot walls, the distant, rising wail of guild security sirens began to slice through the storm. Backup was coming from the secondary regional outpost.

​Leo pulled his black canvas cloak back over his shoulders, letting the dark fabric hide his gauntlets and bare chest once more. He activated his Pain Masking skill.

​Instantly, the massive, terrifying physical weight radiating from his body vanished. His aura flattened, sinking back down into the completely invisible, harmless profile of a weak F-rank civilian.

​He stepped out of the broken warehouse, walking right past the unconscious, bleeding form of Vorstag, and melted into the dark, rain-soaked alleyways of Sector 7 before the first guild reinforcement trucks could even reach the gates.

​Two hours later, inside the private back room of The Hole, Vance sat at his heavy oak desk, staring at the pile of items Leo had just dumped out of his canvas bag.

​The old bartender’s mechanical eye whirred frantically, zooming in and out on the glowing Void-Steel ingots and the high-grade mana stones. His hands trembled slightly as he picked up one of the heavy silver bars stamped with the official crest of the Iron Vanguard Guild.

​"You... you actually raided the Vanguard Supply Depot," Vance whispered, looking up at Leo in complete, unadulterated shock. "You took down Captain Vorstag's unit... and robbed their main regional vault in less than twenty minutes."

​"They were sloppy," Leo said calmly, sitting in a low leather chair across the desk, sipping a glass of water. "How much for the Void-Steel and the Mana Stones?"

​Vance wiped cold sweat from his bald head with a greasy rag. "This... this is contraband, kid! The Iron Vanguard will lock down every black-market fence in Sector 7 looking for these stamped ingots!"

​"They won't find them here unless you talk," Leo said, his dark eyes locking onto Vance's face with absolute, icy stillness. "And I know you like credits far more than you like Marcus."

​Vance let out a shaky breath, then let out a low, grim chuckle. "Damn right I do. The Vanguard burned my old guild ten years ago. I'll buy the Mana Stones for two hundred thousand credits. The Void-Steel... I can't sell it raw without raising flags, but I can melt it down in my private forge and use it to upgrade your gauntlets."

​[System Opportunity: Upgrade Class Weaponry]

[Material Available: Void-Steel Ingots x20]

[Result: Kinetic Spiked Gauntlets Upgrade (D-Rank ➔ C-Rank)]

​"Melt the steel," Leo said without hesitation. "Upgrade the gauntlets tonight. I'll take the two hundred thousand credits for the stones."

​Vance nodded heavily, sweeping the ingots into a reinforced steel lockbox beneath his desk. "Consider it done. It'll take me until dawn to forge the plates."

​Vance leaned back in his chair, his expression growing serious. "You need to know something, kid. News of the depot raid just hit the underground comms. Vorstag survived, but his breastplate was caved in and his shield was shattered. He told Marcus's inner circle that an unregistered, black-cloaked monster with F-rank energy did it."

​Leo's lips curled into a faint, dark smile. "What did Marcus say?"

​"Marcus is terrified," Vance said quietly. "He thinks you're a high-rank assassin sent by a rival guild to sabotage his promotion. He's called in two A-Rank Mercenaries from the city core to hunt you down. They're setting up a blockade around the Sector 7 borders starting tomorrow."

​Leo stood up from his chair, pulling his hood over his face as he walked toward the door.

​"Tell them to make the blockade tight," Leo said, his voice echoing coldly in the dim room. "It'd be a shame if any of them escaped."

Continue to read this book for free
Scan the code to download the app

Latest Chapter

  • Chapter 35: The Fall of the Valerius Syndicate

    ​The silence hanging over the Grand Assembly Plaza was absolute, heavy enough to drown out the distant, frantic sirens wailing across the lower districts. The air smelled of burnt ozone, pulverized white marble, and the metallic tang of crushed void-crystals. High above, the shattered dome of the central terrace frame groaned under the structural displacement caused by Leo’s single step, sending small showers of white dust fluttering down like ash.​Duke Valerius clung to the carved stone balustrade, his breath coming in ragged, shallow hitches. His grey eyes, usually calculating and cold, darted wildly across the courtyard.​He looked at the paladins of the High Vanguard—men he had spent millions of gold coins arming with the finest dwarven steel and enchanted barrier shields. They stood frozen, their shields locked in a defensive tortoise wall, but their knees were visibly trembling beneath their heavy plate armor. They were not looking at Valerius for orders. Their eyes were fixed

  • Chapter 34: The Sector 7 Ultimatum

    ​The trembling of the Grand Assembly Plaza did not stop. It settled into a low, terrifying harmonic frequency that hummed through the soles of every noble, paladin, and magistrate present.​Duke Valerius gripped the balcony railing, his knuckles turning chalk-white. "Insolence!" he barked, his voice straining to cover the pitch of panic rising in his chest. "You survive a suicide breach through pure, unvetted dark anomaly, and you return to threaten the High Council? Guards! Detain Class Zero immediately under the Citadel Sedition Act!"​Not a single paladin moved.​The heavy-armored vanguard line stood frozen, their shields locked, their eyes darting nervously between their captain and the bare-chested figure in the crater. They were veterans of the Upper Breaches, but the instinct ingrained deep in their bones shouted a single, universal warning: To step toward that man is to step into a grinding wheel.​"Sedition?" Leo muttered, taking another slow, heavy step forward.​BOOM.​The

  • Chapter 33: The Citadel Trembles

    ​The sky above the Sky Citadel was no longer clear.​The colossal pillar of pitch-black void energy that had punched straight up through ten floors of the Abyss had torn a two-hundred-foot hole clean through the center of the Grand Assembly Plaza. Sunlight streamed through the smoking shaft, illuminating a swirling cloud of pulverized quartz, calcified dust, and purified mana mist that rained down over the floating island like silver snow.​Emergency sirens blared across all four districts.​Paladins of the High Vanguard lined the perimeter of the smoking crater, their heavy shields locked, their enchanted spears raised in terrified anticipation. High above on the central terrace, the members of the High Council stood in frantic clusters, their scrying slates flashing red with catastrophic energy readings.​"The breach core..." a Council Magistrate stammered, his hands shaking as he stared at his slate. "The core of Floor 10... it didn't just stabilize. The energy signature of the Wor

  • Chapter 32: The Final Threshold

    ​The threshold to Floor 10 was not an opening, a tear, or a portal. It was an absolute void—a motionless, starless sea of dense black mana where time, light, and sound dissolved into nothingness.​Leo stepped through the barrier, his boots bringing a heavy, metallic thud to the invisible ground beneath him.​[WARNING: Entered Breach Zone — Floor 10: 'The Abyssal Throne'.][Environmental Hazard: Concept Erasure 'Absolute Zero Weight' Active.][Environmental Hazard: Gravitational Pull 150x Baseline.][Impact Force: 8,800 (EXCEEDS ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD!)]​ZZZZZZT-BOOM!​The moment Leo set foot on the black obsidian floor of the final chamber, a gravity 150 times greater than the world above slammed down onto his frame. The sheer mass of the atmosphere was dense enough to compress iron into powder, and the conceptual erasure immediately gnawed at his flesh, attempting to unmake his physical existence.​[CRITICAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED: Absolute Gravitational Compression & Conceptual Erasure.][Pa

  • Chapter 31: The Nine-Tailed Sovereign

    ​The opening to Floor 9 did not lead to a cavern of cold basalt or quartz. It was a tear through raw, volatile dimensional mana—a vast, blood-red expanse suspended over an ocean of churning, crimson lightning.​Leo dropped onto the floating obsidian dais at the center of the crimson sea, his boots leaving hairline fractures across the runic stone.​[WARNING: Entered Breach Zone — Floor 9: 'The Crimson Maw'.][Environmental Hazard: Dimensional Shear & Blood-Lightning 80x Baseline.][Impact Force: 4,500 (EXCEEDS ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD!)]​ZZZZZZT-BOOM!​Arcs of blood-red lightning slammed into Leo’s shoulders instantly, scorching the dark fabric of his coat and searing his skin. The 80x baseline pressure pulled downward like a dying star, trying to flatten his spine against the dais.​[CRITICAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED: Dimensional Shear & Continuous High-Density Lightning.][Pain Converted!][Pain Converted!][Strength +10][Endurance +16][Dimensional Shear Resistance +25%]​Leo’s posture didn't

  • Chapter 30: The Apex of the Abyss

    ​The shaft leading down to Floor 8 was not a physical opening. It was an absolute gravity well—a dark, screaming void where light curved and the air itself was crushed into dense, glowing violet crystals.​Leo dropped into the abyss without taking a single breath, his bare, silver-sheened shoulders cutting through the crushing atmosphere like an obsidian wedge.​Behind him, Bram and Chen fell through the howling air, held together only by the absolute limit of Bram's glowing blue runes and Chen's protective shroud of razor-sharp black mana.​BOOOOOOM!​Leo struck the floor of Floor 8 with a seismic impact that sent shockwaves rippling across miles of pitch-black quartz bedrock.​[WARNING: Entered Breach Zone — Floor 8: 'The Sovereign's Seat'.][Environmental Hazard: Abyssal Pressure 50x Baseline.][Environmental Hazard: Concept Collapse 'Null-Space' Active.][Impact Force: 2,500 (EXCEEDS ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD!)]​ZZZZZZT-CRACK!​The 50x gravity struck Leo like a falling sky. The quartz d

More Chapter
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on MegaNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
Scan code to read on App