Leaving aside the obviously outrageous "entrance fee", it was easy to see where do those funds went to, as Daimon's group advanced through the mansion it was easy to notice that the owner of this place, had a lavish lifestyle, portraits, luxurious decorations, guards everywhere as well as maids.
A normal sight for nobles, but something that is out of place in a mobile island such as Raki, of course there is an exception and those are enslavers who had managed to make deals with important people from other seas.
Ignoring the opulent interior of the mansion, Daimon and the others were guided by one guard to the waiting room of the mansion, apparently there were other people already buying information, ahead of them.
While they took a seat to wait for their turn, Daimon observed his shadow as he spoke with Rita.
'So how is it, anyone worth mentioning?', he asked.
'Mm, a couple half Stellars that shouldn't be here, but no one that can represent a threat, their treasure room on the other hand is quite troublesome, but with the snake woman's help, there should be no problem', answered Rita, her voice tone was a bit weird.
Due to the recent discover that she was immune to Nether, and the way she helped gather information regarding Marcus's forces, Daimon asked her what she wanted as a reward for her contribution, just like he did for Horals back when the bone general received that Stellar grade magic spear.
And her request was "to be allowed to have informal speech with the young master", which to be honest Daimon didn't consider a reward, as he never really ordered them to be so formal with him, but if that's what she wanted Daimon gave her the green light, and so she has greatly reduced the number of times she says "young master" quite a lot, but she still has it hard, which ends in a weird way to speak that mixes both casual and formal speech.
As for why Daimon asked her to do a scan on the whole mansion, the answer is simple, he was going to rob the owner of this place, not out of spite due to the crystals they were asked to pay, as he simply could have ordered Remi to knock the guars out.
But because Rita informed him, that she felt the energy firm of one of the items he was currently looking for, an emblem, Rita had memorized the "feeling" that the different emblems gave of, and included that into the list of things of which she actively looked for every time she scanned the surrounding areas, which was practically every couple of minutes as she was in charge of detecting enemies and dangers that were invisible to others.
A couple of minutes later, the door at the end of the waiting room opened and a group of three left, though they were also using masks, their voices could be heard as they complained.
"What the hell, why were we charged extra for buying information, how is it our problem that the informant is staying in that pig's house!", the one that was walking ahead of the other two was clearly angry.
"Shh, those half Stellars aren't just for showing, if you don't want to die then don't make trouble", said another member of the group.
A man wearing some decent looking equipment came out of the room, and looked at Daimon's group before saying.
"Your turn", that was one of the half Stellar ranks that Rita mentioned, naturally, Remi and Thea were hiding their realms, while Daimon and Marlene didn't, so there were two Lord ranks, making the other party believe that it was a mortal level group, just the normal.
Daimon and the others got up their seats and then walked towards the door, at the other side there was a large room which was divided in half by a transparent wall.
At one side there was a large wooden bench which was prepared for the clients, while behind the transparent wall, there was only one thing visible, a man wearing a yellow mask sitting on a single chair.
The guard that led them here left through a door that opened only after he used some kind of authority token, leaving only Daimon's group and the man of the yellow mask.
But that was only on the surface, Daimon's amethyst eyes glowed behind his mask, and the image at the other side of the "transparent" wall became clear for him, it was a double-sided mirror.
Besides the yellow masked guy, which was the informant, there was a short fat man wearing silver robes surrounded by four half Stellar ranked guards, among them there was the one that led them here.
That alone was enough to make all the ones that come see the informant tear this mansion down, the unwritten rules state that besides the informant and the ones that pay for the information, no one else should know what is discussed in the room.
Daimon also saw that there was a servant writing everything in a book, literally everything, from the number of the people that entered to generic descriptions, apparent genders and realms as well as the questions made by the clients.
'I guess that explains the unusual riches of this guy, including an emblem', thought Daimon, information by itself is a really important thing.
So now imagine what would happen when someone knows what information you are interested in, blackmails, honey traps, set ups, scams and the list goes on, there is a wide list of ways to deal with someone, when you know what he desires.
That fat guy will probably use their questions against them, if he has the chance to, it's a shame that such a thing won't happen.
Daimon and the others sat on the wooden bench, before they started, Daimon sent a message to Marlene and Thea.
'Don't worry about the prices of the information, make all the questions you want to'.
Those two slightly nodded, and then the negotiations started, the yellow masked man was the one to initiate the deal like usual.
"The base price per question is thirty thousand sea crystals, depending on the subject and precision of the information the price will go up, I'll tell you the total before answering the question, but the base thirty thousand are mine whether you want to buy the answer or not, no discounts if you don't have the money then leave now", the voice of the yellow masked guy was genderless and clearly altered, it had an array to prevent others from using mana sense on it.
Unfortunately, that didn't prevent Daimon's infinity eyes from seeing through it, Rita could ignore the array without being detected too anyway.
"I'll go first, castles or big structures under the sea, the range are the four seas and I want the precise locations", said Daimon.
The yellow masked guy took a second to calculate before answering.
"Five million sea crystals".
Daimon nodded and Remi took a ring out of his robes, an array appeared on the transparent wall and Remi threw the ring into it, only then the yellow masked man took out a piece of paper and wrote the answer to what Daimon asked, he also took out a map with some marks into it and then sent the items through the same array from where the ring was sent to him.
Remi caught the items and after making sure there was information written on it, he kept the things in his ring, Daimon then made his second question, and for this one he took out a paper with the description of his classmate, as well as the other people from the galaxies that entered with them, before throwing it into the array on the wall.
"Any rumor or news in which people with those characteristics had participated", the yellow masked guy read the paper and after checking into his ring and making memory, he shook his head.
"There is no information that includes people with those characteristics, next question", with Daimon's approval Remi paid the base price, and then Daimon made his last question.
"Important incidents and dangers in these areas", said Daimon as he handed a list to the informant, this time there was an answer though.
"Three hundred thousand sea crystals", Remi paid and then the yellow masked informant wrote answers next to each of the places which Daimon put on the list, before he returned the paper to Daimon.
The next one was Marlene, and her question was something Daimon expected.
"Rumors and news about resources that can cure curses, and experts that focus on them, exact locations or approximate ones", said the young miss of the angelfish clan, the yellow masked guy took a second to considerate before saying.
"Five hundred million sea crystals, the answer involves known people above the Mortal Realms, approximate locations, rumors about treasures that reach the Stellar ranks and a confirmed location where a magic beast with anti-curse properties can be found", this time the informant was a bit more detailed with his answer, probably the price was quite high, it's worth mentioning that all the payments so far were made in low grade sea crystals, but the amounts weren't something that a low ranked noble family could use to buy information.
The Maelstrom Sea is a land of dreams and nightmares, it's not rare for a random person to find a valuable resource, obtaining and being able to protect it are two completely separate matters though.
The thing is that with a single lucky encounter one can become rich overnight, or die without a tomb too, it all depends, normally those who are weak go to people like that fat guy who is spying on everyone that has come to buy information, and sell their treasure at a low price with the condition of never being bothered, or obtaining protection.
If Marlene still had her ring which was lost when she used her innate ability to escape from Sting and Blackbeard, she would have still resented paying such a sum, the angelfish clan only had what their ancestors managed to bring with them, over the years they fished and cultivated the land in their hideout to feed themselves.
Only the elders were able to make some money here and there participating in small jobs, only after a Stellar ranked, in this case Marlene appeared their coffers started to grow, and Marlene split her earnings in half, one part went to the four elders which had access to the funds of the clan, and the other was in her ring.
Right now, the funds of the clan amounted to a couple of billions of sea crystals, and this information costed a fourth part of that, if it wasn't for Daimon telling her that she didn't need to worry about the price, Marlene would have doubted before accepting, but she immediately nodded and then took out five rings from her pocket.
The yellow masked informant confirmed the payment, unlike the previous times and only then, he took out many papers and maps, which he then sent to Marlene through the formation.
Besides that, Remi had some questions to make, which were actually some things that Mellie and Jasmine made representing Annete and Aurora, the total amounted to a few dozens of millions of sea crystals, as for Thea, the informant refused to answer her questions, as it involved the magic beasts that ruled the middle area of the Maelstrom Sea.
Once the deal finished, the same guard that led them to this room before, appeared to guide them to the exit, but his body suddenly froze, many offensive arrays lit up on the walls of the room, and the whole place became a like a living beast.
"Dear customer, retrieve your mana pressure, or your details and descriptions will be sent to all the informants, so you are put on the banned list and hunted down", said the yellow masked guy.
This is one of the reasons as to why no one messed with the informants, it wasn't worth offending them over small amounts of money, and if one could take out a large sum of it, that meant the person was rich enough to become a potential target for others.
So should someone like that try to rob the informants, or something like that, then their information will be freely distributed so others make the dirty work for them, also rumors say that the informants have deals with Blackbeard and other important figures, so it's not like they are alone.
"You are know trying to enforce rules, when there is someone next to you writing our information down, now that is being thick-faced", said Daimon.
He could see the expression of horror on the face of the yellow masked guy, who immediately tried to activate some sort of escape treasure, only to notice the space was sealed.
Daimon stood up and then Remi as well as Thea stopped restraining their powers, as they exuded pressures of the high stage Stellar rank.
"Originally I was only going to rob the guy that tried to rip us off, but your prices are clearly altered too, so I guess you'll be spiting till your last sea crystal too", said Daimon.
While the masked guy paled, the fat guy snorted, the double-side effect of the wall disappeared and then he shouted to Daimon.
"You have two high stage Stellars with you, so what, this wall was made to last at least half a day under constant attacks, by the time you manage to break it, everyone will know about you, unless you have one of the four rulers at your side, you'll be dead meat!".
Unfortunately for him, one of the four people to whom only a very scarce number of people would dare to offend, was present in this same room, even the informant didn't realize it was Thea the one that blocked the space, because those who had seen this ability of hers, are either her allies or are dead at this point.
With snap of Thea's fingers, a portal opened and the next thing the people at the other side of the transparent wall knew, was that their knees bent forcefully as they were forced to the ground.
The fat man was terrified when he saw that the shadow of the man he threatened earlier, expanded and then stole the necklace that was hanging from his neck.
Rita retrieved the emblem, which the man was using as a luxurious accessory, and handed it to Daimon, who felt the urge of his own emblem to devour it, probably because it was a Devil Emblem, but that could wait for later, right now he had some "donations" to accept.
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