The Kingdom of Gems
This was not his first time here, but the floating skull of the Celestial still surprised him every time. Dio’s purpose of coming here this time was to meet with Taneleer Tivan, the Collector! Dio knew that Tivan was from the same race as the Grandmaster, quite possibly, his brother too! Dio needed Tivan to help him find the Grandmaster!
Although Dio wouldn’t be quite sure that Tivan would help him, it was still worth trying.
“What drink?” the bartender asked Dio as he sat down in the bar.
“I want the ‘Brainstorm’ and pass a message to Tiva, says an Old Friend come to visit,” Dio said inconspicuously. Dio knew that Tivan would be inside his collection room, and he also knew that there was no way Tivan would leave his collection behind! Knowing that the collection itself was hard to move, Tivan would choose to stay in Knowhere for sure!
“You want to hand a collection, or here to shop?” The bartender asked calmly, but one of his tentacles was ready to push the red button underneath the table if the man in front of him turned out to be a dangerous person!
“Neither, but I advise you to cooperate with me. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be good for your career! Believe me when I say Tivan wouldn’t care even if I killed everyone here!” Dio said with a smirk on his face. The bartender was seemingly chilled by Dio’s threat, so he didn’t push the red button.
The bartender was certain that the man in front of him wasn’t kidding! If he pressed the button, everyone would die! So, he slowly raised his tentacle as a sign that he wouldn’t try anything to endanger his life. “I will send your message, but please tell me your name!” The bartender asked hesitantly.
“Gillian!” Dio said as it was the made-up name he used as the mercenaries. It was also the name he used to introduce himself to Tivan in the past.
“Please wait a moment. I will pass your message immediately!” the bartender said worriedly. He had already heard such a name in the past, but he wasn’t quite sure. The man didn’t seem to be a liar, and so the man could be someone important to the Collector!
The bartender immediately left to let the Collector know about his guest. This bar had a special means to contact Tivan as this place belonged to Tivan himself. This place was the hub for Tivan to request a new collection to bounty hunters and mercenaries as he didn’t want any insignificant person to step their foot into his great collection house!
Furthermore, the last time he let his Collection house known to the public, Ronan led his army to obliterate everything!
“Please follow me! Master Tivan awaits you in his room.” The bartender asked Dio to follow him as soon as he returned. The bartender led Dio to a hidden tunnel under the cabinet in the back room. This was the secret entrance to Tivan’s room!
The view he got from the tunnel was unsettling, but then again, he couldn’t judge the person for his liking! Furthermore, Dio could never understand why another species, for example, Ego the Living Planet, could mingle with so many races. Dio didn’t consider any species aside from Human Race and some races that resembled humans even remotely close to being attractive!
But from what he saw he saw in the tunnel, it didn’t seem the rest of the universe agreed with his sentiment. But it was expected as there was so much more to this universe than just a Human Race!
Then again, it wasn’t something that Dio might like in the near future.
Fortunately, they soon left the tunnel and walked to the front of a warehouse across the street. The bartender opened a box, and Dio saw that it was actually an image verification device!
“No. 4396, I brought a guest who wants to see Master Tivan!” The bartender said without any emotion.
“Verification passed, secure to enter!” a voice answered from the device before the warehouse gate opened. The bartender then led Dio to a small windowless guard post and pressed a button. It turned out the floor was an elevator all along.
Dio frowned as he never thought that Tivan would be this afraid of being attacked once again. The last attack by Ronan got him all paranoid! Or was it because of the Grandmaster too? Dio couldn’t tell for sure before he saw Tivan himself!
From the looks of it, Tivan had his security completely figured out. If he didn’t want to meet with someone, no one would be able to find him! Who would think a dingy warehouse was just a cover-up to Tivan’s real underground lair! Furthermore, this lair would surely be rigged! It wouldn’t be a surprise that some unfortunate soul would be dead after triggering some sort of traps here!
“This way, please!” The bartender said as he took Dio to an inspection room. After all the precautions had been taken, Dio finally saw Tivan sitting on a sofa in the next room.
“My friend, you visit me again! I hope that you would still surprise me now!” Tivan said as he welcomed Dio. Dio noticed that Tivan didn’t have his usual maid any longer. It seemed he had already changed his maid to the more precious Gem Race!
Tivan smirked as he saw Dio’s eyes lit up from his new collection. As a collector, there was nothing more satisfying than a guest admiring his collection!
“Is this the remnant of the Gemstone Country that has been destroyed?” Dio asked in surprise. Dio himself knew that Tivan respected those who knew about how attractive his collection was. Otherwise, Tivan wouldn’t pay much attention to that person!
“You are very knowledgeable! Claudia is from the Gems Country that has been destroyed! I paid an unimaginable price to get her by my side! Would you like to guess how much I paid for Claudia to stay by my side?” Tivan asked excitedly.
Dio thought for a second, from the excited look on Tivan’s face, the price would surely be sky-high! But it wasn’t impossible that it was a trade too, as Tivan has a lot of things that he could trade for something priceless!
But at the very least, Tivan would have to spend around 40 billion star coins as the Gem Race was very rare and very beautiful! Dio looked at Claudia’s expression and saw that the Gem Race’s beauty was already numb. It seemed she had already resigned her fate here as Tivan’s plaything.
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