Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

So through the many drunken rants of these men, Hal had an adequate understanding of who the Sheik was;

'Sheik' was the title given to the one who governs the Black Lagoon and from what he had heard, Hal knew he was someone with an eye out for eccentricities as well as talent.

That said, he was not exactly who someone could call 'Benevolent' and one of the most common pastimes was to curse his name.

In private of course. After all, rumor had it that he was an Aurora realm expert.

Then again, the rules might not be as strict as they all made it out to seem, after all, here they were cursing his name in the daytime and the presence of an audience, albeit a very drunk audience.

After mentioning the Shiek's Auction, the loud man took another large gulp of alcohol and his words were barely intelligible after that.

Luckily, there was someone else present to pick up where he left off and this fellow was most definitely the least drunk of the bunch,

"The Sheik's Auction is the place for goods now. For the suppliers, it helps to garner all the wealthy individuals in one place thanks to the Sheik's connections and offer them a platform to get the maximum profit through competitive bidding.

As for the Sheik, he gets a percentage of every purchase and continues increasing his wealth." The man said before taking a marginal sip of his wine.

Clearly, much as he loved to gossip and drink, he still wished to keep his clarity.

Hal looked thoughtful as he thought on this before asking his next question. No longer bothering to try and converse with the others who had all but ignored him and the near-sober man in the midst of their drunken banter,

"And how would one go about attending. I'm guessing I can't simply waltz into the place." Hal said.

The man turned to him and raised a brow which signaled Hal to what he hated the most about this situation.

The easiest to cajole were the drunk ones whose inhibitions had been significantly lowered up to the point it was practically none existent.

However, they also started losing the ability to be coherent the longer it went on and soon drowsiness would set in which for Hal who had a lot of questions was not the best-case scenario.

He could, of course, cut off their alcohol supply since he was the one treating them but that would not only leave them disgruntled, should they realize it was him, it could very well result in a conflict which would be detrimental to why he was here in the first place.

Then we have the near-sober guy who for the very same reason he is better than the drunken bunch also happens to be the reason he is worse as his clarity made him easily suspicious and hence ready to question everything.

The near-sober man eyed Hal for a while before,

"Why are you asking all this?" He asked.

Hal shrugged,

"I came here to purchase something and I wish to know the fastest and easiest way to do that" he said and it was the perfect excuse.

After all, this was a Black market trading site that readily delved into illegal trading, that Hal was here to make a purchase as well was not too far-fetched.

The near-sober nan seemed to think so as well as he nodded his head slowly,

"Of course. I get it. I live in the Lagoon but I can understand your plight and impatience as well as your craving for the good stuff" he said.

Hal leaned back,

"Whoa, ease up a little, you make me sound like an addict" Hal said.

The near-sober man chuckled,

"Are we not all addicts. Everyone is addicted to something. Even those who are clean of addictions are addicted to something. They are addicted to remaining clean.

I mean, what makes them different. Put in a situation where they feel pressured to take alcohol whether due to society or other factors, they will try their best to remain far away from such substances,

That sort of diligence is what you will find in a drug addict in his bid to find his next fix.

So the way I see it, it's a paradox of addictions where trying not to be addicted is an addiction itself" the man said with a proud smile.

Hal struggled not to roll his eyes,

"How deep" he said sarcastically.

'Hey, he actually has a point.' Grimoire piped.

Hal mind-shrugged,

'Maybe, but I don't need him telling me in some convoluted way that I am an addict cause I have come to terms with my addictions.' Hal said.

Grimoire sighed,

'I'm guessing this addiction refers to your obsession with lady parts' the Artifact said.

Hal grinned,

"Oh yes, the best addiction of them all" he said.

"What?" The near-sober man said as Hal had spoken aloud but Hal shook his head to signify that it was nothing.

At that time, the brown-haired man seated at the corner of the room who Hal had decided to be wary of, stood up from his seat, tossed a couple of gold coins on the table before exiting the pub.

Meanwhile, the near-sober man continued,

"Well, since you are here drinking with us in the pub as opposed to some expensive restaurant in some Hotel, then you are clearly not a dignified individual invited by the Sheik for the Auction.

And you cannot participate in the Auction without an invitation."

Hal frowned lightly and did not bother attempting to deny that all that the man had said was completely true.

Also, he now knew that if he ever had any hope of finding out who the supplier was, then it would be by participating in that Auction or at the very least being in the room when the Auction goes down.

He sighed and stood up from his chair before calling to the waitress and placing a pouch of gold in her hands which would more than cover the cost of the wine he ordered for the men as well as any additional they decided to order.

"Thank you" he told them with a light smile as walked out of the pub.

"Did anyone else notice he didn't drink at all? I mean all he wanted to do was *hiccup* talk" said one of them while another glared at him,

"Who cares? More for us"

"Hear, Hear" they all chanted with raised glasses and proceeded to drink themselves to a stupor.

...

Once out of the Pub, Hal took a deep breath and thought of his next course of action, and his thought process was not made any easier with Grimoire occasional inquisitive and amused questions,

'So what now?' It asked, as Hal began an instinctive walk to the grandest housing in the Lagoon whose landmass, was not up to a quarter of Sapphire city by the way.

However, that did not stop it from being seen higher up in social standing than Sapphire city since it had multiple Cosmic Phenomenon realm cultivators.

Hal shrugged,

"Who knows?" He said out loud and soon arrived before the building which clearly belonged to the Sheik.

The guards at the gate looked anything but friendly but Hal did not let that intimidate him at all as he made his way towards the gate but they stopped him with metallic batons that had runes on them.

Clearly of the same make as Rune daggers.

"Who are you and what is your business with the Sheik?" One of them asked.

Hal paused and thought better of forcing his way through even if he could. Or even making use of invisibility.

Instead, he said the first thing that came to his mind that did not sound overly foolish...

"I am here to entertain him."