Published at 19th of October 2026 7:35 am

Chapter 2120: Dark Port

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Dark Port was unlike any city Adam had ever seen.

It was a city of thieves, pirates, smugglers, assassins, and killers.

If Davos was the tree, then Dark Port was its roots.

Anything could be bought here. Even living beings. In other words, slaves.

That would have been Adam’s fate when he initially arrived on Myrrandor, stranded in the Sea of Storms. Had he not escaped from the Stryker Pirates, his destination would have been inside a filthy cage in Dark Port.

This city had been built inside a colossal cavern, stretching upward for more than a kilometer. Unlike Davos, which could expand outward across the surface, Dark Port had nowhere to go but up. Up toward the light. A light it would never reach.

And so, the city had grown vertically.

Buildings were stacked upon buildings, rising along the enormous walls of the cavern like some impossible urban jungle. Towers, houses, taverns, warehouses, shops, and countless other structures crowded together, connected by winding stairways, wooden bridges, rope walkways, and narrow platforms.

Some buildings had been carved directly into the walls. Others seemed to have been built on top of older structures, creating layers upon layers of crooked streets and precarious walkways.

Hundreds of lanterns and magical lamps illuminated the city, while glowing fungi and strange crystals provided faint natural light from the cavern walls.

Adam leaned over the edge of a wooden bridge, raising his head. He kept raising it. The sheer scale of it made his eyes sparkle. The sheer scale left him speechless.

Beside him, Luca looked down. At the bottom of the Dark Port, he could see a vast river. But it wasn’t the water body that caught his attention. It was the tight cluster of buildings and how the people lived here.

"Reminds me of the mining worlds," he murmured so only Adam could hear.

"What’s that?"

"Imperium worlds rich in raw materials that feed the instrument of war," Luca said, turning to Adam.

"The humans in those worlds live out their lives mining mana crystals, metallic ores, rocks, and minerals. Basically, any useful and strategic resources the Imperium requires to wage wars across the astral sea."

"Mining for the rest of their lives?" Adam asked. "Doesn’t sound much different from slavery to me."

Luca fell silent. He shared the same views as his friend. He sighed and answered:

"That’s what the people of those worlds probably think as well. But we protect those worlds. Prevent war from ever reaching out with its claws toward them. Peace in return for a lifetime of work and obedience..."

"Dragonshit! That really does sound like slavery. Coated in caramel." Adam sneered. "Let’s go."

Luca did not have a response to that. It was exactly as Adam had said. Slavery cloaked in flowery words so that others did not feel bad about it.

He recalled how he had debated with his father on this topic many times in the past. His father had called him naive.

"Stop brooding!" Adam’s voice brought him out of his thoughts. He crossed the bridge and followed behind the party.

Thousands of people moved through the maze of bridges and platforms above him. Traders shouted from crowded stalls. Merchants displayed weapons, magical artifacts, exotic creatures, and goods whose origins were best left unknown.

It was here that Adam first laid eyes upon the dark elves and the dark dwarves. He had seen them in his library of memories, of course. But never personally.

What an interesting place this city was. Somewhere in the shadows, deals were being made. Secrets were being exchanged. Lives were being bought and sold.

Adam stared upward again at the endless layers of Dark Port. It was chaotic and ugly and magnificent. A city that should not have existed. Yet somehow, it did.

An entire city had taken root beneath the earth, growing upward toward a sky it would never see.

He couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of awe as he stood somewhere in the belly of the enormous urban jungle. He also felt a hint of sadness for the residents of the city. Especially those ones who lived under the shadows of killers. But he also felt admiration for their perseverance.

They arrived before a tavern. It was a shady-looking, crooked building. Passersby eyed the party with hostility and avarice. But one look at Stroud’s scars and the faint aura he was emanating, and they scattered like flies.

"Let’s rest here for a few hours before we head up," Stroud said, pointing at the tavern behind.

Even someone as powerful and experienced as him wouldn’t dare spend an entire night in a place such as this.

"What about the loot?" Barrett asked.

"Hah! He speaks, after all." Adam laughed. Of course, the Paladin ignored him.

They had cleared three lairs of Transcendent monsters. That was not what Stroud had planned. But seeing how efficiently the party had killed the arachnid, he believed that attacking successive monster lairs was within the risk parameters. And it was. The rewards spoke for themselves.

As a result, they had amassed quite a bit of monster materials and treasures left behind by adventurers of the past. Now, all that was left was to sell them and get the coin.

"Patience, boy." Stroud turned to the Paladin, growing slightly annoyed. He didn’t like the tone of his words. "We will visit the bazaar after we’re done resting."

Barrett nodded. It seemed like he was about to apologize, but he didn’t. Just slipped back to silence.

"Where’s the bazaar?" Adam asked. "I’ll meet you there directly."

"Where are you headed?" Stroud frowned. Although he was not his babysitter, he had still promised Hannibal to look after him. Though the youth did not need to be looked after at all.

"A friend." Adam smiled. "Don’t worry. It’s in the Heart."

Dark Port was divided into three regions - the Head, the Heart, and the Feet. They were basically the upper, middle, and bottom layers of this vertical city.

Trade was the "Heart" of Dark Port. The one who named these regions must have been a fan of puns.

Luca turned to him and spoke with a light frown, "You have friends in this place?"

"Want to come with?" Adam smirked. "You know them."

"Them?" Luca was curious. After a moment, he nodded.

Stroud thought for a moment before agreeing. He gave the two the location of the bazaar and asked them to meet in four hours. Just in case, he gave them a small artifact so he could track their whereabouts.

After traversing the narrow and dark pathways of the city for half an hour, Adam and Luca arrived at their destination.

Adam raised his head and glanced at the signboard. It was a wooden board with blood-red characters.

Greene’s Emporium.

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