The Atrium of Desires was one of the most prominent businesses that dealt with slaves in all BlackCrime City. Outside it, although they had some influence because of some strict rules in some empires they had to watch out every step they took but in this city, they could do anything they wanted if they just had the protection of one of the Three Gangs.

He knocked at the door. After a few seconds, a partition on the door was pushed in his direction where he put a small pouch filled with coins. The partition was recalled back to the door and in a few moments, the door opened. Lance walked in and right when he entered the door closed behind him.

Lance looked around and saw that there were only two men there and right behind was a passage covered by a cloth. One of the two men was a man with a very slick appearance dressed in butler clothes while the other one clearly saw that he was a guard as he was dressed in leather armor that was about to burst due to his gigantic build. Lance looked at the butler-like man, while the man looked back at him and smirked.

"Welcome dear guest to my humble abode. You can call me Smitty and this is my establishment, The Atrium of Desires. Here you can accomplish your wildest desires only by spending some coin. What brings you here? We have slaves from all the races..."

Lance seeing the theatricality of the man responded with a silent stare. Smitty at some point felt the tangible pressure coming from the boy in front of him and judging by his demure and his vast experience, he knew how this type of client liked things done. He walked to the cloth entrance and parted it.

"Come this way and you will know what you want."

Lance nodded and entered the dark passage followed by Smitty. The guard seeing them disappearing in the passage walked closer to the passage and blocked it.

"My dear guest, here we have from the best sexual slaves in all the continent, the sturdiest workers and most ferocious soldiers, all can be yours for only a small price."

"Shut up."

"..."

Smitty immediately shut up hearing Lance. This kind of customer would already know what they wanted and irritating them wasn't a wise choice.

"I want 10 slaves in total. 3 wolf beastman, between 18 and 24; 4 dark elves, 16 to 20; 2 dwarves, 27 to 37. The last I will look before I decide myself."

"Very well. Follow me."

Smitty walked in front as he led Lance trough the passage. After a while, they reached what seemed a large warehouse filled with all kinds of cages. Seeing all those cages, Lance thought that it would be very noisy but the only noise he heard was their breathing and whimpering. Also, there was an unbearable stench pervading the air, that made even Lance frown.

Lance followed Smitty till he reached a cage with at least ten beastman, the youngest it seemed to be at least ten and the oldest sixty. Lance walked closer to the cage and looked inside while at the same time he was judging their appearance. Most of the beastman didn't move even a bit when he approached while they continue to gaze at the space. With each passing beastman he evaluated, he began to think that he wouldn't find one with lingering fighting will even if a small one. He evaluated until he reached the last two beastman, about which e was surprised.

although they seemed to be in the same state as the others, by reading their body language he notices that they were shielding some other beastman from his prying eyes. He smirked and gazed at Smitty.

"Open the cage, I want to see closer."

Smitty was first confused by the sudden request but after gazing at the place that Lance had looked before he found out and smile. He waved his hands and two guards approach and opened the cage's door. Lance walked inside and went closer to the two beastman and closer he finally knew what race they were. These two beastman were from the wolf tribe and the youngest was 17 while older was 19. He noticed that when he walked closer they flinched slightly and tried to hide the third beastman. 

Lance smiled while with a sudden push he separated the two beastman to see the hidden one. The two beastman weren't prepared for the sudden push so they couldn't do anything. Lance finally understood why those two beastman were shielding this one because this one was a girl.

Most nobles would buy male beastman to be forced labor while the female beastman were for sexual slavery. Lance knew this so when he saw the girl he instantly knew why the two beastman were hiding her. He looked at the girl while she looked at him.

He saw that hidden in her girlish appearance there was a beast that wished to rip him to pieces. He felt delighted and walked closer to her and put his mouth near her hear. The two beastman seeing this, try with all their strengths to get up and charge at him but the guards were faster and restrained them.

"Girl, answer me this. If I buy you and train you, give you all the riches you will want, the power you so desire, will you still want to take revenge on those that imprisoned you?"

The girl didn't immediately respond, as if she was thinking if this was some sort of trap. But seeing the imposing aura surrounding Lance she knew if he wanted she wouldn't have a chance to retaliate.

"Yes, I will. Even if you beat me up and imprison me like those men, I will still find a way of freeing myself kill you and kill them for what they did."

The moment he heard those words, Lance felt a tiny bit of bloodlust. He laughed so hard that the girl jerked to the side frightened for the sudden change of mood.

"Alright. Smitty, I want this girl and those two beastman."

"Ok. Take them out."

The guards hearing the order fom simtty took some handcuffs and put them on the three beastman. Lance continued to search for the remaining ones.

After a while, he had chosen the 4 dark elves and the 2 dwarves. Although the dwarves had soulless eyes as if their life had been sucked out of them when he found them when he whispered some words into their hears their spirit seemed to come back from the land of the dead as they nodded their heads and followed him out of the cage. The exact opposite in the dark elves case.

From the four he chose, 2 were girls that happily chose to follow him due to his mysterious and slightly dark aura on him while the 2 men were only looking for someone that would give them some degree of freedom.

Don't be mistaken by why they all follow him. They were still his slaves and because of the blood contracts if they dare to disobey his orders they would suffer, suffer as they had never suffered before. But LAnce's main purpose to buying these slaves and saying those words wasn't only so that they would follow his orders but that they would some kind of future to aim because if one didn't have any motivation they wouldn't do their best and that would only be a waste of money and resources.

Lance searched all over the warehouse but he couldn't find one that interests him so he left with only nine slaves. After paying Smitty, He didn't have much money like when he arrived.

He left The Atrium of desires and disappeared with the slaves out of the city. Lance couldn't help but smile as he thought of the future while he led his slaves deep into the mountain range.