Shane, Your Emperor Has Returned!
Li Wei and the others had not toured for long when a burst of commotion came from afar.
The two burly slave-market enforcers from before came back, surrounding a fat man who stood nearly six feet tall and was almost six feet around the waist, looking endearingly clumsy.
The fat man wore a somewhat ludicrous little round cap atop his head, studded with all manner of luxurious gemstones, and a pale gold silk robe. At first glance, he looked like nothing more than an ordinary fat man.
Yet whether it was the thick calluses on his hands, his lazy but steady gait, or the magic-infused rings filling all ten of his fingers, everything proclaimed this slave market owner's status as a professional.
The moment he appeared, the slaves around the outer perimeter of the exchange all revealed terrified, fearful looks and shrank deeper into their iron cages.
A Master-level thief? Perhaps with other classes on the side, too. Li Wei narrowed his dead-fish eyes slightly.
It made sense. Calimshan was, after all, a massive city-state with a population of two million. To control one of only two slave exchanges in such a chaotic place, he naturally could not be a simple man.
Still, Li Wei found it hard to imagine how a thief built like that could overcome the inertia of all that bloated fat in battle.
One sword hit and he would probably start spraying grease everywhere.
As Li Wei and the others sized up the market owner, the fat Boss of the slave market seemed to see Fischer's group and connect them with some important piece of intelligence from his memory. His plump face immediately blossomed into an old chrysanthemum glowing beautifully in the setting sun.
"Ah, so it is Archmage Fischer honoring