The Black Exchange

He built the shop. The kingdom is trying to buy it out from under him.

Six months after the night that changed everything, the Hollow Ledger is the Underribs' open secret - real ability, token-priced, for everyone the Guild priced out of power. Night-sight for nine bits. A mending that holds a dying man to a physicker. Strength that tells you when it's dying.

But word travels uphill. A chancellor's house wants strength that leaves no paper. A monster-hunter wants someone who'll pay what the wild is actually worth. And the Artisan's Guild has posted silver on the shop's name.

So Corin Vale does what shopkeepers do: he builds a market. Bundles for mercenary crews. A standing deal with the pits. And one deniable, invite-only night on the tide where the price of power is set in public for the first time in history -

[THE EXCHANGE IS OPEN]

- until the bidding passes nine hundred crowns, the wrong strangers arrive by water, and Corin learns the difference between selling strength and being its price.

THE BLACK EXCHANGE is the second book of THE SIGIL EXCHANGE - hidden power, shop-craft, and the secret interest being paid on every sale.

Perfect for fans of He Who Fights With Monsters, Cradle, Azarinth Healer, and Dungeon Crawler Carl.

• A market-maker LitRPG: bundling, supply chains, price discovery, and one very dangerous auction
• Numbers-lite system text that never stops the story
• An underdog hero whose real strength is invisible to everyone - including the system in his chest
• Fast chapters that end on a hook, a reveal, or a price

Cash only. No names. Terms told. The counter is open.