The Store

Argen nodded in understanding and was interested.

"So how do I help you?" He asked

The Dark Mutant King asked Argen whether he was human or not and when he found out Argen was; he explained to him what to do. Turns out, in order to crack the formation spell, one must use a living human's blood and do specific actions.

The king first asked Argen's consent that whatever what Argen will experience, will not affect his oath since both parties will receive benefits anyway.

Of course, Argen was suspicious but after the king said the process and that this will not kill him, he finally agreed.

All those years that the Dark Mutant King spent in his forest were not in vain. He had kept on continuously studying the formation and just last year, he managed to crack the solution.

However he did not have a living human to test it with so he could only continue speculating other possible solutions.

Argen hesitantly bit his own finger and used the blood to draw a pattern similar to the drawing the Dark Mutant King held.

"Draw it with killing intent! Press your finger onto it as if you are stabbing your greatest enemy! Engrave it onto the wall using your greatest might and will!" The king strictly instructed Argen which made the poor guy complain in pain.

"Y-you...you sadist!" Argen spat these words out while using what little strength remained from holding back a mournful shriek. Nevertheless, he followed the king's words anyway since he wanted to get this over with.

He pictured his older sister's guffawing smile in his mind. It obviously gave birth to killing intent. I mean, without her killing him, he would've continued living his relaxing life in Earth.

But now...just look at him and his contorting face.

His imagination was very realistic and it didn't take long for him to treat the hard wall as flesh and slashed it according to the drawing with great strength.

Suddenly, a system panel appeared in front of Argen, but he disregarded this and such.

After his excruciating efforts of smudging the bleeding wound onto the wall, Argen had finally finished the drawing. Argen's finger was already pale and swollen and after noticing that, he let out a mournful scream.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

The Dark Mutant waited for Argen to finish pouring out his feelings.

After what felt like ages, Argen finally calmed himself. "S-so what now?" He asked while trying to steady his trembling hand.

"This drawing from a living human's blood was created during the ancient times. It used to be infamous for it's power in breaking all kinds of defenses. The thickest wall, the strongest defensive spell formations----they break in the face of this! However, as times passes by, the walls today have already developed a counter for this type of attack. However, my tunings in the drawing should be enough to serve for deactivating the defense in a minute at most. My research had already concocted a theory that would make this possible."

"And? Why is it not working yet?" Argen asked when there was nothing specific happening in the area. Suddenly, Argen felt weak and exhausted, as if his energy was suddenly sucked out of him.

"It sucks 5% of your life-force before proceeding" The king said with a smile. The wall's spell formation visibly went down. He took Argen and placed him on his shoulders before sprinting over the massive wall.

Argen shivered and glared at the nasty fellow for not telling him this vital information.

Meanwhile, located far away from Tanon Kingdom, a strange glow could be seen on an individual's eyes. "The defensive formation of that wall has been breached?! I hope the siblings can manage it" He muttered worriedly when he felt his pendant shake. He then whipped his horse to speed up the travel.

----

The king landed splendidly on a spot that was hidden by a wooden building. He put down the weak Argen and threw a piece of spirit stone in front of him. "That's my lifetime worth of savings." He said and dashed away.

Argen panicked in his mind, thinking that the Dark Mutant King was a crafty fox and threw a measly piece of bronze spirit stone saying it was his whole wealth. However, he was elated when he saw it wasn't a bronze but a gold!

Yes, a gold!

He looked at the spirit stone in front of him and stretched his arm with great difficulty to grab it. He then put it inside his mental storage where money was located.

"The guy has conscience after all!" Argen didn't know whether to laugh or cry seeing 5% of his life-force was sucked out just to obtain the spirit stone.

He rested his back onto the massive wall and decided to recuperate by meditation.

"Eh? A person?" An hour passed by and a shrill voice of a female permeated through Argen's ears. He was woken up from meditation and looked up to see an old woman looking at him with strange eyes.

Argen was about to speak when another voice appeared and interrupted him.

"Grandma! Grandpa said he wants to close down the shop for good!" A little boy ran up to the old woman with tears and snot present on his chubby face.

"That old nutcracker told you that?! Why is he so persistent?! Even though business isn't going well for years, at least we should preserve the store that once supported our lives!" The old woman immediately abandoned her curiosity at Argen and stomped her way towards the wooden building.

The chubby boy tried to catch up to his grandmother however, his balance went awry when his foot hit a rock. The kid fell onto the ground just as the old woman disappeared from sight.

"Uhm, kid...You okay?" Argen raised himself up slowly and walked towards the groaning kid.

The chubby boy's eyes turned into a glare that gave Argen his silent message. 'It's obvious isn't it?' But his mouth said a different one. "H-hey mister, are you a customer?" He asked.

His question made Argen's brows arc in confusion.

"Our small shop gives out the most delicious meals you could ever taste! Just try our best meal worth 95 bronze spirit stones and you'll love it enough to forget what the word 'bland' even means!" The chubby boy advertised despite his face churning into a pained expression. Argen looked down on the boy's toes and saw it was bleeding. Next to it was the rock that did this to him. It was kinda pointy.

"Okay" Argen nodded when he saw the boy's desperate look. He pitied the little guy and admired his efforts.

The chubby fellow smiled and escorted Argen while limping.

When they opened the door, a loud quarrel could be heard.

"Why should we even let this shop stay open despite not even earning a single bronze spirit stone for a year now! All of our vegetables and other stored ingredients all just went to waste!"

"You should be patient! Who knows, a sudden miracle could occur! You should protect and preserve memories! Not because they are now useless and non-profitable, you should now throw them away like trash!"

"I get what you're saying! It's not like I'm demolishing this or anything! Just turning the 'open' sign to the other side for good would be okay!"

"Trash is something you can't make use of. And when you close a shop which we consider a memory, it means the shop has now become useless and couldn't function anymore as such! Therefore you treat the shop (memory) as trash now and throws it away!"

The debate was heating up really badly as if this conversation could spark the place ablaze.

Their grandson made a loud cough to get their attention. "Grandma, grandpa, we have a customer." He said while maintaining a calm demeanor even though his face says otherwise.

The two stopped their heated conversation and turned their heads to look at the newcomer.

"A CUSTOMER!" Suddenly, their faces were filled with smiles. Their attitudes immediately changed and gave Argen a treatment as if they were serving a celebrity. They provided him with a cushion seat instead of the wooden one and placed a white cloth over the plain table. They took out their best dining utensils and arranged it in a professional manner.

The old husband prepared the best ingredients in their kitchen while waiting for Argen to order something on the menu.

On Argen's hand was a list of food he could eat. He eventually ordered the meal that the little kid suggested during their first conversation. He also ordered a dessert and a drink to compliment the aftertaste.

The old couple worked on the kitchen while the little fatty played a song on his flute to entertain Argen after the kid treated his wound.

When Argen finished his food, he thought that their cooking felt similar to common people back in Earth.

Mundane and ordinary.

However, he enjoyed eating anyway and did not let the thought disturb his mind too much.

"How much for the bill?" Argen asked while still feeling very satisfied.

The old woman smiled and said. "That would be 203 bronze spirit stones or 2 silver and 3 bronze spirit stones in total."

Argen nodded and fished out his gold sprit stone inside his mental world through his pocket.

"I think I could also pay with this" Argen gave a small smile at the individual, not knowing the other two let out a shocked and an embarrassed expression.

"A-a g-gold?!" The little boy cried out in alarm. It was his first time seeing a gold spirit stone.

"This..." The old man was speechless.

Contrary to their reactions, the old women kept her calm. "Sir, don't you have any bronze or silver spirit stones with you? You see, we don't have a change for that. Our savings doesn't even come close to 10% of that" She bowed her head slightly as if apologizing.

Argen blinked a few times "I don't have any. This is all what I have" But then he realized that his words weren't convincing enough. It felt like he, in their eyes now was a dine-in-dasher seeing the rundown shop could only give a free meal in the eyes of a gold spirit stone. He concocted an excuse to make it seem more plausible. "I ran away from home and taking this only spirit stone in urgency. Okay, how about this. Can you tell me a place where I could change these into silver spirit stones or something?" Argen said to them.

They shook their heads, implying that they know none nearby. The closest would be a 5 hour travel by foot.

"Oh" Argen scratched his head.

He couldn't just leave without paying right? He would feel guilty if so. The old couple and the grandchild finally had a customer in ages yet to their dismay, it was a just dine-in-dasher, eating for free.

That would be horrible.

He couldn't shake the idea off the idea of paying his food through...

Working in their shop.

Argen swallowed his pride and put laziness into the back of his mind before he spoke of his intentions.

The couple smiled wryly before they nodded their head.

----

*slam*

"What?! They discovered our men hidden and lying in wait on all of their secret escape routes?!" The clan head of Quiron slammed his palms onto the table after receiving the assassin's report.

"Yes clan head. I believe we need to spend at least two weeks from now to accomplish our plans. They have increased their maximum defense onto another level and most of our spies and vital members had already been discovered and is currently being interrogated, punished, or executed." The assassin reported

The girl beside the clan head, frowned.

"So I can't have him yet?" She faced her daddy with sadness occupying her eyes.

Her father sighed and patted her head. "I'm afraid so. Do you want to help concocting another new plan for the rebellion? It will shorten the time you have to wait" He asked with warmth visible in his eyes.

The girl pondered for a moment before nodding.