Shopping Spree

Thinking up to hear, he ordered the mantis reaper to take the crystal. The other creatures were, apparently, offended they were not chosen, especially Ban'er and Little Ugly, but he didn't pay them any mind.

Taking a look at the system clock, he got up and left his room.

He had an idea that may be genius or stupid, but he was going to find out.

Steel Armor Shelter had a huge amount of people in it. The numbers were in the hundreds of thousands. As such, there was a large number of groups or "gangs" in the shelter that were organized in order to hunt and do business.

The leaders and higher-ups of this groups usually only took place on hunts that were targeting sacred-blood creatures, and only because they could have a shot at gaining a beast soul.

They also got a huge information network of the areas surrounding the shelter, so they could be the first ones to fight a sacred-blood creature or gain important facts.

Still, there were some groups that were bigger than others.

For example, in the Steel Armor Shelter there were three main gangs. Fist Guy's gang, Son of heaven's gang, and Goddess gang. Fist guy's was the only civilian. The other two, although always open for recruitment, were basically a gang representative of the financial conglomerate "Starry Group", and Goddess gang was a military branch of the alliance inside the first sanctuary.

As such, although the three of them had members that were exclusively there for trade, goddess gang and son of heaven's gang were economical powers inside the Steel Armor Shelter. They bought everything you might have for sale.

An ordinary carcass? Sure, a hundred bucks. A primitive one? A couple thousand. You are selling a mutant one? You will get a million. Sacred-blood? The bidding starts at a hundred million.

Same thing for beast-souls. They buy each and every one of them.

Although ordinary meat and beast souls are basically useless for most people, they are a life saver for rookies who are slightly wealthy and are first entering the sanctuary. They have almost everything, if you had the coin.

Which is why Ling Yun was carefully walking towards the headquarters of the Goddess gang. He decided to buy from them because, when reading the novel, Son of Heaven was an absolute piece of garbage. He wouldn't give him a penny more if he could help it.

Still, if he didn't find what he was looking for, he would go to son of heaven's gang. After all, Fist guy's gang probably had a very limited stock.

After all the four million he spent on weapons, he was left with 3,537,000 points. Which was equivalent to slightly more than three and a half million levo dollars. After all, the exchange ratio was the same.

So, he had enough money to potentially buy one or two mutant beast souls. Most likely one, but he wasn't here to buy mutant beast souls. Oh no, he was here to buy ordinary ones, perhaps primitive. But not mutant and beyond.

For starters, there was a strong possibility they didn't have any. And if they did, they wouldn't be very good. Mutant beast souls were after all very sought after.

Ling Yun could buy beast souls from the system but decided not to.

Even though there was more variety, there were slightly more expensive, according to what he had seen.

Still, he was looking to buy a lot of them, and if he didn't like their appearance or price, he would always pay a bit more to get them from the system.

So, after walking for about fifteen minutes, he arrived at the headquarters. There were a couple of guards standing there, relaxed. He approached them with a smile on his face.

"Hey, friends. Do you know where do I have to go in order to buy beast souls? I was told that the Goddess gang could sell them, but I only know this is your headquarters, not where the store is." He said politely.

He did want to make a good impression, after all. Fortunately, it was enough.

"Brother, don't worry about it, I will take you right there." A tall, skinny but strong man answered him. He was about 20 and looked friendly.

"Right, thank you. Are you a member of the Goddess gang?" Ling Yun asked.

"Oh, brother, you are speaking too lowly of me! I am a member of the gang, but also a member of the special forces, you know. The military branch of the gang. We stand at the top, only below Captain Qin and deputy Mangli. My name is Gambler. You are new, right?" He asked.

'So this is gambler… I have to say, he sure is friendly.

"Yes, friend. Today is only my second day. That's why I am looking to get some beast souls. I only have the spear you see with me at the moment." He answered easily.

"Well, don't worry. We will fix you up. You know, if you join the Goddess gang, you are given an ordinary beast soul until you don't need it anymore. It can also lend you a primitive one at a discounted rate. You should think of joining." Gambler said. It was clear they were always recruiting.

"Thank you, but I have no interest in joining any gang. I am more the casual party kind of guy. Don't like to be attached and stuff. You know how it is." Ling Yun answered easily.

"Oh, so that's how it is. Well, that's a shame, but don't worry. We still got plenty to sell. Plenty of ordinary and primitive ones, that is. Mutant beast souls and above are restricted to members of the gang and even then, they are ridiculously expensive." He warned in good faith.

"Yes, don't worry about that. I assumed it to be the case. Anyway I don't think I could afford mutant beast souls, I heard they go for up to a million levo dollars. That's too rich for my blood." Ling Yun answered with false modesty. He could make his own mutant beast souls, anyway. Gambler just nodded.

"Right you are, brother. Right you are. To be honest with you the only mutant beast souls that are sold belong to those who advance to the second sanctuary or are traded as favors or payment, it's pretty hard to find one in the open market. Anyway, here we are, this is the store. All of the available beast souls are recorded in that ledger over there. If you see one that catches your eye, talk to the guy behind the counter and he will show it to you. It was nice meeting you. If you ever need anything, look for me." Gambler said with a smile as he left the building.

"Right, thank you." Ling Yun answered while moving towards the ledger.

Up to this point, he was very clear on what he wanted to buy. The priorities were a spear, an arrow, wings, a mount, and a shapeshifting beast soul, preferably humanoid. Next were water and flying mounts, another arrow or two, a shield, and other weapons like a dagger.

To be completely honest, he also wanted to try his luck with pets. They were such useful things, after all. And if everything went according to plan, he would have more than enough meat for them to eat.

After checking the ledger, he found it to be extremely lacking in primitive beast souls.

There were only twenty of them, and some were repeats. For example, there were six copper-toothed spears.

While he needs a spear, that one had a crescent-shaped tip, which would render his drill technique useless. He needed a point-tipped one. So, he changed to the ordinary ones.

There still weren't many of them, but the number was clearly superior, almost reaching a hundred.

He chose three arrows that caught his eye as well as a mount, a spear, and a pair of wings. The only pair of wings for sale.

Unfortunately, he didn't find any flying or water mounts he wished to buy, and neither did he find a shield. Armor was too absent, but he already had one, so there wasn't any problem there.

There was only one shapeshifting beast soul, and it was semi-humanoid, which surprised him.

And luckily, there was a pet beast-soul which caught his eye.

'Guess nobody wants an ordinary shapeshifting one, given that once they start accumulating mutant points their base fitness is superior.'

He approached the seller and bought all of them.

The shapeshifting beast soul belonged to a Metal Gorilla. It was about 2 meters tall and gave a frightening boost in vitality, defense, and strength. It's speed and dexterity were rather low as a result, but it didn't matter much to Ling Yun.

The arrow beast souls were all very different. One belonged to a Swift Mosquito and its head was a sharp point. It was completely silver in color. The other two had V-shaped arrowheads, they belonged to a Blue Eagle and a Blood bee respectively. Their colors were blue and red, according to their names. Ling Yun now had three arrows, which would allow him to be more versatile in combat.

The spear belonged to a Desert Scorpion. The tip was incredibly sharp, and it was too a V-shape stinger. It was about two meters long, and its color was purple.

The wings he got were from a Winged Salamander. They were very draconic in appearance, and they were of a deep brown color.

The pet beast-soul he got belonged to a Horned Thunder Python. Its color was black with a silver horn on top of its head and electric blue eyes. Its ordinary battle form was about half a meter in length, but Ling Yun was willing to bet it would reach at least ten meters once it became a sacred-blood creature, let alone a super one.

His last acquisition, though, was his favorite.

Not because it was of a better grade, no, simply because of its design. It was the mount beast soul. It was from an ordinary Jet Lizard. It was black in color with red patterns. But the thing that caught his attention were its eyes. They were absolutely stunning. One red and the other one yellow. Also, as it was a very short mount, he would be able to make evasive maneuvers easier. It didn't have a lot of strength or natural defenses, which made it very brittle, but because of this its speed was unparalleled in the ordinary grade. It could even rival some of the slower primitive ones.

And, considering all he needed was time to make them into sacred-blood or even super beast souls, it was an absolute steal.

The arrows were among the cheapest ones, as archery isn't regularly practiced. They were five thousand each.

The spear was a little more expensive, but still in a decent prize range. It costed ten thousand.

The mount was next, costing fifteen thousand. Apparently, nobody would like to be seen riding a lizard, because its prize was a joke compared to its usefulness.

Because of its rarity, the snake pet beast-soul was valued at thirty thousand. It would've been more, but people just didn't like pets that ate their resources.

The wings were next, and they were a bit expensive at fifty thousand. It was probably the most expensive beast soul compared to its usefulness, given the fact that ordinary wings only lift you a few inches off the ground and allow you to glide. Still, it was a very rare type of beast soul, so it was understandable.

But the most glaringly expensive one was the shapeshifting beast soul. It costed a staggering three hundred thousand, which was well in the range of primitive beast souls. As it was semi-humanoid, even if it was of ordinary grade, it was valued highly.

Ling Yun actually considered buying it, because he could probably get the same beast soul at half the price through the system store but was too lazy to even search its prize. And if the seller saw him addressing Anne out of thin air, he would think he was crazy. Not a thing you want people to think.

So, in total, he spent four hundred and twenty thousand levo dollars which he exchanged from system points, leaving him at a total of 3,117,000. More than enough to buy the aquatic and flying mounts, shield, and additional weapons.

He took a total of two hours buying them, and as he walked towards Son of heaven's gang, looking for the rest of his needed beast souls, his sea of soul started to shake.

Once he took a look inside, it was the mantis reaper sword which had completed its evolution. He took a look at the system clock and grinned. Thirty minutes. Oh, he would have so much fun with this. He covered his mouth with his hand and spoke to Anne.

"Anne, can you estimate the time of evolution based on this data?" He asked hopefully.