System Store
Alex had a single opportunity that he could utilize to unlock one system function. He didn't have that many options to begin with so, he had to choose the more practical one. He had to look for something that could aid him now and even later when he got stuck. Alex took a deep breath and finally decided. 'System interface,'
[Golden System
Master; Alex Faxel
Status (tap to open)
Notifications (tap to open)
Inventory (tap to open)
Queries (tap to receive answers to your questions)
Store (locked)
Quests (locked)]
Alex looked at the screen while pondering. He then noticed something that didn't make any sense at all. He had just completed a mission yet the quests tab was still locked. Did this even make any sense at all? 'System, why is the quests tab still locked yet I do remember the system giving me a mission to complete?'
[The quests tab is still locked because it should be locked....You received the mission because it was just like the starter pack....It was to show you the kinds of missions that you would be taking and how the missions are evaluated plus the rewards granted in terms of quality....]
Alex was thrown off course by the system's reply. It was locked because it should be locked? Can you at least speak human so that I can understand you! As for the following reply, it was like the starter pack, that was understandable. But, this was somehow challenging. Missions indeed had good rewards but the problem was that he could not choose what reward he wanted. As for the store, it should be flexible right?
After pondering for sometime, Alex decided to unlock the store function. As for the quests, that will have to wait for now.
[The store function has been unlocked....You now have access to rank 1 products from the system....You can use the coins to purchase the products....All system products cannot be utilized by someone else other than master without his permission or they will not be functional....]
Alex let out a deep breath as he heard the system's message. It seems that all the rewards that he got from missions would disintegrate if used by someone else other than himself. On the other hand, the products from the store would not be functional. This part...he didn't quite understand it. For example, he bought a sword, being nonfunctional meant being blunt or?
Well, he would try it another time. He now could get coins and he could use them to do the purchases. Now, how does someone get those coins? Alex was once again stuck. He needed coins, but he didn't know how to get them. The only way out was to ask the system.
[Monster cores can be exchanged for cores depending on the essence within the core....]
The answer came before he even asked the question. Alex just shook his head as he thought of the information that he had received. It seemed that he could just change the cores for coins. Now, these cores seemed to have a greater value than Alex had anticipated.
Although he could cultivate normally, he could also use the cores to boost his power level. And now, he could use them to get the coins for the store. Alex once again sighed. If the cores were those that he thought were, then he would be in trouble. If the system only accepted the cores from the tower, then that meant that he would have to visit the tower more frequently.
The only problem that he was going to face would be the costs. The more powerful he became, the more expensive it was to enter the tower. He needed to get stronger so that he could hunt stronger monsters. He knew that although he could defeat a mid stage rank 1 martial monster, those at the late stages would give him a lot of trouble, let alone those at the peak stages. Alex then left those thoughts for another time and accessed the store for the first time.
[Weapons:
Armor:
Potions:
Skills:
Affinities:
Utilities:
?????]
Alex looked at the listed categories for a moment before clicking on weapons. In the weapons category, Alex found short swords, bows, Spears, daggers, gauntlets, glaives, tridents, and many other weapons. He looked at the prices and saw that they weren't cheap at a. The cheapest there was seventy coins. Even though he hadn't seen the exchange rates yet, he could still guess that it wasn't that much good.
In the armors section, he could see armors that came as a set and he could also see those that were sold as separate pieces. As for the potions, he found that there were healing potions, mana potions, cleansing potions and many others. Skills on the other hand, he could see that there were several movement techniques, offensive and defensive skills as well as support skills for both warriors and mages.
Affinities section had all the affinities he knew of and two extra. Earth, water, fire, wind, lightning, light and dark magic affinities. As for the prices, they weren't worth mentioning. They were in hundreds of thousands and for the light and dark magic, they were at least one million coins. This was too excessive!
Alex looked at the utilities section and he was kind of flabbergasted. In this section, he found that he could purchase things such as towels, clothes, bags, towels, tables, beds and other things that could be found in the market. The only problem was that there wasn't food at all. The costs, let's say that they were cheap. He could even find something for as low as one coin.
Alex lay on his back looking at the ceiling. He had different thoughts going through his head at the same time. He wondered if things were real or they were just illusions that would fade away as time goes by. He didn't wish any of this to be a dream, he wanted all this to be true or if it was a dream, he didn't want to wake up from it.
He exited the system and took out the cores that he had gained from the tower. A total of thirty one cores with two at the initial stage while the rest were in the mid stages. He took one into his hand and waited for a second before he heard the system's voice resounding in his head.
[Initial stage rank 1 monster core detected....Would you like to use for cultivation or would you like to use it for coins?...]
Alex thought for a moment before he decided to select to exchange the core for coins. After a few seconds of accepting the option, the core in his hand turned into smoke and disappeared into thin air.
[Initial stage rank 1 monster core exchanged for five coins....]
Alex heard the system's message and sighed. He knew that this wasn't going to be easy at all. Things were just being difficult as time goes by. If a single core was worth just five coins, doesn't that mean that he would need about sixty cores just to afford the cheapest weapon? This was a fact that Alex didn't like at all.
He again took another core and chose to exchange it for coins. He really wanted to see the exchange rate of the cores and coins. He really wished that the cores were worth more. He then remembered the worth of the core to him, it was practically expensive. Paying to enter the tower and once again take his time and energy to fight the monster so that he could get the core. And that's all it was worth? This wasn't good.
[Mid stage rank 1 monster core exchanged for ten coins....]
Alex saw that at least the rate increased by a half and so it was at least calming. Now that he had seen the coins-core exchange rate, it was time to see how it goes for cultivation. Taking a mid stage core, Alex selected the option for cultivation and selected body cultivation. Once he selected this option, the smoke didn't dissipate this time but entered his body. Although it entered his body, Alex didn't feel any change at all.
After some time, he took the last initial stage monster core and chose the option to cultivate and chose magic. Again, the core disintegrated and the smoke entered his body but just like before, he couldn't feel the difference at all. Seeing this, he had only one option left, the status page. 'System, show me the status,'
[Mame; Alex Faxel
Age; 15
Job; Adventurer
HP; 100
Power Level;
Warrior Rank 1 (initial stage)
Mage Rank 1 (initial stage)
Next level; Warrior 20/100%
Mage 10/100%
Affinity; Lightning
Strength;10
Stamina;10
Agility;10
Vitality;20
Mental strength; 20
Mana; 200/200
Coins; 15
Ability points; 10
Skills; Light steps (rank 0 initial grade)
Swirling winds (rank 0 mid grade)
Now seeing his status, Alex could finally see the changes that had occured. Next level for warrior was now twenty percent while that of the mage was ten percent. That implied that a mid stage monster core could boost him by twenty percent and that in the initial stage could boost him by ten percent. This showed that the value of the cores to cultivation was a hundred percent more than its value in coins.
This was a great revelation for him. This just meant that for him to reach the mid stages of rank 1, he only needed five monster cores of that stage to have a breakthrough. Thus was something that he was willing to pay for rather than stay in a single position for days, weeks, months or even a full year just to move up by a single stage. This was a jackpot.
Now here is where trouble comes in. If people noticed his fast breakthrough, they would start investigating him so that they would know of his secrets. Who doesn't want to have a sharp increase in power at the minimum time possible? No one. He had to maintain low key.
If one wanted to know what power level someone was, there were conditions to be met. It was either for that person to be a rank 7 and above or incase of a warrior or mage who doesn't meet the qualifications, a warrior must have physical contact while the mage would have to sense the density of mana being emitted from the person in question.
Now, Alex decided that since most people in Kravon didn't reach rank 7 or those at that rank were not among the people he interacted with, he decided to increase his warrior level. As for the old man that was in charge of his guild exam, that was just a coincidence and it wasn't bound to happen again, at least that's what he hoped for.
"Now, let's level up for a while, let's feel the taste of being strong...." Alex said out loud as he sat in a lotus position, ready to start absorbing the cores.