Chapter 16: Merchant of Rare Goods

Just as he was thinking on how to use the electric system and try and fry the basilisk, a roar from the Basilisk Dungeon rattled his very soul.

[You’ve been struck with Fear!]

Panic was about to settle in Kael’s heart, but suddenly, once again, the rising heartbeat slowed down.

[You’ve resisted the Fear effect!]

Kael immediately tucked the lever and put it back into his backpack as it refused to go into his inventory.

He didn’t hesitate as he ran toward the nearest station and jumped behind some rubble.

He waited patiently, hoping that the Basilisk wasn’t too interested in the commotion that had just occurred.

The sound of hissing seemed to grow a bit closer, but then it stopped, and the echoes of scales moving and grating against steel and rock soon signaled the withdrawal of the basilisk.

“Thank god,” he took a breath of relief as he walked, picked himself u,p and his still hot crowbar and began heading in the opposite direction.

Kael had to walk past four stations in total to find one that was relatively intact and allowed him to leave.

The skies turned slightly brighter, signaling the start of a new day, though the sky of this tower wasn’t blue, but a deep red that barely brightened.

Carefully still, Kael walked out of the station, making sure that his eyes were peeled for any unwanted goblins or creatures that might ambush him.

He found himself in a building-packed location that seemed far too rundown and broken to be of any use to hide in or use as shelter. However, among the many buildings, a convenience store was there. Far too conspicuous to miss, as it was the only building with a neon sign on it, along with what looked like clean windows and a sign that said open.

Kael slowly walked up to the store to find the same creature that introduced them to the game sitting behind a counter. Though this one looked a bit different.

“Oh, my first customer,” it said the moment Kael walked in.

Looking around, Kael was surprised by the amount of food that was organized and on display, along with canned food, and even fresh vegetables, meat, and weapons.

Right behind the counter, several pieces of gear, long swords, bows, axes, and more were proudly displayed behind the creature.

“Fancy anything?” it asked.

Kael didn’t reply. The price on these items was staggeringly high, ranging from fifty soul cores all the way to thousands.

Anyone with their right mind would rather save up the Soul Cores to go to the next floor instead of spending them on this overly expensive store.

He needed to save up as many of the cores to leave this floor, and couldn’t spend anything here.

Kael’s stomach, however, soon disagreed with his mind.

The loud growl was enough for even the manager to hear. “Sounds like we’re hungry. Do you need anything from here? Customer?”

“I only have four soul cores…” Kael said.

The look of annoyance and the clicking of tongue was more than enough a tell for Kael to understand that not only was he poor, he was unwelcome.

“Huh, I won’t bother with you. Here, look for whatever you want.”

The manager said, and immediately, a blue window appeared in front of Kael. It showcased all the items that were included in the store, and some more.

It had a way to sort by price and type, from foods to armors to weapons and more, and you could even set a range of what you want to buy.

But having only four soul cores, Kael set the price to four max and the list grew incredibly small.

Parsing through it, he found he could only get some rations with his currency, but then something else caught his eye.

Stat Points purchase.

“Wait, I can buy stat points?”

“Everything can be bought if offered the correct price.”

Kael thought for a second, if stat points could be bought, then that means there is a possibility to become incredibly strong in this low stage. But this entails too many risks he can’t afford. Getting strong requires him to kill other monsters.

“Give me one ration of food and two stat points,” Kael said.

He wanted to increase his strength.

“Sure thing, dear customer,” the manager said.

A set of dry biscuits and some jerky popped right on the desk in front of Kael, and his Status Screen showed a new tab.

[Unused Stat Points: 2]

You have lost 3 Soul Cores.

Kael immediately placed the two stat points into Strength, as much as he wanted to use it on Mana, as it sounded pretty cool to shoot spells like all the heroes of his world, since he had no knowledge of magic, it would be a waste.

The most reliable thing Kael had was both his head and his body. And he trusted his body the most.

Just as he did so, the sledgehammer in his hand felt lighter.

Checking his status screen

***

Name: Kael Ardent

Level: 1

STR: 14

INT: 8

DEX: 11

STM: 10

Unused Stat Points: 0

***

“How does one level up?” Kael asked.

“That… is something you’ll eventually find out.” The manager smiled, “Now, since you don’t have much currency, please leave the store…”

“Can I still check through the wares, you know, to know what to buy the next time I come back here?” Kael said.

“Ah, you’ll come back, that means you’ll be a client of ours, good, good, please do.” The Manager seemed more glad now that Kael might become a potential returner to his store.

As Kael was browsing, some of the items that were far out of his pocket range, one of them in particular, stood out. It wasn’t exactly expensive; it only cost about fifty cores. But its value… well, it felt like it would be a game changer.

However, unlike the many things in the store, this item had a quantity to it.

One and only.

“Say…” Kael said as he looked at the manager, “Do you do store credit?”

The Manager smiled wide enough that his teeth showed up.

“Looks like you found something you like.”

“Yeah… so, how can we deal… so that I can obtain this… map?”

“Ah, a wise choice, now,” immediately, the manager pulled out a paper and a pen. “Let’s hear what you have to offer.”

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