Chapter 8: Store 72 Visit, Part Three

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Anton’s inquisitive scowl quickly turned into a grin and he lifted his arms in a hurrah and nearly shouted the sky away.

“Good. Good! It’s your first time here? Follow me! I, the manager, will personally give you the tour. Heeheehee. Oh, and my name is Anton. You see my name tag, right? And what’s your name? Wait, let’s get some tea first. Marie, you know the tea I always leave out for later? Prepare two cups of that.”

“Yes. Right away.” At Anton’s command, Marie left in the opposite direction.

“My name is Jiwon.”

“Good! I will especially remember your name. If you have any questions about Store number 72, ask ol’ manager Anton. I will personally see to your needs. Now, let’s start with Sub-basement Two!”

Anton grabbed my hand and moved forward.

“Here we have the public auction marketplace that connects with all one hundred and seven Stores. Once quite a few high-grade items have been amassed, the 107 Stores will invite the wealthier devas. Of course, money won’t be our only requirement. Here on Basement One, we have the exchange shop, where devas can easily buy and sell items. It’s quite simple to use!”

The child-like manager Anton dragged me through all the floors, explaining all the way.

I supposed he really was the manager, as all the other employees bowed to him as he walked past and stayed out of our way.

I already knew most of what he told me, but I stayed with him without complaint in case there was something I didn’t know.

“Kehehe. You see? It’s a great honor that a manager such as me personally gave you the tour. But you don’t have to thank me. You chose Store 72 out of the 107 to be the first Store ever visited!”

After taking me all the way from Sub-basement Two to Floor Four, Anton took me by the hand and led me to his private office on the fifth floor.

In my past life, I had never set foot here. I never even knew there was a fifth floor…

He led me to a single desk standing in the middle of the room, where Marie the maid poured us tea.

“Drink up. This is a very expensive tea. Even I drink it sparingly.”

As I drank Anton’s tea, I asked a single question. “So, all sales require golden rings, right?”

“Of course. What will you use if you don’t have golden rings? You’re not thinking Earth currency, are you? No. No. Exchanges of goods and services must use golden rings. It’s already established like that.”

“Tsk.” I already knew that but after hearing that answer confirm it, I was left without words.

I had the most skill points than anyone else, but I had no way to use them for eight months.

“Wait a moment. There was something about rewarding the planet’s first shopper during my training…”

Anton produced a book thicker than an encyclopedia out of somewhere.

It didn’t look like he took it out of his inventory, so the fact that he could take out a book that big from his person was interesting, to say the least. But after all that had happened, I just thought it must be natural for him and moved on.

“Hmm…”

After flipping here and there through his book, Anton began intently reading through a page. As he had mentioned a reward, I sat there and waited, slurping at my tea.

After waiting for about ten minutes, I began wondering if it were time for me to go. That was until the maid grabbed the giant book out of frustration and flipped to another page.

“Ugh. Manager, it’s here on page 455! I told you that this was very important! Of the dispatched stores, the first store to receive a deva is to provide them with a reward. Failure to comply means the store will have to pay a fine. It says so right here! If we forget to reward him, the fine will be so great that selling the store wouldn’t be enough to cover it!”

“Ah, that’s right. It was on page 455. Thank you, Marie! I can’t do without Marie! Marie is the best!” Anton said to Marie with a grin. This must have happened a lot between them, as Marie just silently took her place behind him.

“Let’s see here. Over here. Special reward rule. Listen carefully. Of the dispatched Stores, the first Store to receive a deva is to provide them with a reward. The deva may choose whatever they want from the Store’s stock. However, the deva has only ten minutes to decide.”

“Excuse me?” I could only ask in shock at what Anton just said.

“What? Did you already forget? Are you dumb? Anyway, listen carefully. Whatever this Store is selling, you can take as a reward. You do have ten minutes, though. Choose wisely. Because you only have one chance. No exchanges, either. Don’t ask me what a good choice is because I can’t tell you. Of course, I’m very grateful you made my Store the first to receive a deva. And since you’re the first deva, I got a load of points. But I’m not allowed to make a recommendation as to what you should take. If I did help you and someone found out, I would take on a huge, huge fine. That’s why I can’t…help…help…”

Anton talked and danced to himself for a while, but I couldn’t pay attention to him. Anton just told me that I could take whatever I wanted from the Store for free!

The most valuable items of the store were among the weapons, armor, accessories and skills.

Weapons, armors and accessories sold were ranked from 1-6.

Rank 7 equips could only be rarely obtained from bosses, while ranks 8-9 were next to impossible to obtain.

No amount of money could get you a rank 8 item.

Usually, you would exchange for items of the same rank, but when you took an item to the market, you ended up attracting a massive crowd. Furthermore, there was a limit of rank 6 equips you could buy at the Store.

Obtaining a rank 6 item would obviously be an advantage. But I knew better.

If I had to pick one thing, it had to be this. And if it was free, then all the more reason to.

[Skill: Unrivaled]

That skill required 20 skill points!

A monster tamer had discovered this skill while allocating his 27 leftover skill points after unlocking tames of certain monsters and beasts.

Unlike items, if you were not high enough level, you were unable to learn certain skills, or even be made aware of them.

For example, if your INT was too low, certain spells in your skill tree would be locked to you, and you wouldn’t be able to see them.

And so, skill shops had a chance to carry certain hidden skills.

Who in their right mind would spend 20 of their remaining skill points to find out what certain skills being sold in shops do? This was why it took five whole years for people to know what the Unrivaled skill did!

I had 20 skill points to use. It was the right fit. But there was another important reason that I didn’t need to think twice about this.

The cost to learn this skill was 2.4 billion golden rings. 2.4 billion golden rings was an insane amount, and no normal person could ever dream of having that much.

In my past life, my entire inventory, including golden rings, was valued at around 50 million. I had no way of obtaining that skill.

That tamer was the leader of a large and fairly rich guild and the tamer himself, was wealthy. The tamer only found that skill while trying to unlock and upgrade all of his monsters and beasts. There was no way this skill could have been discovered naturally by anyone.

There was a limit of 114 people. Only 114 people could learn the Unrivaled skill!

Once 114 people learned the skill, no one else would be able to learn it. That is, as long as no one managed to kill one of the 114 holding the skill.

“Which is why I’m saying. I can’t help…”

“Stop! Enough! I can really pick whatever one I want? Since it’s free, I don’t need golden rings, right?”

“Of course. This is a special rule established before Earth transformed. You just can’t get help from anyone and you only have ten minutes.”

“Perfect! Then I’m ready to start now.”

“You don’t need to think about it? Now? The timer will tick once you start.”

I wanted to tell him that I had finished thinking while he was busy blabbering on, but I bit my tongue.

“Yeah? OK. You have exactly ten minutes. I’ll be counting. After ten minutes, it’ll vanish into thin air, so pick whatever. Theeen, start!”

As soon as Anton said start, I burst open the fifth floor office door and ran down to the third floor skill shop.

“Welcome to Store 72’s skill shop!”

“Show me your skills!”

I ignored the greeting of the employee, Slengy, and checked the skill right away.

[Physical tree, Magic tree, General tree, Random skill (not applicable)]

From the message screen that appeared in front of me, I chose the General tree!

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