Chapter 7: Shopping Spree

Talon bought the book without second thoughts. As soon as he did, a hardcover book appeared on top of the stone podium. He scrolled through the listings again and saw another book titled, ‘Things a Hero Must Know About the Infinite Realities’ for 20 System Coins. The book was posted by Round Red Doe, and the short description indicated it contained the experience and knowledge of the writer. Given the glowing name tag that Round Red Doe had, Talon knew this person must have a high status, similar to Frenzy Wild Wolf. 

He decided to buy that and another book called ‘Details About the Hero System’ for 20 System Coins, posted by Western Dominator. The Silver Scales on both sides of the person’s name suggested that this was also a high-ranking hero.

Seeing that he had almost exhausted his System Coins, he quickly checked another page to see if he could get anything else useful.

‘Let’s check weapons,’ he thought.

The weapons page was filled with all sorts of weapons, most of which had abilities and were tagged as magical weapons, costing enormous amounts. He even spotted a magical longbow that cost over a million System Coins. Although the bow could reportedly kill a Saint in a single hit, Talon didn’t know what a Saint was. Even if he did, he couldn’t afford the magical weapon, even if he sold himself a million times over.

Following the system’s guidance, he discovered a way to search for items, filter through listings, and even set the page to arrange items by price, rating, purchase amount, and more. After playing around in the weapons page, he realized that he couldn’t afford anything there, as each weapon cost at least 50 Coins. He almost felt pain in his heart seeing that he only had 30 System Coins left.

“It seems I have spent everything I have.”

— You can claim your welcome package and spin the Fortune Ticket to see if you will get anything. You will also gain more System Coins by killing monsters and selling things in the Marketplace.

At this point, he noticed the blinking golden chest on the top right corner of his screen. He clicked the golden chest.

[3x Fortune Ticket, 5 Karma, 100 Coins]

He pressed the Gambling House icon, and the system revealed three options:

[Mystery Box Mystery Shop, 12-Item Wheel, Coin Lotto]

He entered the Coin Lotto and spent the first Fortune Ticket, gaining 20 System Coins. He spent another Fortune Ticket and gained 5 Coins.

‘Puh…bad luck…’

He looked towards the other two options. The Mystery Box Mystery Shop and 12-Item Wheel offered lots of goods too. The mystery shop allowed him to choose a type of mystery box, which could yield any item based on that type of mystery box. For instance, a weapons mystery box could contain any type of weapon, possibly even a magical one. But, the odds were low, and he risked getting nothing.

The same applied to the 12-Item Wheel, which had 12 items that refreshed every week but also had a big chance of landing a dud. It had even lower chances than the mystery boxes.

After thinking it through, he decided to go for the Artifact Mystery Box, which had better average odds than the other mystery boxes and far better than the 12-Items Wheel.

[Ring of Vitality]

[Grade: Preliminary]

[Increases the user’s stamina, health, and core energy by 10%]

A ring appeared on the stone podium, made of polished green stone with strange rune patterns on it. He found that he could wear it easily on his ring finger. The moment he wore it, he felt immediately refreshed.

‘That’s cool,’ he thought.

Seeing that his Coins had increased to 155 System Coins, he wanted to buy again but decided against it. It would be good to save this for a rainy day.

Finally realizing that he didn’t have anything else to do, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

‘Time to make those bastards suffer for their crimes,’ he thought.

He walked to the door and pushed it open. A blinding light covered him, and he disappeared.

---

‘The wind is cold,’ was the first thought that crossed his mind even before he opened his eyes. He was still in Moon Mist Woods, standing on the very spot where he died. He looked down to see the two footprints he left when he was carbonized. Ash and soot covered everywhere, and all the trees within a twenty-meter radius had been turned to coal.

‘Such power, such force,’ he thought, realizing just how scary the Sun Fire Mage profession truly was.

From what he could see around him, he knew the storm had just ended. He couldn’t tell how long he had been dead, but since the forest looked like it had experienced its destruction fairly recently, and the storm had stopped not too long ago, he figured he couldn’t have been gone for more than a few hours.

He looked towards the southeast, the direction taken by the team. The plan was to keep going in that direction until they reached the town of Eryndor, and then head towards the Ironflower Duchy from there. Eryndor was located between the Ironflower Duchy and the Lupin Mountain Range. Apart from scattered villages, it was the only large town in the vicinity. Due to its remote location and the fact that Fort Avarack was situated in the Lupin Mountain Range, there was almost no threat in the region. It only had to deal with the occasional bandits, dire wolf packs, and goblins, making it quite peaceful compared to the rest of the kingdom.

The Lupin Mountain Range was at the northern edge of the Kingdom of Aurumia, which owned the territory from the south of the Lupin Mountain Range down to the southern coast of the Lye Continent. This made the Kingdom of Aurumia one of the southernmost kingdoms on the Lye Continent.

Talon started to head towards Eryndor. With a caravan, the journey from Fort Avarack to Eryndor took two days on average, and another three days from Eryndor to Ironflower Duchy.

As he walked, he had only one concern: Would the Verdant Brothers hurt his sister? As he thought of this, he discarded the thought again. Everyone knew he grew up in the orphanage. Due to Vaila’s illness, she barely left the orphanage. Apart from those living in the orphanage, barely anyone would even know she existed. Even if they suspected this because he visited the orphanage a lot, there was a bigger chance they would just think he was going there to greet his old pals.

With this train of thought, he felt calm. Besides, the brothers were probably on their way to Ironflower Duchy to deliver their lie. He was sure they wouldn’t dare steal everything they were told to escort. They would probably steal a part of it and blame unknown bandits for ‘ambushing’ the caravan during the storm.

Talon felt this was very likely.

‘My thoughts seem to be moving faster,’ he noticed. Ever since he awakened his Mind Hunter profession, his mind had felt…freer and sharper.