Chapter 40: Shop
Hide summoned the system screen by calling ’Class state’ in his mind.
The system window opened in front of him.
[Universal Adaptation System]
Host: Hide Volter
Age - 18
Level: 5
Exp: 960 / 1300
Class: ∞
Class Rank: F
Evolve - Level 5/20
Physical Attributes
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Endurance: 11
Vitality: 10
Mental Attributes
Perception: 10
Willpower: 12
Non-Allocated Points: 6
Active Skills – Abyssal Scale Carapace (A), Abyssal Flame (B)
Passive Skills – Dermal Reinforcement (F), Predator’s Respite (B), Unshaken Will (B), Toxin Resistance (C)
[Inventory]
[Daily Quests]
[Store]
System Messages:
[1 Unread Notifications]
--
The two things that caught Hide’s attention were the new shop option and a new unread message from the system itself. The system message was much more important than the shop, so it was the first thing that Hide opened.
[System Message 03]
Universal Adaptation System shop is now open for trade.
Host can use Evolution points gained by killing Calamity beasts to exchange for armors, Artifacts, potions and many more items.
As a newbie reward, 10,000 Evolution points have been granted.
[Evolution Points - 24,890]
Hide was surprised after seeing the numbers. How did he get this much, even after considering that 10,000 came from the system itself as a reward. 14,890 was still a quite large amount.
But that would be determined after he looked at the prices in the store.
Dismissing the system message window. Hide finally opened the Shop option and an entirely new window opened in front of him with three scrollable sections.
The first was, Armory, and it showcased various kinds of armors, complete sets and different pieces. But they were mostly useless to hide, he didn’t need to have armors, his skill was enough.
He sighed at the fact, but then got a better idea. He could sell these armors in the real world after buying it from the system.
With gleaming eyes, he checked the list once again.
[Common Leather Armor (D) (Set) - 10,000]
[Common Iron Armor (D) (Set) - 20,000]
[Bull Iron Armor (C) (Set) - 30,000]
[Wolf Iron Armor (C) (Set) - 40,000]
The list went on and on with several pieces of armor... reaching up to the prize of 700,000 Evolution points. The rank of that armor was in accordance, SSS, which was the first time Hide had ever heard of a rank above S.
He could afford the most basic ones currently but that would be a foolish move. Hide turned to the other option, to scroll through and look for more.
But out of sudden, the ground shuddered.
A deep shudder of something very large shifting its weight somewhere beneath them. The flagstones rattled against each other. Loose bone fragments hopped once and settled.
The chain bridges connecting the citadels to the main castle swayed, their links sounding a low metallic chord that resonated across the courtyard and then faded.
The earthquake lasted three seconds and then stopped.
Hide looked at the ground and then at the castle, a dread settling in his chest.
He looked at Fuu, who had also gone very still with both hands out slightly for balance.
"We’re not staying here any longer," Hide commanded. "Move to the citadel, fast."
Fuu agreed with this by moving immediately and they both finally crossed the road finally reaching the Citadel that towered above them like some kind of haunted house.
The citadel’s main door was set into the center of its base, flanked by two stone columns that rose to the full height of the archway above, the stone of the arch carved with patterns that had been detailed once and had been weathered down over whatever period of time this dungeon had existed into.
The door itself was enormous by the standard of what a door should be, it was almost twice Fuu’s height and wide enough for four people abreast — and it was black the same way the castle was black.
But the surface here was different from the castle walls. Where the castle’s exterior was clean, cold and smooth, this door had been claimed by the dungeon’s age.
Dead grass had grown up along the base and died where it had grown, the dried stalks preserved by the cold. Moss covered the lower third — grey-green in the Abyssal light, fine and dense, undisturbed for years becoming decades.
At the edges where the door met the stone frame, a thin dark growth had taken hold, fungal, patient.
The door had not been opened in a long time.
Hide looked at it for a moment.
He put his hands on the wood — where the dead grass hadn’t reached, the wood was still solid under the moss, the iron bands crossing the face of it still structural rather than decorative. He pushed.
The door resisted.
He pushed harder.
The hinges, somewhere deep in the frame, performed the slow reluctant mathematics, having been asked to move after a long period.
A grinding that built into a groan echoed in emptiness.
The door opened.
The smell came first. Cold and still and the particular quality of unmoving air in a closed space.
The darkness beyond the threshold was complete... the darkness of a space that had been sealed from all light sources for long enough that the darkness had become the default state.
Hide raised the Abyssal Flame above his palm.
The light reached in and found the floor that was made up of the same dark flagstone continuing from the courtyard, continuing inward — and the nearest section of wall, and then the shape of the space beyond: a wide entrance hall, tall-ceilinged, with two passages opening at the far end and the beginning of a staircase visible to the right.
He turned to Fuu.
Fuu was standing at the threshold, conducting an honest internal assessment of his situation and finding the results discouraging.
His eyes moved across the dark interior, trying to peek into the depth of it.
"It’s very dark in there," Fuu said.
"I think I have eyes."
"..." Fuu coughed. "And, very quiet."
"I have functioning ears as well."
"..." He opened his mouth to speak again... but he heard Hide say something before he could.
And the word... made him shudder.
"In there," Hide gestured to the plaza beyond the open door.
Fuu looked at him and forced a smile. "I have, some gashes and injuries on my side," he said.
"There’s nothing out here," Hide said. He looked at Fuu with the flat patience. "So."
Fuu looked at the open door and the the dark hall and then back at hide. ’At least its empty... better than this monster here.’
Fuu gulped. "Right," he said.
He closed his eyes once, and then opened them and stepped across the threshold.
Just as he did, nothing happened at first but then growls, grew from all sides.