Chương 62: Alcohol

After our chilling realization that buying lives might not be as easy as we first thought, our group regrouped in the entertainment district. Our spirits were much lower now that we finally realized how much danger we were actually in.

"We all have four lives left, right?" I asked, as we checked our surroundings for Skeletons.

"Yep," said Sallia, and a moment later, Felix echoed her.

"In that case, the big question is what we need in order to get access to more lives. Right now, we don't know how strong the guard is for the equipment needed to purchase more lives, but I'm willing to bet it'll be much stronger than the random skeletons we've ran into so far," I said.

"Well, we shouldn't have too hard of a time upgrading everything to Grade 1, at least," said Sallia.

"The first shop during our first trip to the Market wasn't actually that hard to take over. There were less than a dozen undead in the shop, and none of them were particularly intelligent. I think we should start out by targeting a few weaker shops in the Market, then upgrading to our Stats to Grade 1 during the course of this life and maybe the next one. Along the way, we can still focus on grabbing items, like we were originally planning to.

I think we shouldn't try to investigate whatever building lets us buy lives, even if we see it soon. We'll probably just lose a life scouting for information, and right now we need to keep as many lives as we can if we don't want anyone to permanently die. Once we have the more useful Stats at Grade 2 or 3, we should hopefully be able to survive scouting out the building, and then in another life or two we can make a solid plan.

Then, we'll have two more worlds and two more lives to get what we need to make our plan possible, before we push forward and buy the lives we need. At least, that's my best idea right now." Felix frowned, before nodding.

"I agree with your general plan, I think. If our assumption is correct, and whatever destroyed the Market is intentionally trying to sabotage the way forward for new Transmigrators, lives might be the best thing to safeguard. Transmigrators need Items, Soul Fragments, Abilities, Lives, and access to places to reincarnate if they want to grow stronger. But only Lives are fundamentally required to keep existing. And they also seem the hardest to get more of, since we have yet to find a place to buy them.

If I was a hostile force trying to destroy the Market and make sure it stayed ruined, that would be what I would target, at least." I frowned, trying to shrug off a wave of hopelessness. If I started to give up, I could destroy our morale. But the situation just felt incredibly frustrating. I didn't want either of my friends to permanently die, just like I didn't want to die. But the situation was suddenly very dangerous.

"How do we bypass the problem, then? The biggest issue we have is that we have no way to deal with whatever is guarding spots to purchase lives. We only have four lives left before we permanently die, so we don't actually have much time left. During that time, we need to get really strong. But strong enemies are also guarding better soul fragment spots, and we don't have much time in the Market before our bodies start to deteriorate. Magic Systems like the rune magic system take years to get back to full strength.

And each time we visit the Market, we only have a few months before our bodies start to deteriorate. If we can't find bodies that are more stable, this problem will persist. I'm just… not seeing the way forward. Even if we get access to better keyword Abilities, having the glut penalty to hold them will be difficult. And having them won't help if they all need a bunch of time to train up, since we don't have much time because the crappy mass-produced bodies the Market provides us."

"Maybe," said Sallia.

"But we still have ways to overcome our problems. First of all, we can still upgrade our Glut Cap to at least fifty, just by using Tier 1 Soul fragments. By doing so, we'll also improve our Stats, making it much easier to seize a shop with Tier 2 Soul Fragments for sale.

And based on the Illusion Keyword Ability you got, which improves your keyword Ability to Basic Grade at the start of every life and makes it easier to advance further and further on the path of Illusion Abilities, past a certain point Abilities will also grant us some immediate power boosts at the start of every life. It's probably just a matter of how upgraded they are.

If we upgrade our Abilities to a certain point, I think we should be able to knock down stronger enemies in the market, which will let us get access to better Soul Fragments, which will open up more room to boost our Abilities further. It's just a matter of getting there before we run out of lives.

"More importantly, while the Market being ruined presents us with a massive amount of danger, it also provides us with a lot of extra opportunities to earn Achievement that wouldn't normally be available. And that gives us a lot of unique opportunities. During the Marekt's golden age, we would have had to pay for items, for example," said Sallia, grinning as she materialized her friendship bracelet on her wrist and pointed at it.

"However, now, we don't have to pay anything to buy items. We just need to find them first. Not to mention, killing whatever is guarding the stuff we need access to gives us Achievement as well. While skeletons don't' give much of a reward, if we somehow dealt with that tree root I'm willing to bet we would all get a few hundred Achievement, and maybe even a new Keyword Ability. And we can also loot stores for their Achievement, if they have any stored.

It's just a matter of taking advantage of our time in the Market and in each life to grow as strong as possible. We just need to be careful about balancing risk and reward in each life, to make sure we only die if we get good keyword Abilities out of it." I felt some of the fear in my heart disappear at Sallia's words. While our current situation was bad, it wasn't hopeless. In fact, it was also an opportunity in some sense.

I felt the panic squeezing my heart was starting to dissipate, even if I was still worried about the future. My brain started whirring and creaking back into motion. As we had scampered back into the entertainment district, I had felt such a crippling sense of dread and defeat that thinking had been difficult. After all, our situation had felt hopeless. However, now that Sallia was outlining upsides to our situation, it was easier to think more clearly. My friends needed me to be strong.

"You're right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have panicked so quickly. Even if our situation isn't ideal, we have wriggle room. We can't give up so easily." Sallia smiled at me, and then gave me a gentle hug.

"Don't worry. You spent so much time on the islands comforting me and making me feel better. Now it's my turn," she said, chuckling slightly. After a few moments, Felix cleared his throat, sounding more than a little awkward.

"Since we have our general plan worked out now, can we start by looking for a drink in the entertainment district? This area should have the weakest enemies, and after realizing how dangerous this is, I could really use some time to decompress a little. I think we have a good shot at surviving all of this, but I'd like a few hours to process everything." * Finding a store selling alcohol in the Market was very easy. It took us less than five minutes of walking to stumble across a store selling booze.

It looked like it was some sort of grocery store, and advertised that it sold all kinds of foods and beverages, from ice cream, to alcohol, to foods I had never heard of before. Sallia was the only one of the three of us that was armed with a proper weapon, but we were still hopefully ready to take on whatever was inside of the store. Felix and I armed ourselves with roof tiles, and scrambled on top of the building to ambush whatever came out.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Meanwhile, Sallia kicked open the door, acting as bait and as a lookout for us.

"It's fightin' time, Skellies! Come here and die!" She yelled into the store, before immediately scrambling up the side of the building. I rubbed my forehead at how loud Sallia was. Even from the top of the roof, I could hear her. Which, admittedly, was the point. Sallia could draw any nearby unintelligent undead to the front of the store, where Felix and I could snipe them down and get a little Achievement out of the whole deal.

But speaking so loudly in the ruined Market felt wrong to me, now that I knew how dangerous some of the residents were. Nearly twenty seconds passed before the first skeleton shambled out of the ruined liquor store. It held a spear in one of its hands. I killed it with a single roof tile. You have slain an invading low-level troop. As defined in article two of the emergency city defense fund act, Eluxia distributes your rightful rewards. (Error – Entity 'Eluxia' cannot be found.) Achievement distribution failed.

For further information, please contact the administrator of your current city. Slaughter: Kill a skeletal foot soldier for the first time. Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount. Achievement +20, Achievement +0. 00 I felt a shiver of joy run through my body as I got Achievement, but clamped down on the feeling. I did notice that the addictive feeling of getting more Achievement was weaker this time, possibly because my soul already had so much Achievement stored up.

However, now that we were in the bodies given to us by the Market, the feeling of earning Achievement was once again distracting. While I was wrestling with the feeling of getting more achievement, Felix killed the second skeleton that left the store. This one was holding a sword. Then, after another minute of waiting, nothing else came out of the building. The three of us grinned at each other, and scampered back down the side of the building.

Felix took the spear, and I took the sword, before we looked inside of the store. Inside was a baffling sight. Dozens of alcohol bottles had been smashed against the walls of the store. Some of them looked like they had been thrown against the wall for some reason. These bottles of alcohol were also mixed with other things, like food, old potato chips, and a few other random snack foods. Had the skeletons thrown them against the wall? Had the previous occupants thrown them at the skeletons? I had no idea.

"There's… quite a few broken bottles of alcohol here," said Felix, who sounded more than a little sad.

"Are there any left?" I was also a little depressed. After the bad news we had realized about buying lives in the Market, I had been looking forward to relaxing and having a night of drinking with my friends to tone down our stress a little bit. And I had been looking forward to my first drink in fifteen years. I started looking around the inside of the store, hoping to find a few snacks or bottles of alcohol intact, and Sallia and Felix started doing the same after a few minutes.

"There's still a few bottles left in the corner!" Yelled Sallia, after about two minutes of searching.

"And there's also a Stat Cube for Fortitude in the corner for some reason. It's only for tier one, but it's still useful for us right now. I have no idea why a liquor store is also selling Stats, but I'm not going to question it right now." I frowned.

"Maybe it's so that people can drink more without getting alcohol poisoning? Can our current bodies get alcohol poisoning?" Felix shrugged.

"It's as good a guess as any. I was planning on filling up on Grade 1 Fortitude as one of my Stats. Miria, I assume you were also planning to get Fortitude to Grade 1, since you mentioned getting everything as high as you could manage?" I nodded, and Felix and I quickly headed towards the Stat Cube. There, we bought 20 Tier 1 Soul Fragments for Fortitude. My Achievement went from 10, 520. 97 to 9, 520. 97, and I started consuming them. Thirty seconds later, my first soul Attribute reached grade 1.

As my first Stat reached Grade 1, I felt something… different. I had always noticed a certain change in my body when I raised my Fortitude by forming a rune back on the islands, but when I raised my Soul's Stats instead of just improving my current body, the feeling of growing and improving was several times more pronounced. I felt more complete when I improved my Fortitude from 19 to 20. It was like I had been hungry for my entire life, and had just eaten a delicious, filling meal. My soul felt… stronger.

And, perhaps most importantly, I could also feel like my soul had expanded a little bit. In addition to being stronger, it was like I could carry ever so slightly more weight without hurting myself. It only took me a few moments to realize this was what glut cap was. It was the… size of my soul. The density of it. It was hard to put into words, but I could feel that my soul was more after I improved one of my Stats to Grade 1 for the first time.

My glut cap increased from 20 to 22, giving me enough room for a Beginner-Grade weapon skill, if I wanted one. I had originally been planning on ignoring them. However, now that I knew just how dangerous our position was, I hesitated. Then, I bought the Beginner Grade Ability for Swordsmanship. Since I knew that I could probably get Achievement for reaching beginner grade in each weapon again in my next life, it didn't seem like a bad idea to invest in making the process of getting there easier and faster.

And the 15 Stat points spread across my physical Abilities each life would certainly help me survive and gain more Achievement in the future. I had originally been planning to save more Achievement for an Ability that let me keep my name and physical appearance from life to life, and I was still definitely hoping to find an Ability or Item that let me do that, but I was feeling a little more urgency right now. We needed all the power we could get if we wanted to avoid permanent death.

My Achievement dropped to 9, 270. 97, and another Ability was added to my Status Screen. [Basic One-handed Swordsmanship] Keywords: N/A (This Ability does not have any keywords). Anytime you train with one-handed Swords, your body will adjust itself and adapt itself to your previous knowledge of swordsmanship much more quickly and effectively. When reaching [Basic] Mastery of any one-handed Swordsmanship technique for the first time in each body, your body's Physical Attributes will permanently increase by 5.

(Note - these stats are attached to your BODY. Not your soul. They will thus be lost whenever you die or swap bodies.) Glut Penalty: 2 Note: This Ability can also be purchased in the Market from an Ability Cube as well, as it is an Ability with no keywords. However, it will be more expensive than purchasing it after earning it yourself during a Reincarnation. You will need to purchase any Abilities you wish to keep within three days of returning to the Market.

Please keep this in mind when considering purchases, and plan your purchases in advance. Immediately, my glut penalty went to 22/22. I didn't feel any immediate change when I added Swordsmanship to my abilities, but I hoped once I started training the influence of the Ability would be a little more obvious. Felix also finished purchasing his abilities, before we grinned at each other and looked at the crate of alcohol Sallia had found. It was time to relax with my friends and decompress for a few hours.