Chương 158: Item Shop

Once back in his dormitory, and after taking a shower, the belt of purification was still not the same as a real wash, Damion laid back on his bed and began to look through the Magic System Shop. There was one upgrade he had always thought was too expensive to try buying, but now that he had plenty of store credits, Damion wanted to see what Increase Magic Affinity for 1, 000 credits would do for his EX Rank Ice affinity.

'System, purchase Increase Magic Affinity.' {Error. Host's only affinity is Ice. Ice affinity is at max Rank. Unable to upgrade.}'Well, that is interesting,' Damion thought. Whether EX Rank was just the Magic System's name for S+ Rank or if S+ was as high as could be measured by the people of this world and there were actually higher Ranks out there, Damion still did not know. But knowing that his magic affinity and magic talent were at the highest the Magic System offered did make him swell with a bit of pride.

Damion eyed the option to buy more spells, but he knew if he did, his desire to use the spell would be too strong. Until he had access to the Repository in the library and had an explanation for learning a new spell, he decided to leave learning another spell for later. There was still the option to pick up another passive spell, but if Damion did that he felt he would need to purchase an upgrade to his mana regeneration.

Other than Mana Absorption, each passive spell he acquired put more strain on his mana regeneration. Right now, he was able to recover mana faster than he expended it, but Damion could not be sure the next passive spell did not require more mana than he had to spare. Looking at his remaining options, Damion was torn between buying artifacts and the option to Awaken a new Magic Affinity.

He was not sure what he would do with a new magic affinity, since even if he knew spells for the affinity he could not use them openly. If someone saw him using spells he did not have an affinity for, then he would have some explaining to do.

'Artifacts it is then,' Damion decided. Still being at C Rank, the best artifacts he could buy were C Rank. Even if the artifacts he bought were not the best, Damion felt they would at least give him a hidden advantage. The C Rank floor in the dungeon had shown him that even though he was strong, there were plenty of strong Demonic Beasts out there.

Every week Damion used his two hours in the battle simulator to gain experience, but the fights in the simulator against C Rank Demonic Beasts paled to the reality of fighting them.

'System, can I purchase a set of armor?' One of Damion's concerns was that, since he could not select what pieces of gear he was buying, he would end up with duplicated gear for armor slots. He was not sure if he could just sell artifacts created by the Magic System. This meant if he got two chest pieces of armor he would likely end up with items uselessly filling up his inventory. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. {Each Rank of artifacts form a single set. Host will receive a single portion of the set with each purchase.}'I guess that works. System, is there only one set of artifacts per Rank? What happens if I buy all the artifacts for a certain Rank?' {Affirmative. Each Rank contains a single set of artifacts appropriate for that Rank. Once all artifacts for a certain Rank are purchased Host will no longer be able to purchase additional artifacts of that Rank.}'No chance at doubling up then,' Damion reasoned.

'System, purchase five C Rank Equipment Artifacts.' {Affirmative.} {Five C Rank Equipment Artifacts purchased for 500 Credits.} Damion quickly opened up the Magic System's Inventory and took a look at the artifacts he just bought from the Magic System [Helmet of Clear Sight (C Rank)] - [Increases sight range by 5%] [Armor of Repose (C Rank)] - [Decrease fatigue accumulation by 5%] [Bracers of Reflection (C Rank)] - [Grants a 5% chance to reflect hostile spells at the caster] [Greaves of Shielding (C Rank)] - [Reduces physical damage taken by 5%] [Boots of Freedom (C Rank)] - [5% chance to avoid movement impediments] Damion read through each of the artifacts' descriptions.

None of the effects were mind-blowing, but they did offer some fairly good benefits, should their effects actually activate. He just hoped that higher Rank artifacts would have higher chances of their effects activating. After equipping each piece of gear, Damion found he did not feel any different. It was obviously an effect of the Magic System, but he was glad it did not feel like he was wearing a full set of armor.

In the morning Damion got up and went through his morning routine of exercise and breakfast with Elicia. The effect of the chest armor was noticeable, though barely. Still, growing tired more slowly would be useful, especially for long dungeon runs. Mana Absorption did a lot to reduce his fatigue, but he already had experience with exhausting himself and he hoped this armor would push that limit a little higher.

"I noticed this earlier, but I thought maybe I was imagining it. Are you hiding your magic?" Elicia asked Damion while on their way to Mage Teft's class. It took Damion a moment to consider her meaning and then he remembered Concealed Aura had Ranked up. Since this spell was now E Rank, it would hide his magical aura from everything E Rank and below. This meant that Elicia, who was an E Rank, could no longer feel his magic.

"Just training my control," Damion lied. He could not tell her he had a spell active that was hiding his aura, but there was enough truth in his words that he did not feel bad for lying to her. It was the truth, in a way, he was training his spell.

"You seem to be getting quite good at it." Damion just smiled at her, but did not comment further. Mage Teft eyed him briefly when he and Elicia entered her classroom, but did not speak until they took their seats.

"Tell me what you did wrong in the labyrinth," Mage Teft instructed Damion.

"Well, since I knew I was going to be trying to complete a C Rank floor I should have recruited either a larger team or a team consisting of D Rankers and above."

"That is what you did wrong before you entered the labyrinth. What did you do wrong once you started your run?"

"I uh… I didn't let my team get enough rest between encounters," Damion told her grasping at what he might have done wrong more than what he actually thought he did right.

"You could improve in that area, but still not what you did completely wrong." Damion did not answer right away this time. Instead, he thought about her question and all the things he had done during the run. When he finally thought he had the answer he spoke up.

"I should have retreated instead of pushing on to the C Rank floor."