Chương 103: Chapter 101: The Most Expensive Item

Thalion had meditated the whole night, strengthening his soul. He couldn't believe just how well it had worked. Many hated him now, but looking at his total credit score, it was totally worth it. He currently had a bit over three hundred million credits. This had to be enough to buy the real deal when it came to outsiders. The last few hours until the arrival went by fast as he was fully focused on strengthening his soul, and when the notification popped up, he triggered it immediately.

Thalion arrived in front of the voice, who started laughing in his head the moment he appeared.

"I didn't expect anything like that. I guess you want the best stuff I've got related to outsiders?"

"Show me what you got," Thalion said with anticipation. A black crystal appeared before him. Memory Crystal of Xal'Kharoth, The Star-Seeker [300, 000, 000 Credits]"What makes it so special?" Thalion asked, noticing there was no description. The price was so high that if he bought it, he would have only 500, 000 credits left in his pocket.

"As you can see, it's the memory crystal made by the Star-Seeker, a being that lived long before the empire of Amun-Ra," the voice began his explanation.

"It contains knowledge on different ways to bind outsiders and to completely destroy their inherent will. The most dangerous thing about outsiders is that their will invades your soul like a virus, slowly changing you from the inside without you noticing. Xal'Kharoth found many solutions to this problem. Additionally, there's a map inside the crystal that will guide you to certain realms. There are many other things, but those are the most important."

"Okay, then I'll take it," Thalion said with a shrug. This was too good not to buy. Thalion watched in dismay as all the credits disappeared from his status screen.

"You know, you just bought the most expensive item in this shop—and you're also the first to do so," the voice laughed in amusement.

"Wait, how is that possible? Three hundred million credits isn't that much, right?" Thalion wondered in surprise. It was true; if a god's chosen got something like those cuffs, with willing followers, the chosen should be able to get way more credits than three hundred million. So why hadn't anyone bought it before?

"They got reduced due to the interference of many gods. No one in the tutorial would ever know about the outsiders, and even if they did through rare circumstances, they'd lack the credits," the voice explained.

"When gods get involved, for example by showing construction plans of slave cuffs, the price of high-value items skyrockets. But for you, it was the opposite: no one helped you, and in this tutorial, gods are frequently breaking the limits. This means that everyone who isn't blessed receives additional help to balance the scales a bit."

"So, what would the normal price be without any outside influence?" Thalion wondered aloud.

"It would be a bit above one billion," the voice answered without blinking an eye.

"Some nice discount I got," Thalion laughed. Sometimes it really came in handy to have a target on one's back.

"Since I have over 500, 000 credits left, I thought about a few things. Is there an item that allows me to fuse my skills?" Thalion asked, and a moment later, a description of a skill appeared before him: Skill Fusion (Ancient) A powerful ability that lets the user merge two distinct skills into a new, combined technique. By channeling energy, the user can determine specific elements from each skill to retain, modify, or enhance.

This customization allows for the creation of unique abilities tailored to the situation or the user's combat style. The fused skill inherits the strengths of its components. [440, 000 Credits]"Okay, I'll take that one for sure," Thalion said with delight. This was exactly what he needed, especially for his eagle form or when he would go out skill-hunting. This skill was basically morphic adaptation for skills. With his last credits, Thalion purchased housing for the living district.

It was only enough for five houses, but they should fit close to 8, 000 survivors—more than enough for the coming weeks. Appearing back in his room, he immediately took out the memory crystal of Xal'Kharoth. Upon contact, the crystal dispersed into black smoke that entered his body, and Thalion was knocked out cold from the influx of knowledge. <-- Josh saw how Jack appeared before him with a big smile on his face.

When someone entered the system shop and returned in the same position, it just looked like the form of the person flickered for a moment.

"And what did you get?" Josh sighed, realizing he probably didn't even want to know.

"Man, I hit the JACKPOT!" Jack laughed at Josh like he had lost his mind.

"Okay, can't you just show me what you got?" Josh sighed at the cryptic response.

"Oh yes, I will," Jack laughed and took out a purple crystal, crushing it in his hand. A purple mist entered Jack's body, turning the pupil of one of his eyes purple, but nothing more happened after that. Josh watched as Jack's eyes shifted, clearly reading something on his status screen.

"Oh wow, okay, that's cool," Jack said while turning around. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"One final time—can't you just tell me what you bought in the system shop?" Josh sighed.

"Okay, here it comes. I got a bit of a discount on an item," Jack cheered happily.

"Still, what item, and why did you get a discount?" Josh asked, now confused. He never got a discout before, so why did Jack?

"First, I asked the voice if it had something nice to eat, but it said it had something better for me," Jack began.

"It seems some gods have broken certain boundaries, which allows the voice to offer additional help to those who are not blessed. It guided me to a rare item: the Amethyst Soulshard. This item can only be used by a shapeshifter whose only form is a squid. It allows me to upgrade my class and the squid's race. My class is now the abyssal herald, which gives me many abilities related to my beast form. However, it also deleted most of my shapeshifting skills.

The only one that remains is the shapeshift skill, but I can only shift into my squid form. My beast form is now the Quorithan Abyss Lord—which, like you said, should be a flying squid with strong telekinetic and mental powers."

"This is a joke, right?" Josh thought. Maybe the guy had just bought something that changed the color of his eyes. This thought disappeared as the still-cheering Jack transformed into a giant squid that hovered a few meters in the air. The skin was dark purple, and he was a bit smaller than the giant squid Jack had been before.

"Oh-ho, wow, this is amazing! I feel so strong," Jack said, wiggling around.

"Hey Josh, why don't you discard all of your forms except one? There must be some special item for you, too," Jack happily announced while shifting back to his human form, which also hovered in the air as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"What the hell?" Josh exclaimed.

"How is something like this possible? You just got a massive upgrade, and there are no downsides."

"No, I can never change my class except to something that's a straight upgrade from my current one; the same goes for my race," Jack explained.

"Anyway, I think you should place the wings of the grasshopper on the back of the crab, plus the horns of the gazelle on top." Josh was thinking through all the possibilities he currently had, and he really didn't like the crab form. So he added the claws of the crab plus the horns of the gazelle to the only form left, the green grasshopper. He also hoped that upgrading the grasshopper race would be less expensive than the crab, since he had only a bit over 90, 000 credits left.

After discarding his other forms, he entered the system shop hoping for the best.

"Another weirdo! What is up with you humans? Don't you have some sense of style?" the voice greeted in amusement.

"Oh, honored voice, you gave my friend Jack a crystal that allowed him to upgrade his race and class. Do you have something like that for me, too?" Josh asked with a deep bow.

"You don't have enough credits to pay for something like that. Grasshoppers are one of the strongest insects in existence, ruling over galaxies," the voice dismissed his request.

"What? How many credits do I need?" Josh exclaimed in shock.

"With all the gods helping out, it should be around 450, 000 credits," the system said, "maybe a bit lower after next week."

"Oh no," Josh sighed in horror. This was bad.

"Are there items I can afford that would boost my current form?" Josh asked, trying to mimemize the damage.

"Hm, that's a difficult one. The best use probably would be some sort of body-tempering... nah, that would be useless after you bought the item. Ah, here—I have an idea," the system said after contemplating for a while.

"You just leave now and come back next week when you have enough credits," the voice of the system said seriously.

"And are you now a super crab?" Jack cheered when Josh returned to the fourth stage.

"I didn't keep the crab form," Josh sighed, not knowing how he should tell Jack.

"Okay, so you went as a gazelle?" Jack asked excitedly.

"So what did you become?"

"I did keep the form of a grasshopper," Josh sighed, looking down at the ground.

"Wait, so you became a grasshopper—one of the most powerful insects?" Jack exclaimed in surprise.

"What? You knew?" Josh asked in surprise.

"Yeah, you know, at some point I said something like 'thank god I didn't take the grasshopper,' and then the system told me that they're extremely powerful," Jack shrugged.

"And why exactly didn't you tell me before I entered the system shop?" Josh said slowly, with rising anger.

"Because it's your path to walk, and if it doesn't feel right, you shouldn't do it," Jack said confidently.

"I don't get why you're looking at me like that. You've chosen the grasshopper, and it should be super strong, so what's the problem?"

"I didn't buy anything. I need over 500, 000 credits by next week," Josh yelled in anger and embarrassment.

"Oh, that's sad. But don't worry, mate—I'll help you become a powerful grasshopper," Jack reassured him cheerfully.

"And just how much can you possibly do? You can't even control your tentacles," Josh sighed, looking to the ground.

"Hey, that's not fair! It really is difficult," Jack exclaimed defensively. <-- Thorwald appeared with his group of loyal followers on the fifth stage. He had tried to hold on as long as he could, but in the end, the fight was not winnable. To ensure no vampires followed him into the next stage, he had gathered his followers behind the walls and teleported out before they could be overrun, leaving the rest as a feast for the vampires.

This was bad—he didn't want to lose so many followers, but in the end, only his survival mattered. The surroundings had changed drastically as he appeared on a mountaintop, and only in the distance could he make out the beginning of a desert-like savanna. The day passed, and after a few more purchases in the system shop, they all set out for adventure. It was important that the undead didn't find them early, and they needed to level up.

Thorwald was now close to level 80, and he was confident that he could evolve very soon. This time he would wait a bit longer to gain a better class. A mythic class might be enough to satisfy him, but that depended on how much time he had to kill as many beasts as possible. His followers were in a similar position, as they were all close to their evolution to E grade. The system shop was also getting more and more expensive; he could barely afford one legendary item. It was good enough for him, though.

This time, he had bought a white crystal that raised his affinity for light and would greatly help with his body-tempering. Every one of his followers was also busy with body-tempering; the boost it gave was simply too great to pass. The only downside was that each one needed to enhance their light affinity through Thorwald baptizing them, which also allowed them access to classes and skills of his patron. Which meant that the competition for items with light affinity was pretty high.

He had ten archers, four healers, seven light-warrior variants, fourteen heavy warriors, and nine mages. All in all, it was a good team to battle the beasts on the fifth tutorial stage. He wondered what Kael and his lackeys were up to at the moment. They shouldn't be able to hold on as long as he and Steven. There was a chance that they were roaming the fifth stage as well.

Sadly, his patron had forbidden any killing of humans since they needed everyone for the fight against the undead and to ensure that Ankhet would not leave this tutorial alive. It was unfortunate that they had lost all of their craftsmen, but such was life. He luckily had paid the alchemist a visit before the fight had begun and now had an almost unlimited supply of health and mana potions, plus some additional elixirs.

"Look, Thorwald—is that a dino?" A light warrior said, pointing toward the savanna. Indeed, there was some kind of T-rex. It looked so small from a distance, but it had to be at least 18 meters high. This will be very interesting, Thorwald thought as their group continued with their descent.