After Carus's ears recovered from having Jack yell directly into them, he smiled and carried their lord outside. As soon as they exited the room, Jack was shocked to see the scene outside. The whole village was lit up with lanterns and small flag lines hosted across the town, all meeting up right in the middle of the town. Right where they all met, a singular lantern sat. Right under it, a tower with a seat had been constructed, especially for Jack, from which he could see everyone in the whole village.

This was the first time Jack got excited like that. He didn't waste any time and jumped off of Carus's shoulder before climbing onto the top of the tower with a smile so wide that it made everyone else smile as well. What he saw from the top was simply beautiful; the sunset and the whole village looked like one perfect scene, and he was happy.

"Do you like it, Lord Protector?" Jack was instantly brought back to how bad it can be as soon as he hears that title. All his excitement was killed in a second as he looked down to see the elder chief staring up at him. "Just call me Jack from now on, and yeah, it's great."

"Okay, then, as Lord Jack wishes. Since our Lord has woken up, Let the festival begin," the elder chief announced as Jack stood there dumbfounded, looking at what was going on. "Festival?"

He only expected to have a simple party, but these idiots had set up a whole festival for him. Not that it did not warm his stone heart, but he did feel a bit bad for making them do all this out of nowhere. Well, whatever they chose to do on their own, they might as well enjoy it for their sake.

Something else also caught his eye. The villagers did not set this all up by themselves; he could see the animals around the area also among the crowd, and it did not take a genius to realize what it meant. It seems like everyone wanted to welcome their new lord to the forest. As he sat down in his seat, two birds came flying, carrying plates of food and drinks on a table between their beaks. He was so enjoying this as he took the plates, and the birds flew away to get more. He laid back down, relaxing as he ate and watched the show that was about to start down there. It seemed to be a kind of traditional dance, but he wasn't really interested in watching it, so he turned his attention to something else instead. The merits and the merit shop, he was told to wait until after the tutorial to use.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

[Welcome to the merit shop.

Current merits: 19, 860]

A screen with a shop UI opened up much like what you would see while opening any shopping site back on earth before all this started. At first, when this started, he was only mad and frustrated; honestly, he would have died on day 0 if it weren't for his grandpa's advice and that dream. Speaking of that dream, he still felt like his grandpa was talking to him directly during that time.

Regardless of all that, he went back to checking the merit shop. There was a lot of stuff: weapons, tools, armor, herbs, ingredients, minerals, mana crystals, and even hollow gems. Jack thought he should get something before the test match started, but what was he even going to get? He couldn't buy beast parts from the merit shop, and he would need something to infuse with the will of a beast. He actually wanted to make a new pair of shoes for himself, and he planned on using a little bit of adamantite mixed with a beast part, preferably with a wind infusion gem, to create his new shoes, but that plan was out of the shop now. Only if there was a way to get good beast parts.

He kept checking around the merit shop until he finally came across a certain feature. A trade button that could be used to trade with other humans on his planet. This was really helpful; if any of them had hunted a beast, or preferably a bird-type monster, he would have used it to make boots. As he scrolled through the page, he started losing hope again. He only saw inferior-grade beast material, and that was not going to cut it; of course, no one would have hunted anything of intermediate grade yet. If he wasn't provided with his basilisk shells, he would have been in heavy trouble, but what now?

That was until his eyes caught a certain item.

[Feather of Stormhawk

Intermediate: II

It is the feather of a hawk who soars above the storms and commands the wind while flapping its wings. A creature of wild tendencies.

Note: I got this from a random loot box and got excited about the rank. It can only be used for crafting, though. ;-;

Price: 5000

Seller: Anabell Listz]

"That's kind of convenient," he said as he bought everything he would need to craft the shoes. Some leather, an adamantite ingot, a wind infusion gem, and the feather total cost him 8,000 merits.