The blind slammed home at the top of the window sill, revealing the yellow eye of Earth's perfect killing machine, back from extinction to terrorize the world once again. All that separated him from certain doom was a thin sheet of glass and the nature of the shop. Oh, it wanted to get inside, but the beast couldn't figure out how for some reason. It lumbered, shaking the ground, searching for some way in, but still hadn't found one.
Red was trapped in a small room with nothing to eat or drink. His situation couldn't possibly get any worse. Hours after seeing the predator, he had time to look out and admire his situation, which included piles of dino feces filled with human bones. The beast seemed to enjoy stomping around his shop and hunting anything that saw it.
He would like to say he was free to exit, but the monster would eat him when he left the shop's safety. That left him stranded and bored out of his mind. He broke down and prayed to every deity he could think of, and something happened when he fell on the god emperor of humanity.
The flashing screen wasn't helping his sanity either. Or there is a slight chance that the god emperor of Dune might be real.
Welcome to the shop!
Red was the owner. He woke up in the shop and nearly left to his doom. Then the message appeared when he didn't leave.
The shop was small, around 100 square feet, with barely enough room to pace. The monster outside shook the shop with every step, and there was a second door he couldn't open. He turned his attention to a wooden door on the wall he couldn't open.
A sign above it clearly said "customer entrance." The flashing red exit sign above the glass door didn't look ominous.
Whenever he thought the T-rex was gone, he opened a blind to see it waiting to flank him when he exited the shop. Red thought about leaving when it got dark but quickly realized that the dinosaur probably had better night vision than him. This situation worsened because he had no idea how he got into the shop. One moment, he was watching a meteor burn violet in the atmosphere. The next, he was in a small shop.
He listened to his boots echo off the wooden floor as he paced and looked at the second window. Red approached two chests that took up large portions of the shop with signs saying outbox and inbox. Did that mean he could send and receive mail?
Would you like to open the welcome kit?
Red peered out the door and saw the bottom half of someone's shoe. Escape wasn't viable. He had to play along if he wanted to get anywhere.
He gave his reflection in the glass door a look over. The nascent shop owner wasn't much to look at. He was a man in his early 30s with a slight gut, male-patterned baldness, and a beard.
The guy in the window wasn't getting any badass awards anytime soon.
Since he had no other choice, he might accept the call to action.
"Sure, give it to me."
He heard a rumble from the chest of inboxes and quickly opened them. Inside was a cardboard box with "welcome kit" written in red on the lid. Red had precisely one piece of furniture and placed the box on the counter.
There wasn't a chair in sight. He would have to stand at the counter. That was depressing.
Quest
Acquire Merchandise
Trash Rank sword 0/1
Trash Rank shield 0/1
Trash Rank spear 0/1
Reward: 100SP (Shop Points), Shop Upgrade Menu (Trash)
A few questions: What was with the ranking system? What kind of customer would purchase something called trash rank? Was there information on the ranking system, and how was he supposed to receive merchandise? Did he have a balance?
Wallet: 0SP
Thankfully, the system was on its game. Who knows what would have happened if the system had not told him he was broke?
The new and very broke shop owner sucked in a breath and let it out. So, he had no seed money. Maybe the answer to his problems was in the box.
Red opened the box and found a helpful laminated card with his driver's license photo. It was a multiverse merchant's license. That was helpful, and maybe it would give him some credibility. Or maybe whoever did this to him was making fun of him. That seemed about as likely. There was another card. This one had color-coated tiers identifying the different ranks of items. It only gave the first five ranks.
Trash
Common
Uncommon
Rare
Epic
It was okay; he didn't want to be overwhelmed by too much anyway. The information withheld wasn't raising any red flags. Nope, none were raised, and he was going to act like this wasn't freaking him out.
Red heard a grinding sound and turned to see the T-rex turn in his direction with a moose in its mouth. It bit down, and he could hear the monster's teeth scrape against the moose's bones. Then he felt the pop as the T-rex finally cut through them.
A shiver ran down his spine. He tore his eyes away and focused back on the Welcome Kit.
There was a single card inside ten bronze keys, and that was it.
He picked up the card first.
Spell Card: Activate this card to learn one random battle spell.
First-Time Activation: Gain the intelligence attribute and one random perk.
Under the card was a small felt bag. Was it what he thought it was?
Bag of Holding (Rare): Can store up to 100 cubic feet. Item drops automatically appear in the bag of holding when equipped.
Red hugged the shabby bag to his chest. He never wanted to let it go. It was precisely what he needed.
He picked up one of the bronze keys. This was the last puzzle piece, and he only hoped to get anywhere. It was his last hope unless he thought a single spell would save him from a T-rex.
Who knew what else was outside his shop?
Instant Dungeon Key (Uncommon) – slide into the lock of your shop, declare a typing, and be transported to a dungeon to farm resources.
Warning: The dungeon lasts 24 hours. If caught outside, the user will appear outside a shop in the hub world. If the user does not return to the shop immediately, they will receive a penalty quest.
He held up the spell card, and it activated. Pain, raw and sharp, hit him, starting in his head, but it quickly crawled down his spine.
Rolling INT(intelligence) – The attribute determining what tier of spells can be learned and how much MP a user has.
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INT 11
MP 11/11
MP recharges 1 per hour
Spell Rolling
Fireball lvl1: A spell that conjures an explosive fireball, casting it in a direction.
Cost: 3MP
Fire Damage 2D10 x lvl
Area 1D4 x
Range: 1D10 x 5ft
Knowledge of how to conjure and fire a fireball came to mind, along with the images he needed to picture before using the spell. Magic, as it turned out, wasn't all dumping loads of mana into a problem until it disappeared.
It wasn't very clear, but he thought he understood what the shop system was trying to tell him.
Red could use a fireball once every 3 hours, or if his mana were maxed out 3 times, he would have to wait 10 hours. At level one, the fire damage was dealt with randomly based on dice. It could be at its lowest two up to 20. HP wasn't in the thousands, and like most RPGs, it seemed to be in much lower numbers. Or he could be dead wrong.
Did he want to risk it and fire off one outside?
He turned his head, and the T-rex's pupil shrank. There were easier ways to lose an arm.
Red looked over his head and saw a die roll.
Perk Roll
3 Fourth's Tax Return: After casting three spells in succession, cast a fourth of the same spell free.
It wasn't great, but it also wasn't horrible. Red had a way over his limit. Instead of only using three spells, he could use 4. It was a great perk, but he needed a percentage chance to restore mana after killing an enemy. An extra shot wasn't significantly bad when spells ramped up their mana prices.
"How much to upgrade my Intelligence?" Red asked.
1200SP or 12 mana stones (Trash)
It was time to ask the real question. "How much to raise my mana?"
Unclear
He thought about it. "How much SP to increase my mana from 11 to 12?"
120SP
It's a tenth of the price, but would he still get MP if he increased his intelligence? Were there ways to improve his INT without buying it from the system? Were there other attributes he could get? No more than that. What kind of dungeon should he open?
He was dealing with a system that didn't seem keen on helping him. It wasn't user-intuitive; he had to ask it questions, and getting the answers felt like pulling teeth. Did it want him to open a dungeon?
"What type of dungeons can I open with a bronze key?"
Would you like to purchase a Bronze Key Dungeon Guide for 1000SP?
So he could buy nearly anything he asked for. The sky was the limit, but nothing was free.
"No thanks. I think I'm nearly ready to go. There are just a few more questions I need to ask. Show me the shop Status."
Nameless Shop lvl1 100SP to next level
Owner: Red
Tier 1(Trash)
Income: 0
Attendants: 0
Rooms 1 (Trash)
Stories: 1 (Trash)
Fame: 0
Customers: 0
Sales: 0
Investors: 0
Artisans: 0
Well, seeing all those zeroes made him feel a little self-conscious. He would have to buckle down and shoot fireballs if he wanted to escape his current situation. The big question was what kind of place he wanted to go to. The key said to declare a type, which was probably the best choice if he had a fire.
The biggest thing he's killed in a long time was a spider. He wasn't feeling incredibly confident.
He approached the door, and the T-rex outside practically salivated. It braced itself to lung until he stuck the key into the door's lock.
Choose a Type
Fire
Water
Wood
Earth
Metal
Dark
Light
Wood Has Been Chosen
The moment the world changes, he hears screaming. A woman with pointed ears, most likely an elf, slammed into his glass door. He sees seeds attached to her skin growing through her flesh. Parts of her body begin to glow as a large growth pushes against her shoulder. The whole time he's watching her, she's screaming, and he doesn't know what to do. He has a single combat spell, and seeds are falling from the sky, hitting the window of his shop like rain; he's left watching as more seeds hit the woman, and the moment they touch the skin, they sprout.
Red can feel his heart hammering in his chest as something emerges from the foliage. It's a person completely covered in wooden growths and flowers. The shop owner doesn't know what to do. He's frozen, and she's dying as he fails to act.
The raining seeds stopped, but she stood up. The woman's still screaming, but her body isn't obeying her. Red had just had his first taste of the multiverse and all its horrors. If he opened the door, then he would let those seeds inside. But if he didn't kill anything, then he would fail.
Quest
Colonization
Slay natives 0/3
Collect Loot 0/3
Slay Monsters 0/3
Reward: 50SP, The Wood Working Skill, Wood Working Tools
Red held his head in his hands. He could still hear the screaming. The shop owner's body moved mechanically as he grabbed a back and tied it to his side using the stings attached to the bag. He had eight fireballs if he used them carefully.
He felt that his limitations were worse than those of other gamers. There weren't levels or skills, and he had to go out, find his loot, and carve it into something usable.
If this shop system thought he would give it, it was mistaken. Red would go out and kill everything he could.
He carefully inspected the foliage around his shop. There were faces in the trees. Rotten wood and leaves covered the ground, and tall trees choked out the smaller ones.
The pings of seeds against his glass door were constant until they stopped suddenly.
When Red looked into the eyes of one of the faces, he saw it was focusing on him.
Cursed Totem HP 10
Description: An elf taken over entirely by a wood spirit; the elf has become an organ in a larger organism body subject to unending torment colored with spots of relief. When they spot a target, their parasite will launch a volley of parasitic seeds. Once they latch the Cursed Totem, they briefly sense it and sedate their victim. This grove has used up all its seeds thanks to the phenomenon known as a glass window. When they run low on seeds, they will summon Cursed Runners.
Howls echoed from the trees as the elves screamed, and Red heard a rustling in the foliage. He read the descriptions for the others and found they were also out of seeds. Soon, they, too, started screaming. Red wouldn't have much time to act.
He closed his eyes, formed the mental images, and materialized through mana the symbols over his hand. Red knew that so long as he kept the circle in front of his hand, he could continue to use fireball until his mana ran out or, in his case, until he used his 4th spell.
Each of the Cursed Totems had 10 to 15 HP. But he had a problem: The nearest grove was 40 feet away. His fireballs could travel a maximum of 50 feet. He had four chances to hit his target. If he failed, most likely, an army of the Cursed Runners would mob the exit, and he wouldn't be able to fire again in 9 hours.
This was his only hope, or he would have to use his next bronze key in this dungeon. Red could feel his heart hammer in his chest. What if one of the groves had some seeds in reserve, and he just couldn't see it to verify anything?
He didn't want to become one of those things.
There was no time he had to take a chance.
"Fireball," Red said and launched them.
He could see the dice roll in his head as he struggled to keep the fireballs on target. It wasn't so much of a dice roll as human error in focusing on the spell and his untrained mind struggling to focus on the images of what he suspected were demons.
The first one jammed his wrist before it fired, sailing 20 feet before exploding in a small shower of flames. He watched the second one explode 5 feet from the target. His arm nearly buckled when the 3rd one fired off. They exploded dealing 9 damage in a wide arc. Some of the leaves caught fire and started burning. Smoke rose up black as sin, and then the 4th fireball nearly broke his wrist when it fired. They hit and exploded with vastly more force.
Several trees exploded, and his bag filled with 20 verdant logs. From what he could tell, there were only 4 confirmed kills, so each tree gave him 5 logs. On the bright side, the fires were starting to spread.
His bag danced as items fell inside, and the flames started to catch on the rotten wood around the groves. Red withdrew his hand and closed the door. He had nine hours before he could do anything. The elves didn't choke to death on the smoke; unfortunately, he watched them scream as the flames licked at them.
Then, the first of the Cursed Runners appeared. They threw themselves on the flames in an effort to put them out. It was too late, and smoke was filling the forest. Red was safe with the door closed and watched on as his bag of holding continued to fill until nothing more fell inside it.
Cursed runners pounded on his door, screaming and raging, but they couldn't get inside any better than the T-Rex. He thought about using a fireball on them, but he didn't see the point since he had completed the quest. In their attempts to put the fire out, three of the cursed runners died.
Quest Complete Rewards:
Wallet: 50SP
New Skill
Wood Working lvl1
Description: Carve, sand, and polish wood to make the best products possible. The more effort put into your craft, the better the product.
Durability: Roll 1D4 x lvl
Effect: 1D20 + (1 x lvl)
Wood Working Tools (Trash)
Description: A set of essential tools to work wood and create shop-quality merchandise.
The fire continued to rage, and he realized that if he could gain xp from kills, he would have become incredibly powerful. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. He took a Verdant Log (Trash) and felt his bag of holding move. Suddenly, there was another log.
It was good to know if a little late. At least the logs didn't form into a condensed lump. That could have been deadly in such a small room. He looked at the effect and could only guess that there was a list of possible effects or a chance an item would gain one when it was complete, thanks to the dice roll.
When crafting, declare a crafting session and then declare it complete, and the system will remove all waste products. With only one room, no workshop bonuses apply.
He stared at the log in his hand and slowly cut a sliver off, feeling his new skill direct him. He needed to make wooden weapons to sell. Red didn't know who or what would even enter through the customer door to purchase anything. He did, however, unload his bag of holding stacking logs to the ceiling so that the forest fire he caused would refill his bag. It wasn't a huge exploit, but anything he could get over the system was good in his book.
Red's steady hands cut into the wood as he guided the log to become a sword. With a good enough effect, even a wooden blade could be deadly, so all he had to do was make enough swords and hopefully sell the worst ones.
Next Time
Chapter 2: The Wors… First Customer