The owner of the store was called Mark. He was more or less thirty years old and wasn't only very tall, but he was also muscular, blonde, and had a bushy beard, so if he grabbed an ax, he would look exactly like a Viking.
Not only that but he was known in town for being a good world-builder, having reached rank 3 some time ago, so a lot of the customers of the shop would ask him for tips for their worlds.
"We are good," Adam replied while bumping fists with him. "How about you? How about your wife and Emma? "
"We are great too, thanks for asking. Emma is at the back of the store with the others, watching how they fight and trying to learn more about world-building. " Mark happily answered.
"That's great; that way Axel will have someone at his level to talk with about his world," William said while bursting into laughter.
"Hey, I'm sure that I will do better than a seven-year-old girl!" Aiden replied indignantly.
"Are you sure? She has been doing pretty well lately. She is even approaching her breakthrough to rank 2." Mark said this proudly of his daughter.
"Really?" Aiden was shocked, as he didn't expect there to be that much difference between him and a kid. "Wait a moment, now that I think about it, I have never asked you guys about your worlds."
"That's because you are a bad friend," Adam said, jokingly. "Both of us have reached rank 2 already, and while my world has an RPG fantasy setting, William's is about robots."
"Don't simplify it like that. I haven't worked a lot in my world for you to say that they are simply robots." William replied very seriously before looking at Axel and starting to explain what his world was about. "I have created a post-apocalyptic setting where an AI created by an evil corporation sends robots from the future to try to exterminate humankind. To fight against them, humanity has created giant robots controlled manually by pilots that mentally merge with them to gain better control. And I had a lot of problems at the beginning. One of the people that the robots were targeting was the future leader of the resistance, but he didn't want to get into the robot, so humanity was almost extinguished, and you don't have an idea how much time and energy I had to waste to fix it. "
"Not gonna lie, that sounds like you have taken parts of various famous robot series and put them together to create your world," Axel said, laughing.
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"What? Are you accusing me of plagiarism?" William was shocked.
"And what about you, Axel? I hear that you started not long ago with your world. How is everything going?" Mark asked him while not paying attention to William's questions.
"I'm doing well. When I accumulate enough energy, I will be ready to break through to rank 1," Axel explained.
"That's great. And how about your setting? What add-ons are you using right now? " Mark asked curiously.
"I decided to use a cultivation setting, and right now the add-ons that I'm using are one for cultivation, one that adds a heavenly will, and another that creates a reincarnation system," Axel explained.
"Interesting. And have you already thought about the add-on that you will add when you reach rank 1? " Mark asked as if he was already thinking about which add-on would go better in Axel's world.
"Well, William suggested that I create an add-on to choose people from my world to become chosen and get a power-up so they can go further in their cultivation, but I'm still thinking about it," Axel said.
"I see. Well, if you let me advise you, I would suggest that you don't listen to anything that William said. I mean, he uses robots, so he has no idea what he is talking about. " He said while bursting into laughter.
"Then what would you suggest?" William asked indignantly.
"I would recommend him an energy add-on," Mark said convinced.
"An energy add-on? What does that do?" Axel asked.
"An energy add-on adds restrictions and laws to the energy in your world while optimizing certain uses. For example, you could make it so to use the energy you need to pay something in exchange or add different types of energy with different uses and characteristics. Also, you can make that energy interact with your world in different ways, like creating new kinds of materials or modifying entire environments if the concentration is too high. I think an add-on like that would be easy to synergize with the three add-ons that you already have. Also, it would be easy to create a special kind of energy for your heaven's will to use and bestow it on the souls of those chosen to make them stronger, so you would have something similar to the effects of William's add-on with extra functions." Mark explained.
"That's a great idea," Aiden said surprised.
"Of course, it's a great idea. That's because I thought about it for more than a second. " He said, laughing while looking at William. "When creating a new add-on, and especially at low ranks, you should always try to create something that interacts with as many add-ons as possible while not disrupting their functioning.
"Thank you for the advice. I will make sure to keep this information in mind when the time comes, "Axel replied.
"No need for them," Mark said smiling. "And now go to the back of the store. There are already some people there talking and practicing, and if you are not fast enough, you aren't going to have any rivals left."
After that, the three of them walked past the various bookshelves and went to the back of the store, where a few tables with people around them were placed.
All of them were young, and most of them were in pairs looking at each other's eyes while a fight between their worlds was happening