The first thing I noticed upon walking inside the Outpost was the number of houses. I believe before there were 18 houses in the Outpost, but now I could see at least double that number as I looked around. They were still located on the left and right side of the Outpost but while before I could only see a couple on each side now I see a lot more than that, I could be wrong on the number of houses but there were at least 20 I think on each side. I would have to walk around and check but I'm sure the others would do that as everyone made their way into the Outpost.
Looking straight ahead though from the entrance was the central building or central area I should say along with the building for the blacksmith and the alchemists those that era didn't really change much with neither building growing in size or quality of material for example but um I'm sure I would see a lot of changes in the shops of those buildings will check eventually for now I kind of wanted to figure out where it was my house was, as all of these houses still looked exactly the same with no windows.
I veered off onto the right side of the outpost in search of my house. I took out my house card which I kept on me and walked around it still read house 12 but I didn't want to have to walk around to every single house to try and figure out which one was mine.
Though as I got closer to the houses, I felt my house pass heating up.
Huh, that’s new.
It wasn’t getting hot enough to cause any real harm, just slight easily noticeable heat. It was more warm than hot.
I tried walking away from the houses and it cooled down until it was neither cool nor hot, just a regular house pass
Hmm
I made my way back over to the houses and going by the heat of the pass, I eventually found my home. Well, that’s pretty neat. I didn’t go in right away, as I could see the training grounds in the distance.
I walked over to get a closer look, saying hi to people also using the house pass to find their homes.
The training grounds were a lot larger. Before I was reserved to only training in a corner while Richard and the others took up most of the space, but I’d say well over a hundred people could comfortably train here now.
I didn’t linger too long and made my way back to the house. It was mostly the same with the exception of the cot. It was gone. Replacing it was a proper bed.
I didn’t waste any time laying down.
Wow this was truly bliss.
I think even my college dorm mattress was better than this, but compared to the cot from before? This was heavenly.
As much as I didn’t want to, I got back up and headed outside, any longer and I might’ve drifted to dream land.
A lot of people were still walking around looking for their houses or just admiring the new Outpost, but it didn’t take me long to spot Richard. He was already by the shop. Earlier we talked about checking out the store together.
We quickly greeted each other and made our way in.
“Welcome to shop you two! Please free to browse the shop, there are quite the changes.”
We didn’t waste any time and did as told.
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Welcome to the Tutorial Shop
Please select a category:
1. Food and Water
2. Cultivation
3. Survival
4. Furniture
5. Defenses
6. Quality of Life
7. Miscellaneous
There were three new additions to the category list. I think I was most looking forward to the Quality of Life one, but I’d go through them all.
First up was Food and Water but it remained the same. Not a single change at all. I moved on to the Cultivation category after. There were some interesting changes here.
Cultivation
Please select a section:
1. Manuals
2. Techniques
3. General Knowledge
More selections, let’s just go with Manuals, and yep, it changed it again as expected.
Manuals
1. Basic Cultivation Manual (Common) – 50 Copper Coins
2. Advanced Cultivation Manual (Common) – 250 Copper Coins
3. Olirag Breathing Manual (Uncommon) Qi Refinement – 10 Bronze Coins
4. Meitalc Breathing Manual (Uncommon)) Qi Refinement - 10 Bronze Coins
You know this is very bad on my part, but I’m just now remembering I never actually read the Qi Refinement section of the Advanced Cultivation Manual. I wonder if Richard did.
“Richard.”
“Hm?”
It looked like I surprised him, makes sense there was a lot to look at in the shop.
“Did you read the Qi Refinement Section in the Advanced Cultivation Manual?”
“Ah yeah I did. Why?”
“I didn’t. Do you remember what it talked about?”
“Not word for word, but it mentioned something about opening your cultivation channels by absorbing Qi. Though I remember it didn’t really explain what those were.”
“I see..”
“Yeah I assumed we would understand better when it was time to reach Qi Refinement. Anyway what do you think an Olirag or uhh a Me..mey..meytalk? I’m not really sure how to pronounce that one, but what do you think they are?”
I was planning on responding that I had no idea, but Greja spoke up before I could.
“Ah, allow me to chime in here. Olirag is the name of a Clan. Mine to be exact. The others in this Outpost who look like me are also from this Clan. That second one is pronounced Meh-Tal-Ck, and it is the name of the race of the beings who welcomed you to the Multiverse.
“Unfortunately, I can’t say much more than that, but hopefully that provides you with some additional context.”
Interesting…Well she said she can’t say anything else, so I’ll leave it at that, but that was some good information. I guess that explains the jump in price for the manuals.
“Thank you for the information Miss Shop Keeper. I have a question if you don’t mind.”
Hmm, I wonder what Richard wanted to know.
“Go ahead.”
“It’s regarding the Advanced Cultivation Manual. It says ‘Advanced’ but is that just for the Tutorial or is it actually ‘Advanced’ across the Multiverse?”
That was actually a great question. I gave Richard a mental thumbs up in my head because I didn’t even think to ask that. I guess that type of thought process comes with age, even though I sometimes forget he’s actually a man most likely in his late 30s. Not really old at all, but definitely older and more experienced than a college kid like me.
Moving on, Greja didn’t immediately answer his question. She even looked towards me for a moment before smiling and turning back to Richard.
Huh that was weird.
“That is a great question. I will keep my answer simple. Take all system descriptions, costs, and ratings with a grain of salt. The Tutorial is just that, a Tutorial. Meant to give you a taste of the Mutliverse. That’s all.”
Both Richard and I looked at her with a touch of seriousness, as we digested the words she said. A grain of salt huh. Does that mean the things we’ve been buying aren’t really worth what we’ve been paying? There’s a chance we could be overpaying or even underpaying for some of the things in the shop.
I don’t know if that was an overreaction from me or not, but the line of thinking made sense I think. I’ll talk to Richard about it later.
“Thank you for the explanation Miss Shop Keeper.”
“It was no problem.”
After that we continued to browse through the shop. There was a lot more to see.