It took us another 3 hours to get back to the commercial district, and another half an hour to locate a suitable store. We ignored any store that looked too well off, since those were likely to be defended by bigger threats than some minor skeletons. We probably skipped several reasonable targets, but it was a small price to pay to make sure my friends were safe. Despite our many detours and abundance of caution, we still located a smaller, less impressive store without losing too much time.

Our target this time was called “The Drunken Worldwalker,” which originally made me think it was some sort of pub. However, the store’s sign advertised that it sold cheap skills and lower tier soul fragments, which meant it was exactly the kind of store we were looking for.

A further, quick glance through the windows of the ruined shop indicated that, while there were a good number of skeletons inside, there weren’t any weirder enemies, as far as we could tell. Since the most dangerous thing we had encountered in the Market so far was a tree root, it was impossible to say what other strange enemies we might run into in the Market, but everything we could see at least seemed like it belonged in the shop.

Sallia, Felix and I hesitated, discussing our plans for a while. I originally planned to just lure the skeletons out of the shop using roof tiles, but Sallia and Felix had a rather different idea. And eventually, they convinced me that only relying on roof tiles wasn’t good for our long term growth.

There were multiple purposes to our attack this time. Our most important objective was to, buy Stats for our next lives, of course. With more Stats, we would be safer and have an easier time earning future Keyword Abilities, influencing world events, and surviving the consequences of our reckless and foolhardy actions, and so we desperately needed as many Stats as possible. However, nearly as important as buying Stats was our need to prepare for the future. In four lives, we would need to fight an unknown enemy that was likely guarding the area where we could buy lives. Leading up to that fight, we would probably only have a month of training in the Market, and we would need to be as well equipped for that fight as possible if I didn’t want to permanently lose any of my friends. We would need to have more familiarity with any oddities related to fighting inside the Market, and we would need as much hands-on combat experience as we could get ahold of before the fight as well. And if we were going to take bigger risks during fights in order to experiment and improve, the skeletons were the obvious enemy to take risks against. They were dumb, and easy to take countermeasures against if something went wrong.

Which meant that we were going to properly fight the skeleton swarm this time. No tricks, no roof tiles, just a proper battle with our weapons against theirs. Of course, just in case, the three of us created a huge reserve of roof tiles on one of the nearby buildings that was particularly easy to access, so that we could resort to the rooftile trick if the fight went poorly. But we intended to win this fight using only our actual fighting abilities if we could help it.

Sallia shuffled giddily, as if excited at the prospect of a good fight, while Felix anxiously hefted his spear. The three of us walked up to the side of the building… and then, Sallia, who had taken the lead due to the fact that she was the strongest fighter, kicked the door open. It slammed into the wall with a loud whunk, and seven Skeletons turned in our direction.

“Come get some, skellies!” called Sallia, cheerily smiling at the skeletons as she stepped into the building. Immediately, she stepped towards one of the skeletons as her runes blazed with mana, and in a motion I couldn’t quite see, instantly beheaded one of the skeletons.

Three other skeletons turned towards Sallia, ignoring Felix and I. I resolved to keep an eye on Sallia, just in case, but she was probably in the least danger out of all of us in this fight.

The nearest skeleton, which was holding a spear, whirled towards me. Slightly farther away, I saw a skeleton holding a shield and a saber also look in my direction, while Felix broke off towards the final skeleton.

Since I had two enemies, I decided it was best to take the initiative before they grouped up. If I could kill one skeleton in advance, I would only be fighting one skeleton at a time, instead of two, I stepped into its personal space and grabbed its spear with my left hand. Then, I yanked the skeleton forward, before trying to behead it.

The skeleton ducked, showing that unlike its more mindless brethren, this skeleton had at least some amount of combat skill.

Before I had time to prepare for a more extended fight, I saw something flash towards me out of the corner of my eyes. I instinctively burned mana and ducked, as the saber skeleton tried to cut me across the ribs. Luckily, my reflexes were pretty good after training with Sallia for so long, so I neatly dodged the attack.

The skeleton whose spear I was still holding yanked me towards it, and I was surprised by how strong the skeleton was. I didn’t fight against its pull; instead, I burned mana and took another step towards the skeleton, before quickly beheading it. One skeleton dropped to the ground.

The saber skeleton slammed its shield into the back of my head. I staggered, my grade seven Fortitude keeping me conscious as my head rang unpleasantly. I whirled around, and then rolled out of the way as the saber skeleton tried to cut me across the back.

I gritted my teeth, taking a step away from the skeleton who had nearly cut me twice as I looked for an opening. Since this skeleton had a shield and combat instincts, I wouldn’t be able to behead it as easily as the spear-wielding skeleton.

While I was trying to figure out what to do, the skeleton took a step forward, before hacking down towards my head. I burned mana and dodged to the side, while deflecting its saber to the side with my sword. Then, I burned most of my mana and kicked the skeleton in the knee.

The skeleton’s fighting posture collapsed. I hadn’t managed to shatter its knee, but I had certainly ruined its balance.

As the skeleton flailed about on the floor, I stomped down on its knee again. This time, I managed to break it. Angry, the skeleton swiped at me, trying to get in a cut. I leaned slightly back, dodging the blow, and then stomped on the skeleton’s shield-bearing hand. With its shield pinned down, its head was finally undefended. I killed it the same way I had killed the spear wielder; by beheading it.

I took in a few deep breaths, just to comfort myself, before I thought back to the battle. A lot of my movements had felt proper, and I knew that I had practiced fighting a lot, but…

I was surprised to realize that my actual combat experience with weapons was surprisingly low right now. Many of the fights I had been in on the islands just didn’t call for my swordsmanship. The fight with the glowing fish, for example, had been mostly dependent on my magic abilities, and my exploration of the oceans had largely been the same. I didn’t hate fighting with weapons; however, in most actual fights, I had relied a lot more on magical abilities than actual swordsmanship.

I couldn’t help but feel that it was much easier, tossing abilities at enemies while flying around, instead of needing to dodge, kick, and parry weapons flying towards me. Then, I shrugged. Even though I hadn’t had much practical experience with weapons, I didn’t think I did too badly.

“Not bad,” said Sallia, shrugging. I turned to the side, and realized that Sallia had already dealt with her four opponents and had been watching Felix and I. Felix still hadn’t finished off his enemy, but he had the upper hand, and Sallia was still holding her weapon and ready to step in the moment something went wrong. “I don’t recall teaching you much about kicking during a fight, but you managed to weave it into the battle really well. And it made this fight much easier for you,” Sallia said, grinning.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I didn’t expect it to hit me with its shield. Once it hit me with it, I started thinking about ways I could do something similar. I didn’t have a shield, but I started thinking about my feet…”

“That’s good thinking,” said Sallia. “The shield thing probably isn’t something the dumber skeletons would be able to accomplish. But the older skeletons seem a little smarter, and seem to have better combat instincts as well. Most people only think of shields as ways to block projectiles and incoming attacks, but anything in your environment can be a weapon if you’re quick on your feet,” said Sallia, thoughtfully. “In any case, there are things you could improve on, but I think your fight went pretty well, all things considered.”

Before Sallia could continue speaking, Felix finally got an opportunity, and stabbed his own skeleton in the head, tearing through its skull. It stiffened for a moment, before it collapsed to the ground.

I double checked our surroundings, and grinned when I confirmed that there was nothing else hostile in the area.

“We’re good to go. Nothing else in the area to try to kill us,” I said.

Felix also grinned, before taking a better look at the store. “It’s actually a little nicerthan the shop we found during our first visit to the Market,” he commented. “Tier 1 Soul Fragments for every Attribute, and a few Abilities to go along with it,” he commented, as he started rifling through the area.

A few moments later, Sallia and I joined him. A lot of the contents of the store were very poorly organized, unlike some of the other stores we had been in. While this store seemed to carry everything we needed, finding stuff was much more of a pain than usual.

About a minute later, Felix found something.

“Miria, you’ll love this one,” he said, grinning.

I hurried over to his side, and then looked at an Ability cube Felix had found laying in the corner. I touched it, and a System notification appeared. After reading it, I started smiling so widely my cheeks hurt.

Would you like to create and absorb the Ability ‘Identity?’

The ‘Identity’ Ability will cost 100 Achievement and 1 Glut Penalty.

Ability description: Upon being born, a certain burst of mixed imagery magic, identification magic, and suggestion magic will be mixed together to ‘suggest’ to your parents that they name you whatever name you desire.

Note: This may not work if you reincarnate as a species with vastly different vocal chords, and if your name is COMPLETELY alien your name might be somewhat localized. However, these cases are rare, and you will usually keep your desire name in 97 out of 100 cases.

In addition, the Ability will take a look at the way you currently look, and then try to tailor future bodies to look as similar to you as is reasonably possible. This is done by taking a look at the DNA (or whatever equivalent is used in your current dimension) and then intentionally remolding which traits are dominant/recessive in order to create a certain physical look.

Note: If your current looks are completely impossible based on your mother and father’s DNA, or if you reincarnate as a species with significant dominant features (e.g. horns, pointed ears, etc.) expect some changes. However, you will still look mostly like yourself from one life to another.

I grinned. The moment I had some glut penalty free, I knew what I was going to buy.

A few minutes more of searching later, the three of us found the Soul Fragment cubes. I immediately headed towards them. I had plenty of Achievement to burn.

I immediately started tossing Achievement into every single Soul Fragment Container I could find, except for the Fortitude Soul Fragment cube. I had bought 2 Agility during our last visit to the Market, and each Tier 1 Soul Fragment cost 50 Achievement. So I had 178 Soul Fragments to go before bringing everything to Grade 1.

9,900 Achievement went down the drain. To top off my spending, I spent 1 Glut penalty and 100 Achievement to purchase Identity, making what was likely my final revision to my Status Screen until my next reincarnation. I would still try to get some items before our next life, but I doubted I would get the Achievement for any more heavy investment in my permanent Attributes or Abilities until we finished our next lives.

Physical (+1 Grade to all from Runes, +5 to all from Swordsmanship)

Mental

Essence

Strength: 20 (+125)

Intelligence: 20 (+100)

Absorption: 20 (+100)

Agility: 20 (+125)

Willpower: 20 (+100)

Manifestation: 20 (+100)

Fortitude: 20 (+125)

Perception: 20 (+100)

Binding: 20 (+100)

Alteration: 20 (+100)

Lives Remaining: 4

2/10 Keyword Slots used

Glut: 23/50

Abilities:

Keyword Abilities:

Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (20 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)

Held Abilities:

1.

2.

3.

Weapon Abilities:

Basic one-Handed Swordsmanship (No Keywords) (2 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)

(+5 Physical Attributes since Swordsmanship is at or above Beginner Grade right now)

Birth related Abilities:

Body Control (No Keywords) (No Glut Penalty)

Identity (No Keywords) (1 Glut Penalty)

Achievement: 348.81

The store had a few other Ability cubes, which piqued my curiosity somewhat. Felix, Sallia and I took a look at the other three Abilities sold by the store, and for the first time, I got a glimpse of what a ‘normal’ Ability sold by the Market looked like.

The first one we found, and the least relevant, was a beginner-grade Swordsmanship ability. It was an exact copy of the one I currently had, but instead of only costing 250 Achievement, it cost 750. Which was quite the markup. It was three times more expensive to buy it from the Market instead of buying it after a life.

However, it was also very convenient to just be able to buy whatever abilities one needed, without having to earn it. We had worked for years to earn the right purchase swordsmanship abilities on the islands, whereas in the Market, even if there was a significant markup, one could just buy what they felt was useful anytime. During its golden age, I could imagine people putting together giant shopping lists of abilities that synergized with each other, and then filling out their glut penalty with a huge grocery list of synergistic abilities without needing to earn a single one. I was more than a little jealous.

The other two abilities sold by the shop were more… interesting. One of the two abilities made one more attractive in proportion to the amount of alcohol they had imbibed within the past 24 hours. Which was… interesting, but didn’t seem very useful. I didn’t bother looking at the more specific details of the Ability, since I couldn’t imagine why I would ever buy it.

The final Ability might have been worth considering in the future, although I didn’t have the ability to afford it now.

Would you like to create and absorb the Ability ‘ Beginner Grade Fire Resistance?’

The ‘Beginner Grade Fire Resistance’ Ability will cost 1,500 Achievement and 4 Glut Penalty.

Ability description: Grants you Beginner Grade resistance against all fire, flame, and heat-related injuries, both magical and physical in nature.

The description was short and simple. However, while I didn’t have any specific need to resist fire in the future, the knowledge that the Market had resistance skills laying around was good to know. If I got more ocean and madness themed Abilities in the future, I wasn’t sure if I would have any sort of innate resistance against my own Abilities. If I didn’t, I would probably want some sort of resistance Ability to fix the problem.

In any case, none of us wanted the Fire Resistance Ability now. I decided to keep it in mind for the future.

With that done, our purchases were finished. It was time to loot the shop, before looking for an item store.