Once Aaron was inside the house he opened the Store window to check what's it all about after becoming available for him.
There were two options but only one was available for him, the "Beginner Store!".
The next option was grey and clearly requires an "Upgrade" to "Unlock", a total of 100,000 Gold Coins and a "Tier.1 Rare Material" are needed for Aaron to complete the Store Upgrade to Version 1.1 and access the "Tier.0 Magician Store".
Of course Aaron cursed the "black-hearted" ones who created this System and set these extremely difficult rules then opened the interface to check what kind of items this Beginner Store has.
"No wonder it's hard to Upgrade this Store, there's already a wide variety for me to buy from the Beginner Store and the Items available for me to Equip gives me a much higher boost to Physical Attack, Physical Defense, Magic Attack, Magical Defense, Attack Speed, Movement Speed, and Reaction Speed." Aaron muttered to himself before sighing and continuing to say : "If it weren't for the restriction of Level Requirement on these Items then I would've bought these Equipment and Weapons to instantly raise my HP, MP, MP and HP Regeneration, Stamina, Concentration, Stamina and Concentration Regeneration, Luck, and the five basic Attributes!"
Afterwards he sighed and said : "Not to mention that this is only the Equipment Page of this Beginner Store, there's also the Usable Page which allows me to buy Consumables like food and drinks which mainly allows me to instantly recover my Stamina and Concentration while helping me recover a bit of MP and HP.
"There's Potions which mainly allows me to instantly recover huge amounts of MP and HP, other Potions specifically target certain aspects of my Regeneration Speeds and gives it a great Boost until the duration of effect is over.
"I can also buy Cures to heal myself from specific ailments but this System is asking for exaggerated prices, especially the price of that "All-Cure Potion".
"The most unexpected Item in this Usable Page is those Equipment Scrolls, I can use these Scrolls to improve my Equipment and the improvement-rate of the Equipment depends on the success-rate of the scroll I use.
"The ones guaranteed to succeed are the 100% Scrolls but their rate of improvement is the worst among all scrolls and their price is also the lowest.
"There's also 95%, 90%, 80%, 65%, 50%, 30%, 10%, and 1% Scrolls. Surprisingly the price of the 1% scrolls is only 1 Gold Coin higher than the 100% Scroll."
Aaron sank deep in his thoughts for a while then decided to buy himself some Equipment from the Beginner Store since the clothes that he's wearing only gives him a Boost of Physical Defense: +2 while a single Shirt from the Beginner Store gives him a Boost of Physical Defense: +3 and +7 Upgrade Slots if he's willing to use Equipment Scrolls to improve the item!
"Looks like I'm going to be really busy in the future, without Gold Coins this System would be wasted on me." Aaron muttered to himself before using 125 of his Gold Coins to buy himself five Items from the Beginner Store.
He bought a Grey T-Shirt, Blue Jean Shorts, Leather Sandals, Black Work Gloves, and an Antique Velvet Cape.
Each one of these Items cost him 25 Gold Coins to buy yet selling any of them back to the Store would earn him only a Single Gold Coin!
But the Boost gained to his Physical Defense, Movement Speed, Attack Speed, Reaction Speed, and Evasion which Aaron concluded is a Hidden-Trait of his Character like Fame, Likeability, Charisma, and Dominance. Were simply a few times higher than the clothes Pio bought him yesterday.
Grey T-Shirt (Male-Common) Required Level 0 Required Class Any Physical Defense +3 Number of Upgrades 7 Tradability Tradable Refunded For 1 Gold Notes None
Some of the Items he bought had similar descriptions, like for example the Blue Jean Shorts which he preferred to buy instead of the Dark Cotton Pants.
Blue Jean Shorts (Male-Common) Required Level 0 Required Class Any Physical Defense +3 Number of Upgrades 7 Tradability Tradable Refunded For 1 Gold Notes None
Others had Boosts directed towards different aspects of his stats like the Leather Sandals which he preferred to buy instead of the Rubber Boots that had various options to their color.
Leather Sandals (Male-Common) Required Level 0 Required Class Any Physical Defense +2 Movement Speed +1 Number of Upgrades 5 Tradability Tradable Refunded For 1 Gold Notes None
The Black Work gloves were extremely comfortable to wear and the inner texture was soft unlike its outward which felt rough and hard.
Black Work Gloves (Male-Common) Required Level 0 Required Class Any Physical Defense +2 Attack Speed +1 Number of Upgrades 5 Tradability Tradable Refunded For 1 Gold Notes None
The final Item was different because it Boosted three different stats at the cost of the number of its Upgrades, the only reason Aaron bought it instead of another Cape which could be Upgraded 5 times instead of just 3 is because it helped increase his Reaction Speed and Evasion unlike the other Cape which only gave him a Boost of Physical Defense.
Not to mention that Equipment Scrolls are very costly even if he's going to buy the cheapest ones which are the 100% scrolls, because they're 150 Gold Coins each!
Antique Velvet Cape (Unisex-Rare) Required Level 0 Required Class Any Physical Defense +5 Reaction Speed +1 Evasion +7 Number of Upgrades 3 Tradability Untradeable Refunded For 1 Gold Notes None
Unfortunately that Cape is untradeable and can only be sold back to the System.
But Aaron quickly dismissed these unhealthy thoughts and focused on the next Items to buy from the Store to further improve his Stats, unfortunately the options of buying a Face Accessory and an Eye Accessory were unavailable for him because the ones who actually gives him a Boost have at least a Level 10 Requirement.
Meanwhile the ones available for him doesn't have anything to add to his Stats and the Number of Upgrades is Zero! Of course Aaron wouldn't waste any of his Gold Coins to buy something that only looks cool and a bit fancy!
He sighed once again when he discovered that the option of buying a Belt is also unavailable for him, But Aaron gawked once his eyes fell on a certain Item that's available for him to buy at a slightly high price of 500 Gold Coins.
This item was an Earring that would disappear forever from the Store in 4 minutes, yet despite not adding anything to his Stats and lacking completely in the Number of Upgrades without a single slot available... Aaron immediately bought it with a wide grin on his face!
Lucid Earrings (Unisex-Epic) Required Level 0 Required Class Any Number of Upgrades 0 Tradability Untradeable Refunded For 0 Gold Rewarded After Completing an Epic-Rank Quest Notes
* Equipping this Earring will Unlock the Skill Lucid Nightmare.
* Cannot be used against enemies with Basic-Attributes higher than Level 100.
He eagerly equipped the pair of earrings then checked the Lucid Nightmare Skill.
Skill Name Skill Class Skill Type Maximum Level Lucid Nightmare Equipment Skill Active 1 Skill Effect
* This Skill inflicts horrible nightmares on multiple enemies, gluing them to the ground in fear.
* Lucid Nightmare grants the user a short interval of Immunity against Stun-Effects, followed by a 40% Boost to Stun-Resistance for 5 minutes.
Once Activated
* Stuns 15 enemies for 9 Seconds.
* Immune to Stun-Effects for 90 Seconds.
* Once the duration of Stun-Invincibility-Buff is over, Stun-Resistance is +40% for 300 Seconds.
Cool Down 110 Seconds
Aaron smirked like a sly fox when he saw the details of this skill and his smirk evolved into a wide grin when he noticed the improvement of his Physical Defense after exchanging his clothes with the Items bought from the Store.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Physical Defense [Above-Average+5]+1%
Not to mention the additional Stun Resistance that got included into his list of his Resistances despite it being mostly Elemental-Resistances before.
Once Aaron activated the Lucid Nightmare Skill he could feel every living creature within an area of fifty meters!
He choose to Stun Lucas who was about to leave and target 11 ants which were stealing his food and 3 mice which were hidden at a hole in the corner of the wooden ceiling of his house and gnawing at the rotten wood with their teeth which is dangerous because it might really cause the ceiling to fall and crush Aaron in his sleep.
Stun Resistance Immune
Aaron could feel Lucas, the eleven ants, and the three mice freeze in place after he targeted them with his Skill.
When he opened the door to take a look he saw Lucas looking at him in total and complete helplessness while absolute fear and panic filled his eyes.
"Now you understand what happens when you take action without permission from your master first, in a few seconds you'll be free from these restraints but next time you'll never get to move again." Aaron enjoyed the feeling of having total control over another person and found it addictive, but he quickly scattered these thoughts because in the end he's still vulnerable and this vulnerability would further increase if he allowed his "Ego" to cloud his judgement.
Once Lucas regained his freedom he was already covered in sweat and his heart was practically racing within his chest, the man fell to his knees and said : "Thank you young master Ron for having mercy on this subject of yours, it'll never happen again. I swear it on my life."
*Snort*
Aaron just snorted and returned to the house while checking his Resistance list.
Stun Resistance [Average]+40%
'Judging by how my Physical Defense improved from the State of [Average]+1% to [Above-Average+5]+1% once I bought Equipment that gave me a Boost of +15 to Physical Defense, then I believe the jump from the State of [Average] to [Above-Average] requires an increase of 10 Points to said State. I can only confirm the truth of my conclusions after increasing the State of Physical Defense further or doing the same with another State, unfortunately the remaining options for me are growing less and less and I don't have enough money to waste on Items that wouldn't give me a long term benefit.' He thought while rolling his eye at the System that gave him the opportunity to buy an item only once and never again until the Store is Upgraded.
As it happened when he was browsing through the various options within the Hats Menu, Aaron was feeling indecisive on what to choose because one gave him the option of Boosting each of his HP and MP by +100, another option was slightly expensive yet that hat could increase all his Basic-Attributes by +3 but it doesn't have the privilege of having Upgrade Slots, the third option gives him a high Boost of Physical Defense, while the final option actually Boosts Concentration.
That's when he found this Item.
Invincibility Hat (Unisex-Otherworldly) Required Level 0 Required Class Any Strength +999 Vitality +999 Intelligence +999 Wisdom +999 Agility +999 Physical Attack +2,000 Magical Attack +2,000 Physical Defense +2,000 Magical Defense +2,000 Stamina +2,000 Concentration +2,000 Movement Speed +5,000 Attack Speed +5,000 Reaction Speed +5,000 Health Points +10,000 Mana Points +10,000 Resistance Nullifies all Physical and Elemental Attacks against the user Number of Upgrades 0 Tradability Untradeable Refunded For 0 Gold Notes
* Equipping this Item gives the user's Physical and magical Attacks +250 Critical-Rate.
* Equipping this Item Gives the user's Physical and Magical Attacks a 60% chance to cause Instant Death Effect.
* Item is destroyed 60 Seconds after being Equipped, even if it's Unequipped immediately after Equipping the hat for the first time it'd still be lost forever once the timer runs out.
At the cost of 1,000 Gold Coins and only getting one chance to buy it at least until he gets his hands on 100,000 Gold Coins and the so-called "Tier.1 Rare Material" which Aaron doesn't have a clue about what it is exactly.
Yet the temptation was so great that he still couldn't resist buying it and Aaron had to watch almost more than half of what remained of his Gold Coins instantly vanish into thin air when he did, he felt like crying really because despite getting his hand on the perfect trump card ever... Aaron didn't dare touch it with his hands or retrieve it from his Inventory Space!
He was so afraid that it might get automatically Equipped or something like that if he did and Aaron couldn't risk it happen, now he's back to square one with much less money and no answer to his question : 'Which one should I choose? Fuck it all to hell, I'm not going to buy the hat that only gives me HP and MP Boost or the one that increases my Concentration. Now that's two out of the equation which leaves me with the choice of either Boosting my Physical Defense or adding 3 Points to each one of the five Basic-Attributes.'
Finally he decided to buy the Brown Bandana to increase his Basic-Attributes and wasted another 150 of his Gold Coins, So far Aaron has spent 1,775 of his Gold Coins and what remained of his close to two thousand Gold Coins is a dozen or so above two hundred.
He really felt like crying when he saw the wooden box almost empty after being almost full of Gold Coins just a few minutes earlier.
Brown Bandana (Unisex-Unique) Required Level 0 Required Class Any Strength +3 Vitality +3 Intelligence +3 Wisdom +3 Agility +3 Number of Upgrades 0 Tradability Tradeable Refunded For 1 Gold Notes None
Aaron browsed through the few remaining menus in a lackluster manner because his financial power wasn't quite promising at that time, not to mention that the vacant slots on his Equipment window mostly Required higher Levels before he's able to Equip these Items.
Right now there's 9 empty slots on his Equipment window and there's nothing he can do to fill them with Equipment from the Store even if he had money.
There's 4 more slots which he can fill if he bought the Item that fit but Aaron understood that he need to choose wisely since his financial situation is quite bad.
Thankfully one of these four slots could be filled if Aaron managed to complete four more quests, then he would be eligible to buy and Equip a Medal that would give him the Boost of Basic-Attributes +3 and Movement Speed +10.
The remaining three slots were quite diverse and one of them was actually a Totem that would Boost his Main Attribute by a whooping 36 Points with the addition of Physical and Magic Attack +15!
Unfortunately the cost of this Totem is even higher than the Invincibility Hat and is priced at 3500 Gold Coins which made Aaron feel like the System just punched him in the gut.
One of the two slots is a Pendant which can also be filled whenever he wants but Aaron hesitated because despite the possibility of buying it and gaining a Boost to Basic-Attributes +2 and the additional Buff of Passive Experience Accumulation, the other menu had an Item that was of similar importance.
In fact that Ring does have higher Rank compared to that Pendant despite its lack of providing any Boost to Aaron if he decided to buy it!
Unlike the Invincibility Hat which lasts for only 60 Seconds before losing its purpose, this Legendary-Rank Ring lasts forever and does have Infinite-Potential.
If Aaron decided to buy the Ring he would gain zero Boost to his Stats and what remains of his Gold Coins afterwards wouldn't be enough for him to buy the Pendant, But if he bought the Pendant he would forever lose the opportunity to buy this currently useless Ring because like the Lucid Earrings before it... it does have a timer that's going to run out in a few minutes.
The only reason it's available for him is because he bought that seemingly useless Invincibility Hat!
Finally Aaron made his decision and bought the Ring while thinking to himself : 'Hopefully by tomorrow morning Pio would have enough money for me to buy this Pendant, but even if he does it'd mean that I actually managed to push our group of three from being filthy rich to bone-dry broke in a single day.'
Evolving Ring (Unisex-Legendary) Required Level 0 Required Class Any Effects None Current Level 0 Type [1] Notes
* Effects of the Evolving Ring depends on its Level and Type.
* Each Type of the Evolving Ring includes 99 Levels.
* Evolution between Types marks a transition of Power-Grade for the Evolving Ring.
* There's 10 Types followed by 9 Levels before the Evolving Ring reaches its maximum potential.
*Sigh*
"Now I really need to find a way to make money or the days to come would be difficult for our group! Time to see what sort of Item that drove Lucas to scheme on Betty's husband just to keep it for himself." Aaron muttered while unwrapping the red silk.
System : Tier.2 Mana-Source discovered.
"Huh!"
System : Host is allowed to use a Confusion Fragment and initiate a System Upgrade.
Aaron stared in confusion at the Sapphire-like Ore in his hand then ignored the System notification and exited the house to look for Lucas and ask him what in the bloody hell is this "thing", most importantly why is the System acting all "horny" ever since his hand touched it.
Even Aaron's emotions are getting affected by the System and he had to focus on controlling his emotions or he might really hurt somebody, the possibility of said person being an innocent fellow is quite high in this scenario!
Thankfully Lucas was still recovering after Aaron suppressed him earlier and didn't leave the street yet, clearly the nightmarish experience had awakened the worst memories for the former gang-leader earlier and added much worse fantasies to the mix.
Lucas was gasping for air and shivering like a wet chick!
*Creak*
Lucas heard the door open behind him and looked back but saw nobody at the door of his young master Ron's house, he sighed inwardly because for a while there he thought that his punishment wasn't over yet.
Suddenly Lucas felt pain coming from his calf before he lost his balance.
"Bastard! Do you want to die? I've been calling you over for a while now, didn't you hear me? Are you deaf?"
Before he could register what happened just now, Lucas's butt was on the floor and Aaron was pointing at his nose and screaming... clearly very, very angry at him!
'Oh no! I forgot to tell him about that "thing", this is the worst timing ever.' Lucas thought to himself while opening his mouth and feeling despair because his fear towards Aaron is actually preventing him from saying anything, 'I'm dead for sure this time! Fuck.'