The walk back to the outpost was mostly uneventful. The group avoided the areas where the remains of those Kalyntha had brutally slain were left to rot and join the brown soil. Alan briefly wondered if the fractal’s landscape was colored the way it was due to all the spilled blood and guts, but that seemed unlikely. Plus, he was sure many didn’t bleed red.

“Welp, I can’t say I enjoyed the excursion, but I can’t say that I didn’t either. That girl creeped me out.” Byrr said halfway through a stretch as they finally saw the outpost's walls.

“You should introduce me some time, Alan. We’re pals, aren’t we?” Feyrith suddenly said, draping his hand over Alan’s shoulders and taking him out of the daze he had fallen into.

“What?”

“I mean, she’s pretty and she knows how to handle herself,” Feyrith shrugged. “Can’t blame a guy for trying. Although she seemed to have forgotten your name in the span of an hour or so.”

She did seem so. First, she had greeted him by name. Then she had recognized him, but she had seemed unsure. Forgetting Riasko’s name also seemed quite odd.

“She murdered a bunch of people in cold blood, crushing bones and probing their brains with needles. Not that I’m one to judge.”

Byrr chuckled. “Feyrith here has always had a thing for the scary lads and gals. She will chew him up and spit him out if she even pays attention to him. The girl has serious backing.”

“Hey, power is attractive. I like a woman who knows when to kill and when to smile,” the elf replied with a smile.

“I have to agree with that one,” Xil added helpfully. “By the way, you should put me away. I still think that place you’re headed off to is dangerous for me.”

“Sure.” Alan rubbed the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t wait to get a cleanse and buy some more clothes and food. He had grown appreciative of the silence in his little house too. Plus, there were plenty of attribute points waiting for his attention.

“Deal. I will even gas you up a little bit. But only if you bring me shopping,” Alan said.

That startled the elf which was a first. “Bring you shopping? Do I have to pay?”

“No. Just show me where to get good stuff without getting scammed.”

“That’s a deal,” Feyrith said.

They soon left the rolling brown hills behind and entered the outpost once again. Alan had to pay a core and register his task as complete, which brought his standing in the outpost up a bit. No one could tell him why that mattered, but it had to do with being welcome to other fractals and stuff.

Byrr left them, citing a need for some peace and booze before going back to his work, while Feyrith led Alan around, showing him the more notable places. The elf was knowledgeable about each shop and merchant and quickly filled Alan with important details. There were quite a few scammers out there, as it was really hard to keep track of and control who sold what. It was pretty much the buyer’s responsibility to ensure he had spent his cores responsibly.

Alan managed to buy a few spare cloaks of a very good make, some decent clothes, and a lot of booze and food. He had plenty of cores left over, and there were only two things that interested him.

“Is there a place where I can buy skills? Or trade them? Also, I need a lot of mana stones or crystals or whatever. It has to be attributeless mana though,” he said.

“I can show you where the guy lives, but it isn’t unlike most places we went to. I doubt you can afford even browsing.”

“What do you mean? I have to pay to browse?!” That was insane! Who would work like that?

“Look, skills are as valuable as things get. You have to have a reputation, or at the very least a massive wealth to even access such a place. The odd skill crystals pop up from time to time but those are private sellers. Sorry to be a bringer of bad news, but if any tier-one shmuck could pick and choose skills based on a day’s worth of grinding, then things would go to hell. Unfortunately for us both, I’m neither important nor rich enough to hook you up. Master Wilbis probably is, but that’s a whole different can of worms.”

“As for mana crystals, just trade your System points for them, if you have any. The ones from the System are the purest and most valuable as they can substitute a lot of other power sources and materials. Then if that’s not enough you can trade cores too, the ratio varies depending on the purity, but it shouldn’t be that bad.”

The skill trading was a bummer but it was not like Alan had expected to be able to go and buy a bag of them. The Bazaar was sure to offer a much wider selection, but Alan wanted to have things worth trading before he ventured there again. It was also one of the possible ways he had considered as a means to go back to the Sanctuary. That meant he could focus on enchanting his skeleton and trying out another crazy thing that was brewing in his mind.

“Alright. Show me.”

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The System Pillar was a massive thing under an even more massive ritual circle that Feyrith said was the portal most people came from. Just to prove the point some appeared from time to time in flashes of light. Both the pillar and the circle were situated in the middle of the towers, under the Deathless Plate.

Alan figured that the strange plate had distracted him from seeing them before. Once he got close to the pillar he could feel a connection similar to that of the World Temple. He opened his mind to the prodding connection coming off of it and focused on the idea of System points.

System Points are earned with each achievement, kill, or otherwise contribution you make toward the cycle of existence itself.

Most trophies such as monster remains, ancient knowledge, enchanted items, etc. can also be traded for System Points in World Temples and Pillars.

SP can in turn be converted to the preferred currency of one’s corner of the Universe.

Converting SP into currency is encouraged as SP cannot be traded between individuals and can be used directly only in services provided by the System.

Personal System Points available: 764

I wonder why I didn’t receive any of that information back in the Sanctuary. Maybe we were not ready for it? Who knows. Now, while 764 sounds like a lot… is it?

There were a ton of options and Alan lost himself browsing for a time. The selection was much better than anything he had seen in the World Temple. The weapons were made from materials he hadn’t heard of and most carried enchantments similar to [True Edge], which was a surprise. It was also quite logical because it boosted the weapon’s power and allowed it to attack non-physical entities. Some weapons seemed to be a one-time use, as they held massive power that would break them apart upon release. That was another interesting concept. He was very far from being able to afford one of those though, and he had [Sacrificial Attack] for the clutch moments.

There were also a lot of armor options, even more than for weapons. Alan browsed the light armor and liked a few options suitable for tier one and even up to tier two, but they were way out of his budget. One was of dark malleable iron that acted almost like leather but was many times harder. It had no complicated enchantments apart from [Lightweight] and [Durable] but that made it even better. Alan wasn’t sure he could handle many more active skills or enchantments.

The seller seemed uninterested in anything else but pure hellfire stones which made Alan deflate. Attributed cores, crystals, and stones seemed to be the most demanded currency. Then there was a whole market for the latter, but to get hellfire stones he needed deepwater stones and a natural spatial attributed treasure.

Like hell.

Overall, the trading facilitated by the System seemed pretty worthless to him. It was better to go to the Bazaar or an Enchanter and haggle with them, rather than seek out rare materials he had no clue where to find. It just seemed like bullshit.

However, trading directly with the System proved much easier. Alan’s eyes shone as he bought a tier two mana stone that was like a crystal ball and shone with energy that made his whole being shiver in anticipation. It was a whopping 500 points, but it was tier two and held more mana than anything he had seen before. With the remaining 264 he managed to get 5 mana stones similar to those he had received in the dungeon.

All in all, he considered it a great haul and returned to Feyrith with a smile on his face.

“You seem happy,” the elf noted. He was eating some sort of bread wrapped in a leaf and threw Alan one too. It was a small thing and it tasted vaguely like chewy maple syrup and Alan scarfed it down.

“Thanks. Yeah. If I’d known about this earlier I’d have gotten a larger boost much sooner.”

The elf took another one of the leafy treats from a small bag he had procured while Alan was dealing with the System and bit into it. “No time like the present. Do you need anything else?”

Alan took a moment and shook his head. “I’m good. Cheers, I will properly introduce you to Kalyntha next time we run into her killing people.”

The elf smiled and waved at Alan before disappearing into the crowd. Alan hurried toward his room. It was time to get some bone work done. Even if it was very painful, the payback was worth it, and he had that piece of bark to play with after. It remained to be seen if it was counted as a natural treasure he could leech off, or the Bazaar token had been special in some way, but if he could give his bones half the magical resistance the damned parasites had… He almost laughed at the idea. Alan was sure at some point he heard the rattling of bones from behind him but scratched it off to his imagination playing tricks off of the various sounds of the outpost.

His enthusiasm was stopped in its tracks as he reached the entrance to his room and saw two figures already waiting there. For the third time, there was Kalyntha… Her hair was different and her armor was gone. Were her eyes always blue? No, that wasn’t right. The clothes she wore were nothing like the armor he had seen her in, and most of the piercings were also gone from her face and ears.

The other person he was gladder to see. Zirida stood there in a robe a bit too small for her, accentuating the muscles beneath. The [Red Cleric] seemed to be in her usual unreadable mood, although for some reason Alan felt like she was fuming on the inside.

“Hello?” he said. The two had noticed him sooner than he had noticed them.

“Alan. Glad to see you’re getting used to the outpost.” Zirida said without smiling.

“Yeah! It’s fun, isn’t it?” Kalyntha greeted cheerfully. Was she also taller? What was going on?

Alan walked closer and stopped next to them, “Hey Zirida. Kalyntha, didn’t I just see you out there hunting… people?” It had been more than a day ago but he was testing the waters.

“Few of my sisters are out there.” She giggled. “I’m certainly the prettiest though!”

Okay…

“Would you like to invite us in so we can talk? Are you free?” Zirida asked.

“Sure, we can talk. I was planning on upgrading… some things though. Ritual stuff,” he said.

That made Zirida’s eyes light up. “Can I watch? I promise I won’t bother you.”

“Uh, alright.” He had already trusted her with a lot, a little bit more wouldn’t hurt. Plus, having someone to watch for scary bone patrons while he was carving up his own skeleton sounded like a great idea. He was growing more paranoid by the minute.

He had seconds thought about Kalyntha though. That was a whole bag of worms that seemed to grow in time. Then again, he wanted to know if she found Riasko and kicked his ass. The cowardly lisarni had left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He opened his door and let the two women into the empty room.

As soon as they entered a small thin bone dropped to the ground, having appeared out of nowhere, and buried itself in earth and dirt just next to the doorstep.