Having not checked his profile page since entering the Adventurer Dungeon, Caution stared at the information, curious to see what had changed.
Status
Name: Caution Hunt (Level 15)
Titles: Ultimate Challenger
Class: The Champ
Health points (HP): 15
Mana consumption: 0/20 (MC)
Stats
Strength: 47 Agility: 32
Stamina: 43 Vitality: 3
Perception: 5 Magic: 10
Healing: 1 Free points: 35
Special items: Crimson energy store. (Creator gift)
Caution nodded with satisfaction at the absurd amount of free points. His stats were the same, but he had levelled up 7 times.
"Are you seeing this?" Astel said. "This is pretty neat."
"I'm checking now," Caution said.
Located at the top right of the dashboard was a new tab titled [SHOP]. Caution pressed the tab to be shown a page of numerous items with the price underneath. He quickly scrolled through the first five pages which consisted of armour, swords, shields, potions and staffs ranging from 350 points to 20,000 points. None of the items stood out to him or looked out of the ordinary.
"Unless we get a kill or win a special event, this shop is useless," Astel said. "It's a cool feature though. I actually feel like I'm in a video game now."
Caution continued scrolling and as he did the items became more expensive, looking fancier or deadlier. He paused on page eight to marvel at a glowing red scythe.
"Have you seen the one titled Reaper?" Astel asked.
Caution whistled. "I'm looking at it now."
"A fitting name, don't you think?"
"Yeah. And it's 50,000 points. You need to kill 50 other contestants to get that baby."
"I wouldn't call that a baby. There's a 20% chance it devours a portion of your soul when you use it."
"Oh? Where do you see that?"
"Double press the item and you'll see the item description."
"You're right," Caution said while raising his eyebrows. "That's no baby."
"That's what I'm saying."
Caution scrolled further until he noticed a small search icon at the top. He pressed it and a keyboard appeared. With his index finger, he slowly typed the words "Gauntlets."
He gasped. "I'm in love."
"Huh?"
Caution wiped away an imaginary tear from his eye. "They're so beautiful."
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
A page of gauntlets appeared before him, all of them differing in shape, size, price and colour. Caution had five favourites by the end of a quick, rigorous search. They were all priced between 10,000 to 20,000 points and shared similar characteristics.
First and foremost, his favourites were huge as hell and could condense into a smaller form. The enlarged version didn't just look like mere protective armour surrounding the hand and arm. Each gauntlet really looked like a lethal weapon with a size large enough to magnify the range and area of damage. They were like portable close combat tanks, guaranteed to dish out explosive damage.
His favourites were also described to be fuelled by "energy cores". The phrase rang a bell as they reminded Caution of the gauntlets Manny equipped, but the main reason he liked the feature was simply because it sounded powerful and developed. By judging the aesthetics alone, the five gauntlets looked dangerous and futuristic. They glowed bright colours at certain sections around the arm region and seemed to be made from a steel-like material.
"You look like you've just seen a puppy," Astel said.
Caution grinned. "I might as well have. If I can wield one of these gauntlets then..."
No. Wait a second.
Could they compete with the ones Manny had used in the mini-game? Caution could still feel the trembles from the earth-shattering impact created by the first uppercut Manny performed, and that was impossible since he was technically a completely different human being.
Caution typed "Custom" in the search bar and one result appeared. Though his eyes lit up, his heart dropped almost immediately after.
Custom-designed item forged by the creator:
80,000 points.
"Eighty kills," Caution said. "I need eighty kills for a custom weapon."
"Not necessarily," Astel said while continuously scrolling down a page.
"What do you mean?"
"You can also gain points by winning special events and they may not involve killing another contestant." Astel gave a blank stare. "Not that it makes much difference. You'll still need to become a mass murderer."
Caution avoided eye contact as excitement fizzled away. He could sense the judgement and intense disapproval. Astel stayed silent yet his words played over and over in his mind.
Knocking someone out and murdering another human being are two different things...
Can you really bloody your hands?
----------------------------------------
"So to summarise, by adding section D of the fire incantation, you are left with a more developed variation of the fireball...
Caution half paid attention to the lecturer while scrolling through the new [SHOP] feature. The list of items available appeared to be endless. He stared intently at multiple rows of potions. Standard health potions, which increased the user's health by 50 points, were sold in batches of one hundred and five hundred. The one hundred batches cost 5000 points and the five hundred batches cost 25,000 points. In other words, they were worth 5 and 25 kills respectively.
The news was helpful but overshadowed by the fact that his health points were less than the standard health potion's healing effect. He had 15 life points, not 50. It was a sign that he wasn't strong enough.
Caution sighed. I've got to train soon... and allocate my stats.
He searched through a collection of spears. Then out of pure curiosity, he searched up Crimson energy store.
One result came up.
Special items: Crimson energy store. (Creator gift)
100,000 POINTS.
SOLD OUT.
Caution nearly fell off his chair. One hundred kills? One hundred fucking kills for a store of energy?
The energy store cost even more than a custom-designed item. He knew how the item could be of use to him but was it really that valuable?
An elbow dug into Caution's ribs.
"Big brother," Lilly whispered.
"What is it?" Caution hissed. "I'm busy."
"Doing what? You're just moving your hands up and down like a weirdo."
Caution closed the dashboard, smiling sheepishly. She wasn't wrong. "What do you want?"
He turned to look at her and almost immediately he knew something was up. Lilly frowned. Bags were underneath her eyes. "Yolga and I have been thinking... we're not so sure about being adventurers."