What met my eyes at first was darkness in what appeared to be a stone room from the little I could see. I wondered where the light switch was, if it had any, as I stepped inside, peering through the darkness. A flame burst into existence on either side of me, revealing torches and a large rectangular stone room with torches along the walls that sputtered to life in succession.

The room itself was nothing too exciting, just a rough freshly excavated cave look that happened to be a rectangular prism with the one door, besides its size that is, it was really big. If I were to take a guess I would put it at about a side length of 25 feet and a good 40 feet width wise along with being at least 50 feet high, which means that this room is about as big as half of a professional indoor basketball court and at least twice as high.

I could use this for just about anything! I have more than enough space for just about any form of training I could ever need, along with space for blacksmithing! I was ecstatic at just the size alone but there was more, the room wasn't empty.

In the farthest left corner of the room was a workbench with a bar of something silvery on it, an anvil about a foot from the workbench, and some type of forge a small distance away from both facing them along the back wall along with a shelf of various tools. None of them looked particularly well made.

There was one thing that looked out of place however, attached to the back wall at about head height was an obsidian looking plaque with runic symbols all over it. I tore my eyes away from it. I think that I should probably make sure that I can actually use the forge for blacksmithing and enchanting before I mess with that.

I walk over to the forge quickly, scanning it thoroughly while referencing my new blacksmithing knowledge while I did. What I discovered was that none of the tools were particularly well made, beside the large Magic Forge that is, which was pretty good but it seemed very basic with only the mortal liquid fire heart option that was built in, and a ingot of Mythril lying on the workbench.

“A bar of Mithril! This is great! I actually have access to a non-mortal material!” I exclaim upon recognizing the silvery bar that was just sitting waiting for me, this is really, really good news for me. Mythril, like the fictional material from my old universe, is used because of its main quality which is that it has insanely high conductivity to almost every energy that makes it one of the best materials for enchanting as enchantments placed on it use 98 percent of the energy supplied to it.

It’s not all that great for armor or weapons compared to other non-mortal materials however as it is much more malleable than other materials and is more comparable to iron in terms of strength and its ability to hold an edge and is weaker than modern steel from my old world.

Mortal materials like iron, copper and steel however have dramatically worse conductivity usually using about 0-70 present of the energy supplied, which makes any enchantment placed on it dramatically increase the energy required for it to work.

This is really good news for me as I need something to practice enchanting on so I can get up to a reasonable level of skill and Mythril is the perfect material for that because I will be able to test the enchantments without wasting energy and time that I could use to practice making enchantments more.

I shake my head bringing me out of my thoughts, that can wait, I need to make sure that I can actually use the tools I have for blacksmithing first. I look around me, time to inspect the workplace.

About 5 minutes later when I was looking at the Magi-Forge when a thought occurred to me, ‘Wait, don't I have a skill for appraising objects?’ I then called for the stat menu and quickly looked in the skill section which displayed the skill Appraisal that was apparently ‘Object inclined’. I wonder what I need to do to activate it?

Maybe I should try to say it out loud? Or perhaps I should just think about the system, does the system control my skills? Maybe it just works like a passive ability? No, nevermind, there's a section for that and it was clearly in the skill section. I look at the Magi-Forge again, I guess I can just use the trial and error method. “Appraisal.” I say out loud while staring at the Magi-Forge, I instantly knew that it worked because the usual blue rectangle blinked into existence reading, “Magic Forge Lv1” and nothing else.

“Ok, it works. That's good, but can it do the same thing if I think it?” I wonder to myself, ‘Appraisal’ I think to myself while looking at the anvil that was close by. The blue screen blinked into existence again in front of me, it read “Magic Iron anvil Lv1” which wasn't helpful, I knew what a magic anvil looked like, but I wasn't really expecting it to be. Well, I guess that that might be an over exaggeration, the level of all the things that I appraised are the same as the forge which might mean that all these tools are level one, probably because Soul Forge is level one. But who knows?

Well, the good thing about being a blacksmith is that I can make my own tools if I have to, so it's really not a big problem in the long term. I go around appraising the other tools finding out that yes all of them are at level one. Once I had appraised almost all of the tools ending with “Rounding hammer Lv1” I decided that I should take a look at the weird runic obsidian plaque on the wall now.

I walk towards the rounded obsidian plaque stepping carefully around the Magi-forge as I do. It was on the back wall about 10 feet away from the forge which I jog away from, looking at the dark object that I am getting closer to with every step. Once I get within 3 feet of the plaque I stop, inspecting it carefully.

“Elvish!” I say out loud, there's elvish words carved onto the plaque that translates roughly to “System Store” written in the center of a runic ring that spanned most of the entire surface of the plaque and it looked like it curved around the back as well.

‘Wait, how can I read Elvish? Elves didn't even exist in my old world.’ I thought to myself confused, I thought about this very hard for about a minute before recalling a memory, one of a classroom with a Elvin teacher, my teacher, teaching me how to read. What was that? I have never seen an Elf in my life! Hang on… Was this part of that information dump when I accepted the system? It must have been, but who’s memories did I get? What world was it from?

I tried to review my memories again, looking for the answers in the recesses of my mind but coming up with a blank. I guess that I only got memories about blacksmithing, enchanting and the Elven language? I am not sure if that's a good thing or not. On the one hand if I got all knowledge of the person then I would know more which is always a good thing in my opinion but on the other hand if I had gained all memories of that person then their personality would start to influence me because memories form who we are to some extent.

It’s probably best to just move on for now and come back to that at a later date if I find out more.

I bring myself out of my thoughts and start to examine the plaque carefully trying to make heads or tails of the runes carved into the stone. Even after a few minutes of staring at it I couldn't understand a single rune on it. It was extremely complex and as I looked closer, the runes that were carved into the plaque were very detailed in and of themselves. It almost looked as if…

“Amazing!” I exclaim out loud, the runes were made up of hundreds upon hundreds of smaller runes! This piece of obsidian has got to be the most complex thing I had ever seen including my new knowledge of runic devices from the system, it was like looking at a supercomputer from the future! I couldn't begin to imagine the skill it would take to make such a thing.

I spent the next few minutes examining the device farther, taking in all that I could, trying to figure out what it did. As I was looking at the side of it I found out that it did curve around the back of it because I could see that one of the runes on the side was incomplete, missing about half of the left side. Maybe looking at the back would help me figure out what it did? I reach out, stretching my arms carefully. If I even scratch such a complex object it could break and I would never be able to forgive myself.

I grasp the plaque carefully with both hands. ‘Ok, now I have to be careful. I just need to lift it up and-’ It disintegrated in my hands turning into a black cloud of dust that fell onto the ground and into my hands.

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“NO!” I shout as loud as I can, I broke it! I almost started crying, I had broken it.

I saw a bright flash of blue directly in front of me, I raised my head looking up at where it came from, seeing a bright blue screen expand into existence. It was a system notification that read “Congratulations, you have unlocked the store function.”

I read it again, just to make sure that I had not misread the notification. Store function? Like a System store? Was it me touching the plaque that activated it? The plague did say ‘System Store’ after all, maybe I hadn't broken it and it just activated the system store and destroyed itself?

Well, I guess I am going to get another headache now. ‘I should probably sit down for this.’ I think to myself and I sit on the cold stone ground in the meditation pose, screwing my eyes shut I ready myself against the pain that was coming. I sit there for a few tense minutes, waiting for the pain to kick in.

Nothing is happening. I open my eyes, why wasn't I in pain? After a few seconds of silence and the lack of pain continuing to bring me confusion I stand up. “Maybe system functions don't give me headaches?” I wonder to myself “Maybe it's in the status menu?” ‘Status.’ I open the status menu and scan everything over.

Statistics

Passive Abilities

Skills

Active Quests

Name: Ardika Ekia

Physical age: 11

Birthdate: August 12

Gender: Male

Race: Human/God hybrid

Adaptation

Adaptive system

Perfect Recollection

Appraisal (Object inclined)

Soul Forge Lv1

(No active quests)

Nothing is different. Maybe it's a different menu? ‘Store.’ I think, trying to open the system store. Instantly the screen shifts and grows into a new screen that looks quite different.

System Store

Ring Gold: 0

Ring Templates

Fire Hearts

Materials

Currency Conversion

Necessities

‘I guess this is the navigation menu?’ I think I'll look it over. “Ring Gold? What's Ring Gold?” I say and as if answering me the screen shifts to show a notification saying “Congratulations you have discovered the System Store. You can buy a variety of items in the system store with Ring Gold that you can earn by converting currencies, quests and crafting.”

Huh, I guess that it is the currency for the system? The name is a little cheesy but, ok. I wonder what the conversion rates are. I guess I just select it? I reach out and tap the currency conversion button which blinks and expands covering the screen and showing four options: Ring Gold to U.S. dollars, U.S. dollars to Ring Gold, Ring Gold to Golden Drachmas and Golden Drachmas to Ring Gold with the conversion rates of one Ring Gold for every U.S. dollar and 20 Ring Gold for every Golden Drachma and vise versa.

One Drachma is only 20 dollars? That seems rather cheap, compared to their usefulness and the cost of items in Golden Drachmas. Is this the actual conversion rates or is this just the system conversion rates? Well, I guess I am probably going to find out later.

What can I buy again? I hit the back button and the screen which brings me back to the navigation menu. Ring Templates first I guess. I punch the Ring Template Button which expands into a very similar screen to the currency conversion button took me to, with different things that I can buy. What I see on this screen is different ring casting molds all about 5 Ring Gold, pre-made rings made of mortal materials that look to be about 10-15 Ring Gold and rings that are made of non-mortal materials that are the most expensive at 100-250 Ring Gold each.

I am not sure if I am getting a good deal here but 15 Ring Gold/dollars for a gold ring seems really cheap. I am pretty sure that even 250 Ring Gold would be really cheap for one. Could I get rich by selling these at market value and then buying a dozen more with the cash I earn?

That seems like a smart thing to do, but this world might have completely different prices from my old world, or U.S. currency is worth more than in my old world. I think I will need to research this later, let's keep looking at the system store.

I should look at the Fire Hearts next I think. I quickly navigated to the Fire Hearts screen and inspected it carefully for a few minutes. There were at least one hundred different Fire Hearts and they were much more expensive than even the non-mortal material rings with the least expensive being 500 Ring Gold and the most expensive being 2000 Ring Gold. I probably won't be getting any of these very soon…

I click back to the navigation menu and look at what's next, “Ah, the materials! Let's see what we have here!” I click the button for the materials tab. My wide eyes are met with the sight of hundreds upon hundreds of materials and a search bar at the top of the screen that wasn't there for any of the other screens.

I scan it carefully but it takes a long time, the list of materials seemed to be endless with incredible variety! The prices were incredible too, an example of the prices are a GOLD BAR that cost 40 Ring Gold! I could buy a GOLD BAR for 40 dollars! Gold bars cost well into hundreds of dollars for a single bar in my old universe! If these were current market prices then I’m the president of the universe. I am definitely going to get rich off of this.

The rest of the mortal materials cost around the same price as the gold bar at around 10-60 Ring Gold but the more expensive mortal materials were interesting and some of them I haven't even heard off like whatever Durasteel was that cost 70 Ring Gold or even Plastica that cost 60 Ring Gold.

Then of course there was the non mortal materials that looked to be around 100-200 Ring Gold. I wasn't sure what the system was thinking with these prices but even 200 Ring Gold for a bar of any non-mortal materials was very, very, very cheap. Hell, a gold bar costs more than that and it is literally useless!

I don't think that I will ever have money problems in this new world and I haven't even gotten the Lotus Hotel and Casino infinite cash card yet!

I can't wait until I get my mansion and private jet! Make that mansions and private jets, plural!

Ok, I am getting ahead of myself. I need to figure out how to survive first. Back to the Store.

I bring myself out of my reverie and focus back in on the blue rectangle in front of me, still in the materials section. I exit the materials page and check for anything I haven't looked at yet. “Ah, the Necessities page.” I say after looking at it, I wonder what a multidimensional system would consider necessities? I punch the last button quickly and open up the Necessities page and am about to scan it quickly when the thought ‘I should be fast, what time is it anyway?’ occurs before I can look at anything and then ‘I really need a watch.’

The page seemed to be just a list of food items and a couple different basic types of clothes with the normal food costing 5 Ring Gold, desserts costing around 10 Ring Gold and the clothes costing around the same as desserts, a little higher in some cases. But near the bottom of the list there were a few special items that were displayed that caught my attention.

Their names were: Ambrosia square, Nectar box, Lembas Bread loaf and finally Golden Apples. The Ambrosia squares cost 60 Ring Gold each, Nectar boxes were the same price as the Ambrosia, Lembas Bread loaf’s cost the least of the special food stuff for 20 Ring Gold and the highest price goes to Golden Apples that cost one thousand Ring Gold per apple.

The price for Golden Apples makes sense as it extends the lifespan of a person by a lot, if my memory is accurate, but 20 dollars for a loaf of bread!? This is the only thing I have seen in the store that seemed to be over charging me for something and not crazy inexpensive. It's weird that the system chose a loaf of bread to be the thing that the system is charging me more for.

Or is it just a loaf of bread? Lembas Bread… hang on, that sounds familiar… Oh, I just remembered what it is, nevermind the system is still crazy inexpensive. If it is the same thing that is in the Lord of the Rings that is. I mean, it has the same name so… Probably? I can try it later, when I am filthy rich… and have a mansion…

OK, I am done looking at the store for now. I guess I should go back to my room and start planning my new life.