Chapter 6: Shopping

James scrolled through the shop. There were so many items, and the list seemed endless. Similar to his status the shop appeared as a floating panel, however, instead it showed an almost endless list of items that he could buy. He looked towards the top and saw a search bar, and when he focused on that it brought up an advanced search option. He could either directly search up the name of an item, or he could use the advanced search functions to narrow down the list.

The first filter the advanced search function had, allowed him to either only look at skills, stats upgrades, or items. From there, he could further narrow down things by specifying the maximum and minimum amount of points he could spend. He could also narrow things down by choosing the specific types of skills, stat upgrades, and items he was looking for.

Before James went and bought anything though, he decided to check his current priorities. Currently he was stuck at the bottom of a canyon with no source of food, and no way out. He decided to address his food problem first, and searched through his shop menu.

He looked for the cheapest options, and chose some beef jerky which cost him five points. Then he quickly ate it up, washing it down with some river water.

Now that his food problem had been solved, he moved on to his next problem. He was trapped at the bottom of a canyon on a thin strip of sandy beach. He could try and jump into the river and hope it carried him down to somewhere he could get out from, however, considering his last experience in the river he wasn’t eager to go back in. He could also try and scale the walls of the canyon. The walls were not very smooth, so he could realistically climb up it. Unfortunately, James was not confident in his rock climbing skills, and considering he had no rope, he was hesitant to try this option as well. This left one last option. He could buy something from the shop that would help him escape.

But James wanted to be smart about his purchases, as he also had to spend points to address another problem he was facing. Currently, he was quite weak, and he was worried that if the Phantom Wolves were anything to go by, there would be many other dangerous obstacles for him to get through. He suspected that he would be facing things a bit fiercer than slimes, and for that he would need some real strength.

James decided to look through the shop for things that would both make him stronger and also allow him to escape the canyon. But first he decided to examine his current skills so he didn’t buy anything that would turn out to be redundant.

[Great Fear Resistance Lv 1: This skill provides a large resistance to feeling fear. Additionally, this skill will help the user keep their calm when feeling fear.]

[Enhanced Growth Lv 1: This skill enhances the speed at which the user’s skills level up.]

‘Both of these seem really good,’ Jame thought, ‘especially the enhanced growth one, that one seems almost like a cheat. Well it's good to know jumping off a cliff into the river wasn’t completely worthless.’

Now that he had looked at his skills he went and examined each of his individual stats.

[Strength: This is the body’s ability to exert power]

[Agility: This is the body’s ability to change its momentum while maintaining coordination]

[Dexterity: This is the body’s ability to make precise movements]

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[Vitality: This is the body’s ability to keep itself alive]

[Endurance: This is the body’s ability to maintain its energy]

[Intelligence: This is the ability to comprehend things]

[Charisma: This is the ability to get along with others]

[Magic: This is the ability to use and manipulate mana]

They all seemed pretty standard to James. About the same as they would be in any other system web novel.

His strength stat was how strong he was: how hard he could punch, how fast he could run, how high he could jump, and other similar things. His agility, stat would allow him to change directions faster and more efficiently. Dexterity would allow him to make quicker and more precise movements. Vitality would basically serve as his health. Endurance would allow him to run, or do something else for longer. Intelligence would probably allow him to understand things quicker, he suspected that it would have a large effect on one’s control of magic. Charisma seemed to just make you a bit more likable, he wasn’t sure if that effect applied to other life forms too. And lastly, magic seemed to just be his mana pool or something similar.

He wasn’t quite sure which of these stats affected his perception and reaction time, but he suspected it might be a combination of things like intelligence, dexterity, and agility. He decided he would look into that later.

For now, he had things to buy.

He spent perhaps two to three hours just scrolling through the shop looking things over, and eventually decided on a few purchases.

First, he decided to bring all of his stats except charisma up to tier one. He had initially thought to only upgrade his physical stats, however, after reading over the skills available and seeing that a lot of them required mana he decided to upgrade his magic and intelligence too. To unlock magic he spent two-hundred points.

He also learned that the price for upgrading different stats was different based on what level that stat was at. For example, his agility that the status said was ‘above average’ required four-hundred points to upgrade, while his strength, vitality, dexterity, and endurance which were all at ‘average’ took six-hundred points to upgrade. His intelligence which was at ‘high’ only took one-hundred points to upgrade. And lastly, his magic that was immediately put into ‘weak’ upon being unlocked, took a whopping one-thousand and two-hundred points to upgrade.

This left him at a total of 10,695 points.

Then he looked over the skills that he bought.

Skill (active): Obscuring Flash

Effect: When activated an obscuring flash spell will hit the enemy with a chance to obscure their senses of sight, smell, and hearing. The chances of the obscuring flash spell working depend on the enemy’s resistances, and the amount of mana infused into the obscuring flash spell. The time the enemy is under the effect of the obscuring flash spell will also depend on the enemy’s resistances, along with the amount of mana infused into the spell.

Cool Down: 1 minute

Cost: 6,500 points

Skill (passive): Novice Spear Skills

Effect: This skill grants the user a novice level of spear skills.

Cost: 1,500 points

James had chosen the Obscuring Flash skill both for its usefulness and also as a sort of fail safe. Not only could he use it in battle to create temporary openings, but he hoped that with his now tier one magic and intelligence, he could activate it long enough to escape from anything dangerous.

As for the Novice Spear Skills, he bought this skill because it seemed like it offered a diverse way of attacking for a pretty cheap price. Even if it wouldn't be a one shot one kill type of skill, he hoped it would be a good well-rounded attack skill. He had considered buying other weapon skills like the Novice Sword Skills instead, but ultimately he decided to go with the spear because he once had a history teacher who was obsessed with the spear, and constantly talked about the spear’s superiority compared to other weapons. And although he found the teacher's tirades annoying, he had to admit that the teacher made some pretty convincing arguments.

He decided to hold off on buying a spear for now, until he escaped the canyon as it might get in his way. Speaking of which, now that James had made his purchases, escaping was his next step. But before that, James looked at his new status screen.

Name: James Wall {Fearless} {Relentless} {Great Escape Artist}

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Level: 8

Strength: Low (Tier 1)

Agility: Low (Tier 1)

Dexterity: Low (Tier 1)

Vitality: Low (Tier 1)

Endurance: Low (Tier 1) + increase (large)

Intelligence: Low (Tier 1)

Charisma: Average (Tier 0)

Magic: Low (Tier 1)

Physical Status: Healthy

Mental Status: Confident

Skills(active): Obscuring Flash Lv 1

Skills(passive): Great Fear Resistance Lv 1, Enhanced Growth Lv 1, Novice Spear Skills Lv 1

Skills(special): None

Skills(bloodline): None

Points: 2,695

Shop: Unlocked

System Messenger: Unlocked

Tower Floor: Floor 1