"They"re not following us anymore, huh?""Yes… I"m glad there weren"t that many skeletons where we were running."
"We got lucky."
Three awakeners who fled from Brino all slowed down, breathing sighs of relief as they looked back to see no skeletons pursuing them.
They were strangers when they first found themselves in Nohas, encountered each other, and became comrades over several battles, fighting together as well as a trio of awakeners could.
Fighting together was how they took on the skeleton army, as well as fleeing together when the decision to abandon the town was made.
Since the awakeners abandoned Brino by scattering in every direction, the skeletons found pursuit difficult, and thus gave up the chase, instead patrolling the town their leader now took for its own.
"What are we going to do now? We can"t return to the village."
"Survive, mostly. But if we"re going to survive, we"ll do it together – just like when we"re out here, we"ll take turns on watch duty, if that"s what you"re worrying about."
Now that they have abandoned Brino, they now realize just how large the privilege of rest and relaxation really is.
Taking turns to watch over their companions in case of monster attack, for instance.
Granted, they learned it while they were adventuring away from the town, but that didn"t make it any more comfortable.
"The announcement said that the tutorial was happening, something that goes before the game starts. Did they announce that the tutorial will be over at some point?"
"Well, I"m sure it will end. I"d rather have that end come later than sooner, because when it does, who knows when the situation will worsen."
"Agreed… but I want to leave this place now, meet other people, travel to other towns or areas or something."
This incident reminded all the awakeners of Brino that they were no longer in a safe s.p.a.ce, and that they had to fend for themselves.
Naturally, the awakeners planned to move to other areas or towns and establish themselves there.
"Nothing we can do at this point; let"s just focus on survival. As much as we can… becauseif we die, it"s over."
"Yes. Are you hurt anywhere? Anything bothering you?"
"A few cuts from those skeletons" swords, but I"ve bandaged them while we were escaping."
"Thank goodness that none of us was seriously injured."
The three of them were relieved that neither of them were hurt in this unfortunate situation, but then, a familiar voice called out to them.
"Jay, is that you?"
Jay turned to the source of the voice and gasped in surprise.
"Emmanuel? What happened?"
The three of them saw Emmanuel in the distance, clutching his grievously wounded gut.
***
Somewhere else, far away from Nohas, exists a repository of the countless objects that exist within the Awakening Store catalog.
It is also the head office of the Awakening Store. Most of those who work there call this office and the surrounding facilities the Awakening Plaza.
Everyday items in the Awakening Plaza catalog were also included in the Nohas Awakening Store catalog as a way to bring familiarity to its customers; in short, window dressing.
Nearly all of these everyday use items are not what an awakener would use; besides, the concept of "Points" as a universal currency is a concept that is similar to the concept of "money" on Earth, except much more advanced and standardized across worlds and dimensions.
Unfortunately, there always existed an exception to this convention: an exception who spends points not on awakener necessities, but on everyday items the workers of the Awakening Plaza would use.
Said exception was currently dragging his injured self across the meadows on the outskirts of the former awakener town of Brino.
"Almost… there…" Jake Smithson gritted out, unsure as to how he managed to cover such a distance from the conquered town in his state.
Maybe it was willpower or survival instinct, he didn"t know.
There was one thing he needed to do, though, and that was to get the stains out of his chain mail.
He even made a purchase of some baking soda and a scrub brush from the Awakening Store in advance, because he made it a point to make his armor look sparkling and pristine.
Why would someone risk one"s life for points and use them on frivolities such as this?
Because he can.
Because he doesn"t want his chain mail to rust.
Because of the belief that one"s purchases must always be maintained properly and kept as if they were brand-new.
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Thankfully, there was a river with a tree at its banks, and Jake collapsed in a heap in its shade.
He opened his eyes a few hours later to find that it was morning already.
After he cleaned up his wounds, he now had the chain mail laid out on the tree, baking soda on one hand and scrub brush on the other.
To Jake, it was a ritual of some sort: a way to help him soothe the grief of having to abandon Brino… but he had to be honest to himself, it was actually for losing the bed and the couch.
As he sprayed the powder all over the armor, he realized that because of this loss, he had to take care of what he had even more; if he didn"t do this, the pain of remembering his bed and couch would return.
That was why he devoted himself fully into the cleaning of the chain mail; it was a show of his resolve that he would take care of the things that were left behind for him.
"If you"re going to be there for me, I"m going to be there for you," Jake said as he started brushing off the rust. "I"ll take good care of you as long as you keep me safe, got it?"
Halfway through, Jake noticed something odd – did he scrub too strong? The armor was beginning to feel different.
It didn"t stop him, though.
This was something he needed to do, and by the ghosts of Brino, he would see it done.
By the time he used a pail to wash off the last of the grime on his chain mail, a notification appeared on the corner of his eye.
[Thanks to your devotion, the chain mail"s hidden ability has awakened.]
[Your chain mail has transformed into the Griefen.]
"Okay, what"s going on here? I wasn"t notified? Right, I had to finish cleaning it before I checked it out."
Still, though, he was a bit skeptical about it, because the armor didn"t have any visible upgrades, aside from the color change that happened while he was cleaning it.
"Oh well," Jake thought. "It"s just a change of the paint job."
That thought turned on its head the moment he read the description of the upgraded armor, and maybe he shouldn"t have such a flippant att.i.tude when it comes to things he wasn"t completely knowledgeable in.
[The Griefen has a very useful ability: binding one"s enemies with magical chains. The number of enemies it can bind depends on its wearer"s mana stat; the strength of the chains is based on the wearer"s strength.]
"Right after the skeletons… now I get this windfall to help with my payback? Thanks! You can expect me to buy a lot more after this! That debt is just a temporary setback, you"ll see! I"ll be spending ten; no, twenty; no, fifty times after this! You can count on me!"
***
At the same time Jake Smithson transformed the chainmail into its true form the Griefen, the Nohas manager of the Awakening Store was resting his head on his office desk, trying to stave off the gigantic migraine about to come.
"What to do, what to do… I never expect the Griefen to show itself this preemptively…" he grumbled, fingers rubbing circles onto his aching head to try and ease the pain even as he thought about the latest fiasco his branch got into now.
The Hide and Seek event is a seasonal promotion of the Awakening Store: it"s an event where new customers are encouraged to make a purchase when the Awakening Store makes its grand opening.
"I put a lot of preventative measures so the item wouldn"t activate, but that guy ended up both buying it… and unlocking the item, too…"
Kelderian thought himself clever to make a combination of baking soda and a scrub brush the key to activate the chain mail"s hidden ability; he thought no one would bother to find it.
In a setting like that, what kind of weird man would purchase baking soda and a scrub brush just after barely escaping an undefeatable monster?
He even had second thoughts about going through with the plan, because he thought that awakeners wouldn"t go through the entire series of events just to unlock it.
"This is inconceivable… this guy is just… ugh, it"s like I got mauled by a manticore."
Kelderian"s headache abated enough that the shame returned: he remembered bragging about giving away the Griefen if someone who found the way to unlock it showed up.
Just like how the Hide and Seek event worked, sales of it would increase dramatically if customers bought enough of them in an attempt to unlock the Griefen.
Unfortunately, a single awakener put a stop to that, even before other customers there accessed the Awakening Store…
"What am I going to do… what should I do? The dimension managers are going to be giving me a creatively-worded memo about this, at best."
At this point, Kelderian couldn"t afford to go back to the Hide and Seek promotion he proposed; it was time for him to do some damage control, since the item had been unlocked a lot earlier than anybody expected.
"Maybe I should move the opening date of the Awakening Store ahead of schedule?" Kelderian thought, considering that opening the shop to awakeners of all kinds would help balance the game, instead of just having one outlier be the "test audience".
"No… that"s impossible, placing items in the inventory of multiple awakeners at the same time is a logistics nightmare. I"m on a skeleton crew here, and the portals we use aren"t built to handle such a task at the moment… let alone the personnel needed to maintain them. I just might work a few of them to death if I opened the Store now."
After weighing his options, Kelderian shook his head.
He can"t officially open the store now; it"s just not ready yet. If he opens up the Awakening Store now, it"s going to be, in so many words, a cl.u.s.terf.u.c.k.
Customer complaints, delivery errors, powerful items ending up in the hands of casual customers and not heavy spenders…
The thought of that happening was too horrible for him, and his mind literally changed the topic into something less terrifying.
"So what the h.e.l.l do I do? I can"t take away what I"ve already shipped," Kelderian muttered, his headache returning.
On one hand, there was the challenge of balancing the absolutely broken awakener from the 11th tutorial zone; on the other, there were the district managers who he had to avoid.
"This is… I don"t know what to do… maybe I can try this… no, that won"t work, I couldn"t get this guy to go along with this…" the manager started mumbling, numerous possibilities pa.s.sing through his mind, only for what he knew about this Jake Smithson to shoot them all down.
It was then that Kelderian finally gave up, realizing that this Jake Smithson fellow was far beyond his capacity to deal with.
"Well, as they say, it takes one to know one…" he said to no one in particular. "And I have just the guy for the job."
There was one person he had in mind, someone who matches Jake"s eccentricities, and then some.
"I"ll call the head office and look for him," he decided. "If I keep this up, it"s only going to get worse."
"Might as well bite the bullet and go out of the box… those district managers are going to send me quite a few memos, but f.u.c.k that."
He raised his head, picked up the phone, and dialed the Awakening Store head office, looking for the one co-worker that would match this Jake Smithson in terms of insanity.
"This is Veilon, how can I help you?" the G.o.d of gambling games asked as he picked up the phone in his office.
***
Jake Smithson took a lot of time to admire the beauty of the Griefen.
Sure, he bought it for aesthetics and not its defense, but the chain mail was no slouch when it came to defensive ability.
Besides, there was no other armor item in the Awakening Store available that came in black; that was the most important thing to Jake.
He thrust an empty palm forward, the black chains sprang out of his armor like a metallic snake, and the way it moved according to his thoughts reminded him of a movie he watched when he was still a small child.
"Didn"t expect "Even Flow" to be this much of a help," Jake said as he felt the pull from within as he continued to maneuver the chain this way and that.
The Griefen"s true power is not for anyone to merely use: you have to be an awakener that has the ability to use mana; you need to both have it, and use it.
Thanks to Jake"s "Even Flow" skill that he got in a package with the Cherry Blossom Sword Art, he acquired both mana and the means to use it.
This was the first time he actually experimented with the Griefen"s power; he knew he had a long way to go to be proficient at it, but knowing he had it and the basics on how to use it was important.
It was something he could build on.
"Got you!" he yelled, and the chain burst out of his hand, winding firmly around a tree trunk that he pictured in his mind.
"Nice," Jake declared as he pulled the chain back. "Now to try two trees at a time."
As he continued to practice, he found out that there was no limit to the number of objects the Griefen could grab. The only limit one had was the mana needed: the more mana you used, the more chains would appear.
"It"s kind of expensive, especially when used in tandem with the Cherry Blossom sword techniques," Jake observed. "I"ll run out of mana quickly if I use them at the same time."
Jake didn"t have infinite mana; he had only a little invested ever since he woke up in Nohas.
However, he had something to help with that: an ostentatious gold necklace.
Just like the Griefen, he didn"t buy it because it was good, he only bought it because of the aesthetics.
In other words, superficial reasons: it was a simple golden chain, nothing more.
"Eighteen karats of pure swag, baby!"Jake declared. "This is just the bare necessities if you want to be a rapper."
The choice of accessory revealed Jake"s love of music, particularly hip-hop, because a lot of those songs contain lyrics about gold chains, Rolex watches, Bentleys, champagne; all the luxuries famous MC"s loved to make songs about.
Jake was no exception, and fortuitously, the item he bought for vanity ended up being very helpful to him.
"The Griefen would be useless if I didn"t have this necklace, after all."
Thanks to the golden necklace, he gained three more mana stats, allowing him to use the Griefen"s ability more consistently.
The Cherry Blossom Sword Art, which was only at level 1, could be used freely with his mana even if he didn"t have the gold necklace equipped.
If the Cherry Blossom gained a level or two later, he might end up needing more mana, but at the moment, this was unnecessary, since the Cherry Blossom needed more strength and agility than mana.
This was also why Jake was investing in the stats he needed immediately, such as strength, agility, physical defense and magic defense.
"I suppose it"s time to spare some points for my mana now, Jake thought. Still, though, I have a large problem staring me in the face."
Thanks to his investment in stats, he can work on his magic at his leisure, and he had the time to spare to train so that he could go back to Brino.
But the large problem wasn"t the bed, the couch, the magic, or even the Skeleritter.
The problem was that he was in rather substantial debt.
He reached the installment plan limit, and now had to pay the money back: all 210,000 points of it.
And he had to do it immediately, lest it start accruing interest and bite him in the a.s.s even harder.
"G.o.dd.a.m.n skeletons."
Despite Jake"s eccentricities, he never once thought that his impulsive nature and addiction to shopping was the cause of his ma.s.sive debt.
After all, to him, shopping is a sacred vocation, and exercising that vocation must be done in any location and environment.
Jake only thought of the Skeleritter and its minions, the endless skeletons.
First, the boss and now the debt, the problems just kept piling up for Jake, the memories of the bed and couch he bought the only thing keeping him together.
"It won"t be long, I"ll lay down on you again… but how will I do that?
I need to retake Brino. But I have to pay off the debt to buy the things I need to improve my magic power.
So many things to do… and not enough time!
If I get blacklisted from the Awakening Store due to all my debt and interest, it"s just as if I died – no reason to live."
The Awakening Store is something that he craves.
It is an addiction he has succ.u.mbed to.
"What should I do?"
He took a bit longer than usual to think.
"How would I take care of all my problems in one fell swoop?"
Several minutes later, a light bulb went on in his head, a solution formulating itself in his mind.
"I can"t believe I thought of something as insane as this!
This may be crazy enough to work!
Okay.
This is what I"ll do.
First, I"ll work on my mana.
I"m going to pull off what"s known as an exploit.
Those skeletons won"t know what hit "em.
Again, again and again."
It was the type of solution someone with an addiction would come up with: even with a large debt, continue making purchases, and only pay back the debt in the end.
However, what he had in mind was something else entirely.
"I"m going to bind the Skeleritter down with the Griefen"s chains. And while it"s immobilized, I"m going to kill the skeletons as fast as that b.a.s.t.a.r.d revives them. Yeah."
"This dumb skeleton b.a.s.t.a.r.d is going to become my personal goose that gives me golden eggs on demand."
Jake smiled.
It was a fabulous smile, the kind one makes when a plan is beginning to come together.