Absolute Shopping Addict

"Liam, can you tell me more about that guy?"

The normally quick-witted Liam took a few moments to think about his answer, even as they were using the Cloud Walk skill to traverse the roads faster.

"I should be able to answer this. But… right now I can"t figure it out. Maybe if I think a bit more."

A lot of words crossed his mind, but in the end, he only managed one word to describe Jake Smithson.

"He"s weird."

The old man raised an eyebrow at him, his expression solemn.

"I can"t think of a word that would suit him better."

"That"s what I was thinking about too!" the old man exclaimed, smiling pleasantly after returning to his usual demeanor. "It suits him perfectly."

"This is just the man I need," the old man thought, smiling as they finally made it to the disturbance, and sure enough, once Jake saw monsters, he was on them like white on rice.

"Points, baby, points, baby, points are a monster drop!" the old man heard Jake while he was pummeling a monster.

Someone like Jake knows how to enjoy the fight – "he sings, raps, and has a smile on most of the time while fighting," the old man thought, seeing Jake"s att.i.tude towards fighting.

Enjoyment of a task means he is willing to invest more into becoming better to increase his enjoyment, so deduced the old man, but Jake was looking forward to shopping with the points he earned from killing monsters – but the old man didn"t know that yet.

"I made the right choice to bring him on board."

While the old man was confirming his choices, a voice made him turn back.

"My imprint"s taking longer than Jake – has something happened?"

"Nothing you need to worry about," the old man told Liam. "Just a little more and you will gain the same skill I imprinted on Jake before."

Liam was also proving to be a very capable second for Jake, which delighted the old man greatly. He got a good fighter in Jake, and a competent second in Liam? Those two had a bright future together.

He looks like he"s ready to join in the fight any second, too, Master Li thought.

He was putting the finishing touches to the second gift he gave the two novice awakeners he just recruited: "Body Application".

This basic skill the old man was just about to finish imprinting on Liam was one of the first two skills all "Grand Duelists" start with, and it was all about enhancing how the user understands his or her own body.

Awakeners who are fighters tend to get the most use out of this skill, but even the awakeners who specialize in magic in this division also train their body through this skill, to be able to handle magic of a higher level.

One of the previous masters of the division had said "the loss of mentality leads to the loss of fort.i.tude", and that saying is what drives the "Grand Duelists" to make the most efficient use of their body, to maximize the use of their skills.

"While this skill doesn"t look important at first glance," the old man explained as he was imprinting the skill onto Liam, "it is the foundation from which all our combat and physical skills stem from. Staying balanced; swinging a sword not with the arm but by pulling the force from your feet, through your body, and all the way to the weapon: that is how we gain "swiftness" and "power". Mastery of your body will bring you further than anything you"ve seen. See how your body moves and changes as you use skills, that is how you will make the best use of it."

Instead of a bored expression, Liam absorbed everything the old man said.

"That weirdo doesn"t bother to listen to an old man"s ramblings, and I see you are much different than he is. A competent second is what he needs here."

"Thank you," Liam replied, and the flow of energy from the old man to him slowed until it came to a stop.

"Is the imprinting done?"

The old man nodded.

"I won"t keep you from your fun. Up and at them."

Before he rushed to where Jake was fighting, Liam took a moment to give the old man a thankful bow, earning him a smile from the leader of their new division.

"You might be in for a surprise, because the monsters here are of an entire order of magnitude stronger than the ones in the tutorial area. I"ll make sure you guys know what Nohas is really like and train you enough until we get to the home of the "Grand Duelists"."

***

It didn"t take long for Jake and Liam to realize that the monsters in the tutorial area also exist in Nohas proper: Goblin, Orcs, Iron-Beaked Eagle, and all the other monsters.

However, compared to their tutorial area counterparts, these were the real deal: the Brino version of the monsters they"d been hunting was a downgrade compared to what they were fighting now.

These monsters were creatures made to help new awakeners adapt to their new circ.u.mstances – and when they end up in Nohas after the tutorial, these awakeners often end up taken off guard by the sudden spike of difficulty they encounter.

And Jake and Liam were no exception to that.

"These guys seem strong," he deadpanned as his sword just bounced off a golden leopard that jumped the two of them from a bush.

"Might be out of my league here – dammit!"

Liam"s even tone changed to panic as the creature"s charge caused him to twist his ankle, and the pain led the golden leopard to drop him to the ground.

"Do you know what this means, Liam?" Jake asked, continuing to fight with his own golden leopard not too far away.

"About to be eaten alive here, would appreciate the help," Liam said, and despite it sounding calm, Jake knew that his friend was in a predicament, "will answer your question later."

"You"re not going to answer?" Jake asked, as he flung his golden leopard away from him. "Okay then."

"The stronger the monster, the more points! You know the performance bonus, don"t you?" he said as he blindsided the leopard that was about to bite his friend"s head off, and carved a chunk off its side with his enchanted Stinger Stiletto.

"Sorry, that was a bad spot!" he added, since the creature left its rear end defenseless. Kind of embarra.s.sing, in hindsight.

The leopard roared before turning at him, but when it did, Jake had already withdrawn his weapon from the creature"s rear, and the Swiftstone was bearing towards the creature"s neck.

One loud crack later, and the leopard collapsed onto the dirt, its head bent at an unnatural angle as the Swiftstone had already cracked its spine.

Jake had barely finished lifting Liam back up when the sound of a notification reached Jake"s ears.

[Congratulations! You"ve succeeded in hunting an actual monster from Nohas for the first time! You have now gained Gold Label eligibility for the Awakening Store!]

"What? Really? Huh? Is this real?"

Jake cheered at the joy this unexpected gift gave him – he was expecting a long quest for gold label access, but this?

Joy suffused his entire being as he saw the notification, but after a moment, the joy ebbed away, with confusion and suspicion replacing it.

"I mean, they had me jump through flaming hoops and got me into trouble for the gold label before, and all I had to do to get there was kill one lousy monster?"

Jake felt ill after reflecting on what had happened: if you could gain access to the gold label just by hunting your first real monster, then what was his hard work to win the evaluation worth?

"Was I… baited by this business?"

For a shopaholic like him, this was inexcusable.

The shame he was feeling and the heat inside him was starting to build up: this was something he would not put up with or let go.

"I can"t let anyone fool around with either food or shopping" was Jake"s rule of thumb: screw around with your customers, and Jake would make you pay for it.

"h.e.l.lo," Jake said, "Are you kidding me? Is this how you guys operate? Awakener Shop? What? Just a "sorry", and that"s it?"

Jake Smithson knew where to hit a company where it hurt the most: their bottom line.

***

"In hindsight, that was a d.i.c.k move we pulled."

"Exactly."
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"We were going to open the Gold Label eventually, but we were made to believe that an early access wager would excite the customer further."

The Gold Label was designed to be opened after the tutorial, but the Awakening Store made a wager with their customer for it, even putting the Black Label as collateral should the customer lose.

"With what we know about our customer? Yes, it is a d.i.c.k move we pulled."

"You don"t have any excuses?"

"That"s a bit too much."

"Uh…"

"Yeah… that"s a bit too – "

"Enough with the plat.i.tudes already! Time"s wasting while you"re jacking me off here!"

"I"m sorry!"

Thanks to the wager fiasco, Kelderian was now walking on eggsh.e.l.ls, since he knew what the kind of customer Jake Smithson was.

"This is the type of a guy who considers the "Red Cow" drink as proper compensation for a little packaging issue."

Kelderian could remember it like it was yesterday: a few weeks ago, he was caught off-guard and had to offer the drink – it was a bigger reward than he was supposed to give.

He"s going to call in any time now and start complaining.

What to do, what to do.

Since he already knows the score, he"s going to take measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring. Sure, he still wants to compensate Jake for that wager fiasco, but not overdo it.

The higher-ups had already given him the authority to act on this customer at his own discretion, so Kelderian has to examine the situation objectively.

And now, this is what he has in mind: to properly comfort the man. Nothing excessive and nothing that would give him more than what he"s earned so far – this is the only shop he can buy from.

The Awakening Store is the only shop Jake Smithson can use – it would be a problem if he stopped making purchases out of spite, but that"s not the kind of person he is.

He"s obsessed with shopping, ergo he will never stop buying.

These thoughts were circulating in Kelderian"s head when his a.s.sistant knocked on his door.

"Call for you, Director."

"There"s a call for me.

Time to face the music.

Game face on."

"Awakening Store here," Kelderian declared calmly.

"Hey," a subdued voice comes over the telephone, something unlike Jake Smithson"s usual calls to this place. "Jake Smithson here."

"Yes, Mr. Smithson – how can I help you today?"

"Is this your idea of a joke? If these were the conditions for Gold Label access, why did I have to make that ridiculous wager?" Jake asked, bringing his concerns across immediately.

"Well, we were still fine-tuning the quest system, and the wager and shop access systems got mixed up. Our apologies," Kelderian said, cleverly hiding the mistake he made and the fact that the dimensional manager okayed indulging Smithson"s shopping habits.

"All right, but there was a lot of effort and incidents that broke out due to that wager. An apology from you would be fine, but that wager took a lot out of my time and energy, two things I could have spent hunting more monsters and gaining more points. A simple apology won"t suffice this time, I"m afraid."

It was as Kelderian expected, Jake was now seeking a compensation for the wager fiasco.

"Again, many apologies for inconveniencing you to such a degree," Kelderian said, repeating his apology and trying not to give into the man"s demands so easily.

"What"s wrong with the Awakening Store?" Jake asked, as if a situation like this would happen once again, and in a crucial moment.

"Well, you will be glad to know that incidents such as that have been taken care of; we hope to not disappoint you in the future," Kelderian said, continuing his apologies.

That was when Jake had had it.

"Again, I know you"re sorry. But words are one thing, actions are another. Do try to back your words up with actions. Your shop put me through a great deal of stress, but if you have an item that can help fix that…"

"We"ll send you a six-pack of "Red Cow" drinks," Kelderian finally offered, because he knew that he should find the right opportunity to give the compensation and not right off the bat.

"Okay, but what happened to the Awakening Store that gave me this drink just for packing issues?"

"A 5000-point gift voucher, transferred directly to your ID," Kelderian suggested one more thing, all the while thinking that while "Service is the Key to the Awakening Store", he can only compensate Jake to a point, no further.

He wasn"t trying to be stingy, but he was operating out of a desire to not be ripped off by a customer.

"Well, give me a moment to think about this," Jake said, but Kelderian didn"t hear the last few words, as one of his a.s.sistants just quietly opened the door to his office and went up to him.

"Director, I think we"re in trouble," he said. "I think you should see this."

Thankfully Jake wasn"t talking, because that allowed him to mouth a "I"m on the line, talk to me later!" to his a.s.sistant – and then said a.s.sistant brought out his own phone and showed the screen to Kelderian.

"Superstore, 58th Dimension Opening Confirmed. Beta Service to start next month."

It was here where Kelderian had another change of heart, because compet.i.tors were beginning to show up on their dimension, the one Jake Smithson inhabits.

He turned back to the phone.

"Are you still there, sir? I have just been cleared to offer any due compensation for any discomfort you have suffered at the hands of this really horrible wager glitch you encountered…"

***