The First Store System

Chapter 1421: The Billionth Core!

The head hit the barrier, saving Aakesh from any kind of damage. The barrier then disintegrated, and with it, the head was cut into two.

The next moment, several spherical cores appeared in Aakesh's hands. Looking at the fragment, he found it to be out of sequence, so Aakesh stored the core in his space ring.

He then walked forward, and his steps were quicker than before, as the next challenge was the last one, and he would be able to hold the billionth spherical core once he solved it.

***

Tap! Tap! Tap!

The familiar sound of footsteps rang in Aakesh's ears as it slowly approached him. His eyes turned cold, and he looked behind, seeing a gigantic head frozen in mid-air.

A spiritual creature held the gigantic head, and it was slowly squeezing the life from the head.

Aakesh sensed danger from the spiritual creature as their eyes met. The sound of footsteps kept ringing, and it seemed it was next to Aakesh.

Slash!

Aakesh suddenly slashed to his left, and soon after, a creature became visible. It looked the same as the spiritual creature, a Chimera, but the physical Chimera didn't have the antennas the spiritual Chimera had.

Roar!

The creature roared as Aakesh forced it to become visible. There was a slash spread across its chest.

Aakesh didn't say any useless things and took a step forward, slashing once again. The threat emanating from the spiritual Chimera seemed higher, so Aakesh decided to end the physical Chimera's life before it could cause any complications in his battle.

There was a red glow around the sword. Instead of taking the strike head-on, the creature screeched and backed away.

Aakesh followed the creature and succeeded in his strike. The next moment, the sword slashed through it like a hot knife on butter. The next moment, it was cleanly cut into two. It was still alive, but the damage it had taken with the strike was immense.

Aakesh suddenly frowned, looking at the scene. Even though he felt the spiritual Chimera to be the bigger threat, the physical Chimera was still strong, and it shouldn't get that much damage from what was Aakesh's weakest sword skill.

The frown on his face deepened even more as the creature didn't stand up from the ground any longer and was losing its life at a rapid rate.

Aakesh's eyes turned dangerous, and the next moment, the sword disappeared from his hand, and a bow appeared.

Aakesh stretched the bowstring and kept at it until it touched his left ear. An arrow had appeared, nocked in the bow. It looked different than what Aakesh usually shot.

The arrow had no tail feathers, and its shaft had ethereal patterns spread across it. It simply went like a pointed tip and had no arrowhead.

Whoosh!

Aakesh released the bowstring, and the arrow flew, tearing through the air. His target wasn't any of the two Chimera but the gigantic head.

The next moment, the arrow passed through the head. It seemed to be a virtual item as it simply passed through. But it didn't come out from the head's back; instead, it disappeared once it had completely gone in.

The next moment, ethereal patterns on the arrow shaft appeared on the head, and soon they covered the entirety of the creature.

Screech!

The spiritual Chimera screeched in anger and fear since Aakesh captured its weakness. There was no Chimera, and it was all an illusion.

Since Aakesh felt nothing different, it showed the prowess of the gigantic head, but unfortunately for it, Aakesh caught it before things could completely turn for the worse.

What caused Aakesh to notice was the physical Chimera. It was an illusion, and the head had captured every detail of the physical Chimera, so Aakesh couldn't differentiate between fake and real.

The Chimera had the head of a fish, the body of a gorilla, and the claws of a tiger. Its inner organs were those of Fertipus. The Fertipus had immense strength and endurance due to their powerful internal organs. It was similar to a lion, with very small distinction. Aakesh caught it after looking deeper into the corpse, understanding that it was an illusion.

The next moment, both the physical and spiritual Chimera began to dissipate, and a few seconds later, they completely disappeared.

The ethereal patterns began to slowly materialize and began to squeeze the gigantic head. It was struggling, but facing the might of the patterns, it failed to put up any fight.

The arrow used by Aakesh wasn't some ordinary skill, but it was a consumable weapon that had cost him a large sum of money. It had a sealing function against abilities related to spirit. Illusion was one such ability, so it could no longer work.

Aakesh took a step forward, his sword appearing in his right hand. He then slashed, cutting the gigantic head into two.

Instead of a bloody rain or the corpse crashing to the ground, a spherical core bigger than anyone Aakesh had caught appeared. He reached forward and grabbed it.

The next moment, Aakesh raised his eyes in surprise as his space ring became out of control. Aakesh immediately acted and released all the spherical cores stored inside. Following that, the restlessness disappeared, while a blinding light engulfed every core.

Aakesh didn't need to work as they began to automatically operate in sequence and combine with one another. The process wasn't short, but it wasn't very lengthy as well. After a wait of three minutes, the blinding light disappeared, and a glowing sphere appeared, floating in the air.

It had a complete pattern engraved on it, which was the key to moving on to the next step.

Aakesh couldn't help but take a second glance when he read the pattern on the key. The spherical cores he had been collecting should have given him a different pattern, not the one on the sphere at that moment.

Before Aakesh could think more, the glowing sphere flew toward him, and his hand moved automatically to catch it.

Instead of tearing through his hand, it melted into the palm, and soon the sphere pattern emerged on the back of his right hand's palm.

The next moment, a wave of warm energy flowed through his body. He was gaining XP at a rapid rate and reached another level in no time. The process didn't seem to end and continued.

Aakesh saw an increase of seven levels in no time, and it finally stopped short of another level gain. Even though Aakesh had been unable to gain any level since he came to the swamp, what he gained today was more than what he would have gotten if he were outside doing his regular things.

Aakesh then decided to check his status screen in Panagea.

The next moment, a blue screen with golden fonts appeared in front of him, containing all his details.

Personal Status:

Name: Aakesh,

Race: [*****],

Gender: Male,

Lifeform: Mythical,

Class: Watcher,

Level: Level 316,

HP: 221,248/222,000,

Energy: 220,821/222,000,

Physical attributes:

Strength: 6,486 (+300),

Agility: 6,470 (+300),

Intelligence: -0-,

Endurance: -0-,

Comprehensions: Hand fighting (100%), Archery (100%), Swordsmanship (100%)... 

Skills: Wolfbane, Ability-Learning, Universal-Eye, Fortune-Eye, Element Immunity…

Aakesh looked at the screen. Since the last time he checked his status screen, he had gained twelve levels. Since he had a mythical class, he gained 25 units for every attribute at every level increase.

Since he came to the Sacred Dimension, Aakesh had been stronger in Panagea than he was in reality. He then waved his hands, and the blue screen disappeared.

Aakesh then focused on what was ahead of him. It was still the stairs that descended further.

Aakesh had no idea what would welcome him once he climbed down, but going back was not an option, so he put back the sword inside the space ring and walked forward.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Aakesh frowned since the sound of footsteps maintained the same rate as when he walked, but it didn't belong to him. No matter what he tried, Aakesh couldn't sense any life in the area other than him.

He could only keep walking forward, and soon he reached the steps. He didn't waste any time and raised his right foot to climb down the stairs, but when it landed, the view in front of him suddenly changed.

It happened so quickly and efficiently that Aakesh didn't even feel the change in space. He was no longer on the damp stairs, but what welcomed him was a vast grassland, with grass reaching his knee.

The wind blew gently as they moved past Aakesh. It felt like the wind gave sweet pecks to Aakesh's cheeks.

***

A/N: Sorry, only one chapter. I typed the chapter on the phone since the deadline was near and I don't want to miss any day this month at least. If you find any issue, please do comment, so that I will reedit those sections.

For the mass release of 10 chapters, I will upload them on 16 December.