The First Store System

“Let’s do this,” Aakesh and Katrina muttered at the same time.

“Clang!”

The next moment, a sound of metallic clash rang in the area as Aakesh and Katrina clashed with each other.

“THUD!”

Soon, a loud crashing sound rang as Katrina came out to be the winner of the first clash, and Aakesh was thrown several hundred meters backward.

“Crash!”

Aakesh forcefully stopped himself since he was about to get out of the battle arena.

Getting out of the battle arena also counted as a defeat, and Aakesh didn’t want to lose the fight in a single move.

Katrina had currently raised her strength by four levels, the same as Autumn, but the power difference between them could be seen after Aakesh got knocked backward.

Katrina had learned hand-to-hand combat from Aakesh since, from her birth, she had been one of the strongest central rulers and had enough skills to fight, so she never had to depend on the hand-to-hand combat, and no one was there to teach her this type of combat.

With Aakesh, she learned the kinds of combat styles he used in battles to counter him, as her overwhelming power wasn’t available to her in training.

Aakesh stood up from the ground, but Katrina appeared and kicked him.

Aakesh using all he could at that moment, curved his body to dodge the kick, but he had gotten himself in an uncomfortable and weird posture, which Katrina wasn’t willing to let go.

Aakesh had no choice but to use a skill, losing the battle of who would stop the hand-to-hand combat first.

The past century Aakesh had spent with Katrina and Autumn, Aakesh had also learned skills from them at which they were best.

The next moment, a transparent barrier surrounded Aakesh as Katrina’s second punch arrived.

“Crack!”

“Crack!”

“Crack!”

The shield cracked down into several tiny shards like glass, but it had done what Aakesh wanted it to do.

Aakesh got a moment of relief. Using the window given by the shield, Aakesh moved out of the range of Katrina.

“Haha, you lose,” Katrina laughed out loud, unfazed, with Aakesh moving away from her.

Aakesh stopped in his steps and shook his head disappointedly as countless metallic shards appeared only a cm away from him, waiting to pierce him and turn him into a porcupine.

“I give up,” Aakesh announced since he had lost the battle. If he dared to move, the sharp metallic shards would pierce him. They wouldn’t create a life-threatening injury, but Aakesh had no interest in feeling unnecessary pain.

The next moment, all the metallic shards disappeared as if they were waiting for Aakesh to give up.

“Hmm, a slight growth today,” Katrina smilingly commented as she disappeared from the battle arena and appeared on her chair.

For the last two months, Aakesh had been fighting Katrina when she raised her strength by four levels, and for the past six days, Aakesh had been losing the hand-to-hand combat at the second move and the battle at the third move.

Today the battle went on to the fourth move, and Aakesh lost the hand-to-hand combat in the third strike when he used a skill to defend himself. But Aakesh didn’t find it to be any growth since the second move of Katrina had forced him into a dead-end, forcing him to use a defensive skill for a window to move.

There was no need to check his strength growth since nothing happened in the battle, and Aakesh returned to his chair.

His eyes then fell on Lily, who had been in a deep sleep for the past 160+ years.

“Hey, system, how much more time for Lily to wake up?” Aakesh asked the system since it had become his daily habit to ask this question.

[Around fourteen years, Host!]

The next moment, the system’s response rang inside Aakesh’s head.

A smile spread across Aakesh’s face as he nodded and looked at Lily, peacefully sleeping inside a blob of light.

Lily was sleeping, but that didn’t mean there were no changes in her.

The blob of light’s size grew at a fixed rate every year for the past 160+ years.

If it was the size of Aakesh’s palm previously, now it reached around his elbow if Aakesh were to pick up the blob of light.

“The day isn’t far when I will get to see a strong and new you,” Aakesh muttered, gently looking at the blob of light.

Aakesh would lie if he said he wasn’t excited thinking about the time when Lily would wake up.

The biggest gain for him in the Conspiracy continent wasn’t growing three times stronger or all the skills of various types he had learned from Autumn and Katrina, but his biggest reward was the breakthrough of Lily.

Especially the mixture of his and the Epochal Feline’s bloodline, which would result in Lily becoming the second known member from whatever race he originated.

Aakesh wouldn’t have minded even if Lily wouldn’t have gotten his bloodline mixed since he thought of her as his daughter, but after he learned the news, his happiness knew no bounds.

His love was unconditional for Lily. But seeing another member from his race wasn’t any less significant for someone like him, who believed his bloodline to be superior and only respected a select few characters and Devas.

“How long do you think it would take him to be able to challenge this level of strength?” Katrina, unaware of what Aakesh was feeling, asked Autumn.

The duo had grown close during the past century they had spent with each other in training.

They never stopped conversing when they weren’t battling Aakesh, and their source of wonder was always Aakesh and his monstrous rate of growth.

Usually, the creatures grew strong in the early phases, and then their growth rate subsided as they became powerful. Aakesh’s case was different. His growth rate was increasing instead of going down, making him seem even more monstrous in the eyes of Autumn and Katrina.

“It took him twenty years to defeat me, so I believe it would take him thirty years to defeat the current you,” Autumn answered after pondering for a few moments.

“You’re underestimating him,” A wry smile spread across Katrina’s face as she replied. “His growth rate has been getting even more monstrous,” She added.

***

A/N: The mass release has been shifted to the 15th of may since I haven’t been able to write any extra chapters for it.

The goals are similar to the past ones. Fixed five chapters, and for every extra chapter, 30 GT.