The First Store System

“Hey, system, how much more time before Lily wakes up?” Aakesh asked the system despite knowing that today was the day. Since it had almost become a tradition for him these past few years, Aakesh didn’t want to break it. Only Lily’s waking up would announce its end.

[Host, there are only thirteen hours left for Lily to wake up from her breakthrough.]

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

[Host, do you want me to create a countdown timer for you?]

Not long after, the system’s voice rang again inside Aakesh’s head. This time it asked Aakesh a question.

“Why not,” Aakesh replied since he had no issues with the countdown timer. In fact, he would feel better if there was a timer showing him that Lily’s waking up was close.

The system didn’t speak anything in response. The next moment, a virtual timer appeared just a meter above Lily, floating in the air.

[13:07:51]

[13:07:50]

The countdown timer showed the time showed before Lily would wake up.

Since Lily still had thirteen hours, seven minutes, and forty-nine seconds left before her breakthrough came to an end, Aakesh looked in the direction of Katrina and Autumn.

Even though Aakesh defeated Katrina when she had raised her strength by four levels even earlier than the best estimates of Katrina and Autumn, showing just how quickly he was growing. Unfortunately, the situation wasn’t similar in the case of Autumn.

The current Autumn had her strength raised by five levels, and it put her strength in the Sacred dimension.

The best result Aakesh had gotten from Autumn these past more than a decade was a survival up to the sixth strike.

Autumn hadn’t used any skill in her current form, not even once, while Aakesh would activate Counter Shield right after the second move. It showed the vast power difference between them.

Autumn and Katrina were conversing with each other when they suddenly sensed a familiar gaze. Both of them looked at each other and could see a deep look of irritation in their eyes since Aakesh gaze meant a single thing.

“Katrina, I want to see the strength gap between us when you have raised your strength by five levels,” Aakesh left his chair and requested Katrina. His expressionless tone didn’t feel like it was a request, but Katrina understood it since they had spent more than a century together.

“Why were you born with unlimited endurance?” Katrina complained as if not for Aakesh’s unlimited endurance; Aakesh would’ve been still gasping for a breath after the long and intense battle they had some time earlier.

Aakesh didn’t speak anything in response, appeared in the center of the arena, and waited for Katrina to appear.

Katrina took a deep breath and then left her chair, appearing a few meters away from Aakesh in the arena.

Suddenly the air around Katrina started flowing reverse as an invisible pressure appeared. Even the space around her began feeling the brunt.

The next moment, the air and the space returned to normal as if it was all an illusion.

But Katrina’s power level showed that it was anything but an illusion. There was no comparison between the previous her and the current her when it came to strength.

“I am starting,” Katrina announced since she wanted to end this as quickly as possible.

Since it was Aakesh’s first battle with Katrina when she had raised her strength by five levels, Aakesh wanted to check how strong were his defenses against her attacks?

The next moment, Aakesh activated Counter Shield at its full power.

The next moment, an eighteen-layered transparent barrier covered the entirety of Aakesh.

“CRACK!”

“CRACK!”

“CRACK!”

Aakesh had only activated the skill when it cracked down and burst into smithereens, just due to a casual flick by Katrina.

Katrina and Autumn had no change in their expressions since they knew how much Katrina would grow after Katrina increased her strength by five levels. The same couldn’t be said for Aakesh, who looked at Katrina with a surprised expression.

Since the moment Aakesh had met Katrina, he was aware that Katrina was the stronger party in the duo of Autumn and Katrina, but till this point, he felt that the difference wasn’t much. Only now did he witness the actual difference of strength between Autumn and Katrina with his own eyes.

When both of them had released their strength by five levels if Autumn’s power were to be considered one unit, Katrina’s might would be five units, showing the vast gap between their power.

Time flew by.

[00:00:13]

[00:00:12]

[00:00:11]

Aakesh grew excited with each passing moment. Lily’s breakthrough was almost closer to its end.

[00:00:00]

Finally, the countdown timer turned zero for all the time units. A smile spread across Aakesh’s face as he looked at the Lily in the blob of the light.

The blob of the light suddenly started shining brighter and brighter, bringing the attention of Katrina and Autumn, who was busy conversing about something.

“CRACK!”

“CRACK!”

“CRACK!”

The next moment, cracking sounds rang in the area as if the light surrounding Lily was broken glass, and someone had just pressed it, resulting in its complete breakdown.

“Boom!”

The next moment, a quiet explosion sound rang in the area as the cracked light barrier around Lily burst into particles, resulting in a cloud filled with particles surrounding Lily.

The light particles didn’t dissipate into the air, but they started condensing. Not long after, the cloud entirely subsided, presenting Lily to Aakesh.

Lily still hadn’t opened her eyes, but her appearance was there for everyone to see.

Just like the blob of light, Lily had grown in size. If previously she was only the size of his palm, Aakesh now needed to grab hold of her in both hands. A wry smile spread across Aakesh’s face as Lily had now grown too big to sit on his head, which was her favorite place.

The size wasn’t the only change Lily had gotten after the breakthrough. Her fur, which was previously short, had now grown into the size of Aakesh’s little finger.

It wasn’t the end since if someone carefully looked at the fur, they would notice that they were light-blue at the origin point. But since it was only at the starting portion and wasn’t very eye-catching, people would still think of Lily as someone with a single-color coat.