The First Store System

Aakesh looked down toward the sea, standing from the balcony.

The next moment, a sword entirely painted in black appeared in his hands.

Aakesh’s reaction speed in Panagea was entirely different from what he had in the Primal dimension.

If Aakesh was a newborn in Panagea, then he was an adult man in the Primal dimension. So Aakesh took out the sword from his space ring before jumping down the sea as anything could happen there.

The sword had an aura of sharpness around it as Aakesh looked at it.

Aakesh then took a jump from the balcony with an expressionless face.

When Aakesh was only a few meters away from dropping into the sea, Aakesh using the air, grabbed hold of the wall of the building.

Aakesh jumping from such height would have made a loud noise in the ears of the behemoth.

Aakesh then left the wall and let him fall into the sea.

The waves devoured the sound his fall had released, so none knew that Aakesh had entered the sea.

Aakesh’s swimming speed was no less than his walking speed, so in no time, Aakesh was already deep into the sea.

“Slash!”

Â

A sound of slash rang in the area as Aakesh cut the ugly fish in front of him into two pieces. The sound of sea devoured the slashing sound in no time, so none heard it.

The fish was made of nothing but bones, so no blood fell. It was Aakesh’s first kill inside the sea as he had no plans to kill it, but the fish seemed to want to hunt Aakesh. It was its mistake, and Aakesh wasn’t the one to forgive someone for attempting to harm him.

Aakesh didn’t even take a glance toward the fish as he proceeded on his journey.

Time flew by.

A stronghold made for the underwater life welcomed Aakesh at a depth of three hundred miles from the sea surface.

The stronghold was similar to what the creatures had on the land. Aakesh could see guards surveying around the gates in large numbers, not to let even a single soul secretly pass through the door.

Even the weakest of the guards was Level 150, while the mightiest one Aakesh could see was Level 185.

Since none of the guards even came close to Aakesh’s level, Aakesh decided to enter the stronghold and check whether it would allow him to learn some clues or not.

Since Aakesh wasn’t here to fight but for a secretive mission, Aakesh couldn’t announce his entry.

Aakesh removed his aura and used a stealth skill he had gotten from a quest in the Panagea over these fifty years and then entered the stronghold.

The skill Aakesh used was extraordinary as it allowed Aakesh to pass through the wall.

After entering the stronghold, Aakesh didn’t deactivate the skill as the number of the guards grew severalfold. If there were hundreds of guards guarding the door, Aakesh could see a group of twenty creatures guarding every street.

Aakesh understood that there was a problem with the settlement here. Unless the stronghold was going through a war, nothing could explain the reason behind the appearance and patrol of so many guards.

Aakesh didn’t throw his stealth as he silently proceeded toward the core of the stronghold.

The razor sea spanned over millions of miles, so even with the number of inhabitants being countless, there was still a lot of vacant space.

The stronghold Aakesh had entered didn’t seem to end as Aakesh continued toward the core.

After traveling for two hours, Aakesh finally reached the core.

The number of guards guarding the core didn’t even match the combined numbers of the guards Aakesh had seen inside the stronghold and at the door.

On every step, Aakesh could see a group of more than five guards surveying the area as if even an inch of land couldn’t be outside of their restriction.

Aakesh silently proceeded as he didn’t want to get found out before he could at least get some answers.

At first, Aakesh had no idea about where he needed to go to find the things related to the behemoth, but Aakesh followed the way by which the number of guards increased and found a building.

There were at least three thousand guards guarding that building, not letting even a tiny organism pass through.

Even Aakesh felt a headache, seeing the scene in front of him.

Even the Aakesh from the Primal dimension wouldn’t be able to do anything here as Aakesh had already found three creatures who had levels higher than 250.

(A/N: After Level 250, the level in Panagea reached the same level of the Sacred dimension, so even Aakesh is weak in front of the group of guards.)

Aakesh was standing around six hundred meters away from the building, and Aakesh stopped there. Aakesh could sense that if he breached the five hundred meters mark, the guards above Level 250 would find him.

Aakesh could kill creatures with higher levels than him, but it still stopped at Level 240.

The system restricted the skill, Apocalyptic Blast, inside Panagea for Aakesh as it was too overpowered and would give Aakesh an edge over even Level 250 inhabitants who hadn’t become a Mythical being.

Time flew by.

Twenty minutes had passed since Aakesh stopped his steps at six hundred meters away from the building. He was waiting for a chance to enter the building without alerting the guards.

At the same time, Aakesh was also considering the time he had taken here. If he failed to complete the quest today, he would be at a large loss.

Aakesh usually completes several quests and kills enough creatures to gain millions of XPs, but if he spent a day, and even then, he gained nothing, it would be a waste of time for him, let alone a million XP for completing a single quest.

After considering this, Aakesh decided to give himself a target of three hours to complete it.

If he failed to do it in that duration, he would still complete the quest but take the day as a loss.

At the same time, Aakesh also made plans for if the quest exceeded the duration of three hours.

Aakesh had eight hours when he entered Panagea as out of the twenty-four hours, fifteen hours was the store time, one hour the training time, and what left was for Panagea.

Out of the eight hours, Aakesh had already spent more than two hours here, so he had less than six hours left for the day.

Out of the six hours, Aakesh set a three-hours completion goal for himself. He also chose the number of kills he needed to commit to gain XPs in those three hours.

As for if Aakesh failed to do it in three hours, Aakesh would then raise the number of killings by ten with each second he got late.

If he got an hour late, Aakesh would need to at least kill a Level 240. Killing Level 240 took time and similarly, the rewarding XP was also good.

Since Aakesh had already set his deadline, he returned to the quest.

After waiting for a further ten minutes, and thirty minutes in total, Aakesh finally found a window that could help him.

Suddenly a being at Level 200 stepped out of the building.

The guards above Level 250 turned their direction of protection toward the figure while the rest continued.

The figure then left, and with it, the four Level 250+ guards also left.

Now Aakesh had two choices. He could either enter the building or follow the figure since it was no ordinary person if it had four Level 250+ guards protecting it.

Aakesh didn’t have to think for long as he decided to check on the building first. In Aakesh’s eyes, the figure was significant, but since it had four strong guards undefeatable by Aakesh, he decided against it.

Even though the four Level 250+ guards had gone somewhere, there were still more than three thousand guards left with their levels varying from Level 180 to Level 245.

Level 245 was also unbeatable for the Panagea Aakesh, but Aakesh had more than enough strength to escape from them, so he wasn’t worried about it.

Aakesh then silently made his way forward. Just the six hundred meters of the journey took Aakesh more than seven minutes, but Aakesh didn’t worry about it.

Aakesh finally entered the building.

As soon as he entered the building, an empty hall welcomed Aakesh.

Aakesh looked around, but he didn’t even find a single soul or any item.

Aakesh still didn’t leave as even after the figure left, the more than three thousand guards continued to guard the building.

There must be something inside the building, or the guards were just there to fool people like Aakesh, who came to unravel their secrets.

The second option had no less than fifty percent chance of happening, but Aakesh still decided to trust the remaining fifty percent of probability and began searching the empty hall.

Aakesh tapped every nook and corner of the wall and the floor, but unfortunately for him, he still didn’t find anything worth his wait or even a little related to the quest.

A frown appeared on Aakesh’s face as he felt that there was still something inside the building.

Aakesh trusted his intuition, but he didn’t blindly search like last time as he also trusted himself.

***

A/N: There will only be one chapter today. We were having some pooja(prayers), and since it’s a twenty-four-hour prayer, the single chapter may continue for tomorrow as well.

Irrespective of what happens tomorrow, the book would return to its usual schedule from the seventeenth since I would be back at my house.

I now owe you two chapters. Have a great day/night!