The First Store System

“You can go ahead,” The parasite told Bella.

For a moment, Bella froze while standing as she misunderstood the context. She thought that the creature wanted her to leave from here and it was a threat, not focusing on the word ‘go’ instead of ‘leave’.

The next moment, she started turning around to leave as the creature gave her an undefeatable feeling as if it was an elephant, while she was nothing but an ant, but without its sharp stings.

The parasite knew what Aakesh wanted from the girl since she had seen Aakesh selecting her.

The next moment, an invisible force pulled the girl toward the altar rather than away from it.

***

As soon as Aakesh’s right foot landed on the first step of the ninety-nine steps on the circular altar, Aakesh found the view in front of him changing.

As Aakesh looked around, he found himself in a garden that looked eerily similar to what Aakesh had crossed earlier, but this time, it was small and only had a few valuable plants.

The value of the plants here was of no match to the plants in that garden since these were the most basic herbs, but Aakesh found it to be more valuable than the plants in the garden. His reason was the invisible and mighty energy nurturing these plants.

Aakesh knew that it was the faith energy stored in the altar since he could feel how tiny he was in comparison only to the minuscule amount of faith nurturing the plants.

Even though Aakesh found the plant valuable, he didn’t find it to an extent where he would waste his time taking them out, so Aakesh continued ahead without stopping.

As Aakesh crossed the first plant, an inner voice appeared in Aakesh’s head, urging him not to leave the plant. Aakesh ignored it since his mental willpower was even more powerful than his physical strength. In no time, Aakesh reached the end of the garden, ignoring the inner voice that became powerful after crossing every other plant.

As Aakesh reached the end of the garden, it welcomed another visitor. Since it was only a few hundred meters in size, Aakesh also sensed Bella’s entry into the garden.

“Until and unless you found something very valuable, don’t take anything out from here.”

The next moment, an unfamiliar voice rang in Bella’s head. At the same time, a new piece of memory related to different kinds of plants and items appeared in her head. There was also a timer in her head, which was of exact five hours, signifying that Bella would forget the memory after the timer turned to zero.

Bella couldn’t help but get shocked as she unraveled the new piece of memory in her head. The more she read, the more shocked she became.

Her eyes then fell on the different kinds of herbs planted in the garden. Earlier, she would have recognized at most a single plant, but now she had every information related to the plant in her mind.

She then looked at the end of the garden where the blue-skinned adventurer was when she appeared here, but there she found nothing but an empty place.

She then consciously looked at the timer, only to get surprised as more than an hour had already passed, so she now only had around four hours left.

Bella then took a deep breath and took a step forward since time was of the essence.

‘It can help you evolve to a Mythical-grade lifeform. Why don’t you take it with us?’

As Bella passed the first plant, her inner voice rang in her heart, urging her to take the first plant out.

Bella’s breathing turned rough since evolving into a Mythical-grade lifeform was no easy task. She decided to go ahead with the inner voice and take the plant out, but at the same time, that expressionless voice rang in Bella’s head. She couldn’t help but stop and take a deep breath. She then started thinking of the words, and a few seconds later, there was no greed for the plant left in her heart.

***

Aakesh nodded in appreciation, seeing that Bella got over her inner voice and didn’t take the plant out. Since Aakesh’s skill wasn’t prohibited here, Aakesh had been watching over Bella for the past hour as he continued traveling ahead.

Aakesh currently was on the sixty-eighth step. He hadn’t faced any challenge up to this point but had only come across different types of treasures nurtured by the faith energy reserved for the now deceased Emperor Anu.

More time flew by.

It has been around two hours since Aakesh stepped on the altar. After traveling for this long, Aakesh finally reached the ninetieth step. Until this point, Aakesh hadn’t come across any situation that could turn dangerous for him, but only the length he had to travel with every step grew several folds, resulting in time wasting.

As Aakesh stepped on the ninetieth step, he found himself in a familiar environment.

It was the same garden, but several lightyears larger, and at that, there was only one plant planted in the vast area.

Aakesh couldn’t help but get disappointed as it would be nothing but another meaningless travel. If Aakesh were at the power he had in the Primal dimension in Panagea, it would have only taken a moment for him to reach the end. But since he was weaker here, it would take some time.

Aakesh wanted to end all of this before the sun rose in Visteerna, so Aakesh decided not to waste even a single moment and rushed toward the end.

“Roar!”

As Aakesh passed the plant, a roar filled with anger rang in the area, bringing Aakesh’s travel to a stop.

The next moment, the ground started shaking as the plant ripped itself out from the ground and charged at Aakesh.

It didn’t take long for Aakesh to come out as the victor since the plant didn’t know any kind of skill. Despite its overwhelming physical strength, it couldn’t match Aakesh’s power.

Time flew by.

After the ninetieth step, Aakesh had to face a battle on each step, with his opponent getting stronger. It had been around three-and-half hours since Aakesh entered the altar before he finally stepped onto the top step.