The First Store System

Aakesh stopped his multitasking after taking a look at both his quests running fine. He then focused on the customer standing in front of him.

“Store owner, I want this cultivation art,” The similar sentence rang for the umpteenth time in the store as the customer requested Aakesh to buy the cultivation art.

Aakesh took a look at the page just handed to him by the customer. Since the man hadn’t bought the preview option, all the details of the respective cultivation art appeared in his mind after taking a single glance at the page.

“You need to pay six hundred and seventy-five ordinary Primal stones,” Aakesh expressionlessly told the price of the Mortal grade cultivation art.

The man nodded and then paid it from the top card he owned. After Aakesh got the notification of the successful payment, he told the man about his ownership of the cultivation art. Not long after, a book materialized out of nowhere into the hands of the man.

The man then thanked Aakesh and left the queue with an excited expression. The man’s father was a high-ranked soldier in the army of the Bisan Kingdom, and hence he could have that large amount of Primal stones despite only being a Xiantian level cultivator.

Aakesh got busy with another customer right after the man left.

Time flew by, and a few more hours passed._.

‘Let’s end this for the day,’ Lilith thought in her heart. Despite giving up several hours and looking at tens of thousands of Immortal grade cultivation art, she had been unable to find the art that her intuition nudged her for.

Due to her search, Lilith hadn’t even entered Panagea. She was doing a significant quest right now, which would help her gain not only several levels worth XP but also a top-quality Mythical grade material.

The quest was also the reason behind her pushing hard for an increment in level since it had some requirements.

And now, for the cultivation art, she had even forgotten about Panagea. Now that there were only around six hours left before the store’s day came to an end, Lilith knew it was time for her to end the search.

For someone with her mental will, it was easy to accept that her intuition was wrong, but here she couldn’t. There was something inexplicable about the store that agitated her to believe everything about it. It was also the reason she was willing to joke with the store owner.

Lilith had seen how Vritrasura treated Aakesh, but it wasn’t enough to make her become friends with him. The store was the primary reason behind her actions. The background of Aakesh currently didn’t matter to her since the power gap between the duo was even vaster than heaven and hell. It would only matter once they both reached the same power level, and until then, Aakesh was no one but an ant with influential history for her.

Since Lilith couldn’t accept her intuition being wrong about any store product, she decided to return to the room tomorrow to begin another hunt.

After making up her mind, Lilith didn’t waste any time and turned around to leave. But when she was about to turn, she couldn’t help herself from gently stroking the shelf.

What returned to her was a similar cold feeling. She couldn’t help but feel a pang in her heart. If not for the inexplicable feeling about the store in her heart, Lilith would have already informed her race about the material’s presence here and would have waged war to retrieve all of it.

As she exited the room, what welcomed her was the long queue waiting for their turn finally to get their respective cultivation arts.

Lilith couldn’t help but feel a slight frustration in her heart, but she calmed down and left in the direction of the portal room. Her mood was such that she didn’t even think of joking with Aakesh today.

***

“Store owner, I want to enter the Gods & Demons level training area for Overlord grade weapons,” The customer respectfully requested Aakesh.

The man was a regular customer of the store, but the man only arrived once a year. The man liked no product in the store other than the training area, and that was only the Gods & Demons level training area.

The man had different thinking regarding the Panagea. He didn’t like it at all. In fact, he was only one of the few rare customers in the store that hadn’t even tried Panagea. He believed in fear of death and was a believer in the God of Death since he came from the faith system. His power all depended on his faith in his God. So he didn’t like Panagea because of it.

If he got revived even once, that would mean that he had won over death, even if it was only a virtual world. It would make him doubt death, and it was the last thing he could do. His power depended upon his faith in the God of Death. If his belief got shaken even a little, it would result in him either losing some of the benefits that came with the prayer or getting banished from the Temple of Death.

The Multiverse had different kinds of power systems for different kinds of people. Not every system reached Immortality or ascendance, but at the same time, they were each significant in their own rights.

The man belonged to a branch of the faith system and could never ascend to the Sacred dimension since the God of Death had once achieved ascendancy. Ascending would mean attempting on the same pedestal as the Deity. It was nothing but sin in the eyes of God, so Immortality was the last level for such a power system.

(A/N: Every faith had its own Gods for different things, so there would be more than one God of Death in the story. Divinity in the Sacred dimension is different from these Gods. We would find the difference between them as Aakesh reaches there. It isn’t very far.)

ɴ[0ᴠᴇ]ʟ The training area was the same as well as it also revived the customers after their death. The training area had a setting where customers could stop revival, which in turn would make the battle more challenging and teachable for the customers. If they died even once in that setting, they would get forced out of the training area, irrespective of how much time they had left.

The system knew about such a power system, so it had added this setting from the start.

Even though the opponent wasn’t as strong as in the actual setting since the participant couldn’t revive itself, the gains were equivalent to the setting since the payment was similar for both the modes.

***

Aakesh recognized the customer since he remembered all the customers that had entered his store since its inception. Aakesh then told the price of the training area to the man.

Even though the majority of the customers knew the price of the product they were going to buy, Aakesh still had to tell them the price. It was one of the mandatory requirements for the store owner by the system.

After paying the cost, the man left for the weapons room, and Aakesh got busy with another customer requesting to buy their respective cultivation arts.

One second passed, two seconds passed, three seconds passed, and just like that, five hours had passed.

When there was only one hour left before the store would announce its closing for the day, out of nowhere, a door materialized mid-air in the store, and not long after, steps connecting it to the floor emerged out of thin air.

The customers, who had entered the store for the first time, had surprised reactions. Those who frequented the store regularly ignored the scene because they were used to it.

A few people in the group of regular customers also looked toward the door since they liked Lily and found her a cute creature. Many would have even tried to pet her if it were not for Aakesh.

Fortunately for them and for Aakesh, they never attempted it due to fear of offending Aakesh. Lily didn’t like anyone petting her other than Aakesh since she was several millennia old in reality. It was only in front of Aakesh that she was a child. For others, she was an aged creature who needed to get respected by them.

“Click!”

With a clicking sound, the door opened, and soon a creature stepped out of it.

It was none other than Lily, but today things were different. She had returned to her previous palm-sized figure. The conversation between Aakesh and her before leaving for Panagea still lingered in her mind, so she decided to return to her earlier size.

Aakesh couldn’t help but smile seeing Lily back in her previous Avatar. The customer currently buying the cultivation art couldn’t help but get astonished after seeing a smile on the store owner’s face. It was a rare occurrence, and it was also the first for her.

When Aakesh smiled, the aura around him changed. It wasn’t a dazzling smile but an average one. It made customers feel him more likable since the mysteriousness around him disappeared at that time. The woman was the same. Her cheeks turned red as she found the current Aakesh to be more good-looking than the expressionless him.

After Lily stepped on the floor, she appeared on Aakesh’s head and comfortably sat there. Aakesh returned to his usual selling the cultivation arts.

***

A/N: Sorry, there will be only one chapter today. I know there were still three chapters left, but I couldn’t write as one of my uncles died. I will try to write and upload them as soon as possible, but I won’t know which day it will be.

Thanks for your support of the book!