The First Store System

Maria started bawling like a child as only a gentle touch on her face was enough to melt the rock of feelings she had been carrying in her heart, despite only being an eleven-year-old child.

The man quickly took his hands away as if he had touched a hot surface after seeing Maria bawling like a child.

‘What the fuck? You tremble when I smile and cry when I gently touch you. How terrifying am I looking to the girl?’ The man couldn’t help but think in his heart after seeing Maria’s exaggerated reaction.

The man was none other than the shadow, intruding in Maria’s home every day after she fell asleep due to exhaustion.

The man’s name was Garry. He wasn’t an ordinary human but a powerful cultivator. He was currently late Level 2, which was equal to kings in many low-level Kingdoms across the world he lived in.

Garry had no ambitions for power or influence since he wanted nothing more than to train and then ascend to the rumored higher world, where people are so strong that they could pick mountains up.

To fulfill his ambition of ascending, Garry had been training outside. Around a month ago, he was going to pass by this place.

Since Garry was late Level 2, even if he were to stand in front of Maria, she wouldn’t notice it if Garry didn’t want.

At first, he left after seeing a skinny girl training in the middle of nowhere since it was nothing more than an amusing scene for him. Garry forgot about the girl and continued when he came across a beast horde of around fifty wild bulls.

He suddenly found himself recalling that skinny girl training in the middle of nowhere after seeing the horde passing by him.

Since Garry loved training, he didn’t want to see a girl so immersed in training die, so he rushed toward the spot.

Even though Garry wanted no harm to come to the girl, he didn’t kill the horde of wild bulls. They were too weak for him even to fight. Garry hated using his power over creatures weaker than him, and he wasn’t going to break his principle over a stranger girl.

In the end, Garry didn’t need to help the girl since her awareness was good enough for her to sense the horde’s approach, and then she went to a secure spot.

The situation created a sudden curiosity in Garry’s heart toward the girl, so he decided to take some time off from the training and see what was going on with the girl.

As time passed, he became more and more interested in the girl. Her grit and willpower impressed him so much that Garry wanted to take the skinny girl with a scarred face as her first student.

The thought had come to his head in the spur of a moment, so before Garry made his decision, he decided to see the girl’s progress for some more time.

Only today, he finally felt comfortable enough to take the skinny girl as her student, so he made his presence known to the girl by the sound of his footsteps.

As Garry had expected, the girl’s awareness of the surrounding was top-notch, so she found him when the sound he had made was too little for even some early Level 1 beings to miss.

***

“Teacher, can I really become powerful like those people?” Maria asked Garry since she learned about the power levels in the world.

It had been three years since Garry accepted Maria as his student. Maria now looked like her age, as Garry wasn’t miser with her only student’s expenses. She ate the best of the food, which only helped her gain weight and energy.

At the same time, she was several times stronger than her three years earlier version. Sometimes even she would smile at how rough her movements were at that time.

“Yes, your mind has already crossed that threshold, but your body has finally reached that limit,” Garry smilingly responded.

Garry believed that in a month at most, Maria would breach the mortal limit and evolve into a Level 1 lifeform.

A sixteen-year-old early Level 1 was nothing to feel proud of, but Garry actually felt great having Maria as his student. He himself had evolved into an early Level lifeform at the age of twelve years.

Garry was forty-seven years old at the moment and had reached the peak of late Level 2, which put him into a genius category. Since reaching Level 2 stopped the aging process, Garry looked like in his teen years after becoming an early Level 2 lifeform when he was only nineteen years old.

A Level 1 lifeform had a lifespan of two hundred years if nothing happened to them, while a Level 2 lifeform could live up to four hundred years, so Garry had more than enough time to evolve to a Level 3 lifeform and then attain a lifespan of eight hundred years.

More time flew by, and around a month peacefully went by for Maria and Garry.

As Garry had expected, Maria reached the limit of her body and evolved into an early Level 1 lifeform, stepping into the supernatural.

“It’s time for you to have your first battle,” Garry suddenly laughed and announced.

After her mother’s death, Garry was the first person to treat her this way, so Garry was a father figure in her heart. After hearing Garry, Maria didn’t ask anything but only nodded.

At the same time, a goal to conquer the planet had also risen in her heart, but she was unaware of it since the revenge of her mother preceded everything.

“Teacher, where are we going?” Maria asked as she and Garry were journeying to the place where Garry had set her first battle after the evolution.

Garry didn’t speak anything in response but only smiled mysteriously.

***

“Damn it! It has been more than twenty-five years, and yet I am stuck at this level,” A man frustratingly cursed as he had failed to have any breakthrough after evolving into an early Level 1 lifeform.

The man was none other than the head of Maria’s native village. His clean-shaven face now had a beard, which looked to be in rough shape since the man hadn’t taken a bath in the last three days due to his frustration.