152 Shopping spree
“I think I would like to keep my machete,” Leila reported after playing around with both of the weapons at once. Yet, a few moments later, she proved to be the only one interested in this kind of fighting style.
“I think I will stick with the sword,” Daria reported once she had her turn swinging the saber for a while. “I mean, this blade served me well, but I think it would stop me from fully utilizing the saber,” she explained her decision before passing both weapons back to Mathew.
“It’s okay, you can keep the saber,” Mathew informed, only taking the machete out of the girl’s hand. He then turned around and took a long look at Nadia’s face.
All the happiness and charm behind her eyes from before were now all gone, replaced by the reluctance mixing with sadness.
“Don’t you worry,” Mathew said as he approached the girl. “I will get you the saber. In fact,” Mathew said as he turned around and looked at the rest of the girls. “I believe we will be all running around with those.”
“Huh?” Nadia titled a little. “Aren’t you going to stick to your ax?” she asked, leaning her head to the side.
“I sold it,” Mathew replied before shrugging his shoulders.
“You did what?”
“…”
The silence filled the hall. Everyone simply stared at Mathew. Nadia with disbelief. Leila with shock. Daria with dull surprise.
“You sold it, huh,” Nadia muttered, only to lower her eyes and then shake her head. “Wasn’t that like super grade weapon?” she then asked, raising her eyes back on Mathew’s face.
“You know, in most of my decisions and plans, I follow two, simple rules,” Mathew seemingly changed the topic while a small smile appeared on his lips. “First off, I believe a lot of things here work just like they would in a game,” Mathew pointed out before turning around and moving towards the merchant.
“Secondly, I always trust my guts,” he added as he made his way toward the merchant. Mathew then turned around and threw another glance at the girls. “And in most of the games, there is no point in upgrading or even using a low-level weapon for long. Even if they are stronger than the basic form of the better weapons, it’s smarter to develop higher-ranked weapons instead.”
This was a simple truth that applied to most of the games. Rarely any equipment one could find in the early stages of the game could be effectively used in the last arcs. And the more resources one sank into upgrading it, the fewer resources one would have to upgrade better weapons that could easily outgrow their weaker counterparts.
‘Even if this can’t be applied linearly to this world, the rule should stay the same,’ Mathew thought.
After all, it wasn’t like establishing the fortress at his starting location would bring an end to one act and move the young man to a higher-level area!
‘Wait, can I really be sure of that?’ Mathew suddenly asked himself, as he realized the simple yet shocking truth.
The world around him was exactly like… several games that he knew off, all mixed together.
The system of statistics belonged to an old, popular RPG game. The progression through location could be found in several others.
“God damn it…” Mathew muttered as he hung his head low and then shook it to the sides. “Things are really getting complicated,” he complained before reaching out and grasping at Merchant’s darkness.
A moment of the usual chaos later, Mathew found himself back in the merchant’s realm. It was in the exactly same state as it was when Mathew left a few moments prior.
“Let’s not waste time,” he spoke to himself before bringing forth two of the machetes used by Nadia and Daria respectively. “How much can I sell those for?
“Six hundred cores each,” the mechanical voice of the merchant replied.
“Then let’s trade,” Mathew quickly made his decision before throwing the blades up in the air, only for a burst of light to come out of nowhere. And once the light dissipated, the machetes were now nowhere to be seen, replaced by a sizeable crystal lying on the floor.
“Is that a thousand and two hundred cores?” Mathew asked, picking up the expensively-looking item and analyzing it.
“That’s correct,” the system replied.
“Well then…” Mathew opted not to think over this topic too much. ‘If I allow myself to get distracted by every tiniest novelty, I will never get anything done,’ he decided before approaching the weapon pedestal.
The holographic projection of the saber was still there, indicating that the ring below the pedestal remained in the same place as before.
‘I need two… three more,’ Mathew thought, readily reaching out for the crystal in his hand.
Yet, before he could make his order, Mathew held his hand back. He then moved it down a little before grasping at the ring and turning it by a further thirty degrees.
The projection changed. From the Saber that Mathew already fell in love with, it turned into some sort of… a rod?
“Don’t tell me this is for casting magic…?” Mathew muttered, his voice stuck in his throat as he swallowed the air. “Right, that’s what either the arcane or mind stats are for,” he then commented, slowly releasing the air from his lungs as he pulled the ring even further.
“Huh?” Mathew then shrugged, when the projection turned out to be pretty similar to what he saw just a moment earlier.
It was the same saber as before. At least, its physical features were the same. Yet, even though it was just a projection, Mathew couldn’t help but shudder when he felt just a hint of the weapon’s aura.
“How much for this one?” he asked, unable to tear his eyes off the blade.
If Mathew fell in love with the first saber after swinging it once, he lost his soul to this new one at the first sight.
“Two thousand cores,” the merchant coldly replied.
‘I could get it…’ Mathew thought, doing a quick count of his state of finances.
He got around four and a half thousand cores for his ax. Then twelve hundred cores for the machetes and roughly a thousand from all the zombies his group hunted today. After deducting the price of summoning the merchant and then buying the first saber, Mathew still had above six thousand cores left.
‘No,’ the young man thought as he shook his head. ‘The same rule that I brought for the machetes, can be applied to those weapons,’ he thought, leisurely turning the ring even further to the side.
This time, it was the rod from before the upgraded saber that appeared. This time, however, it was surrounded by flashing lights of thunderbolts while the air around the projection brimmed due to the sheer intensity of power it held.
“How much does this one cost, though?” Mathew asked as he turned the wheel back to the basic version of the rod.
“Three hundred fifty cores,” the merchant replied.
‘That’s more like it,’ Mathew thought before raising his hand with the massive crystal in it. “I wish to purchase one of those.”
This time, the core in Mathew’s hand didn’t vanish. It turned bright and then flashed like a stun grenade, but once the light retracted, the crystal remained firmly within Mathew’s hand.
It was smaller and its shine was dimmer, but it was still there. And on the floor, there was the first magical staff to exist in this world.
Mathew then turned the ring back again. And once the projection turned back into a saber, he smiled before raising the crystal in his hand again.
“I wish to purchase three of those.”