10 Chapter 10 (1/2)

The awakeners who had taken part in the defeat of the Werecrocodile boss were looking at one of their hardest hitters smile one moment, and then take a step and collapse like a puppet with its strings cut the next.

A lot of them gasped with surprise, but one of them was already moving.

'I can't move.

Like, I literally can't move.

Even my head feels like it weighs a hundred pounds or something.'

'When Thirst for Power said it had side effects, they really meant it,' Jake thought. 'Holy crap, this drink really kicks back!'

Even though he was having a hard time pulling himself together from the side effects, Jake spent his time browsing the Awakening Store – he couldn't help it. Even in his state, he couldn't help but browse, especially since a lot of the items were newly added.

'Okay, four purchases for the day.'

'I think I may have overdone it a little,' Jake sheepishly thought. 'It's just like that last time when I had a credit card and smoked my bank account's bottom line so bad, I had to stop cold turkey for six months.

I was shivering like a nervous wreck during that time, either the companies or the law firms were going to go after me for it.'

He remembered going to online stores, filling up baskets with orders, then smacking himself in the face to keep from getting himself deeper in debt.

'I'm doing this too quickly.

I need to slow down.

Otherwise it's going to be me punching myself in the face and living in fear of collection agencies and credit card companies all over again.

Still, though…

The Black Label Awakening Store…

So freaking pretty…'

In Jake's eyes, he was in a brave new world: a premium line with items of better quality and price than what is normally available.

Commonly referred to as the 'Black Label', the Awakening Store was no exception to this.

It was unexpected for Jake, but after he had taken the charge for the Werecrocodile fight, it was what you'd call an extremely pleasant surprise.

As soon as the alert showed him that the Black Label Awakening Store was finally stocked with items, he gathered himself, took a deep breath, and made his first step into the premium line of the Awakening Store.

All coherent thought of his stopped as soon as he opened up the catalog.

'So beautiful. They should have sent a poet.'

Everything the Awakening Store had and more was given an even better visual treatment.

The pictures of each item were professionally taken and the details of each item were beautifully worded – truly earning the right to call itself the ”Black Label”.

It also went without saying that the prices for each item could be optimistically described as ”exorbitant”.

[Archdemon's Wrath: 10000 points

Skill Description: This is a skill that allows one to focus energy at one point, and then attack. Any physical or magical attack used in conjunction with this skill will have its attack power raised by a very large degree, since all your energy is gathered in one point. This skill is optimized for fighting single units. When raised to its highest rank, there will be no shields that can block this.]

'Whoa. Ten thousand points.

I could spend my entire Werecrocodile bounty on this skill alone.

But that would be impractical.'

As he continued to browse, Jake came up with one conclusion.

'Everything here is currently too expensive.'

[Monster Gourmet: 4000 points

Skill Description: Allez cuisine! Ever wanted to take a bite out of those annoying monsters? Here's your chance.

Item Recommendation : Cooking Set (Burner, Pot, Frying pan).]

'Okay, THIS is weird,' Jake said as he saw the skill that allowed you to take edible parts from monsters and cook them. 'Turning monsters into food items is good if you want to survive... but there's so many good things to buy! I'll go back to this after browsing further.'

He turned to the food section.

[Spicy Ramen: 500 points

Item Description: A ramen spiced with habaneros, ghost chili, and the tears of countless brave men and women who thought they could make it through this without going to the nearest glass of milk.]

[Potato Pizza: 1200 points

Item Description: This Italian invention consisting of a wheat-based flatbread, marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese and potato wedges, all delicately seasoned and oven baked to perfection is too good not to share with others.]

As Jake browsed the list of items for sale, Jake realized that he no longer had to worry about the food problem in Nohas – there was a veritable smorgasbord of delicacies on sale here, and all Jake needed was the points to afford them!

He was already thinking about what to buy rather than whether if he should.

'Not buying because of the expense? Ridiculous,' Jake thought. 'The greater the expense in getting the item, the greater the pleasure you get when it's finally in your hands. That's the high someone like me chases all the time.'

'And here, there is no such thing as credit limits. Fight monsters, acquire currency, buy stuff.

That is all.

But… I already have MP due to my purchases. The question is, what should I use it on?'

He'd just finished making a list of things he wanted to buy once he was well enough to open packages, and was now looking through the list of skills that used mana points – MP.

'It is kind of counter-intuitive for the Awakening Store to do this kind of thing, kind of like putting the cart before the horse, or buying the coffee beans before buying the coffee grinder and coffee maker… oh wait, that was me.'

He was just about to look at the next page of skills when a notification flashed before his eyes.

[The Black Label Awakening Store's inaugural event will begin in a few minutes!]

Despite his exhaustion, Jake Smithson's eyes were twinkling in anticipation of what items may come for him to buy.

***

The sun set on Nohas, the skies turning a bloody red before going down to black.

A fitting way of ending the day, given that the various towns in Nohas were scenes of death and devastation.

Cries of pain and sobs littered the landscape, as the outskirts of their towns were littered with the dead and the dying.

In a land area approximating the United States, there were around twenty tutorial towns there, so it was more or less the same throughout Nohas… and the awakeners from all of them were ravaged by the Werecrocodile appearing.

It was less a fight and more a massacre.

But with more than three-quarters of their town's awakeners already slain and the rest wounded and exhausted, they braced for their end…

…only for the Werecrocodile to turn its back and leave, taking its goblin escorts with it.

The confusion of the surviving awakeners quickly gave way to relief at their survival, most of them collapsing as the tension of the day's battle left them, and the joy at being able to live another day filled them.

However, their relief would not last long.

The voice from the clouds spoke again.

[The Werecrocodile has lost interest in battle due to your weakness and has decided to withdraw to return later. Take this moment to recover and train yourselves!]

”I lived!”

”I'm alive!”

Many similar shouts of relief were made in the towns in Nohas, but the more experienced awakeners weren't quite as relieved.

”It's not the time to celebrate our survival,” one of them said. ”We have to get stronger, quicker. We don't know when that thing will come again… time is a luxury we cannot afford. ”

The joy the surviving awakeners felt was quickly dispersed by the reality that the Werecrocodile would return, and would fight for keeps this time.

”How do you kill such a thing?” was a question quite a lot of the survivors asked, recalling the Werecrocodile and falling into despair.

They couldn't imagine that there would be a new awakener or group of awakeners that could successfully defeat the monster.

They were not the only ones to make such an assumption, and nobody knew at this point that someone would take down Werecrocodile.