6 A sucker for sales (1/2)

Dustin only made it through a few entries of Ymma's diary before he arrived at the hospital and was discharged into the doctors care.

They took care of the arrow head in his shoulder and patched him up, letting him rest in a curtained off room. The police had escorted the ambulance to hospital, and were going through to ask further questions about what had happened.

One of the rewards for clearing a dungeon that everybody in the party received guaranteed was having it added to the compendium. When the police got around to his room, he just showed them the page about where they had been.

It listed the geographical terrain, including the likely locations of the boss spawn, hints about possible secrets, and the types of monsters involved. The police officers looked completely out of their depths at the new system that had popped up. The news was on the TV in the background where the anchor was talking about the display, and what some people had found.

Eventually the police were satisfied enough to leave, but told him that they would be in contact. Dustin was just glad that he hadn't been arrested, and opened the display to dig into spending his rewards.

'Dos: 4065'

It was very unlikely for anyone to have a higher amount of Dos than Dustin, or even close to it. The other students and Sam would probably have an extra couple of hundred from having cleared the dungeon as well, despite being carried by Dustin.

With four thousand Dos to spend, Dustin had plenty of options open for progression. Before he could go on a shopping spree, the status needed his attention. He had leveled up three times, awarding him 15 attribute points to appoint.

There was also a major increase from the titles, which was already added, displayed in a bracket next to the base number. He changed the display settings to remove the brackets and have them automatically added to the base instead, giving it a cleaner look.

Pioneer: Dusty

Race: Human

Designation Code: XQB51 (Earth)

Level: 4

Intelligence: 15 (+10) → 25

Strength: 7 (+5) → 12

Agility: 8 (+10) → 18

Wisdom: 11 (+5) → 16

Charisma: 10 (+10) → 20

Constitution: 8 (+5) → 13

Dustin was close with his predictions, underestimating his wisdom and charisma levels by a couple of points. The biggest surprise was the addition of 10 Charisma from the titles, making it his second highest stat behind intelligence.

His agility was also quite high, which was a pleasant addition. He didn't need a high agility level for his plans, but it was never a bad idea to keep attributes up to date. Even with his previous record of 2000 intelligence, he still maintained a couple of hundred in several other stats. Perhaps if he had invested more into constitution, he might have had health to spare for his final spell, without it killing him.

There was no point worrying about it after the fact, so Dustin allocated the attribute points into balancing his current setup a little better.

Intelligence 25 (+5) → 30

Strength 12 (+3) → 15

Constitution 13 (+7) → 20

Strength was needed to equip certain pieces of armour, but could be left at the bare minimum since it affected the damage of direct attacks between the pioneer and the target. Dustin rarely used the weapons he wielded, they were merely devices to aid his spells, or to grant him powerful buffs.

Speaking of such, he needed to find another weapon. His main sword was taken by the police, and the back up one he had given to Sam.

'Welcome back Dusty.

0 Notifications remaining.

Promo code: XQB51 to earn 20% off your purchase. One time use. Expires in 148:15:00.'

Like many online shops, Dos gave users a one time coupon to use upon first signing up. The code was Earth's designation, the same given in his achievements.

Below the welcome messages were boxes displaying the daily sales, which reset every 150 hours. There were bits and pieces chosen from random sections, and given a 20% sale discount for the duration.

It was best to check this each cycle to find good deals, given that it could be anything. Dustin opened the sale tab to fill his display and scrolled through the list with a swipe of his finger. The physical items he could afford were mostly useless to him, as they required a higher attribute than he possessed, or they were just the wrong type.

Battleaxes and plate armour were too heavy for him to lug around, and things like crossbows and tower shields were clunky and slow.

He passed over the fancy icons and scanned through the consumables, tapping on a couple as he went through. One tap indicated interest in an item, and it would be added to a wish list. From there, it could be added to the cart, and purchased whenever.

Two taps would instantly add it to the cart, and holding down on the item would expand it, providing further information.

One could also use voice commands, which were useful when one knew what they wanted, but couldn't open the display, such as when they were in the midst of a battle, or had their hands otherwise busy.

At the bottom of his display was his current amount of Dos, a small star, and a shopping cart. The star and cart both had numbers next to them, indicating the amount of items in the wish list and shopping cart respectively.

Dustin currently had four items added to the wish list and one in the cart, all of which had come from the consumables. However the sales tab still went on, carrying Dustin through a plethora of other unneeded items, until he reached the spells.

Spells were categorized by their tree, or schools. Fire related spells for example, had the Pyromancy tag, and a small flame icon to identify them.

Others that weren't closely related to an element were those such as Necromancy, which used a skull. Dustin had memorized the icons long ago, giving him an advantage in the speed at which he could look through them, paying attention to the icons he was looking for.

The icons in question he needed were a lightning bolt, a red pentagram, and a green plus sign.

Any spells that possessed those icons he tapped and moved on, adding them to the wish list for sorting.

The number next to the star grew to eight, and the shopping cart remained at one. He tapped on the star, which opened up his wish list and revealed the items inside.

Consumables

Common Weak Regeneration Salve. 50 Dos.

A weak salve that regenerates health over time. Increased effect of regeneration by 50% outside of combat.

Use: 15 Hp/sec. Lasts 30 seconds.

Common Weak Meditation Tea. 60 Dos.

A weak tea that regenerates mana over time. Increased effect of regeneration by 50% outside of combat.

Use: 10 Mp/sec. Lasts 30 seconds.

Common Weak Health Potion. 70 Dos.

A weak potion that heals health instantly. Increased effect of healing by 20% outside of combat.

Use: 180 Health restored.

Common Weak Mana Potion. 80 Dos.

A weak potion that restores mana instantly. Increased effect of restoration by 20% outside of combat.

Use: 120 Mana restored.

The names of consumables in different consumables were consistent across the board. Common was a modifier that affect every item, not just consumables. They generally indicated the level and power of an item. Common was the lowest tier, and the name spoke for itself. The others followed suit, as they grew harder to find in term.

Common. Uncommon. Rare. Secret. Legendary. Mythical. Forbidden.

Common items had less modifiers able to affect them, meaning that in a bank of two choices, with weak being one, it had a 50% chance to appear. The Dos Shop offered varying tiers, of which the consumables also followed. The amount of available modifiers increased with each tier as certain modifiers could only be found on items of a higher tier.

Forbidden had a whopping 128 possibilities, of which at least four would roll. Items could contain two affixes, one suffix, and one prefix. Those that exceeded at least Legendary tier, could have one extra affix. Forbidden items could have up to four affixes, making them obscenely strong.

But for Dustin, buying the weakest was enough, his health and mana pool were low enough to justify using them. He upped the quantity to four of the potions each, and ten of the regeneration consumables. The total grew to 2760 Dos, which was already over half the amount he had.

Still, it was a worthwhile investment for survivability. The monsters in dungeons were scaled to the race that inhabited the planet, but there was always something wrong. Dustin remembered there being patch notes released to lower the strength of dungeons to better match the pioneers (humans) current level.

Whilst it would make dungeons harder to clear, it also offered larger rewards. Once the patch kicked in, it would be harder to acquire Dos, but easier to clear dungeons.

There was no doubt that humanity had failed to properly adapt to the new system. Dos was treated as some kind of game, and time was spent more on researching it, then on growing stronger.

Warrior societies had long died out, leaving many incapable of handling life or death situations, or even the ability to take another life. When the dungeons broke out, millions who had never set foot in one previously perished. There were not enough pioneers to defend them, losing over half the earth's population in a single week.

Dustin wanted to curse the fact that he knew their future. It was a monumental task to save an entire race, especially considering who they were up against. It would have been easier to fail without the knowledge that he could have changed fate.

Even now Dustin felt useless, dressed in a hospital gown with a dull ache in his shoulder. It was no problem to heal himself and leave, make a start on growing stronger.

But he couldn't. There were people investigating the incident and if he were to disappear, he would likely be arrested on the spot. He could grow strong enough to overcome police, as the guns would do little against the hardened carapace of dungeon monsters from anything above tier 4.

But soon it would escalate, armour penetrating rounds, grenades, tanks, maybe even missiles.

Dustin was supposed to unite and save the human race, not vilify himself against it. He needed to convince people to enter the dungeon, proving to others that the need to grow stronger was more important than politics or money.

Even now Dustin could feel the impact the Dos shop was making on the world. Every bit of news was focused on it, people in the hospital were playing with the interface, and dungeons were going ignored. Granted, their existence was only known to those who had escaped from one, which was, according to the achievements, only Dustin.

It had been Dustin who had changed the course of history by entering the Goblin Forest dungeon, providing proof of something far more sinister than just a place to buy goods. It would take a while for the dungeons to be realized. The ability to sense them wasn't available until one purchased the shop upgrade, or had mana perception.

Common Weak Health Potion (x4) added to cart.

Common Weak Mana Potion (x4) added to cart.

Common Weak Regeneration Salve (x10) added to cart.

Common Weak Meditation Tea (x10) added to cart.

Dustin sighed at the sinking feeling in his heart and added the consumables to the cart, moving to the next section of his wishlist.

Spells

Spell: Storm Bolt. 500 Dos.

School: Aeromancy

Channel static electricity through your hands and around a target, drawing a bolt of lightning out of the targeted enemy, shocking them.

Use: 35 Mana.

Curse: Sacrifice. 1000 Dos.

School: Occultism

Offer a target as Sacrifice. Sacrifice has increased chance to bleed. If sacrifice is slain within 5 + (Target Level) seconds, no Dos or experience is granted, but a lesser devil will be spawned in its place, attacking nearby enemies for the remaining curse duration.

Use: 60 Mana. Must be used on living targets.

Aura: Terror. 500 Dos.

School: Occultism

Living enemies within 10 meters that look upon you feel terror. Terror increases chance of targets to flee. Reduces movement speed towards you by 10%.

Use: 10 Mana/s.

Spell: Healing Orb. 800 Dos.

School: Restoration

Attach an orb of mana to target. Orb periodically pulses mana 1m around it, healing all targets for 10 health.