Accidental Champion - Chapter 32 - Welcome To The System Shop!

Xavier took Siobhan’s advice, acquiring the two skills she’d recommended he learn: Physical Resistance and Magical Potency.

You have learned the skill Physical Resistance!

Physical Resistance - Rank 1

You’re used to taking a beating, and now you’ve got the skill to prove it.

+5% damage Reduction from physical attacks.

+5% Toughness.

You have learned the skill Magical Potency!

Magical Potency - Rank 1

You are a student of magic. Your magic is infused with a potent energy that improves every spell you cast.

+5% damage to all spells.

+5% Intelligence.

Xavier raised an eyebrow as he read the text for the two new skills. That was… actually far better than he’d expected. And this is only on Rank 1.

Right now 5% might not make a huge difference, but he knew that difference would only improve the higher his stats became. Not for the first time, he wondered if titles would eventually have percentage modifiers for stats.

When it came time to look through the System Shop to find him a new weapon, the others glanced at each other, then Howard stepped forward. “We were talking in the cabin. When we weren’t worrying about you having died out there.” The man rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, we’re hoping now that you’ve figured that you can change parties that you aren’t going to… leave us.”

“You can,” Siobhan said. “I mean, if you want to.”

Xavier paused, about to rest his hand atop the crystal on the pedestal—the System Shop’s terminal. “Uh, do you want to…” He swallowed. Talking to them about the tower, and about titles and clearing floors… that had all been easy enough. Just like talking about writing with others had always been easy, because it was something he was interested in and knew a fair bit about. But this was an entirely different thing. “I guess if you guys want to leave the party, I’d understand why. You’re not getting a lot of combat experience right now, saddled with me.”

“Are you kidding?” Justin’s eyes widened. “We don’t want to leave! We were just worried because… you don’t really need our help.”

Howard rested a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Justin is right. We don’t want to leave you. We know we might not be much help, but we’ve been thinking of ways we can be, like with Siobhan reading the Tower Manual and trying to come up with the best skills for you to use.” He nodded at the System Shop terminal. “For instance, assuming you want to remain partied with us even though you’re doing all the work… we thought we might offer you all of our Lesser Spirit Coins, so you had a better chance of getting what you need from the shop.”

Siobhan nodded. “It’s not like we would have been able to gain that title without you.”

Xavier blinked. That… he hadn’t been expecting. If he were in their shoes, the last thing he’d want was to be stuck in the Safe Zone, letting someone else do all the fighting. But it was what he wanted them to do, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to gain the Solo Climber title.

“You guys would really do that?”

Howard shrugged. “It’s only fair. You’re the one who would benefit the most from these resources.”

Xavier lowered his head in thought. “I think… I think I’ve got another idea for the rest of the floors. What I said before, about levelling the three of you up when we got past the fifth floor, I’d still like to do that. But I don’t want to clear the floor with the three of you. I think by then, we should have solidified enough of a lead over the other parties.”

Siobhan smiled. “That’s perfect. We don’t need to clear the whole floor to gain levels! After we farm them, we can have all the monsters respawn before re-entering so you can gain the solo title. And besides, by the time you get to the sixth floor, most from our world probably won’t have reached the second. We’ll be miles ahead with the titles alone.”

“Which will make us all the stronger when we get back to Earth,” Howard said. “Then I can find my wife and kids.”

“And I can find my mother,” Justin chimed in.

“And me my sister.” Siobhan beamed. “And we’ll be the first party to return to Earth. We’ll really be able to help with the invaders.” She came over and took Xavier’s hand in both of hers. “Because of you.”

“Oh.” Xavier looked down at where she held his hand, surprised at her having taken it. Then a notification popped up.

Siobhan would like to give you 10501 Lesser Spirit Coins. Do you accept?

Xavier felt a flush enter his cheeks. Why else would she have taken his hand but for this? He mentally accepted the prompt. Then the others came up, taking his hand. Howard was first, his handshake strong and solid.

Howard would like to give you 11007 Lesser Spirit Coins. Do you accept?

Justin was next, shaking Xavier’s hand with a nod.

Justin would like to give you 12351 Lesser Spirit Coins. Do you accept?

Xavier wondered how Justin had gained so many more than the others. More even than Xavier had started with after fighting all of those goblins. But he figured that wasn’t important right now.

“All right, now, you should be able to sell off anything you looted while on the floor,” Siobhan said. “The System Shop apparently takes entire corpses, though you would earn more money from them if they were dismantled, that isn’t really something that classes like ours tend to specialise in. Better to kill more monsters and loot them than to spend time learning how to dismantle them and craft from what’s left over.”

Dismantling? Crafting? Xavier hadn’t even considered those things, and he supposed Siobhan was right. It was better for him, and in time the others, to focus on their offensive and defensive capabilities.

When Xavier put his hand on the crystal, another prompt came up.

Welcome to the System Shop! Would you like to buy or sell?

Sell, Xavier thought.

A blank box appeared over his vision with nothing in it. It took Xavier a moment to think of what to do next. Then he willed one of the Black Puma corpses into the box.

He only had ten Black Puma corpses out of all the ones that he killed as his Storage Ring simply wasn’t big enough to hold them all andthe massive Puma Prime, plus all of the food and other things he’d taken from his university’s cafeteria.

Maybe I should clear this out, put most of the food into the Staging Room…

Willing the Black Puma corpse from the Storage Ring into the blank box had the feeling of dragging and dropping a document from one folder to another on a computer.

When the corpse had been put into the box, another prompt appeared.

Would you like to sell {Black Puma – Level 10 (Corpse)} to the System Shop for 50 Lesser Spirit Coins?

Xavier’s eyes widened. 50 Lesser Spirit Coins for a corpse. He still didn’t really know how much things were worth in this new reality, and he had even less idea of how the economy worked—especially when one could createcoins themselves with Spirit Energy, though only one per 500.

I can kill an enemy with that much Spirit Energy and make far more by selling its corpse. What an odd universe this has become…

He shook his head and thought yes, placing the other nine in there as well. Then he placed the Puma Prime’s corpse inside the System Shop’s blank box, and was disappointed to find it was only worth 75 Lesser Spirit Coins. It’s only giving me 5 coins per level of the corpse. That doesn’t seem fair, considering how much stronger the Puma Prime was. Perhaps that’s what Siobhan had meant. Maybe he would have gotten a lot more had he “dismantled” it.

Maybe if I were in a town or city, I’d be able to sell it straight to someone who specialised in that kind of thing for a higher price than the System Store takes. He pushed away that thought for now. He didn’t know how things would work when he wasn’t in the tower. He needed to focus on the task in front of him.

Once he’d sold the corpses, he moved onto the Puma Prime’s halberd and armour.

Those appeared as “unidentified” when he placed them in the box, but he wondered if that was because he hadn’t identified them, not because the store didn’t know what they were.

The store priced them much, much higher than it had priced the corpses.

The halberd was 500 Lesser Spirit Coins, while armour was 250 Lesser Spirit Coins. Even though it’s all rusted and oddly cobbled together? He supposed he shouldn’t complain.

He was a little disappointed when he found he had nothing left to sell. Am I able to use more than one Storage Ring at once? he wondered. Maybe the others will let me borrow theirs so I can carry more loot.

He frowned, thinking about beast corpses as “loot” seemed… disrespectful. Then again, he wasn’t the one making the rules in the Greater Universe. He just had to live with them.

Xavier looked at his spirit coins in his Storage Ring.

Coins

Lesser Spirit Coins: 46,415

Whoa, Xavier thought. I wonder what the conversion to dollars is… if it’s near one to one, I’ve definitely never had this much money before.

It was time for him to look at his options. He wondered if there was any new armour he should buy, considering the robes he’d gotten from his loot box didn’t seem to be the most durable of defensive wear.

He took his hand off the crystal, then placed it there again. This time, he thought, buy, and a massive list appeared in front of him, with everything ranging from food, to crafting materials, potion ingredients, crafting ingredients and materials, blacksmithing equipment, building materials…

It was all incredibly overwhelming.

Xavier bit his lip and willed the shop to narrow its focus, hoping that would help. That’s when he found the options for armour and weapons. He picked the sub-menu for Mages, then staffs.

His eyes widened. The first staff he saw was worth one billion Grand Spirit Coins. Xavier didn’t even know what a Grand Spirit Coin was, let alone how much it was worth! And this staff required a billionof them? It was highlighted in red, which apparently meant he didn’t have the stats to use it—which was no surprise, considering its absurd price—and it was called, Stave of the Otherworldly Void Reaper.

He blinked.

What an incredibly ominous name.

Xavier took a breath, then let out a sigh. The equipment was listed from highest to lowest price. For a moment, he’d felt rich with his forty-six thousand Lesser Spirit Coins—even if most of them weren’t technically his. Now, he felt dirt poor. But that was a feeling he was fairly familiar with.

All right. I can contemplate how absurd amounts of money like that are possible later. Right now, all I need to do is find a staff, maybe some armour or enchantments…

He shut his eyes for a moment and tried to will what he wanted to the System Shop. When he opened his eyes, the list had become much, much smaller.

And there were only three items that matched his criteria exactly, though there appeared to be vast quantities of each item. He selected the information for the cheapest of the three.

Staff of the Apprentice Mage

This staff requires 30 Intelligence and 20 Spirit to wield.

+5 Intelligence

+2 Spirit

+5% Magical Damage Dealt

+5% Spirit Energy recovery

This item costs 15000 Lesser Spirit Coins

Xavier was intrigued by the fact that the staff provided Spirit Energy recovery, but he had to say he was underwhelmed by the stats that it provided. As to the +5% it added to magic damage, though he hadn’t been able to analyse the staff he already wielded, he had a sneaking suspicion it was no better than that.

I’ve definitely been spoiled by the titles I’ve received. Does this really cost 15000 Lesser Spirit Coins?

He shook his head and looked at the next item up the list. Right now, the list was only showing him items that he could afford, as he’d requested, and items that would fit into his style. This one really only seemed to fit the first criteria.

Stave of the Fighting Mage

This staff requires 25 Intelligence, 20 Spirit and 15 Strength to wield.

+5 Intelligence

+5 Spirit

+2 Speed

+2 Strength

+5% Magical Damage Dealt

+5% Spirit Energy recovery

+5% Physical Damage Dealt

This item costs 30000 Lesser Spirit Coins

Xavier was more impressed by the second item, but he didn’t like the price tag. It was twice as much as the last, but he supposed it did offer twice as many boosts. Besides, he was glad to see that there were staffs that would add to his melee fighting ability and not just his magic, considering it was a strong aspect of his fighting style.

He found it strange that it required less Intelligence and Spirit to wield, but he supposed that could have been because it was for a different type of Mage than the first staff. Or maybe that was one of the reasons it was more expensive—it didn’t require very high stats to use.

If I bought that… it doesn’t really leave much room for me to buy anything else I had in mind.

Xavier couldn’t make his decision without checking on the last item.

Spirit Staff of Might

This staff requires 50 Intelligence, 60 Spirit and 40 Strength to wield.

+5 Intelligence

+10 Spirit

+5 Speed

+10 Strength

+10% Spirit Energy recovery

+15% Magical Damage Dealt

+15% Physical Damage Dealt

This item costs 45000 Lesser Spirit Coins

Xavier’s eyes widened at the stats the staff offered him. That’s more than many of the titles I’ve earned! Though the stat requirements were quite high, he could clearly use it, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to see the staff in the store per his search filters. He also couldn’t help but like the fact that it added 15% not just to magical damage, but physicalas well.

It costs almost as much as I have. I definitely won’t be able to afford anything else if I get this…

That wasn’t going to stop him from going past it, however. Xavier smiled, and purchased his first item from the System Shop.