D.I.O

Whoosh!

Merlin released the bowstring after drawing it back completely. Immediately, the bowstring rang out with a sharp whistle as it passed through the air, displaying an unprecedented amount of tension.

“Such outstanding strength….”

“I wasn’t just using my muscles alone, but anyway, this bow is really something.”

All Merlin did was pull the bowstring back, but that simple motion caused his arm to shake and made him expend five years of internal energy. He thought, ‘How can I strengthen my body?’ After contemplating for a few moments, Merlin decided to reinforce his body to reduce his internal energy usage, which he’d lowered to four years of internal force. In other words, he was able to reduce his internal energy output to two years, and this was even more significant considering that he couldn’t use Venus. Since this was the energy he needed to use just to pull the bowstring back, Merlin was worried about what would happen if he tried to add an arrow to the mix.

‘Still, it’ll be good for training.’

Seeing how his muscular strength had improved drastically just from drawing back the bowstring a few times, Merlin decided to purchase the bow.

“How much is it?”

“It’s expensive.”

“So, how expensive?”

“… Fifteen gold.”

“Okay! Here.”

Parson looked dumbfounded as Merlin plopped 15 gold plopped onto his table, but Merlin just turned around and left the shop.

“Hahaha! I really went all out with my spending today.”

His extensive wealth had dwindled to almost nothing. He had tried to keep his spending restricted to the gold in his inventory, so he still had some gold left in his money pocket, but it was only nine gold. Of course, that wasn’t a small amount in the grand scheme of things, but it was far less than what he had before entering the store.

“There’s only a few gold left now.”

“Ah, man! I’m not going to buy anymore! If you keep going, I’ll take away some of your Karma points!”

“Oh! Why would you ever take away my sweet Arc’s Karma points? We’re just trying to negotiate kindly. You’re being too insensitive.”

When the pet said this, it seemed that the weapon clerk finally got fed up.

“You’re trying to force me to purchase your goods! Force!”

“It’s not like we’re trying to fleece you or anything. We’re asking for half the going price. Half. You purchased all the other weapons we had at the full price; why are you being so stingy now?”

Though the pet didn’t say anything particularly wrong, the weaponry clerk sighed heavily.

“That’s because the previous short spears were all 6th-tier or better. There were some 7th-tier spears mixed in, but they had an Uncommon rating, so I accepted them. Yet, the 100 spears you’re presenting right now are all 8th-tier. 8th-tier spears are for beginners, and they’re not single-use items. How can you ask me to purchase 50 of those spears? You know that the weapon shop automatically produces up to 7th-tier weapons, right? It only makes sense for us to purchase 7th-tier weapons with an uncommon rating and anything better than that.”

“Oh, are those the requirements?”

“Huh? Who the hell are you?”

The clerk frowned and squinted at Merlin as the latter abruptly jumped into their conversation. The clerk’s expression seemed to say, ‘What the hell is this bastard going to try and sell me.’ Merlin briefly stared at the clerk before turning to look back at Arc. Since user ID names were always above their head, Merlin didn’t have to worry about how to refer to other people.

“Mr. Arc.”

“… Ah, yes. How can I help?”

Arc had an unusual voice, with it sounding low-pitched and seemingly accentuating every word with great gravitas. Merlin wondered if the user was changing his voice in some way. Yet, it didn’t take long for him to realize that the user who was wearing leather armor over their entire body also had a foreign type of genuine qi surrounding him. It appeared that the user was utilizing some special self-defense technique. His foreign genuine qi was fully occupying every inch of Arc’s tight leather armor, so that’s why the user’s voice sounded unusual.

“You’re willing to sell the short spears at half price, right?”

“Oh! Oppa, would you like to purchase some?”

“Hmm, a talking cat….”

Merlin thought it was weird to talk to a cat. However, the cat’s gaze sharpened as if it had been offended.

“Hmph. How could you call me a talking cat? My name is Ellie. I’m Arc’s friend.”

“Oh, okay. My name is Merlin.”

Merlin extended his hand to shake… a cat’s paw. While the experience of shaking an animal's paw and conversing with it seemed odd to Merlin, he didn’t forget the reason why he’d butted into their conversation.

“So, how much are you selling the short spears for?”

“One silver per spear.”

“One silver…”

Seeing that Merlin was considering a purchase, Ellie urgently started speaking, concerned that she may lose a potential customer.

“It’s an amazing price. Amazing! Although our short spear is rated as 8th-tier, it’s almost a 7th-tier weapon. It’s well made and sturdy. Also…”

“… gold.”

“Huh?”

“Fifty spears is 50 silver, so five gold in total, right?”

Ellie watched as Merlin started taking out gold as if it was nothing. This guy was just casually taking out gold! Moreover, why did a mage even need spears?

“Aren’t you going to sell them?”

“Ah, of course. Arc.”

“…”

“Arc! Aren’t you going to finalize the sale!”

“… Right.”

Though his face was fully covered with his leather armor, Merlin and Ellie could easily tell that Arc was taken aback. Merlin thought, ‘He must be poor… to be so taken aback by just five gold.’ On the other hand, in the time that Ellie had spent with him, Arc was always calm and collected. So, she couldn’t understand why he was this flustered.

‘Why is he like this?’

Yet, Arc soon gathered his bearings and drew a straight, horizontal line in front of him.

“Trade. Merlin.”

As soon as he said those words, a small table appeared. On one side of the table were 50 spears. Although it was his first time trading with another user, Merlin was able to generally tell what he needed to do.

“Trade. Arc.”

Five gold pieces appeared on the other side of the table. It wasn’t a complex process, and similar to how he retrieved items from his inventory, Merlin just needed to visualize what he wanted to appear on the table.

“Accept.”

Following Arc’s lead, Merlin soon stated the same word.

“Accept.”

The table then disappeared, and Merlin found 50 spears in his inventory.

“Later.”

“Huh?”

Once the transaction was over, Arc quickly passed Merlin and left the weapon shop.

“What? Where are you rushing off to so quickly?”

“We’ve accomplished what we set out to do.”

“Arc?”

Ellie chased after Arc, leaving Merlin tilting his head.

“They’re a weird pair.”

While mumbling this comment, Merlin also walked out of the shop.

“Ah, I should appraise the bow.”

“Oh, it’s a Unique-rated item. Along with the Wicalein Ring, it’s my second Unique item. Not too bad.”

Happy with the bow, Merlin placed it in his inventory. He had considered putting the high-quality bow into his Gear 5 slot, but since he didn’t have any other equipment or clothing to go along with it, he decided to just leave it in his inventory.

“Okay, with this, I’ve got everything.”

Since he still had six hours until the monster corps arrived at the east gate, Merlin checked on his magic power and internal energy levels while walking. As he was now sufficiently geared up, he was planning on finding a spot on the battlefield and preparing for battle. It would be pushing it to do this within six hours.

“Amy! Amy! Let’s buy a pet.”

While running through some thoughts in his mind, Merlin heard two young girls talking as they passed him.

“A pet? Forget it. I’m going to catch one.”

“You don’t have any skill in Taming. How are you going to catch one? Let’s just buy one, no? I heard pets are useful on the battlefield as well.”

‘A pet…’

Merlin remembered Ellie from the weapon shop and started contemplating. It wouldn’t be bad to have a pet. However, due to his lack of time, Merlin shook his head.

“Later. I’ll consider purchasing one after the battle.”

As he continued walking down the village’s streets, Merlin saw a variety of other shops. For instance, there was a medicine shop, magic store, library, and a bookstore, to name a few. What was memorable were the multiple advertisements placed on the storefront windows. [Mass Return Stone is in stock! Only two left!]. [Berserk Potion! Fight passionately on the battlefield!]. [Blue Crystals have arrived! You can become an expert, too!].

“Later. Later. Later.”

Merlin was interested in all of these items, but he recalled his current currency balance and soon collected himself. With a steely heart, he walked past each store.

“Let’s get settled and prepared.”

It was time to ready himself for battle.

***

Whoosh.

A white aura rose like a flame. Someone was focusing on their consciousness to the extreme.

“Wow, you’re really something. Actually, this feels a little scary, doesn’t it?”

The one speaking was a White Divine Celestial Dragon called Thousand Scents. She was one of the Masters of a Holy Land, the Land of a Thousand Scents, and as she looked at the young girl in front of her, she whistled aloud. Of course, this girl, Cruze, didn’t possess overwhelming combat prowess. While Cruze had essentially become superhuman, Thousand Scents had spent a thousand years studying immortality, becoming a White Dragon. In her eyes, Cruze was just another talented practitioner.

“Complete… Reconfirming.”

Yet, just nine days ago in the real world, Cruze had no special powers or skills to speak of. She was just another normal teenage girl. Considering the difference between DIO’s time and that of real life, Cruze had spent just over a month in this new world.

Whoosh.

A vibrating sound rang out, and the surrounding area was suppressed by a forceful aura.

“It seems you’re finished.”

“Yes. I’ve succeeded with my Programming. However, the Memory it takes up is around one Gigabyte, so unless I organize my current data or expand my aura, I won’t be able to use it immediately.”

“Programming? Memory? Data?”

“Oh, this system is something that I just created, so you probably won’t understand what I’m saying, Thousand Scent. I’m trying to say that I can’t immediately use what I just created. I need Memory to Install the Program.”

Although Thousand Scent had no idea what Cruze was talking about, she did know that Cruze had probably created an entire personal system from scratch. That was a feat in and of itself. It was unthinkable for a newcomer to create their own system out of nothing. What Cruze did was like creating an entirely different branch of martial arts within the martial world. Doing this was something that only a martial arts master with years of experience could do; it wasn’t something that a newcomer who just learned martial arts should be capable of doing. Moreover, Cruze had done this just to streamline her training.

Magic users learned a new language, Rune, because they needed to comprehend traditional magic. Traditional magic was something that had already undergone extensive back-testing and rigorous reforms. Did it make sense for someone to create their own language and system to contend against such a time-tested practice? It wasn’t easy to revise or edit a system that had existed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

“Hey, Cruze, how many items have you realized and embodied?”

“Uh, you’re probably speaking of Categories. One second… one, two, three… if I include the program I just made… six.”

Usually, aura practitioners embodied one item. Even geniuses would hit a limit at two or three items. Yet, Cruze recognized this limitation in the current field of aura studies and decided to revise and edit the existing system to something that she could freely handle. And so, through her customized system, she was able to extend the number of items, or Categories, that she could embody or Run.

“You’re really something.”

“Yeah, I’m a genius. An effort-based achiever like you wouldn’t get it.”

“Oho! I see your lips are quite lively today.”

“Ouch! It hurts! Ouch! Thousand Scents! It was a joke! Ouch!”

After her lips were forcefully pulled by Thousand Scents, Cruze raised her aura instinctively, but Thousand Scent was able to neutralize it easily. Even though Cruze was one of the top users with one of the highest combat stats, she was no match for Thousand Scents, who was a member of the draconic species on the cusp of transcendence. Thousand Scents was level 25, and purely in terms of levels, Thousand Scents was double Cruze’s. However, the gap between them was much more significant than a simple doubling in level.

“Ugh, so degrading. Among all the users, there are only two Masters, and I’m one of them. But why am I put in such an embarrassing situation?”

“The service hasn’t fully opened up yet, so there’s only two for now, but once it opens, there’ll be numerous Masters.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

Cruze nodded her head in agreement, but what Thousand Scents said wasn’t absolutely correct. Though the number of Masters would probably increase, it wasn’t like users could just level up at will by killing off waves of monsters. They had to pass tests.

DIO’s level-up system required that users pass a test. Furthermore, these tests harshly challenged a user’s skill and ability level. Even if a user played for their entire life, they may never pass Level 5. Actually, most users would fall into this category. However, for a genius like Cruze, she wouldn’t know this.

“Anyway, you pass.”

“Huh? What?”

“Your Job test. You pass.”

“What? But I haven’t even started the test? Of course, I did create a Program that’ll allow me to destroy the test, but I haven’t Installed it yet.”

Despite Cruze’s confusion at the sudden turn of events, Thousand Scents responded calmly.

“I can accurately come up with a judgment without putting you through a test. You pass.”

“So, I don’t even have to take a test?”

“I know you’ll pass, so why make you jump through hoops? If I thought you wouldn’t pass, I wouldn’t have even allowed you to take the test. As such, why can’t I bypass the test if I think you’ll pass?”

Cruze stood flabbergasted after hearing Thousand Scents’ explanation.

“Yet, how do you know-”

“Because I’m an expert, unlike you. I could tell just by the way you were meditating.”