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Chapter 9: Advanced Shop
🕑 Added 2025-01-04 03:32:40 +0000 UTC[ level 10 Reached. Advanced shop unlocked]
“Oh Yeah, you mentioned this shop a while back on the first floor. What does it do” James pondered while biting some meat the orc was having. He didn’t know what kind of meat it was, but he believed it was not poisonous. As long as it was not poisonous, he believed his goblin stomach would handle all the bacteria and germs this meat could possibly have.
[Advanced shops could repair your damaged equipment. At level 1, it also sells health potions, hematonic potions, and mana potions.]
“Health potions! How much do they cure if you drink them?” James stood up from his seat. His voice was tinged with excitement when he heard about the miracle drug of fantasy land.
Health potions were a staple in the gaming industry. Almost every kind of game had it. They might rebrand it with other names. However, their functions remain constant. To heal characters’ health. James had half given up when he didn’t get a single vial of these miracle drugs. However, it finally appeared.
[Health potions are not drunk. They are poured and rubbed on open wounds. After applying a health potion to the open wound, the wound should be sealed within one minute unless a specific curse was added to the wound.]
“Huh? Why are you suddenly getting realistic this late in the game? Why not just drink it and heal up immediately?” James sighed. The System ignored him and continued with its explanation.
[Hematonic potion can be drunk to restore the lost blood. The effect should work after ten minutes.]
“I see. Well, how much does it cost? Don’t hide it for me now. You know it’s not gonna work, give me the list, System.” James said with a wry grin. Knowing the System’s tendencies, he was expecting it to be ridiculously expensive. The System obliged and showed him what he could buy.
[Advanced shop:
Health potion: 100 coins
Hematonic potion: 50 coins
Mana potion: 100 coins
Repair armor: 50 coins
Repair helmet: 2 coins
]
“Hmm. it is kinda expensive… but affordable,” James said. “I will buy one health potion and one hematonic potion.”
James lived in the present. This is a life-saving medicine that beginners in every game must bring. At least until they got themselves a healing spell.
Two vials in a black box appeared before him. One was red, and the other was pink. The System explained that the red bottle is the health potion while the pink ones are the hematonic potion. James put those bottles in his backpack.
A howl pierced the orange sky again. James wondered whether the wolves were coming again. However, they no longer mattered, for James would be resting inside a house today. It was shabby, but a house is a house, and James knew how to strengthen it.
Before that, he changed his legs with that of an orc. Orc’s legs were bulky, which made them look slow. However, it has more strength and the same capabilities as humans. They were slower not because of their physiology, but because of their stats.
The green muscled legs and arms made James’s torso look comically small, as if he was surgically made that way. James wondered if he could fix that. However, the most his skill could do was steal an orc’s skin. When he inquired The System, he got unexpected answers.
[Available body part:
Orc’s skin (skin slot)
Orc’s head
Orc’s torso
]
“I can plunder these too? Why didn’t you list it before?”
[Orc’s skin and torso offer no extra benefit compared to humans. However, due to your query, we listed them as available parts for chimera.]
“What about the head?”
[the head offers no particular advantage compared to humans except the tusk. Do you want to change them?]
“I can change the torso too?” After changing his legs, James felt weird. It was like his limbs were not his. His stride was too far, and his arm lost its dexterity. He could manage for now, but he wondered whether he should change himself completely to that of an orc. He had enough corpses, after all.
[yes. You can change your body into that of an orc. It offered no particular benefit.]
“Very well. Let’s change them all!” James took a deep breath and confirmed his decision to The System. James had finally let go of the last shred of his human appearance. Motes of light gathered on three orc’s corpses. Those motes consumed the corpses before swirling around James like a firefly. His muscles swelled, ripping his damaged armor to pieces, his scrawny body soon turned into a hulking giant of muscle, his skin turned moss green. And finally, two tusks grew on the side of his maw.
Even though nothing except the legs should change his stats, he felt big, he felt menacing, and most importantly, he felt powerful. The change was merely cosmetic. However, to James, it increased his confidence.
When he looked at his status, he saw the changes in his chimera skills.
[Leather armor damaged. Do you wish to repair it for 60 coins?]
“Yes,” James felt stupid. He lost ten coins just because he forgot to undress himself when changing. Fortunately, The System offered to fix it for him, albeit for a price. The tattered leather armor magically sewn itself back and refitted into James’s body. James was stupefied. That tattered leather armor felt like new and it fit into his new body now.
[Name: James
Age: 35
Sex: male
Levels: 11
Coins: 35
Stats:
STR: 60 ( up 3)
Dex: 53 (up 8)
Magic: 0
Mana: 0
Skills:
Beginner Axe mastery level 6 (up 1)
Beginner Sword mastery level 3 (up 2)
Unique Skill:
Chimera:
Goblin stomach (Iron guts) (stomach slot)
Lesser Mana core (Fire spell, Magic+10, Mana +50)(Extra slot 1)
Orc’s arm (STR+10%) (Arm slot)
Orc’s legs (Str +10%) (leg slot)
Orc’s torso (torso slot)
Orc’s head (Head slot)
Jumping Spiders spinneret (Thread creation)(Extra slot 2)
Equipment:
Leather armor
Leather helmet
Vambrace
Gauntlets
War axe
Longsword
Leather pouch
Waterspout dagger
Health potion
Hematonic potion
Leather bag]
After checking the surroundings, James went inside the shabby house the orcs had built. The doors seemed like they would break with a light tap. However, there is nothing that his spider silk couldn’t fix. The dark night gradually gave a gentle azure glow as dawn peeked from the horizon. The black blanket in the sky slowly painted blue.
James looked at the sky, a brief worry about work at the office crept up to his head before he kicked it out of the window and stepped on it while laughing at himself.
“I am in another world. Why am I thinking about work right now? Besides, I am already fired.”
James sighed once again. James had reinforced the house with his spider webs from his spinneret. It was not pretty, but it did the work. After closing the door and fixing it with a rope so the wolves couldn’t enter, he climbed up on his self-made hammock and lay down. It didn’t take even ten seconds before drowsiness filled him and he fell into a deep slumber.
James dreamt about his goals and his dreams when he was little. He wanted to become a manager and then a branch director. However, that image soon warped into something irregular, twisted, incomprehensible.
His dream was when he was in elementary school. His friends at the elementary school stood away from him, and the reason was obvious. James had grown a tusk. His body was green, like that of an orc. It was obvious that they were scared of him.
His body grew larger, and when they did sports, he became the champion. He was the best.
James knew immediately that this was a dream. In his memory, He was a reclusive kid. People often didn’t notice he existed. He thought grades were everything and tried to study. It needed to be emphasized that he tried. He realized then that he was a mediocre kid. Even when he tried, his rank and score barely passed.
At sports, it was even worse. He was a known benchwarmer. He held no interest in it. Even at college, he always barely passed. Never become higher. He thought he would never land a job with his mediocre score. But Lady Luck smiled at him. He landed his dream job of becoming an admin staff member at a startup.
Staff jobs were his dream job simply because he thought they were stable jobs. It was not. Nevertheless, he managed to hold on to his work for over five years before he was fired. Then the summoning came.
“Reflecting won’t help. Let’s just enjoy the moment.” James sighed as he continued to watch his greenself as a kid becoming macho and admired by other students.
The green kid continued to become a great bodybuilder. A championship medal was awarded to him. James snickered. He knew it was not because of hard work, but because of status and the orc’s inherent race traits. However, after thinking for a while, he pondered. Why did hard work even matter? All they cared about was the results. Even James himself only cared about the result.
James was lacking in this area. He thought by working hard, he would at least survive. However, the result was lacking, and thus he was fired.
“Stable job, my ass...”
Anger dwelled within him. What is wrong with this world? Why was this green kid able to get everything easily while he had to break his back every day so he could receive a minimum wage salary?
The green kid soon turned to the orc boss he knew. The way he commanded the goblins was the answer. The orc was simply better. James instinctively used his chimera skill. It should not work on living things. However, this was a dream world. Anything could work. James grew tusks and he became bigger. Now, whenever people saw him, it was not of belittlement but wonder. He had finally become respected, or feared.
James understood from the beginning what he must do. He was helpless before, but not anymore. He now had chimera skills, he could become anything that he wanted. Becoming an orc? He simply needs to steal their body. To become a genius, he simply needs to steal geniuses’ brains and put them into his extra slot.
He felt like his time had come. Life is like a wheel. Sometimes, you are at the bottom. Sometimes, you are at the top. James had been at the bottom for too long and now it was time for him to rise to the top.
He wanted to change. The System granted him his wish. However, nothing is free and his skill requires a price. He must kill, and then, he will change. He will leave old James behind. He will become stronger.
He will level up, and he will be greater than ever.
