Reality's often disappointing

'It has been 5000 years since I have been working in this shop, I have seen everything from the inside to the outside of the shop so, wtf is this???' Let alone, Mal, Natalia was shocked beyond belief.

"What did you do??" Natalia asked as he pinched the dumbfounded Mal's arm.

"Ouch! Wh...what's going on?" Mal came back to reality as he asked Natalia.

"That's what I am asking you! What did you do?" Natalia was speechless looking at the innocent expression of Mal.

"I was justing looking around the store and by mistake, I think I pressed some sort of a switch." Mal said with the face 'I have nothing to with this pillar in the middle of the store.'

*Sigh* "It was my mistake that I asked you a question, did you see what's inside?" Natalia asked him with curious eyes.

"Nope"

"Then go and open the box!! You were the one who found it so you have to open it." Natalia said with a straight face.

Mal was speechless at her shamelessness, but it was also true that it was Mal who made this pillar appear. [Auth:- This doesn't sound right ;)] 'If I die then so be it at least I will die trying [Auth:- Excuse me wtf, thankgod he stopped watching dramas and anime.] Mal slowly moved forward towards the pillar which was now standing dormant. 'Be careful Mal' he was continuously saying in his mind and beside him, Natalia was also sweating because she too was nervous.

Mal moved his hand towards the box on the pillar "One, Two, Three!!" Mal counted to three and with his eyes closed, he lifted the box...

"..."

"..."

And nothing happened, Mal and Natalia both breathed a sigh of relief, but at that moment, the shop started shaking once again.

"Whhhaaaattttt?" Both Mal and Natalia screamed at the same time. It was nothing bad that happened after all the fiasco, the sound, and the shaking was because the pillar was going back to its place. Both Mal and Natalia were standing like a statue. After some time, Mal broke the silence,

"Well that was anti-climatic," Mal said as he laughed.

"Stop laughing like an idiot and quickly see what's inside." Natalia urged.

"O...Okay," Mal nodded as he slowly opened the box.

"Eh?" Mal was dumbfounded looking at the contents that were inside the box.

"What is it? What is it?" Natalia was getting more and more curious

"See for yourself..." Mal handed Natalia the box

"Eh..." Now it was Natalia's turn to get dumbfounded.

"It's a brush" Mal spoke making Natalia once again realize the harsh reality.

"Just a painting brush..." Natalia sighed as she gave the box back to Mal. "Keep it yourself, your's unique ability is related to painting right? So maybe you would be able to use it to your advantage somehow.." she said as she returned back to the backroom to customize Mal's battle suit.

'I don't even know how my ability works...I have already tried making things while activating my unique skill but nothing happened so, how am I going to use this to my advantage...' Mal sighed but he still kept the box inside his bag, whatever, I am not going to say no to a freebie.

After 5 minutes, Natalia came back with the same tablet in her hand, "here transfer the suit to your info panel's storage."

Mal nodded as transferred his black-purplish suit to his account, "Oh yeah, I was just going to forget about it! Can you tell me how this cloud storage thing works? Because I wanted to store more things inside just in case." Mal asked earnestly.

"No"

"..."

"But why?" Mal asked

"Because you can only use the inventory for your personal use after you have reached Lv 10, but there is a special feature for you as you have signed the contract with the shop, you can take out and store things you have bought from this store inside your inventory but that's that," Natalia said with a look of disdain on her face, she was obviously saying that 'Hey you noob with a trash unique skill, you would never be able to reach level 10 so just forget about using the inventory.'

"That's unfortunate" Mal replied and it was obvious from his voice that he was not at all bothered by what Natalia was saying.

"So now, I have completed one step out of the four, and out of those only the Awakening potion is somewhat difficult," Mal said as he now felt that how little time he had to prepare to the hell planet that was about to come.

"By any chance do you have an awakening potion?" Mal asked jokingly as he was sure that the shop wouldn't be having such an important and rare potion and even if it did, it would be very expensive.

"Yes, we have those. But, wh do you need those for? You already have an ability don't you?" Natalia asked while lifting her eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's just that I wanted to try again and see for another ability to which I might awaken to again! Can you tell me what is the cost of one of those?" Mal asked

"The lowest level ones have a 10% chance of awakening a new ability and that costs around 100 mid-level shards, these are also the ones, which those high humans have given you earthlings. After that comes, the mid-tier and they have a 35% chance they cost around 100 high-tier shards, and after that are the high-grade potion they have a 50% chance of awakening another unique ability and 10% chance of awakening 2 unique abilities they cost around 100-perfect tier shards and finally comes the magic grade potion, but they are too high level for you." Natalia said all of that in a single breath and taking Mal's breath away.

"Only 100 mid-tier shards? that too cheap to be true and what are these other insane potions?!! 35%? 50% with a 10% chance of awakening 2 abilities??? But their cost is also sky-high...I should first buy 10 low-level potions, that way I would have a 100% chance of unlocking a new ability!!" Mal said cheerfully.

"That won't work..." Just one sentence was enough to destroy Mal's whole career [Auth:- -_- I am going crazzzyyy]

"Why?" Mal asked in a disheartened voice.

"Because the potion's effect does not stack," Natalia said with a straight face.

"Oh"

"Mal you shouldn't get too greedy! The fact that I can get an awakening potion for just 100 middle-grade shards is insane!!!" Mal consoled himself as started making his way out.

"Thank you for making my life a lot easy Natalia san! And I will be back to sell more herbs for that awakening potion!" Mal thanked as he exited the shop.

Inside the shop, Natalia was blushing because of Mal's sudden praise. "Idiot," she said softly as she moved back to her original spot behind the shelf. [Auth:-She said, Baka!! So cute!!]

'Now I am a lot closer to my goal, Mom, Dad I will make you guys proud!' Mal said as he started walking towards the exit of the market.

"Boss he has started walking again! I don't know why he was standing at the same place for 5 minutes, but now he is walking back towards the exit, maybe he learned his lesson and is going back to where he came from? Oh...Okay, boss" A hoarse voice was coming from a man who was hiding in the corner. He was the same lackey of the middle-aged shopkeeper that had scammed Mal before.

"I am sorry kid, but you would have to fork out all the secrets of yours either by 'hook or by crook'."