Shopping Spree

Chapter 107: Shopping Spree

After the dead boy escaped, the story was to follow two people. The thing that chased, and the running boy. But as the story is named after the boy, that which happens to him shall be told first.

The boy ran further, that much is perhaps unsurprising. What else would he be doing when he was busy fleeing from the thing? Of course, if the boy was alive, he may have thought his escape was done, but that much he was not. Thus, the boy ran further.

He ran through the forest, past the trees, he ran through the fields behind it and through the mountains after those again. His steps carried him far, just as far as they should, only as far as he wanted them to. And the boy wanted to be far, far away from the forest and the thing.

Eventually though, as it was only a matter of time, the boy found a village. It wasn't tiny, but also not large, nestled around a hill in between a lake and a forest. Seeing other people, the boy slowed down, wanting to tell them to run, but as he stepped into the village, he saw that the people there were not moving.

Some of the people wore smiles, some frowns. There were people carrying baskets of bread, others doing their work. A few of them were sitting at the pier carrying fishing rods, while again others were out on the lake, in boats, dragging nets. But to the boy, everything was still. The people looked alive, but trapped in the last moment they spend before he arrived.

As he walked through the village, the boy grew sad. He shouldn't have, seeing as the boy was dead, and yet he did. From his dead eyes, tears fell, and the boy cried for the people in the village. He cried, seeing them frozen in their last moments, unmoving like statues while he knew that the thing would soon come and find them. To him, it was a tragedy, thus he cried.

Then, the boy made a decision. He would save at least a few of these people from the thing. They may be statues, but they were still people, and deserved to live and run, just like he did.

With his mind made up, the boy walked through the village once more. He thought about whom to save. Surely there were people here more deserving of help than others? He saw grim looking men with beards, and they scared him, so he stayed away, but soon he also found things he considered worth saving. A child playing with a small wooden toy. A young girl wearing a smile. A married couple of bakers handing out bread to hungry kids.

And with a nod, the boy began his work. He picked up the child with the toy first. It needed not to see how cruel life could be.

Strangely enough, the child felt light to him, almost like a feather. He took it, and simply began to run once more, heading towards somewhere, far, far away. And eventually, the boy arrived at a grassy hill, full of pretty flowers. It seemed like the perfect place for a child to be, so he set it down. Since the boy was dead, he hardly noticed what happened to the child, the fact that there was blood leaking from its eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

The boy smiled at a job well done, and returned to the town. The people had moved a little now, but most of them seemed to be guarding their face from something. Was it very windy? The boy tried to feel the air, but he didn't really notice any wind. Shaking his head, he simply took the next person, and then another, and after five trips, he let it be for now.

Even at the destination, the people were still frozen, after all. Perhaps there was no point in moving them? Whatever the case, the boy decided he would check back in on the village and take some more people away once he had caught up on some sleep.

With his decision made, the boy headed far away again, where he closed his eyes for just a little while.

And when he slept, and time seemed to pass normally again, all he left behind was a raging storm and mangled corpses of the people he had moved. A good deed in his mind.

(Legends: The running boy - 2)

- - - - - -

Since Mercury had two pages to spend doing literally anything, he decided to browse the Skill Shop a little. He'd amassed quite a few points, and spending them was what they were there for after all. Although he reminded himself to keep at least a couple of the points in case a Skill of his was ready to evolve. From what he could tell, evolved Skills tended to be pretty strong, especially compared to newly bought ones, and he didn't want to restrict his growth out of greed.

With all that in mind, Mercury opened up the Skill shop. Now that he knew much more about the system, he was also able to change the interface a little. Maybe the fact that it had more of a profile on how he thought helped as well, but he wasn't sure about it. In any case, things slowly changed. A search function was added, allowing him to not only look for Skills with specific names, but also look for specific topics.

He also added a couple filters he could toggle on and off. Stamina based, Mana based, and he enabled sorting by affinity, which would even show him expensive Skills if they were especially suited to him.

The very first thing he bought was <Training Weights>. It was a Skill he hadn't heard of before his last trial, but it seemed more than perfect for him. It was an active Skill, meaning he had to specifically turn it on, but it was a little special, in the way that once it was activated, it remained as such until turned off again.

Now, if it had just been able to attach weights to his body, that much would've been extremely boring, right? But he knew it didn't, after all, <Appraisal> had also recommended it for training his brain and mind. Now he just had to see how exactly it worked, since fully appraising Skills still didn't work in the shop.

[Acquired the Skill <Training Weights lv. 1> from the Skill Shop.]

[<Training Weights>: This Skill allows the individual to make specific tasks harder for themselves by imposing restrictions. The nature of the restriction is entirely up to the individual. It can be physical but does not have to be. No matter what restrictions are set, they will only ever affect the user and never the environment around them. The restrictions will not only assist in whatever way their non-system counterpart would (eg. weights), but will provide additional bonuses in terms of self-improvement. Finally, the size of the bonuses and restrictions possible depend on the user's Skill level.]

For a moment, Mercury was a little confused, but that did not last long.

[Confusion detected. Adding examples.]

[If the user makes themselves heavier, by applying weights to themselves, there will be additional bonuses provide to Dexterity and Strength stat gain. However, if they stand on a thin branch or are lifted by someone else, the environment will still perceive them to be their original weight. Yes, this violates the 'law' of equal and opposite reaction the individual may be used to, as that is not a universal law in this world.]

Well, that Skill honestly now seemed quite a bit better than what Mercury had expected. The additional bonuses were super nice. He had been feeling his stat gain slowing down significantly outside of level-ups, so this would certainly help with that. Overall, especially considering that the only limit to the restrictions was his imagination, it was an absolutely sick Skill that he would use a bunch, especially given its low cost of 400 Skill points. His affinity with it had been great, it seemed.

Of course, one Skill wasn't enough, so Mercury continued to browse. Maybe he'd get a second kind of Skill like <Training Weights> sometime soon, but for now, this much was fine. He definitely wanted to keep enough Skill points for <Spider Silk> once he got the weaving affinity. It was some of the strongest stuff in nature, and there were just so many uses for it. Swinging himself around, building traps, maybe even crafting items with it. He'd once played a strategy game with a character who could manipulate the properties of the thread she created to make it thin and sharp, which would make it excellent in combat as well, so that one was a goal.

So, for now he needed to stick to slightly cheaper Skills. He could probably afford to spend another 1000 Skill points or so. He checked for Skills which would let him improve more quickly, but none showed up. Either they were locked, or his affinity was so low he could never even dream to afford them. Or maybe they were only available via special methods, like <Talent>.

Since those weren't an option, Mercury began to simply look through things. Necromancy was still appealing, but it was more than out of his reach. Although the price did reduce a little, seemingly his affinity had increased, from 6000 down to 5800. Still, nowhere near his price range.

He also checked for sensory abilities, but most things adding new senses were super expensive, and he already had enhancements to his basic senses. Eventually though, he found a couple Skills he maybe should get, since they seemed pretty essential for a cat like him. <Bite> and <Claw>, both costing 200 Skill points. They were pretty simple, acting as enhancements to things he already did, just like <Dash>.

[Acquired the Skill <Bite lv. 1> from the Skill shop.]

[Acquired the Skill <Claw lv. 1> form the Skill shop.]

That left the cat with a budget of 600 points left. He thought about getting some damage resistance Skills, but most of those seemed underwhelming. Eventually though, there was one thing that caught his eye, and seemed to fit his cost requirements, too. <Unfatigued> for 750 Skill points. From its name, he would guess that it reduced, well, fatigue, and while he couldn't be sure, it seemed like a very good Skill for him.

[Acquired the Skill <Unfatigued lv. 1> from the Skill shop.]

[<Unfatigued>: This Skill makes the user more resilient to fatigue. Sleep will be required less, though the user can still sleep more than what is needed for them to function, and the user's mind will become less tired as well. Additional, physical fatigue will be lowered. This is specifically fatigue, not stamina usage, referring to the feeling of one's muscles not wanting to move anymore rather than full fledged lethargy. Finally, the user will recover from fatigue faster than before.]

And with that, after looking at all his Skills combined, he'd spent 1550 Skill points, leaving him with exactly 2010 points. It should be enough to deal with any Skill evolutions before his next level, while also letting him buy <Spider Thread> and whatever else he deemed necessary once he got his weaving affinity.

With a satisfied smile, Mercury ended his shopping spree. This had taken him the better part of an hour, since he spent quite some time looking through the menus for a fitting skill, but that still left him with more than a couple days to go. Now just what could he do while waiting for Yasashiku...

- - - - - -

Zyl let out a long, long sigh. Quite a few pages had passed since Mercury and Lucia ended their visit. By now, Otto had left as well, returning to his hut in the mountains, where he would probably fend off whatever next hero would come to try and hurt him, before dragging them in and feeding them some bland soup. He was many things, but a talented chef was not one of them.

Slowly, the man in white shook his head. He was still at home, so there was less effort in his attire now. He wore a simple, buttoned up white shirt with long sleeves, and white pants to match, but no suit. His hair was dishevelled from shaking his head so much and dragging his fingers through it. Still, he continued wearing his gloves, since they were just that comfortable.

Wrenching his focus back from his wandering thoughts of easier times, he dedicated his attention to what was before him, zoning out the miscellaneous noise. Maclroy's panting in the gym disappeared, and Leon's soft footsteps were even easier to ignore. Soon it was just him and the tasks he had to face.

As always, people wanted things from him. Most of them wanted some form of power, some form of assistance against invading forces. He grit his teeth at those request. Of course most of them were stupid, simply hoping to utilize him as a weapon in a fight someone else started. Sometimes he looked at letters from two competing families, wanting him to join their side against the other.

It was silly court politics, and he hated it, but there were larger requests too, ones that made him feel conflicted. On one hand, he would simply be a tool to someone else, something to be used, and it would greatly undermine his authority, and yet the requests stood. And they were compelling. Because the fights were large, people would die. Villages would be burnt, and the world would be a worse place for it.

If the fights ended sooner, well, there would obviously be less damage. In the greater scheme of things, if he was simply playing a numbers game, he should show up, and simply wipe out one of the armies so that the other could wholly survive, should he not.

And yet he didn't want to. Not even because it was using him as a tool, not even because the requests were arrogant, made by the high and mighty who thought him simply a "disaster". Someone with more brawn than brain, a storm that might be useful by bringing rain to their fields in a drought. No, that didn't bother him so much.

Instead, it was the fact that he would have to go out there and start a massacre.

That didn't quite sit well with him. Killing mindlessly on someone's request was obviously something no sane person would approve of, if it wasn't to protect something they held dear. And yet, if he didn't intervene more people would die.

Of course, in the end, Zyl decided it was none of his business. He always did. It was one of his greatest priorities, to keep his nation out of conflict, but there was one request he simply could not get rid of. It was one he had already had to face before, and it was one he would now have to face again. It was that of the sleezy man who he used to call a brother.

Once again, they asked for a fragment of the fire he had. It was a tale as old as time, a dance they had repeated and repeated, tossing threats back and forth. But this time, they had an advantage he did not have.

For once, Zyl had associated with people who were easy to harm. Lucia had brought someone with her that stood little chance of standing up to those that coveted what Zyl had. The greedy, slimy bastards who would see him chained down, who would clip his wings for their own wanted, who would see nothing rather but to have him chained again.

They had found Mercury.

Of course they were quiet, abhorrently quiet. It was their specialty after all, sinking into the shadows, at the edge of awareness where they could not be found with sight or hearing. They were powerful, and a threat to everything Zyl held dear to himself. They threatened his people, which is why he rarely could leave anymore, a pair of chains he bore willingly.

But now, they went as far as to threaten people he held dear. Of course, Zyl had not known the mopaaw for long, and yet he found him charming. He found his voice calming, his mannerisms endearing, and his humor entertaining. To have someone threatened simply for associating with Zyl himself was something he could not accept, would not accept. If Mercury were to get hurt, it would be his responsibility alone, and those were chains he was unwilling to take upon himself.

Zyl thought about a solution. For now, Mercury was safe. Zyl knew as much, since the letter was quite a detailed report, some of which Zyl had Maclroy confirm with a quick scrying spell. Mercury was staying at the house of Alexander, someone who may be consider an old legend by many. Of course, he had not used his power for much, yet there were few people in power who had never heard his name.

Alexander was known as "The Great". It was a title large enough to be not only an Alias, but also a Title within his status, as he had shown off before. It allowed him to give off an aura, which would force people nearby on their knees, and make his words that much more compelling, and it was something those who would seek to harm Mercury could not risk.

But Zyl knew Mercury was leaving that place soon. After all, the mopaaw was someone who never seemed to stay in one place, always moving, always seeking for something. Zyl knew that his goals were far off. He hadn't spoken about them much, but mentioned it once or twice during private conversation.

Those goals were staked in the future. In the far future, Zyl would even say, yet they were certainly possible in his eyes. If it was that mopaaw, almost anything seemed possible. And thus he would make sure that his feline friend was protected. His feline friend would be protected, at whatever cost it was to him. Hopefully he could figure out a way to solve the issue without giving up a spark, but perhaps he would need to.

Whatever the case, no harm would befall Mercury there was no way he would let his own past catch up with his current boyfriend.