Shopping Spree

First of all, I wanna apologize for the late update. Recently my computer crashed, taking with it my two unsaved chapters. And I didn't feel like writing those chapters once again over the weekend. 

Sorry for the delay.

Enjoy

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The old Shop Keeper went down to the bar, fished out some menus, and placed them before Arun. Those menus were all bounded with soft brown leather type covers, which went really well with the Golden Cursive letter etched over them. 

"If you would be kind enough, could tell me your name sir," the shopkeeper asked.

"Name is Arun,"

"Mr. Arun, here in the Dungeon Shop, my job is to sell or buy items from players. The selling part is self-explanatory, you have something that might be valuable, I can buy it off your hands. As far as the buying part is concerned, a player could buy anything from me from these menus. But keep in mind, that I have a limited supply of Perisable Items, so if in need, buy as much as you can when you see stock. Because restocking could take some time." The old man said and then pointed towards the menus before him, "These are the menus, if you want something, all you have to do is just ask."

Arun looked over the menus and found them all to be very straightforward. There were six menus in total. The first menu was of Skills, the second one was Cookbooks, the third and fourth covered Perisables and Re-usable items, the fifth labeled Weapons, and the last labeled Knowledge.

"Going through them would take ages," Arun mumbled as he looked at the thickness of some of the menus.

Hearing this the old man waved his hand, "Oh dont worry about sir. This whole place is under a time-dilation bubble. You can spend hours in here, and only a few seconds would pass in the normal world."

"Interesting,"

"Now relax, and take your time," Arun took his sweet time there, and after seeing what this place has to offer, he realized that it was worth coming to the place…

It took a lot of time and patience to go through all six menus and decide what to buy for himself. Things became easier when he remembered the Kong's heart in his pocket and decided to sell the damn thing. The old man brought it for a whopping price of 2500 coins. Combined with the 150 coins of his hard-earned money, his budget was about 2650 coins. 

While deciding what to buy, he had to come up with a decision, whether he wanted to survive out there, or did he want to thrive in the outside world. The tools and the things one would need to survive out there would be very different from the ones that one would need to level up out there. 

He remembered the letter he had written to himself. He referred to himself as a Shikari, a hunter. And he could feel that he lives for the hunt. The prospect of taking down enemies or beasts, stronger than him, excites him. Arun remembered the boring week that he spent in the city. It was unbearable. Coming here today, killing people stronger than him put a smile on his face. To feel fulfilled, he needs to go out there and truly hunt, because that is what he was born for.

Which is why Arun brought everything that he might need on a journey for the big hunt.

First and foremost, he bought a 10kg space in his Common Inventory, for 500 coins. Then he bought three blocks in Quick Access Inventory for 600 coins. He brought another survival knife as he would leave his current one behind in the pyre.

The next most important thing that he brought from the Shop was The Deluxe Edition Map of the First Floor. This so-called Deluxe edition map not only shows all the major cities on the floor but also marks poles and dungeons that he would come across on his journey. At least that was what the Shopkeeper told him. So he asked the old man, "Poles? Do you mean the poles that could teleport players?"

"I dont know the answer to the question sire. I am only telling you, what I am supposed to know," the barkeeper said, "I dont anything about the outside world,"

"Hmm.." Arun said, "Anything else about the map that I should know about,"

"Certainly… Another good feature of the map is that it marks your current location on it. And as it also has a compass…." And the old man started telling him about the features of the map.

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One of the concerns that he faced was about his medical needs, it would be foolish of him to go out in the world without any medical knowledge. This is why he brought the Health Potion Cookbook, and Antidote Cookbook for whopping 600 coins.

According to the Bar Owner, the health potion can take care of small wounds and scratches. This potion might not be as efficient in the cases of deep wounds, but it could surely take care of most of the small stuff. While on the other hand, The Antidote potion neutralizes certain low—level poisons. And it could slow down the effects of potent poisons. Arun realized that these two potions might not be sure—cure potion that he was hoping for. But they will surely the job done.

Another thing that caught his eye, and he bought was the Scavenging Tattoo. It cost him 100 coins, but its effect was the thing that really caught his attention. From what he knows, when monsters are killed in the outside world, their bodies disintegrate into nothingness. What he didnt know was that in this world, monsters could drop certain items for players. These items could be for anything, from a small knife, a to full-blown Cookbook. 

The type of reward that a player would receive or even if the player would receive a reward was hard to determine. But with this tattoo in his hand, every monster that he would kill would reward him with some items. He had already received the goblin bow and arrow set from his first and they both were excellent equipment for him. Which he figured that this tattoo would surely come in handy in the future.

The last thing that he bought for himself was Bow and Arrow. At first, he was not a fan of Archery, because of how fragile arrow could be. In the past week, he had talked to many Archers, for tips and such, and realized the biggest drawbacks of Archery are the arrows. They are very fragile, and if you are not accurate enough, the arrow tends to bend or completely break after an impact. Which meant that he could not use arrows over and over again. This is why he figured that it would be for the best if he did not take Archery as his main form of combat.

But the Dungeon Shop proved that he was wrong. The old bar owner suggested him that he should buy a special quiver that could produce arrows on its own, for some amount of mana. Which meant he could essentially have an endless supply of arrows if he wanted. And he really liked that. So he brought himself a sturdy mid-range bow.

He spent the rest of the money on a pestle, some glass bottles to store potion and some utensils. And then he came out of the Shop…

***

Arun found himself teleported back to the dungeon once again, standing before Suzie with his sword and shield in his hands, Done with the shopping?" she asked. And he simply nodded.

"Good, let's reset the dungeon and get the hell out of here," she said, and then she handed him one of her jute sacks, "Could you please hold this?" Then Suzie went and pulled the blue string adjacent to the golden one.

Like the way he was teleported to the Dungeon Shop, Arun found himself being teleported once again. As he got his bearings back, he found himself at the entrance of the Dungeon. The huge stone gates of the place were now shut, and as he had instructed, Sanjay and Igor had made a huge pyre of corpses.

Before he could speak anything, he was engulfed in a very tight bear hug from the back. Thinking that he was attacked he let go of the sack took out the survival knife and was about to stab the person behind him. "Thank You!" the woman from behind screamed. It was did he realized that she was So-Young.

"You came to save us.." She said while bawling her eyes out, "You also helped my friends.."

Although he understood why she was so happy and how grateful she was, but he didnt feel secure while being enveloped in a bear hug, by a woman who he could shake off. He tried shaking her off, but he couldn't get out of her hold. 

"So-Young," he said, "You are kind of hurting me you know.."

She did let him go while chuckling, "Yeah right," it seemed that she didnt believe him.

Arun then focused on the task at hand. They had a lot of things to do before they could go their separate ways. As they had planned, they set fire to the big pile of corpses, but not before he sneakily stored some meat in his inventory for emergencies. Then Suzie used her skill Incinerate. Her hand turned into a flame thrower, capable of throwing a burst of fire 10 feet away. These flames were enough to incinerate most of the organic material.

Everything went well for a while, but then Suzie stopped suddenly. She got onto her knees, and then So-Young came by her side and gave her a blue potion, "Here, have some mana potion," Suzie drank the potion, but she looked rather pale and was huffing and puffing.

"She would be alright.. Right?" He asked Sanjay.

The man nodded, "She would be. You know how mana deficiency is.."

Mana deficiency? Hmm… So losing all the mana in our body could weaken us. I should probably pay closer attention to what my mana levels would be when using that quiver.

It took them a few more minutes after which Suzie burnt everything to crisp. After that, they didnt linger any longer and started moving. Their plan was simple, first and foremost make some distance between them and Sleetrest. As they couldnt go to Sapos, the other city under Sleetrest, they decided that it would be for their best that they should head towards Lando…

That night they step up their camp in the forest. By the fire, they grilled the Kong meat that they had stolen. And everyone was pretty happy with their meal.

"This is the best meat that I have ever eaten in my life," Igor said. "Even Babaushka's grilled meat fails in front of this one." He said while chowing done a Kong's hand.

"Babhuska?" Sanjay asked.

"It means Grandmother in Russian," Arun said.

Surprised, Igor asked him, "You know Russian Comrade?"

"A little, a little," he said and was quite surprised inwardly that he knew Russian.

"So what did you use to do before you came here?" Sanjay asked.

Thinking that he should not mention that he didnt have any memories of his past, he came up with an elaborate lie, "Military."

"Oh." So-Young said, "Me too. I was serving my time in the military as well,"

Quickly then Arun said, "What about you guys? What did you guys do?"

Suzie spoke, "Well… I was an OR nurse. I also have a daughter back in America." Her smiling face morphed into a sorrowful one.

"It's alright," So-Young said, "We will get back to Earth someday. One day,"

"Well, I was a General Shop Owner," Sanjay added.

"And I was a Bell Boy," Igor also added.

Everyone became quiet after that, as they were all reminiscing about their past. It is only a few minutes later, So-Young asked. "Arun.. If you dont me asking. Are you from The Resistance?"

Now what the fuck is the resistance? Arun thought.