Chapter 24

"Cockroach… Seriously?!" I was so frustrated, who wants to be a bug?

{A Cockroach is know for its resilient body capable of surviving a nuclear explosion… This technique can greatly improve your body's defenses}

"ehhh… but, cockroach?" I decided it was best to except my bug like nature. Hell I had been living in a dark damp alley for so long, often eating trash, I was basically already a cockroach.

I decided to go to the back of the store and ask Vixey to watch the counter while I began practicing my new "techniques". Of course I could ask Bell but, her healing and trees were very helpful in the training; plus, she may give customers the wrong idea seeing a 6 inch tall elf running the store.

Vixey quickly agreed leaving me in the back to practice alone. I entered the Volcano area in hopes of increasing my resistance to heat in the process as I began practicing.

Very quickly a week passed.

I had learnt of methods to increase the growth speed of plants, by directly inserting mana into its roots or stems in a moderate level. Upon testing I had directly killed two of the plants, by inserting to much mana. They were the Cordyceps Mushroom and a Turkey Tail Mushroom.

In addition I had been working on the Body Cultivation Technique, which shall not be named, and after this week, I could now jump from a two story building with little to no damage in my legs. To use it I simply had to focus on my body, and through visualizing my meridians I had to push my inner energy (mana) throughout my body. To fully utilize it I had to make it so my whole body was interconnected, which would increase the resistance of each part in addition to making it so if one part of my body is hit, its spread through my whole body. In this duration of time I had checked the store energy zero times, and had left Vixey in charge of running the shop; with Phoebe's approval of course.

"Now to check our energy," I was a little excited to see our income for the week.

"WHAT?!"

Over one weeks time, we had gone from the original 21 energy and some spare gold, to 188 energy and 3 gold. This was unthinkable. We could upgrade the shop now, which I was more than excited about.

I quickly went to inform Phoebe who had also been busy practicing her Water Manipulation. She was hoping to progress quickly and eventually learn to manipulate nature. She still hadn't forgotten that wish she had for "pretty magic". "Phoebe are you ready to upgrade the store?"

"Wait… we already have enough?" she looked at me questioningly.

"Why don't you check yourself?"

She did so and her jaw dropped, as had mine previously. "188?! What room will you choose once it upgrades? And which should I pick?"

"If you pick the Pet Incubation Chamber I'll pick the Blacksmith… does that sound good to you?"

"Sure lets start the upgrade,"

I quickly selected to upgrade the store in the system shop, bringing our energy down to 88

{Host Alaric, please choose your store facility}

{Please select the facility of your choice from the following list; Cultivation Room, Pet Incubation Chamber, Blacksmith, Scroll Making Hall, or Greenhouse Level 2}

'I wasn't expecting the option to upgrade the Greenhouse, but I'll stick with the previous decision of getting a Blacksmith,' I thought in my head.

{Blacksmith chosen, System store will take 24 hours to upgrade. During this time store facilities, outside of portal, will no longer be available}

DING

'Right as a customer comes in too,' I walked to the front of the store to escort the customer away and inform him we would be closed for the next 24 hours. Only, when I arrived a large group of men in construction gear could be seen lined up behind a man with a suit. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, we're here for the expansion of the store. Please sign here and we can get started," the man in the suit responded while pointing to a piece of paper he had placed on the counter with a pen.

I quickly looked it over and all that was written was, Do you agree to upgrade the store knowing full well that during the 24 hours of upgrade, store facilities will be unavailable outside of the portal. "Jericho what is this?"

{In order to avoid suspicions befalling the store, a group of system created men arrived to "construct the shop" they are simply for show}

I decided to sign the paper and stay out of the way. Maybe it was time to go get the ingredients to improve the grade of Freyja and Bagheera. They were both at level 10 now which was the max available for them. Iglif was at level 13 being the highest and strongest of the bunch. So upon asking Bell what to look for, for their upgrades to the next grade, Phoebe and I selected an area on the module for the portal and directly teleported to our new region. The Ice Wasteland.