Tenacity (1)

"The [Store]..."

Liam stared at the icon inside the app.

'I will definitely check it n–...'

Ring~!

The sound of the school bell resounded throughout the school ground.

"...I'll definitely check it later!"

With a bit of hesitation, he quickly hurried towards the corridor in front of his classroom.

*

Creak–

"Oh? I thought both of you may have already run away, but I guess you already know me well."

The female teacher looked at them for a while before turning around.

"Alright, it's break time now, you can put your hands down."

She soon walked away from them.

"...Aha. I think she forgot about our parents. How lucky."

Nathan said as he watched their teacher disappear from his sight.

"Huu... How lucky, indeed."

Liam was a bit sweaty and exhausted after running for over a hundred meters in an instant, but he luckily managed to make it here in time.

"I see that you now have enough energy to run from afar. Did your strength perhaps come back after shitting?"

"...I did not take a shit, you shithead."

"And why does your look so messed up? Did you have a bad one?"

"No, I tripped and fell. Face first."

"Oh."

"Why does your face look so messed up though? Was your birth a bad one?"

"That's..."

The two went back and forth with each other for a bit before leaving their spots.

Liam went inside the classroom while Nathan seemed to go towards the cafeteria.

It was now time for a class break.

Liam decided to stay in the classroom where only a few of his classmates stayed.

He grabbed his phone from his pocket and looked around the room one more time.

No one was near him enough to see the contents of his phone.

'Alright, let's see what this store has for me.'

The Store's icon had an appearance of a blue bag, with 'Store' written on its front.

It was so simple that it almost looked outdated.

However, Liam had the feeling that its content wouldn't be so simple since the store needed the 'cheap price' he had to pay for it to be accessible.

And as he knew so far, it seemed that the cheap price was for him to transmigrate into another world.

"Haa..."

He could still recall the message the app told him that he did not believe but now here he was.

Liam shook his head and eventually opened the store.

The screen changed and now it had a dark theme with gold lines.

Ding!

A notification appeared.

— The user opened The Heaven's App's [Store] for the very first time.

— The Heaven's App provided the user with 100 coins as a small reward.

Liam was a bit surprised knowing this was the second time it rewarded him for doing such a trivial thing.

He still could not get how this app works.

'What purpose does it have?'

Liam did not believe in the "chosen one" trope, but was it really a coincidence that this app particularly went for his phone and lead him to this world?

If it was not a mere coincidence and it really had a purpose of transmigrating him here then...

"Do I have to do something in this world after all?"

That sounded like tough work and needless to say how dangerous could that "something" be in this world he knew nothing about except that it had monsters that were already scary to imagine having to face one.

'Ah, I'm getting sidetracked again.'

He closed the notification windows and looked at the contents of the store.

The first thing he noticed was that the design of the store was surprisingly plain and simple that it could be considered uninteresting.

It didn't have any search bar for him to browse nor did it have any kind of catalogs such as recommended items and top items like one would normally see in online stores.

'Not even a sorting feature?'

It was then that he saw a text written on top.

"Well, damn."

'There's a lot... Are you saying I have to go through all of that?'

On top of the screen was a note that said, [12000+ items are currently for sale in the store.]

Liam eventually browsed through the store by swiping the screen with his finger.

The items inside the store were not sorted by name, price, tier, or anything at all but the contents were enough for him to continue what he was doing.

His eyes sparked interest as he saw various weapons that could be seen from historical times to modern times.

Swords, spears, bows, shields, whips, daggers, guns, grenades, and even rocket launchers.

Even items that he had only seen in fantasy novels or games were there.

Tridents, Healing potions, Magic Staff, Skill Scrolls, Mana Stones, Magic Bombs, ETC.

'The more I see absurd items, the more I find this app ridiculous.'

Did these items shown in the [Store] only exist in this world or were there some of them that came from another world?

By another world, Liam meant a world inside a novel or such.

'King Arthur's sword... Seriously?'

He shoved his suspecting feeling away by focusing on the store contents.

Scrolling several more times, he had naturally learned more about the items and their 'Tiers'.

Equipment items like weapons and armors had their tiers sorted into five categories including Common, Named, Rare, Legendary, and Mythical which were also then divided into three grades—Low-Grade, Mid-Grade, and High-Grade.

While consumables like potions, emblems, and buff scrolls were only divided into Low-Grade, Mid-Grade, and High-Grade.

On the other hand, Skill Pages were also sorted into Common, Named, Rare, Legendary, Mythical but not anymore divided further.

The examples he had seen of some of these categories were the Low-Grade Common Magic Equipment [Old Magic Necklace], the Common Elemental Skill Page [Enhance Hearing], and the only mythical item he came across despite him scrolling for several minutes. King Arthur's sword which he Discovered quite a while ago, Low-Grade Mythical Sword [Excalibur].

He, of course, was filled with excitement when he first spotted this, but he immediately stopped his delusions after getting to know its price.

He couldn't even afford a normal sword worth a thousand coins since he only had a few hundreds of them, how could he dream of buying such an item that cost over a hundred thousand coins?

Liam felt like he would encounter many items with unbelievable prices like this so he had decided to ignore them from now on and continue with his search.

"Fortunately for me, it has at least 1 good feature."

[Wishlist]

He had only discovered it a few minutes ago by accidentally pressing an item twice.

It was a listing feature that let him save his desired items that he could potentially buy for a later time.

After a few minutes of swiping and picking items to go to his wishlists, he now had to buy the items he saved. Of course, he would only have to buy items he could afford.

Currently, he had 850 coins.

The cheapest item he could find on his wishlist cost 35 coins.

It was low-grade emblems that could permanently increase a stat between 0.10 to 0.25.

'With my coins, I could buy at least 20 middle-grade emblems, 5 low-grade potions, 2 low-grade common daggers, or 1 common skill page.'

Looking back at the items narrowed down to items he could only afford, he thought having a new skill should be better than having an item he didn't know how to use or increasing his stats by, at most, 7.

Of course, the power and potential of the skill were proportional to its tier. Right now, he could only afford to buy Low-Grade Common Skill Books, and there was no way for him to know the exact limits of the skill he would pick so this time, he just had to risk it.

If the skill he chose had high potential despite its tier then he had hit the jackpot, if not then it would still be fine.

He knew he would eventually get another reward from the app.

The affordable Skill Pages in his wishlist contained 2 physical skills and 1 elemental skill.

"I don't think I need any physical skills for now."

It was not like he would meet a monster the moment he stepped out of their school... right?

"I've recently known that I am one of the weakest in the school in terms of strength and I also know that I can't immediately become stronger with just a low-tier skill."

Liam looked at the elemental skill page that cost 800 coins.

"The most useful skill for me right now would be [Danger Sense]."

-----

Danger Sense

A natural survival instinct. It allows the user to sense or percept when something bad might happen. The higher the skill level, the stronger and the more accurate the user can sense danger.

-----

Why would someone try to fight in a situation where they could get hurt when they could have just simply avoided it?

"Perfect. I'll use this to sense trouble and immediately flee together with my other skills."

Well, Liam didn't actually know if it worked how he imagined it to work, but still...

He eventually clicked the [Buy] option under the details of the skill page and the female voice soon appeared inside his mind.

— The [Danger Sense] skill page was placed in the inventory.

Liam looked at the now [50 coins] written at the top right corner of the screen and nodded before coming back to the main menu of the app, letting him see the inventory icon beside the store.

He then went to [Inventory].

Like what he saw earlier, it had 10 item slots, and the skill page was currently occupying one.

Immediately after, he pressed the image of the item, showing more of its details.

-----

[Danger Sense] (Elemental)

Type: Skill Book

Attribute: Instinct

Tier: Common

- The ability to sense incoming danger.

-----

Under the skill book's name, there were two options to pick from but the other one was blank, leaving only the 'Use' option.

After pressing it, a new notification appeared.

— Will the user accept using the Common Elemental Skill Page, [Danger Sense]?

'I accept.'

Liam accepted it without hesitation.

He placed the phone down on his desk and stared into the air.

"Now it's your turn, system."

===

Name: Liam Keene

Age: 18

Hunter Level: 22

Mana: 107.25

Strength: 98.25

Agility: 97

Constitution: 102.75

Intelligence: 107.25

Wisdom: 92.5

[Skills] (Proficiency: %)

- Common

Dishwashing (P) [77.476%]

Cooking (P) [33.293%]

Painting (P) [5%]

- Physical

Dart [63.273%]

Resist [52.0.81%]

Blunt Weapons Mastery (P) [88.419%]

Basic Sword Mastery (P) [59.636%]

Hard Strike [37.424]

Physique Power Boost [5%]

- Elemental

Mana Sense (P) [43.118%]

Passive Meditation (P) [5%]

Danger Sense (P) [0%]

- Special

(Null)

===

He knew it had already happened after receiving the rewards, but seeing his new stats and skills' proficiency and comparing it to the last one, he could only smile in satisfaction.

It felt like grinding for hours in a game and seeing the result of it.

"Oh, right."

As he remembered something, he averted his gaze from the system and went for his phone again.

"Uhm, App. Or, uh, Heaven's App. Is there any way for me to increase the proficiency of skills besides doing quests?"

He did not expect the app to answer him but it wasn't like he would lose anything if it didn't.

It was then that a message appeared on the screen of his phone.

— There are indeed ways.

"Ah!"

Liam widened his eyes in surprise when the app replied almost immediately.

"It actually answered. So... what is this way?"

— Hunters can increase the proficiency of skills through effective and repetitive usage and utilization of the skill.

"That's... common sense in this kind of world, isn't it? More so, since the system exists but, isn't there a more 'efficient' way?"

— Skill Emblems.

"Right, that. No."

Skill emblems that even with a high-grade tier could only increase a skill's proficiency by around 5% and cost over 3000 coins each.

"But, like. Cheap yet effective items. You know, like power cores? The monsters' thingy? Never saw one but I bet it's really effective."

— It doesn't exist in the store nor does it in this world. Note: Monsters' by-products aren't available in the store including power cores.

"But–"

— The Heaven's App reminds the user that relying too much on the Heaven's App would be bad for your health.

"I..."

— One cannot always cheat their way through their life.

"..."

—...

To Liam, it did give a fair point, but...

"...Let's just pretend this didn't happen."

After regretting speaking with the app, Liam placed his phone back on the desk and now went for the system.

"I forgot to try this out earlier."

As he looked closely at the floating window, he opened his mouth gently.

"Skill Descriptions."

===

Skill Descriptions

- Common

Dishwashing (Passive) (E-) - The ability to handle leftover dishes.

Cooking (Passive) (E+) - The ability to cook food.

Painting (Passive) (D-) - The ability to paint and draw.

- Physical

Dart (D) - Enhances the user's ability to sprint for 5 minutes. {30 MP}

Resist (D+) - Enhances the hunter's muscles and persistence for 5 minutes. {30 MP}

Blunt Weapons Mastery (Passive) (E-) - The ability to utilize blunt weapons techniques.

Basic Sword Mastery (Passive) (D) - The ability to utilize basic swordsmanship.

Hard Strike (D+) - Enhances the strength of the user's strike. {30 MP per strike}

Physique Power Boost (C-) - Enhances the user's overall strength for 5 minutes. {50 MP}

- Elemental

Mana Sense (Passive) [C-] - The ability to see, feel, and move the mana inside the user's body. Contains [Mana] attribute.

Passive Meditation (Passive) (D-) - The ability to compose the user's mind and thoughts while in an immobile state. Contains [Mind] attribute.

Danger Sense (Passive) (D-) - The ability to sense incoming danger. Contains [Instinct] attribute.

- Special

(Null)

===

He shrugged the feeling of thrill and anticipation seeing this kind of sight that one could only expect in games as he noticed two details.

When he checked the Danger Sense skill page before buying it, it had a long description written on the page or the paper itself, but now it only had vague information about the skills.

"And..."

Instead of a skill's tier divided into 5 categories like the app, or more precisely, the store had shown him, it seemed that in the system it's divided into letters E to A, from lowest to highest.

There might even be S or even SSS but he did not have evidence to convince himself yet.

"It is now clear to me that the phone and the system are completely separate entities."

It looked as well that there still seemed to be more background of the system that he still hadn't known or discovered.

"Although, I just came here not even two hours ago..."

He would naturally have time to get to know more about this system and this new world itself.

Ding–!

A new notification.

Liam opened the phone and widened his eyes when he heard what the voice said.

— A new content was loaded.

— [Map]

"Huh?"

He could only tilt his head after he became a bit confused.

This app wouldn't make something as unnecessary as a normal map, right?

"Well, I can just check to see what it does."

Without asking any further, he pressed the map icon.

Ding–!

— The user needs to have at least 1000 coins to unlock the Map.

"..."