Shopping

Chapter 6

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Four hours later, it was finally Eric's turn to take the test. As for why he needed to take the test?

It was to prevent cases of over-confident fools from going to sacrifice themselves to the claws of wild monsters, wasting their lives.

Standing up, Eric walked through the door, fascinated and dumb struck by what he saw.

It was a large gym room, resembling a field , well-equipped with sophisticated and complicated gym machines to use. Nothing here could be lifted by an ordinary human as they were all for awakened Mystics.

Eric, meanwhile, felt his view of life being forcefully expanded by how much humans could spend on gym equipment. A piece of equipment here probably costs a fortune. Putting these facts together, Eric knew they weren't ordinary equipment either .

"Eric Maxwell?" 

Eric was brought out of his daze by the loud call of his name, the instructor walked towards him, holding an A4 paper-sized note with a paper clip holding them together.

"Awakened type?" "Age ?" the instructor asked, cutting straight to the point with an uninterested , his gaze cold, staring straight at Eric.

"Strength type"

"18"

Without blinking an eye, Eric also replied in a straightforward manner, composing himself to look more serious than his young appearance could give off.

"Follow me," the instructor ordered, walking towards the left part of the gym where there was a huge tortoise-shaped strength testing machine embedded into the wall.

"Punch out with your full strength at that machine to get your strength measured" the instructor said with a stern voice.

Eric, even as ignorant as he was about the world of Mystics, knew that with the strange modification made by his bloodline to his body, he was far stronger than newly awakened Mystics. 

"All out?" he questioned thoughtfully, staring at his hand clenched into a fist, but then decided to hold back.

 Standing before the machine , he took a deep breath, and punched outward… And a loud bang was heard after, followed by the sound of cracks forming on the tortoise like  testing machine.

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After throwing this punch, Eric, included, was surprised, not expecting such an insane amount of damage just from a half-powered punch.

Meanwhile, the instructor's eyes widened as they glinted, the way which he looked at Eric changing to an approved one.

Then, glancing at the number displayed on the machine , his pupils shook.

--"1500kg"

"Good, very good," the instructor commented as he looked at Eric with a kind smile. Anyone who wasn't there to witness his cold, indifferent expression a moment ago would think he was Eric's father, an act deserving of an Oscar.

Eric wasn't surprised though, neither did he feel proud. Having experienced the simple nature of humans, he knew what was going on. People respect the strong, and try to please promising talent while they ignore the weak with no potential. That's if the weak in person wasn't subjugated under suppression.

As for the instructor, he had already guessed Eric had awakened a great talent , and made up his mind to get close to him. 

Sadly, Eric wasn't interested in building such a fragile friendship.

Thinking back, he had roughly used seventy percent of his strength in that punch.

The instructor wanted to say something, but he kept quiet upon noticing Eric's lack of interest, he was just here to fill in a form anyway.

Walking out of the gym, the instructor handed Eric's test result to a young lady at the counter. Who then looked shocked as she gave Eric multiple glances while staring at the result. With his strength alone, his talent was probably too astonishing for him to become a early Bronze Mystic this quickly. As a teen, doubting, he was 19.  

A few minutes later, Eric was called to another room filled with technological equipment, where he met the same young lady as earlier by the counter as she smiled at him.

"We will now commence on the last step of the registration. First, we need to scan your fingerprints and your pupils. This is to prevent another person from using your identification, why logging into the Visual World". Eric nodded and followed her instructions.

A screen lit up as it processed his identification card.

|Mystic Guild|

|Eric Maxwell|

|Mystic Rank: Awakened|

Following a series of identification codes and a passport. A very simple ID formed and was given to him.

"Oh, also there'll be a sum of ten thousand dollars deposited into your account as your monthly allowance by the Guild", referring to the Mystic Guild itself, which housed every Mystics in the federation, she gave a curtsied smile.

Meanwhile…

"Ten thousand?!" Eric screamed in his heart at the large sum, but managed to keep his composure until he left the building.

"Ah, I'll be cooked" he exhaled as he took in the settling sky… Only to be overwhelmed with a sudden sense of melancholy…

"Mom" " Dad" 

"I finally became a Mystic," saying this, tears drifted off his eyes as he walked into the distance, ignoring the weird out-glances of the passersby.

Upon getting home Eric realized that he hadn't eaten all day, having spent all his time waiting to be registered.

"Today I shall treat myself to a feast!" Eric said jestingly, like someone who had a sudden jackpot. 

Picking up his phone, he ordered all the kinds of foods he hadn't eaten or had seen in a magazine, but due to not having enough money to feed himself, talkless of living a lavish lifestyle, couldn't afford.

"Fried Chicken

"Hot Wings"

"Beef Dish"

"Roasted Pork Meat"

"Barbeque Ribs"... and many more he hadn't tasted yet , and like the ancient sayings, a dish wasn't complete without wine to express the joy of a man.

All this from the granted ten thousand dollars allowance… 

…

Eric woke up, still in a groggy state and not being able to process all the information of what had transpired last night.

The whole apartment was littered with takeaways and rigged of wine .

Still not believing he had consumed such amount of food without combusting, 

 Standing up, the stat screen  suddenly popped up on its own, as if eager to reveal his improvement.

Eric Maxwell

Strength: 60

Agility: 35

Vitality: 50

'Ehn? Can eating increase my strength?' Eric thought as his imagination started running wild.

"Won't I be invisible then?"

"Eating and lazing about can improve my strength?"

"That would be impossible, right?"

Eric asked a series of rhetorical questions before pushing those thoughts aside, knowing that it wasn't possible. The reason for the slight increase in his stats was probably because his body was still in a state of improvement after the bloodline awakening, so it needed nutrients to saturate.

And that was it, a new day had already begun, and he was yet to commence on his plans.

First he was going to buy some armament and gear , before going into the Wild to discover more of his Bloodline abilities and skills, which was currently invalid, while being secretive.

After going through the Mystic Web, Eric got up and went straight to the Mystic Guild , this time, taking a bus.

. . .

Holding his card which now contained about 9,500 federation dollars thanks to his shopping spree last night, Eric, with a slight hint of arrogance, walked straight into the shopping district.

You could say the purchasing power of the federation dollar maybe or may not equal to Earth's USD.

But then Eric discovered that 9,500 federation dollars, which he considered as a huge sum, wasn't quite much. After buying some daily necessities, including compressed biscuits that were used by the military, energy bars, filling breads, and bottled water , cost him about 800. He also purchased strong insect repellent that was necessary for unexpected situations; deodorant, ropes etc.

However, just all these miscellaneous items already cost 1,000 dollars. He only had 8,500 dollars left.

Eric then took the money to the alloy weapons shop in the shopping district.

Ten minutes after that…

Standing outside the alloy weapon shop , Eric looked dazed at the 1-meter-long, big, black blade  in his hand. This was an unranked weapon, the obsidian common Blade, which cost 5000 dollars. He also bought a few sets of clothes and military boots which were best and comfortable to wear in the wild.

Now Eric was left standing alone in despair. He was instantly enlightened on why not all Mystics were rich, since an un-ranked blade alone already cost him his entire fortune.

"Indeed, poverty is a bastard", Eric lamented after leaving the shopping district, then headed towards the east side of the city.

As for why?

He was starting the second phase of his plan.