[Random Stat Pill - 2,500 Gold Coins - One-time purchase]
[Treasure Map - 5,000 Gold Coins - One-time purchase]
[Tattoo of Kiernan - 10,000 Gold Coins - One-time purchase]
'Only three?' Kiernan looked disappointed for a while, but then shook his head and started checking them out.
'They're all very expensive, shit. 2,500 gold coins is the cheapest one, which is basically as costly as a car!
He took a deep breath, sickened by the costly prices, but he made himself believe that they must be extremely valuable and worth the investment.
'These all have information buttons on them. Well, let's see…'
He pressed on the air and checked the Random Stat Pill's information.
[Random Stat Pill: Will increase one stat by 10 points. The stat will be randomly chosen]
'Hmm, ten points is huge.' Kiernan thought. 'However, randomly chosen. Well, most stats are useful, but if I get like 10 points on charm, that's 2,500 gold coins wasted.'
It was a difficult decision.
'Treasure Map? That sounds intriguing.'
After pressing on the information button, the information about the Treasure Map appeared in front of his face.
[Treasure Map: The system has found many treasures across the world that would give great benefits to the user. The difficulty of the treasure maps is different, and you will only know the difficulty once you've purchased the map]
'Great benefits…' Kiernan frowned. 'What kind of benefits, I wonder, but this difficulty thing is turning me off. Why can't I know it beforehand? Why do I have to gamble on these fucking purchases?
'Pretty annoying. If I have rotten luck, the treasure map might point towards the Dead World. I hear that place has so many treasures that people are ready to die for them.
'I will die before I even reach the Dead World, and if I get a difficult treasure map, 5,000 gold coins wasted!'
He then noticed that each purchase only had a one-time purchase on them. Thus, once he bought them, they would disappear from the store.
If that wasn't a thing, he would've definitely purchased five Random Stat Pills, and made himself twice or thrice as strong as before.
Unfortunately, it was clear that the system was designed to prevent the user from cheating their way to the top.
The system was only there to assist and not to help the user become overpowered.
'What about the last one…' Kiernan sighed, and when he saw the name, he frowned. 'Tattoo of Kiernan? Why does it have my name…'
When he saw the price, he almost coughed blood.
'10,000 gold coins?!' Kiernan scoffed. 'I'm never buying that. Holy shit. Does this system want to suck me dry or what?'
However, he was curious what it was and thus pressed on the information button.
[Tattoo of Kiernan: Grants the user the ability to use a technique that would usually greatly harm the user. You can use it three times a day. Only works with Iron Style techniques]
'Wait…' Kiernan's eyes widened in shock. 'Isn't this strong as hell? I can use my full strength three times a day. There is also nothing RNG about this!'
It felt far too good to be true, but on the other hand, it was extremely costly, so it would make sense why there wasn't any RNG involved.
It felt very tempting.
'This is the only one I actually want to purchase. I shouldn't care about money now, and only becoming stronger.
'It only works with Iron Style techniques. So, the system doesn't want me to use the True Iron Style yet, huh? I guess it can tell that I would be too strong.
'Now, even if I purchase it, I still have three thousand left; that's plenty. I'll go for it!'
Without hesitation, he pressed on the purchase option, and his right arm started tingling as if it was receiving an electric shock.
He pulled up his right sleeve and saw that a tattoo appeared on his arm. The tattoo went from his hand all the way to the shoulder.
Kiernan quickly flicked on the light switch so he could see the tattoo better.
"Mm…" Julian mumbled in his sleep and covered his face with a pillow. "Why did you put the lights back on..?"
He was already sleeping soundly, but the lights woke him back up.
"Give me a minute…" Kiernan checked the tattoo and recognized it.
It was the same tattoo he had back on the Earth!
At the shoulder, there was an Egyptian eye with long lashes, and below that was some faint writing in Latin. Then there were five cards from the deck fanned out below it, each one with a different symbol on it.
Below the cards, there was a tattoo of a compass rose, and below that, was an intricate design of interlocking gears.
The hand had a tattoo of a serpent wrapped around it, and small words such as "Iron," "Valor," and "Mortality" were etched into the fingers.
It was a very beautiful tattoo, and back on Earth, it took him half a year to finish the tattoo.
'Let's try…' Kiernan sat up on his bed, placed his hand against the wall in front of him, and whispered. "Iron Lance…"
With a thrust, his fingers pierced through the wall as if it was made out of paper.
'It actually worked…' Kiernan smiled happily.
At that moment, one of the etched words on his fingers vanished. It was the "Iron" one, and now there were only "Valor" and "Mortality" left.
'I see. I can keep the count with the help of these words.' Kiernan thought with a nod.
He lay back down and closed the light so Julian could return to sleep.
'This will be of great help for me. If I had to guess, I must reach grandmaster level before I can confidently use my Iron Style without any help from the system.
'When that happens, sure, this tattoo becomes useless, but until then, it will be one of my greatest weapons.'
Kiernan quickly checked the store and saw that another item replaced the Tattoo of Kiernan since he purchased it.
[Sword of Maraketh - 10,000 Gold Coins - One-time purchase]
'Oh, just a sword. I don't need it. I am a hand-to-hand combatant.' Kiernan thought with a yawn.
'However, once I've gained enough money, I could buy that, and sell it somewhere. It's a system object, and who knows, it might be more valuable than 10,000 gold coins.'
He closed his eyes, wanting to sleep.
However, at the same instant, the ship's horn blasted everyone awake.
"Pirates on the starboard!"
The captain's voice boomed across the ship.