After what seemed to be a day, or maybe a month or even a year, Joseph could not tell anymore, the sky forever remained covered in the dark ominous clouds, this left the world around Joseph in a perpetual state of ethereal darkness, the only light source being the very lightning flashing in those dark clouds.
During his travels he met no other soul that seemed as fortunate as him, they all seemed to have been caught in the soul river, and the river had to lead somewhere right? That was Joseph's thought as he continued to walk in an unknown direction.
"System, can you tell me what does the Merchant Bargain and Merchant Golden Touch mean?"
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(Of course host)
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[Merchant Bargain: When Buying and Selling, the host will have an increased 1% increased rate of benefiting from the transaction.]
[Merchant Golden Touch: Host can turn trash into treasure, such as a stone into a diamond. Please note this process consumes experience. Merchant Golden Touch requires 5 a day cooldown]
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The two abilities he was in the process of developing seemed rather interesting and almost over powering for a merchant, and Joseph was curious if it was possible to increase the percentage rate of the Merchant's Bargain. He was understanding of the cooldown for the Merchant Golden Touch, such a strange ability to turn trash into treasure certainly had to have something hold it back otherwise it would be too perverse.
"System, is it possible at all to increase the percentage of benefit or is stuck at only 1%, also is it possible to reduce the cooldown on Merchant Golden Touch?"
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(The further the host travels to the peak of Ascension, the benefits will increase accordingly, the maximum benefit is at 100% at the very top... Host has a very long way to go)
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(There is no means to reduce the cooldown for the Merchant Golden Touch, the 5 day cooldown is the very minimum, depending on the treasure created the cooldown will vary as such host be aware cooldown may and will increase)
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As Joseph walked along he thought to use give his abilities a try -"System how long until my abilities are fully developed and I can use them?"
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(System is almost finished installing the ability subroutines)
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After another month Joseph found himself stunned before him was a large city, the city was monstrously large he doubted he could even see it in its entirety in his life. As he focused on the city he noticed others like him in a queue to enter the city. He had felt it strange that there were no others like him around, was he an anomaly for having a system and was that why he was not in the river of souls? Seems like he was mistaken, very mistaken.
As he walked towards the city, Joseph called out in his mind for his status, what was troubling him was the (Pending Rebirth) next to his status of being dead, where was he supposed go? His father had always been religious, but his faith believed in going to either heaven or hell, his mother was also religious and a strong believer, as for himself he never really believed in anything. Why? Because of the many inconsistencies that never seemed to be addressed, and yet here he found himself awaiting rebirth, having seen a river of souls, and walking towards an enormous city where others like him seemed to be walking towards, was this heaven or hell?
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As Joseph approached the city gates, he noticed the large city gates, and the skeletal guards standing to the sides emitting a repressive demonic air, as their very existence would extinguish the very souls walking under under their gaze.
Upon walking into the city his group of lost souls awaiting rebirth were lead to one of the many processing centers, with the large influx of souls everyday coming into the city, it was necessary to have several areas the souls could be processed to send them onwards.
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(System has finished installing subroutines)
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(Host, there are quests that have been made available to the host, please select the Quests tab from the System menu)
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Joseph was curious at what kind of quests could possibly have come up while he was still in the Realm of Souls, he was under the impression the system would only issue quests after his rebirth, and so he opened up the Quests tab to have a look and his jaw dropped...
[Quests]
[1. Use Merchant Golden Touch to turn a trash item into a treasure. Reward - 1 Soul token.]
[2. Sell a treasure to a vendor in the capital of the dead. Reward - ???? tokens]
[3. Gather a map of the Capital of the Dead. Reward - 1 Soul token]
[4. View other System functions. Reward - 50 AME]
As Joseph looked at the available quests, they seemed reasonable enough, but what were these rewards? What on earth is a soul token? What the heck is AME, and why was he getting 50 of them?
"System I need some help here, can you tell me what soul tokens are and could you tell me about the AME?" - Joseph asked cautiously, back on earth most novels that had a system usually just gave the host some form of currency to buy up items in the store.
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(Of course host, Soul tokens are the currency found in the Realm of Souls. They are used to purchase products only found in the in the hosts's current location, System advises host to purchase some products to store in the System bank. These items can be sold later after rebirth.)
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(The Ascension Merchant System requires the host to gain experience to progress in the unlocking of the available functions. AME is the System's default name for experience, experience can also be used for purchasing items from the store.)
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After the clarification from the system, Joseph decided to get started on some of the quests, since his life had changed by such a degree, it was time to focus on the future, on what his future holds.