Chapter 19 - Achievement Store
After Zwei was done browsing the Construction panel, satisfaction filled his heart. Just as he was about to visit the Trial Gate to raid a dungeon, he noticed that another new panel had been unlocked.
Hence, he checked this new panel without hesitation.
The new panel was mostly blank. It only had a small medal-like icon located at the upper-left corner. Meanwhile, below the medal was the number "50" and a button labeled "Achievement Store."
Zwei carefully clicked on the medal icon. A few lines of text then appeared at the top of the panel.
…
Achievement: Try One's Hand
Achievement Level: Black-iron Medal
Unlocking Condition: Defeat a monster that is Level 5 or above.]
Achievement Points: 50
…
What's this? Is this a reward for defeating that saberwolf? Zwei let out a dubious laugh as he read the text. He then frowned and wondered, Achievement Points? Why does this term look familiar?
Immediately, he recalled why he was familiar with the words "Achievement Points."
Right! This term came up when I didn't know about the daily raid limit and tried to enter a dungeon twice on the same day!
In other words, these points can allow me to enter dungeons more than once a day?
Zwei's eyes grew passionate as he stared at the 50 points.
However, he quickly calmed down and chose to enter the Achievement Mall.
The button's label was easy to understand. The so-called Achievement Mall should allow him to exchange for items using achievement points.
There were many items available inside the Achievement Mall. In general, the items were split into four categories.
The first category was Achievement Buildings.
Through reading the introduction, Zwei learned that Achievement Buildings did not require resources to construct. Once he accumulated sufficient points and exchanged for an Achievement Building, the building would be built in his academy at no cost. Among the Achievement Buildings available was even a building named exactly the same as the Trial Gate, which could actually increase his daily free dungeon raid attempts from one to three! It was definitely a good item! Unfortunately, an astonishing 220 points were required to exchange for the building. Zwei could only sigh at this situation.
The second category was Achievement Skills.
Achievement Skills were spells or techniques that weren't recorded in Zwei's original skill tree. Moreover, once he exchanged for the skill, he would acquire it automatically without having to use a Skill Crystal or Proof of the Strong! Meanwhile, all sorts of godly skills were available; for example, Moving Cast, Dual Cast, and Quick Cast. However, the prices of these skills were ungodly high.
The third category was Consumables.
Various potions and crystals were listed under consumables. Unfortunately, Skill Crystals were not one of them.
One thing worth mentioning was that the consumables sold weren't particularly expensive. Most of them were within Zwei's current budget.
The fourth category was Miscellaneous Items.
An example of the items in this category was a magic broom that could fly without needing mana. Although many items listed here were practical, their prices similarly made choosing difficult.
Dammit! Why do all these things need achievement points?! How do I even grind for achievement points?! No matter how much Zwei coveted the goods in the Achievement Store, he simply couldn't afford them with his pitiful 50 points.
In the end, Zwei gritted his teeth and resisted the idea of buying the various potions and crystals sold. He then closed the store page and switched to the Trial Gate's panel.
To his surprise, despite having cleared Night Forest's Depths with a B-rank evaluation, no new dungeon had appeared on the panel. There wasn't even a dot that turned yellow!
However, due to the completion of the Dean's Mage Tower, the dungeon Noisy Beach was now open.
What troubled Zwei now was whether he should enter Night Forest's Depths or Noisy Beach. If he chose the former, he could try raising his evaluation to A as well as collect a few more Fire Elemental Shards for future contingencies. If he chose the latter, he could strive to obtain another Proof of the Strong.
However, if he entered Night Forest's Depths, there was no guarantee he would obtain anything good. Going by the system's swindling behavior, he might get only a consolation prize even with an A-rank evaluation. In contrast, if he raided Noisy Beach, even in the worst-case scenario, he would still end up with a Proof of the Strong.
Unable to resist the Proof of the Strong's temptation, Zwei ended up choosing Noisy Beach. Tapping his finger on the panel, he entered the new dungeon.
—Noisy Beach—
Unlike when he entered the Night Forest, the camp he appeared in this time was on a huge reef. Rough seas were present on the left and behind the camp, waves crashing against the tough reef one after another. The scent of seawater wafted through the air. Meanwhile, on the right of the camp was a cliff several dozens of meters high, with the outline of a forest vaguely visible at the top.
As Zwei looked at the vast ocean and the distant horizon, energy filled his sluggish body.
However, no matter how beautiful the ocean was, he shouldn't drag his feet when it was time to set off. After all, if he wasted too much time and Alyssa arrived while he was clearing the dungeon, things would become troublesome.
When Zwei went to collect his supplies from the blue chest, however, he discovered an additional tool called a Dye Ball inside.
…
[Dye Ball]
Consumable
This is a tracking tool made with special dyes. Hunters use it for hunting down prey that escaped. This improved version lasts for a long time, even when submerged in water!
…
The Dye Ball was a tool hunters used to track their prey. Ferocious beasts were rarely seen in Rockdoor Mountain, so Alyssa's village didn't use this tool much. However, it was a pretty common sight in other hunting villages.
Since this item appeared, does that mean the Boss this time will use guerrilla warfare or something? Or does it mean that the opponent is extremely mobile and difficult to track with the naked eye?
"…Regardless, this isn't a good sign."
With a sigh, Zwei stored the Dye Ball and other supplies in the Temporary Pocket provided. He then advanced.
After walking safely on the short but rugged reef, he arrived at a sandy beach.
Based on Zwei's observation, he guessed that he would need half an hour to cross the beach. In addition, he also found good news and bad news.
The good news was that the beach here was beautiful and sunlight was plentiful—and unlike the beaches found in his previous world, the beaches in this world had yet to be developed into a tourist spot… Not in the dungeon, at least. Thus, he wouldn't have to worry about innocent bystanders during his fights.
The bad news was that seven or so hermit crabs dotted this beach, and these crabs had their sizes blown up by several dozen times. These crabs were apparently the locals here.
Moreover, in place of their pincers, these crabs had mantis-like serrated sickles, which had earned them the name of sickle crabs.
The sickle crabs possessed tough shells, and their sickles carried great power. In addition, they could even execute midrange assaults by using the magic Bubble Strike. If not for being limited to horizontal movement, sickle crabs would be Level 7 or Level 8 monsters. Moreover, the sickle crabs had very obvious attack patterns. So long as one understood their attack patterns, dodging their attacks wasn't a difficult task. Due to these weaknesses, sickle crabs were only deemed Level 6 monsters.
Of course, the precondition of dodging the sickle crabs' attacks was for one to face no more than two crabs simultaneously.