Akirai woke, curled up with a pillow in her arms and stiff joints, she sighed softly and stood up, stretching and hearing a satisfying crack.
She shook herself and looked at her bedside table, the purple Urn decorating its surface, she smiled at it and went to make herself some breakfast.
She didn´t want to linger on the sad emotions and instead focused on the good ones, the happy ones and it helped soothe the pain a bit.
She ate her breakfast in silence, only the Tv in the livingroom providing noise, and went down to the shopping area.
She yawned as she stepped out of the stairway.
"Good morning, Host, usable shop area detected, do you want to set this as your shop?" The System asked, showing itself for the first time that day.
"What does that entail, System?" She asked, voice still a bit hoars from the crying yesterday.
"This will make this store available to the System, effectively making it your domain, but be warned, Host, the Shop can not be moved until a certain criteria is reached, thus making it irreversible for the moment, proceed with caution." It kindly warned her.
Akirai nodded "Well it´s the only place that I have available to me, and the people around here will likely need Beasts more than those in the higher ranked Citys, so why not set up camp here, and as you said, we´ll- if need be- be able to move, yes?" She said, looking at the store again.
"Indeed Host, shall this be our... base of operation then?" It asked, and Akirai smiled.
A window popped up in front of her [Do you want to add this Store?]
Two options flickered under the light green window [Yes] and [No]
She tapped [Yes] and the window disappeared.
"Host can think of the options as well to choose from them, no physical contact required." It informed her.
"Beginning initiation."
For a short moment, all was silent as a green hue enveloped the store and faded outwards, disappearing from view.
"Initiation complete, new options unlocked- Beast Nursery, Beast Stable, System Shop upgraded, Realms unlocked, Congratiulation on your new System assisted store." It chimed and Akirai looked around, nothing had changed, appearance wise and Akirai was glad, she didn´t know if she could explain the sudden changes if not.
Although Akirai felt more in controll than before, and she was sure she felt energy from behind the door on the right, Akirai pondered for a bit before trying something, she imagined the door openening, and the door swung open seemingly by itself, the bell chiming softly as if announcing the arrival of a customer.
She tried the same with a window, and lo and behold it opened and closed without an issue, she tried moving one of the shelves standing in the center, and it too moved without her so much as lifting a finger.
"Wow, this is... absoloutly priceless, is this my Domain?" She asked, closing everything with a mere thought.
"Yes Host, congratulations on figuring the Domain function out, your Domain is the Shop building and the land under your ownership the shop stands upon." It answered.
"How much can this Domain withstand? Is there a shield of some kind here? Does it only work when I´m inside?" She asked, still starstruck by this feature.
"To answer the Host, the Domain can withstand attacks from up to two Ranks above the Host- or the Hosts strongest Beast, there is a shield that will protect the shop from everything up to the mentioned limit, the Domain is always active and usable even if the Host leaves, but the Domain function will only work in places set as a Domain by Host." It answered her countless questions with a patient tone.
She marveled at this function before calming down and chuckling slightly "At least I won´t have to worry about forgetting my keys anymore." She joked lightly.
"Does Host want to beginn the Beginners Quest?" The System asked, and Akirai paused.
"Sure, but first, do you have a name? I don´t want to call you System the whole time, that fine?" She said, going back upstairs to get her bag and knife.
"If the Host wishes to name this System, then so be it." It said, and Akirai listened intently at the voice, it was mild, but she could make out the voice to be female.
Akirai hummed as she tied her boots and lightly bundled the egg up in clothes it could eat, should it hatch while she was gone.
"How about... Sylvie?" Akirai proposed and skipped down the stairs after throwing a look at the purple Urn.
"Thank you, Host. I´m Sylvie, nice to meet you." The Syste- no, Sylvie replied with... was Akirai imagining things again? Was that pride?
Oh well, Akirai shrugged "Sooo, what was this about a Beginner´s Quest Sylvie?" She asked.
"Currently you have 0 Pets- or Beasts in your store, as a Beast store, this is unacceptable, let´s change this."
Akirai tilted her head to the side. "What about the mutated moth? Why doesn´t it count? Because it has yet to hatch?" She asked with furrowed brows.
"Correct, I recommend that you put the egg in the Nursery." Sylvie recommended and Akirai nearly facepalmed, she was so suprised over the Domain that she forgot about the other functions.
"Sylvie, be so kind and explain what the Shop can do." She walked back up the stairs, listening to Sylvie with all of her attention, so much that she nearly tripped over one of the stairs.
"The Nursery function was unlocked and (1) Hatching pen is unlocked, it is stage one as a reward for completing the emergency Quest completed by Host." She she said. "So, normally the... Hatching pen is what, stage 0?" She unquired, opening her bedroom door and stepping inside.
"Once again, the Host is correct- to upgrade the Hatching pen from stage 0 to stage 1 costs 10 Points, and 1 Points to activate for the day, the Nursery is used to hatch, nurture and breed Beasts of all kinds, it can also make the hatched Beast smarter." It described the functions of the Nursery and Akirai blinked.
"Letting it hatch in the Hatching pen raises it´s intelligence?" She asked, no repeated after Sylvie.
"Correct."She confirmed.
"You said something about uprading, how much does it cost to upgrade a Hatching pen from stage 1, to 2?" Akirai picked the egg up, still bundled up.
"It costs 1000 Points and 10 to activate for the day." She informed her and Akirai made a face.
"Sylvie, what´s my point ballance and how do I get more?"
"Hosts balance is 58 Points total, you can complete quest, or exchange money to points, the exchange rate is 10.000 Credits to 1 Point."
"Ouch, that´s the same as changing credits to crystals." She hissed, and made her way down the stairs, egg in arm. This new world of hers had only one form of money, Credits and Crystals, the normal people only used Credits, but people who worked with beast commonly used Crystals, raising beasts was very expensive afterall.
"By the way, where´s the Nursery?"
"In the Beast storage room- left door."
"Left door?There ain´t no left door... or was." She corrected herself near the end and slipped through the door in the right corner of the shopping area, she stepped inside and as promised, there was another door to the left.
She stepped inside and saw that the ground was covered in straw, it resembled a stable with it´s layout and appearance, it had six seperated stables, she felt energy coming from the one directly to her right and stepped on the path covered in stray that went along the middle to reach the gate.
"Sylvie? Power up the Nursery for me, will you?" Sylvie heeded her command amd a small green light lit up above the stable, she opened it and stepped inside, it was warm inside, and the groud was once again covered in stray, she settled on the ground and placed the egg in the middle, idly noting that the straw was very comfortable, and settled down for the wait, phone in hand.