Henry was pleased with how things had turned out; not only had he acquired everything he required, but the amount of money he had gained far exceeded his expectations, and, most importantly, he now had new treasures in his hands.
He smiled broadly as he examined the pouch in his hand. When Jonathan handed him the small bag, Henry was suspicious because there was no way 1500 gold coins could fit inside such a small pouch, but when he touched the bag, the system notification clarified things for him. Henry almost jumped from his seat as he realized that this small pouch was a spatial bag,
With the money he just made, he could pay off all his debts and still have enough for several years. Henry was in a great mood as the carriage came to a halt and he noticed two girls waiting at his shop entrance.
As he exited the car, Henry thanked the driver and stopped behind the girls. Henry quietly approached the girls and overheard their conversation
-" I don't think that visiting Makayla now is a good idea Isabella, what if she and her brother are in the middle of a fight?" A petite girl with shoulder-length hair did her hardest to keep Isabella from knocking on the door.
-" Maria! Don't try to stop me! Makayla was so sad when we were coming back, of course, we should check on her!" Isabella had enough of Maria's cowardly behavior and shook her hands away before knocking on the door.
Isabella was waiting for someone to answer the door when she heard a voice behind them. -" Are the two of you looking for Makayla? Come in, she is upstairs."
The unexpected appearance of Henry surprised the two girls, who sprang in astonishment. They gasped in surprise at Henry and made way for him as he walked to the door. Maria and Isabella stood at the door as Henry entered. -" Are the two of you coming? Makayla must be in her room."
After observing his persistence, they followed him inside. They looked around the first floor with interest. Makayla was frequently bemoaning her brother's conversion of their parents' botany shop into an Antiques and Relics shop, and how the shop has declined since then.
As the girls surveyed the amount of rubbish and useless items on the shelf, they realized that Makayla wasn't joking when she mentioned the state of their family store; in fact, they thought Makayla had sugar-coated the issue. They were certain that no one would ever purchase any of the "Relics or Antiques" in this shop.
The girls struggled to maintain their composure as they accompanied Henry upstairs. As they entered the second floor, Makayla left her room.
-"Heh? I didn't expect you two to come to see me." Makayla was taken aback when she met her two buddies. "At the very least, you could tell me that you'd all come to see me." Because of the state of their shop, Makayla disliked having friends over.
While she was not bullied as much as her brother, a few individuals made fun of her; they made fun of her impoverished family, in particular, so she was frightened that if her friends knew how poor she truly was, they would distance themselves from her.
- "Let's chat in my room." Makayla began dragging her friends into her room by their hands.
Henry could sense that Makayla was embarrassed, he also could feel the odd stares he received from her friends. He sighed inwardly, realizing that his reputation was probably awful. - "Wait a minute, Makayla, I need to give you something." Henry withdrew 50 gold coins from his new purse and handed them to Makayla. "I'll be quite busy for a while, so I won't be able to go to your academy to pay for your tuition; this is for the months we owe as well as the next two. The rest is your allowance." Henry intended to flaunt his newly obtained wealth and improve his reputation among Makayla's friends.
Henry's intentions were successful, as even Isabella, who came from a wealthy family, was taken aback by the amount of money Henry had just given Makayla. Her family would have to save for a long time to accumulate 50 gold coins, so giving her such a large sum so casually was inconceivable.
Makayla froze when her brother handed her the money, and the spatial pouch in his hand didn't escape her attention. She realized it wasn't a loan since no one would lend them that much money.
Henry was overjoyed as he handed the money over to his sister. Since his parent's death three years ago, he had wished to provide a better life for Makayla. Henry stroked his sister's head and grinned as another idea came to his head.
- "Oh, I have another present for you." Henry pretended to reach into the spatial pouch and got one of the high grade swords he had obtained. "This is a gift for you, your second year at the Magical Academy is just a few semesters away, and you'll need a good weapon." Henry happily showed his sister and her friends the sword.
Makayla, Isabella, and Maria gazed at the old and rusted sword. Is this a decent weapon? If this was a decent weapon, the ordinary swords they could get for a few silvers from the blacksmith around the corner were a divine treasure.
Henry, who was waiting to be showered with compliments, scowled as he spotted the girl's puzzled expression. Henry coughed as he activated the sword; he couldn't blame the girls for not realizing the blade in front of them was a Magical treasure; after all, the sword did appear to be in poor condition.
As the girls noticed the aura flowing from the swords, their hands began to shiver. They had already seen numerous magical swords as the wealthy students of the Magic Academy loved to show off their weapons, but Henry's blade was unlike any they had seen.
Isabella stared at Makayla with a baffled expression; she was certain that this sword was above the fourth level, and this was already considered something really valuable in the country.
-" Can I really have this? But this sword is worth so much." Makayla's hands shook as Henry handed her the sword.
- "Of course, you're going to be a battlemage, so you'll need a fine weapon; I wouldn't allow my sister to go around swinging any sword!" Henry was genuinely thrilled as he handed Makayla the sword; at first, he wanted to do this to redeem his reputation as an older brother, but after seeing her reaction, he remembered a time when his parents were still living and they didn't have to deal with such difficulties.
Makayla and Henry could count on two hands the number of times they felt genuine happiness since their parents' death, as the majority of their time had been spent worrying endlessly about their financial situation. Henry thanked the system in his mind, feeling that with just one day with the system, he had turned his life around, which was far more than he could have hoped for.
- "Thank you so much, Henry!" Makayla received the sword and gave her brother a tight hug; she had never anticipated being given such a blade, much less by her brother.
-" You should take good care of it, this sword is a high grade fifth level treasure!" The girls were shocked once again as Henry revealed the treasure rank. " I will go now, I barely slept yesterday and I want to open the store at 2'o clock." Henry made an excuse as he wanted to be alone so he could deal with the system activation.
- "Let me open the story today; you should relax a little longer." Makayla offered to take care of today's business.
Henry was hesitant at first since Makayla had just returned from the Magic Academy and needed to rest, and her friends were also present. But Makayla insisted, and after some back and forth, Henry agreed.
Henry sat on his bed, staring intently at his inventory, which contained a blue stone icon with the number ten on the bottom right side. -" System, use the Ever-Glowing Stones to unlock the system."
-' Preparing to consume chosen treasures, this process may take some time.' Henry observed as the amount of Ever-Glowing Stones in his inventory began to dwindle.
The process took longer than Henry had anticipated; he was exhausted from all of the digging earlier, so he chose to rest on his bed while he waited. Exhaustion swept over Henry as he lay down, and he fell asleep.
As he heard the system's voice in his mind, Henry awoke in shock. -" Fuck, did I fall asleep? How is the activation of the system?" Henry quickly checked his system and was taken aback by the new interface.
Previously, his system interface was quite minimal, consisting of only a countdown for the permanent activity and Henry's progress towards it, an inventory, and a little crude map.
Now the system had a lot more features, the map appeared a lot more detailed, with regions colored in different ways, his inventory was bigger and featured a furnace-like icon, and his biggest surprise was his model inside the system interface, with his status underneath his body image.
Henry Flint | Magic Circle: Half-Step to First Circle | Body Cultivation Realm: No Cultivation Found | System Level: 1 | Stats Points: 0 |
Mana: 5 | Aura: 0 | Will: 9 | Power: 6 | Agility: 8 | Endurance: 6 | Perception: 2 | Luck: 1 | Intelligence: 7|
-" Sigh, 5 mana points? Isn't this too low even for someone with a mana deficiency?" Henry didn't let his unusually low mana depress him and checked the rest of his stats. "Aura, Power, Agility, Endurance, Will, Perception, Luck, and Intelligence" He was impressed by the quantity of information that the system gave. " Does this imply that I have the choice of allocating the points where I see fit?" As Henry viewed the system interface, he remembered that the system had stated that he would acquire energy from the consumed treasures rather than mana. "System, is the energy that you mentioned earlier those stats points?"
- 'Yes, energy will be converted into stat points.' The system response made Henry think that having the luxury of distributing the points he earned was a significant benefit.
-" How can I know how much energy a treasure was? And how much energy is one stat point?" Henry wanted a thorough understanding of the system before deciding on his next course of action.
-' Stats Points obtained through leveling the system are constant, Host will gain five stats points every level, and Host will gain an additional three points per level after every fifty levels up. The only other means for the host to get stats points is to use the furnace and sacrifice treasure for energy. The furnace has a one-week cooldown, and with the current furnace level, only 15% of the treasure energy shall be absorbed by the host.'
When Henry chose to investigate the furnace, he discovered that he could only sacrifice treasure on the first level of the Human Realm. With a cursory glance, he noted that his system was at level one and that he needed 100 first level human realm treasures to level it up.
The sheer number of features made Henry dizzy, but he was beginning to grasp the swing of the system. - "System, after leveling you up, will I still be allowed to sacrifice treasures from the first level?"
-' Yes, you can use any treasure that is lower or equal to the system's level." Henry nodded as he confirmed his thoughts with the system, he didn't know how hard it would be for him to gather treasures in the next levels, so if he could constantly feed the furnace with items a level below it would be a good thing for him.
"So, in the future, I can use treasures of a lower level in the furnace while I save the ones I need to level the system. How do I raise the furnace level? Is there anything else I can level up beside the furnace?"
-' The host must upgrade the system level in order to level up the furnace; in addition to the furnace, the host can level up the scanner, the map, the inventory, the analysis mechanism, and the character index.'
Henry gulped as he realized that leveling the system was just the first part of his future grind; after getting his system to level two he still would need to upgrade all of those features. Henry was filled with expectations; every part of the system already impressed him, so how good will they be once they leveled up?