"Aaa! Mr. William, you really came! Sob sob eeek.. Tia really thought you forgot about me," Tia started crying happy tears as soon as she saw Bowen.
"Come on, Tia, don't cry now. I will be sad if you do."
"Eek... no, no... I won't be saddening the good customer, sob sob. Tia will stop sob stop crying."
"Good girl. Here, take this as remuneration for leaving you alone," Bowen handed a pink candy wrapped in colorful paper.
"Woww... you are really a good customer, Will. Customers come here only to buy things, sob sob. Will is really a good person," Tia wiped tears from her eyes and made a final sob.
"Tia is very lovely. How can I forget you?" Tia became happy on hearing Bowen.
"Okay, Tia, do you know about the upgrade?"
"Oh! Yes, yes. Now Mr. William has the right to enter the second level of God's Mall," said Tia, striking her palm with her fist.
"Great, take me there quickly," said Bowen excitedly.
Tia made some hand signs, and they were immediately teleported to the 2nd floor. There Bowen could see three doors.
On each door, it was written: Divine Herbs - Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3 respectively.
Tia started to explain, seeing Bowen's confused look.
"The divine herbs are categorized into different grades based on their effect and usefulness. Now Mr. William will only have access to the third-grade herb room. If you buy herbs for 1000 DP, then the door for the second-grade herb room will open. For the first-grade herb room, Mr. Will must buy herbs for 10000 DP," said Tia, making Bowen twitch.
He wanted to shout at the self-proclaimed god but suppressed the words. There's no use in shouting after all. He knew how precious anything labeled divine is. That means only people of immortal and godly status can access those. So they simply wouldn't give them for free.
"Open the third-grade herb room, Tia. Let's take a look at what's inside."
Tia opened the room immediately without further question. Inside, all he could see was a museum-like atmosphere. Bottles after bottles were neatly arranged on shelves, and there seemed to be a transparent liquid in which the herbs floated. The shelves seemed endless, extending on either side of the room. At the bottom of each bottle, the name and price were written. Another significant thing Bowen could see was, in the middle of the room, a large book at least 10 feet tall floated.
"What is that?" asked Bowen amusingly.
"Each herb room has a herbal recording book. It contains the name, appearance, characteristics, and use of the herb. It even records the shelf and the order that is located in this room," said Tia proudly, as if she was the one who owned it. Anyway, it was rare to see her show emotions other than crying, so he let her be.
"Wow, it's so great, Tia. Can I take a look at the room?" Bowen asked.
"Yes, yes, Mr. William can take a look and buy anything he wants," she said.
Bowen started from the nearest shelved exhibit from where he stood and kept walking while examining the herbs. Some were in the form of fruits, some were roots, and some were whole plants. There were also some weird ones taking the form of a human face. Some were too tiny, some were too big like a tree. Suddenly, one of the fruits caught his attention.
"Fruit of Wasted??" Bowen asked.
"Ha! That one is used by alcohol lovers," Tia recognized the fruit.
Bowen quickly remembered that he had an alcohol addict as a slave. "What does this really do?"
"After eating the fruit, there's no way in life you get drunk by alcohol."
"What? You never get drunk? Like you develop alcohol resistance."
"Aaaa! I don't know the specifics. Would Mr. William want to take a look at the herbology recording?"
"Yep, show me," said Bowen, and followed Tia to the large 10 feet book. He wondered how they could find the info in the hundreds of thousands of recordings in the book.
"Show me the recording for Fruit of Wasted," said Tia, and immediately the book glowed, and the pages started to turn on their own. Finally, the pages rested with some highlighted words. There was a lot of information about the fruit's origin and variations. He quickly skimmed them, finding its effect on the human body. Just like Tia said, once the fruit is eaten, the body develops natural immunity to alcohol. Therefore, any alcoholic substance is neutralized immediately inside the body. It was a unique grade divine fruit. So, alcohols of a higher grade it cannot neutralize. Anyway, it will still be more useful in the case of Mason. Doesn't that mean he can drink any amount of alcohol without getting drunk?
"Tia, tell me how much this is," said Bowen.
"This fruit will cost you 50 DP," said Tia.
"A whopping 50 DP? Is there a discount for the first purchase?"
"I'm sorry, Customer William. There is nothing like that," she said, helplessly looking down, not being able to help.
"It's okay, no problem," Bowen paid 50 DP, crying internally. He wouldn't bat an eye to pay her in golds, but when it comes to DP, he is really a stingy poor man.
He also wanted to buy many other herbs for making potions, but he will do that later. Now he had another task to accomplish.
"Tia, I want to buy a book from the first floor," he said.
Tia happily took him to the first floor where rows and rows of daily life books were exhibited. Last time when he came, one of the books piqued his interest, but he didn't buy it because it wasn't urgent. Now that the time is right, he will gladly buy it. He soon spotted the book and a trace of a smile lined up his lips. It will be amusing to see the reaction of that person.
After buying the book for15 DP, Bowen exited God's Mall under the tearful farewell from Tia.
His stomach made a desperate call for attention. He only bought food for Mason, but he didn't buy one for himself, so he decided to go to the diner on the ground floor of the tavern.
Bowen quickly dressed up and climbed down the stairs to see a busy atmosphere in the diner. Each and every table was occupied. After a bit of waiting, one of the tables in the middle got vacated, and he quickly sat on it. On the other side, another two people, a man and a woman who seemed like adventurers, were already waiting after ordering their food.
"Would you mind if I sit here?" asked Bowen out of courtesy.
This caught the attention of the adventurers. They looked Bowen up and down and then went back to their conversation without even bothering to respond. Bowen shrugged off their rude behavior, as he was already used to such treatment being a kid. He soon ordered some soft bread with soup for a simple dinner. He contemplated the experience points (exp) that the system had brought him.
"Should I test it?" he thought, as the adventurers' conversation naturally fell on his ears.
"Hey, are you sure about it? What if we get into trouble? We can go to Chelse in the morning. Why risk it at night? There have been news of frequent monster attacks nowadays."
"What are you even afraid of? Do you know the selling price of a monster corpse? You may not know this because you are a newbie. It's really hard to find them. Many people are swarming to compete in this field, but only the person who takes risks will get the prize."
"True, but... what if... what if it's beyond our control?"
"Hehe, do you think I am that foolish to take on this task without any info? I am doing this for money, of course, I will not go into a suicide mission."
"What do you mean?"
"Hehe, I have insider information."
"What, really? Are you sure? Is it reliable?"
"100%."
"Fine, tell me about it."
"Alpha rodents," said the man slowly, taking a sip of the ale.
"Ah! Those..." the girl came to a realization.
"Yeah, yeah, guess what. I already made preparations."
One corpse will go for at least 1 small silver. My god, isn't this lady luck?"
"Yup, that's what I said. Now just follow this big brother to learn the ropes."
"Wow, you are really great. You are just a year older than me, but you are so reliable."
"Don't worry, we'll protect you. Just follow the plan. We will do it tonight."
"Roger, big brother," said the girl and giggled.
[Alpha rodents? Seems like some kind of monster name. Wait, if this exp thing works every time I kill a living thing, then it means I can get exp killing monsters, right? Good, I must use this chance], thought Bowen.
"Excuse me," said Bowen again.
"What?" the adventurers seemed disturbed.
"Oh, I accidentally heard your conversation. Accidentally, yeah... just accidentally. From that, you seem to be going on a travel by night. Can you take me and my uncle along with you?"
The adventurers looked at Bowen as if he were a mad man blabbering on his own.
"Hey, you think we are playing? If you have listened to our conversation, you must know that we are going to deal with monsters," said the couple as they got up to leave.
"Wait, wait. Three small silvers plus I will bear the carriage cost," said Bowen, using his usual tactic of throwing bait. Money can buy anything after all.
"Hey, kid, don't joke around, or else..."
'Clank, clank.' The man was interrupted by the sound of coins. There were exactly three small silvers lying on the table.
Gulp, even they cannot take that amount nonchalantly.
The girl adventurer pulled her partner and started whispering in his ear. After about a minute of discussion, they came to a decision.
"Okay, kid, since you are so genuine, we will take you with us. But we are not responsible for your safety," they said, sliding the silver coins towards them.
"Oh, okay. No problem, we won't cause you trouble," said Bowen, smiling and already planning on how to steal the kill from them.