From the massive gate, came a light golden smoke, slowly spreading across the ground. Then, the gate came into motion, gradually opening and letting out a bright light.
[The gate has been opened!]
[Access to the Dimensional Market will last one hour!]
[Those who fail to leave the Dimensional Market before the time expires will be excluded!]
There was nothing outside the gate, only light, but that didn't scare anyone away. Some students immediately rushed towards the gate, disappearing into it.
Their logic was simple, if it was a Market, then something was being sold there, so maybe some items were in limited supply.
'Well, time to go shopping. Hopefully I'll find something of value there.' Ethan headed towards the gate with a calm look.
Gradually, all nine hundred people disappeared through the gate, ending up in the Dimensional Market.
It was an unusual space, with countless clouds floating in the vast blue sky on all sides.
There was no sun, so it seemed like it was an endless illusion.
Ahead of them was a massive arch, inscribed on it was Area - A-07.
'I see... So each Area has its own store... In that case, the same Trials were held under each dome, that's interesting...' Ethan pondered, with a deep gaze, before walking forward.
A few meters beyond the arch was the first row of stands. They were round golden disks with various items floating above them. Each disk had a certain sign on it as well as a price.
"Hmm... Looks like I need to look for another place to spend my points..." Ethan muttered staring at the wings sign on the golden disk.
Besides the golden disks, there were also red and white ones. The red ones had a swirling horns sign and the white disks had a chess piece of a king on them.
"If wings are the wares of Angels, and horns are the wares of Demons, what about the King piece?" Ethan wondered, rubbing his chin, then his eyes shifted to the left, to one of the items.
Hovering above the white disk was a perfect red apple as if brought to life from the pages of history books.
The price for the apple was quite low and fair, only 10 Points.
In a way, such an apple was one of the symbols of the race Ethan was a member of.
'Humans... King piece for Humans...' Ethan's eyes went wide when he realized that, and a wide grin appeared on his face, 'Fine, now I know who I'm going to buy from.'
Ethan, like everyone else didn't know exactly how the Dimensional Market worked. He didn't know if all of these items were sold by a specific person or if they were variants that could be found in every race. It didn't matter to Ethan.
On the first three rows, there were the basic goods. Mostly food and water, sometimes with simple clothing. The prices ranged from 10 to 100 points.
"Damn... Can anyone actually eat this...?" Ethan muttered, looking at a piece of meat that was so spicy that red streams were coming from it. It was lying on a red disk.
As soon as the aroma got close to him, Ethan immediately felt a strong burning sensation in his nose.
Ethan squeezed his eyes shut and quickly ran aside like from a fire. He didn't linger long, and after spending 300 points on jerky and a bottle of water, he moved on, taking bites out of the tasty snack.
The farther the rows went, the more serious items were for sale, and the more they were worth. Ethan had a lot of points, but on average each student only had 1,000, so they needed to think about how best to distribute them.
'What would I like to do? Maybe try to find out how to cure my eye? Well, hopefully, there's a way to get rid of curses in here...' Ethan said to himself, passing by one item that catches his eye.
It was a simple letter, slightly open, but still impossible to see anything. It was worth 3,000 points and was on a white disk. It was a large sum, and most of the participants wouldn't have enough points for it.
Ethan approached the letter and a transparent chart appeared above it with a description.
[A unique letter was written by someone who has the amazing power to foresee the future, though not always correctly... After all, the future changes every second.
If you get a chance to see what's hidden in the letter, you might learn something about the next Trial...]
The last line was enough for Ethan to make an instant decision and take the letter. 3.000 points, immediately disappeared from his card.
Ethan was absolutely convinced that in Trials where every mistake could lead to death, any information was invaluable. Moreover, this way he would prevent others from gaining an advantage.
Ethan quickly opened the letter.
[Perhaps if you are smart and savvy enough... You might need an accessory that has sacred significance for two people...]
Ethan read the letter a few times, then nodded and tore it into small pieces. He didn't know what it said, but he had a few options.
Time passed, and Ethan moved on to more expensive items. One of them was right in front of him, it was a dewdrop on a leaf, only golden instead of transparent.
[Sacred Morning Dew Drop: A rare and valuable variation of the usual healing dew. It has several properties at once, it removes curses and heals wounds completely. It also tightens your bond with the Angels, making you slightly stronger for 1 hour a day when the sun shines brightest].
For Ethan, it was the perfect item, moreover, this dew was worth 5,000. It was too much for most students, but Ethan could afford it, he still had over nine thousand points.
However, instead of joy, Ethan only felt anger and contempt as his gaze darkened. If this dew had a slightly different description and was on a different disk, Ethan would have bought it without hesitation.
But, he didn't want to be associated with the Angels in any way. Even if the items in Dimensional Market weren't connected to specific individuals, it didn't matter.
At that moment, Magnus stood next to a similar dewdrop and looked from afar at Ethan, who was soon heading towards the last rows.
Magnus had no trouble understanding what it was.
"Hah, despite everything that happened his arrogance is still with him. That dew could have cured him and made him stronger, but he's too arrogant to overstep his principles. Will it ruin him?" Magnus sighed, passing the sacred dew in the same way, though his entire body was covered in wounds.
Minutes slowly passed while students sorted out items from the disks. Mostly the students were taking items from the golden disks, as for some reason the items were better there. The red and white disks had similar options, but they were inferior in some ways.
There were only a few people in the last rows, one of whom was Ethan.
Then, he stood in front of a red and white disk, on one of which lay an object that the letter might have mentioned.
The strange thing was that the item was on the farthest disk, and it had a low price, even too low since it cost -1 point.