The following morning, after eating breakfast and washing up, he opened the door ready for business despite knowing there were few chances of anyone coming to his store due to its remote location.
Spending the day simply trying to engrave the last skill on his core, studying in between as he needed to learn as much as he could, he faced another day without any customers.
It was only the following afternoon that he finally managed to inscribe the new skill 'Coordinate Research' onto his professional core.
"Finally." Said Lux with a smile as after a couple of days of non-stop adjustments, he had finally made it.
"Ding."
They say happiness comes twice. Surprised at hearing the sound of the bell, Lux lifted his head only to see two young men who seemed to be in their early twenties entering the door.
"Welcome to StarGate." Said the brown-haired, blue-eyed shop owner as he got up from his seat behind the counter and stared at his prospective customers.
"The store currently has one portal leading to a tier 1 world, Proteus." Explained Lux as he directly told his customers the only thing they could buy in his shop as it was completely emptied otherwise.
Looking around the empty shop, one of the young men looked at his friend. "Should we go somewhere else? This shop doesn't seem to have much background and if they lock us on the other side of the portal, we're practically dead meat."
His friend, brows furrowing still gave a chance at this shop. After all, gate shops were rare and this was the third one in their town. Unfortunately, due to the low chance of awakening as a space wanderer, few gate shops existed in smaller towns. It was to the point that some smaller towns simply didn't have any.
His black-haired friend and seemingly the leader of the two looked at Lux. "What are the policies of the shop in regard to the professionals who enter the portals?" He asked before deciding whether to give this shop a chance.
"We will keep the gate open as long as a professional is inside. If the time is longer than seven hours, an hour of break will be taken before reopening the gate exactly an hour later." Started Lux as those were the rules he planned to abide by.
"In the case a professional does not return within the specified time, we will keep opening the gate following the previous schedule for a total of three days before gradually reducing the opening time. Should the professional return alive, he will have to pay double the fees for each extra hour spent on the other side of the portal. Of course, those rules are for tier 1 celestial bodies." Finished Lux as this was also a rule he had decided since problems could arise at any time for a professional.
As for the original price of 50 Bym per hour in the Proteus gate, it was chosen by the system after taking in consideration the information of the gate. Doubling the price afterwards was a permission of the system as it followed the principle of the customer having already broken the contract and as such doubling the price for a chance of coming back alive was cheap.
"I see." He said before talking about it with his friend for a moment.
"How dangerous is Proteus and what about the ressources?" He asked with expertise despite his rising nervosity.
"This tier 1 celestial body possesses tier 1 ressources, environmental danger and monster danger. The discovered monsters are the Shade Snake and Plague Frogs." Replied Lux as it was basically all the information he possessed after his small expedition.
"What about the price?" He asked once again, making Lux think about erecting some panels which introduced the gates he would open in the future.
"Fifty Bym per hour. Should you go past the bought time and still come back, the extra time will be charged at one hundred per hour, rounded up." He replied as he saw his customer's eyes go wide open before a suspicious and thoughtful look appeared on his face.
"In that case I would like to enter the Proteus gate for two hours." Said the young man, suspicious by the relatively cheap price, while placing one hundred Bym on the counter. Other gate shops all started at a minimum of two hundred Bym per hour yet this shop cost only a quarter of it. Moreover, the shop would keep the gate open and not only open it at a selected time which was pretty weird.
Receiving the money and counting it, Lux walked out from behind the counter.
{Gate Creation - Proteus}
As he called it in his mind, the energy slowly gathered in his hand before slowly twisting and creating a whirlpool of spatial energy.
"May you have a successful exploration." Said Lux to the two wide-eyed customers who changed the way they looked at Lux.
"T-Thanks." He replied, surprised that the shop's space wanderer was actually the clerk working in the store.
It was widely known that any space wanderers, due to the profits they could bring back to any organizations they joined, were lofty and rarely seen. After all, it took time to search for coordinates in the universe but once found, great profits awaited their organization. As such, seeing a space wanderer openly manning the shop was something rarely seen if not unique.
Recovering from his dazed look, he took out his shield and sword and after gritting his teeth, he walked inside the portal, leaving behind the shop owner and his friend who would look after the shop to prevent his friend from being left stranded.
"You can take a seat while waiting." Lux offered as he pointed to a wooden bench on the side of the wall near the door. The bench, along with the counter, his own chair and a slightly elevated podium to place the gate upon were the only furniture the store currently held, not having enough money to buy anything else.
"Thanks." Started the slightly tanned friend of his sole customer.
"Are you part of an organization?" He asked again after a few seconds, ready to make a small conversation to better understand this shop.
"No, this is my shop and I'm not affiliated with anyone." He replied without hiding anything. Such information could easily be found and he saw no reason to lie.
"Then are you planning on getting affiliated with someone?" He asked again, this time a bit more excited, eagerly waiting for his answer.
"No, I'm improving at my own pace and my shop works despite your friend being my first and only customer." He replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
"That's great!" Exclaimed the young man who continued to elaborate to Lux seeing his confusion.
"Space Wanderers affiliated with various groups not only keep most of the better gates to themselves but additionally, once dangerous gates have been mostly cleared of monsters, they block their access for their own group to reap the profits. As such, while still profitable, it is a lot more dangerous for free professionals." He explained that this was a common way to get more money and resources with less difficulty for any associations.
"Of course, the towers, opened across the world, still hold many resources but the danger is a lot higher as well." He explained without stopping as he threw in information that was both useful and not very useful. However, Lux clearly filled several blind knowledge spots thanks to his rambling.
"By the way, my name's Harris. What's your name boss?" Asked the young man as he remembered that he had yet to introduce himself.
"I'm Lux." The shopkeeper replied as he looked over his empty shop, more exactly at the gate that was two-way meaning a creature could come out at any moment.
It was only a few minutes before the two hours mark that a fluctuation appeared in the portal and his customer came back, covered in scratches and blood but with a happy smile as his small bag had obviously some ressources.
"How was it?" Harris asked his friend with high expectations.
"Pretty good. The environment is pretty damp and the monsters are quite numerous but there are still some resources to collect. Moreover, as long as we get enough of the guys with us, we could cut some trees to bring out. There is a grove of about 300 Epnola trees near the gate." He explained with an excited smile as while the price of Epnola wood wasn't high, it was still a tier one timber resource which had a market in their town, Dryfalls.
"Boss." Said the man whose friend had introduced as John as he turned towards Lux. "What is your opening time?" He asked as he knew that for low-rank gates, there were clear opening and closure hours.
"I currently open and close at 8 in the morning and evening." He replied as the young man nodded his head.
"In that case, we'll be there tomorrow." He said as he left with Harris.