Return of the Woodcutter

After leaving the two flints that were scratching the inside of his boots in the room, Aito passed through the illusionary entrance door from which he had first come in. He returned to the place mostly known as the Square because of its characteristic square shape, but its true name was the First Floor.

Upon his arrival, he realized that something was different. Staircases, at the ends of each flag, had magically appeared during his brief absence. People with steel, leather, or cloth armors, were coming out of their rooms, walking up those stairs to enter an area he had yet to discover.

"Cooldown hours, or CDs for short," Roan said, standing beside Aito. "Basically, it's when the stairs in between the floors close up. The goal is for everyone to get some rest. Challengers tend to go back to their rooms before CDs. It's like a curfew, really. But not obligatory. You could stay on the second, third, or whatever floor suits you."

Aito simply nodded and followed Roan to an entrance that had opened next to the Black flag. Balls of seafoam color glued to the ceiling lit the way as the Guide and challenger headed to the second floor in a spiral staircase.

The light at the end of the stairs grew unbearably brighter with each step. Aito covered his eyes upon finally reaching the exit.

As his vision adapted to the brightness, a vast plaza paved with perfectly carved rectangle stone slabs came into view. Seated at the fountain, standing up, walking around, or coming out of the first floor, challengers of all genders with somber faces chatted amongst themselves about their next courses of action or plain, mundane topics.

Aito gawked at the enormous circle-shaped zone with walls going up to thirty meters in height. In the air, a huge artificial sun brightened the Mall to reveal an area large enough to house thousands of people.

Roan flicked his fingers in front of Aito's face to wake him up, then gestured for Aito to follow him.

Along the way, while chewing on a weird blue fruit—taken out of his small backpack strapped to his back—he explained that the Mall was divided into five districts.

The weapon district, or D1, was filled with proper weapon stores or shady-looking stalls made of patch-up materials. D2 was visited by challengers in need of new armors or repairs. D3 was all about spells, magic engineering, or magical items such as memory beads. Food stalls, restaurant, and small food stores were located in D4. Finally, D5 was considered as the Bazar district filled with all kinds of expected or unexpected items and services.

And unexpectedly, Roan stopped in D5 at a wooden table, settled in between two stalls selling clothes from Iris. The Guide then walked behind the feeble-looking "counter," adjusted his cloak, cleared his throat, and put his bag on the table as if he meant business.

"Welcome to my humble stall, black challenger," Roan said, with a serious tone. "Would you like to take a look at my merchandizes?"

Of course, the shameless man would lead Aito to his store first. Did he even have anything to sell? Aito searched the table, ground, and even looked behind Roan, but found nothing that looked like "merchandise" to him.

"Here," Roan said, taking out a small black pouch from his backpack. "This is an Inventory Bag capable of storing up to ten items of moderate sizes. It cannot be compared to a proper inventory, but it's way, way, way better than carrying all sorts of bling-bling on yourself, don't you think?"

Roan handed over the bag to his client. Aito examined the ordinary-looking pouch on all sides, finding nothing special about it.

"Infuse mana in it, and put your hand inside," Roan said, grinning playfully.

Aito concentrated. After a few seconds, his mana traveled into the bag, he then slipped his hand inside to only find a bottomless void. Curious, he took a peek at what could possibly hide in the pouch. To his surprise, a small colorless bead was sewed to the bottom and appeared to be the actual source of the magical device.

"Interesting," he said, "but what's that bead at the bottom?"

"Ha! You've got a good eye for things, my good sir!" Roan said, using one of his usual swindler speeches. He then leaned on the counter whose foundation shook from Roan's weight, but he somewhat maintained his balance. "You see, a soul can store anything depending on its size. You've already seen the soul of a god, right?"

Aito nodded, thinking back to Belmond's soul, to the grey boundless space.

"Right. And that thing in YOUR bag is a crystallized soul or also called mana core, depending on the topic. It's something, that can be found in any living being able to wield mana, for example, those have classes. And once the soul is removed, the space it inhabited can be used as storage for whatever you want to put inside." Roan said. He then leaned closer to him and whispered. "If it is your kink, you could even use it to relieve your pumped-up stress, if you see what I mean."

The guide turned merchant sent his client multiple winks.

"Are you mad?" Aito asked. "Who would put his dick inside a bag?"

"You'd be surprised at how good it feels!" Roan said, clearly speaking with prior personal experience. "Meh, doesn't matter. You'll understand how much relieving stress is important when you're on the battlefield. The REAL, battlefield."

Aito remained oblivious to Roan's comment and said, "How do I pay for this?"

"Hum, you'll recall my advice later," Roan said, then flicked his finger to summon a notification window. "Here."

BING!

[Would you like to pay Roan, the Merchant, 1000 Tutorial Points?]

Aito stared at the floating blue window suspiciously. If he recalled correctly, he had 110000 Tutorial Points. Compared to it, a thousand was a meager sum. However, was the item worth that price? After all, he knew nothing about the average market price of the Inventory Bag.

"Before you say anything." Roan declared, "Let me tell you that crafting an item out of a crystallized soul implicates a complex process of magic engineering. This, inventory bags storing up to ten items of moderate size aren't cheap. The same applies for those with higher storage capacities."

"Hum, do you happen to have some of those?"

Roan smirked, closed the notification window, then handed him a similar pouch, albeit slightly bigger. "This one can store up to twenty items for only 5000 TP! It's the best I currently have on me. Frankly speaking, most challengers' wallets average 5000 TP, so they aren't interested in such expensive bags, even more since it's just made for storage. They prefer weapons and fancy armors. Tututut, ignorants. If they—"

"I'll take it," Aito said, in part to shut the man up.

"Goooooood!"

Bing!

[Would you like to pay Roan, the Merchant, 5000 Tutorial Points?]

Aito accepted the transaction. He expected something flashy to happen, but only a notification window showing his current balance appeared.

[5000 Tutorial Points have been deducted.]

[Host's Current Balance: 105000 TP]

"Thank you for your patronage!"