With our purchases in the mall made, it was clear that we had mostly cleaned out the outer districts of the Market. There might still be a few smaller boosts laying around, if we could find them - but the ti we spent searching for a store selling Tier 6 soul fragnts would probably be better spent scouting out the inner districts of the Market. As we left the mall, I took one final look at the giant worm in the sky, where the giant advertisent had once been. Then, we left the mall.
Due to our increased strength and confidence, we didn’t stay right next to each other while searching. Instead, the four of us maintained a distance of a few blocks. We would cover more ground that way, and we were still close enough to each other that we could reinforce each other if a disaster happened and one of us needed imdiate help. We also inspected every street carefully as we moved through the Market. After seeing the spatial fair, we were well aware of the fact that space could be unusual in the Market, and we didn’t know enough about inner districts of the nurseries to target specific inner districts.
The next few days were dull. We didn’t encounter anything too dangerous during our searching. The greatest danger any of us faced was the occasional skeleton. None of us even bothered ntioning it to the others when we found a new skeleton - we just bulldozed them as we moved along. The skeletons were so outclassed at this point that I didn’t even need to waste essence killing them. My base Strength and Agility were both at grade 10, and my seventh, eighth, and ninth runes all gave 10 to my physical stats. In total, I had Grade 11 physical stats. The skeletons all died when I dashed up to them and punched them, instantly turning them into powder and debris. I didn’t even need a weapon.
It took us four days of searching to find another inner district of the Market. In that ti, I also reached {Advanced} grade for my attunent, much to my delight.
Power: Form an [Advanced] Grade attunent
Achievent 300
This minor bump in Achievent pushed from 125,324.75 to 125,624.75. I also eventually ended up killing enough skeletons to hit the next Achievent threshold, though the total rewards for that were also quite minimal.
Slaughter: Kill a Skeletal foot soldier for the 25th ti
Achievent 100
This reward increased my Achievent from 125,624.75 to 125,724.75.
On day four, Anise found a promising new area. When she spotted it, she started practically vibrating in excitent. She was so excited that I could feel it pouring through the communication bracelet like a tidal wave of joy. It didn’t take long to understand why.
Just outside of the building was the giant neon sign flickering above the roof of the building.
“Teleod’s School of Spells!
“Co to buy Skills for any spellcasting-related needs, or sign up for a multi-year course if you want to work on a few ability evolutions! We offer in-house body production for those who wish to extend their stay in the Market, as well as ample opportunities for mbers of the Market to earn so Achievent during their studies! Consult with AI or with exceptional spellcasters from across the multiverse in order to make the most of every minute and enhance your strength in the future! We offer a wide variety of services to make you the strongest spellcaster you can be!”
It was obvious from the shine in Anise’s eyes that she was incredibly excited from the sign. To be honest, I was too. While the simple ntion of ‘witch’ wouldn’t get the sa level of interest it could from Anise, I still suspected this castle would provide with ample opportunities to boost my spellcasting abilities. Which was great, because almost all of my traditional combat abilities were so form of ‘spell.’
Since Anise had successfully located an inner district, there was no need for us to keep searching while we were split up. We regrouped at Anise’s location, and then started to analyze the old, partially ruined castle.
Unlike the spatial fair that we had found last ti, this inner district of the Market had a completely different style. It was built like a castle from the middle-ages, although with the passage of millennia, several parts of the wall had decayed into dust. Through the cracks and broken slabs of stone, I could see traces of modern architecture inside of the walls of the castle. There were bits of plumbing and electrical lighting installed inside.
This, if anything, made feel deeply confused. In the Market, we had no need to breathe, eat, or excrete waste. We could still eat or drink if we wanted to - but they were purely entertainnt. Even if we did eat, there was no need to excrete waste afterwards. Since that was true, why was there plumbing inside of the castle? It made absolutely no sense.
Even more confusing was the amount of long-rotten and stale food in the building. In one desiccated chunk of the castle, I could see what must have once been a kitchen. It was filled to the brim with moldy dust. At first, I thought that perhaps it was so kind of plant-based monster, but when I investigated it using my soul-sight, I could confirm that it was just rotten, long-expired food.
As far as I had seen, most food in the Market leaned heavily into the ‘entertainnt’ aspect of food. People had no real need for nutrition here, so most food leaned into being tasty. Chocolate bars and potato chips were hundreds of tis more common than tomatoes and lettuce here.
“Why in the world is the castle designed like this?” I finally asked, as I looked at the long-discarded chunks of proper, nutritious food. “Did the people who studied in this castle… really enjoy eating proper food?”
“Even so, I don’t think they would bother building an entire kitchen for a few oddballs, would they?” said Sallia. “Seems unlikely. Unless they had very few students and this school was trying to cater to rich people. Even then, I don’t see a reason why a lot of rich people would want to eat ‘bland’ food when proper nutrition isn’t a concern here.”
Felix nodded. “Sothing is odd here. I don’t know what it is, but this school is unusual.” He shrugged. “We won’t figure out what it is from out here, though.”
“Good point,” I said. “Besides, the sign ntions that there are ways to buy new bodies inside of the castle. That’s pretty appealing. For the past several trips to the Market, one of our biggest limiting factors is the amount of ti we can spend here. We only get two months before our bodies dissipate. If this place is selling a way to generate new bodies, maybe we can drastically extend our stay. That would be worth a lot.”
My friends grinned and nodded. I couldn’t help but think about how much an extra few months, or a few extra years in the Market might change things for us.
The longer we stayed in the Market, the more shops we could loot. We could scavenge for more items. We could find more abilities, which ant there was a greater chance that so of them would be useful to us. Heck, even if we only thought about raw Achievent count, it would still be a great deal. There were hundreds of shops within a day or two of walking that we simply hadn’t bothered to clear out and loot. As long as new bodies weren’t outrageously expensive and could last us a while, we could loot far more Achievent before we left for our next dinsion. There would probably still be an upper limit to how long we could stay here - after all, there were only so many shops in the area, and new bodies would probably still have a ti limit before they started to collapse. There might also be other factors in play that would make it dangerous to stick around long-term in the Market. Even so, the potential here was imnse. Especially if we wanted to get rid of that worm that had eaten the billboard in the sky.
I looked at the dilapidated castle, and grinned.
“I think we found our next target,” I said.
My friends also grinned. Then, as one, we began to march towards the castle.
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