As Stein left for the night, he couldn't help but sigh, his shoulders drooping. Was this how his life was going to be from now on? Always one wrong step away from death? That, or ending up on the streets begging.
Veteran and the others had claimed their days weren't usually as eventful as this one, even paying him and Yurim extra for their shared kill on the single Tyrant.
Stein reached for the 30 Spiros in his pocket, as if trying to tell himself the suffering and anxiety he faced today were worth it.
He paid old man Gerald for a meal and was soon lying on his bed, unable to sleep. Stein decided this was the perfect time to explore the Omnistore. When he had asked for advice on what Path to choose, they had given him a summary and referred him to the store for detailed books and guides on the matter.
From what he had heard about the store, it was far more than it seemed. As he opened the menu, he made a detour to his stats.
He had gotten two stat points for each level gained. The best course of action would be to save them until he had acquired a Path, but from what he understood, if he wanted one of the best Paths, it might be many weeks or even months before he could get one.
He sighed. There still wasn't enough information for him to make up his mind on which stats to invest in.
Stein went back to the previous menu and opened the Omnistore. A message briefly flashed before his eyes.
After that, another menu popped up in glowing white writing visible only to him.
Stein went straight to the books page.
Solovay wasn't joking when she said the system was made in the likeness of things they were familiar with.
Just out of curiosity, Stein expanded the Most Popular heading, eager to see what most people were reading. The audience here would all be hardened survivors of Raazaham perhaps he could learn a thing or two from their tastes.
His jaw slackened as he came across the first book.
It was priced at 2 Spiros per chapter.
Stein composed himself. Surely that was just a one-time thing. It happened all the time, sometimes the top item on a list was an outlier and didn't dictate the trends.
He looked below that and blinked. Just when he had decided he wanted to give humanity a second chance.
Okay, third time is the charm.
…
Stein decided to go directly to the guide section. The most popular book there was
written by Arthur the First Icon himself, the founder of the Adventurers Guild. The system also noted that Arthur was an adventurer of the Seventh World, a place called the Celestial Palace. The book was priced cheaply at 10 Spiros.
Unfortunately, just like its name suggested, it was only available to members of the Adventurers Guild.
He decided to go through alternatives. After minutes of browsing the popular guide books, he decided that his priorities would be:
<100 things I wish I knew the moment I arrived at Raazaham> and
Both were priced at 50 Spiros, with high ratings and authors currently in the Sixth World, a place called Katalaan. Most of the authors Stein had seen were 5th- and 6th-worlders, with only a handful of 4th-worlders and a single 3rd-worlder. He hadn't seen anyone from Raazaham, the Second World, and Arthur the First Icon was the only 7th-worlder he had seen.
After deciding on these two, Stein chose to research using an unconventional method. He ignored ratings and popularity, instead opting for books written by Seventh Worlders. His eyes darkened when he saw a familiar title.
Earlier, he hadn't bothered checking the author, so he had completely missed the fact that it was written by a high-worlder.
The author's name was Sloth King.
How the fuck had someone like that ascended all the way to the Seventh World?
Stein shook his head before moving on to other books written by Seventh-worlders. There were some history books written by someone called Veer, each world seemed to have a thick book dedicated to it. There were also more novels by Sloth King, each with a title as perverted as the first.
Arthur the First Icon, the founder of the Adventurers Guild, had more titles to his name, all with very affordable prices:
There were others, but Stein soon lost interest, as he had no plans of joining the Adventurers Guild.
As Stein continued browsing, he discovered another rather successful Seventh World author. Unfortunately, the kind of books he wrote were rather unsavoury.
After that Stein didn't bother checking book by Rémi anymore. The list ended with the last book being written by a seventh Worlder Stein wasn't familiar with.
The author called himself Berserker. The rating was also the worst Stein had seen, a flat 1/5 from 10,000 adventurers. Still, something about the book drew him in. It was priced at 60 Spiros, ten more than the two books Stein planned on buying, but that didn't stop him from wanting it.
He decided he would confer with Veteran and the others before making up his mind.
Something still puzzled him. He had only seen five Seventh World authors. Wouldn't people who made it to the Seventh—the highest of worlds—want to write something? If not guidebooks, then perhaps about their experiences? Yet there were only five authors.
Stein felt that he was missing a large piece of the picture and couldn't fully assess the situation without it.