Chapter 98 - The Crowd
He appeared in the jungle where he had left yesterday. He started doing the postures written in the meditation art again since he was still four levels away from the completion.
Time flew by, and hours passed. He continued making postures only to stop when the system informed him of the sun coming out in the actual world.
He straightened himself after the system\'s notification and thought of the status screen. The next moment, a blue screen with golden fonts appeared in front of him, containing all his details.
Personal Status:
Name: Aakesh,
Race: [*****],
Gender: Male,
Class: None,
Level: Level 9,
HP: 180/180,
Energy: 180/180,
Physical attributes:
Strength: 27 (+11),
Agility: 27 (+11),
Intelligence: -0-,
Endurance: -0-,
Comprehensions: Hand fighting (100%), Archery (100%), Swordsmanship (100%)...
Skills: Wolfbane, Ability-Learning.
Aakesh nodded after reading his status screen. He has reached Level 9 after the hard work of several hours. If someone else found this, they would be shocked as reaching Level 9 from Level 6 in a span of a single hour, as even the most talented beings take around a few days to reach Level 9.
A surprised expression appeared on his face, seeing his physical attributes, as they had increased enormously compared to yesterday.
Aakesh decided to test his strength, so he punched the nearest tree with one-fourth of his power. "Boom!" The next moment, an explosion erupted as the tree burst into several wooden shards.
"Hey, system, why did my strength grow so much?" He asked the system as he was confused, seeing the damage caused by only one-fourth of his power.
[Host, it\'s due to your training in real life. As your level grows, your body\'s becoming accustomed to stronger martial arts, which in turn is strengthening your body.]
The system responded in its emotionless and mechanical voice. "It makes the quest easy for me," Aakesh murmured after hearing the system\'s response.
Aakesh was confident that if he continued to grow strong at this rate, he would be able to fight the wolf king when he reached Level 20. If somebody heard what Aakesh was currently thinking about, they wouldn\'t know whether to laugh or cry as the wolf king was not only a Level 50 being, but it was also on the verge of evolving to Level 51.
[Host, it\'s time for you to open the store.]
The system emotionlessly alerted Aakesh again, seeing him still not exiting Panagea.
Aakesh nodded, and the next moment, he disappeared from Panagea and appeared in the store. He was all sweaty due to making postures, again and again, so he decided to take a bath first and then open the store.
When Aakesh opened the store, he found a crowd waiting at the door of his store. Everybody rushed inside the store with smiling faces after he opened the door.
"Hello, senior!" Maria respectfully greeted Aakesh right away with a bow. The construction workers that came with her also followed their current boss and bowed at him.
The crowd consisted of three groups, the group of Mark, Bislo, Bisal, and Pento, the group of Maria and her construction workers, and the group of Mark\'s wife with unfamiliar faces arrived in the store at the same time.
"Store owner, six hours for every one of us!" Before anyone could say something, Mark\'s wife said.
"No, senior, six hours for us!" Maria also spoke.
"No, senior, we came first!" Mark also said, seeing the other two groups asking for the entry.
"Okay, you can go first!" Aakesh ignored the groups of Pento and Maria and instead looked at Mark\'s wife\'s group.
"Really!" Mark\'s wife exclaimed, seeing Aakesh choosing her group. It was unbelievable for her, as the experience she had with him in the last two days made her feel that he disliked her.
Since she only got an hour the day before yesterday in Panagea, and yesterday she didn\'t even get to enter, so she decided to come early today after asking for leave from her boss. But unfortunately, her boss didn\'t grant her leave and also prohibited her from taking a day off.
She couldn\'t miss today as she had got an interesting quest in Panagea, and if she continuously missed entering Panagea, she would fail the quest. So she informed her boss the same things her husband had told her about Panagea.
After hearing so many things, her boss decided to come with her and three other ladies as Mark\'s wife told her that there\'re only five portals for entry.
Her boss didn\'t believe her at first, but when she saw Pento, the young prince waiting outside the store door, she believed everything her employee had told her.
***
"Store owner, I am Pallas! He\'s my husband!" Mark\'s wife introduced herself as she extended her hands for a handshake.
Aakesh only nodded in response to her handshake and instead asked for the Primal stones required for their entry into Panagea. Pallas took her hands back with a red face and took out the required amount for the group.
Since she had brought her boss, she decided to pay for her today, and then her boss would pay for her every day like his husband\'s department head pays for his entry into Panagea.
Aakesh nodded and waved his hands. the next moment, the mountain of Primal stones disappeared from the store. Pallas then led the group while her boss and acquaintances followed her into the portal room.
"Senior, we would come back after six hours!" Pento commented as he couldn\'t stand here for six hours. Bislo also nodded in response to Pento as he was the director of a significant association of the Bisan Kingdom.
Aakesh ignored them as a number of alerts started appearing in his head.
[Ding.]
[The quest: Have twenty players enter the virtual portal, successfully completed.]
[Mission reward: Ten new virtual portals given.]
[Host, please see the portal room to see the new virtual portals.]
Aakesh sent the group of Mark\'s wife first as she had brought four new customers with her, and he was only three customers away from completing the quest, so how could he let other groups go first?
"No need to leave!" Aakesh then expressionlessly commented as the group of Pento was at the door, while the group of Maria had just turned around to leave.