Emilio woke up in the white space. He looked around, trying to remember what happened before he passed out and he found a man behind a stand, the one with the ‘shop’ sign, who was looking at him with interest. He looked in the prime of his age, with short hair, and wearing some kind of robe.

  “Where am I?” Emilio asked.

  “In the Starting Trial.” The person answered.

  “And who are you?”

  “The Shopkeeper.”

  “Ok, that answers nothing and gives me more questions. What shop? What happened? And first of all, what’s your name? I want to know who am I talking to,” Emilio popped out several questions at once.

  “My name is Tuor,” He answered with a smile. “The shop is the System Shop assigned to the Starting Trial. As for what happened, you were unconscious when you came out of the Trial. You should have been really spent to be unconscious after the System healing.”

  “Ok, that answers some things. Nice to meet you Tuor, I am Emilio. So, what should I do now? Do you have any idea about what happened to the rest of the people who touched the Monoliths?” Emilio was still worried about his niece and her whereabouts was one of the first things he asked.

  “They should be in their Trials or have finished them. They are in no danger because the System will not allow anyone to be hurt in the Starter Trials. If they already finished with the Trial, then they are already back outside of the Monolith, in the same place where they entered from. Right now, you are the only one in the shop.” He said, alleviating some of Emilo’s fears. Amelia was ok, she could be in the Trial where apparently one couldn’t get hurt or back at home. Both options meant she was safe. With that relief of mind, he could focus on what was happening at the moment.

  “You should check your Trial Coins and buy some stuff,” Tuor added. “I will just answer what I am allowed by the purchases.”

  “Hmm, sure. Let me check the System.” Emilio stood up and started interacting with the System once again.

  “I have 16 Coins and failed to show my worth,” Emilio sighed. He was sad about failing the Quest, but there was nothing he could do about that, he had really given his best in the Trial.

  “What do you mean? 4 points it’s quite a lot,” Tuor pointed out.

  “I have a Quest to reach 7 in all Stats within four weeks. That means I should be doing one Stat Trial per week to earn those Stats. Right now, I have 6 points in Vitality, so i can’t possibly reach 7 in the time frame,” Emilio explained.

  “Didn’t you get Free Stat points at Rank 1? What is going on?” Tuor kept asking.

  “…” Emilio wanted to answer, but he just kept staring at Tour, completely ashamed. He didn’t remember all the System Messages he got from the System in the Trial, and he didn't remember at all that particular detail that was in between those messages.

  “Sorry, I couldn’t check it before. How do they work?” Emilio finally reacted, admitting his mistake.

  “You can assign it to any Stat you want. I can’t answer much more if you don’t buy some Stat detail package. You should purchase them so I can talk with you.” Tuor said with a greedy smile on his face.

  Even if the man couldn’t say a lot, what he did say shocked Emilio a little. If he got 4 Vitality, and one Free Stat point for each point he earned, then he might have overdone it a little, after all, he could get up to 10 points with that result.

  Well it is not bad to show more of my worth. I guess I should be fine.

  “I’ll see about the purchases after I check the System messages,” Emilio decided, “I missed a few of them when I passed out.”

  System I want to check the Free Stat points.

  Emilio closed the screen, he had decided to start calling them screens even if they might not be computer screens. He didn’t want to use any points before talking a little with Tuor, he evidently knew much more about what was going on than him.

  ‘I want to see my Skills.’

  I can still improve a lot here. ‘Let’s see the Traits next.’

  At this point, Emilio decided to try something out with the System. Up until this point he was asking things as if it was a person, but given that he felt that the ways of presenting the information was more like a computer screen, he decided to just think about clicking the information he wanted to check.

  ‘Vitality Control.’

  It opened either way. Just how does this System work? Either way, this Trait is quite good. The part about raising my control, I was expecting it. After all, it allowed me to pass one more Trial and I clearly felt its effect. It even has an extra of a percentage increase I was not expecting. Even though I still don’t completely understand what Vitality does, it shouldn’t be bad to increase it by 10%. I like this Trait.

  ‘Starter Trial Shop,’ Emilio kept ordering the shop like it was a computer.

  For other purchases, please ask the Shopkeeper.

  ‘I want to get my Trial Coins,’ Emilio tried to keep checking things out, but that time nothing happened. Emilio was expecting them to appear like de daggers, but they didn’t.

  “Tuor, how do I get the Coins?” He finally asked.

  “You have them, just tell me what you want to buy and approve the purchase,” Tuor answered.

  “Oh, it’s a digital currency, right? First, I would like to tip you one Coin for your kindness.” Emilio smiled.

  There was only one way to get the good stuff when a merchant had some control, and it was with a little bribe (or tip).

  “You what? Do you know the value of those Coins?” Tuor asked, perplexed.

  “No, but you do,” Emilio answered with a sly smile as he confirmed the prompt.

  “Well, thank you very much Emilio.” Tuor did a little bow, “Do you want to buy anything? I can’t be tipped without actually selling,”

  “That depends, what would you recommend me to buy?” Emilio asked with a wink.

  At that point, Tuor realized the tip was actually a bribe and smiled back. That was the first moment he realized that the simple System job he had taken was going to be much more interesting than expected. And more profitable too.

  “First I would buy the Details on shop items. I can’t say much more otherwise,” Tuor guided him.

  “Ok I'll buy it. And yes System, I confirm it,” He said anticipating the prompt. “Is there any System procedure involved in giving me this information or just you telling me things?”

  “Just me,” Tuor confirmed, “but now we can talk a little. First of all, let me tell you that you can’t pass this information to others until the Starter Trials are finished. If you still decide to share forbidden information, the System will penalize you and the receiving person.

  “You will be notified by the System if you are about to go overboard so you don’t do it by mistake. Depending on what Trials the other person took and what they purchased in the shop you will be able to talk more. If they did the same Trial and bought the same as you then you will be able to talk freely.

  “Also, do not try to share information to get someone else punished. If they didn’t want the information they will not be punished, but you might get an even bigger punishment.

  “With the warning out of the way, I can start sharing some information. First, do not assign Stat points before buying the details on the Stats, that will allow me to tell you what is going on with them.

  “Healing Pills are a must. After all, you want to be alive and the System provides the best ones, as long as you eat one you will heal any damage to your body.

  “The Realm information is the general information about the state of the Realm. It is worth nothing outside, but for the newly integrated is valuable knowledge. If I were you, I would rather get 5 pills and find out about the Realm after I start getting in contact with other planets.

  “The Language Trait is a must as long as you have enough Coins. It is one of the most important things in the shop and it is almost a gift from the System at this price. You will be able to understand any language and others will understand you. It is similar to how I am able to talk with you right now. The system gave me a limited time translation so I can talk with you.

  “The bottle of Healing Pills is just 12 pills, so they are more cost effective.

  “If you are talented enough to get the Coins, the Rank up information is also a must. After all, waiting until you can travel to Rank up will really delay you at a critical moment. It all depends on your talent for the other Stats. You are quite talented in Vitality, so keep in mind you might want to purchase this.

  “For now, my advice is to buy the 4 Stats details, one pill for emergencies and save the rest of the points for after the other three Trials. After all, this shop is only for the first month even if the Trials last longer. Waiting for the whole month will let you know exactly how many points you have to spend.”

  “Wow, that was some infodump.” Emilio tried to digest all of what was said. “Ok, give me the Stats info and the Pill”

  ‘Confirmed, and add one extra as a tip for Tuor for a total of 6 Coins.’

  Thanks for reading!

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