Employee 34 - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

“Hurry up!” Var’Ewella impatiently exclaimed as she practically ran toward that mysterious store in the slums. Stupid Gregor hadn’t allowed her to play even after having confirmed it was safe, and instead insisted that they reported back to father before doing anything else. How was an illusion going to hurt her? Gregor didn’t even move an inch as he played.

Her father was extremely intrigued by the details of the shop, and ordered a few men to find out more. She understood why. If the shop could truly improve cultivation in the manner Gregor explained it would be a huge asset for people like her. And who knew, training illusions with stronger monsters that awarded more spiritual energy might be added in the future, as the one Gregor tried was called ‘Beginner Dungeon’ after all. 

She had demanded to come with so this time there were 6 people heading to the shop instead of three. Finally, she saw the weird storefront in the distance, and she eagerly pulled the arm of her brother Var’Talek.

----

Ekz lounged in the comfortable sofa, happy over his stay of execution since he finished his task. The first award was simply another 9 chairs with accompanying headsets, bringing the total in his shop to 10. The addition made his store feel a lot less empty, but more chairs represented more work which Ekz didn’t really look forward to. 

That was why he didn’t complete the quest yesterday, refusing to receive the lottery award. He was afraid that doing that would trigger another quest, perhaps one even harder to finish than the one he just completed. Unfortunately, time waits for no man as the voice suddenly blared in his head as he was about to fall asleep.

[Lottery Initiated]

Ekz opened his eyes and groggily sat up in the sofa. There were no wheel or mystery boxes entering his vision, only the shop interior. But in his head he could hear an annoying rattling until the voice once more sounded

[Congratulations! Resurrection Potion awarded.]

A resurrection potion sounded pretty great until the voice explained it was for the game. It was like an extra life if he died while playing. He wasn’t too sure about its use now, and he couldn't afford to play the game anyways. The system actually kept 90% of the income, citing the ‘cost of doing business’. 

If he wanted a larger cut he would have to upgrade the store somehow, but it was a far-off goal for now. Ekz sighed and was about to lie down again until the doorbells sounded. The System had annoyingly added a bell that rang every time the automatic doors opened as part of the starter kit. 

Every time a pedestrian walked too close to the doors they would open, and Ekz would be awoken by the sound. He tried to rip the bells down after being awoken a few times, but the System’s constructions were sturdy if anything. They were perennially fixed to the doors, and stayed up even after he hung and dangled from it. 

Ekz thought it was another fake alert and ignored it as he lay down on the sofa for another nap, but a cough interrupted his plans. 

“Hello again mister shopkeeper!”

It was the same girl as yesterday, and this time she brought a total of 6 people instead. 

“Urh…” Ekz answered, unsure whether to ignore her and proceed with the nap, or whether to help her out. A blazing stab in his head and a new quest forced him in the more productive direction. 

New Quest:

The First Steps to Stardom: Let the world experience the greatness of the Boundless Dao Training Centre. Have customers train a total of 500 hours within a week. Reward: New Dungeon, Spin of Lottery wheel. (0/500). Failure to complete results in punishment.

Ekz forgot about his presumptive customers as he looked horrified at his new quest. 500 hours? That was something like 70 hours a day. That meant he had to somehow rent out every single chair for the maximum amount of time, then another four chairs for another two chairs again after the time limit was up. Every day.

Judging by his traffic so far he was in deep shit, and his only hope for salvation was the little girl in front of him.

“Young miss, just call me Shopkeeper Ekz. I hope yesterday’s experience was satisfactory. Shall I go ahead and activate another five tokens?” he said as he waved the group to head toward the new VR-stations. Gone was the lazy bum, replaced with the diligent shopkeeper.

“Wait a bit Var’Ewella. Shopkeeper Ekz, I am Var’Talek, and I first have some questions, if I may?” a young man next to the girl said. He was handsome and obviously of noble birth from his demeanor, dressed in expensive robes that made Ekz’s clothes look like rags. 

That image agreed with Ekz’s inherited memories. Apparently, people on this continent didn’t have surnames and instead only possessed one name. However, noble families added a Prefix to their names, which properly showed their status. Since the girl was named Var’Ewella and the young man Var’Talek it likely meant that they were members of a clan called Var-something. 

“Young master, please go ahead,” Ekz said, eager to get this out of the way so he could start filling some seats.

“Who is the owner of this store? How does it work?” Var’Talek asked as he picked up one of the goggles from the closest station.

“The owner is a reclusive master who wishes for the boundless Dao to spread across the world. After years of arduous experimentation, he finally created the masterpiece that is in your hands. I have been entrusted to maintain the day-to-day operations of this small establishment. As for how it works, you simply need to put on the glasses after paying, and then fight as you would in the real world.” 

This fib was something that Ekz decided on early after looking through his new memories. The system didn’t want to be exposed for some reason, so he would have to come up with something else. No one would believe that Ekz himself created these things since the people in the neighborhood knew him quite well.

“Hmm. Can I meet this owner? I’d like to discuss some topics with him on behalf of Clan Varseth.” The young man probed.

“I’m afraid not. The old master has renounced worldly affairs, and is singularly focused on crafting and the Dao.” Ekz shot him down. “I will be happy to answer any further questions you have.” 

Happy my ass, just buy the tokens and start playing already, he silently added in his mind.

“We’d like to purchase one of these spiritual treasures for our clan. We’d be ready to pay –“ 

“I’m sorry to cut you off young master, but listing a price won’t be necessary. The only business our establishment provides is listed on the screen” Ekz interjected as he pointed to the display.

“You have guts interrupting the young master of the Varseth clan!” the young guard from yesterday exploded as he pointed his weapon against the hapless shopkeeper. Something about Ekz and this store had obviously been bugging him from the start, and it felt like he just looked for reasons to posture a bit.”

A terrifying pressure descended upon everyone in the store, almost pushing the presumptive customers to the floor. Everyone was impacted except Ekz, and no one could resist the undeniable power. It was obvious that the group was quite shaken by the monstrous force.

“I must remind you, accosting staff or any other customer while in the Boundless Dao Training Center will result in being kicked out and sometimes even black-listing.” Ekz reminded the group of six. 

“Earth Realm Master…” the young master pushed out between gritted teeth, clearly afraid.

As quickly as the pressure descended it once again disappeared, allowing the group from clan Varseth to take a ragged breath.

“I am sorry for the disrespect senior,” Var’Talek said as he bowed toward the stairs leading to the second floor. It appeared he assumed it was some old master sitting upstairs rather than the system enforcing the rules. “Go back to the clan. Get five branch members of early Body Tempering Realm to come here as soon as possible,” he added to the offending guard.

“I apologize for our rude companion, he will not interrupt your place of business again. Please activate four tokens, and give Gregor 6 hours of training time. Here is one Spirit Crystal and 30 Gold.” 

Do we accept crystals instead of gold? Ekz asked the voice and got an immediate affirmation that they did, at a 100:1 ratio. 

Ekz quickly took the currency and handed out another four tokens to the remaining people in the shop. Var’Talek obviously was interested in the token and traced the fractals on it with his fingers.

“May I ask what the purpose of this thing is?” he said as he scrutinized the little plaque. 

“The Membership Token record your achievements while training and contains your gains. You need your token to use our facilities, and to convert any of your finds to real items.” Ekz explained. 

Talek asked a few more questions about it, but Ekz only said that members had to explore the functions of the Dungeons themselves. It was partly due to incompetence, part to laziness, and part to get the young man to stop bothering him. 

Finally, the old guard who apparently was called Gregor once again put on the goggles after a nod from the young master and started blasting his way through the tunnel with goblins once again. 

“If you wish to see your progress you can give the mental command [Status]” 

A blue box appeared in front of Gregor on the monitor as he played, but its contents were blurred out for the spectators. 

“What do these things mean? It says I am level 32,” Gregor’s voice sounded out from the array.

“The Boundless Dao Training Center converts your power into what we call levels. Body Tempering Realm is level 1-25, Condensation Realm is 26-75. So from your level, I guess your cultivation stage is somewhere around early Condensation Realm.” Ekz diligently answered, his eyes darting toward the sofa every now and then.

The spectators seemed quite impressed and troubled at the same time that the device could see the guard’s cultivation stage so clearly. Generally, cultivation stages weren’t really a secret, as a single attack or skill use would clearly give it away from the spiritual waves emanating. But the device in front of them could tell without any spiritual waves. 

“And what about my class?” the guard asked.

“Your class is determined by your cultivation method, skills, and battle style. It affects how the training Dungeons are constructed, in order to give an appropriate challenge. Remember only you can see your status window, so you do not need to fear that your secrets will be exposed to curious onlookers.” Actually, Ekz could see the details as well, but what he said was true for any customers. The guard’s class was simply “Warrior”, which seemed quite bland.

Gregor quickly passed through the tunnels, finding harsher and harsher resistance along the way. Finally, he arrived at a large cavern, with over a hundred meters diameter. In the middle of the field was a supersized goblin, that was called a Goblin chieftain. He carried a large two-handed gnarled club.

It was the boss of the Beginner Dungeon.