The howling of beasts could be heard within the darkness. Hearing the noises, Urist and Uria readied themselves to sound the alarm. Thankfully as the market timer ticked down to the minutes the beasts never came to attack.

30,29,28...15,14,13… 8,7,6… 3,2,1.

The Market has opened! Civilization leader, please take a look!

You have mail!

Bamboo Seeding timer activated 6 Days 11 Hours 59 Mins

Rat Tide timer activated 13 Days 11 Hours 59 Mins

Beast Swarm timer activated 21 Days 11 Hours 59 Mins

Frowning at the new timers Urist wasn’t surprised in them showing up he was more worried about what these events would bring. Guessing by the names, he knew that with their current strength they would be destroyed within the month if they didn’t remedy their defenses.

He decided to put off planning their defenses until he scouted out the market to see what it had to offer. But before he could open the market, an envelope with a message saying he had mail appeared in his mind. Bewildered he shrugged his shoulders and mentally clicked on the envelope.

Civilization Stone(Tier 1) 1x

Armament Stone(Tier 1) 1x

Do you accept Y/N?

Urist accepted the strange items and with a small flash of light two boxes appeared in front of him floating in the air. Uria watched in amazement as Urist reached out for the boxes and handed them over to her.

“Keep these safe I’ll look them over afterward.”

“Ok?”

With a thought, a screen appeared in front of Urist that had a single button that had the words world market. Clicking the button, a scale appeared then disappeared as new tabs appeared.

Buy, Sell, Trade, and Auction. The names are self-explanatory, but what can you buy from the market anyway?

Following his curiosity, he clicked an info icon on the buy button and started reading.

So I can use the points we gained to buy items from the system. And I can buy up to tier three items, with tier two costing ten times and tier three one hundred times more than normal, thanks to us being a tier-one civilization.

With this information, I wonder what the other civilization leaders will spend their points on. For now, I guess I’ll buy something like the Tier 1 information on the world after I do more research on the market.

Urist decided not to be tempted as he limited points to spend and each choice would decide their fate of survival. Next, he clicked the sell tab to confirm what he expected only to get a warning telling him to activate a Civilization Crystal. The same thing happened with the trade option when he tried to activate it.

He was able to open up the auction tab, only nothing was available on the list to bid on. Interested, in the option he tried to put an object up for sale which was one of his bamboo water holders. He was denied as well in doing so until he set up his Civilization Stone.

So I can’t activate three out of the four buttons without the stone. This little thing will be pretty important to us, from now on I’ll have to put it in a safe place and defensible place to not lose it. Guess I’ll put the two in the deepest part of the cave and call it good for now.

“Uria, I’ve checked through the information. Can you give me the boxes back? I have to place them inside the cave to go further.”

“Here you go. Although, can you tell me what you found out?”

“After I confirm all the options I’ll tell you what I discovered. Alright?”

“Sounds good to me.

Boxes in hand, he opened them to reveal two faintly glowing stones. Raising an eyebrow Urists thoroughly inspected the two stones. The Civilization stone was shaped like an orb and gave off a blue glow and the Armament stone had a sharp spear-like shape that glowed red.

With the stones in hand, he thought about it for a bit before making up his mind in where to place them. Urist put them back in a box and opened the buy menu to try and buy a torch. Thankfully, it worked and he only spent one point on it. Impatient to set up the two stones, Urist lit the torched and walked into the cave quietly. He found who he was looking for and woke up two dwarfs as it was their turn to take over guard duty.

Bewildered at the stick on fire the dwarfs asked Urist what it was. Urist answered telling them it was called a torch and said he was heading to the back of the cave and not mind him.

With Uria in tow behind him, the two dwarfs who had awoken watched them make their way to the back of the cave. Walking in silence the two got to the end of the cave and placed the stones on the ground. Reading the instructions that came in the box and figured out what he had to do to activate the stones.

Using the bronze dagger, Urist pricked his ring finger and squeezed out two drops of blood on the stones. Urist and Uria watched in curiosity as the drops of blood were sucked into the stones like magic. Suddenly a flash of light exploded out of the stones blinding the two dwarfs in an instant.

The light then converged into Urist’s head causing the information to start flowing into his brain making him drop the torch. Regaining her eyesight shortly after Uira looked around just in time to see Urist fall to the ground fall down and start spazzing. Quickly she grabbed the torch and moved it away from Urist to make sure he didn’t catch fire.

With that danger out of the way, fear took over causing her to scream down the tunnel.

“The boss is acting strange I need help!”

The dwarfs woke up quickly and moved as fast as they could down the tunnel. When the party reached them Urist was already awake rubbing his head mumbling, “So that’s how it works… And that’s how we use the Armament stone… Man, what magical bullshit items they are.”

Besides looking at their leader the dwarfs glanced around in shock and awe. As this section of the cave wasn’t a cave anymore, now there were walls with small white crystals embedded in the walls. In the center of the new room, two pillars stood with a red crystal on one and a statue of a dwarf on the other.

Rat spoke up kneeling in front of Urist, “You alright boss? What happened here? What is with this fancy room?”

Holding his throbbing head, “I’ll tell you tomorrow. I’ve grown tired and need rest, just prepare that two new dwarfs will be here tomorrow…” Urist whose head shook back and forth passed out in Uria’s lap.

“Boss? Boss!”