[BLESSED EXCHANGE PROPERTY MAP]

Rick saw a new option on the Lesser God’s System, but only briefly. The crows around him realised that Maya had disappeared from the stage as well and started hustling around aimlessly. He was getting pushed from everywhere, and without the Manager on site, there was no one to control the least a million people in the crowd anymore.

“Let’s get to the Temple first,” Rick shouted over at the others.

Samira, Jay and Dale quickly screamed over their reply as well. After a lot of shoving and pushing the four of them crossed the large gates to the Temple and found themselves inside in the temple’s outer-garden. Suddenly there was enough space again. It was like they had got out of a busy subway and into a park.

All four of them were panting, trying to catch their breath.

“How did she do that?” he said between deep breathes. Rick looked around the place and the beauty of the place was mesmerising.

The outer-garden itself was immense. The Temple was like a City in itself! Of all the unexplainable things he had encountered since the Heaven’s Dictate, he had never come across anything so phenomenal. While the entire world beyond the Temple gates looked like a wasteland on the flat world of Blessed Exchange, the Temple was a completely different tale.

It felt like the entire world of Blessed Exchange outside the Temple was the same dry and grey flat-land without water, trees, or anything else in sight. Compared to that the trimmed bushes, blooming flowers and decorated ponds with birds flying overhead, the Temple was in the true sense an oasis in a desert world.

“Damn that Manager-lady has taste,” Jay whistled as he looked around. With a loose smile on his face, he said in a daze, “This Temple is crazy dude. It just draws you in!”

“I know exactly what you’re talking about,” Rick said blankly. The more he looked around, the more fascinated he felt. There was so much to see that he was sure he could just sit there for a couple of hours staring at it.

“Peep,” he heard his little bird's chirp, drawing his attention away for the Temple

“Hey Pip,” he said looking at the little firebird pretending to be a chick. “Oh ya, we should buy the land quickly.”

“Do you realize this is only the outer garden right?” Jay said looking at Samira. “I so wanna go see that Temple now. It must be filled with magic.”

Although he knew better, Rick couldn’t help take another moment to enjoy the Temple either.

“Peep!” he heard Pip’s voice again.

He turned back to the little yellow chick looking intensely and laughed, “Oh, you miss me now, is it? Sammy is getting boring right?”

“Look at those tiny houses. I bet they are the shops Maya was talking about. We can buy the Teleportation circle prints as well. I need to check them, people. You guys coming?” Jay asked excitedly.

“Can we discuss the shop first?” said Dale holding his arms out as he blocked Jay’s path.

“Jay, you can go later, let’s finish the important work first,” Samira said holding Jay by his wrist.

“Oh yes. My bad, I almost forgot about that,” Jay chuckled and his jerked back to look at them. He jumped down on the grass and opened the system added, “Let’s get shopping!”

“Yes,” said Rick following Jay on the ground as well. He quickly opened the Lesser God’s System and opened the Blessed Exchange Map.

[BLESSED EXCHANGE PROPERTY MAP]

Just like Manager Maya had promised, the Temple Map was as intuitive as she had promised.

With the Temple on one end of the map, there was a single broad road that ran through the market with properties of both sides and by-lanes in between. All the plots were divided into squares that progressively got more expensive the closer it was to the Temple.

[Please assign all persons participating in this purchase.]

[All assigned persons can choose how much Blessed Stones to contribute for the purchase.]

There was even an option to list to co-own a plot of land!

“It’s like one of those mobile games,” said Jay.

“It is… just with a lot of other features!” Rick realised the uncanny resemblance as well. He was getting annoyed at how this God was treating their lives like a literal game. It was too irritating, to say the least!

“Rick start looking, some of the less expensive ones are already getting sold,” Jay noted.

Rick looked back the screen and realised that a few of the squares were already marked red, signifying that they were already bought out along with the name under which it was bought. But there was something more important to finalise.

“Jay keep me updated please,” he said, closing his screen. He looked over to the ex-soldier and asked. “Dale, what about you? You came along with us till here, should I take that as a yes then?”

“One second, please. Before we start, can I ask something, first?” Dale said.

“Can we do that after we buy a place? That’s rather time-sensitive,” Rick said with an insipid smile.

“I can only agree to join you based on the answer I get really,” Dale shook his head no.

“Fine, tell me what’s on your mind?” he relented. Although it would probably be better to buy the place first, it was an acceptable compromise to get the ex-soldier into his camp.

“This is for everyone,” Dale said looking at Samira and Jay who gave a nodded of their assent. “I think it is safe to say we are all interested in opening this shop, right?”

“Yes.”

“Obviously.”

“Yup.”

All three of them answered at once.

“Why exactly do you guys want to start this?” Dale asked.

Rick didn’t answer immediately, neither did the others. If he was correct about where this conversation was going, he wasn’t sure it would be a comfortable answer.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, why a shop? There must be a reason, right? There are easier ways to get by, then start a shop. This will probably cut-in on the time you have for increasing your strength,” said Dale. He looked at everyone before continuing. “I’ll be honest. I’m in it hoping to find more trustworthy people like you all. The world needs people who can be trusted in humanity has to survive this alien invasion.”

‘Is that it?’ Rick wondered.

He was impressed that the reticent ex-soldier held such high regards for their rag-tag group of people. But at the same time, Rick was concerned that his reasons would be too shallow for Dale’s satisfaction. Rick knew why he wanted to start the shop, but he didn’t feel too certain about sharing them right now.

But another point he realised was that he never truly gave much thought why the Samira and Jay had volunteered to join him start a shop either. Just like Dale said, this venture would definitely eat up the time they could be spending getting stronger themselves!

“Okay, I can understand you might have your reservations about opening up like that. But if are to start a business together we can’t have any conflict of interests, right?” said Dale.

Rick couldn’t refute Dale’s words. After all, the shop wouldn’t be just his. Since everyone was contributing to it, it only made sense that they were partners in this venture. Besides, there was no way he would be able to man the stall the entire time. This meant that he would have to trust others with his needs to make sure that if someone with the relevant information arrived at the shop, he wouldn’t just turn away.

“I agree. The only way for us to work together is if we are honest with each other,” said Rick sincerely. It was inevitable that they would have to open up about their information sooner or later. Since it was inevitable, it was best to take the initiative and come out in support rather than look like a weak opposition. “I am looking for people that can give me information about crafting higher-ranked golems.”

His answer was technically not a lie, crafting higher-ranked golems did require information about other Core Runes. As such, his answer was much less a lie and more of a deceitful misdirection. Or so he tried to convince himself.

“Thanks for the support.”

While Rick’s initiative definitely improved Dale’s perception of Rick, Jay quickly jumped onto the boat as well.

“I found some information about something called the World Tree and the key to finding it is an artefact called the simulacrum. That’s what I am after,” Jay said with a confident grin.

Jay didn’t hide anything about his intentions even one bit.

On the other hand, Samira said that she was looking for better equipment for herself. Rick was amused every time how his careful planner of a sister could tolerate the loud-mouth Jay for so long.

The conversation was an eye-opener for him. All this while he had never stopped to wonder why anyone else would even entertain the idea of starting a shop. He always supposed that Samira would join him just to help her brother out, while Jay would agree because of Samira. Dale too, he assumed, would agree to repay his ‘debt’ to Kir or in exchange for some favour. But the truth was way-off. Every one of them had their motivations for starting the shop.

‘Wow, I am quite a narcissist,’ Rick chuckled at himself.

“So what’s it going to be Dale?” he asked. Although he appreciated the self-refection he had because of the ex-soldier, he wasn’t going to waste anymore time convincing the man than he had to.

“I had to make sure none of you was here for any murderous reasons. We have our baggage, but unless we get into this for resolving grudges, I think we can work just perfectly,” Dale laughed with his hands in the air. He let out a tight-lipped smile and said, “I am in.”

“Welcome to the team,” Rick said with a sigh.

He felt a weight lift from his shoulders. With Dale’s assent, he finally secured another powerful backing! While as Kir, he had the backing of Azer and the Celestial Devotees. He was sorely lacking in any credible backing as his real self – Rick Hanique. The only backing he had secured as Rick were that of his sister and Jay which hardly something he had secured on his merit. But now with Dale in his folds, it felt like he finally made his first sale!

“Hah! Congratulations and welcome my friend,” Jay laughed patting the soldier.

“Thank you for having me,” Dale said with a beaming grin.

“Now that everyone’s convinced, please can be finally started?” said Rick pleaded desperately.