“What should I do now?” Being left behind, Andel felt troubled and also annoyed. If she had to ditch him, she shouldn’t have brought him in the first place. “I could have continued to practice. Ugh!” After throwing a short tantrum, Andel calmed down.

Shrugging his shoulders, he thought ‘might as well roam around, I guess.’ As he walked through the busy market of the night time, Andel remembered his past life. There are food stalls, electronic shops, saloons, everything that could be found on Earth was also here. But, this world also had shops that his Earth lacked.

For example, the shop he was currently looking at, didn’t exist on Earth.

Exon’s Armory.

It’s a shop with a colorful exterior and a solemn interior. A man in a dog costume, wearing medieval-styled armors and a steel long sword, stood outside the shop while performing various poses to attract the attention of the people. Feeling curious, Andel decided to enter and see what the shop sold.

In the main house, everything could be found inside the premises of the mansion itself. Though he had been to the market more often than not, he never saw a shop that sold armors and weapons.

As he stepped into the shop, a sales lady came forward in professional attire. Black pants, a white shirt, and a black sleeveless vest, it was the uniform of this shop. Andel noted that despite the masculine dress code, the girl still looked beautiful.

“Hello, eh… customer!? I am Tia. How can I help you?” Tia’s blue eyes shifted from Andel’s top to bottom as a forced smile appeared on her red lips. She hadn’t expected her first customer to be a little kid after her shift started in the evening. As a salesgirl, the bulk of her income comes from the commissions. A ten years old kid, what can he buy anyway?

Though she felt depressed, Tia still did her duty as a salesgirl.

“Mm, I am just taking a look around. Please excuse yourself.” Knowing the rules and feeling the displeasure of Tia, how can Andel allow her to follow him around? Flashing a smile, Tia nodded and backed away. At the same time, she also felt relieved. Exon’s customer support rule says that unless the customer lets her go, she must follow them until they leave the shop.

If she has to follow a person who wouldn’t buy anything, then that would waste her valuable time. She might lose her chance at the commission in case another person decides to buy something. Andel didn’t want that to happen.

Gorgeous looking armors with explosive names lined across the walls of the shop. From metal breastplate for defensive type ki practitioners to cloth armors for magicians, this shop had it all. Swords, daggers, nunchucks, wands, Andel found all types of weapons put on display. There were even a few unusual ones like scissor blades, a pair of gloves shaped like a claw. He even saw a magic wand with a human’s eye acting as its jewel hovering inside a sealed glass chamber.

While observing, he saw something that attracted his attention. It was a pair of fingerless gloves with metal plating on the back. Andel felt very attracted to the glove. Below the glove, on a card, its properties and abilities were mentioned.

Strengthening Gloves

Grade: F

Attributes: Increase the strength output by 50 PSI(pounds per square inch).

Prince: 900$

PSI was how the people of this world measure their strength. It stands for Pounds per square inch, which was nothing but the amount of pressure of one pound-force on one square inch surface. A trained ki practitioner of his age, who had reached level 2, had a strength of 40 PSI.

For Andel, his system’s one point in strength means 10 PSI. Currently, his strength, when measured according to common standards, was 130 PSI. A level 7’s maximum strength output was 200 points. He was short by 70 points.

[Note: from level 1 to level 5, a Warrior's strength increases by 20 points. And from 6 to 9, its 50 points per level up]

If he buys this glove, with Frenzy, he could bridge the gap and have enough spare strength to match evenly with a level 8 Warrior. Gloves like these didn’t have an active ability that needed ki, which was why it was the ideal equipment for him. After making his mind, Andel looked around for Tia, only to find her talking with a young man.

‘Hmm! Isn’t that one of the cronies of Paul?’ The young man was the shortest of the trio with a red-dyed Mohawk cut. Or maybe it was his natural hair color. Magic and ki in one’s system did bring some weird DNA changes. Having different hair colors was not unusual. Andel had even seen people with extra appendages. Of course, it wasn’t as excessive as completely losing human appearance.

‘Interesting!’ Andel, who was getting bored waiting, thought of an idea to have some fun. He walked up to Tia, “Excuse me, I want to buy… hey! It's you!” Andel ‘exclaimed’ with widened eyes while pointing at the Mohawk teen.

“Who!?” Hearing someone talking to him, when the teen turned around, he got the shock of his life. He didn’t expect to bump into this ‘devil’ while coming to meet his sister. “Y, you!?” He stuttered as a look of abject horror surfaced on his face.

“You know him, Tim?” Tia asked with her eyebrows raised. Regarding her wayward brother, she was very disappointed. Due to that, she also had a biased opinion of all his friends and acquaintances. After all, what good friend a delinquent like him could have?

“Well, we met once at Clody Dojo. Isn’t that right, Tim?” Andel asked, with his lips stretched wide and eyes narrowed.

“Y, yeah. Sis, I will be back later.” Stuttering out a goodbye, Tim beat a hasty retreat. In his heart, the longer he stays close to this devil, the dangerous it will become for him.

Seeing his departing back, that somehow reminded Andel of a dog running away with its tails between legs, he smiled victoriously. It was fun to mess around with this kind of person. Shaking his head, he looked at Tia, only to see her giving him red eyes.

“What?” Unable to understand, Andel asked the reason as to why this saleslady behaving rudely.

“You are still young. You shouldn’t mix with people like him.” Tia said seriously before shaking her head in resignation. Regaining her professional smile, she asked about Andel’s reason for coming to find her.

Disregarding her judging look, which Andel had seen aplenty, he pointed at the pair of gloves in the showcase and asked her to pack it up.

“You want to buy it?” She was surprised to see a kid this young could afford so much money. Her monthly salary without any bonus was only 500$. She didn’t expect to see a child, young enough to be her younger brother, with more money than her monthly salary.

‘Must be the son of a wealthy couple.’ If only she knew just how close she was to the truth.

“Yes, of course.” Andel nodded.

“Alright, give me a minute. I will pack it for you.” With a smile on her face, Tia excitedly went to retrieve the glove from the showcase. After she packed it neatly in a leather-coated wooden box, she came back with a POS machine and handed the box to him.

“Together with taxes, your total is 910$. Pay by cash or card?”

“Cash.” Saying so, Andel handed her a stack of bills. “Give me 90$ back.”

After the transaction was complete, Andel walked out, holding the box in his hand. Looking at the wide streets and busy shops, he wondered where he should go next. But, before he could decide on anything, an explosion occurred right behind him.

To be more precise, inside the shop that he just left.