[Brand design completed. Tattooing master brand on the top of the right hand now. 10%...40%....60%...99%.....100%. Master Brand received.]

I felt some slight discomfort as the brand was forcibly etched into my being and onto the top of my right hand, but once it was done it looked gorgeous. Forever a reminder of why I fight.

Happy with my first purchase, I got back to work. My next purchase was one that was imperative to my survival, the inventory.

The ability to store food, water, and other essentials without being weighed down by them was an incredible advantage to anyone who wanted to survive in horrible situations, especially the apocalypse.

What cost people their lives the most during the end of the world? Food and water.

And what did people leave the most when they were forced to run away to survive? Food and water.

Most people ditched the heavy sacs of food or jugs of water and hoped that they could find more when they finally outran the danger. But that was a mistake. Over time, food became sparser, and water became tainted. But if you didn’t have to worry about leaving your food and water behind, then you could carry more and be able to fight harder and run away faster from danger.

This was one of the biggest obstacles in the apocalypse, and with this purchase I was able to reduce this obstacle to a minor hindrance.

After purchasing the inventory, a new screen appeared next to the shop's screen that allowed me to place anything I purchased into the inventory.

‘That’s pretty helpful.’

I then began to purchase the other vital items that I deemed as necessary purchases. I first bought a complete set of camping gear, a tent, sleeping roll, etc. Then 3 months of food for 10 people, 300 gallons of water, flint and steel, 15 sets of clothing for a variety of environments and temperatures, 2 sets of leather armor for myself, 2 sets of mithril light armor for myself, 2 sets of adamantium light armor, 2 sets of iron heavy armor, 2 sets of mithril heavy armor, 2 sets of adamantium heavy amors for myself, 2 steel short swords, 2 mithril short swords, 2 adamantium short swords, 2 steel axes, 2 mithril axes, 2 adamantium axes, 4 steel tower shields, 4 mithril tower shields, 4 adamantium tower shields, 2 iron spears, 2 steel spears, 2 mithril spears, 2 adamantium tipped spears, 4 iron daggers, 4 steel daggers, 4 mithril daggers, 4 adamantium daggers, 1,000ft of iron wire, 1,000ft of copper wire, 1,000ft or rope, 1,000ft of twine, 2 wooden bows, 2 iron bows, 2 mithril bows, 2 adamantium bows, 10,000 wooden arrows, 10,000 iron tipped arrows, 10,000 steel tipped arrows, 1,000 adamantium tipped arrows, a few bowls, pans, cooking utensils, a few shovels, a few hoes, some farming and gardening equipment, 1,000s of seeds of most crops from my world and many from the main world that I had no idea currently of their nutritional value or how to farm, buckets, blankets, overcoats, an iron anvil, a mithril anvil, an adamantium anvil, forging equipment and hammers, a few other miscellaneous things, and finally 100lbs of soap.

Not taking a bath for so long made me realize the necessity and bliss of actually being able to bathe and feel clean. I then purchased some of the main world’s currency, 1,000,000 gold, 50,000 silver, and 100,000 bronze coins.

I knew that in the beginning, currency would still be needed and valued for; trade, bribes to gain information or safe passage, and basic everyday purchases. However, as the end rode on, currency would soon be replaced with food and water. Thankfully, the coins were not that expensive. It was one point for one gold, half a point for a silver, and a 10th of a point for copper. What the currency is actually worth in the main world will be something I will also need to research when I arrive.

With the daily essentials covered I then moved onto the pricier items, namely the enhancement potions.

I quickly opened the enhanced potions tab and purchased 10 of each potion. Currently, I am limited by the number of points I have and splurging too much on one thing in the beginning like buying 100s of positions would be an obvious mistake.

No, my plan in the beginning was to first start with a group of 10 branded people and train them and increase their strength and power. Those 10 people could then help me train the next 10 and then the next 10 as time went on.

One major issue that I contemplated on was the fact that I could not see myself in the beginning being able to support more than 10 people while under the radar of the more powerful factions and groups already established in this world. After all, governments and underground organizations are commonplace in civilized society, and gaining their attention when I do not know enough about where I am, would be a quick way to die.

After purchasing all of that, a new box appeared on the top of the store.

[Points left: 1,000,000]

It was the number of points I had left to spend! But why did it only show up now?

‘Maybe it only shows the points I have when its 1,000,000 points or less?.......Interesting, especially since the pricier items in the store are much higher than 1,000,000. You would have no way of knowing if you had enough until you clicked on it and were able to purchase them.

Maybe the store doesn’t want you to purchase the more expensive items?….no…not the store. The creators/gods?….interesting.’

I quickly shook those thoughts out of my head. I needed to stay focused and edit my plans now that I knew how many points I had left. I still had one last tab to open and spend on, the skills tab.

The skills tab was the final stop in my preparations because it was the least important on my list. After all, I am not there to be the best fighter, I was there to survive, so my first goal go was to be able to gather supplies that I would need to support and provide for not only myself but for those I would brand to be my fighters going forward.

Some might say that’s crazy, and that you need personal power to be safe. I would completely agree with that statement; however, I bet those people haven’t had to suffer through an apocalypse.

As someone who has, I think my decisions were completely rational. I remember being so thirsty that I would lick at the dew on rocks to state my thirst, I remember being so hungry that I would eat the worms and ants in the dirt to fill that painful void in my stomach. After a few weeks of barely any food, you will try almost anything. Thankfully, my fear of becoming a zombie stopped me from eating the bodies of the dead. But anything else was free game when you’re so hungry.

I never wanted to go through that again, so my purchases were completely rational. Now, if I could do both and gain the food and supplies and spells and skills now, great, if not, not a major issue. After all, I can buy anything I missed after I built up more points from my fighters from killing the undead.

I then turned my head to the skills tab, particularly the spells sub-tab.

Ever since the screens appeared they had all been hinting at something missing from my world, mana. Then the first reward from the screens was choosing all weapons or all magic capability. Again, another point towards how important mana and magic was in this world. Seeing the obvious hints, I followed obediently to the spells sub-tab.

I knew myself. I knew I wasn’t the best fighter. Hell, my wife could whoop my butt 9 times out of 10, and I would only win the 10th time because she took pity on my poor pride. But there was something I was better at than her and all my comrades and friends and family. That’s why they were always the ones urging me to live on and would trust me as their commander, leader, or adviser.

What I had was what they called, a sixth sense. That was my talent. I could almost feel if something was wrong, or if something bad was coming. It saved my family and friends more times than I could count. They called me their lucky charm.

‘But how lucky could I really have been if I ended up losing them all…’

I shook my head and re-focused. Again, I knew myself, that’s why I knew something important was interconnected with mana and magic and my survivability for the future. It was like an itch in the back of your mind telling you to move, and that’s what I had now with mana and magic. Not-so-much spells per se, that’s why they were the last on my list of purchases, but magic and mana in general. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew it was important enough that I would have to investigate more when I arrived on the main world.

Looking at the list again, I was in awe of how many spells there really were. It took me the equivalent of 3-4 hours in the void, if time mattered here, during my original planning stage, just to plan the spells I would learn if I had the extra points to afford them.

During my original planning, I first thought to choose the most expensive spell, my reasoning was that if it were so expensive then it should be really good. However, when I thought about that, I realized what a foolish thought that was. Getting skills that were expensive just because the screens deemed them so could backfire immensely.

It would be like me going back to my world and instead of a gun with a dozen bullets to defend myself, I had a nuclear warhead, but no way to actually use it without killing myself. In the end, it would be a massive burden on me and could even get me killed.

No. I needed to choose spells that would specifically help me and be useful to me so that I could accomplish my goals. The worst thing I could do is attract attention to myself in the main world early on(maybe even later on). If I suddenly show up and I use a super powerful spell, everyone and their brother would talk about me, I could immediately find myself in the cross hares of some powerful people(and from my experience, not for good reasons).

From my experience, if you wanted to survive, let the big shots duke it out and weaken themselves while you watch on the sidelines, hide your strength, and only engage if you can get what you want and get out of there before someone, or something, tries to come after you.

If there is one thing that I learned from the apocalypse, inaction or fleeing could be the best option that saves your life in a pinch. So, I needed to be meticulous with my choices, especially now that I know how many points I had left.

As I gazed at the screen, I sighed and started another long planning session, some of my earlier spell choices had to be thrown out and remade to accommodate the number of points I had left.

I quickly perused each spell and chose the ones that I found were the best to cover my most basic bases and help in any event or problem that may/would present itself(with my current information).

Being prepared for the worst helps you survive the worst, because most times you do, in fact, face the worst. At least that is what my pessimistic side would say.

That all being said, the main reason/the big thing that stopped me from purchasing any majorly expensive spells around 1,000,000 points was the Heal spell that cost 500,000 points.

Out of EVERYTHING that I need, being healthy was almost at the top of the list for spells. What happens when the undead rise? Disease and death spreads at an unimaginable rate. What’s the scarcest and most important commodity in the apocalypse besides food and water? Medicine.

Thousands died for just a few bottles or pills back in my world. Everyone was so desperate to keep their health up, because once you got sick your chances of survival were cut by half or more.

I still remember watching people just lay on the ground, sick as dogs, to just wait for the zombies because they knew that they wouldn’t be able to flee them. So, having a spell that I can use to not only heal myself but also others was the first spell I planned to learn if I had the points to do so.

After hitting the purchase button, I felt a wealth of information fill my head. How to cast the spell, what it did, and how it could be used. When it was done, I could confidently say that I could cast the spell.

Casting a spell, such an interesting thought. The information I received was dense and informative. It showed me more than just how to cast a spell. It showed me different ways spells were cast and included parts of a language I had not known beforehand. A language or runes.

The first way to cast a spell was to do it silently, force the mana in your body to do what you wanted. The next was to complete a long chant to bring about the spell. The third and last way was to draw the runes that make up the spell into the air to form its specific pattern to cast the spell. It was all incredibly interesting. Each had its pros and cons too.

Drawing it in the air had the most stability in case you messed up, allowing you to easily fix it in the air before actually casting it with no repercussions. Chanting it made the spell stronger and more powerful while being less stable. The repercussions of such an action from the new information in my head would be a painful headache. Finally, silently casting the spell had the benefit of more control over the spell, faster casting, and a decreased chance of being stopped by others while you cast it. Apparently you could be interrupted by others while you were casting the spell. Quite the interesting piece of information I didn’t know before.

I also learned that it was nigh impossible to stop someone from casting a spell silently. The only downside from casting silently was the increased mana cost.

All of this new information was incredibly interesting to me, but I still had more purchases to make, so I got back to it.

The next two purchases I chose were not spells per say or even in the spells tab. This caused me to ponder why. They were so vital to mana and magic and spells, but they weren’t in the spells sub-tab. No, they were in the third sub-tab, skills.

They were mana heart and mana brain. Mana heart provided a 100% increase in mana regeneration while mana brain provided 100% increase in one’s mana pool. Both were completely necessary going forward, especially since they only cost 50,000 points each.

However, the second after I hit the purchase on mana heart I felt an enormous amount of pressure on my chest. My breath left me, and I began to gasp. My chest felt like it was on fire and breaking apart. But as quickly as it came the pressure eased.

It may have been because I had experienced the pain of having my cells rewritten with mana, but the pain I felt wasn’t as bad as I thought. Still, I was incredibly surprised by the outcome of my purchase.

‘What the hell? I thought mana heart and brain were skills not actual parts of your body!’

I rubbed my temples and sighed. I knew I needed mana brain, but now I also knew that I would be in a lot of pain after purchasing it.

After hyping myself up, I pressed the purchase button. The pain I was expecting came in waves, much worse than mana heart. Think of it like getting a headache, and then having someone hit your head with a sledgehammer repeatedly. That’s what it felt like.

My brain was being batted around in my skull for quite a long time. But like it always does, the pain faded away and I was left looking back at the blue screen in the void.

‘fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. That suuuucked.’

I took a moment to reorient myself again and plan my next purchases. I only had so many points left after all.

It took only a few moments of contemplation, before I resumed my spending spree. After hitting the purchase button on each of them, I gained the same kind of insight and information that I gained from heal. None of my following purchases brought me any more surprises or pain thankfully.

It now felt like I had a small library of books in my head with the information I purchased. That being said, it will probably take a lot of time for me to master any of the skills I bought. Having the information on how to farm was great, but that was many steps away from actually using the information to farm correctly.

I would have to experiment with my spells and skills when I move to the main world, but for now, I felt that I was ready to try again and struggle against the abyss that was coming.

With a firm, determined face, I reviewed the shop one last time, reviewed my inventory, and then finally closed out of the shop. I had prepared enough for the situations that I could think of, for the others I would do as I have always done, take it as I go.

I took a deep breath, made a quick prayer to my family and loved ones while I held the master seal close, before forcing my will onto the screen, affirming my choice that I was ready to enter the main world.

*Ding*

[Understood. Beginning the process to transfer to main world. Time until abyss invasion, 62 days. The system wishes host luck.]

I let out a breath or relief with that new information.

’62 days!.... I have some time!’

Those were my last thoughts as my body began to burn and my vision began to darken. For a moment, I feel weightless. Then I felt myself move in so many different directions at once. It felt like I was being pulled apart at the seams and then squished and mashed into a tiny dot. I wanted to throw up and scream in pain at the same time, but thankfully, I blacked out before any of it happened.