Different skills and items were rattling through Christopher’s brain after going through them countless times. He must have stared at the interface store for hours. The decision on what to buy had proven to be a difficult one. Christopher currently had a total of 1510 Soul Points after buying Soul Sense for 850 earlier on the loop.

Regarding equipment, he had narrowed it down to only a few potential options.

The bow was on the top of his shortlist. Right now, it was the most unwieldy and difficult to carry of his usable weapons, so summoning and dispersing a bow could prove very useful. His skill with the bow had grown to an acceptable level but was still nothing that a professional archer would be impressed by.

Christopher believed that the Endless Bow might earn him back the 550 Soul Points rather quickly. He just needed to pick a few monsters off from a distance in order to earn back those points. It also gave him the opportunity to engage in situations that he might otherwise not be able to. That was why he had put this bow on the top of his list.

Buying the bow did kind of come with the requirement to buy another piece of equipment. A bow of course required a quiver filled with arrows, weighing him down even more. The store offered a good solution to this problem. The interface store offered a single metal arrow, and it mostly solved the problem of carrying a quiver.

The real value was all in the fact that this arrow was Soul Bound. The arrow was rather expensive in his opinion, costing a total of 500 Soul Points, which almost rivalled the much larger Endless Bow in cost. Christopher just assumed it attested to its quality and rarity. The combination of the bow and arrow would cost him a total of 1050 Soul Points, almost all that he had remaining.

Christopher could shoot this arrow at a creature of the blight, after which he could disperse it back into his Soul, and then he would summon it all over again. At least that was how Christopher imagined and hoped that it worked.

The arrow had him run an experiment on Soul Bound equipment. He bound his Adeline Dagger with [Soul Mark] and left it hidden behind some crates in the Underground of the Academy. Soul Bound equipment felt like a part of him, and he was surprised that he was still able to feel its direction as he left the mage District. Christopher realized that there might be some applications to this for potentially tracking targets.

He was surprised that he could keep such a distance from his Soul Bound dagger, and decided to test the distance that he could go from items that were Soul Bound. He walked as far as he safely could without leaving Lumen, and halfway through the city he felt himself reach some kind of threshold upon which the Adeline dagger dispersed back into his Soul. Christopher was actually overjoyed that he could summon it back from such a large distance. It also meant that his Adenium Arrow would not have the problem of dispersing halfway to a target.

That this arrow would do additional damage to creatures of the Blight was certainly also very attractive. That was why this pairing was at the top of the list.

Christopher was also interested in buying the quarterstaff, but that was unfortunately not an option, the price was too exuberant with 1800 Soul Points. He would have to revisit that purchase in the future.

There was one available piece of armor that he was also considering. It was hard to put a price on good protection. The cost was only 600 Soul Points making it very affordable.

There were some other interesting options like the Force Boots, but those were not a priority yet. Those would make more sense after mastering certain basic Soul Arts.

The remaining useful skills were rather sparse and disappointing, which led Christopher to wonder. Maybe the interface store just was very limited. He had been told that the administrator of this world had to limit their influence after all. Giving powerful tools left and right might be suspect in keeping things balanced. Another option was that he had to clear a certain hurdle or criteria to unlock further options.

Christopher had some skills on his shortlist, but none of them offered him a likely quick return on investment.

He knew he would have to buy two of the weapon training tools at some point. Both [Bow’s Arch] and [Staff’s Flow] cost 600 Soul Points.

[Dagger’s Flow] had proven its use, and these two skills would both be great training tools for when he actually started fighting real opponents with his staff and bow, which should already be during the invasion.

Christopher thought through all the options one final time before making his decision, but he now felt some confidence behind his picks. The invasion was now only a day away, and he would only need to kill a handful of new creatures of the Blight with the Endless Bow and Adenium Arrow to earn back his Soul Points. None of the other skills and equipment on his shortlist were that likely to increase his Soul Point gain during that time. [Staff’s Flow] and [Bow Arch] would help him during a fight, but the impact of buying the actual Bow and arrow first would likely be higher.

His decision was finally made. Christopher mentally accepted the purchase of both the bow and arrow, feeling them quickly build up inside his Soul. The feeling was difficult to describe but certainly not unpleasant, he felt an instant sense of familiarity with the weapon and arrow. [Soul Mark] had him familiar with the feeling but this was somewhat stronger. Hopefully The Endless Bow would prove its worth sooner rather than later. The purchase left Christopher with 460 Soul Points to his name, just short for [Staff’s Flow] and [Bow Arch] for now.

He summoned both items in his hands when no one was looking and marveled at the quality of the items. The Endless Bow was large and looked powerful, the wood was sleek and dense. He experimentally pulled back on the string and it was clear that there was potential for pulling it further if he just had more strength. He would turn some heads walking around with this weapon.

The Adenium Arrow was truly a craft of beauty. So many shades of grey and black were contained within the metal shaft. The arrow head was gleaming with a red tint, while the fletching was a lighter red, made from a material that was unknown to him. Christopher experimentally added some Soul Force to the arrow, and found it take his raw Soul Force extremely well. ‘Even more possibilities to explore there.’ Christopher realized.

Christopher was immediately more confident in his choice. He would have to get some quick practice in before tomorrow. He was not sure where to fit it in his already busy schedule.

——————<>——————

Christopher walked with nerves. ‘This is it!’ The day of the invasion and the moment of truth. If things failed, then his preparations for the start of the next loop were at least complete. Christopher had also extensively prepared for his plan with the Soul Alarm. He was confident about the timing of the invasion due to his work at the Lumen Constructors, and his task now was to raise the alarm a few minutes earlier than last time. That extra time would hopefully make a big difference in getting the people in place.

The initial feelings of panic due to seeing the flying monsters, as well as the subsequent desertions and mayhem at the sighting would hopefully be avoided that way. At least that was what he hoped, and he believed it worth a try.

Crafting a plan had not been easy, requiring quite some research and preparation. His work at the Lumen Constructors and some additional reading at the library had helped him figure out how a general Soul Alarm functioned, but he did not know the exact differences between a simple small alarm, and the giant construction that the Lumen Forces used. He had visited a shop in the Mage District to test out all variations of the device, just to see if he could get them working properly.

Christopher believed himself capable of setting off the giant alarm by himself after testing those devices. Every alarm was activated with Soul Heat, and the hissing of the giant constructs in the city suggested a similar design to the smaller devices. The scale was much larger than what he had tested on, but he believed that he should be able to pull it off. He had been able to power up that device at the Lumen Constructers after all, and Soul Heat was almost certainly his best Soul Art.

It was getting to the alarm that was the real issue. Christopher decided to inquire about information on the Soul Alarms from Naan, the blond caravan leader. It was clear that the man had some connections with the guards so Christopher figured he might know more.

He chose a good moment to engage the leader, and carefully navigated towards the topic of the Soul Alarms, feigning simple curiosity. Naan apparently trusted him quite a bit and surprisingly answered without hesitancy. Naan was not wrong about his character, but he would surely not have shared if he had known his plans for the near future.

“The system is pretty simple. With the heightened risk I suspect that two guards will be stationed in and around the alarm itself. Another few guards should be patrolling the area of the alarms. They two people around the alarm will be somewhat competent Soul Heat mages capable of activating the device. Together they will either imbue and raise the alarm when one of the nearby alarms is set off, or when they can spot a significant force bearing down upon the city through a viewing slot.”

“That’s good, so there is no chance of sabotage?”

“Sabotage? I suppose it is possible, but it would not be a simple matter. And all you would achieve is some momentary chaos, and a lot of angry people would be out for your blood.”

He stopped himself from gulping. ‘Well then, I better time it right.’

“Right, makes sense.” Christopher actually responded. He exchanged a few more pleasantries and then thanked the caravan leader for his explanation.

Christopher had inconspicuously staked out a few of the outer Soul Alarms that were contained inside the outer Sternel wall, which confirmed Naan’s words. The alarms were exposed to open air, allowing the sound to carry far. They were large iron lidded cylinders, assumedly filled with water to boil with Soul Heat.

The Soul Alarm enclosure could be reached from a small offshoot from the battlements, the path always guarded by a single guard. Another guard was permanently placed inside the alarm enclosure. Another one or two Guards were also always present in the general area of each Soul Alarm. There was a changing of the guard every half day. Christopher could not make heads or tails of the system in the battlements themselves, with people coming and going at all hours.

——————<>——————

‘This is it!’ The invasion was only moments away, but he should have timed this right. Christopher strode towards his chosen Soul Alarm, papers in his inner breast pocket. He was as ready as he was going to be, which was still not as ready as he wanted.