"System... What is the benefit for upgrading Purchase Channel?" Asked Max. He was curious about upgrading Purchase Channel.
"Many good benefits."
Two panels appeared at the same time.
[Ding!]
[Beast Food Channel(Ordinary)]
[Bonus: None]
[Ding]
[Beast Food Channel+1(Ordinary)]
[Bonus(Random Per Level): Extra Draw Limit(Random), Stronger Efficiency(Random), Extra Content(Random), Random Chances To Draw Rare Beast Food(Ordinary)]
"You call this good benefits. Are you fucking kidding me, System?" Max cursed. Nothing about upgrading brought benefits to him. He would prefer if it increased selling price or get some discounts for drawing. Less coss higher price. That's what he called as good benefits.
"It is good benefits, host." Unfortunately for him, this cheating System didn't implement good benefits for its host.
"Fine. What about random chances to draw rare Beast Food? Is it about increasing the chance to draw rare elements?"
"No, host. Rare in this context is standardize Beast Food."
[Ding!]
[Power Beast Food(Ordinary)]
[A rare food specifically designed to increase Beast's Physical Power and to cater Beast appetite and taste. It works best for Infant to Juvenile Stage]
"Power Beast Food(Ordinary) is one of them."
It was somewhat different than his original expectations.
"Why there's no Elemental in the name? Beast Earth Power Food or other elements."
"It is because it is only a starter Purchase Channel to make it attractive to many Beastmasters. Once host has reached certain level of upgrades, it will become normal and standardize."
Now Max understood.
His store was a new opened store. Using name such Elemental Beast Food or Power Beast Food would make people doubting the authenticity. System separated Elemental Beast Food into variants to make it attractive to many Beastmasters and shuffled other Beast Food types into rare category. It stayed that way until he managed to reach certain upgrade levels.
At least that's how he interpreted it.
"How about the price?"
It would be a normal thinking that since Elemental Beast Food was separated into variants, the price was low.
"The price stays the same."
"Hold on, System. Did I just hear you saying that the price won't have any changes?"
"Correct, host."
Max should have expected something like this to happen. System was an entity that existed to cheat his money and benefits off him. "Then what's the point of upgrading."
"..."
[Ding!]
[Quest(New)]
[Upgrade Beast Food Channel(Ordinary) to Beast Food Channel+2(Ordinary)... 0/1]
[Ding!]
[Quest(New)]
[Sell at least 10 Standard Beast Food(Ordinary)... 0/10]
[Ding!]
[Quest(New)]
[Upgrade to Store Owner(Level 2)]
[Requirement: 10PS, Beast Food Channel+2(Ordinary), Water Converter Channel+2(Ordinary), (Hidden
Max flat-lined at System's nasty behavior. "Really, System? This is how you want to play?"
[Ding!]
[System is under maintenance]
He groaned seeing the notification. This System playing dodgy with him again.
"Here we go again."
[Ding!]
[System is under maintenance]
"I need fresh air." Max decided he was going to close the store early and went out for sightseeing. It had been a while since he went out other than looking for something to eat. "Rema, you coming?"
"*Rabbit Noise*" Rema said she was not interested. She was going to take a nap first.
"Okay." He opened a Beast Space and let her to go inside.
----------Break----------
"Is this really the store?"
Three people plus one Beast were standing outside one of the buildings at Business District. If not for the sign saying Max's Deluxe Beast Store, anyone who saw the building would assume it was an abandoned building.
"Yes. I bought Beast Ice Food here."
Among the three, only one who had been here. His name was Aleph Ronson, a student of Amber Beast Academy. He was here with Number One in Freshman Ranking and his homeroom teacher. The two didn't believe that something like Beast Ice Food existed or other elemental Beast Foods. But facts spoke louder than imagination. His power ranking rose from 729 of 881 to 461 of 881. That was in a week.
His Snowy-Cloud Feathered Pigeon, Fro, was a Beast with Ice element, a rare type Beast. But his Beast's rarity didn't mean it had advantage in power, at least not in current region. Amber City was located in Category E Zone and the weather was dry. If it were Ice Field Zone or Snowy Zone, he was sure he could get higher ranking easily.
"Student Ronson. I hope you don't make a fool out of me."
Seeing his teacher's expression, Aleph panicked. "I'm not lying, Teacher Upa."
"Then why am I looking at a store that looks like a slum instead of a high class store?"
Aleph was screaming inside his head. How should he know? He was not the one who opened this store. His homeroom teacher was correct though.
A high class store would sell a high class product. Looking at the store's condition, let alone selling high class product, it was doubtful if the product sold was real.
"I swear, Teacher Upa, this is the place." Aleph insisted that what he said was true. "My Beast Ice Food was bought from this store." Other stores didn't sell this Beast Food and called him crazy for trying to buy something that didn't exist.
"But it is closed."
"Maybe the store owner is out or he doesn't open the store today." Aleph said that to comfort himself. He had one other guess that he didn't dare to say. The store owner was bankrupt.
"A store like this, only an idiot like you will go." Number One Freshman, Allen Pollock, sneered.
"Set aside what student Pollock said, are you sure you are not scammed?" Even though Aleph had the evidence, Teacher Upa still didn't believe him.
"No. I'm sure everything's real." To him, it was real. Just in almost a week he had his Beast eaten Beast Ice Food, it grew bigger and its elemental power was stronger, perhaps several times stronger than it was before.
Before, his Beast would have a hard time during training session. Now, it was still hard but it could last longer than 4 minutes and hit 9 minutes 23 seconds and the elemental attack was greater than before.
For an Infant Stage, it was excellent. Infant Stage with that kind of power was the mark of a Star Beast, a favorite. It would become a very powerful Beast if he could develop it further. With Beast Ice Food, his Beast development until it reached Mature Stage was guaranteed.
"Just admit it, you don't want us to know where you bought it."
"I told you this is the place. If you think you can find it somewhere else, you are welcome to look for it." Typical arrogant asshole. Always think that he was right. Aleph had tried to find Elemental Beast Food by visiting many stores but he didn't find it.
"You!"
"Children... Do not fight."
"But Teacher Upa, he started it."
"I don't care who started it first. We are here to find Elemental Beast Food and see if we can get the store to exclusively provide us. Our Academy is going to join Inter-Academy event several months from now. I won't let any of you to make problems."
That's right.
As Teacher Upa said, Amber Beast Academy was going to enter Inter-Academy event held every ten year. In that event, the winner would take the crown achievement as the best Beast Academy from several cities nearby. Each Academy would send several candidates that personally selected after rigorous selections. The categories for participation in selection were having a Mature Beast and at least Normal Level Beast and the highest was Elite Level Beast.
The reason why Teacher Upa wanted him to lead the way where Elemental Beast Food was sold, it was because he wanted Allen to participate in the selection.
Allen's Beast was a very rare Beast that one couldn't find easily. With Dual Elemental, Thunder and Darkness, his future as Beastmaster was secured and among the same Academy, it was said he was ushered as the next King of Amber Beast Academy once he was in his senior year.
"Oho... Interesting. Don't you think so, Rema?"
"*Rabbit Noise*" The salesman rabbit was standing tall and was eating a Beast Food.
A voice Aleph was waiting for was finally here.
"Store owner!" He was glad that the store owner was here. "You're here!"
"*Chirp*Chirp*"
"Not now, Fro." He chided his Beast for not knowing the time and place to demand the store owner to sell it Beast Ice Food. And by selling to it means its Beastmaster's money, his money that was used. He was very short for money
"Oh, it's you." The store owner was turning dark. "Are you here for refund?"
"No!" Why would he want to refund? It was a suicide. This Beast Food was his hope to climb a higher ranking.
"Then why are you here? I'm not expecting you anytime soon."
"I-" Aleph was about to speak when Teacher Upa cut the line.
"Are you the seller of Elemental Beast Food?" The tone used by Teacher Upa was haughty and he was looking down at the store owner.
"I am. If you want to talk business, come inside." The store owner went to the front of his store and unlocked the door.
Aleph in particular was frozen. The store owner was too indifferent.
"Coming?" The store owner turned and looked at three people and three Beasts.
"Coming." Aleph was the first to recover. He was the first person among his group to experience the oddities of the store owner. "Teacher Upa. Let's go." He didn't bother to call for Allen. That guy pissed him off. Let's see whether he dare to come to a store that he said only an idiot would come.
"Ah, yes."
Aleph and his teacher went inside.
"Store owner. You've been redecorating." The last time he was here, the store only had two shelves and meager amount of products displayed. Now, there were several shelves added and they were filled to the brim.
"Business has been good lately." Said the store owner after he properly stood behind the counter.
"I can see that." Given how effective the products here, Aleph doubted people would complain.
"Now then... Mr. Teacher of Amber Beast Academy. What business you want to talk me with?"
As expected. The bluntness of the store owner astounding him.
"I want to make a deal with you."
"Oho... A deal? Interesting." The store owner's face brightened then turning scary. It reminded him of a gangster who bullied a helpless person. "So... What do you want?"
"I want you to be my exclusive handler for the upcoming event, Inter-Academy event."
He did it. Teacher Upa did it.
Just hearing what his teacher just said give him a bad feeling. The store owner's personality was nowhere close to normal.
"I'm sorry I can't, teacher. My store treats every customer as equal and it is against the policy to exclusively sell my wares to certain group."
See... The store owner was weird. Any stores except those who had wide connections in the city would love to have a teacher from Beast Academy as their patron.
"However," The tune of the store owner changed. "I don't mind if you treat my store as your personal supplier."
"I thought you have a policy not sell to certain group."
"I have and I do."
"Then wh-" Teacher Upa stopped and he scowled. "So you want to use me, use my students."
What was Teacher Upa talking about? Using Teacher Upa himself and to an extent, him and other students under Teacher Upa.
"I never said about using you or your students. I'm only a store owner who wants to make a living."
"Spare me of your bullshit. Both of us aware what will happen if I decide to recommend this store to my students or the aftermath once they regularly used your wares."
The store owner snorted. "You are too paranoid. My wares are just that good. My customers happy then I'm happy. Win win."
Aleph really didn't understand what these two(One was his teacher and the other was a young adult) were doing.
"Teacher... Can you two talk faster?" Watching these two people bickering were boring and he didn't know what Allen was doing outside.
The teacher turned his angry face at him. "Let's go then."
"Eh..?" Aleph was speechless with the sudden change and ran after his teacher.