Detesting The System: Sundering Fate

Making my way over to the tower of Babel, I suddenly froze. 'Ominous...' I flick my head over to the third story window of a building just across the street from my position and squint my eyes. 'Mhmm… Strange, I could have sworn someone was looking at me.' Understanding this would probably turn out to be a sign for things to come in the future, I played it off as paranoia while my subconscious screamed this was no hallucination.

With no more distractions along my way, I found myself at the ground level — or the first floor — of the fifty-story-tall tower. Making my way over to the stairs to ascend the tower for the first time, I decided to first head straight to the third floor. There, within the all-purpose supermarket, I was sure there would be books on all kinds of resources.

Quickly enough, I ascended the spiraling stairway within the tower and made it to the third floor. As the stairway was ridiculously wide, even though there were dozens of people accompanying my ascent, I didn't feel suffocated. Alas, the same couldn't be said upon stepping on the third floor as the open-stall system that allowed anyone regardless of affiliation the freedom to openly trade made for a busy environment.

Fortunately, even if it suddenly became congested around me, I wasn't too bad. Compared to the urban jungle that was New York City in my past life, which I once visited, this bit of human traffic was hardly worth growing irritated over. Entering the crowd and making my way as I read for a stall selling books or a shout of similar propensity, I spent about half an hour wandering the third floor before striking gold.

Upon spotting the stack of tomes from a distance I found the first stall worth looking over. However, upon walking a bit closer and reading the sign of the stall, I raising an eyebrow as I walked over to the stall labeled, "Clearance Sale: Used and No-Longer Wanted Wares." As I got closer I started getting mixed feelings. On one hand, fewer and fewer people were barring my way as the stall saw very few, if any, customers; which I liked. But on the other hand, it stood to reason that it was unlikely I'd be able to find anything worthwhile in such a forgone stall.

Approaching the sole attendant of the stall, a young boy with black hair and a sullen expression on his ground-facing face, I made my existence evident by asking, "Excuse me, are you selling any books on herbs, minerals, ores, monster drops, or any other kinds of resources?"

Looking up to face me, the boy paused if only for a second before moving around the books by his stall's table. He quickly piled on a short stack of books before saying, "Here are all the relevant books… As most of these are general compendiums fitted for both beginner and veteran adventurers, they can be found just about everywhere. If you buy them from me, I can give you a discount on account of the books being used; 150 Vali for books less than 1000 pages long and 200 Vali for the rest..."

After inspecting each book the boy had set aside for me, I paused to think, 'All of these are worth buying, but there are just so many… How will I carry them all, after also buying armor and other items?' Sighing upon deciding it would be best to make several trips between the church and Babel, I counted 1750 Vali before accepting all the books into my possession.

Bidding the boy goodbye after completing the transaction I held a stack of books that almost blocked my line of sight even after holding them by my waist. The books, though several dozens of kilograms heavy, barely bothered me considering the training my body had been subjected to since I entered this world. Apart from two books, all the other books would be considered encyclopedias which I had barely even begun completing; I could tell from the names of the books.

"Monsters: Types, Behaviours, and Drops, and Dungeon Anomalies and Miscellaneous Resources" being only two non-encyclopedic books were accompanied with, "Medicinal Herb Compendium No.1, 2, and 3, Blacksmith's Guide to Ores Vol 1, and 2." The encyclopedia for herbs was 9 volumes long while the one for ores was 10. Fortunately, the list of resources from these encyclopedias wasn't organized alphabetically. Upon looking through the table of contents, one would know that resources were organized by how difficult they were to procure; in other words how deep inside the dungeon one would have to travel. Moreover, it wasn't just the encyclopedias that were organized in this fashion; most other books that catered to adventures were like this as well. As was the case, I could probably make do with these introductory books if only for the next couple of weeks.

Eventually, I made it back home and left the books by the little corner I used to sleep. I walked back over to the tower of Babel without interference this time and after reaching the eight floor I began my hunt for armor. The Worthless Quality Chain Sickle and starter armor that had been supplied to me by the Guild was fast approaching the point of becoming obsolete, and I had close to 10,000 Vali left.

I walked into the shop and picked up a random piece of armor to check my Appraisal skill; the result was… underwhelming.

[Appraised Status

Name: Iron Coated Wooden B.r.e.a.s.tplate

Quality: Trash

Description: Uh… It looks alright and it's at least better than the Worthless armor I already own.]

'What the f.u.c.k kind of description is that?' I cursed internally at the uselessness of the status panel of information that manifested within my consciousness.

"Um, you do know your Appraisal skill is linked to what you know, right? Obviously, you need to be knowledgeable for any meaningful information to manifest..."

'Che!' Scoffing, I put the b.r.e.a.s.tplate section of armor back to the box that held the rest of the set. For the next couple minutes, I walked around the run down and mostly empty room of low-quality wares for adventurers before coming across a set that both looked nice and was well made.

[Appraised Status

Name: Aboletz Armor Set

Quality: Bad

Description: Even without much knowledge of smithing, it's obvious whoever made this is truly dedicated to their craft.]

Aside from the rather odd name bestowed to this armor set, it was everything I could ask for; as of right now — as an ignoramus… Picking up the box the armor set was stored in, I walked over to the table that housed the store's manager and tearfully parted with 7,900 Vali. As I walked over to the shop's exit, I turned to look at another shop for weapons before sighing, 'I guess I'll have to stick with the Worthless and Nameless Chain Sickle I've been using up until now for a little while longer...'