The First Store System

Chapter 1548: Ancient Glorious City(19)

Three seconds later, the battle began on the ground.

Arulan and Amil battled out, showing their power and skills. The audience seemed amazed by the scene since both fighters were extremely popular around the arena.

Aakesh calmly watched the battle, unaware that his luck made the situation difficult for him. The challenge had a random set, one where the customer could be one of the participants, and the other was the better.

The one with the better was a fortunate option for the challenger due to the opponent's strength. For Aakesh, it was the opposite. Looking at the battle on the ground, Aakesh felt he could end the fight instantly.

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Amil slashed his blade, wanting to dodge the upcoming strike. Arulan had anticipated the defense, so he slightly bent down and changed the movement of the blade.

Amil didn't act surprised and immediately reacted, following his opponent's movement. The battle was a life-and-death challenge, so there could only be one victor, and Amil wanted to be that one.

There was too much at stake here. If Amil won against Arulan, he would earn enough wealth to live comfortably for eternity.

Time flew by, and the battle continued between the two.

The battle was fast-paced since both the opponents were swordsmen, and they focused on agility. Aakesh had long lost interest in the battle, so he simply meditated, waiting for the result.

Aakesh was fully confident in his bet and the result.

Ring!

Aakesh opened his eyes as the ring rang, announcing the end of the battle.

His eyes remained calm when he saw the victor since it went as per his bet. Not long after, the busty woman hurried to the room with an excited expression.

Since she was the one who had signed the bet for the better, she would earn a great deal of commission. If Aakesh had lost the bet, she would only earn from the arena, but since Aakesh won it, she would now earn some commission from both sides.

"Congratulations, sir, for your correct bet," The woman congratulated, taking out the token owned by the arena.

She then asked for the token she had given to Aakesh. He expressionlessly handled it to her.

The next moment, the women tapped the two tokens together, and with a binding light, the two melted, forming a new token. The woman then respectfully handed it to Aakesh.

Aakesh accepted the token. He could see the amount the arena would pay him on the token's front following his winning wager. Aakesh had bet on Amil, who had the odds of 1.57, so Aakesh made 57 billion supreme Sacred stones from the result.

The reason for Aakesh choosing Amil was an internal injury received by Arulan during his second battle. Since Arulan was powerful, there were rarely any opponents who forced him to his limit, so the internal injury remained. If he had taken a break for a few months, then he might have healed, but his fights continued weekly, so the injury remained alive.

Amil was an equally powerful challenger, so he finally forced Arulan beyond his limit, exacerbating the injury that became the cause of his downfall, making Amil the victor.

Aakesh then paid the commission to the woman and left the room, following her lead. The woman gave many seductive hints to Aakesh, but he simply ignored them.

***

Aakesh had an expressionless face when he returned to the market. It was as busy as usual, with numerous people minding their business.

Someone would greet Aakesh from time to time since he was the owner of one of the most popular hotels on that side of the city. Aakesh would ignore them and keep his focus on finding the next challenge.

The previous challenge awarded him the winning amount of 57 billion supreme Sacred stones. Aakesh immediately asked the system to replace that with the purest form since those stones were of no use to him.

After the conversion, Aakesh now had 114,000 supreme Sacred stones. Five hundred thousand supreme stones were equal to 1 purer, supreme Sacred stone.

After an hour, Aakesh reached the edge of the market. To proceed further, he would need to cross an energy wall.

Aakesh was about to cross it when his intuition sent him dangerous signals. He stopped, but after a pause, he continued and crossed the barrier.

The next moment, Aakesh found himself in a different environment. He had come to a forest right from a thriving street.

Before him, there were endless, gigantic trees towering over the sun.

Roar!

Aakesh had only appeared when a beast roar rang in his ears. The trees blocked his sight, but from the roar, Aakesh could sense that the beast was on the verge of death.

Aakesh had the system's help with him, so he stepped forward and entered the forest. After walking for a few hundred meters and crossing some trees, he finally saw the beast that had roared.

Before him, there was a carcass with a horrible stench. It seemed as if the beast had died long ago, keeping in mind the power level of the beast.

Aakesh walked forward and bent down, studying the carcass. The horrible stench didn't seem to faze Aakesh as he grabbed one portion and broke it.

With a glance after activating [Energy Overseer], Aakesh could see numerous elemental energies around the bone, but one energy was the dominating force, and that was the decay.

Suddenly, the energy turned wild and tried to do to Aakesh what it did to the beast. A heavy pressure abruptly emanated from his body and crushed the energy to oblivion.

With a cold expression, Aakesh proceeded forward since the source of the decay had long left the scene. He could sense that the source of decay was his key to leaving from there and returning to the city.

 Aakesh walked for an hour and finally stood face-to-face with the source of decay.

Before Aakesh, there was a gray vine trying to dig deep into the ground. It had numerous eyes that kept blinking, creating an eerie environment.

Aakesh suddenly pounced forward and grabbed the vine before it could leave. The vine had a subconscious fear of the stranger since its decay energy failed to cause any harm to him.

Seeing that it was a surety to get caught, the vine exploded, causing an eruption of decay energy.

Even Aakesh had to take caution, and he immediately activated the skill. A few hundred meters away from him, a seed suddenly jumped out of space and crashed to the ground.

In no time, the seed got devoured by the ground and disappeared, but suddenly, a strange scene occurred.

The ground turned to sand, and the seed slowly being eaten by the ground stopped. The sand pushed it higher, and the next moment, Aakesh appeared right above it, picking it up.

Aakesh didn't try to crush the seed since he knew he was unable to. He simply added some energy to the seed, and following that, a door appeared before him.

The seed then disappeared, leaving the door. There were ancient murals around the door. It contained the creatures that were there when the Sacred Dimension was first born.

Aakesh pushed the door open and walked inside. The next moment, he returned to the edge of the market with a new road before him.

The new road was broader and more majestic than the ones he had been walking for the last year, and similarly, it also had empty buildings.

Unlike the last time, there was an end. Only four empty buildings were present, and after that, there was another market with powerful creatures roaming it.

The number of Supreme Gods Aakesh saw at that moment was higher than the number of True God customers in the store.

The danger level had grown severalfold since Aakesh couldn't defeat Lesser Gods or above without the help of the system, and before him, there were only cultivators of that level.

Aakesh needed to decide on whether to keep proceeding forward or return to the store. He didn't want to use the system's help for situations that weren't emergencies.

Aakesh had used one system's protection to stop Thorr City from getting devoured by the space storm. He still had some, so Aakesh decided to give it another try.

He would only do challenges until he needed to use the system's help. One helping hand, and he would return to the store.

After making his decision, Aakesh didn't hesitate any longer and walked to the closest empty building. Unlike the ones earlier, the insides were no longer invisible.

It was just dark, but for someone like Aakesh, who could see in darkness, the inside scenes were observable from the outside.

Aakesh could see rows after rows of counters filled with various valuable materials that were extremely beneficial to Lesser Gods and Higher Gods cultivators. He could see some items at the back that were helpful for Supreme Gods.

Aakesh then walked inside the building, and the view before him changed. The counters he had seen from the outside were no longer present, but they were replaced by a creature who was menacingly staring at him.

He was standing in an arena with a large audience watching his every move. Aakesh slightly raised his eyes in surprise when he saw a familiar figure in the audience.