The only problem I was currently facing was the single word attached to the Circulation Skill Exchange ticket, and that was the word "Random."
Unlike the Technique Book ticket, which would allow me to choose any Low-Alpha book in the Shop, using the Circulation Skill ticket was a gamble that could end up with me winning a useless skill.
Lying on my back and looking up at my Display panel, I decided to hold on to the Circulation ticket for now and go ahead and choose my Technique book first.
’Arkadia, Open up the Alpha Combat Shop,’ stating a command I had used a million times out of boredom in the future; I prepared myself for the horror that came along with Inflation.
Ever since I first looked at the Medicinal Shop some months ago, I have hardened my heart every time I enter one of the many shops.
Curbing my curiosity to look further into certain things, I saw the drop-down menu in the Combat Shop, so I knew I was about to cry tears of blood thanks to the extravagant prices.
[Shop: Alpha Rank]
:{Combat}:
[Alpha Rank: Combat Shop]
The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.
:{Weapons}:
:{Literature}:
:{Techniques}:
Upon opening the Combat shop, three specified options were listed, each one housing a subcategory of items.
The only option of the three that had confused people in the past was the Literature shop because it seemed out of place; however, upon researching further, you would learn that every book you could imagine about fights, wars, or even fantasy with a Combat genre was located there.
In my leisurely days, I frequented the literature Sub-shop, grabbing all kinds of biographies of famous generals or warriors from the past to brush up on battle strategies. However, now wasn’t the time for that, and after taking a deep breath to calm my nerves and quivering wallet, I pressed on the "Techniques" option.
[Alpha Rank: Combat Shop]
{Technique Kiosk}
{Talent Based Technique Books}
{Movement Technique Books}
{Weapon Technique Books}
{Weaponless Technique Books}
Now was where things got tricky because, frankly, I didn’t know what I needed. By coming back to the past with all my memories intact, I still knew every Technique I had learned in the future, and it was only a matter of getting my body to adapt to the movements and physically trained to use them.
’Talent Technique books only allow you to learn the correct Particle Movement paths to unlock your Rank Specific Talent Skills; for the majority of people, this is super helpful, but for me, it’s an utter waste of time because, until Beta-Rank, I only have my Coercion skill. The only reason I can even use that before Alpha Rank is because it’s so basic. Starting with the other options, I ran through a mental checklist of present needs I had.
Unfortunately, no matter what I came up with, there was basically nothing I couldn’t do on my own, with my past experiences as a guideline.
’Eh, I may as well just start scrolling through everything and see if there are any techniques that pique my fancy.’ Slapping my head on the pillow in defeat, I began the lengthy process of going through every one of the Kiosks, starting with the Movement Techniques.
With a small flourish of letters and shifting pages animation like I was reading a book, a list filled with hundreds of thousands of different Movement techniques appeared on my Display.
’Alright, filter time, there ain’t no freaking way I am sitting here and scrolling through what could be MILLIONS of techniques. The shops have anything you can imagine, from Techniques based on Anime or Novels to ones from ancient history or different martial arts.’
’What I need is something that works wonders for short people since I will be stuck in this midget body until I hit puberty…’ Then, like the MMORPG expert I was, I began filtering out anything that wouldn’t meet my standard, rapidly and drastically shortening the list until there were a total of 10 techniques.
Looking through the list casually, I suddenly puffed out my cheeks, and my eyes bulged because I noticed that even the cheapest book available had a price tag of 5000 High-Alpha Coins.
’You’d have to be an absolute LUNATIC to spend that much money on one of these f**king books!’ I cried internally.
The price of each Technique couldn’t be justified in my eyes, mainly because I knew the basic format of the contents of these books.
Techniques were made up of three things: Stretches that strengthen certain muscles, movement patterns, and Particle Cycles. The latter two topics were about what made up the bulk of what would be considered the Technique, as it would detail exactly how to move or position your body along with how to push your particles to get the activation of the Technique.
Still, even though it pained me, I went ahead and read the description of each Technique before picking one or two that I viewed as suitable, then moved on to the next Kiosk, the Weapon’s technique books.
Around two hours later, I had a mental list, with at the very least two potential options from each of the three Kiosks; still, no matter how much I weighed the pros against the cons, none of the Weapon or Weaponless techniques held a candle to the few movement techniques I had selected.
Needing a break from the difficult thought processes I had been going through to pick out suitable techniques in the other categories, I decided, on a whim, to go ahead and check the Talent Based Technique books, even though I was 100% convinced it would be an empty store, as it had been in the past until I reached the higher Ranks.
I am not really sure why I had the sudden compulsion to do so; maybe it was to bully myself or something to that extent, but the instant I opened up the Talent Based Technique Book Kiosk, I sat up so quickly my head spun and nearly yelled out my thoughts verbally.
’HOLY F**KING S**T!!!! THERE IS NO WAY I AM SEEING THIS RIGHT!’ I screamed in my head, with my body quivering in excitement like a hyper chihuahua.