The Sixth School.

Chapter Seven: New features…

A sense of anticipation had been burning within him since the system announced that Greg’s soul and body were stable enough to allow for more features to be deployed. He, however, had chosen to stay calm and allow the healer to finish with her work before he did anything. While the system itself was hidden from the sight of others, the motion of his eyes and his facial expressions wasn’t. If Greg’s eyes started moving from side to side as he read, the healer would probably notice. If he showed either surprise or joy on his face because of the new features that he discovered in the system, the healer would probably ask about it and he'd have no answers to give her. Despite everything that had happened between them and the fact that the healer didn’t seem like a bad person, Greg still preferred to play his cards close to his chest.

As such, it wasn’t until the door to his room swung closed after the healer’s exit that he opened up his system. Clicking on the words ‘NEW FEATURES', Greg found himself looking at five items.

EROS SHOP.

MAGIC SHOP.

DUNGEONS.

LOCKED. (RANK TOO LOW).

LOCKED. (RANK TOO LOW).

With only three items visible, the list was short and to the point. Greg had some idea of what the first three items would entail. Given that this system gathered both lust and magic points, it seemed self-evident to Greg that they were the currencies for the two different shops. Greg couldn’t help his excitement as he realized that the magic points and lust points he’d thus far amassed could finally be put to use. As an avid gamer back on earth, Greg also knew what dungeons were all about. Fight monsters, progress through different levels, kill the dungeon boss, and win. Simple. What Greg wasn’t sure about, was how he’d interact with said dungeons. Were there actual dungeons in this world that Greg would be sent to? If not, would the system create dungeons in the real world that Greg would have to beat? And if that wasn’t the case either, would the dungeons be virtual and Greg have to play them in his head? Greg simply had no idea. With the rest of the list locked because of his rank, Greg immediately clicked on the Eros shop.

DO YOU WISH TO SPEND 100 LUST POINTS TO UNLOCK THE BASIC EROS SHOP?

YES/NO.

The system prompted.

Without hesitation, he clicked on YES.

Greg had no idea what to expect in the Eros shop. Would it be like a sex shop, or something else? The actual thing, however, wasn’t anything like he’d expected. A catalog of almost a thousand different items appeared before Greg. Everything from potions to charms, to items like rings, bangles, necklaces, and other jewelry-like items and so on were there. There were even weapons and armor. Mundane items like lamps and scented candles were also on there. What all these items had in common was that the items had some additional effect of the erotic kind. The scented candles for example, according to the system, were called erotic will candles. Their effect seemed to be that when alight, they would sap the will of everyone who inhaled their scent to resist any sexual advances. Concerning any other subjects, the targets will would remain unaffected. For example, if one wanted to borrow money from a certain target, this candle would be of zero use to them. Their effect seemed to be solely in the realm of the erotic.

The range of items and their effects seemed almost endless. Greg, however, couldn’t help but notice that the strength of their effect was very weak. Going by what the system seemed to be indicating, the effect was no greater than ten percent. Whether it be increasing arousal, reducing resistance to sexual advances, making a target more sensitive to touch, increasing the chances of pregnancy, and so on, all the items in the shop only had very slight effects on their target. In other words, using the erotic will candles wouldn’t have a woman dropping her panties at the snap of a finger. Instead, it would only make it just a little bit easier to seduce them. The potion of virility wouldn’t make it that one would get any woman they creampied pregnant. It would only offer between one and ten percent increased chance of pregnancy.

DETECTED THAT THE USER HAS ENOUGH LUST POINTS TO UNLOCK THE INTERMEDIATE EROS SHOP.

UNLOCK?

YES/NO.

Greg had been perusing the catalog of items, curious to read about all the strange effects the items in this shop could offer. He was, however, interrupted by the system prompt letting him know that he could unlock more levels in the Eros shop. Once again there was no hesitation in Greg as he clicked on ‘YES’. A thousand lust points immediately disappeared from his total amount of lust points. Greg, who had been keenly watching to see what new changes there would be, noted that only about fifty or so new items appeared in the catalog. Given that almost a thousand items appeared when Greg unlocked the Basic shop, fifty didn’t seem like much.

The text for the basic items was in white. This was a trivial detail that Greg hadn’t paid any attention to. When the intermediate items appeared, however, the text beneath them was bright green. This small detail is what allowed Greg to quickly pick up on the fact that there was a new price tag attached to all the basic items. This new price didn’t replace the old price, but rather, was placed just above the former one. It was almost like it was meant to portray that the green text price was a tier above the white text price. As they stood next to each other, one price in white and the other in green, Greg immediately noted that on any item, the green price tag was always ten times that of the white price.

The new items that had appeared in the Eros shop had a stronger effect than the items that were available in the basic shop. If the basic items provided a one to ten percent effect, the intermediate items provided a fifteen to thirty percent effect. This increased effect was also applied to all the basic items if Greg bought them with the green price tag that appeared. For example, a basic erotic will candle costs thirty lust points a piece. If, however, Greg bought it at the green price tag of three hundred lust points, then rather than the one to ten percent effect of basic items, it would exhibit the fifteen to thirty percent effect of intermediate items. With the precedent already set, Greg didn’t try to go on reading through the catalog. Instead, he paused and waited. And sure enough, after a minute, another prompt appeared.

DETECTED THAT THE USER HAS ENOUGH LUST POINTS TO UNLOCK THE ADVANCED EROS SHOP.

UNLOCK?

YES/NO.

Ten thousand points were immediately deducted from Greg’s total lust points as he clicked on the ‘YES’ button. The changes here were similar to the previous ones. About thirty new items appeared in the catalog. This time, the color of their price tag was a deep blue. The intermediate items got a second price tag, blue in color, which was ten times the green price tag and the basic items got a third price tag which was also blue and a hundred times their initial price. It seemed that for every tier that an item climbed from its initial tier, a zero was added to its price. The effectiveness of the items at this tier once again climbed. From the fifteen to thirty percent it was at the intermediate level, it grew to forty to sixty percent efficacy. After opening three tiers, Greg also noticed the fact that items in any given tier, never cost more than it did to access the tier. Basic items never went past a hundred lust points. Intermediate items never went past a thousand lust points, and the advanced items never crossed ten thousand lust points in price. Basically, opening the shop level was more expensive than anything in that tier. It was almost like it was setting the hard limit for the items in that tier. Greg didn’t know if there would be any more levels to the Eros shop that he could expect after this. He however didn’t have to wonder for long as soon enough, a fourth tier to the shop was presented.

DETECTED THAT THE USER HAS ENOUGH LUST POINTS TO UNLOCK THE ELITE EROS SHOP.

UNLOCK?

YES/NO.

Another chunk of points was deducted as the system took away one hundred thousand points for this tier. This time, only twelve new items appeared. Their price tag’s color was a vivid orange and the efficacy of the items in this tier was between seventy and a hundred percent. Other than that, there wasn’t much difference. The basic items now had four different prices each with one more zero than the former. The intermediate items had three prices, the advanced ones had two and the elite items had only one. Greg had almost been certain that this was the last tier of the shop and that there wouldn’t be another, otherwise things would get ridiculously expensive. He, however, was surprised when another prompt appeared.

DETECTED THAT THE USER HAS ENOUGH LUST POINTS TO UNLOCK THE SPECIAL EROS SHOP.

UNLOCK?

YES/NO.

One million lust points went down the drain as soon as Greg clicked ‘YES’ on the interface. Greg couldn’t help but start to worry that, maybe, he didn’t have as many lust points as he initially thought. He hadn’t bought a single thing from any of the shops and yet, he had already spent one million, one hundred and eleven thousand and one hundred lust points! He was now down to having one point four eight million lust points. After reviewing the catalog again, however, Greg noted that there was something different about this tier of the shop. For one, its appearance didn’t add another price tag to the other items. It seems that ‘elite’ was the final tier of all the other items and the ‘special’ items were in a category of their own. The other difference was that this shop had a note attached to it explaining that items can only be bought once from the shop. Once bought, it’ll forever disappear from the store.

When Greg unlocked the special Eros shop, only three new items were added to the catalog. The three items were; Eros sigil, Eros familiar, and Eros body. When Greg looked at their price tags, he couldn’t help but wince. His fears were proven right, the lust points he’d thought to be plenty, turned out to be insufficient in the end. The cheapest of the three items was the Eros sigil, and it was worth five hundred thousand lust points. The Eros familiar was worth seven hundred thousand lust points and the Eros body was worth another one million lust points. Greg had no idea what any of the three items could do. Based on their price and the fact that they were in the highest tier of the Eros shop, however, Greg knew that they each probably held great power. With the remaining points he had, however, Greg could either go for the most expensive item, or the two cheaper items. He wouldn’t be able to afford all three items together. After deducting the price of the two cheaper items, Greg would be left with just two hundred and eighty thousand lust points. No where near the million lust points that the Eros body would require. If, however, Greg bought the Eros body, he wouldn’t be able to afford either the Eros familiar or the Eros sigil. In the end, Greg decided to put off the decision for later. There was no reason for him to rush to a decision. Instead, Greg turned his attention to the Magic shop, curious to see what he’d find there compared to the item shop. 

Greg had expected to find a similar situation to what he’d found in the Eros shop when he opened the magic shop. His eyes went so wide with shock, however, that they almost rolled out of their sockets when he read the first prompt.

DO YOU WISH TO SPEND 500,000 MAGIC POINTS TO UNLOCK THE BASIC MAGIC SHOP?

YES/NO.

To unlock the basic Eros shop, Greg only needed a hundred lust points. Unlocking the basic magic shop, however, required five thousand times that amount. After clicking yes, Greg couldn’t help but look through the items that appeared, curious to see if the price difference was justified. However, it quickly became clear that he wouldn’t be able to go through everything. Only one word could describe the list that appeared before Greg. Endless. Herbs, potions, weapons, armors, magical clothes, magical artifacts, monster parts, monster blood, something called monster essence blood, spell scrolls, magical instruments, magical tomes, magical legacies, and so on. So vast was the list of items presented in the magic shop that, unlike the Eros shop, this shop was divided into various sections based on the type of items found within. Some, like the herbs and monster part sections, had as many as a hundred thousand plus items within. The section with the least amount of items was the magical legacies section and even it had almost a hundred different legacies within.

After a while of scrolling through the different sections, Greg picked up on a curious detail. There were three different demarcations that the items in the magic shop fell under. The majority of the items had the marker T1, a smaller number had the marker T2 and the smallest of the three groups had the marker T3. But while T1 had the most number of items, it had the cheapest prices in the shop. The most expensive T1 item was a magical legacy worth ten thousand magic points. The cheapest T2 item in the shop was thirty thousand magic points and the most expensive one he found went for two hundred and seventy thousand magic points and again it was a magical legacy. The cheapest T3 item was a hundred thousand magic points. Even in this category, the most expensive item was also a magical legacy. It seems that as a rule, magical knowledge is more expensive than even magical items, Greg surmised. Things like magical tomes and magical legacies were always on the higher end of the price range. Heck, there were spell scrolls that were even more expensive than magical artifacts of the same tier.

DETECTED THAT THE USER HAS ENOUGH MAGIC POINTS TO UNLOCK THE BASIC SPECIAL MAGIC SHOP.

UNLOCK?

YES/NO.

With every new tier of the Eros shop that Greg had wanted to open, he’d been required to spend ten times what he’d spent to open the previous tier. Given that prices seemed a lot more expensive in the magic shop, Greg hadn’t even been sure that the multiplier wouldn’t also be higher. But even if it was the same as the Eros shop, Greg didn’t have five million magic points. As such, he hadn’t been expecting to receive any new prompts from the system. After spending half a million magic points to open the basic magic shop, Greg was left with only one point three million magic points. Looking at the new prompt, Greg guessed that this special shop also cost one million points just like the one in the Eros shop, only this time it was magic points instead of lust points.

Given that the intermediate version of the magic shop would have cost Greg five million magic points at the very least, he’d have thought that the special shop would be much more expensive. To have it be the same price as the one in the Eros shop came as a surprise to Greg. After a while of studying the prompt, however, Greg noticed that the special shop came with the label ‘BASIC’. It seems that the magic shop had more than one special shop. Greg had only gotten access to the lowest-ranked and cheapest one. Without much hesitation, Greg clicked on the ‘YES’ option and a million magic points vanished just like that. A new section of the magic shop appeared and in it, only one item was present.

The image representation of the item was a small vial filled with a dark liquid full of shining spots like a clear sky on a starry night. The label called it an awakening potion. Greg didn’t have the foggiest idea what the potion could do. Looking at its price, however, he couldn’t help but wince with a wry expression. The vial, small as it was, would cost Greg another million magic points. Again, Greg became keenly aware of just how little the number of points he’d thought to be a lot actually was. After opening the basic special magic shop, Greg was left with only three hundred and thirty thousand magic points. Six hundred and seventy thousand magic points short of what he’d need to buy the only item in this section of the shop. A figure that, just a few hours before, Greg wouldn’t have thought to be big, but now was worried about. After all, the healer was done healing him. All that Greg was left with, was the scars of the wounds he formerly had. The healer had no more reason to go on healing him, and as such, his only source of magic points was also gone. Greg let out a sigh as, just like the issue of the three items in the Eros shop, he pushed this new worry to the back of his mind. There wasn’t much that Greg could do about it at the moment, as such, he saw no need to waste time worrying about it.

His attention was drawn to the last thing on the list of new features that he could access at his present rank. In a way, the dungeons were the item that Greg was most excited about. This wasn’t to say that he wasn’t excited by the Eros shop and the magic shop. They, however, were just a list of items that Greg could buy and nothing more. The dungeons, however, stoked the fire of adventure that burned inside every man’s heart. They promised challenges but also rewards and a path of growth. From the way the former owner of this body had died, it was clear that, unlike the world he’d left behind, this was a world where personal strength mattered a lot. At the very least, until Greg learned powerful magic like the healer, the dungeons could help him learn how to fight.

Greg was slightly surprised when he didn’t receive a prompt asking him to pay for access to the dungeons. When he clicked on it, another catalog opened up before Greg’s eyes with various pictures and names. A brow arched on Greg’s face when he read the first few names. The more he read, however, the more his surprise turned into full-fledged confusion. 

A DINNER PARTY.

A THEATRE PLAY.

THE HUNT.

HARVEST SEASON.

THE CARAVAN.

THE CONVENT.

THE GANG WAR.

THE MAYOR’S ELECTION.

THE ARMY’S MARCH.

THE KING’S CORONATION.

And so on…

The list went on endlessly into the thousands. Greg could readily admit that he didn’t have the greatest naming sense in the world. But even he couldn’t see how any dungeon could be called ‘a dinner party’. What made the situation even more confusing, was that the pictures matched the names. The dungeon named ‘a dinner party’ for example, showed a group of people with wine glasses in their hands mingling in what looked like a dinner party setting. The caravan showed a long line of strange beasts with people either riding on them or walking alongside them as they moved through a desert. Greg could only assume that the beasts were this world’s equivalent of a camel. The convent showed a large compound at the center of which was a large Gothic-style cathedral. All around the compound were a number of women in nun’s habits and a solitary figure in what looked like a priest’s garb. And many more pictures showed different kinds of human events.

What the hell? What kind of dungeons were these? Where were the monsters? The treasure chests? The dungeon bosses? The more he read the titles of the various dungeons, the more he got the impression that he'd primarily be dealing with humans in different social settings. Was he supposed to interfere with the events? Was he supposed to make sure that they went off without a hitch? Was he supposed to participate? Greg had no idea and the system didn’t deign to offer him any hints.

Unable to make heads or tails of this confusing turn of events, Greg, turned his attention to the price of the dungeons. Unlike the two previous shops, the dungeons didn’t use just one kind of currency. For a few of the dungeons, one could use a combination of magic and lust points to buy access to them. Others required that one have something referred to as dungeon tokens in addition to the magic and lust points. Another group of dungeons could only be accessed through dungeon tokens and nothing else. Greg didn’t have any dungeon tokens at the moment. He, however, could only assume that he’d earn them through the dungeons themselves.

Looking through the list of dungeons that he could access with only magic and lust points, Greg decided to go with an easy one and clicked on ‘A DINNER PARTY'. Immediately, five thousand magic and lust points respectively were deducted. A new tab labeled ‘OWNED DUNGEONS' appeared, and under it, the dungeon he'd just bought appeared. Despite the confusion he felt at the odd dungeons, Greg couldn’t help the sense of anticipation he felt when he clicked on his new dungeon. His excitement, however, was quickly doused as a new system prompt appeared before him.

ACCESS DENIED.

DETECTED THAT THE USER’S SOUL WAS RECENTLY UNSTABLE.

DUNGEONS PLACE A HEAVY BURDEN ON THE SOUL.

ACCESSING THE DUNGEONS IN YOUR PRESENT STATE RUNS THE RISK OF HARMING THE USER'S SOUL.

A MINIMUM DURATION OF TEN DAYS WAIT HAS BEEN IMPOSED BEFORE THE USER CAN ACCESS DUNGEONS.

When Greg was done reading through the prompts, he couldn’t help the cold trepidation he felt as he realized that he’d almost placed his soul in jeopardy once again. Despite his slight disappointment at not being able to explore the dungeons, Greg was glad that the system had stopped him. It was nothing short of a miracle that Greg had managed to gain this chance at a second life. There was very little doubt in Greg that if he lost it there wouldn’t be any do-overs. He was more than willing to wait ten days if that’s what his soul needed to be able to safely traverse the dungeons.

Greg was tempted to buy a few more dungeons, just to have them in his inventory. He, however, gave up the idea after a bit of consideration. He was already behind in both magic and lust points if he wanted to empty the special shops in both the magic shop and Eros shop. To spend it on dungeons that he wouldn’t be able to access in the near future didn’t seem like a smart move to him. As such, Greg left the dungeons page and moved back to the Eros shop.

Greg spent the next ten minutes looking at the three items in the special shop, trying to decide what to buy. He currently had one million, four hundred and seventy-five thousand lust points. There were two possible ways to go about this. He could buy the two cheaper items and then slowly start to save up for the Eros body which was the most expensive of the three. On the other hand, he could go for the most expensive item and then slowly save up for the other two items.

In the end, Greg chose to go with the two cheaper items as opposed to the most expensive one. His reasoning for this choice was simple. With their price and the fact that the three items could only be bought once in the special shop, then they each had to be quite powerful. Given this fact, wouldn’t it be smarter to have two out of the three powerful items as opposed to just having one? I mean, of course, there was a chance that the Eros body was so powerful that it overshadowed the other two items. He, however, wasn’t willing to gamble on this. So instead, Greg first moved to the Eros sigil and clicked buy.

Greg was about to do the same with the Eros familiar when the back of his right hand began to burn. From his memories, Greg knew that the healer usually slept in the same building he was currently in. Without getting to know her better, Greg wasn’t willing to expose anything about the system to someone as powerful as the healer. As such, despite the burst of blinding pain that erupted from his right hand, Greg gritted his teeth and did his best not to let out a sound. Bringing his right hand before his face, Greg watched as pitch-black lines slowly spread out from a single point forming different runes and symbols as they went along. After a minute of excruciating pain, the symbols arranged themselves on the back of his right hand in a pattern that looked a lot like an opening lotus flower.

Greg took thirty seconds to allow the pain to slowly ebb. After this, Greg studied both the tattoo that had appeared on the back of his hand and his body, trying to figure out what the sigil did. He even looked at the system again to see if there was anything new or different. After a few long minutes of fruitless efforts, Greg was forced to admit that, for the moment, the sigil was little more than a very painful tattoo. With a sigh, and now a bit more trepidation, Greg turned back to the special shop ready to purchase the Eros familiar. For a few seconds after Greg had clicked on purchase, nothing happened. And then… WHAM!!! A sharp pain, like someone was trying to split his head open with an ax, hit Greg. Mercifully, Greg passed out almost instantly, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to keep from screaming his throat sore.

***

In the silence of the dark room, a figure slowly started to materialize. A woman whose beauty and sensuality would put even the healer to shame slowly came into being beside the bed. Despite the beauty and allure of the woman, there was an almost inhuman quality to her perfection. It was almost like she was more a force of nature rather than an actual being. Looking at her, she was the embodiment of desire itself. The sight of her alone would have weak-willed individuals cumming without even being touched. Forget her body, even the very air around the woman’s seemed thick with lust. Even though he was passed out, the woman's aura was so powerful such that Greg’s dick pushed up his covers as it slowly rose to full mast in acknowledgment of her.

The woman crouched low bringing her face close to the boy’s as she studied his disfigured face. A smile slowly crossed her lips as she whispered in a sultry tone. “Master…”