Alex laid still on the counter for a bit, enjoying the silence after his most chaotic customer yet.
*Ding*
He let out a small groan and didn't lift his head. He wasn't up for talking yet — he'd let them browse, gather his energy, and actually converse later.
"...hmm, you seem troubled." A familiar, refined voice calmly states. Alex lifts his head up slightly to confirm that, yep, Frieren has returned.
"A bit." He admits, sitting up fully and lazily focusing his attention on her, dropping his elbow on the counter and cheek on his hand. "Had a very... interesting customer to say the least." He mutters.
"Well, hopefully I can help out a bit then." She smiles, a smug little smirk like she knew he would be happy. "I brought something to trade."
...
'Cool?'
"Ok?" He says to her, clearly not getting it. "Is it, I don't know, something good?"
"Depends on what this shop defines as good, or valuable for that matter." She shrugs, reaching into her clothes to bring out some small pendant, rusted and clearly ancient.
"That's old." He deadpans, watching as she frowns a bit at the word usage. "Is it a relic of some sort?" He asks, changing the subject quickly.
"Old, huh?" She whispers, moving past it for now. "If the shop values something by age or rank, then this should work just fine." She triumphantly holds it out to him.
"Uh, what do you want for it?" He asks, raising a questioning eyebrow.
"Huh?" She seems a bit caught off guard, before sheepishly nodding. "Right, I got caught up in seeing if it would work, I forgot I was getting something." She steps away for a minute, going to the closest shelf and browsing along it.
"Ah, perfect." She states simply, grabbing a grimoire off the shelf and coming back to the counter. "Here we go, I'm ready to trade." She holds out the relic again, waiting for him to take it.
"Ok, one relic of unknown value for a Grimoire." He holds his hand under the relic, letting her drop it down onto it-
*Objective Complete: Milestone reached. Inventory Upgrading...*
"Wha-"
The store shines brightly, Alex barely watching Frieren's gaze shift to the shelves before he had to close his eyes. Seconds pass quickly, before the light dies down enough to open his eyes, noting that Frieren was also blinking her vision clear.
The store's fixtures — shelving, coolers, counter — stayed the same. Everything just looked... cleaner, sharpened.
The inventory on the other hand, was wildly different.
Different ingredients and items that hummed with magic, almost oozing it in certain cases. Grimoires that weren't just the basic small stuff that Frieren liked most, but one that he could almost read from across the room-
Hellfire.
Doesn't sound like another useless spell.
"Well, this is interesting." Frieren comments, looking at the new stock with curious eyes. "I couldn't even see any magic before I was blinded, yet now it feels overwhelming."
Alex is distracted quickly after with a message from the System.
*New Objective: Sell or Trade 10 million MC worth of product*
'What the hell? 10 Million? That's outrageous!'
"...well, your relic was worth quite a bit." He tells Frieren, not revealing what he was thinking. He knew that all this time he'd been essentially giving stuff away. He wasn't a salesman and never claimed to be one, so since everything was essentially free for him, why not just give it away for cheap?
But the difference between the previous upgrade and this one was almost night and day. Frieren said she was feeling overwhelmed by the magic here, and he had to agree. Even with his low level of sensing, it was like he was swimming in magic.
Everything gave off immense levels of Mana, where before would be such a small trickle it wasn't even noticeable.
One flower summed up the entirety of what his shop was before.
"Uh..." He shook his head, trying to focus again. "Well, you, uh, want anything else? Just got in some new product." He jokes a bit; a smile plastered on his face.
She stares blankly at him.
"...right, not the best time for jokes." He relents, letting Frieren go and check out the new stuff. Mainly to see if it's dangerous or not.
It'd really suck if something in his inventory murdered him by simply existing after all.
A few minutes pass in silence, Frieren carefully going between each item, studying it carefully before she gives it a small nod and moving on to the next one.
Eventually, she comes back to the counter, looking a bit happier about things.
"Everything alright?" He asks her as she returns, noticing that she grabbed a few plants on the way back.
"Yes, everything seems safe." She puts the plants in a basket, setting it on the counter. "Plus, I found some plants that went extinct a few hundred years ago. It'll be nice to use them again..." She trails off, staring into space as her fingers relax around the baskets handle.
'Is... is she in a flashback right now?'
He lets her do her thing, turning to the System for now.
'Hey, is there anything else upgraded that I don't know about?'
Silence.
'Right, forgot you were useless for explanations.'
With a sigh, he turns back to Frieren, who thankfully looks to be done with her whole thing.
"Well, since you got me to the next threshold, feel free to take whatever you want, on the house." He casually tells her with a smile.
"Really?" She seems surprised, though a bit hesitant. "I don't want to take all of your stock..."
'Scary that you're thinking of taking everything...'
"It's fine." He waves off her concerns, ignoring his own thoughts. "I don't pay for anything anyway, I'm just a sort of middleman."
"Hmm, ok. I'll pay you back." She promises, snatching a few more items off the shelf before she leaves.
...
"Yes!" He almost leaps into the air, fist pumping. "I can trade Powers now!"
'Victory is mine!'
*Ding*
Oh? So soon?
Settling down, he looks at the slowly opening door, two small children cautiously peeking out from behind it. The small boy that seemed to be leading them was wearing a trenchcoat, barefoot and wearing a paper bag on his head.
The girl was also barefoot and was wearing a yellow raincoat, staying behind the boy as they entered, warily watching Alex the entire time, yet clearly intrigued.