When the light had subsided, Jake found himself looking at the Gold Label catalog.

It wasn't quite heaven, but it was the closest thing to it, according to him.

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'Okay, have to catch my breath here and see if I'm still awake – I've heard of sleepwalking, but not sleep shopping.'

Once he managed to get himself back under control, Jake started to look at the items displayed on the Gold Label catalog – and it was a world of difference between the Gold Label and the Black Label, almost as if it was a whole different shopping establishment.

Basic items and luxuries to show off one's vanity were all displayed systematically, and Jake spied a spot in the basic item corner that would increase his base stats.

[Lozenge of Strength Enhancement: Boosts your strength by as much as 3 points at a time when fully consumed! Comes in lemon, strawberry, and grape flavors. The Awakener Store will not compensate you if you end up rotting your teeth with all the candy you'll eat. 50,000 points apiece.]

'Seems expensive,' Jake thought, his response a bit deadpan due to the shock of seeing a basic item costing 50,000 points to purchase. 'It's like one of those designer-brand card holders or something.. but then again, if I did get a card holder, I'd get something from a designer brand.'

It comes as no surprise that Jake prefers designer brands to buy, even regular wallets go for a considerable and burdensome price, compared to the money Jake made before his arrival here.

He ended up buying a card holder to feel the sense of purchasing a luxury item back then, and those weren't that expensive.

If he had to ask himself why he went out of his way to purchase those luxuries, he wouldn't know either, he just wanted to buy it.

Such was the way of thinking of someone who is obsessed with shopping.

'I'm going to chew on these lozenges like candy until all my teeth drop off.'

And this was no different: his objective is to buy all of the candy. Not one, not two, but all of it, as much as possible, as often as possible.

'If I have to consider the fact that they raise the stats beyond the ceiling limit of 60 points, of course, it makes sense to be expensive,' Jake thought, thinking about how the price of the item was appropriate.

50,000 points may look like an insurmountable amount, but a normal awakener would need to hunt a lot of monsters to gain enough levels to gain that much of an improvement in strength.

And since Jake knows how gaining levels goes, the amount of experience you would need to grow stronger would increase each time you gained a level, making it more difficult.

When you take that into account, 50,000 is actually a reasonable price to pay.

Jake's reasoning was slightly different: to him, he had raised his strength and agility for next to nothing, it was almost like he was cheating or getting free samples.

Now, he knew that he had to work harder to take the next step in getting stronger, because raising his strength from 10 to 11 and from 60 to 61 were just the same thing to him: Jake considered those stat-boosting items he used in the tutorial area as freebies.

Freebies were fine and all, but this was now the real thing, and he had to move on from those things.

'What about this?'

Jake found something else.

He found another stat-boosting item he never saw before, and while it didn't raise his stats, there was something else he found interesting.

'An item like this existing here? Well, they really weren't lying about this place being a Gold Label..'

[Lozenge of Transcendence: for the man of culture who needs to take a gigantic leap forward in their awakener career, this item is for you. It optimizes your entire body for battle, remodeling it to beyond perfection. You could say that you have transcended your previous awakener self. This can be yours for a million points, as well as minimum stat requirements of 80 or greater for basic stats and 40 or greater for hidden stats. The quest to gain the power needed for this item is well worth the price you'll pay for it.]

How expensive. This might be the most expensive lozenge in the universe. Even diamonds that large don't cost that much.

'That is the kind of item that is well-suited for a man of culture like myself. Oh, man.. I'm sweating. This shop has gotten me feeling hot under the collar!' Jake thought, looking forward to the time where he can purchase the item and make very good use of it.

It wasn't just the effect that drew him towards it, the description also played a factor, as the phrase 'for the man of culture' caught his eye.

He found himself both sweating with anticipation and apprehension, as it would take quite the time for him to get the stats and points needed to buy that item.

'That is definitely something worth looking into in the future! Okay, I'm taking a small break to look at other stuff.'

He didn't consider shifting his attention as a retreat from the possibility that item provided, only that he wanted to continue window shopping further.

'Time to see what else the Gold Label can offer me!'

Despite his excitement, that lozenge imprinted itself onto Jake's soul: he would not consider himself complete until he made that purchase.

For good or for ill, Jake already had a long-term plan already being made as he was window shopping.

There were extreme measures people took for their luxuries, and Jake knew it.

He also had a golden opportunity to find a way to gain those luxuries for himself, too.

'This is way, way too impressive. This Gold Label is off the hook! Everything here is for keeps.'

Everything he saw made the Black Label catalog look like a flea market.

And then, two items caught his eye.

[Diamond Swiftstone: When you take your run-of-the-mill Swiftstone Sword and replace its meteoric iron with diamond, you have a weapon of breathtaking power and beauty. Your friends' heads will follow you while your foes' heads will roll off, and you will do it fabulously.]

[ Diamond Stinger Stiletto: Our R&D division have revolutionized the Stinger Stiletto design to give the diamond blade even more penetrating power! Pierce everything in your way. With the right skills, you can even pierce the skies above.. and beyond!]

'So, these are upgrades of my equipment.. and their important parts are made of diamond?'

It was both a match for Jake's style, and his love of luxury items.

'You wear watches, jewelry, and now this? A sword made of diamond? Isn't this one of those things you'd do if you were an oil baron or something?'

These two weapons would be the pinnacle of luxury in the battle against monsters, but when Jake saw the price, he understood: at 300,000 points for each weapon, they were expensive, but every bit worth the points invested into buying them.

[Note: Diamond Swiftstones can break ordinary Swiftstone weapons.]

The difference in durability was made apparent.

'Now that I know where to go from here, I'll be back when I can finally afford all of you. That Lozenge of Transcendence.. I'm going to have to build up my stats enough before I can buy it,' Jake thought, full of bravado despite the installment payments he still had to take care of.

Several other notifications rang, and when he saw them, his smile widened.

[Welcome to the Gold Label! Here are a few events to help you get started!]

[Lozenge Event! Are you out of your game because you've hit the stat ceiling and want to get stronger already? Well, you are in luck, because with this event, for every purchase of lemon and strawberry lozenge, you get a grape one absolutely free! Buy two, take one! You've never seen a deal this good before!]

[Weapon Upgrade Event! Your weapons have served you well, and it's time to bring them to your personal hall of achievement! Bring them back to us to immortalize them, and we'll give you 50% off on the next two weapons you'll buy!]

[But wait, there's more! Completing this event within 72 hours of your agreement to participate, and we will give you one more Lozenge of Enhancement, absolutely free! These events are not eligible for installment payments, and the duration of these events will be for two weeks.]

Kelderian got the give-away project rolling to a very good start.

***

"From this point forward, consider this leg of the trip as training. We'll only rest for the minimum amount of time until we make it to the headquarters of the 'Grand Duelists'. Understood?"

Master Li decided to use the trip back home to hone the two skills his new recruits just received: Body Application and Cloud Walk.

These were two of the basic skills that all members of the Grand Duelists must learn – and only through repeated use would the skill level be raised, and the true value of this skill will be revealed.

"You mean what we've been doing hasn't been training yet?" Jake asked incredulously, because they had kept a certain pace from Kingsville since learning the Cloud Walk.

Travel using that skill, and whenever they encounter monsters, they hunt them.

Rinse and repeat until they make it to the home of the Grand Duelists division.

With this, Master Li just made it a lot more difficult. However, despite Jake sounding like he was opposed to this training, he and Liam were actually looking forward to it.

"I also noticed that we are not taking the direct route to the home of your division, sir," Liam added.

"Well, you'll need to gain more power than what you have now before you get there," the old man explained. "The home of the 'Grand Duelists' is a very competitive place, and actively weeds out the weak. I don't intend to bring you there unprepared, so we're going to take the scenic route and I'll train you all the while."

Liam nodded in understanding, Jake grinned, and with their itinerary being set, the old man took a different turn on the road than what would have led directly to the city where the Grand Duelists made their home.

"Don't worry about finding what to hunt, I'll tell you about the monsters you'll need to defeat."

"Are they expensive?" Jake suddenly asked, the will to fight returning to his eyes.

"Expensive..?" the old man asked. "We measure the strength of a monster differently here.. but yes, I think so. The monsters we will be hunting are both strong and expensive. I know of eleven monsters we need to hunt down before we make it back to the division – of course, the monsters we run into won't count."

As Jake and Liam readied themselves for the hunt, Li was excited at the prospect of training them by having them hunt the bounty list he had made.

'This is a completely different level of monster you'll hunt, and it will give you the experience you need, especially facing monsters with intelligence.'

To see the potential these younger awakeners had and bring them out was one of the old man's few sources of happiness.

Sometimes, though, this happens.

"Eleven monsters? Why not 111 or 1,111?" Jake asked, completely flipping the script, and the old man just laughed along with it.

***

Shopping is all about planning: a planned approach should be made, as if preparing for an examination.

Purchasing a series of items is like completing a puzzle.

This is the key to Jake Smithson's success, which is why his mind is constantly at work.

'Shopping addicts tend to be smart, thus, someone who is pathologically addicted like me? I'm a freaking genius.'

He equated the traits a shopping addict needed to that of intelligence, and thus thought of himself pretty highly as he formulated a plan to earn enough to purchase the items he needed.

'All right, let's start with the lozenges first, then the diamond weapons.'

The plan was simple, and the steps weren't that difficult.

Enacting the plan, however, required a lot of effort, because it was nothing but nonstop work to earn enough for two events in the Awakener Store.

'I need to get that limited event done, no matter what.'

This time, a new event is on the table: a time-based event.

A free, 50,000-point worth Lozenge of Enhancement as the prize if you complete the event on time.

'Let's see here, if I complete the first event within 72 hours, that's equal to me buying two lozenges and getting two more free – it's 100,000 points saved.'

It wouldn't be easy, because there were no installment plans allowed, nor refunds.

'That means I'll have to earn it all myself. 400,000 points in two weeks to beat both events? No installment, no refund, nothing but hunting monsters for two weeks? Challenge accepted.

If I work constantly from the get-go, it's an achievable goal.'

When it comes to shopping, Jake saw no impossible goal, and even if the sky falls, there are still ways to shop, and even if he ends up in a new world, there are still delivery boxes to open.

'The Golden Leopard was pretty strong, but it gave me only 5,000 points.. Jake thought as he looked back on his previous fight. Eighty of them would get me the points I need.

Considering that defeating the third disaster-class enemy gave me 100,000 points, these monsters only give me around 5,000 now, and those last ones weren't easy.

Since the tutorial ended, it seems earning points is harder.

Heck, the tutorial mode must have given me more points than right now, because they're supposed to be babysitting awakeners. If that's the case, how many points would I get against a disaster-class boss monster?

Chances are it wouldn't be 100,000 points. Brino was a warm-up. Now's the time for the real deal.'

Jake steadied himself, his weapons in his hands, while the werewolf in front of him was howling menacingly at him.

"Your task here is to defeat the werewolf using nothing but the Cloud Walk and Body Application. Cut and stab using those two skills, you will be able to succeed if you use your skills wisely – oh, where is that friend of yours going again?" the old man asked when he was interrupted by seeing Jake gone from his instructions, with only Liam left behind.

"He went on ahead," Liam explained. "Jake said he was on a deadline of sorts, so he needs to hunt as soon as possible. Please continue the explanation, sir. I'll relay your instructions to him."

***