StarGate

As this happened, a few days passed by in a flash. His own schedule was constantly full with unstopping progress.

"Finally, both cores have reached their full state." Said Lux to himself as he looked at the deep black sky through the window of his room.

"Now, let's form both patterns." He decided as he had already made a choice of the new profession he wished to awaken and he had already taken the time to master the pattern for both the second level of the space wanderer profession and the first level of the druid pattern.

While the druid wasn't renowned for their overall strength and the difficulty in showing great combat prowess, they had an advantage over the mage profession and it was their versatility. Whether it was in healing, transformation, long-range combat or close-range combat, they could do it all. Finally, as he was the creator of gates, he wasn't expected to fight and this profession was mostly about his own interests.

Looking at the time and confirming that he still had plenty of time, he prepared himself to start inscribing the second level pattern on his space wanderer's profession.

However, first, there was something to do, something he had waited for a while to complete.

Opening the system, especially the professional mall, he went straight into the shop section.

[Do you wish to exchange Bym for Credits?]

Right as always, the exchange function of the system reappeared, exactly at midnight every night, right after the closure of the shop.

"Exchange 1.5M Bym." Directly called Lux as he was ready to use up a large part of his current savings to transform the shop into a proper gate shop.

[Exchange completed, current balance: 1500 credits.]

With the exchange completed, he was ready to make the proper changes. However, he was soon interrupted once more by the system.

[As you have spent more than a million Bym, you may choose which charity organization to give the proceedings.]

Seeing the words appear in front of his eyes, he stopped moving for a moment before his eyes grew wide.

He had long wondered what would happen with the money he spent in the system. Would the money simply disappear from the world or maybe it would be sent randomly in the world, granting some lucky ones a few bills of Bym. However, he had never guessed in that direction.

"Do you have a list of orphanages in Dryfalls town?" Asked Lux, who was already lacking in basic knowledge of this world. He hadn't heard of any charity organization as of yet.

At his words, a list of ten orphanages scrolled down.

"Well, send a tenth of the money to each of these ten orphanages." He decided as he was certain the orphanages would make good use of this money.

[The funds granted to the orphanage will be looked upon by the StarGate system. No embezzlement will occur.]

With these words, Lux sighed in relief as he didn't feel like giving some money to corrupt people and truly wished for the money to reach those orphans.

"Transform the building into a level 1 gate shop and strengthen the shop's defenses to level one." Directed Lux as he finished dealing with the system as all of his credits were spent this way.

[Transformation. Countdown of 5 hours.]

Done with this part, he went straight into his meditation mode, preparing himself for the certainly arduous task of improving his professional level.

Looking at his core which was currently filled with a black purplish mist, the space wanderer's energy he had gradually refined ever since he had first awakened, he made a pen appear as he started to inscribe on the core in his soul.

With slow but decisive strokes as he had constantly reviewed them recently, he used all of his concentration to place one line after the other.

With the first ten successful, he felt a happy smile from within. However, he didn't dare to think of other things as he continued engraving.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Forty.

Fifty.

Fifty-five.

At the fifty-sixth line, a small shake in his concentration caused him to break the pattern, making all of his efforts go for naught. However, despite everything, this small experience would certainly help him go along further the following moment.

Restarting as he refused to stop until he had no energy left in his body, he reached back at his previous mistake and without effort managed to get further on the inscription.

The third, fourth and fifth time allowed him to continue mastering the engraving methods.

Taking a deep breath as he opened his eyes, his head turning from fatigue as he had once again failed in forming the pattern, he decided to stop as despite the seemingly rapid engraving, it had already been seven hours and he would be opening the shop soon.

Washing up to make the fatigue in his eyes disappear, he slowly walked downstairs and for once decided to leave the shop to go and get some breakfast.

Pushing the door open, he was stunned as he saw the many dozens of explorers simply waiting in front of his door.

"Good morning boss, are you opening in advance today?" They asked almost in chorus.

"No, I'm simply heading out to get some breakfast. I'll be back soon." He said before accelerating and getting out of there.

While they were waiting for the opening of the shop, why did he feel so awkward to make so many people wait for another hour when he was already up.

"Boss!" Exclaimed one. However, before he could continue, Lux had already left the surroundings and had already arrived at a small market square where many street stalls stood out.

"Hi, I'll take three of them." He said as he saw some small breadsticks with cheese in them and a few sauces to go along with it.

Taking a milk box from the next stall, he rapidly paid and hurriedly went back to the shop. While he wasn't going to open in advance as it went against his principles, he wasn't interested in being looked at either. Perhaps he was a bit of a loner but he indeed preferred to be alone and train in peace.

"Now that you are back, are you going to open up in advance?" Asked one of the explorers with some obvious excitement in his voice.

"No, I'm still opening up at eight." Said Lux as he had a few things to do still before the opening. Besides, if he opened in advance that day, he would be setting a precedent and it would be harder to follow his own rules from then on. Furthermore, if they wanted to spend more time in the portal, they just had to stay on the other side the previous day. After all, quite a few stayed on the other side in a permanent fashion to take advantage of as much as he could.

Under the sighed of disappointments of the nearby explorers, Lux reentered the door and locked in behind him.

"Now, let's see this new shop." He said as he opened the lights.

While the shops in itself hadn't changed much, there were still some obvious and very useful changes.

The previous podium that hosted the only portal in the shop had moved slightly to the left right next to the wall and two more had appeared right next to it. While it seemed pretty ordinary as a change, the most important feature was the walls that could now be opened right behind the portal to allow them to bring out the collected resources without having to pass through the entire store to the door.

Pressing the button on the side of the portal, a small sound resonated in the shop as the wall behind the portal seemingly separated in half, allowing the access of a single small truck from which people could directly send their resources in.

Not only would this new function prevent most groups of explorers from simply transporting their loot through the shop, but it would also help them speed up a lot. Thankfully, now, all that was left was to set up which side of the portal was for the exit through the outside and which one was the entry portal. After all, he couldn't stop people from entering the gate due to some groups constantly bringing ressources back out.

Looking at the shop that hadn't changed except for this small add-on, Lux had at least, now, enough prepared space for the creation of two more portals.

Stretching himself a bit, he looked at both of his statuses to see if there were any changes before readying to open the door for the day's business.

Status

Lux Arden

Human

18 years old

 - Profession

Lv.1 Space Wanderer (100%)

 - Lv.1 Gate Creation

 --> Open a gate in three location (1/3)

 --> Open a gate 24 hours straight (0/24)

 --> Improve two gates to level 2 (1/2)

 --> Form the lv.2 skill pattern (0/1)

 - Lv.1 Coordinate Research

 --> Locate three towers (1/3)

 --> Locate five gates (3/5)

 --> Form the lv.2 skill pattern (0/1)

Lv.0 Core Formation (100%)

Celestial Bodies

Name: Proteus

Size: Tier 1

Gate level: 2 (521/5000)

Activation cost: 8 energy/hour

Time Remaining: 23d, 1h, 7m, 23s

Environment level: 1 star (55%)

 --> Tier 1 - Cave of Illusions (32%)

 --> Tier 1 - Sinking Lake (23%)

Monster Danger level: 1 star (70%)

 --> Tier 1 - Plague Frogs: 14%

 --> Tier 1 - Shade Snakes: 6%

 --> Tier 1 - Wind Ants: 12%

 --> Tier 1 - Goblin: 18%

 --> Tier 1 - Bone Monkey: 10%

 --> Tier 1 - Kobold: 2%

 --> Tier 1 - Orc: 3%

 --> Tier 2 - Werewolves: 1%

 --> Tier 2 - Purple Moths: 4%

Ressource level: 1 star (50%)

 --> Tier 0 - Iron Ore: 16%

 --> Tier 0 - Oak Tree: 5%

 --> Tier 1 - Epnola Wood: 7%

vTier 1 - Pygmy Leaf: 5%

 --> Tier 1 - Nightweed: 9%

 --> Tier 1 - Illusion Grass: 8%

Map: 100% explored

Gates: 3

 --> Lv.2 gate - Lux Arden

 --> Lv.4 gate - Brandon Ashe

 --> Lv.2 gate - Chra Tea

Tower: 1

 --> 2 floors (Open)

Cost per hour: 80 Bym

"Well, they have indeed gotten a large amount of resources." Said Lux to himself with a shake of his head seeing that the celestial body was going to slowly be emptied of ressources. Of course, it was fine. After all, it would eventually get out of reach and it was better to get the benefits as soon as they could.

"And I guess that once the danger or ressource levels goes under 50%, the star rating will lower by one, rebalancing the ressources or danger remaining on the planet properly." Finalized Lux who finally understood how exactly the panel worked.