One Last System

"And that settles the exits," Mia said as she released a heavy sigh.

Going around the entire underground took us an entire day, or however many hours the day and night cycle of the underground lighting was set to.

Yet, unless there were exits that were so cleverly hidden that even someone like me, both with keen senses and the knowledge about the topography of the city we were scouting, couldn't find them...

Then, this underground city could be taken as secured.

"What are we going to do now?" I asked, turning my eyes towards the girl.

It was clear she was tired with just a glance. Yet, we weren't in a position where we could go to rest just because we were tired.

'We are not there yet, but that's the kind of life we should be aiming for,' I thought, keenly observing the changes happening on Mia's face.

Initially, she clearly wanted to call it a day. Yet, after she gave it a moment of thought, her face turned into that of an extreme unwillingness that later transformed into a forced acceptance of the reality.

"Now that this place is more or less secured, I guess we should check out what it has to offer?" she suggested, raising her eyes to me.

'She's so sweet, acting like that,' I thought, raising my hand to my chest and then clutching it at my heart.

"I guess that's where I came up," I stated after taking a moment to calm my heart down.

'Seriously, she is too cute for my health,' I thought, trying my absolute utmost to stop a stupid grin from appearing on my lips.

"Are you sure?" Mia asked before I could elaborate any further. "Weren't I supposed to figure everything out?" she questioned even further, proving that she was aware of my intentions all along.

"Yeah." I nodded my head in response. "I think I didn't tell you this yet, but this place is built on the plan of a city I'm familiar with," I explained before reaching out for Mia's hands and pulling her towards the main street of the underground town.

"Where are you taking me?" Mia asked, a look of curiosity flashing on her face.

On another note, it was quite interesting how she completely glossed over the fact that I was somehow familiar with this place.

"First, to the shopping district," I explained, enjoying the warmth of Mia's fingers in my hand.

'Thinking back, there used to be a lot of people that would burn me at stake just for holding the hand of such a beauty,' I thought, grinning at the difference between me in the past and me right now.

"What, you got some new clothes you would like to watch me change into?" Mia asked in a mischievous tone. She also sped up her movements, lining up with my side and wrapping her hands around my arm instead of settling just on holding each other hand.

"That's one thing to think about," I replied, not backing off from the clear invitation but not taking it either. "But let's leave the fun for when we finish what we have to do," I added, directing Mia's thoughts back at the task.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Mia giggled, only to change her grasp over my arm before calming down. "What are we going to check in those shops, then?" she asked, putting my thoughts back on the track.

"First, I want to see if there is anything in them at all," I explained. "If they are stocked just as I hope they are, it will take several problems off our back," I added.

The shopping street of the city housed shops of all kinds. From alchemy workshop where one could buy and even make their own potions, through smithy workshop and its shopfront with various wares...

If there was anything lacking on the shopping street, then it would definitely be a damned mall!

"That's not all there is to it, is there?" Mia pointed out, proving that she could see right through my face as if it was an open book. "I mean, if it's only about food, herbs, or weapons, we could get them on our own terms," she added, advocating her point of view.

"That's true," I replied, nodding my head. "But if the shops are properly stocked..." I muttered, only for a smile to appear on my lips as I decided to get silent instead of answering. "I won't tell you, not yet. If my hopes are right, then you are in for quite the surprise!"

We followed the main road of the city that connected both of the underground ends and went right through its middle. Yet, even though the path was relatively simple, the sheer scale of just how big this place was made it so that we took a considerable amount of time to actually reach the shopping street.

"We are here," I announced when we reached a crossing in which the main street of the town... proved not to be the widest one.

"So this is a shopping street," Mia muttered, shaken by the scale of the place.

If the main street of the town was the size of your regular road in a modern city, then the shopping street was bigger than two lanes of highway put together.

It's surface was finished with small, flat stones, allowing one to walk through it without the worry of twisting their ankle.

Yet, despite all those small wonders of architecture that would put the builders of this world to shame...

It wasn't the road itself that made the greatest impression on anyone who stepped into the shopping street.

For as far as an eye could see, the street was covered by shopfronts on both sides, each of them different from the others.

'I should take Mia to one of the restaurants sometime in the future,' I thought, noticing the signposts of several places I enjoyed a lot while this place was nothing but a location in a game.

Back then, I enjoyed some of the restaurants because the food they offered would provide various buffs, allowing me to challenge areas my character was way too underleveled to tackle normally.

'But without cooks... can those places still operate normally?' I thought, my enthusiasm towards the idea quickly flattering.

'I guess I would have to learn how to cook fancy meals myself before I could take Mia out to those places,' I thought, all the while pulling Mia along to a place only I knew about in this world.

"We are here," I announced when we stood before an ordinary-looking shopfront. Yet, despite how ordinary it appeared on the outside, there was one thing that put it apart from all the other shops around.

Its shopfront... was empty.

"Is this a..." Mia hesitated, only for her eyes to lock on the sign hanging right above the doors of the place. "A smithy?" she asked, turning her eyes to me in curiosity.

"That's right," I nodded with a smile as I pressed the doors to the place open. "But it's not your usual smithy, too," I added, pulling the girl inside.

Just like I expected, there was no shopkeeper to greet us. Just like the rest of the underground, this place was completely deserted, devoid of anyone or anything alive.

Yet, despite the obvious lack of manpower to keep the underground tidy... We actually have yet to find a place with visible markings of time passing in the form of dust settling on surfaces or even a spider's web covering some of the doors or windows.

'This place is giving me a really weird feeling,' I thought, looking around the insides of the building before I finally locked eyes on a small detail that confirmed my earlier guess.

"Let's go," I hurried Mia up, moving deeper into the building only to reach the shop's handy storage.

And there it was.

The shelves of the storage were bending under the weight of all the weapons stored on them. Swords, spears, daggers, and axes could be found hanging on the walls, stacked in special stands, and haphazardly thrown on the shelves.

Yet, despite how the content of this shop could easily go for enough to secure a stable life for Mia and me finance-wise...

I couldn't be bothered to even look at those weapons.

They were crafted perfectly; I could say that for sure... But sometimes, doing one's job perfectly in order with the procedure wasn't enough to make it great enough.

'Compared to my spear, those weapons are worthless,' I thought, recalling the sensation of holing my trusty partner in hand.

But the handy storage for the shop wasn't the place I wanted to reach. Because there was a secret area, one that a player in the game would unlock only after finishing an extensive line of quests and boss-slaying missions.

"Now, let's see whether my hopes were well-founded or not," I muttered, approaching the far-right corner of the room.

On its wall, there was an old, rusty ax hanging with its twin-blade towards the floor.

I reached out and picked it up, only to nearly trip and fall down when its unexpected weight rested on my muscles.

"Arty, what are you doing?" Mia asked, looking at me with a confused expression on her face.

"Just trying something out," I replied, slowly turning the ax around and then bringing it up, only to rest its hefty blades on two special hooks in the wall.

Ting!

The second the weighty blade of the weapon rested on the hooks, they moved about an inch down, proving my concept right.

"What was that?!" Mia looked around, getting on a full alert from just this small sound.

"Nothing much," I replied with a smile turning around and approaching the same doors that we used to enter the storage. "Just a secret room opening up," I explained before pushing the doors open.

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