The Flying Emporium

When Severin opened his eyes, awoken by something poking into his back, he was greeted by the sight of an unfamiliar wooden ceiling.

Instead of panicking and checking out his surroundings, or even his own condition and wellbeing, he just kept lying there, staring up ahead.

What stunned him into inaction wasn’t the view of the rustic wood in front of him but something else.

About half a meter above his face, a thing that looked suspiciously like a transparent screen was levitating in the air.

‘Is this...?’

Severin felt his heart pounding. After taking a moment, to calm himself down, he started to straighten himself up into a sitting position. He moved slowly. Carefully. Afraid to make even the slightest sound, or too fast a movement.

Like a hunter who was stalking his prey, in fear of scaring it away.

His suspicion was confirmed; The screen started to imitate his every move, staying perpendicular to Severin, always dead center in his field of view.

Once he sat upright and confirmed the thing wasn’t going anywhere, he closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and relaxed. He became aware of a mental connection that had formed with the screen-like thing tugging at a corner of his mind.

Through that connection, he instinctually knew some of the information the display would show him. Nevertheless, he needed to confirm them with his own eyes.

Up until now, he was too tense and too concentrated on his movements to actually read what was written on this magic screen.

Severin opened his eyes again.

[Welcome to the Shopkeeper System]

“A System! I have a f***ng System! I knew it.”

Not bothering to read further, Severin jumped up, throwing his hands into the air.

Laughing like a maniac, Severin started dancing till exhaustion.

Given the constitution of his body, it didn’t take too long to reach that point, and Severin’s attention soon returned to his newly found companion.

[As the owner of this System your class has been defaulted to [Shopkeeper] (Unique).

For further information such as available tasks, skills, and various other System features please refer to the respective tab.]

Severin focused his gaze on the row of icons that appeared on top of the system display. Some of the icons were colorized, with a little red star next to each of them.

Others were grayed out, indicating their respective function was not yet available.

‘It’s really just like in a game.’

He chose the icon that looked like a chest and extended his right arm to tap it. As expected, his hand just went through the display meeting no resistance, but opening a new window, nonetheless.

“Ha, so I guess it has touch.”

…

‘What’s that?’

Severin’s laughs fell silent when he saw the nonexistent contents of what indeed turned out to be his inventory screen.

Furrowing his brows ‘It’s empty? Really? Where is the obligatory starting gift? Aren’t I supposed to be some kind of merchant? One with a System, at that!

If not merchandise, I feel I should at least have some form of starting capital, no?’

After making sure he hadn’t overlooked anything and that the row of squares, representing his inventory space, was indeed empty, he focused his attention back on the remaining menu icons. The red star next to the chest symbol had disappeared.

Severin chose to explore the menu that was marked with a “!”

This time, instead of trying to touch it, he just imagined himself taping it, in his mind.

Again, the System reacted according to his expectations. The red star next to the “!” disappeared and a new menu showed up.

“So that’s the Quest-log I take it. Even though that...thing... can hardly be described as a Quest.”

[The First Sale

Quest description: Sell your first unit of merchandise.

Quest reward: ???]

“Again, that’s rather underwhelming...and what merchandise?” his face fell.

“Are you sure this isn’t the Pauper-System?”

After waiting for a moment, it became evident that this wasn’t the kind of System that bickered and argued with its owner.

‘Never mind, let’s check the skills first. Maybe I’ll have some magic available, allowing me to conjure something up. Or maybe a fireball or something to hunt monsters. Then I might just sell the loot or the body parts.’

He looked for the icon most likely to represent some form of skill menu. Immediately he found an icon depicting a shield in the background with a crossed sword and staff on top of it.

‘Nice! Looks like magic is a thing.’

Comforted, Severin pressed again.

tap

(Language Mastery)

You are able to understand and speak any language you come in contact with.

While money is indeed a universal language, a Shopkeeper should always be able to communicate with his customers.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……

(Identify)

You are able to identify all items.

You may choose to reveal the resulting tooltip to other people.

A good Shopkeeper should always know what items he is dealing with.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……

…

With a stiff expression on his face, Severin quickly turned to the last available menu tab that still had the red star icon next to it.

“Finally! Now, this is more System-like.”

What appeared was the sight of a paper doll, representing a slightly chubby man in his early thirties.

The pale skin looked like it hadn’t been exposed to sunlight for a long time.

The shoulder-length, dark blonde hair and the stubble on the man’s chin made him look slightly unkempt.

Apart from the fleshy nose, the face seemed sharper than one would expect for a person with a belly of that size.

The image was too small to clearly see the person’s eyes, but Severin knew them to be dark green.

Similarly, the man’s height of close to 1.9m could not be inferred from looking at the paper doll alone, with it missing any other object for reference.

‘That’s me alright, but what is with those clothes? I guess I’m really in a different world. Or at least a different time.’

Looking away from the display and down on himself, Severin couldn’t help being amused when he saw some kind of medieval fantasy clothing.

A loose-fitting, long-sleeved, white cotton shirt. A pair of brown linen trousers. A pair of leather boots, with soles, that weren’t worth mentioning.

That’s it.

Severin was actually able to will a small tooltip for each of those into existence, but besides the item’s name and the most basic description, no further information was revealed.

The items were just too common.

What he was missing, in particular, was any mentioning of ‘stats’ attached to the clothing.

“Well, not only the clothing, but the whole [Stats] section in my Character Overview is just empty. I suppose that’s the blight of being a non-combat class. That being said…”

Contrary to one’s expectation Severin didn’t get gloomy but instead, a smile appeared on his face.

Below the sparse information about himself and his pathetic ‘equipment’, something else caught his attention.

[Please choose your first subclass]

Mollified he chose this menu option, revealing a list of available secondary jobs to him.

Some grayed-out and illegible text fields hinted at the existence of other options in the future.

But of those choices available to him, one in particular made Severin perk up.

“Alchemist, huh. In comparison to something like Chef or Blacksmith, this certainly seems more magical and outlandish. What’s the point in transmigrating if I just end up cooking food? Or being stuck in a smithy.”

With conviction, he picked [Alchemist] as his subclass.

The next moment the Character screen updated. A small red star once again appeared next to the ‘Skills’ and the ‘Inventory’ tab, indicating something changed in the respective sections.

Severin quickly checked out his gains.

‘It’s basically all I could have hoped for. An alchemy skill that comes with a recipe book, a basic variety of magic burners and centrifuges, flasks and tubes, funnels, beakers, and condensers. Almost seems a bit simplistic, but that is just fine with me. Even came with a ton of ingredients.

‘So much for the question of what I should sell. Only the recipes could be a bit more varied…two kinds of health potions and that’s it.

What’s a bit creepy, though, is the knowledge transfer. The moment I wondered how to even begin to assemble and use all that stuff, it just came to me like a long-lost memory. The power of a System, I suppose.’

After taking a few moments to think through his next steps, Severin decided to postpone his first crafting session, feeling it would take too much time for now.

He closed the System and inspected the room he was in. For the first time since arriving in this world.

It seemed to be the inside of a wooden hut, measuring about 5x6 meters.

The first thing he noticed was the counter that looked like it was growing out of the wall, leaving no gap in between.

It effectively separated the space into two.

The next thing was the light. There was light, alright. But no discernable light source whatsoever.

No lamp, no candle, no windows, and the only door, on the other side of the counter, was closed.

‘Magic...I guess?’

Not too stumped by this he continued to look around.

Severin was currently standing on the slightly smaller side of the divided room, and his eyes soon fell on a rough, uncomfortable-looking straw mattress next to him.

He could only regard the probable culprit, which poked him awake, with contempt.

Besides that, the room was relatively empty.

One chair and a few shelves and stands, mostly on the other side of the counter, opposite to him. All of them empty.

While the setup was kind of sparse, it was by no means shabby.

Maybe with the exception of the so-called mattress.

Nevertheless, there was no reason for him to stay.

“Let’s get out of here. I have a name to make for myself.”

With determined steps, he crossed to the other side of the counter, heading to the door.

With a confident smile on his face, he pulled it open and…

…

The smile froze on his face, not able to process the sight.

Slowly his expression turned into one of amazement. But that amazement quickly gave way to one of despair.

“What is this place? Where am I?”

He was stunned by the scenery.

The sky was a clear blue, with no clouds whatsoever.

At least not above him.

Lush, pristine grass covered a few hundred meters of ground before him. To a point where it was met by a cliff. As if cut off, the ground seemed to end there and instead gave way to a seemingly neverending ocean of clouds. Just here and there poked a green mountaintop through the white cover.

“Re-really? Have I really been summoned onto some desolate mountain? Are you shitting me?” Severin stuttered to himself before cursing. At this point, he couldn’t count how often his emotions turned from elation to disappointment, from hopeful and confident to upset.

“Fuck!”

Still feeling slightly encouraged by having a System at his back, Severin could only grit his teeth and decided to march onward.

“Let’s get out of here first and check out the surroundings. Maybe on the other side of the hut…

Well, here goes nothing.”

Determined to take his first real step in this world, he was in the motion of crossing the doorstep.

thump

[Notice: A Shopkeeper should never leave his shop unattended]