The Flying Emporium

Severin was disappointed.

The reward wasn’t useless per se. It was just the timing of it. It was something that would be far more useful once the mountaintop and the would-be Emporium it was harboring were a bit more developed. Something to actually help with the developing part would be way more welcome right now.

‘Well, it is basically a two-in-one reward. That counts for something…I guess.’ This fact somewhat mollified him when he reread the System-Notification once again.

[Congratulations for completing the quest [Building of a customer base].

With an ever-growing customer base, as well as the increasing size of property, it can be hard to constantly keep track of everything happening around you. To help ease the burden, you are hereby granted access to the [Map] feature, which allows you to track everyone present on the shop’s premises, in real-time. To further complement this feature, you will be able to bar access to unwanted elements by allowing you to blacklist them.]

Severin decided to immediately check out his new map and quickly navigated the menu to open it.

Just as expected, a map depicting exactly his property appeared, showing not even one millimeter of the area reaching beyond that. Just the fenced outside area, as well as the inside of the shop, was shown.

’Stingy.’

That being said, the detail was rather impressive, clearly marking every bit of furniture. Severin could clearly identify the counter, with a green dot placed right behind it, clearly representing himself. There were eight other people present in his store, seven of them gathered closely in one of the corners, while the last one stood off to the side, observing the others.

That last part was not something shown on the map, though, as there was no cone of vision indicator.

Each of those people was also represented by a dot similar to his own, just that these were white instead of green. As most of them were basically standing on top of each other right now, their dots almost seemed to fuse together into one big white blob, though. Severin instinctually tried to zoom further in. And succeeded.

Like this, the mess became actually discernable.

He looked up and compared the actual positions and movements of his customers with how they were represented on the map. And indeed, Severin saw Xander’s pushing and shoving, wanting to reach and try out the magical box himself, mirrored on the screen floating in front of him with no delay whatsoever.

He ignored the wild shouts accompanying the scene.

He was too taken in by his new toy. Too focused on some of the other features the map provided.

For one, he was able to adjust the map’s level of transparency, though that was only natural. After all, he was already able to do this with the whole System Screen itself. It was just that so far that feature seemed pretty useless to him, and in Severin’s eyes, being able to apply that same functionality to the map as well was only slightly more useful to him.

The real handy stuff was him being able to pop-out the map, detaching it from the System’s main window, and allowing him to scale and move it as he desired.

Like that, he placed the smaller map into the upper right corner of his vision.

‘Haha, that’s pretty neat. Got myself a minimap. Well, in the end, that’s just quality of life stuff.

[Xander – Duelist (Uncommon)].

That’s the real cheat. Huh? Being able to see nametags plus the according class.’

“Haha.” The laugh was a joyless one. Severin somewhat realized that such an ability was something others might very well kill for it, but once again it clearly wasn’t something he would be able to fully utilize.

‘Always those features I can’t take full advantage of anyway,’ Severin grumbled to himself.

‘Almost seems wasted on my class.’

Still, those complaints didn’t stop him from taking a closer look.

‘[Samuel – Berserker (Common)]. Too bad it doesn’t also show the level.

Hmm, Tim’s class is [Rare], as expected. As for the other guys…[Stalker] and [Spirit Caller] are both (Uncommon)…the remaining two, [Brawler] and [Frost Mage] are just (Common), though. Well, I guess Sam is the living proof that there is more to consider than just the rarity of one's class. Then again…’ Severin peeked at the text above the green dot and couldn’t help but put on a self-satisfied grin.

“No need to look so smug! Better tell us what’s up with restricting us like that.”

“Wha-?”

It took a second for Severin to put things together and figure out what Xander wanted from him.

Just like Miriam and Timothy before him, Xander came to argue about the limit restricting the daily uses of the Combinator. The thing had obviously been very well received. So much had been apparent even to a totally occupied Severin.

Still, while he welcomed his products and services being coveted, being torn out of his thoughts and being called out like this wasn’t something he appreciated. Especially not by someone who behaved like the two kids!

Therefore, instead of replying directly, he considered for a few more seconds if he should test his other newly unlocked feature.

Besides the [Map] Menu, another one called ‘[Security]’ had also emerged. So far, it was mostly empty, offering just one single feature.

Which was, of course, his new blacklist. The layout of the menu suggested that more menu points and features might be added in the future, though.

Interestingly enough, apparently, it wasn’t even necessary to open this menu directly to access the blacklisting feature. Unexpectedly the System had taken it on itself to inform Severin of the possibility to ban people directly from the map. Concentrating on one of the dots allowed him to open something like a context menu. It basically was the equivalent of a right-click or maybe more accurately, considering the floating screen seemed more like a tablet or a phone than a PC, like tap-and-hold.

Again, only a single option, allowing him to blacklist the troublemaker, would appear; And once again, suggesting that more might be added at a later point in time.

Yet, that one option was enough to tempt Severin.

‘I mean it can’t hurt to be prepared and learn what exactly will happen once I ban someone...’

Ultimately, though, Severin was somewhat appeased by the look of honest astonishment on Xander’s face, totally taken in by some of the possible combinations presented to him by the younger duo.

Sigh

‘Guess I shouldn’t risk a falling out with the whole Lion’s Head guild over something like this.’ In reality, he had a slight suspicion that if it was Xander, no one would really care if he was banned. Not even his own guild members. They surely wouldn’t stop frequenting his store.

“Because I can’t have any single one of you buy out my whole shop, Xander. If there was no limit, the shop would probably already be emptied out by them,” Severin first nodded towards Tim and Miriam and then in Samuel’s direction, who still stood a bit further away from everyone, still observing everything.

‘Then you would probably be the first one to demand a daily limit.’ That part he kept to himself.

“Also, like this, I would probably never be able to restock all of my wares.”

“Hmpf. Maybe you should hire some help then.”

A deadpan facial expression was the only reaction to that, making Xander feel uncomfortable after being stared at like this for an extended period of time.

Ahem

“Well, guess I’d better get back to it then. I still have some uses left.” Xander’s response sounded almost sheepish as he turned around to quickly join the racket once again.

In a better mood, Severin might have stopped and warned the man of his superior.

‘Well, no need to reveal this new ability of mine just yet.’

In that short period of time in which Xander had come to annoy him, a new dot had appeared.

For a moment, just after becoming visible to Severin, it had paused. But now it was on its way making a beeline towards the shop.

Andreas was back.