Chapter 57

  The Mun Center was a ghost town. All off the shops were closed, as I’d figured, and no one else was in the massive space. Which, made me wonder, what had Mikael been doing outside the Center? Had he been waiting for someone? If so, had my arrival caused him to leave? And… what had happened with his Mun? It had attacked, something, behind me. Was there a Mun following me?

  That shouldn’t be possible, right? I thought the cities were protected from wild Muns. The Mayor of Cogni had informed me barriers were created by the large Mun Center crystals that would keep stray Muns away. And with the Guardian Crystal of Silver Springs… surely the city had to be extremely secure and safe. Not to mention… I didn’t think Muns could or would attack humans. Was that a lie?

  No matter what was going on, I didn’t have the brain space for it at the moment. I still had other things to think about, first and foremost, warm clothes. I was going to begin my journey north tomorrow, and while I was told the next town with a Keeper, called Glass City, was located in a desert region, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be cold. Especially at night.

  Plus, It was going to be a trek. I’d looked at the map a little during dinner, and it looked like the journey, without Pep Step mind you, would take about a month. There were other towns spotted here and there between Silver Springs and Glass City where I would be able to rest and get other provisions, sure, but it didn’t make sense not to get ready now, considering I had the Mun Center crystal at my disposal.

  Besides, it wasn’t like I had to worry about packing light for travel, thanks to the magical inventory system of this world.

  With a smile, I placed my hand on the Mun Center Crystal, the prompt as always flowing into my mind. I selected Shop. A new set of prompts appeared.

  Select what type of shop you wish to access:

  Food/Drink – Basic

  Food/Drink - Augmented

  Clothing – basic

  Clothing – Augmented

  Jewelry – Basic

  Jewelry - Augmented

  Traveling Supplies

  Mun Accessories

  Mun Care

  Curiosity got the best of me, and I toggled quickly between the Basic and Augmented options for food and drink. The basic option was just that. Regular, to use the term loosely mind you, options like Bullow Meat, Water, Gearow Eggs, and so forth. There were also ready to eat meals, packaged and even classified as hot or cold. Most of the food options ranged between a few Muney, to about 25 Muney.

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  The Augmented options, were where things like Pep Step could be found. That particular drink had a five pack for 50 Muney, putting each drink at 10 dollars. Conversely, the just caffeinated style energy drinks on the basic page were a dollar or two a piece. Much more expensive, but, the magical boost was well worth it for traveling quickly.

  There were other drinks too. Some that promised to help with sleep, others that promised to cure basic colds and ailments, and even one, for a hundred Muney, that uh… if I was reading its description right, was like the love child between hard liquor and party drugs. I… made amental note of that one, for reasons…for later.

  Debauchery and poor life choices aside, I flipped to clothing next. The clothing was broken down further by clothing type, similar to when shopping online back home. I could sort based on gender, long sleeve, short sleeve, outerwear, underwear, and so on and so forth.

  Clothing here seemed relatively reasonable. Most shirts were 10-15 Muney, and Jackets ranged between 50-100 from what I could see. Much better than back home, where a decent jacket started at over a hundred dollars, and heaven help you find any shirt worth wearing that was under 20 dollars. Unless I was shopping the clearance rack or thrifting, there was almost no way to get clothing for a decent price. Inflation was a bitch.

  The augmented clothing, was much more intriguing, though far… far outside of my price range. There was a jacket that specified it could keep your body temperature perfectly regulated, and also came with special water repelling magic, and its own climate bubble… for 5,000 Muney. I also saw tennis shoes which apparently could increase your walking speed and decrease how tired you got while using them. They were called…. Go Fasters, and cost 1000 Muney.

  While making Muney had seemed relatively easy here in Mutopia, I was learning now that ‘easy muney’ was only meant for basic living needs. If you got into specialized things meant for living as a traveling Tamer… things got pricy, quick. Which… was fine. Totally fine. Just more reason to go around battling Muns and collecting Mun Crystals. If I wanted any fancy magical clothing, which, duh, of course I did, I’d happily put in the effort.

  I swapped back to the basic clothing option and bought myself two jackets. One meant for cold weather, like a parka you’d wear on the ski slopes. The other was a leather jacket, more a style thing than jacket proper, honestly. The two combined cost 120 Muney. I used another 80 Muney to just get a few spare changes of clothes put together. Even though the system here could auto-clean your clothes if you left them in their crystal form long enough… I wasn’t about to walk around in the same outfit forever.

  I glazed over jewelry for now, other than to see that Augmented Jewelry was ridiculously expensive, and turned my attention to traveling supplies. Another 200 Muney got me a “camping essentials kit”, which claimed to be a must for camping. I already had a pretty spiffy tent, but figured the kit would come in handy. Especially since I wasn’t going to be traveling with Guy anymore, meaning I couldn’t rely on his pop-up inn.

  Finally… and with a bit of Muney figuratively burning a hole in my pocket as I got a little too into the quick ease with which I could buy things here, I selected Mun Accessories section.

  And immediately closed out of it. Knowing I should stock up on Mun Care options before I made some poor financial decisions. Only after I’d spent another 300 Muney on Refreshers and panaceas, items that could apparently cure any ailment, I went back to the Mun Accessories section, where you could buy actual accessories for your Muns. I’m talking hats, and glasses, and collars, and jewelry and so forth. Even better, it could auto sort to show me accessories that could be given to my current Muns, as well as offered up little examples of what they would look like while wearing the accessories. Needless to say… all my worry about traveling solo had completely faded, thanks to the joys of retail therapy.

  I had roughly 1500 Muney left to play with… and realistically, considering how easy it had been to come by, surely, I could afford to spoil my Muns… Without anyone there to tell me otherwise, I began. First, and most importantly… Cogberus was getting an upgrade. And I had already seen the perfect ones for my loyal, three headed, steampunk good boi… He was going to look like such a proper little sir.