Re: Evolution Online

Back on the mainland, Liam continued searching for more clues about the vampires as something about them felt very unsettling to him. 

And it did not take long for them to run into the next group, a small vampire nest of only twenty or so vampires. All of them also seemed to be just grunts, with none of the vampires exhibiting any special skills.

However, just as Liam left the area, they surprisingly ran into a magic shop. More precisely, his soul minions had sniffed out this magic shop while they were in the middle of massacring one of the wolf type beast pack.

This magic shop was hidden in the wilderness, with trees and plants intertwined around the building, covering it so much that it made one think if the shop was purposefully being kept out of the public eye.

Liam frowned on seeing this. Typically no one would bother to do such a thing as a magic shop was one of the most useless landmarks in the post-apocalyptic world, especially to normal human beings. 

The sheer amount of mana cores required to buy anything useful was ridiculously high. So why would one even think about hiding this place as if it was some sort of precious treasure trove?

"Luna, stop here. Let's go inside and check out this shop." Liam jumped down and cut down the brambles and vines with his sword, clearing a path for them to walk into the small building.

And voila… once again, a huge, pristinely clean, neatly arranged, sparkling, multi-floored building opened up in front of him as he entered the place. Of course, the beings running this place as well were fairies.

This was not really a surprise. Liam had already expected this much because he had heard rumours about this from the Gu family guild in his last life.

He entered the big hall calmly and curiously looked around. Naturally, this place was deserted when compared to the shop near their base. It was not like they had mana cores to buy items from the shops but more people usually filtered in and out, trying their luck or just window shopping out of curiosity.

But since this place was hidden, even that little activity was not present in the shop. The fairies lazily manning their desks had their eyes glued onto their system interface, tapping away wildly at something. It was almost as if they were playing a version of spider solitaire to cure their boredom.

Some of them did indeed look up and gave Liam some attention but seeing that he had no intention of walking over to their desk, they once again continued minding their own business.

However, all of a sudden, this silence in the shop was broken by a gleeful, hoarse voice. "Welcome. Welcome. Mr Liam, how are you doing this fine day? I am Aron, this store's manager. May I please know what brings an esteemed guest like you to our shop?"

A lean man with a particularly big nose walked out from inside. He gazed at Liam with discerning eyes, and even though his words were polite, there was an air of superiority about him. The man also had a very distinct pimple on his nose that made him look extra stern.

"Hello. I am just visiting." Liam calmly answered him. He couldn't help but observe the stark difference between Tilia and the man in front of him. 

He was definitely taller than her, almost the same size as Liam and was rather indistinguishable from a human being. All the sparkle and glitter and the feeling of charm that came along with a fairy were missing from the guy.

However, Liam knew that he still shouldn't underestimate the guy. He was through and through a fairy, and if anything, he had a feeling that this one was perhaps even more conniving and dangerous when compared to Tilia.

"By the way, your shop is perfectly camouflaged in the middle of all of this wilderness. I almost missed it. This can't be good for your business. Are you not planning to clean the space and make the pillar of light visible?" He slightly probed.

The fairy immediately laughed. "Ha Ha Ha. That is indeed very true, Mr Liam. You have made a very astute observation. But unfortunately, we are not allowed to step outside this shop. So something like that is out of our hands. Ha Ha Ha."

"Hmmm. I see. In that case, why don't I help you out? I can clear the area and make the shop more visible?" Liam smiled.

Aron once again chuckled and politely nodded. "If that is what pleases you…" The fairy neither encouraged him nor discouraged him.

Liam observed him for a moment and then proceeded to fiddle with the mission board at the shop for a few minutes. He was hoping to find something interesting here, but to his dismay, all the quests were extremely basic.

It looked like his reputation or rank did not crossover from one branch of the magic shop to the other, and if he wanted to get anywhere in this shop, he would have to start back up again from square one.

While this might be something impossible for someone else, it was merely a day's work for Liam, but for the moment, he decided not to pursue this thread.

Since he actually managed to find another magic shop, what he wanted to do now was scour this region to see if there were any dungeons nearby.

He quickly checked the guild interface, which he could thankfully, and made sure that everyone was still alive and kicking. There were also no additional guild war challenges that had sprung up in his absence. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

So Liam gave a small nod to Aron whose eyes were still locked onto him like a hawk, and then started heading out of the shop. There wasn't anything else left for him to do here.

However, he did observe something strange. As he turned around to leave, he noticed an unmistakable small flicker of relief that swept past the store manager's face.

"Hmmm? Is he hiding something?" Liam's curiosity was piqued, but he didn't have to wait too long to find out the answer to this puzzle.

When he walked out of the shop, he coincidentally bumped into another person walking into the shop, and more importantly, this person's eyes were bright crimson.

***

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