Chapter 26: Chapter Twenty-Six: Preparations

Chapter Twenty-Six: Preparations

Valen only had 30 slots of compressed space within his Inventory Ring, and he wasn’t willing to waste five of them to store the 5 pieces of Common Equipment on his person.

Two of them consisted of the Lv. 1 Equipment Blueprint and Antidote Capsule. The rest were all below Level 1, as they had been obtained when he slew three Amberfiends of Level 0.33%, 0.60%, and 0.70% respectively.

These below-Level 1 pieces of common equipment weren’t valuable in terms of damage-dealing or actual battles. But for survival, they would be of incredible help.

This placed Valen in a dilemma, causing him to review their information over and over again with a slight frown on his face:

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Grappling Hook

Rank: Common

Description: A compact hook attached to a durable rope, used for climbing and traversing obstacles.

Throwing Knife

Rank: Common

Description: A lightweight, balanced blade designed for accurate short-range throws.

Smoke Pellet

Rank: Common

Description: A small pellet that releases a thick cloud of smoke upon activation, obscuring vision.

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Valen had been in a situation where his Power Suit’s Reactor had been drained of power, so he understood how advantageous it would be to have things to rely on in such scenarios.

With his brow furrowed, he fell into deep thought, considering how he should handle the situation.

Suddenly, an inspiration struck him. Since the Inventory Ring only stored one item within each layer, what if all the items were tied or bagged together? He had, on one occasion, seen Aaliyah doing such a thing, but he hadn’t bothered asking why, so now he didn’t know if it was feasible.

Without lingering, he sought to try it out. For now, he stored each item in different slots as he left the alley to buy a large bag.

Once the bag was procured, he immediately put his hypothesis to the test in an alley by placing the grappling hook and throwing knife into the bag and then calling upon the black ripple to envelop the bag.

’Please work, please work...’ Valen prayed as he observed the process.

To prevent any mishaps, he had only placed the grappling hook and throwing knife into the bag as a test. If things worked out, then it would be fine. If it didn’t and the items were destroyed, it wouldn’t matter, for he wouldn’t lose much anyway.

Under his anticipatory gaze, the Inventory Ring devoured the bag with nothing untoward happening.

Valen breathed out a sigh of relief. Then, with excitement, he thought: ’Now it’s time for the second phase.’

He commanded the system to send in the required amount of DEU to open the seventh slot where he had stored the bag. Once the black ripple appeared, the bag was hurled out.

With his enhanced senses, Valen simply reached out and caught the bag. Although it might have seemed fast to a normal human, it wasn’t much to him.

Following which, he gradually retrieved the other equipment from the remaining slots and placed them into the bag one by one. With each additional item added to the bag, he would send it into the Inventory Ring before retrieving it again, ensuring he didn’t cross a certain threshold.

This continued until every item was stored in the bag and sent to the 1st Slot of the Inventory Ring. With this, a smile broke out on Valen’s lips. He only had a 30-slot Inventory Ring, but for now, that was enough.

Seemingly remembering something, he whispered: "System, how much Dimensional Energy do I have left in my ring?"

System: [Your ring still possesses 99.99% of its Dimensional Energy.]

Valen let out a sigh of relief. Since only DE could interact with Dimensional Gemstones, his ring was a Resonance Meter that transferred some of the DE stored within to the Dimensional Gemstone etched into it to trigger its opening and closing.

The amounts it sent out were regulated by the system, since different outputs open different layers. Naturally, a time would come when the Resonance Meter would run out of DE, and he would have to recharge it.

These thoughts dwelled in Valen’s mind as he departed for a nearby shop. He bought another two large bags before heading to the System Store to purchase necessities he might need for survival in the Astral Veil.

Checking his profile, Valen saw he had 28,097 system points. With so many points in hand, he could purchase quite a lot of things.

On the first floor, the first thing Valen bought was an energy cartridge to recharge Silver Edge, costing him 50 points. He clicked his tongue when he realised it was a quarter of the total value of Silver Edge itself.

However, he knew he couldn’t do anything about it, as Silver Edge was still incredibly useful to him. After giving it some thought, he decided to buy another energy cartridge, just in case a similar situation occurred in the future.

Currently, his obsidian Power Suit wasn’t in good enough condition to be used for combat anymore, but he didn’t intend to purchase a new one.

Power Suits were incredibly expensive, and even with his over 28k points, he doubted he could purchase something as good as the deformed obsidian suit. He would rather rely on the Silver King’s Power Suit from now on.

Now that he possessed an Inventory Ring, he didn’t need to worry about it being lost. Seeing that the first floor didn’t hold many good items, with the highest quality ones only being Lv. 5 D-Rank weapons, he gritted his teeth and reluctantly headed to the second floor.

Sure enough, his points were like a drop in the ocean here. In a little over a minute, they had dropped drastically.

Valen stared at his remaining 4,897 points with a blank look on his face. He had only bought two pairs of Lv. 5 D-Rank daggers, a Lv. 10 detection radar, a batch of water purification capsules, two powered drones installed with laser beams for scouting, tactical glasses with night vision and tracking capabilities — especially in the wilderness — and a Lv. 10 D-Rank Arc Rifle.

Yet the price of only these items had devoured a little over 23,000 points. He hardened his jaw and consoled himself:

’Life comes first. I don’t know why the date was pushed forward, but it certainly isn’t for something good. Points can always be earned, but life is more precious.’

Valen began to feel a little better once he thought things through this way. Perhaps he really did have a great talent for deluding himself, but he didn’t mind.

He started placing everything into his bag, until he reached a blue sniper rifle. It was the Lv. 10 D-Rank Arc Rifle.

Although he already had the Lv. 10 Common-Rank MK-11 Sniper Rifle, it still required magazines to operate. The Lv. 10 D-Rank Arc Rifle, on the other hand, fired compressed electric rounds and needed only electrical energy crystals as ammunition. It was far more efficient.

After storing everything into the large bag and sending it into his Inventory Ring, he suddenly realised that he was missing something: medicine and food. However, those could be bought at other shops with credits, so he would head over there.

As he left the System Store, he felt a slight disappointment deep inside. He had secretly been searching for manuals on mechanics, but found none.

He had a lightweight mecha arm blueprint, but couldn’t craft it as he knew nothing about mechanics, so it just remained installed on his Silver Watch.

In fact, he didn’t even dare retrieve the physical copy of it from the System Store. Walls not only had ears but eyes. There were people who made it their hobby to observe the gains of others while they retrieved items.

Also, the rewards were going to be handed over by a salesperson within the store. He didn’t know how strict their internal protocols were, but Valen wouldn’t bet his life and riches on probabilities.

Following which, he went ahead and bought a large amount of antibiotics, bandages, a first aid kit, antiseptic wipes, ointment, and several other wilderness survival medications from a pharmacy.

Once that was done, he bought a large quantity of food supplies such as dried foods, biscuits, snacks, nuts and seeds, high-energy foods, noodles, tea bags, juice, salt, sugar, and other necessities.

If someone were to see this, they would think Valen had gone crazy. Wasn’t the Astral Veil just a 12-hour exploration for newbies? Why prepare this thoroughly?

However, Valen didn’t think so. After experiencing the hunger brought about by his Level 1 evolution, he had developed a deep fear of it. He never wanted to be hungry again.

Valen stared at the setting sun on the horizon with a satisfied smile on his face. Most of his preparations for the Astral Veil were now complete.

Right now, he was in a turbo car heading home. He wanted to test the Silver Tracking ability of the Silver King’s Power Suit. Who knows? Perhaps a Silver Legion Power Suit might be nearby.

As this thought settled, he played with an object in his hand, glancing at it curiously. He had categorised his items and stored them within his Inventory Ring, using only eight of his thirty slots.

The first slot stored the bag containing all his weapons.

The second slot stored his utility items like tactical glasses, drones, and others.

The third slot stored his medical supplies, and the fourth stored food.

The fifth slot stored Silver Edge so he could easily retrieve it for battle, while the sixth slot held the Lv. 10 D-Rank Arc Rifle.

Not willing to throw away the obsidian power suit as he might be able to fix it, or extract its singularity reactor in the future, he decided to store it in the seventh sloth.

He also bagged the Beast-Binding Collar and other materials taken from the underground tunnels into the eighth slot — saved for the item he currently held in his hand.

It was an object resembling an oversized retractable measuring tape, small enough to fit in his right hand.

Back then, he had been pressed for time and hadn’t inspected it. But now, he had the time to spare.

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