Chapter 78: The System Shop

The moment Raymond selected the unlocked icon, he expected another ordinary blue panel to appear in front of him.

Maybe a list of items, maybe a few categories, perhaps another irritating explanation written in the System’s usual emotionless tone. Instead, the entire interface changed.

The Family Panel vanished, the inventory disappeared, and even the familiar translucent background dissolved into a broad golden screen that opened across his vision like the doors of a vault.

Raymond straightened where he sat on the northern wall as lines of text formed one after another.

[ Welcome to the Infinite Clan Treasury — System Shop ]

Beneath the greeting, twelve categories unfolded in order.

[ Agriculture ]

[ Construction ]

[ Infrastructure ]

[ Military ]

[ Industry ]

[ Medicine ]

[ Transportation ]

[ Education ]

[ Administration ]

[ Magic Technology ]

[ Summoning ]

[ Special Items ]

Raymond stared at the list for several seconds, then smiled. "Oh, this is dangerous."

He selected Agriculture first because it felt safest. That assumption lasted less than ten seconds. The category expanded into pages of seeds, livestock packages, irrigation tools, soil enhancers, storage aids, farming implements, breeding programs, and cultivation support items.

[ Tier-II High-Yield Seed Package — 8,000 SP ]

[ Large Irrigation Pump — 15,000 SP ]

[ Agricultural Mana Fertilizer ×100 — 5,000 SP ]

[ Breeding Livestock Package — 12,000 SP ]

Raymond began calculating. The new farmland alone would make the seed package useful. Irrigation was an obvious bottleneck. Fertilizer could increase output.

More breeding livestock would strengthen Althoff’s food security. He nearly selected the seed package before stopping himself.

Four purchases could easily become ten, and ten could become twenty.

"Right," he muttered. "This is exactly how people go broke during sales."

He backed out and opened Construction. Timber frames, treated lumber bundles, stone-cutting tools, cranes, scaffolding systems, lime production kits, modular worker housing, surveying equipment, and dozens of other options filled the interface.

Several items were ordinary enough that Althoff could produce them locally with time, while others were clearly designed to accelerate development.

Beneath the accessible list, however, a darker section appeared.

[ Higher-Tier Goods Locked ]

[ Increase Family Grade to unlock additional merchandise. ]

Raymond selected the notice and received a short explanation. The System Shop scaled directly with House Althoff’s Family Grade.

A Tier-II Family could purchase goods suitable for a developing County and city, while higher grades unlocked more advanced resources, facilities, artifacts, technologies, and strategic assets.

Raymond leaned back slightly. So there would be no purchasing a flying fortress because he felt like it, no legendary weapon capable of splitting mountains, and definitely no buying an army of Gold Knights by emptying his SP balance.

"Probably for the best," he admitted. "I know myself."

Infrastructure proved even worse for his self-control.

[ Mana-Powered Water Pump — 20,000 SP ]

[ Basic Water Purification Facility — 35,000 SP ]

[ Stone Road Construction Package — 25,000 SP ]

[ Large Construction Tool Package — 10,000 SP ]

Every item solved a problem he either already had or would have the moment city construction began.

The purification facility alone tempted him badly. Clean water had been one of Althoff’s original weaknesses, and although the deep-well artifact had stabilized supply, a population above five thousand meant redundancy mattered.

The stone road package was just as attractive. Spring thaw would turn half the current roads into mud, while expanded territory meant transport was about to become far more important.

Raymond hovered over the purchase button before withdrawing again. "No. We are not shopping because things look useful. Everything looks useful."

Military almost broke that discipline. The accessible list included weapons, shields, armor, training equipment, ammunition, field supplies, communication tools, fortification components, and defensive artifacts.

[ 500 Standard Weapons — 30,000 SP ]

[ Tier-II Defensive Formation Core — 100,000 SP ]

Raymond focused on the second item. The description explained that the formation core could anchor a defensive magical array around a designated strategic location once installed and supplied with Mana.

One hundred thousand SP was painful, but after the Blackstone Ursar had walked through structures that Raymond once considered adequate defenses, the idea of magical protection immediately appealed to him.

Then he remembered that the Winter Vanguard Package already gave him hundreds of equipment sets, and Althoff had not even decided where future walls would stand. Buying a defensive formation before finalizing the city plan would be spectacularly stupid.

He reluctantly closed the category.

Industry was where the Shop stopped feeling like a store and started feeling like a shortcut through decades of development.

[ Tier-II Sawmill — 45,000 SP ]

[ Tier-II Stone Processing Yard — 40,000 SP ]

[ Tier-II Iron Foundry Blueprint — 60,000 SP ]

Raymond read each description carefully. The sawmill could multiply timber-processing capacity while reducing labor requirements.

The stone yard included equipment for standardized cutting and shaping, which would drastically accelerate roads, walls, drains, and public buildings.

The foundry blueprint could establish proper large-scale iron processing once Althoff secured reliable ore and fuel. None of them simply handed him finished goods forever.

They increased what his people could produce. That difference immediately stood out. Buying timber would solve today’s shortage.

Buying a sawmill could solve timber shortages for years.

Raymond sat forward and opened several more categories.

Medicine contained surgical instruments, herb-processing equipment, sanitation supplies, recovery potions, clinic packages, and more advanced goods still locked.

Transportation offered reinforced wagons, improved harness systems, road-maintenance equipment, river barges, carriage designs, and several Mana-powered vehicles inaccessible at Tier II.

Education contained textbooks, standardized teaching materials, training manuals, academy equipment, and professional instruction packages.

Administration had ledgers, registry systems, tax-record templates, surveying kits, communication tools, archival equipment, and a System-assisted census package that made Raymond stare for an uncomfortable amount of time.

"You’re telling me I could have used something like this during refugee registration?" he complained.

The System, naturally, refused to apologize.

Then he opened Magic Technology.

For several seconds, Raymond said nothing.

The accessible Tier-II section was already impressive: Mana lamps, compact communication crystals, temperature-regulation devices, improved pumps, low-grade barrier components, enchanted workshop tools, and several utility artifacts.

But beneath them sat preview listings for higher Family Grades. They were locked, yet the System still displayed names and prices.

Raymond scrolled until one entry stopped him completely.

[ Regional Mana Transit Gate Network — Tier V Requirement — 4,800,000 SP ]

He stared at the number. Another listing beneath it was even worse.

[ Large-Scale Atmospheric Climate Regulation Array — Tier VI Requirement — 12,000,000 SP ]

Raymond slowly glanced toward the top of the interface where his balance remained proudly displayed. [ System Points: 411,000 SP ]

"Four hundred thousand sounded like a lot five minutes ago."

His earlier confidence died without ceremony. The Shop had quietly revealed what SP truly represented. Four hundred and eleven thousand was enormous for a Tier-II territory, enough to purchase several powerful facilities or a substantial collection of development tools.

But compared with what future House Althoff could eventually need, it was nothing. Worse, SP was not merely money.

It was access to technologies and advantages that could permanently reshape the territory. Wasting it on things Althoff could produce with ordinary labor would be like burning gold because carrying firewood was inconvenient.

That realization finally cooled the urge to buy anything.

Raymond reopened Agriculture, then Infrastructure, then Industry, but this time he looked at the listings differently.

He began separating them mentally into three categories: things Althoff could make itself, things Althoff could make but not efficiently, and things Althoff simply could not produce yet.

The first category was almost automatically rejected. The second required calculations.

The third deserved serious attention.

He would need reports from Harlan, Gideon, Boris, Torren, Marianne, Lily, and the specialists before spending a single meaningful amount.

He needed to know where labor was short, which materials were abundant, what construction bottlenecks would appear first, and what facilities could multiply productivity rather than merely consume points.

Raymond closed the Shop halfway, then hesitated when the final category caught his eye.

[ Special Items ]

He selected it.

The page that opened was different from the others. Most listings were locked, and many did not even reveal full descriptions.

[ Territory Relocation Token — Tier III Required ]

[ Family Bloodline Enhancement Altar — Tier IV Required ]

[ Spatial Warehouse Core — Tier III Required ]

[ Regional Weather Control Beacon — Tier IV Required ]

[ Mass Teleportation Formation Blueprint — Tier V Required ]

[ Family Guardian Contract — Tier IV Required ]

Several lower entries were hidden completely behind question marks, while a notice beneath the list read:

[ Special Items are restricted by Family Grade, Hidden Achievements, Territory Conditions, and System Authority Level. ]

Raymond slowly stopped scrolling.

The Shop was not simply a convenient place to exchange System Points for supplies.

It was a ladder. Every Family Grade would reveal another level of what House Althoff could become, and every stage would give Raymond tools capable of pushing the territory farther than ordinary development should allow.

The gold, summons, farms, roads, workshops, armies, and technologies were all connected now.

The System had never intended him to merely survive with occasional rewards.

It had given him the machinery to build.

Raymond looked once more at the twelve categories, then at his 411,000 SP balance.

For the first time, he understood what the System Shop really was.

It was the technological backbone of House Althoff’s future.