The First Store System

Chapter 1078: Maria!

The man roared in anger as he attempted to push Maria down to the ground, but his movements came to a sudden stop.

Pop!

Maria, who was reminiscing about Aakesh in her last moments, suddenly felt a warm liquid splash across her face. The next moment, the man's grip on her loosened, and she crashed to the ground.

She raised her head in surprise, ignoring the pain. The next moment, two figures greeted her.

One was unfamiliar, but the second was familiar. Maria uttered some words, but the mental fatigue hit her, and she fell unconscious.

"What the fuck?" One of the two figures cursed when she saw Maria losing consciousness. The second one's eyes widened in surprise as she realized what the woman had said before falling unconscious.

The next moment, her eyes showed excitement as she rushed to Maria and picked her up.

"She recognizes ancestor," the creature said as a green wave engulfed Maria.

These two were none other than Aakesh's old friends, Katrina, and Autumn.

While Autumn was an Epochal Feline and received her name from Lily, Katrina was a member of the Kindeva race who Aakesh met on the Conspiracy Continent.

When Maria saw Autumn, the memory of Lily with Aakesh flashed in her heart, prompting her to utter "Lily."

Katrina, who was disappointed with Maria's weak strength, also became excited. She didn't care about Lily, but Aakesh was another topic. She didn't have feelings for him, but in her mind, Aakesh was extremely important to her, as only because of him did she get to exit that world, and now she was free to travel in the vast Multiverse.

After leaving the conspiracy continent, both Autumn and Katrina had since surpassed the strength limit of the Primal Dimension and were forced to ascend to the Sacred Dimension.

After ascending, Autumn's strength automatically reached the peak of True God, while Katrina's reached the peak of Supreme God.

Unlike the Conspiracy Continent, the duo wasn't at the peak of the Sacred Dimension, so they knew they needed to be cautious. Especially Autumn. She wasn't supposed to exist because the Epochal Felines went extinct a long time ago. She was an extremely rare creature that everyone wanted.

Katrina was aware of this as well, and since she and Autumn had become friends as a result of the training session, she decided to travel with her.

The duo didn't know when Aakesh would ascend with Lily, so they had been randomly traveling for the past two years. Autumn's cultivation was at the peak of Higher God, while Katrina's was intermediate Sacred King, as these two beings were top creatures of the Multiverse, and their talent was top-notch. If not for the lack of resources, their power would have grown even higher.

To sustain themselves, the duo became pirates and stole from whoever they found to be wealthy and weaker than them.

Today was supposed to be different, as the duo was looking for their next hunt. Then they came across the scene of the man chasing Maria.

The duo would have ignored the scene as the man was too weak to become their prey, while they didn't care about the woman. But as today was supposed to be different, the duo sensed a familiar aura from the woman, surprising both Katrina and Autumn and resulting in them taking action.

***

The green light engulfing Maria disappeared, and not long after, she woke up feeling better than ever.

"LILY!" Maria screamed as she sat up straight.

"Are you one of the store customers?" Autumn asked, masking her excitement over finally finding a source of her ancestor.

"You aren't Lily. Who-"

"I am sorry. Thanks for saving me," Maria entirely changed her tone as she noticed her mistake, and immediately thanked the duo for saving her.

Katrina was standing at the back, and her eyes were calm, but somewhere deep in them was a wave rising, as she would get to meet Aakesh after a long time.

For her only around two years had passed by, but for Aakesh, at least several centuries had passed, so she counted that time.

***

"Did you ascend earlier than Aakesh?" Katrina couldn't help but interrupt the conversation between Autumn and Maria as she got bored.

"No, the store owner returned earlier than me," Maria responded with an unfriendly tone, clearly not impressed with the familiarity with which Katrina referred to Aakesh.

A crescent smile seemed to form on Katrina's face when she saw Maria's bravado.

"Do you have any idea of where the store is?" Autumn knew a taunt was coming, so she immediately chimed in and asked.

Autumn didn't want to see Maria suffer because she recognized Lily's name. She knew Aakesh, and since Maria knew Lily's name, that meant Aakesh knew Maria well enough.

Katrina's eyes lit up in anticipation as she waited for Maria's answer. Maria, on the other hand, felt a chill crawling down her spine, as she felt like, if she didn't answer positively, Katrina would eat her.

But at the same time, she saw a source of returning to the store in the duo, so she didn't hide the information and told them about the card. Maria didn't tell the exact location as she didn't want to test what would happen once the duo got what they wanted.

Maria was extremely thankful to Autumn and Katrina for saving her, but her feelings to reach the store were clearly greater than that.

***

"We finally found you," The duo was going to leave with Maria when a group of people surrounded them.

"And here, I was worrying about money," Autumn commented and licked her lips. The group had clearly become her prey.

The man, leading the group, frowned since Katrina's cultivation was lower than his by one sub-level. And at the Sacred King level, even a gap of one sub-level is extremely wide moat to cross.

Unfortunately for the man, Katrina was extremely strong and had the level breaking talent.

Before the man could order to attack, Katrina charged. Her twin horns glowed as a horrible pressure began to form.

The next moment, an energy beam struck one of the man's heart in the group, incinerating it, resulting in an instant death.

Several minutes later, only corpses in different conditions were left on the ground, while Katrina was calculating the loot.