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Cassius is a genuinely good guy. Giving him the Chronicle of the Fierce Tortoise Warriors runestone early yesterday was definitely worth it.
Today, when his butler came to sign the lease contract for the sublevel two warehouse, the butler conveniently used a Wind spell to clean away all the dust.
Not only that—Cassius had his butler take me to a shop under his family's name in the market, where I bought enough tables and chairs at fifteen percent off and had them delivered to the warehouse. Saved me a ton of money and time.
Additionally, Caelan asked the butler to find people skilled in magical formations to set up a new Fire array on sublevel two for winter heating.
The Ice array was already there. It could dispel summer heat or act as a freezer with increased mana input.
Finally, after installing more mana crystal lamps to increase brightness in the new shop, it was basically complete and ready for business.
Working overtime into the night, I engraved many more Fierce Tortoise Warriors runestones.
Now, with a mana crystal replenishing his power, Caelan could engrave over fifty Tortoise Warriors tablets in an hour. Engraving the other four games was even faster.
Keeping busy until midnight, feeling it was about time, Caelan collapsed tiredly on the bed and checked his status.
He found that his fellow countryman—the First Flame Emperor—was indeed correct. Despite diligently using mana to the point of exhaustion countless times, his mana growth wasn't significant.
Fortunately, the illusion games he engraved had no destructive power, so there was no risk of mana backlash.
Otherwise, if he were engraving elemental Contra spells like this, he'd probably be crippled.
Thinking about these things, Caelan quickly fell into deep sleep.
The next day, Caelan woke early, left a batch of engraved runestones at the old shop, and handed them to Ella.
He then took Ella's sleepy-eyed brother Oliver, called a carriage, and hauled all the remaining runestones to the new shop.
The tables and chairs were already arranged—two tables facing each other with a black wooden board standing in the middle as a projection screen. Somewhat similar to an office desk on Earth.
Currently, only half the warehouse area was in use. Not that he couldn't acquire more—it just felt temporarily sufficient. And as his mana grew stronger, he might consider three or four-person tables in the future.
Yes, Caelan was already thinking about arcade cabinets.
The new shop was named "Underground Game City," with signs placed at both entrances.
Above the entrance, space was left for the looping promotional animation of Chronicle of the Fierce Tortoise Warriors.
Many students had already arrived, holding food and discussing game-related matters. Who'd completed which game. Who was particularly terrible. Who'd gotten a girlfriend by playing games.
Some were also discussing whether other games had secret codes like Elemental Contra.
One person adamantly claimed codes existed—stated that his cousin's middle school classmate's high school seatmate had summoned an invincible ally in Tank Battle and completed the game with full invincibility.
Seeing Caelan arrive by carriage, the waiting crowd got very excited.
When Caelan and Oliver started unloading goods, some students specializing in martial arts enthusiastically helped. An entire cartload of goods was moved into the shop in one go.
To show gratitude, Caelan announced all students could play for free again today and asked Oliver to have drinks and snacks delivered.
"Boss, are you selling Chronicle of the Fierce Tortoise Warriors starting today?" A delicate-looking boy leaned over and asked first.
Caelan looked at the young man. Not tall, slender build, but perhaps due to his focus on martial arts, he had considerable strength.
He'd been the first to proactively help move things earlier.
After reviewing memories in his mind palace, Caelan learned this boy's name was Dorian of House Serpentcoil.
He knew him because Theron from his own class had sparred with him before. The outcome? Theron got pressed to the ground and utterly destroyed. Brutal.
"Yes. Would you like to try it first? I'll add lives for you later."
Caelan had set a limit for the arcade version: maximum ten extra lives, totaling fifteen, aiming to encourage players to focus on mastering the game through skill rather than simply spending money.
No choice there. This aspect significantly affected mana feedback.
Caelan had clearly noticed that after wealthy players spent lavishly to complete arcade versions of the first few games, most lost interest after only a few plays.
This state even affected spectators to some degree.
A few affluent individuals had even spent their way through the highest difficulty of Elemental Contra.
If this continued, his mana feedback income would plummet. He had to add restrictions.
Dorian replied, "I'll try it here, but I'll also buy the runestone. I have confidence in the illusion games you make. Here are ten silver marks." He pushed the coins across the counter.
Caelan nodded, thanked him for the compliment, took the money, and handed over the runestone.
Dorian took it and went to find a spot. Those waiting behind him also wanted to buy runestones first.
Caelan felt deeply gratified.
Dorian tucked the runestone into his inner pocket, found a table, and sat down.
Soon, Oliver came over, set up the runestone, and Dorian channeled enough mana into it.
Afterward, Oliver directly set the coin-operated lives to fifteen, which would take effect once Dorian selected his character.
Dorian naturally chose his destined character—Donatello with the long staff—and started immediately.
He'd already memorized the character's attacks from yesterday's promotional animation: normal attack, uppercut, running attack, jumping attack, jumping flying kick, and the health-draining ultimate "Surging Flood Dragon Staff."
After entering the game, after a cutscene much cruder than the polished animation at the shop entrance, Dorian officially began playing.
On a yellowish-brown riverbank, an ordinary grunt ran over and attacked.
The grunt's attacks included punching, kicking, flying kicks, and grappling attempts.
Easy enough. Dorian struck him down with four staff hits. Then three more identical grunts appeared.
Dorian cleverly started using running attacks, defeating enemies one by one.
After that, six grunts appeared on screen simultaneously—two of them throwing darts.
The difficulty suddenly spiked. Dorian immediately got flustered.
After finally killing this group, before he could catch his breath, another six identical enemies appeared.
After defeating them, his first life's health was down to only twenty-six points.
Then enemies appeared that could jump out from under the sand and throw sand, combined with dart throwers. A barrage of projectiles filled Dorian's vision, escape almost impossible.
His first life was smoothly lost.
Dorian wasn't discouraged.
After his character revived, he used the invincibility period to quickly eliminate two enemies, then ran away, striving not to be surrounded.
In fact, in Caelan's modifications, although enemies were doubled and very aggressive, the five selectable characters had greatly enhanced flexibility.
Except for the nunchaku user, the other four characters had very short recovery times after attacks, making it easy to handle grunts once familiarized.
Dorian's gaming talent was genuinely excellent. He quickly noticed this.
He gradually killed all enemies and soon reached the pier.
Here, Caelan had designed the first new elite enemy—a lizardman whose attacks were a fusion of all previous grunt moves.
He could throw sand and darts. When the player walked close, he'd jump back and shoot darts.
Normal attacks were basically very difficult to land, and he had sixty health points. Ordinary grunts had twelve.
At first, Dorian was unfamiliar with the enemy's mechanics and suffered greatly. Directly lost one life.
He finally discovered that jumping flying kicks and diagonal running attacks could hit. Only then did he manage to kill the lizardman, but his health also dropped to the sixties.
Fortunately, he encountered a healing item next—a beef burger—which instantly restored his health to full.
He continued forward.
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