Chapter 2: Chapter 2: The cheat.
It took a while after Liam spent a couple of hours, exploring the building with the hopes of finding hidden treasures. The results could have been expected, there was nothing in this building other than the bedroom, the old rustic hall, and those several old pillars that were supporting the roofs.
Realizing this, he could only head back to the bedroom and sat on the bed dejectedly while sighing and murmuring in a low voice.
"It seems there isn't any hope for me to overturn my current state, sigh.... "
"I will just have to live with what I currently have for now... "
To think a single 30 centimeters, cute gelatin could drastically change his life is quite laughable, seeing his life, the usual stresses of day-to-day problems and challenges melted away in an instant, in its place was a different set of challenges and experiences he had never dealt with or ever confronted.
Then his stomach suddenly growls, and Liam flushed in embarrassment...
He had forgotten his meals for a long time...
The poor guy's meals have been neglected upon the change of his surroundings.
And a faint frown was visible on his face,
"It seems the options for the meals would have to wait...."
"Or I could solve it through other players since this world is constructed in a game way manner, especially the example of the Lord's panel. Then there should be several other features specifically designed for the lord's uses, no?"
Thinking of this, Liam then summoned the panel once again as he discerned the blue-Ish squared panel that appeared in midair right in front of his eyes.
And as he had expected, there were three more extra columns on the right side of his name. The three columns are Global Chat, Trading Market, and the Mall.
The global chat was designed for the Lords to talk to each other, seemingly to seek comfort or even warmth in the brand-new cold world. The trading market allows the lord to trade materials, treasures, or even troops in exchange for anything that they want.
As for the mall, Liam had never expected that a realistic life slice with a game element world would even provide such a thing, so then, would there be a recharge button?
He pondered with his hand to his chin, and a wobbly slime on top of his head, resting silently.
Tapping on the mall Icon, the panel then changed with several items in 4 different columns appearing in an aligned manner from the left to the right. With a countdown at the bottom, refresh the countdown.
[THE LORD'S MALL]
Currency: 0-star gems
Items on sale:
1.[Summoning scroll]
Description: This summoning scroll will allow the lord to summon the designated troops without consuming any mana, nor will it be bound by any restrictions.
Price: Free
2.[Awakening stone]
Description: This awakening stone will allow the lord to upgrade the summoned rarity, only applicable to rank B and below. It is a permanent effect.
Price: Free
3. [Baldur's sword[S]
Description: The sword of the pitiful, bestowed upon the Saint of unfeeling to vanquish the light. This sword can exert multiple attributes for the lord to utilize.
Price: Free
Note: A sword is required to behold the sadness.
4. [Skill book] [The art of morphing, adapt]
Description: The art of morphing, which will allow the user to change the nature, essence, and even their attributes to a different or new form based on their imagination.
Note: this skill is only applicable for summoned troops, and it will be a permanent skill in the Lord's summoning panel.
Price: Free
[Refresh Countdown: 6 days 16 hours]
Seeing all of this, Liam was in shock. He was just guessing back then whether this world would follow the game mechanics 100% or not, but now with the existence of the panel and the mall alike, his conjuncture had been proven to be true. And based on his understanding of games back in his past life, then there should be more than what it currently shows to one's eyes.
"Events, treasures, mini-games... yes, all of these can or will occur soon. I shouldn't limit my thinking anymore, it would be fatal to do so."
"And the best thing to do now is to find ways to utilize this knowledge to my best extent."
"Now let's see whether any lord is selling food on the trading market yet."
As his gaze was about to divert towards the trading market, he then noticed something strange once he gazed at the system mall one last look.
"The price is... free?"
He frowned in confusion.
It just said that the items are priced as free, so does it mean to say that he had missed something here? Or is there some hidden clause that he has yet to uncover?
And this had piqued his interest, further raising his curiosity levels.
"What exactly is the meaning of this, let me guess."
"Is it my cheat?"
"it's finally here!"
he excitedly spoke with a huge grin engraved on his face, if the price is free, then he is going to set off towards the sky! No one can stop him with the items available in the mall, he will be invisible! The Lord has blessed him.
This surge of excitement kept on going for quite a bit before he was able to calm himself down and sat on the bed once again as he shifted his fiery gaze over the items within the mall panel.
As Liam was about to purchase all the items in the mall, he had a sudden hunch that he should only buy one item for now. He thought it would be better to save the other items for later, just in case he needed them in an emergency.
With that in mind, he decided to purchase the Skill Book, The Art of Morphing, Adapt. He tapped on the item, and as soon as he did, a message appeared on the screen.
"Congratulations! You have unlocked a new skill: The Art of Morphing, Adapt. The lord can apply it on the summoned troops"
Hearing this, Liam was ecstatic.
He had never heard of such a unique skill before, and he couldn't wait to try it out. He wondered what kind of creatures he could morph into and if he could mix and match their abilities.
Feeling satisfied with his purchase, Liam tried to buy the other items, but then an error occurred. A system notification appeared saying that he could only purchase one item for free per week.
"As expected, there's a limitation after all"
Liam murmured while seeing this notification pop up right in front of him.
The items would be refreshed once a week, and he would have to wait until then to buy more items. Liam was slightly disappointed,but hnderstood that the game had its own rules.
Despite knowing the limitation that was imposed upon the cheat, Liam still couldn't believe his luck when he found out that he could purchase a skill book from the Lord's Mall for free.
The skill book was called "The Art of Morphing, Adapt," and it would allow him to change the nature, essence, and even attributes of his summoned troops to a different or new form based on his imagination.
Then he quickly summoned the Lord's panel and dragged the scroll over towards it. Once a lord buys something from the system mall, they will subconsciously know the method to use it.
A notification rang out, asking him if he wanted to use the skill book on his summoned troops.
Liam clicked "Yes" without hesitation.
Suddenly, all of his slimes began to shine, and a new skill appeared in their summoning panel. Liam couldn't believe it - the skill book worked!
From now on, whenever a new slime will be summoned later, the skill will always be there within their skill panel.
Next, He decided to test out the new skill by imagining his slimes with wings.
As he did so, a surge of energy flowed through his slimes, and suddenly, they sprouted wings and wobbled in panic while lying on the bed, seemingly confused about where this pair of wings came from.
Liam smiled while looking at the silly reaction of this troop of his, shifted his gaze towards above his head, and called out.
"Little guy, can you come down from my head for a moment"
Hearing the Lord's command, the slime on top of his slowly wobbled his way down towards the floor and waited in front of Liam with a seemingly confused expression on his face.
Especially the wings behind its back, poking it from time to time while scratching its head with a little slime tentacle emerging from the side.
Seeing the slime's act, Liam couldn't help be laugh a little and whispered within.
'this little guy utilized the skill on its own, it must have been copying the habit of me scratching my head for the last period he had spent with me'
'it seems that to use the skill, these slimes don't need my hands to intervene... though... '
Looking over the slime again that was constantly changing its silly face as if it had just found a new game. He doubted whether they could imagine anything useful for combat.
But the value is there, the Art of Morphing was an incredibly powerful skill that would allow him to customize his troops in ways he had never thought possible. He couldn't wait to see what other forms he could create for his slimes.
He spent the next few hours experimenting with the skill, trying out different forms and abilities for his slimes. From trying to make them lengthen and even larger, all sorts of forms occurred within this bedroom.
But then, at the very end of this experimentation, Liam settled on the most convenient form for his slimes.
"There we go... "
He smiled, looking over the 10 slimes that had completely renewed their looks compared to before. Instead of just being a circle of blobs, Liam added more than 10 tentacles each covering all sides of their bodies except the front, well, there's a face there.
Roughly 5 times the length of the body, the tentacle spreads all around like a bunch of seaweeds, dangling all over the cold concrete floor. The color was changed to black and in addition to these, he taught his slimes several tools that their tentacles can change into.
For example axes, spears, and even shields. though after several tests of how sharp and hard these imitations are, Liam was left to be slightly disappointed.
The sharpness of the axe was not up to the standard, at best it can be used to hammer the enemy to the head. And after several more tests, a notification pops up in front of him.
[Modification has reached its current limit. The Lord will have to upgrade the summoned troop's level to the next threshold of sublimation before being able to further modify the lord's troops]
[The current modification can be retracted at will and changed to adapt upon the user's will, please explore more on the Lord's accord]
"As expected, there's a limit to everything. Though I don't have to complain. Even with the current limitation, my path is already laid out for me smoothly"
"As for the so-called Threshold of sublimation, It seems to be out of reach for the current me to know. Let's see in the future... "
"And this skill is not without advantages, the current form that my slimes are using can be easily changed back or even into other forms. But it is subjugated to the current limitation. For example, while fighting an enemy with the current form, suddenly changing the tentacle into a sharp solidified slime. If not careful then the enemy will suffer."
"There's a lot more to explore, but that will be it for now... "
Having said that, Liam then diverted his attention back to the other two columns next to the system mall.
"Global chat, I wonder just how many of them have finally accepted the current reality"
Seemingly to be curious, Liam then tapped on the global chat.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone