Marcelina seemed actually genuinely curious and still a little bit taken aback that this small sheep snake creature was smarter than her, "Charles' brilliance isn't even a 20. It's only an 18. How is she so smart?"

Hearing that, Benedictus just looked at Emma, and he leaned down and gave her a little kiss on the forehead, "Looks like my Emma is a lot smarter than I thought. She's got the big brains." 

"Bbbbbaaaa," Emma bleated in happy response. She licked his chin and smiled. 

"Well, for now we'll have to put a pin in that. I need to test some stuff." He said as he stood back up and walked outside, taking his pistol and reloading it along the way. 

He remembered the power up he got last night after choosing his Arcane Ancestry and the corpses of these creatures were still there. He wanted to use at least a couple of spells to gauge the overall difference in power. The best way to do that would be to compare them relatively to what he has already done in the past and see just how much of a difference there is. Curiously, Emma, Charles, and Marcelina went around to watch and see what happened.

After putting enough distance between everyone and himself, he pointed his gun towards a tree to test just how powerful the increase in force is when he uses Infuse Flame on his pistol. He pulled up his status screen at the same time to see what the new damage amounts are. When he had first checked it, there was a damage range of 6 to 24 that it would increase the potency of his bullets by. Looking at the status screen now, it said that the damage range was now 18 to 72.

It truly did mean it when it said that it would increase the base damage of his spells by triple the amount. He took note that it had not added to the base damage, his bonuses for damage dealt, which meant in actuality he was still doing far more with each shot. 

Looking at the tree, he decided to just go ahead and shoot. Finally putting it to a test, he remained shocked by just how much of a difference in power it was. The bullet hit the tree with enough force that the resulting explosion blew the entire area of the trunk that it hit away, causing the tree to fall over. But it didn't just hit the first tree, it hit another tree behind it as well, doing the same thing to a slightly lesser degree. 

Starring at the result, he definitely thought it was a noticeable increase in overall firepower. But to ensure that he didn't accidentally create a forest fire, he used his minor pyro manipulation to put out the flames caused by that shot. He also wanted to save the rest of the trees so he could build some more fortifications around the clearing. 

He moved on to test another spell, walking up to the pit that the massive vinuu fell into which he had impaled to death. Seeing its corpse still impaled by all the stone spikes he made come out of the walls of the pit, put a smile on his face. Especially given how it roughed him up the previous night. He was going to take extra joy out of dealing with its body.

He wanted to see just how intense his flames had become. He stretched out his hand and just let the fire flow like a rushing torrent of flame. He could instantly tell the difference just by the sheer amount of heat he felt coming off of the flames as it incinerated the corpse.

He kept the flames going for about a minute and when he stopped, the creature had been burned down to its inner skeleton under all that chitin and flesh. He saw that it's skeletal structure was actually slightly different from that of a normal wolf, but almost all of its body was charred flesh at this point. He did notice something, however, in the pit inside its remains that stood out to him. Where it's heart should relatively be, based off of his assumption of its internal anatomy, was a large pearl about the size of a cantaloupe. 

Snapping his fingers, the spikes that held up the skeleton of this creature receded back into the wall and disappeared entirely as if they were never there. He then raised the bottom of the pit, lifting the creature's corpse back to the surface. Taking his hand, he reached into the charred corpse and grabbed the pearl, stepping away from the body before recreating the pit it fell in.

He looked at the pearl and began to examine it, curious about what it might be. Suddenly, he got a system notification congratulating him on slaying an elite beast and claiming proof of his deed. It stated that he was the first human to slay an elite beast and by claiming it's soul core he would receive double the reward.

It explained further that soul cores could be exchanged in the ascension shop tab of his status screen for either currency, stat points, skill points, ability points, or a random item of equal quality to the core exchange. It noted that normally no one gains access to the ascension shop until reaching level 10, but upon being the first of his kind to slay an elite monster, he would be given the special privilege to gain access to the ascension shop early. Suddenly, his character sheet opened up and automatically took him to the ascension shop tab where it asked him if he wanted to exchange the soul core now or later.

He declined to exchange it now, choosing instead to look over the shop and see what he could learn. The first thing he clicked on was the currency part of the shop where it gave an explanation that the currency of the world was called godly gold or just gold by common shorthand. It explained that the currency was made normally, as most mortals often do, by exchanging work spent for monetary gain equivalent to the work done. However, payments were managed by several Gods of Wealth and Finance, meaning that mortals who tried to find loopholes to not pay people for their work could not cheat the system.

Because the monetary economy of the world was managed by actual Gods, it made it nearly impossible for most mortals to find a way to get wealthy through backhanded means. As almost all ideas were either blocked or uncovered instantly and penalized. It directly even stated that if he was caught trying to use an underhanded method to generate monetary wealth he could potentially lose all of his godly gold.

It also explains that godly gold could be a reward found in divine chests placed throughout the world or in pocket dimensions. It noted that this gold could also be something gained in exchange for soul cores. With the grade of the soul core determining the amount of godly gold exchanged. He could also gain this currency through selling and exchanging in the ascension shop as people buy whatever he sells. 

With that understanding, he had initially been hopeful that he might have some starting gold to spend only to be let down. Currently, he had none of this currency which made sense. Instead, he chose to browse the ascension shop and see what it offered. Looking over the information, he saw that he could either look through items provided by other players or provided in the shop proper. He chose to look at the shop proper and see what was sold by default in the ascension shop.

He saw that all the items in the shop were supposedly made by different gods of different crafts and their followers. The quality would vary depending on who made it. Everything was categorized by the number of stars that it had. The highest number of stars possible seems to be 10. One-star items are essentially common things that normal mortals already know how to make. Two-star items are essentially high-quality items that are made by mortal people. Anything beyond that is something that would require centuries more of technological advancement to be able to replicate or border on the level of godly craftsmanship. 

He saw some excellent items in the shop that compelled him to want to get some of them. The only problem was he lacked the money to purchase anything. He then went back to see about the soul core he had. He tried to see what quality it was. He expected it to be a one-star quality, but was surprised when it was actually a two-star quality.

He decided to go ahead and exchange it in the shop now that he had a better idea of what it offered. Part of him actually considered exchanging it for a random item, but the likely chance of it being something like high quality cookware was not worth it, at least at the moment. He decided instead to exchange it for currency. Then, upon confirming his choice, he had 500 godly gold deposited into his ascension shop account. 

It was enough to get at least three one-star items or one two-star item. Despite him not wanting to waste a roll of the dice for an item on cookware, he used the money to actually purchase a set of common cookware listed in the shop as a one-star set for 100 gold. It also comes with basic utensils, plates, bowls, and cups to go with all the pots and pans and standard cooking utensils. 

He then bought a bundle of stretch-to-fit men's clothing and hygiene essentials for 200 gold. He finished off his purchasing that he still had 200 gold left and could afford a month supply of rations and drinks for the exact amount. It was like an answer to his prayers about what to do with food, and he bought it without hesitation.

After confirming that he was done shopping, he went out of the ascension shop and back to his main character sheet page on his status screen. All the items he had purchased then appeared on the inventory part of his character sheet, and he clicked to access them. It created a portal that floated the items out of his pocket dimensional inventory space and placed them gently on the ground next to him. 

Suddenly he heard Marcelina shout, "What the hell did you just do? Where did all of that stuff come from?" 

He waved her over to help him carry it back to where they had their shelters. She quickly came over, and he explained everything about the ascension shop and what happened when he had taken the pearl-like sphere out of the chest of the corpse of the creature.

Over the next half hour, they moved everything over to where their shelters were, and he opened the rationed food crate and saw that it was essentially a bunch of civilian MRIs. Along with the food in the crate was about three cases of purified water. They seemed to be in bottles like what he was used to, but the amount in each case was roughly 30 bottles. This was definitely something in the shop for people trying to survive without having to live off of the land, but it was survival struggle food for sure. 

In hindsight, now he was kind of upset he did not buy any seasonings or spices from the ascension shop despite seeing them. Some salt and pepper would go a long way if any of the meals that are preserved in the packets that he saw were like the MRIs he was used to. Nonetheless, he grabbed one and handed it to Marcelina and offered her a bottle of water. 

She gladly took it, saying appreciatively, "Oh, thank you. Here I was thinking I would have to survive off of a bag of raisins in my purse for breakfast. You're so sweet." 

"Well, considering that I'm the only one of the two of us currently that can access the ascension shop, I thought it made decent sense to try and work together if we are going to be living next to each other for some time. If we end up coming across more of those soul cores, until you reach level 10 hand them to me, so I can exchange them for cash or items that we can use. That way I can stay on top of whatever we might need until you can also access the shop," he replied, not really fully thinking about what exactly he was saying. 

"Oh so it sounds like you plan on having me stick around for a little bit," she questioned curiously but helpful.

Realizing what he had said, he tries to make it not sound as odd as he believes it may have come across, "I don't trust you yet, but I don't see a reason to distrust you yet either. If you're willing to do the work, you can stay and I'll help you. I respect people that can pull their own weight and can follow instructions. If you're okay with that, then I'll make sure you don't go hungry and don't go cold."

Given how he sounded, she realized he might have gotten slightly flustered. Smiling, she simply replied, "Sounds like a deal." 

He was about to say something else when he heard the sound of a big splash in the water. Looking over, he saw Emma trying to get fish out of the river again. He thought her wings might have slowed her down but instead they seem to help her swim better almost. He watched as in only half the time as yesterday she was able to catch four fish and brought them over. 

He took note of the fact that her wings seemed to have a similar quality to those of duck feathers, as the water just fell off of them without really leaving much moisture behind. He then gave her a couple of pats on her head. 

She looked at him while still holding the fish between her teeth, almost expecting something. He thought about it a little, and he asked her, "Do you want me to cook your food?" 

In response, she mimicked what she had observed and nodded her head. He then took the fish and, like last night, put them all on sticks to cook over the fire. Reigniting the fire pit inside his cabin, he set her food to cook and decided to go ahead and try out one of the survival meals he had purchased. He grabbed a bottle of water in case he would need to wash down any nasty flavors that the food may have.