Oliver looked around with curiosity and surprise, this was his first time seeing a city like this, as he got out of the metro which transported them here, and yes this world had a metro that connects different cities, it is also hailed as the best transportation in this world since its safer than an air craft, cause the dangerous things in the earth were easier to deal with than those in the air and is not much slower.

He even asked Flood if “magical metro” wouldnt suit it more than “metro” since it uses magic, but her reply was quick and swift, ”why would they call it a magical metro, when this is just a regular metro for us”.

He couldn’t really argue with that, neither did he wanted to.

Well getting back on topic, this city was different.

To a point, where you wondered if you should call it a city or a jungle.

The Water Kingdom City they previously visited looked magnificent, while this one looked like someone built a dog house in the garden and then forgot to cut the grass for several years, resulting in being unable to differentiate between the house and everything else, if it wasn’t for the red roads, you would be unable to even guess that people were living here.

Oliver ”are you sure this is a city”

Flood didn’t look surprised at all after they got off the metro, so she should know something.

Flood nodded her head in response.

Flood ”let alone this city not even their capital is much different, for insectoid people, like insects jungle is their most natural habitat, so when they build cities they take that into consideration so they can feel comfortable”

Oliver once again turned his head to look at the wild life reserve, no the city, he was pretty open minded in his opinion, but still..

Oliver”ok I understand it now, but isn’t that a bit much, this place looks like an ideal place for monsters and different animals, if it wasn’t for the red road…”

Before he finished he ones again looked at the roads, there was something wrong with them.

Oliver” is….. is this grass, is that road made of grass ”

Flood once again nodded, after visiting the royal library and reading many other books she had gained a bit of knowledge, which included the city and culture of their probable next target, after all she was partly involved in Olivers decision to come here, after all Minataurs wasn’t the closest of the things Oliver wanted to fight, but she really wanted to try the amazing and unique deserts of the insectoid kingdom.

Of course Oliver who had quite a bit of experience with people, immediately found out that Flood wanted to come here, but even if he didn’t know why she wanted to come here he decided to play along.

He knew she wouldn’t hurt him, and this was her vacation as well, after all he couldn’t even imagine what boredom she must have felt, being entrapped for that long so if she wanted to come here to enjoy herself he didn’t mind, if anything he was surprised that someone who is afraid of insects would be ok with the insectoid kingdom and their unordinary city, but he guessed she really sees them as completely different things, or maybe since they don’t look like insect too much she sees them more like a humans.

Answering Olivers question, Flood quickly explained.

Flood”yes this is something that originates from the insectoid Kingdom, grassphalt , it is a grass that has limited grout than can sustain a lot of pressure, making it perfect for making roads of it, the size of the grass can be adjusted when its planted, so in case one part is destroyed it will grow naturally until its root is uprooted, and since it can sustain a lot of pressure it works like a shield for the roads as well”

When Oliver heard the explanation he was impressed, he wasn’t a road builder but he could guess how useful this grass was if he thought a little.

It was like if a path that didn’t need any maintenances, was much easier to build and hard to destroy, could grow by itself after a bit of time, of if they are in a hurry they could just take an already existing grass and plant it in the destroyed once place, and the most useful part is that it works as a shield, preventing the roads from being easily destroyed.

Oliver”but if that grass is so incredible why don’t they use it in other cities, I think even the water people would want to use it”

Flood shook her head

Flood ”it is not possible, this grass has very specific ground in which it can grow, so only few kingdoms can grow it if they wanted to, and the Water People Kingdom is not one of them”

While they were talking they were waking as well and now they were in front of a registration bureau , the person in the boot had antenna and pincers in his mouth his skin was black with light brown, even at first look a person could guest that this person had some parts of ant.

Guard ”documents please”

Oliver and Flood each calmly took out a blue card with their pictures and information on it and handed it to the security.

After checking them his gate froze on Flood for a second, he looked down and up again, to someone else it would look like they were in trouble, but both of them just stood calmly there, Oliver even made a face as he saw something he expected.

Actually before leaving the water people Kingdom Oliver and Flood requested for those identifications, they weren’t false since they come from an actual kingdom, so it doesn’t matter how much someone checks there would be no problem with them.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

But that is not the reason for his expression, actually before leaving the water people Oliver had a talk with Flood, since the god didn’t seem to notice he had had to say it straight, she was too beautiful, now he usually wouldn’t complain, whats more he would be all for it, especially if he could fuc… that’s not important now, but when you don’t want to attract attentions and you have a lighthouse in darkness by your side it is normal to get troublesome, after hearing his opinion Flood decided to change appearance a few time… but none of it worked.

Every single one of them seemed to be more beautiful than the previous one, even when her face was of a completely ordinary woman who walked past them the moment Flood transformed in her she looked like a goddess.

He just couldn’t make heads and tails of it, until they got their identification cards, the moment Oliver saw the picture of the card he knew it was not about appearance, the picture didn’t make him feel anything, while the real deal.. did everything else, but make him feel nothing.

When he asked her about it she seemed to have figured it out, its about her being a god, I know shocker right.

That was the reason everyone who sees her in person feels like he is seeing beauty itself, whatever species he or she is, even this insectoid human who must have beauty standards completely different from regular humans, as Insectoid is another race, looks at her with passion in his eyes, Oliver is even sure that the reason he looks like that is cause except how beautiful Flood is, is because of the difference between the picture and the real deal.

After two minutes, the guard handed them their id, and let them pass, not before commenting of course.

Guard”thank you for patience, Welcome to ant city, I hope we meet again”

Oliver just nodded his head at the lustful look this person sent towards Flood, that was the normal reaction, which he was more than used to seeing by now, but thankfully however it wasn’t as strong as the one in the people of the water kingdom, who barely could hold back from going directly to her thanks to Oliver being there and looking like a fight fanatic, but even then some people did try their luck and got completely ignored by Flood, or even more they brutally received a reply which showed a complete lack of interest combined with harsh rejection, to be honest even Oliver felt a bit bad for them.

Thankfully after the talk Flood railed in a bit of her “god-hood” but even then she couldn’t do it completely, but that was still better than before.

After they passed the gates they saw the actual city, which they couldn’t see well from outside, numerous people with violet, green, blue and many other colored skins were walking on the street, if they grouped Oliver thought they could make a human rainbow, they all had different parts of insects on their body, unlike in the water people Kingdom however there wasn’t a big variety of people, there were mainly insectoid people and then here and there some other species.

But he couldn’t blame them, after all this city unique stile really did make it a bit uncomfortable for most other races to live in.

Oliver “lets first go to the inn and take a break today, and i will start the Minataur hunting tomorrow ”

Actually Oliver didn’t want to wait, but he was just curious as to why Flood wanted to come here, so letting her be would probably reveal that.

He took a bag of money and gave half of it to Flood, after hunting the Warsher and receiving even more money from the water king they were no longer pressed for them thankfully, he was still going to take a quest for a minotaur from the hunter guild before going to hunt it, but that wasnt cause they lacked money, but cause having more doesn’t hurt, now that he thought about it he probably needs to go exchange the currency first, but when he said that Flood shook head.

Flood ”there is no need, when the clerk back then said that most businesses worked with prey he meant it quite literally, since in this world many people need protection, this includes businesses, so by being a partner with the hunters, they feel more assured that someone will come when they need help, and its not like they lose money since they can exchange it themselves as well, so there are only plusses for them”

Oliver understandingly nodded his head, he forgot for a second how the ordinary person must live in this world full of monsters and animals.

As they walked down the street they saw a small restaurant which gave a cosy feeling, with a board in front : special desert of the day, vegetable- sweet cake.

Seeing it Floods eyes lit, she immediately went inside.

Seeing the God having such a face for a dessert Oliver couldn’t help but chuckle

Oliver ”wow”

As he followed her and went inside he couldn’t help but exclaim, the inside and outside were very different.

If outside was a chaos of plants on houses, then inside was order of plants, full of greenery which gave off a welcoming feeling, their leaves shook a little like they were joyfully welcoming the new visitors it made one feel like he was in a garden full of the beauty of nature which made him enjoy the peace of the world.

Waiter ”sir, your table is ready ”

At the sudden voice Oliver came back to his senses, he looked at the waitress, she had a violet skin with short hair, antennas and butterfly wings on her back, except for the outer part which was black they contained many different colors, combined with the light green waitress dress and the smile on her beautiful face, which gave a welcoming feeling this person gave off quite the warm attraction towards others, combined with the atmosphere of the whole restaurant, it wouldn’t be too much of an exaggeration if someone said that for at least a few seconds this scene looked like a painting.

Seeing the look in his eyes the waitress wasn’t angry, there wasn’t any lust in them, just him being a bit stunned by her beauty, so she just chuckled in response.

Actually for her this reaction wasn’t strange, most outside people who come here for the first time have a similar reaction, if the eyes of the other person contained lust she would have bad impression of them, but if they didn’t it would be otherwise.

And if she had to be honest this man didnt look so bad himself, well toned body on the more muscular side, tall, with rectangular face and short hair which end leaned on one side and short well groomed beard, his smile gave off innocent but manly feel, which she didn’t know was quite far from the truth, since if this man was innocent there would be no one who was guilty in this world.

His clothes which were perfect fit for him emphasized his well toned body, the lack of sleeves made him quite the view, as the taste of insectoid people wasn’t too far from regular humans, even if they liked the bodies of their own race the most, that didn’t mean they didn’t feel attracted to other humanoid races, the attraction was just a bit weaker but it was still there, which was proven by her lustful look which disappeared in less than a second.

Not missing anything Oliver took a mental note to come without Flood later and ask the waitress out, cause who was more open minded than him, and proceeded to walk to his table and sit opposed to his god.

Flood side of the table was full of different deserts, which looked to have vegetables in them, those were the unique deserts she wanted to try, vegetable deserts which are best served here, interesting fact is that the insectoid people are one of the biggest distributors of food for the whole Water Kingdom, like a whole, their floral cities are perfect for cultivation of fruits and vegetables, and this Kingdom is one of the richest of all Kingdoms in the Water Kingdom territory.

Looking at his partner downing down dessert after dessert, he couldn’t help but think that peaceful days like this are not so bad.

He called the beautiful waitress and ordered, he was hungry as well.

But whats more his instincts were screaming since they entered the town, there is danger around this city, so he was sure, those peaceful days wouldnt last long, not that he cared.