Now that I was inside the village it certainly felt different when I looked from the outside, when I looked at this village from afar it gave me a simple and calm vibe but it seemed that it wasn’t entirely true. The winds blew gently, the birds chirped while returning to their nest, and a mixture of joyous laughter came from a building that bustling with people drinking. I was fascinated, an indescribable feeling rose in my heart. It was the same kind of feeling I had when I tasted my own cooking, it was the flavor of adventure.

The moon was smiling, the stars were twinkling and the village was bustling with people. As I tried to find a place to stay,I noticed there were a variety of buildings sitting in this village. From the most simple hay stacked roof wooden house, all the way to a mansion that could only be seen in paintings.

I continued to walk while appreciating the scenery of what a medieval era village should be. I stumbled upon a two story building which looked quite sturdy and finely built. From all the vibrant chatter and sounds of cups clankings on the veranda, I could safely assume it was a bar. I approached a man who was wearing a grey cloth and looked like a fine person.

“Excuse me, can you tell me where the closest inn is?”

“Sure, just follow the road and then turn right, you’ll find an inn called The House of Cats,” said the Grey clothed man.

“Thanks”.

“Don’t mention it,” the Grey clothed man nonchalantly replied.

Then I followed the road and turned right in accordance to what the grey clothed man said. It was on the left side of the road. ‘The House of Cats’ that was the name of the inn. It was a 3 story building made out of red-brownish wood that’s carved nicely with a silver leopard banner hanging on the roof in front of the entrance. Beneath the leopard banner there were some foreign symbols which I assumed had the words ‘The House of Cats’ are written on it.

I entered the inn and was welcomed by a marvelous sight. The interior design of The House of Cats was crafted exquisitely and it gave off an ancient vibe. There was an appropriate number of people inside, not too much and not too few. I approached the receptionist behind the counter. She had cute eyes complemented by long eyelashes, silky smooth black hair that reached her shoulder and her face looked like a well made sculpture. She looked quite tall for a woman with her curvy body and domineering twin peaks.

“Good evening, welcome to The House of Cats,” she greeted me with a light smile.

“Good evening, I’d like to reserve a room. Is there any vacant room which is quiet and cool where you can feel the soft stream of air when you open the window?”

“There’s 17 rooms which fit with your requirements. 3 bronze ranked rooms, 5 silver ranked rooms, 4 gold ranked rooms and 5 platinum ranked rooms,”

“Can you tell me the differences between the ranks of the rooms?”

“The bronze ranked rooms are quite simple and minimalistic, that only include daily necessities such as a bed, toilet, a wardrobe, mirror, desk and 3 meals per day. The silver ranked rooms are almost the same but they are more beneficial for meditating in the silver ranked room than the bronze room because the energy in the silver rooms are denser and the meal served are beneficial for the body. The gold and platinum ranked rooms are the top classed rooms with a training room inside of it. The platinum ranked room has the best quality furniture, densest concentration of energy and the best meals.”

So it was like that, but honestly I didn’t particularly care about the differences of sleeping in an extravagant room or sleeping in a barn. But it was quite weird for an inn room to have a training room inside of it and as for the differences of benefit gained between the rooms I didn’t really care because I never meditated before. Just how far is the villagers believed in occult?

“One bronze ranked room for a week then and please deliver the meals to my room”.

“The price for staying one night in the bronze room is 10 copper, the total is 70 copper”.

Then I gave her 7 bronze colored coin from the pouch the guard given me. The entrance fee was 10 copper and I gave the guard a silver coin but from the poach the guard gave me there were only 9 bronze colored coin so I assumed each coin has a value of 10 copper. The receptionist took the money and handed me the room key, then told me where the room is.

After I arrived at my room, unpacked my belongings and put my clothes into the wardrobe, I took a piece of cloth, jeans, towel, toothbrush and a toothpaste and went to the bathroom. Although I knew that the inn has prepared a towel in the bathroom, I didn’t use it because I had a habit of only using my belonging to clean myself.

I felt refreshed after cleaning myself. I’ve been walking for a long time in the forest which was quite tiring. Today was quite a long day and it was a good thing that I managed to find this village otherwise I had to sleep in the woods.

‘tok.tok.tok’

I heard the sound of someone knocking at the door, probably the waiter delivering my meal. I opened the door and greeted her. The most distinctive feature the waiter in front of me had was her long blonde hair and cute large eyes. After I thanked her and took the tray I went back into my room.

I put the tray on the desk. The meal delivered to me was a bowl of rice, a cream colored soup with quite a lot of vegetable which I didn’t recognize, adorned with a lot of finely sliced small meat and looked as soft as marshmallow.

I gulped my saliva. Not only was the soup in front of me finely cooked and looked exquisite, it also emitted a nice fragrant and spoiled my nose. This is it. This is the reason I loved to go on a journey various places to learn how to cook. The world is wide and has a lot of variety of food which not one bit inferior to food served in a starred hotel or extravagant restaurant.

[Name: House of Cat’s Rabbid Cream Soup]

[Freshness: 78%]

[Effect: Increase Vitality by 0.005]

[Ingredient: Unknown]

What?

I knew I was tired after walking in the forest for a long time. But to think that I went as far as to fantasize a blue screen that has information about the soup, it’s a good thing that I managed to reach this village otherwise I don’t know how many bad things I would have experienced. The forest is indeed dangerous like the guard said, it can make a hallucination even though I observed every nook and cranny of the path I walked and didn’t found any poisonous plants.

Even though I said I saw the bluescreen it’s not like I saw a blue screen. It just popped in my mind somehow. Well, I didn’t really care because this kind of hallucination probably would be gone tomorrow. So I ignored it, it’s better to enjoy my meal instead of worrying about it.

I grabbed the spoon and took a spoonful of soup. Hm... it was a mix of spicy and bittersweet, like a raging sea. Then I scooped the vegetables with the spoon. It was bland sour but it was very fresh and tasty like the breezing spring. Next I ate the soft looking meat to see what it got for me. Unlike the marshmallow look it had, it was very elastic and bouncy everytime I chew it gave a pleasant sensation. After that I ate a spoonful of rice. It was sweet and fragrant. Finally I ate it in combination of rice and meat, rice and vegetable and so on. It was like a 7 colored rainbow, delicious.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

The meal was tasty and fresh. After I ate it I felt fresher and invigorated. It was a sensation that I never felt before. Then I started to write about what happened in my journal which is a combination of diary and recipe book. After writing I get on top of bed and sleep.

~|~

When I woke up I felt energized. Unlike my prediction, the bed and pillow was comfortable even though it was only a bronze ranked room. After bathing I went to the canteen on the bottom floor. The breakfast tasted nice and sweet, it wasn’t inferior to the soup last night. If the bronze ranked meal are this tasty I began to wonder how tasty the gold ranked or the platinum ranked meal was. I really wanted to know the recipe and how to cook it but it was rude to ask.

After meal I asked the waiter where the market is and found out that it was close to the inn. The Sky was very clear today and the breeze occasionally blew as I went to the market. The market was bustling and crowded, but my eyes shone with excitement as I saw many ingredient I had never seen before. But the part that troubled me was whenever I saw a food or ingredient the blue screen always popped in my mind, but I chose to ignore it because it didn’t really affect me. I thought it would be gone after one day but it seemed I was wrong, nevertheless I continued to buy a lot of food and ingredient in the market.

At first I didn’t notice it but somehow the people around me seemed to get less and less as I went. Then I heard a lot of people beside me murmuring about something and betting whatnot. I didn’t understand and keep moving until two man facing each other entered my line of sight.

The area near them are empty and even the merchant nearby closed their stall hurriedly. The two man looked at each other intensively. Their gaze are cold like a sword that’s ready to leave the sheath.

The first man are quite short and burly. He has an average looking face and long blonde hair. He wore an iron armor although it’s not a full body armor like the one that the guard used. He was holding a sword with both hands. His fighting stance are like a bull that’s ready to charge.

The second man are tall altough still shorter than me. He was pretty good looking and his hair are tied so it wouldn’t hinder him when fighting. He wore a brown reddish leather armor. His right hand are grabbing his scabbard and his left hand are grabbing his single edged curved sword tightly. His dual weilding sword-scabbard stance are quite strange and unorthodox.

It was tense but murmur of people could be heard occasionally. There are many people who watching with various reason from betting, gossiping, worrying their stalls or just plain curious like me.

“Kenji, I’ll never forgive you for killing my brother!” The burly man shouted to the good looking man named kenji even though the distance between them are only about 2.5 meter.

Kenji rolled his eyes. “Your little brother is the one who wanted to kill first so I just killed him in return. You and your brother are allowed to kill people but the others aren’t allowed to kill, what kind of nonsense is this do you really think I’m stupid enough to give you my neck and let you cut it easily? I’ll kill you instead Bard just like your little brother,” Kenji said while making a mocking expression.

They stared at each other with a gaze that as sharp as blade watching the movement of their enemy closely. The one who made the first move was Bard the burly man. He charges while bringing his sword overhead and then slashed down with all his might toward kenji. Kenji avoided with a side step and counter attacked with a slashed that draws an arc towards Bard head’s. Brad dodged with a hair breadth and charge with a piercing motion. Kenji parried it using the scabbard on his right hand to hit Bard sword’s fuller.

When Kenji counter attacked Bard already stepped back a second faster. Kenji leaped toward Bard and slashed down with his sword and scabbard. Bard parried it but he didn’t even budge from there like an unmoving fortress. But Kenji attack didn’t stop there as soon as bard parried his strike, he kicked him while using the force to fall back to avoid a counter attack.

Bard who didn’t move from his position suddenly charged towards Kenji after concentrating his power on his lower body. ‘Fast’ maybe that was what Kenji thought when he saw Bard charged at him like a missile based on his facial expression. To avoid Bard’s attack Kenji bent his body as low as possible as though as he was playing limbo and counter attacked at bard.

Bard was sent flying for a few meters but his injuries aren’t critical as he managed to blocked the attack using his sword. Brad spat a mouthful of blood and stood up. The air around him are begin to distorted as he gathered every ounce of his energy to fought his enemy. When Kenji saw what Bard trying to do he gathered all of his all in his sword and scabbard making a twin typhoon.

Uh.. what the hell is going on? The fight got more and more ridiculous as the time passed on is this what they called magic, the answer is no I guessed. I concentrated as hard as I can to follow their movement with my eyes.

Bard striked his sword toward the ground and a lot of earth spikes appeared from the ground. Kenji swung his sword and the violent wind current clashed againts the earth spikes. An earth shattering explosion occured and the both of them are staggered.

Even though the both of them was wounded they leaped towards each other with an unbelieveable speed. Everytime they clashes an explosion occured which gave the both of them an injury. The fight are getting more and more intense and they always moved from one place to another with a high speed.

Shit! Because I was too amazed from watching the battle, I didn’t notice it but there are an attack which was moving towards the crowds I’m in. I didn’t want to die because I got caught up in a crossfire between two superhumans. I know it’s a bit too late but I jump as far as I can and brace myself for the impact.

BOOM!

Hundreds of people are sent flying including myself. It was hurt. There are a lot of wounds accros my body. Altough it wasn’t fatal my body felt sore and my sight are getting darker and shorter. I clenched my teeth and tried my best to walked out of this battlefield as fast as I can. My body is aching everytime I tried to move but I kept walking towards the inn without walking back. The sounds of explosion began to fade as I got closer to the inn.

When I entered the inn I felt there’s a lot of gazes directed at me. Honestly I felt a bit ashamed because of my ragged appearance, but I ignored it because of my wounds so I went to my room as fast as I can. In the room I took of my clothes and began to treat my wounds with the medic kit I had in my room.

After I felt a little better I changed my clothes and got down to eat. The only thing that made me better was food. I always felt uneasy when I first spotted this village, but I always Ignored it. a medieval themed town, knights, bluescreen that popped on my mind everytime I looked at a food or ingredient and lastly that fight between two superhumans. Maybe, this was really another world just like what happened in a lot of novels. But I didn’t believe it, what happened to me was I only got lost in a forest and nothing more. There’s only one thing that can prove my hypothesis.

I asked the approaching waiter with a soft smile. “Excuse me do you know where the Adventurer’s Guild is?”