He was taken aback by the hotel’s dining area. At each seat was a space where one could put their hand and have themselves scanned, then a few seconds later the food that they wanted would materialize. How it worked was beyond him.

The freedom that this allowed made for quite a sight. There was little to no cohesion in any of the plates on the tables. Their vastly different outward appearances gave away the fact that this was an alien world, but all of the different foods gave him the impression that there was no one dominant culture in this city. He was in a melting pot, which meant there was no way for him to even begin to anticipate what to expect.

He resigned himself to sitting in the back corner of the room, where his back was to the wall and he had a clear eye on the front door. When he sat down, he watched the others in the dining area for a little bit. He noted how they used the table to order and didn’t notice anything of note other than the hand placement, so he put his hand on the table tentatively.

It felt as if something tickled the mana inside of him and the back of his brain at the same time, but it wasn’t a bad feeling. It was just somewhat invasive. Whatever it was, it made a meal appear before him.

The item he received was a homely dish, bulgogi beef over white rice with soy sauce. It was simple, yes, but that was because that’s exactly how he liked it. It was perfect, down to his favorite fork and cup filled with strawberry lemonade.

It felt like he was home again, with his wife cooking for him.

His posture began to shrink a little. He had been having a fair bit of fun, all things considered. He was trying his hardest not to think of it, but he missed home. He felt guilty for not being there, for suddenly disappearing and being unable to be by her side while she raised their child. It frustrated him that he didn’t even know who he was. He couldn’t remember his name or her name. He just knew that he wasn’t where he belonged.

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. The feeling of his hair hitting his face and shoulders while he shook it was great for giving him something else to focus on.

Damn, who’s going to braid my hair while I’m here? Should I finally get locs?

He opened his status and a notification popped up.

‘Tutorial Rewards have been calculated! You have received the following rewards:

10,000 coins

15,000 DP

10 Common Summon Cards

10 Uncommon Summon Cards

10 Rare Summon Cards

5 Unique Summon Cards

3 Legendary Summon Cards

1 Mythic Summon Card

VIP Shop Membership

3 Top Grade Facility Tickets

`

He found out that the difference between a summon card and a crystal was that the card, once consumed, was guaranteed to add a random summon of that rarity to the player’s roster. Anything below legendary status was subject to repeats though.

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A brief scroll through the shop was all he currently cared for. The VIP shop was a function of the System that allowed players to access items regardless of their location. They had what looked like an infinite catalog and prices that used either DP or coins, but he did notice that the rarer items tended to be what asked for DP, and the values weren’t small by any stretch of the imagination.

He decided that he would do his pulls when he made it back to the room and began to eat his food while he studied the map. He found the shopping district that he was looking for and it was within walking distance from the hotel. In the morning, he was going to go shopping with Seru so that they could get supplies and equipment for their journey. He imagined that the goblin weapons that they currently had wouldn’t last all that long after he saw the kind of items people were using in the tournament.

‘Please insert a sacrifice for your dungeon theme or randomize it.’

A sacrifice? What did he currently have that would be the best choice? It was probably the sapling, but what if he was supposed to plant it physically instead?

What if I sacrifice my mythic card and have a dungeon themed after the strongest summons?

‘Try it and see what happens!’

Wait did the System just respond to me?

‘Please insert a sacrifice for your dungeon theme or randomize it.’

He couldn’t afford to waste a mythic summon. The sapling was what he decided to sacrifice.

‘Intializing Dungeon… Initialization Complete. Would you like to travel to your dungeon?’

He ignored it for the time being. He finished his food and the dishes vanished once he was sure that he was done. Was this world perfect? He placed his hand against the table and actually focused on what he wanted to appear and this time a white to go box in a plastic bag and a white styrofoam to go cup appeared. From the smell alone, he knew that it was exactly what he wished for it to be so he went back up the room without even opening it to check.

When he walked into the room, he found that Seru was sitting at the desk. She closed a book when he entered, kind of hurriedly. Was she the type of girl to keep a diary? What did she write about?

He put the food on the desk for her accompanied by a simple: “If you don’t like it we can get you something else.” before going into their bathroom to shower. Once he was inside the sterile white room, he noticed a tablet with countless options for what kind of bathroom he could create for himself.

In the most popular tab was a grand, expansive bath with an open air space and golden facilities. There were five question marks in the picture, and after some looking into it he figured out that meant the user could create up to five avatars to bathe with. Very advanced technology.

He opted for a one to one recreation of his bathroom back home so he could feel as comfortable as he possibly could for the time being. He was prepared to take a long shower, seeing as it had been forever since he last had one. He was going to wash his body and his hair, tend to all of his upkeep, and even do his face routine in the sink when he was done with his shower.

While he did so, he took the time to think about what he was going to do going forward. He was creating a character with Amon, but he was starting to question the ethicality of it. Seru was his very first companion and she was the reason he did so well in the tutorial. When she was someone he wasn’t going to spend much time with, he didn’t care to speak to her, but now? If she was going to be his right hand woman, he wanted to at least have a fun relationship with her.

How old even was she if she had a diary? He didn’t have the skills to easily discern between goblin age groups, he just knew that the elder was old because of his wrinkly skin. He’d been treating her something like a little kid he was playing some adventure game with, but was she actually a teenager? Was she going to get rebellious soon?

He decided that he would aim for a father/child relationship with Seru. It was the closest thing to the hero dynamic he was made when he thought she was a temporary character in his story, plus it would be great practice for when he finally returned home. Maybe it would even make this place feel a little more real.

“When we’re in private, we can talk aloud as much as you’d like, but when we’re out in public I’ll almost always communicate with you using the telepathy skill.” was what he said to Seru once he was done in the shower. He had been thinking of how to say it for the better part of his bathroom experience, so as soon as he stepped out he just blurted it out.

When he actually turned to look at her, he found that she was asleep at the desk, nothing but chicken bones remaining in the empty box on the desk. He smiled softly and picked her up out of the chair, then tucked her into her bed. Everything else could wait until tomorrow. He got into his own bed and followed her lead.