His very first otherworld dinner was surprisingly not bad. It was nothing close to his expectations when the ingredients were quite normal.

There was no monster head, weird alien vegetation, or some kind of giant insects in any of the dishes. Other than the odd-looking seasonings like the blue sauce, he thanked the heavens that he wouldn’t need to adapt as much.

Ake didn’t know why, but after their talk, Liara grabbed his arm and dragged him towards what looked like a fine establishment. It felt nice to have his arm in between them again but he didn’t let it get into his head.

Liara ordered, obviously, for the better as he would have no idea even if they had to offer. They exchanged mundane everyday stories while enjoying the food, and Ake realized something that had been staring at his face all this time.

The girl didn’t talk much about herself but he could tell how she felt about their current arrangement. She couldn’t stop talking about things that fascinated her, and thanks to her, he had learned a lot about the common shards and abilities.

She had excitedly talked about legendary abilities like [Spirit Weapon]. It had caught his attention, but whatever that was, he didn’t need to be told that it was far beyond anyone alive let alone him. Liara didn’t even mention anything on Elemental shards probably because she still thought the topic would hurt his feelings or something.

Liara had a lot of questions until it was also no longer a secret that she was with him not just because of an order, but she was also really curious about other worlds than hers. The good thing was, that the fact he was a ‘white’ didn’t really matter to her.

His senpai and guardian angel made everything a whole lot easier as he, as the alien soul, couldn’t have simply said no to all of this. Refusing such an arrangement would be a huge red flag as no sane or trustworthy person would have refused such a thing.

By the end of it, his slow brain finally realized the talk over food was probably her way of learning who he really was as a person. Liara seemed to be pleased listening to him and Ake didn’t mind it as he had nothing to hide as he was just an average man. The lovely girl was the kind of person who could tolerate his shenanigans so he was very happy about the fact.

Liara was planning to escort him back to his temporary quarters but they met with the other woman halfway there. It looked like Liara’s tall, gorgeous girlfriend had been waiting for a while but that was probably his paranoia talking.

He could tell that she was a beauty even with her face half covered and her figure was mostly hidden under her cloak. One exchanged looks and he could already guess what Liara had in mind.

“Where is it again?”

“East block, third floor, the fifth door,” she reminded him.

“Okay, got it, ma’am, and thanks for the meal,” Ake said, nodding his thanks to her before he turned around and walked away.

He had kept it official in front of the other because it would only make it easier for both of them. Ake had spent only a short time with her but he already could tell that the small lady would appreciate such a gesture.

The way Liara carried herself had made it easy for him to understand her somehow. It was like he already knew her for a long time for whatever reason.

And she was older than him, even when compared to his age in the old world.

Besides, the last thing he needed was to be mistakenly blamed if things went south for the pair of lovers. They didn’t act like those he knew back in the old world but it was probably just cultural differences.

He might even be reading this too deeply. The other woman might not even care about him, but jealousy could be unreasonable, things could still stir up. Obviously, there was a huge difference between being lovey-dovey and having a civil conversation during a meal, but no one could guess what the other significant person saw in their eyes.

Regardless, the word ‘ma’am’ would hopefully paint his attention clear. He owed the small lady for what she did and he would rather not tarnish it. Ake also was never a fan of NTR or any form of loved ones stealer in the old world as he had been on that side.

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Nevertheless, he could tell that Liara had made up her mind. If the break up happened then, hopefully, it wouldn’t be because of the charm of a random tribal boy, at least, inside the other girl’s head.

Ake shook his head.

It would be easier that way as the worst thing was a grudge from a jealous ex. As small as she was, Liara was a huge catch if anyone had asked him.

Bluntly honest when she needed to be and kind to whoever she met.

Regardless, finding his way to the east wall was easy. The giant walls and their equally giant supporting structure were so huge as if it was made to hold Kaijus back. Perhaps the grand size was meant to make the town feel safer and it surely had worked when the walls were close to skyscrapers.

However, ignoring the terrible state of the people living in the slum was not as easy. Ake tried to keep his mind occupied while he pretended not to notice any poor misshapen passersby begging for scraps he didn’t have. It felt like the worst of trash were all gathered in one small neighborhood.

It only got worse when he realized that he could be one of them if he didn’t figure something out soon. It was odd but he was just glad there were no kids around on the street.

As Liara had told him, the official refuge ‘apartments’ were built right under the giant leaning pillars. According to her, these pillars' original function was to ensure the skyscraper walls from collapsing inward before vertical housing units were built under them.

She might be right but perhaps these leaning pillars were simply there just to ensure the population that the walls wouldn’t suddenly collapse inward. The general population wouldn’t know how sturdy exactly the walls were or how it was built in the first place. Liara had told him what she knew about the construction. Until now he still couldn’t believe that all of these massive structures were built by a single person. The man was a legend among the [Stone] shard users.

The massive walls proved that magic construction was simply ridiculous. Who would need any inventions if magic existed, right?

It also proved how crippled he was to be a white.

Any jobs that include heat like the blacksmith or cook would benefit the most when someone can manipulate the flame and be resistant to heat. This meant finding regular jobs would be a nightmare for him and there would be zero openings for any kind of construction workers, that was for sure.

The energetic girl also had talked about the other non-elemental common shards and what they could do for him. She said that, unfortunately, his [Strand] and [Ether] were two of the most common and worthless kinds of shards around. There were only a tiny number of day-to-day abilities she knew but none of them were worth as much.

And it made a whole lot of sense to give such things to a stranger as who knew what would happen next? Blind trust could easily backfire. The best anyone could do at that critical moment was pray and hope the person or he would actually help.

What he could do at the moment was to try to crystallize some kind of ability out of the shards he already absorbed. Liara didn’t have to spell it to him that it was the key or a shortcut to a much easier life. Those big beautiful green eyes had lit up when she began to talk about crystallised abilities she had seen and rumours about others.

Her reaction told him that unlocking passive [Skill] was nothing compared to crystallizing any sort of abilities. Even the most common and the simplest ones had a very wide use.

Ake had his doubts, but as far as she knew, the simple combination of [Strand] and [Ether] wouldn’t crystallize anything other than a version of widely used [Extract] ability. The shards had been around forever, and it was not entirely wrong to say that no one had found any other combination for the two.

Shards also had tiers, and of course, crystallization for each tier had different usefulness or capability. It was also left without saying that the rich and powerful had all the best secrets. The envy in her voice said it all.

The commonly known [Extract] ability was used to extract many things like clothing fiber or sea salt in almost the same manner mana was ‘extracted’ from thin air forever. It looked like he still had some hope after all, well, if he couldn’t figure something out.

Ake couldn’t imagine how the ability was used to make clothes but she promised that he would understand when he witnessed it with his own eyes. Of course, he was looking forward to seeing how the shards were used with his own two eyes.

Recalling what they had talked about had done its job as before he knew it he was in front of the door which should be hosting three tribal people, his people. They were all female as Ake sort of remembered how they had escaped during the attack on that one tragic night.

He just didn’t want to play the memory inside his head as it was not actually what he had gone through himself. Besides, being carried off like a princess in the middle of chaos was not something a man could ever be proud of.

He raised his hand to knock but his hand froze in mid-air.

He suddenly got a bad feeling about this.

His guts were not having it. It felt like he was lying in broad daylight if he showed himself to them. Ake decided that, perhaps, he wasn’t ready for this.

He turned away just as the door creaked open.