The dawn broke long ago, I was still slumped on the couch, staring at the TV, without the least purpose in life. To be honest, I wasn’t even watching the TV, I was in a torpor.

A state of confusion and self-experimentation. From surfing all the channels did help me a lot to get to know a bit more about this world and my own powers.

There was this monk-like dude, who gave an interview on how to know oneself deeper and discover one’s own soul garden. Soul garden is basically the same place as subconscious space. And yeah, it could be a garden feel with snakes and other crawly creepy poison spitters. Sigh~

The First thing that must be done in order to get a sense of one’s own subconscious space is having good perception. Perception about oneself. Then map out the senses, more simply the strands that I saw with my enhanced senses.

I’ll try to feel out every strand one by one, later. For now, I think I should go on a tourn in the town. I would really love to taste all the delights this town has to offer. Man! The braised ribs still watering my mouth.

I walked to the end of the hallway, from where the pervert kept an eye on me. I looked around, there was no room here, only a square framed window, which was closed and covered by a curtain. I looked behind the curtain, to check if the perverted watcher left something behind.

Well, it’s not a detective story, and I was no detective. The place was neat. Maybe something to do with magic, or he was just too meticulous?

I took the stairs. It was grand with carved wood railing, it had some sort of splat pattern, but it felt unnatural, plus it gave off a vibe of tweaking. If I looked at the whole pattern, the pattern sort of came to live and tried depicting something.

“Sandy?” I peered at the whole pattern trying to unfold something, hoping that Sandy would be help.

“Master, Check the entire pattern first, and the carpet too.”

Now did I only notice the intricate pattern that covered the whole length of the carpet, it was done using a fabric that had a slightly stronger color than the rest of the reds. If not known beforehand, or not scrutinized by a skilled artisan.

I scrutinized the carpet with my tweaked vision, all the lines blended at places, and then formed branches, a complex lattice work. Seems like some sort of epic. To take a better look I went up the start of the carpet at the top floor, but stopped while seeing Sig intently looking at me.

“Morning, Mr. Black,” Sig greeted with a warm smile, “You looking for something?”

I returned the gesture, “No, it’s just there seeming to be some sort of hidden story depicted in the carpet, and the patterns on the railings must be the complimentary.” I stroked my fingers across the railing, “I wonder what it says!”

For the briefest moment I saw Sig get flabbergasted. I wonder why was that, maybe it was a wrong idea to say it out loud.

It felt a bit off, the aura turned a bit colder, maybe my imagination.

“Anyway, where did you bought me the braised meat, yesterday?” I looked intently at Sig, trying my best to read the changes in his emotion. His expression relaxed a bit.

“Oh, it’s from the ‘Ale & Meat’. It’s in the next street from here. They sell the best meat stuff in the town.” Sig explained while showing me the general direction with pointed finger in the southern direction.

Sig took a break, “You know for the general direction, you can just look it up in your phone, panel or you don’t wear a glass it seems.” He sighed, slowly descending the steps, he wrapped one hand over my shoulder, and I followed him downstairs, “Tell you this, Mr. Black, just walk the street and take a break at each food stall, you’re gonna love it.” Sig frowned, while scanning my face.

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Man, I started freaking, confused on either to start rampaging or wait and feel the water. Sig nodded thoughtfully, taking his hand off my shoulder, “You look like a foodie.”

I sighed, letting my nerves loose. We were on the ground floor, standing at the end of the hallway. I slowly started off for the door that was still closed. I seriously doubt it if they are here for business.

I looked back, hearing Sig call my name, “You’re welcome here, as long as you’re in the town.”

I nodded happily. The gate opened automatically when I was about few meters away. Sensors or magic?

“I don’t sense any magic,” Sandy told.

Sensors then, I concluded. This world is laden with technologies. I was damned to find out there’s even gaming tournaments in this world. And it was really high tech, somewhat similar to full dive, but the time scale is way too compressed. I really wanna try that out.

So many things to do, so many things to explore. I can’t wait. I was welcomed by the scent of withered night blooming jasmine, and the scent of fresh dew. The gate was now budding with life, it had green vines and new leaves, glowing in lush green in dawn light.

The air was cool, and soothing on touch. The road was already bustling with life, horns, horns, honkkkssss!

I wished I was in a medieval themed world. And I was wishing for a change. There was hardly any car any the town, aside for few pickup trucks. Bike was more abundant than peoples, sigh. And I really hate the high-pitched honking of the bike...

I started the day with great enthusiasm. First find myself some good breakfast, then find Megumi. Then what? Maybe I’ll eat some more.

First stop was Ale and Meat. Maybe I’ll feel myself up with some meat in the morning, then meat for lunch and dinner too? I scratched my chin, pondering on it for a while, not bad... hm?

The people all around looked happy and cheerful. The sun was still peaking from the east? Wait? Even the sun rises from east? Man, this is giving me the creeps!

I can feel my hairs stand on my neck, from these uncanny similarities. The people were mostly dwarves. Over 90% of them, and the rest were a mix of beastmen of various tribes, and another race, which had similar stature as that of dwarf, but they had much more lean build than that of the fat, and bearded dwarves. And, oh, they have blue skins? Smurfs? Gnomes? Who cares? I need food!

“You’re not hungry,” Sandy commented.

“I know,” I gave her a flat response.

“Then why bother eating?” I am sure Sandy gave a meh look.

“I just want to eat, Happy?” I slumped, strolling peacefully, “If you don’t have anything better to do than nagging, then take a break, or do whatever you want!”

“Boo~ MASTER! I prepared so many special moves from analyzing the clips of fighting from yesterday. We can try out so many things, with your memories from previous world, we can do some crazy stuffs... I ca...”

Man, I could feel Sandy’s eyes sparkling, “Yeah, yeah... We’ll get to that later. Now, I want to eat.”

“Boo~~~”

I’ve been wondering for a while, “Can you materialize and do whatever you want in outside?” I stopped rephrasing the sentence, “I mean...”

“I can. But I don’t think it’ll be a good idea, not till you get stronger to protect yourself,” Sandy sounded like an experienced granny.

“You know I can survive getting decapitated?” I couldn’t help but feel disgusted by the thought. That was an awful experience, growing a new head, I mean!

“Not enough! I think that Hydra can literally turn you into...uh.! I don’t know! Um...” Sandy pondered on it for a while, “Yeah, wipe you out of existence?”

“I don’t think I’m crazy enough to go look for a Hydra’s den anytime soon,” I laughed, “If not you keep wanting to punch down a giant two headed monstrosity.”

Sandy laughed gleefully, “Oh! I would love that, Master!”

I perked up as the scent of meat, cheese? Do I smell cheese in the air? Damn! It’s so freaking unhealthy to eat cheese for breakfast, but I love it.

I literally ran to the source of the scent, without even paying mind to what Sandy kept mumbling. I reached my destination in a breeze. Damn, look at that crowd. It was so crowded that it reeked of dwarves. I think they have some hygiene issues!

Anyways, these aromas of freshly charred meat, and cheese, the sweet scent of baked bread, the spicy tone of broth, and I was picking up another slight sweet scent. Nothing I’ve smelt before, but it must be some sort of watery-sweet thing. You know those melons with slight sweetness, it smelt something alike, a fruit of some sort?

I tried pushing away the crowd to get in the line, but received bunch of hostile glares. It’s hard to resist the urge not to eat, when the food is this close.

The chef was a female dwarf, who looked very unfeminine, with stocked figure. Who care, as long as the food tastes great. There were one, two... nine people of beast-tribes serving food in the occupied tables, and doing the other chores. There were two other chefs, one was dwarf, and another I’ve no idea what they might be, it had a gravy textured skin, with beady eyes, and silver mane like hair. It was atleast 1 feet taller than your average dwarf. And it had a really muscular build.

I can easily see its muscle flex and relax under the constant strain, It took care of the meat, occasionally checking the internal temperature of the stove. I patiently waited for it to take out the next batch of meat.

The wait was over, as it took out a perfectly charred tray filled with ribs. The meat looked tender and juicy. It was leaking oil, to think the meat had a perfect layer of fat, it’s gonna taste so freaking good, I was practically drooling.

Wait, what is he coating the meat with? I watched with awe, as the gravy dude was sawing off the charred layer, and was brushing it with something, it had that watery-sweet scent. What in the heck is that? I just of I’ll get to taste something new.

The line was never ending and I was afraid that that batch wasn’t gonna last long. Maybe, no... I can do better than that...

Few seconds later~

I threw a gold coin to the chef, who literally looked at me dumbstruck. Soon, others also followed her gaze and now everyone was staring at me.

“I want food,” I declared, “Now!”

The head chef nodded. The other dwarves that was bustling in the area, all gave me space to take a sit inside the cozy little restaurant. I slowly, and carefully took measured steps and sat after pulling a chair, trying to maintain a not-so-gentlemanish aura.

Should I throw some table and chairs? Nah! OR... the gold coin can cover for much more. That’s gonna be too much, sigh~

Money sure talks.

A nekomimi asked, hesitantly, her voice quivering, “What would you like, Good Sir?” And performed a 90-degree bow.

“Everything!” I said, “And no need to bow.”

“Yesss?” the nekomimi looked startled.

“Everything non-alcoholic!”