Chương 137: Chapter 133

A debuff was removed: Chronic Sciatica Two points of vitality back and Wade finally felt like he was his age instead of a seventy year old man with cracking knees. He could do jumping jacks. He could do pushups. He could spin on himself and deliver a roundhouse kick, although that one was more a product of an additional agility point working in tandem with his restored health. 200 health, to be exact. And a matching maximum amount for mana. Wade had never felt this good in his life.

Even before his accident, he hadn't been this strong, flexible, or coordinated. And this would be just the start. He still wasn't as strong as Leon, or even a regular competitive athlete, but that didn't quite matter to Wade. It was day four and he was already fully back to his prime already. Plus, next round was dedicated to power leveling and gathering loot to sell, so he might come out of it on par with those athletes in under twenty four hours.

"Okey, okey, we settling down now." Leon laughed as one of Wade's shadowboxing kicks got a little too close to his direction.

"And we having forty minutes to get to gas station and feed miss Medy coffee."

"What's coffee?" Medy asked, head snapping away from the mirror.

"Is it tasty?"

"Very." Leon said.

"Depending on how much sugar you putting inside."

"Oh. I thought you all mentioned being normal non-noble mortals?"

"We are." Wade clarified, getting his jacket on, before turning to Leon.

"I would have thought you took your coffee without anything. You look the type."

"Despite rugged good looks, I am well known sweet-tooth. Baked goods best goods." Even Eri had gotten dressed for the part, his first hat, mask and tan trenchcoat all equipped for an outing. Alone, he would have looked about as innocent as a bloody needle in a dark alley, but with the rest of the group here, they looked like they were about to hit a bunch of bars instead. Medy gave her tie one last check, made sure her hair looked well done, then hopped over to Bael to do the same.

Eri opened the doorway, too impatient to wait on the slackers behind him. Wade had told him he'd get a pope's hat at some place called Spirit Halloween, a costume shop. Or they'd make one for him. It just might not look exactly like the picture Leon baited him with. But a hat was a hat. That worked good enough for Eri. And that was the start of the adventure. Medy and Bael carefully stepped outside into the sterile hallway with cheap tile under their hooves.

It was rather lifeless around here, but at least well lit.

"You live in a castle?" Medy asked, looking back at him.

"The living room looked very nice with the upper flooring, are you sure you're not royalty or related to the city?" Wade had to explain what an apartment was and how the only relation he had with L. A. was from his bank account to theirs. The elevators required similar explanations, which Eri was more than happy to then show the pair how the buttons worked. It was the lobby where the reality of how alien Earth was hit the pair.

The streets outside at this time were basically empty, besides a car or two every now and then. Which caused Medy to almost run on the road after one, since she wanted a closer look. This would not be the last time she'd attempted to run off over the street with little understanding of it. She also had to examine the road and how it was constructed, along with the paint differences.

And if they hadn't kept the group on track following the sidewalk down Wade's usual commute path, Medy would have pulled them off to visit building after building. The shapes alone were vastly different and far taller than buildings in Azdrial. The mortal realm tended to not be conductive to larger building sizes. To both Medy and Bael, the massive buildings here was outright insanity. The weather would have ripped them down eventually.

Bael was at least content to simply walk in the shadow of this strange city, observing. But Medy had to touch everything. And Eri was just as bad. Streetlights were his current obsession, and if Bael hadn't been there to grab him and yank him down, the skeleton might have actually scaled one for a closer look at the bulb.

"This is where the actual challenge was the whole time." Wade hissed, as he and Leon once more worked together to pen the Demoness with both arms, and yank her away from her current hyperfixation that would probably cause her to get into a fight with an L. A. driver.

"I worry others seeing us." Leon hissed out, "Is bad look, you know?" Two guys grabbing a woman and fast-marching her back to the sidewalk while she looked like she was struggling against them to get a few more glances behind her, all done near four in the morning… yes it was a very bad look.

"But what is it all made of?" Medy seemed almost desperate to know, still trying to look behind her at the base of the square building they were passing.

"Concrete, metal struts, and a lot of glass. We can sit down and look over one in detail after the coffee." Wade promised, now worried they were going to miss the time limit.

"And don't tell Eri to break a chunk off for you, you goddamn raccoon." All this just to flunk the easiest quest the System had ever given them would be both deeply troubling and a little funny. Seeing a bike pass by with a dog on a leash leading the way nearly blew their entire cover. And then Wade had to spend the rest of the walk explaining to Eri how the streetlights worked, why they would change colors, how they related to pedestrians, and later why L. A. drivers were to be feared, specifically to Medy.

Yes, the System classed humans generally around levels 1-10, but Wade was pretty certain the moment those drivers out here felt like they were mildly inconvenienced, that threat level would shoot up into the 50's on account ramming speed was one gas pedal away, and the group here had no bricks to threaten traffic back with. Overall score: They'd gotten honked at seven times, jaywalked twice, and had a few cars slow down to gawk at them otherwise.

Eri had managed to break off a small chunk of building plaster when Wade hadn't been looking, and claimed Medy had asked him for it. On her part, she had been collecting wrappers and anything shiny on the sidewalk, which was a lot safer than what she'd been doing before so Leon and Wade decided to let that slide for now. If it wasn't four in the morning and next to nobody outside on the path, things would have been difficult.

Bael was the only one who was actually well behaved, simply walking with everyone else, occupied staring around at the city in the dark instead of running amok. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Blessedly soon, the gas station appeared up ahead, just the same as Wade always remembered it.

Today it was being staffed by Amar, who didn't quite know English and always listened to a podcast of some kind anyhow on shift, but had zero issue with pulling out the broom and chasing off any kind of drunken pests with only a few hand gestures from Wade if he needed backup. Through the window, his face lit up with a smile recognizing Wade, waving. Then his expression changed to complete confusion catching sight of Wade's group. It's around that time Wade realized there was another issue: He had brought Medy.

And would be walking into a completely operational store, fully stocked with exotic goods. Of which, she had his language blessing and could read every label. And there was no chance in hell he could ask her to stay here for now. Wade gulped. A hand patted his shoulder.

"Is okey." Leon said, likely having thought the very same thing.

"If anyone asking, we all speak only Russian. Tourists." Oh. That had potential. As far as Wade knew, Amar only spoke English and Hindi. This could actually work. It did not, in fact, work - because Medy. From the moment the glass door was opened up, Medy dove right into the store like a fox in a chicken coop and started grabbing everything off the shelves before Wade could even say a word not to. At least Leon's earlier plan with the Russian worked out.

She did, in fact, follow directions about that, speaking only Russian. Wade had granted Bael the language blessing with little ceremony this time, and besides Bael realizing this is why Medy had been so quick on the uptakes, he adjusted quickly to the change. This was far from the craziest thing he'd seen happen in the past day, and if anything it felt tame and almost normal in comparison.

It's a shame he was the most inhuman looking of the group, since he was clearly the most level headed and capable of fitting into society here, compared to the gremlin Medy was, and her new sidekick, Eri. The amount of colors on everything was the very first subject for the Demoness. Followed by reading the labels, and then that would end with her circling right over to Leon asking him what the object of interest was and how it was used. Wade, on his end, tried to keep Amar off their backs.

"Oh, they're friends visiting and staying over at my pad."

"Oh, and the… outfits?" Amar asked.

"Cosplayers, you know, video game characters. We're looking for a nice streetlamp for some pictures." Amar looked over to the Satyr, admiring what he assumed was outright hollywood level prosthetic additions to the face to get a half-man half-goat look. Wade apparently knew some very skilled actors. But this was L. A. Actors trying to break into anything were everywhere out here.

"Oh, okay. You show them around the city, yeah?" If it had been just the four of them without Wade, Amar might have been more suspicious, but Wade leading the strange group here meant it was basically safe in his eyes.

"Yeah, they're getting the full LA experience out here."

"Good! Good!" Amar said, watching Medy snatch something off the racks, hoisting it overhead like she'd discovered buried treasure, then rushing to show Eri her find.

"They… very spirited. Very fun to see someone so happy with, uh, food here." She might be only speaking in Russian, but the enthusiasm for everything was universal. Strange behavior maybe, but couldn't be helped if they were tourists coming here for the American dream of stardom and a better life, right? Amar's own family had been much the same, so he easily snapped it together.

"Yeah, that's part of the plan." Wade said, happy to see Amar was coming up with his own reasoning for all of this to be fine and normal.

"I think she's looking for all the American snacks here, and we're getting some coffee to keep them awake. Talking about that, got a spare cup I can use?" Wade had no idea if Medy liked pure coffee or not, because the cheapest can they could find was a mocha flavored generic brand that was likely half sugar, half cream and maybe flavored with coffee as an afterthought. Basically, the perfect coffee drink for people who didn't like coffee. Regardless, the important part was that it had caffeine.

And it could be poured into a cardboard cup generously provided by Amar. All within the twenty minutes left in the quest.

"So this is what we came here for?" She asked, looking over the cold drink in hand. She of course smelled it first before anything else.

"Doesn't smell like much, is that because it's cold or just natural for the drink? Why did your game System decide I had to drink this by the way?"

"Chaos." Wade sighed.

"The quest name on my end is to prevent chaos by not letting you drink this. And Leon's side is the opposite." Which meant the System already knew what was going to happen when she was caffeinated. And being an alchemist, she would probably be interested in coffee for more than just the taste.

"So, if I drink this, chaos happens? Wait! Is this an Earth potion? It's an Earth potion isn't it?! What's it do?"

"It's a stimulant, basically." Wade confessed.

"For her?" Bael looked incredibly unamused.

"Funny jest, we're all laughing." Wade gave a helpless shrug.

"That's why the System mentioned chaos." Medy took a sip. Then leaned back, eyes blinking. Rapidly lip smacking the entire time.

"Oh, that's really strange."

"Not a fan?" Wade asked, a little surprised. Medy answered that by taking another sip, repeating the process.

"It tastes weird compared to honey, like part of the honey but doesn't taste like honey? Roasted sugar beets but without the beet flavor too."

"Honey, but not honey. Beet except not." Bael grunted.

"Right. Very helpful description."

"You try it mister grumpy pants." Medy shot back, pushing the cardboard cup his way. He rolled his eyes but grabbed it out of her hand, where it looked more like an espresso cup given his own size. One sniff, and then a careful sip. He had no words, only a deepening and confused frown.

"Hah, yeah! See?" Medy gave a smug nod." You try describing that." It was Leon who figured it out.

"You mentioning Wade and I being rich nobles, when speaking of sugar earlier, da?" Medy reached out and took the cup back from the Demon, all the while chatting.

"Yeah, I mean you made it sound like you can just add sugar into this by the spoonful." The way she'd said that, it was as if the idea of piling sugar into anything was obviously insane and nobody in their right mind would do that. Leon hummed, then turned to Bael.

"Tell me what you know of sugar?" Bael shrugged.

"Rare spice, and an expensive one even for richer mortals, let alone demonkind."

"Ah. Wade, they never tried refined sugar." Medy went for another sip. Then gave a hum of approval, taking a third sip.

"The first try was weird, but the more I try it the better it tastes. So is this actually pure sugar? It's got almost a nutty earthy taste to it? Except not like earth. Tasty sweet earth?"

"That's probably the mocha." Wade looked between the two demons, "You guys really don't have sugar cane or anything that produces sugar?"

"It sounding like they do, but difficult to source." Leon said, "Is very recent that we have access to refined sugar here on Earth, historically speaking. Romans knew sweets only in wines and fruits. They boil this very viscous grape syrup they calling Defrutum." He gave a deep grin.

"Almost cause lead poisoning. Romans."

"Oh, we do have wine!" Medy shook her head, taking a few tactical sips in between choice words.

"There's five cities really known for grapes, they're all high elves, but they don't attack anyone else who starts growing grapes. They just claim their grapes are superior and look down on everyone."

"They… don't attack anyone else who's growing grapes?" Wade asked, suspicious of what the trade world was like on Azdrial now.

"Yeah, lot of guilds fight each other over greenhouse crops." Medy took another sip of the coffee.

"Ooooh, I'm really starting to like this. How often can you get this potion? What's the toxicity limit like? Was it expensive? It tastes expensive." Before Wade could even try and parse that, he saw a pop up notification for a new fleeting quest. One asking him to steal heritage grape seeds from a handful of noble high elf family lines. The rewards were fifteen storefront coins and moderate leveling experience, which meant this was a complete suicide quest.

Not to mention he'd never traveled to the actual mortal realm yet on Azdrial, in order to even find one of these high elf cities invested in the wine mafia. Wade thought back to Zin, and how the demon had been an utter glutton on everything that coffee shop had. It was starting to make slightly more sense. And it did tell him there was probably going to be some very lucrative options in selling sugar and wine over to Azdrial given the market conditions.

"Well, they knowing name of sugar, so spice trade mature enough to have trade routes carrying it around world." Leon muttered, before turning to Bael.

"Is difficult to grow or source? Or politically dangerous?"

"Difficult to grow." Bael said.

"Only three cities I know of do it. They've got deals with the others to keep competition low. Not that they need to, very few places are capable, and they're all focused on growing other crops with their greenhouses." Leon frowned.

"Sugar cane is difficult to grow? Why? Is hardy crop, grows almost by itself I hear." Wade had noticed a lot of Earth's herbs and animals were known in Azdrial, and that did make some sense if there were humans there and humans here. A common ancestor root maybe? He wasn't sure, but it did feel like Azdrial would be a mirror in some way. Or was Earth the mirror instead?

"An apothecary would know more of herbs and plant lifecycles." Bael's eye turned to Medy, who was still mid-sip. She finished her gulp, nodded straightway, then puffed out her chest. Proud to drop trivia and random facts.

"I do know a little about it! Allegedly, it dies to frost or flood real fast, and needs a hot and humid environment, so it needs large really well protecte-" The gas station bell rang behind Wade, mid-ramble. And then a familiar voice greeted him directly.

"Well, well, WELL, if it isn't Mr. Wade! And here I was thinking, 'Now where would my favorite happy-go-lucky mortal be at this ungodly hour in the morning?' Very first place I look, as it so happens. Who would have guessed." Wade slowly turned on his heels, and got sight of who the newcomer was. Well made jet black suit, white gloves, slicked back hair, slightly sharp teeth, and an incredibly annoyed face.

"What? Shocked? Surprised? Wondering how your day got so much worse so quickly? Me too, champ, me too. Let's just say a certain goddess who shall remain Play decided I needed to be your new shadow! Your new buddy. Your unwanted plus-one to everything, for the rest of the day. Lucky you. Lucky me! Everyone's just SO lucky today!" Ah. Play had found a loophole to the privacy rule.