Merchant Of Yliaster

It didn't take too much for Maxwell to find a place he could eat. As he approached the wall separating the inner and outer city, buildings became more and more luxurious. Figuring that best placed would be near it, Maxwell walked near the wall until he found somewhere looking good enough.

He was now standing beside a very high building by medieval standards. The building was an impressive one, painted in black with a few red accents. It had ten floors, and the windows were one-sided, making him unable to peer inside.

Of course, they didn't stop his prima sense, and he could see that there were many people in the building. What was interesting was the fact that there were only around 10 people on the highest floor. According to his senses, some of these people were really rich in mana, too.

Beside the door, the building's name was carved directly into the wall, covered completely with red crystals. Maxwell could see that crystals were tier 2 materials themselves. Whoever owned this place was surely wealthy.

"The Nest" the carving said. A delicious smell was coming from inside, making Felix twitch excitedly. The dog was probably smelling it a lot more than he was. It was actually thanks to this smell that Maxwell found this place.

The building looked incredibly high-end, and Maxwell really couldn't understand why it was in the outer city, but it made sense that there would be a place for the highborn to spend time in, even in the outer city.

He walked towards the door, and he was not surprised to feel the familiar intrusion of an observation. A man was standing beside the door. Against Maxwell's expectations, though he was wearing a suit.

"Welcome, sir. How may I help you?" the man said, respectfully bowing. His voice had a professional quality that Maxwell used to hear from waiters in high-end restaurants.. He was a man around 50 years old with a very tidy look. Maxwell observed the man curiously, as this was undoubtedly a professional.

Organizer - Level-17

The man's level was truly respectable. It was even higher than Ragnar's, and that man was already an outlier.

"You serve food, right?" he said, quite awkwardly, as he was holding a dog and had a bird on top of his head. If this were before initiation, he wouldn't even try entering such a place like this.

"Of course," the man said, and briefly glanced towards Blueberry. "Your friends can come too, of course," he added, apparently having noticed his awkwardness.

He led him to a door, and Maxwell was pleasantly surprised to see that it was actually an elevator. The man pressed a small button before inserting a key into a slot near the door, causing the door to open with a ding.

So the owner is a noble at the least. Maxwell figured. Seeing real tech was surreal in a world like this. They got inside the elevator, and the man pressed the highest button on it, which was gold colored, unlike the others.

Seeing Maxwell's look, the man smiled at him politely before speaking. "Mistress told me that anyone whom I can't observe should be taken to the premium floor," he said.

They probably don't want strong people terrorizing customers. Maxwell smiled. Also, having a hub that the strong could hang out in would undoubtedly be profitable. As he thought, the elevator stopped on their destination, the doors opening smoothly.

The scene welcoming Maxwell was quite unexpected. As opposed to a place for fine dining, this place looked more like a bar. There was a separate space in the middle of the room, apparently having a small kitchen inside.

Surrounding the square space, there was a counter with stools just like a bar. Maxwell could also see some tables to the side for anyone who wanted to sit normally, but nobody seemed to choose that for now.

It was not hard to see why, though, as almost everyone in the room was watching someone in the middle of the room.

Maxwell watched as a black-haired woman stood unmoving on the other side of the counter. The weird part was that everything around her actually moved. The knives were dicing up vegetables, the pans were tossing the food into the air by themselves, the soups were mixing themselves, and so on.

The woman, though, seemed like she had nothing to do with the organized chaos around her. If Maxwell couldn't see the mental waves radiating from the woman, he wouldn't be able to tell that she was the cause of this scene.

He couldn't help but be drawn to the scene, which looked magical even in a world filled to the brim with magic. He observed the woman, quite curious about what her level and class would be.

Chef - Level-23

Is this a lucky day or something? Maxwell questioned. He could see that the organizer from before was also absorbed by the scene. He, though, quickly gathered his bearings before turning to Maxwell.

"Our chef is a sight to behold, I'm afraid," he said before moving to the counter. He took a small notebook filled with a lot of text from it. "There is a list here which shows what our chef can cook. If you like anything else, just describing it would be enough for her. The price is fixed, with it being a gold coin per meal," the man said.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The price was high, but Maxwell found himself not really caring. He simply nodded before thanking the man, and he responded by bowing quickly before leaving the room.

Maxwell glanced at the menu, a bit exasperated by the number of things in it. The text was really small, and whole pages were covered with different foods.

"I fear you will find that useless," a voice said from his side, making him turn his head. To his right, a man in an outfit screaming "noble" sat. He was smoking something pleasant-smelling and had a vibrant red colored drink in front of him. At this point, Maxwell just observed the man as a habit.

Brawler - Level 21

Maxwell's eyebrow almost twitched seeing the man's starting class. The impression the man gave was so different that Maxwell thought that he was hallucinating for a second. You never know, he thought to himself.

"Do you have a suggestion? I'm not from around here," he said.

"I somehow figured. You look practically alien," the man said, making Maxwell chuckle. He was an actual alien, considering that he literally fell to the planet in a pod. "A suggestion, huh? Maybe try something local if you are new around here, I would suggest stuffed tega with rabbit meat." the man continued, smiling charmingly.

Maxwell had no idea what a tega was, but at least the rabbit part was familiar. He glanced at the cook to give his order, and found that the woman was already looking at him. She was apparently listening in on their conversation. Surprisingly, the chaotic cooking process going on around her was strangely muffled, making little noise. It was probably an effect of a skill.

"I will take, stuffed tega with rabbit meat," he said, repeating the man's phrase, and the woman gave a faint nod. Maxwell could see an extra movement as his food started to prepare itself. Tega, he guessed, was a kind of leaf, as he could see a leaf was slowly spreading itself on a kitchen counter: Maxwell watched as a knife flew from one of the racks and sliced the giant leaf into many small parts.

After that, movement stopped, as the woman was probably waiting for something to cook. Maxwell turned his attention to the man, finding him sipping his weird-looking drink. "Are these kinds of places common?" he asked, and he could immediately understand that he had said something weird as the man's expression turned strange.

He carefully swallowed his drink and let out a sincere laugh. "Common? No, absolutely not. This is "The Nest," famous for its exclusivity and luxury," the man said. He took another sip from his drink, closing his eyes to enjoy the flavor. "From what you said, I guess you found the place by accident? You have great luck, friend," he said, opening his eyes slowly.

"Not everyone could enjoy Nesha's skills before the initiation. Now, even the poorest people can come here if they have a high enough level," The man said, not sounding particularly unhappy about the situation.

So the nobility has already started breaking apart, Maxwell thought. It seemed that the initiation's effects would be much stronger than Gendor expected. He thought about himself. In this world, he had no previous strength to speak of, but right now, he doubted that he would lose to anyone in the city if they tried to harm him.

He smiled at the chef before sending a mental message to her instead of speaking out loud. "I have no idea about the drinks. Can you give me something that will go well with the food? Also, something for my pets wouldn't hurt," He realized what he had done after doing it. I'm falling back to old habits, huh… he thought.

The stoic woman's eyes searched the room for a second, not understanding who sent the message, and her eyes found him. She gave a hesitant nod, her mask of indifference breaking up a bit. Her eyes stopped on Felix for a second. No matter the universe, cute dogs were still cute.

"You don't sound unhappy," he said to the man. Usually, people in his shoes would be panicking right now. He watched as a drink slowly landed in front of him. It looked like the woman served him newly harvested blood, but it smelled pleasant.

"I was born into a wealthy and strong lineage, but the world is in for a surprise if it thinks I wouldn't take the power myself, if I wasn't born into it." the man said, his eyes shining with a fierce light, and in this moment, it didn't seem too strange that the man was a brawler.

Maxwell certainly appreciated the mentality. This mentality would soon determine who would keep the power and who would lose it.

"Cheers to that," he said, taking a sip from his drink. His eyes immediately went wide as flavor exploded in his mouth. It was truly a supernatural experience. It was as if the tastes were boosted without harming the drink's balance even slightly. So even cooks are supernatural with the system, he thought, though it was already quite apparent that they would be, considering that the woman didn't even touch the things she cooked.

Maxwell felt that he could probably replicate the woman's way of telekinesis. It felt like she could use mental energy in a more physical way than Maxwell used. Instead of transmitting thoughts, she used it to will things to move. Maxwell doubted that it would be very useful in battle, though, as it was hardly an efficient method, but luckily for the woman, the ingredients didn't fight back.

His thoughts were interrupted by the man's voice. "If you get like this with a sip, you are in for a treat," he said, making Maxwell realize that, from the perspective of others, he was staring at emptiness, as others couldn't see mental energy like he did.

"Well, one can hope," he said good-humoredly. It's been some time since he could chat aimlessly with someone else like this. Most of the people back in Zephyr either feared or respected him too much to speak like this with him.

He glanced at the other people in the room as he waited for his food. To his senses, classes like warriors were not that bright, as they didn't have much free mana inside their bodies. Most of the mana those classes had was in an infused state for their stats.

There were nine people in the room apart from them, and Maxwell could see that 3 of them shone with free mana, indicating they had high spirituality. Still, if he could be honest, the amount of mana they had was pitiful. It was hard to tell like this, but he was pretty sure that he had more than all of them combined.

He also noted that some of them had companions like he did. One of them even had a wolf standing beside him. That explained why people were not weirded by his looks.

Soon, though, his attention was once again on the table. Three plates floated towards them and landed silently on the table. One of them had something like rice in it, but it shone with a blue luster. It was probably for Blueberry. The other plate housed a piece of meat, oozing with a brown sauce.

He placed Felix on the counter and watched in amusement as Blueberry flew to her food. Even the bird seemed excited. Finally, he checked his food. On his plate, there were neatly stuffed leaf rolls. It looked unassuming, and Maxwell took one before biting it.

It was the greatest thing he ever tasted.