The room was spacious, having all the normal furniture like a chair, a couch, and even a table big enough to eat on. The bed was also big enough for four people to sleep on. Despite all this, there was more than enough space in the middle to lay a carpet for meditation. They even provided the blue meditative incense sticks for free, so everything was off to a great start.
In the end, he just went to take a quick shower before going to bed and to his surprise, the water turned on by itself. As it turns out, they had an irrigation system, which was something he had only seen back home. Though, this would be the third place he's ever been to, so his experience was limited to say the least.
Once he rested and morning came with the cawing of birds, he woke up in a tizzy. He was finally in the middle layer, so he would finally experience new things. Like these fish people who live on land; he was fascinated by them. Thereafter, he took another shower to freshen up—they had nice smelling soap, so that's more than enough to do it again.
When he exited his room and entered the hallway, Fluffy exited at the same time. He rubbed her head as he asked, "so, did you sleep well," to which she replied with an affirmative meor. Whatever that's supposed to sound like. He nodded happily as they both then made their way downstairs.
Once they reached the bar on the first floor, they realized they were the only ones from their group. Instead, some loners from different races were quietly consuming their breakfast in their respective seats. When they came down the steps, some eyed them for a second before resuming their previous activity.
"Wow, there are so many different kinds of people here." Ran was fascinated by the congregation of so many kinds of people, and it would only become more apparent as he continued on.
He was about to find his own spot when he spotted something. There, in an inconspicuous corner, a black‐robed person was sitting quietly. So, they weren't the first ones to come then.
"Don't tell me you didn't even go to sleep yesterday, Bob. Listen man, do you need some help; I'm sure Fluffy can help you out if you ask." He gave Bob a thumbs up in assurance before sitting on a large couch nearby and propping Fluffy onto his lap as best he could. Bob nodded quietly, but he probably wasn't going to take him up on that offer. He was too used to remaining alert at all times, which meant he could only achieve a light resting mode.
A dozen or so minutes later, Queenie and the guards appeared and joined them. In the end, Ann was the last one to show up—as expected. She wasn't even embarrassed when everyone looked at her; she didn't needed to be though, it wasn't like they planned a time to meet up or anything like that. It was all a coincidence that they all woke at similar times.
Once they all joined up, Ran called over the bartender, the father, who was also the establishments owner, for some food. He went into the back rooms and as it turns out, they had a kitchen set up there. Soon, a giantess of a girl walked out with a bunch of plates balancing on both her thick arms and all of her sturdy fingers. This was the daughter of the bartender.
She served them all the full plates of food and even brought them all an entire bottle of some kind of alcohol.
"Sweet! what is it, what is it…" Ran was excited. What kind of food would they serve him, he couldn't wait.
When he finally got a look, he was almost freaking out.
"Toad?"
Seeing him make such a grave mistake, the girl almost lost balance of all the food.
"It's a frog! Frog!"
"Oh… right, right." Thus, Ran was sorry. Here he was talking about eating a toad in front of someone who had a toad for a pet—companion.
"Right, miss…"
"Just call me Shirley."
"Shirley, did you find Peppy yet?" Though he did wear his hood as usual, his tone did indeed sound similar to how it would sound if one was concerned. Maybe it was to fix his earlier mistake? It wasn't that big of a mistake anyways, people mistake the two all the time.
Hearing the question, she could only smile bitterly.
"We haven't gone yet; we're planning on closing the bar early tonight so we can go look. But… I'm afraid it'll be too late by then." She was sad, afraid that Peppy the toad would be lost forever.
"Then, why don't I help; I don't have anything to do anyway." He then looked to the other three, and they all nodded. They were in no rush. Sure, they were here to become stronger, much like everyone else, but they were also here to experience this new world. Plus, you can't get stronger just by staying cooped up or by merely traveling.
He looked towards Queenie and she nodded as well. She looked towards the guards saying, "you guys are freed from your duty and can return. Tell Aaron thanks for taking care of me during this time. My father will surely do as he promised."
"And because of what happened, we got here early. My new escort isn't supposed to arrive for another couple of days." She nodded again and again—there was nothing wrong with going.
"See? Now you have five people helping you; we'll find Peppy in no time!" Ran was enthusiastic as he almost broke his neck to meet Shirley's eyes.
"Guys…" she almost cried on the spot. It wasn't because of their sincerity to help, but rather because of the sudden increase in the chance of her finding Peppy.
So, they enjoyed their food and prepared to depart.
…
"Papa, what do you mean I can't go out with strangers? They're trying to help!"
Shirley looked at her father furiously, she didn't understand what there was to be so worried about. Well, I guess they can lead her out to the middle of nowhere and harvest her core for profit or consumption, but that wouldn't happen… right?
"No means no! Don't you understand how dangerous it is out there!?"
"But it's still inside the town!"
"Sigh… fine." Hearing him agree, Shirley jumped up and down, shaking the entire bar considerably.
"But… I need to test him first." He eyed this white-clothed hooded youth intently, commanding him with his finger to come forth. Ran then went up to him on the counter.
"Sir—"
"I don't want to hear it, just summon your soul."
Ran was confused as to what the father wanted to do, but he complied. He put his hand on the counter and a swirly ball of whitish-pink and blue soul juice flowed from it.
"Hmm…" the father was intrigued by the condition Rans soul was in but he didn't mind it; it was actually somewhat similar to what he had seen plenty of times before.
After all, due to their sexual symbiosis, their bodies fuse and their souls commingle or mix. Thus, this ability to coexist with other juice rather than fighting against each other when they meet was inherent to Anglerfish.
The father then placed his own tiny hand out, a string of dark blue soul juice flowing out from it. The string of juice then quickly penetrated the ball and mingled with Rans juice. Immediately, Ran felt an invasive presence and he became dazed, but it immediately left the next second.
Ran, no longer dazed, looked at the father questionly, this simply too quick a test isn't it? But the father wasn't having any of it. He was sweating profusely with a pale face and an urge to puke welled up in his throat. His eyes were extremely dilated as he looked at Ran in sheer horror.
"You, what are you," he exclaimed. He yelled so loudly it caught the attention of those around them. He even pointed at Ran subconsciously.
"No… no! I won't allow my daughter to be around someone the likes of you." His attitude did a complete one-eighty as he vehemently refused to allow the group to go.
"But papa—"
"No buts! He… is not normal; you're just going to endanger yourself by being near him."
Shirley, on the other hand, was almost offended on Rans behalf. The fuck was all this nonsense about abnormality? Even if it was true, so what? What does that have anything do with the current situation? Those were her thoughts.
"So what!? Papa, even if he is what you say he is, is he not with four others? Are you saying that the rest are all dangers as well? Should we immediately execute everyone on the basis that you got a weird feeling from one of them!?"
She continued trying her darndest to make her father look as unreasonable as possible for the next few minutes, to everyone's surprise, almost to the point of making his head shrink into his neck. Funniest part was that she didn't even know why she was defending him. Well, in reality, it was just because it would be easier to find Peppy with helpers, so it was natural to help them out.
And the father was dumbstruck; since when has she ever spoken to him like this? In the end, he could only concede under the entire bar's mocking gaze; they didnt what was going on, but they enjoyed the show nonetheless.
"Alright, alright! Fine. You fellas can go with my daughter to help her, but heed my warning; you try something you shouldn't…" and he made a neck slitting gesture with his tiny thumb gliding across his neck.
"Now… get out of my sight."
And so, he watched quietly as everyone left, including his own daughter. He sighed helplessly; he knew he wouldn't be able to stop her in the end, but he sure as hell tried his hardest.
She just… didn't understand. That man was something unlike anything he had ever seen before. He started hyperventilating and almost barfed just thinking about it again.
…
The entire way there, Ran was silent. Sure, it hurt to be portrayed the way the father did, but it didn't keep him quiet. It was the fact that the father wasn't wrong that stopped Ran from speaking. At least, he wasn't entirely right, but he indeed was not normal.
Once they reached the farm house, they searched for the hole Shirley was speaking about. The farmhouse, while only three hundred square meters (over three thousand square feet) in area, had multiple floors in which multiple animals were raised to feed the masses.
In fact, the inside, thanks to runes, was like its own little ecosystem where the animals can grow in their natural habitat. Like the frogs; they had their own floor, 'cause it was popular, and the whole thing was basically a swamp where they had no natural predators to worry about. But that wasn't important.
When they went to the back of the factory-like building, they saw a small crowd of even smaller male anglerfish workers. They surrounded what was basically a cave entrance that was twenty feet (six meters) in diameter.
When they heard noise and turned around, they were stunned.
"Madam Shirley, is today not your day off? Shouldn't you be with your father at the inn?" They all collectively looked at her with concern as well as reverence. After all, with the difference in birth rate between the two sexs, the women were basically put on a pedestal.
The group looked at the crowd and almost laughed at how embarrassed Shirley became, but Bob could only sigh. He was all too familiar with this sight.
"I don't care! Please get out of the way."
And before anyone could respond, her stupendous figure shoved itself through the crowd and directly entered the pitch‐black hole.
So, just like that, the rest of the group looked at each other before swiftly following after her.