At the restaurant of the tavern, in which Conan was waiting; Delivering sumptuous foods around that even he felt tempted.
As he served in the restaurant, he came across a few odd people.
A group of odd ladies from the pub section swarmed to the restaurant to view his appearance up close, aiming strange devices at him.
At first, he thought it was something dangerous, so, he was about to 'fight' in his defense, but calmed when he realized that it was completely harmless to him.
But the ladies seemed happy with what they were doing. They shrieked in glee and cheered, filling their bellies with booze and delicious food.
What was even more strange about the group was that they had divinities in them. That is to say, they are disciples of a God or Goddess.
Their strength can even be comparable to that of immortals, which he wasn't sure of unless he fought them. He just trod carefully in the meantime and discreetly warned his babies to do the same.
What was more strange was that these ladies were all in provocative and revealing outfits, showcasing their voluptuous assets for the perverted minds to feast on.
He'll need to make research of his own if he wanted to know more than he already did. His curiosity just won't let him rest.
Then some men came over to bully him, partly for his tempting appearance, which attracted women. Most were ordinary mortals, yet they looked at him with hostility.
He didn't bother himself with mortals as his stare alone was alone to shut the foul mouths shut. Sometimes even a casual slap rendered some unconscious.
He didn't feel bad slapping the mortals unconscious, but the lady behind the counter complained that he would be sending the customers away if he continued to do so.
So he switched to ignoring them since they were just mortals anyway, and he wasn't in the mood to quicken a mortal's death.
Then there was a group of stoics— men and few women— with intimidating appearances—At least that's how they seem from a mortal's perspective.
They didn't particularly look at him, some did, but most attention was fixed on his babies. Needless to say, women would have latched onto Liam and Loki, with the assumption of them being nobles, and would have started asking questions like: "What's your address?"
The ladies asked him the same as they temptingly dragged him over and it would suffice to add that the ladies were quite strong, but not enough to make him succumb to the pressure.
He excused himself 'politely', shoving them away in utter frustration, and even cursed the gods for making things so hard and humiliating.
But the presence of Tianah seemed to repel such women from Liam and Loki as they all ate at the same table quietly, but quite voraciously, especially Liam.
Conan sighed in exasperation and went back to the counter to issue more orders for the customers.
He bragged about knowing almost everything about the humans to his babies before they arrived in the human kingdom. But that changed after they arrived when he realized that he knew practically nothing.
He reached the earnest lady behind the counter with different foods encased in showy glasses on display. There, he placed the order, which was written in a note by one of the tempting ladies.
"Five plates of Yurian Noodle Soup..."Conan relayed the order to the lady, who smiled on seeing him.
"You're quite diligent, even though you appear to be noble."The woman said as she skillfully filled the bowl "And that same appearance fetched us more customers than normal tonight."
"I better get good pay for this."Conan rolled his reflective obsidian eyes of his as he muttered. He received the bowls and placed them in the tray to deliver them to their orderers.
The woman patted his smooth cheek like a mother and said with a mild smile "Of course..."
He continued his work with newfound diligence soon after, the only thing running through his mind were his babies, not bothered by the stares at him, he planned calculatingly on how his adventure will go.
For he had no more purpose in life than to take care of his babies, looking for his wife was just a side quest, because he had so much time to do that and he wasn't desperate because he was sure to find her.
....Midnight came, and the restaurant, actually the whole tavern got deserted as people went to have a good night's rest at their respective homes.
Time passed slower for Conan as he spent it working in boredom but he got paid. But he wasn't that happy about it as he didn't even know the value of the thousand Gold Mornts he had been given.
And yet, the woman said, he got paid more than a normal waiter...
Under the guidance of Tianah, they went to the counter situated beside the stairs and she helped them book an apartment with two rooms on the upper floors of the tavern.
"I'm about to leave now, I'm already late..."Tianah said, facing Conan with a smile "You are welcome to visit Athan's Temple anytime you want, and yeah if you want to take the mercenary course, you should go to Valouria city."
Conan gratefully smiled and hugged the follower of Athan, who was a bit shorter in height than him, and said "Thank you for everything."
She got startled and parted from him then nodded awkwardly. She brought out a rectangular object from her pocket, with intricate arrays of spirit codes inscribed on it.
"A scripture token?"Conan frowned and tilted his head on seeing the blue card. The only one he knew had such things, was Onmyonir, The Scribe God. The scriber of Scriptures.
"Oh? This is a teleportation script. I have connections with the disciples of Onmyonir, god of Scribes, and other amazing people."She smugly said, flaunting the scripture token in her hand.
Scripture tokens had diverse functions based on their different array of inscriptions and law inscriptions. The scripture token in her hand was made with laws of space scribed on it, to make it capable of teleporting the used.
Tianah held up the token in her hand and channeled her spiritual energy into it, activating the codes and triggering the programs to function.
The token glared bright blue, its light cascading on Tianah, tracing her outline as she started to vanish. Her appearance glitched at the last second before finally disappearing to wherever she was going.
Conan looked at the floor, at the very same place she was before using the Token. He saw the residues of her —tiny spiritual energy bits left behind after she used the card—and he inevitably remembered Phiona.
A melancholic feeling arose in him but he quickly suppressed it by breathing deeply. He focused on the feeling of how powerful the spiritual energy that came from Tianah was instead.
It was denser and more powerful than a normal cultivator's, and even though she could be considered weak by the 'disciples of gods' standards, by 'cultivator's' standards she could be considered to be in the sixth stage of spirit cultivation— Profound Astral stage— out of ten stages
Conan collected the keys to the apartment they rented for the night and went up the stairs, heading for the sixth floor, looking for an apartment numbered '12'.
They reached the apartment and Conan inserted the key in its right place after a while of fumbling. They all entered the room and Conan barricaded the door with a sturdy sheet of ice.
The light stones of the chandelier of the room glowed as soon as they sensed traces of life coming into the room, showering them with a brilliance of fluorescent white light.
"Kitty, set up a soundproof barrier around this apartment."Conan instructed with a sage expression and continued "We have serious matters to discuss."
Kitty complied, her face also serious as she placed her palm on the floor of the room. Ripples of pure spiritual energy overflowed from her hand to the walls of the room in a flowing motion. Spiritual codes briefly flashed as the ripples flowed to every part of their apartment, blocking sound from escaping the room.
"Done..."Kitty said, dusting her hands even though there was no dirt "...Takes time in this mortal form though, I could have done that with a snap."
They were all seated in the sitting room of the apartment and waited for Conan to say what was on his mind.
"I want to tell you guys, never involve yourselves with mortal affairs, especially when it has to do with gods. If the gods should know that we are here, then they'll come for you. I don't know if I can protect you all alone if they do."Conan's anxious voice resounded throughout the room, the brief warning was enough for them to know what he was trying to say.
"What do you mean?"Liam asked, only he was confused as to what was going on, but then again, he was never good with keeping such things tangible in his memories.
"Liam, there are no more cultivators. Cultivation is long forgotten. Cultivation technique manuals are lost, and people aren't born with spiritual energies anymore. They use the spiritual energy of gods instead and sometimes a fraction of their divinities."Conan explained, his frustration vividly evident in his expression.
"...So mortals are weaker now?"Liam asked.
"No!"Conan refuted in exasperation "...It means there might be mortals as powerful as immortals now, in other words, pseudo-immortals."
It was a mystery and Conan knew there was more to it than cultivation being lost or cultivators not being born anymore.
"You need to be careful where you go or where you cause trouble. They can be everywhere seeing through their disciples. If they know of your existence..."
Conan trailed off as he stared off at the chandelier, the fluorescent light taking its place in his mirror-like eyes as he thought of the possibilities of what could happen.
The time he used in collecting babies was not just by collecting them but by saving the reborn babies who were once immortals and some even gods from being killed again.
...Each one of them has their own stories and lives before this. He knew but he didn't investigate further than he already knew.
The adventure to the human realm was starting to get a little troublesome, and for the first time in thousands of years, he desperately felt like seeing Phiona's teasing face to ease his mind.
Out of the blue, he felt a hand hold his, which made him flinch a bit. He looked to see the owner of the hand and saw Loki gesturing to him [We'll be careful, promise.]
He looked at the others and saw them nod following Loki, strangely, the one who had difficulty speaking spoke up for them.
"That Tianah is strong but not physically, her spirit is dense but she could only heal with it..."Liam said, his expression ruminative "...there will be space for her in my harem in the future."
Zoe looked at him in disgust before averting her gaze from him but Conan didn't look like he cared but felt the need to warn him "Never underestimate anyone. Someone who heals can give you a cause to be healed."
He would never forget the times that he spent with harmless-looking individuals, who turned out to be a hazard to him in the past.
Underestimating such, innocent-looking people is like setting yourself in a trap that's already set... For you.
"Okay so here are the rules you are to strictly follow..."And thus, Conan continued to lay down rules for the babies to follow so as not to attract the attention of the Gods.
He didn't restrict them in any way and he even told them that they can do anything they want, but didn't tell them that he had an exploration to go on...
It turned out that the babies also had plans, and it was going to be a long night...