The moment he entered the "Dreamy Sheep" Nico was struck with a smell that he would never forget.
"Mmm…Bulldeer…" He muttered.
Since the first time he had tried Bulldeer it immediately became his favorite food. Even the smell of it alone was enough to make Nico go into 'food heaven'.
Nico's ascension to food heaven was then interrupted by the god of that heaven, Gertrude.
"Oh you're back! Have a seat, the food is almost ready, okay." She said,
Nico quickly took a seat and waited impatiently, swinging his legs under the table like a child waiting for his food to be done. Eventually, Gertrude came out with three plates. She sat down two of them in front of Nico while sitting the last plate in front of her.
"Would you mind if I eat with you today? We aren't that busy as you can see…" She said, seemingly down.
The only thing Gertrude loved doing more than cooking was seeing people enjoy her cooking, so when dinner time rolls around and there are not many people she gets a little down.
Of course, Nico nodded, telling her to please have a seat. Even though Nico had only known Gertrude for a few days now she already felt like his grandmother, plus it was her Inn anyway it wasn't like he had the right to reject her presence in her own establishment.
Sitting down, Gertrude and Nico began to speak about trivial things and that eventually led to them talking about adventuring.
"Speaking of adventurers, I'm going to the city of Onavine in the south tomorrow to see my husband and to check up on one of my Inn's over there. So, I sent out a commission for some adventurers to escort me." Said Gertrude.
"Oh, you are married and have another Inn?" Nico responded. To him, Gertrude didn't really seem like much of the business type.
"Hm? I'm pretty old so of course I have a husband and I also used to be a great merchant but when I married my husband I decided to settle down and let him handle it. The "Dreamy Sheep" is actually my secondary inn, my main Inn is the one in Onavine." She explained.
"I never really took you as a business granny."
"Haha, I used to be one, but not anymore. A stressful life like the one I used to have would just tire me out nowadays."
Finishing up his chat with Gertrude and finishing his food, which caused him to have another foodgasm, Nico headed back to the adventures guild to take part in Gertrude's escort mission. He didn't think it was such a bad thing to go out and experience more of this world.
After getting everything settled with and ready to go for tomorrow's escort, Nico headed back up to his room in the "Dreamy Sheep" and laid down on his bed and checked his stats.
'Status'
[Name: Nico Brager
Sex: Male
Level: 3
Strength:54 Health:55 Agility:53 Magic:52
Class:N/A
Passive Skills:{Divine Concealment.lvl:N/A}, {Spearmanship.lvl:MAX}
Active Skills: {Fire Origin.lvl:1}]
"Damn…Im the strongest level 3 I have ever seen, I'm even stronger now than I was back when I was level 3 in the Obelisk…Haa…Knowledge really is the key to success." He said aloud.
Back in the Obelisk when Nico was level 3 the game was still brand new and popular, meaning that there were many ways to get stronger being found each day. But, it took Nico till about the 25 floor until he realized the path to get [The Eye of Providence] and in turn he also figured out how to get the [Tree essence]. Having it at level 3 like he does now opened up many doors for him.
Shutting down his thoughts, Nico decided to go to bed so as to not be tired for the escort commission tomorrow.
The next morning Nico went down for breakfast when he realized that Gertrude had already left for the meeting location, so he quickly ran back to his room and prepared for the day.
After getting himself ready in just a few seconds, Nico headed to the location where the people escorting Gertrude were supposed to meet.
"This should be the road…umm…Yep there she is." He said, as he turned down the road after making sure he was in the right location.
Gertrude soon appeared before his eyes standing next to a carriage, Nico also noticed that she was speaking to someone. This 'someone' was wearing light armor which only covered their appendages and vital spots of their body. They also wore a mask covering their face, but what it didn't cover was the person's beautiful golden locks which draped down to the middle of their back, giving away that 'Someone' was a girl.
While Nico was analyzing the masked woman in front of him Gertrude noticed him approaching and called out.
"Nico, you didn't tell me that you were coming as well." She said,
Gertrudes words let the masked girl know that Nico was there and she looked towards him, Nico could feel the womans scrutinizing but non-hostile gaze.
"Yeah, when you told me about it last night I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to broaden my horizons so I decided to join." He replied, tearing his gaze away from the masked woman.
"Sounds good to me, we are only waiting on the last three now. I need to go make sure everything is prepared for departure so I will be right back." When she finished speaking Gertrude proceeded to walk inside of the carriage, leaving Nico and the Masked Woman alone.
Nico then took the initiative to introduce himself to the woman.
"Hey, I'm Nico, it seems we are going to be working together for a little while." He said, while extending his hand for a handshake.
"It seems we will, my name's Ella, I look forward to our short time together." She said in a silky voice that could calm even the most out of control men, while accepting Nicos handshake.
When Ella shook Nico's hand they both noticed the calluses on each other's hands, raising their respect for one another up a level.
As their hands departed they noticed another group of three heading their way. Two women with brown hair and one man with blonde hair. It was obvious to both Ella and Nico that the three's relationship wasn't that simple because the two women had their arms linked through the man's arms.
"It seems we have some love birds joining us." Ella jokes.
"Haha…Yeah and a three piece at that." Replied Nico.
By the time the two of them were finished joking, the trio was in front of them and the man began introducing themselves.
"Hello, my name is Leon. 'My' two beautiful women beside me are named Riley and Trish. It's a pleasure to meet you." When the man named Leon spoke, he put an emphasis on the word 'My' while looking at Nico. Sadly the poor man didn't realize the two girl's beside him were already engrossed with Nico's features.
Nico had black hair with a tint of red in it and green eyes which didn't match but that look of disharmony just added to his attraction. This added with his tall lean body which had just the perfect amount of muscle for it not to seem like too much or too little, made Nico have the looks to charm many women.
'He looks…perfect…' Thought both Riley and Trish.
Leon finished his introduction, making it Nico turn to introduce himself.
"My name's Nico, it's nice to meet you." He said as he first held his hand out to Leon, who was obviously the leader of their little group.
Leon responded with a wide smile but when he went to shake Nico's hand he grabbed it with all of his force. Of course, Nico didn't even flinch at the pressure coming onto his hand, he might have been level 3 but his stats were close to a level 50s. Nico only responded by putting enough strength into his grip to let Leon know that he wasn't hurting him.
Realizing that he wasn't hurting him, Leon released Nico's hand and turned to Ella with glowing eyes.
'She may be wearing a mask but there is no way for someone with a body 'that' nice to be ugly!' He thought, holding out his hand to her.
But unlike the time Nico introduced himself, she refused to shake Leon's hand, hell, she didn't even say anything to him and only gave him a nod of acknowledgement.
Noticing that he wasn't getting his way, Leon decided to move on from the introductions with a twitching brow.
"So, do you two know when we are leaving?" He said.
Just as he said that, Gertrude exited the carriage and spoke.
"Alright everything is all set to go, let us be on our way."