Lloyd found himself staring at the ceiling while he was lying down on a bed. He was currently staying at a nice hotel somewhere in the inner district of Arcadia. He was living comfortably these past few days.
He didn't have to be in danger nor fight abominations. He would just spend his day strolling around in the busy streets of the inner district, window shopping at blacksmith shops for new weapons and materials to add to his knowledge so he could craft a wide range of tools and equipment, or he would just go to fancy restaurants to taste every food and desserts he hadn't tasted all his life.
Lloyd was also rich enough to be able to finally live a luxurious life. The large number of soul orbs he had amassed from killing many hellspawns had earn him a large amount of wealth. He could almost buy anything in this place, except for rare and exclusive equipment.
It was pure bliss for him. This was the kind of life that he wanted. He achieved it with his own efforts, although his companions also played a part in his success. However, he knew that this peaceful moment won't last for too long. Lloyd didn't want to be trapped in an illusory world.
He raised one of his hands and looked at the back of his palm as he reminisced about the things that had happened just three days ago.
That moment with Luna at the entrance of the inner district was still fresh in his mind. She suddenly said an outrageous thing that made him so flustered and Lloyd's heart started to beat erratically.
"What did she mean by that? Damn it! I shouldn't have hurriedly run away from her and asked her instead."
Lloyd cursed out at his own stupidity. His mind short-circuited just from the ambiguous words Luna had thrown at him. On the eyes of the people who were watching them, it seemed to them that he had rejected her harshly and even left her on the streets. Poor girl.
"I should go and look for her later."
He forced himself to stand up from the bed, feeling a little hesitant from leaving his comfortable nest. He had bought ingredients yesterday so that he could cook for himself once again. He didn't need to hurry in looking for Luna and the others anyway, so he started cooking rice first with his newly bought rice cooker.
There was electricity in Arcadia which was powered by a large generator. He heard rumors about this handy generator that it was actually powered by seven potent soul orbs from a powerful hellspawn. Some said that the soul orbs came from a primordial hellspawn. Still, rumors were just rumors until proven. No one could go check it anyway since they were afraid that they might break it.
There was a reason why the inner district was safe from both the defiled and the other hellspawns. The generator's other purpose aside from producing electricity, was to produce a force field that was sufficient enough to keep them away from the inner district. If they break the generator, then hell would break loose in the whole Arcadia City.
After almost an hour of waiting, he took a batch of eggs out from the egg tray which he put inside the refrigerator. He broke them one by one and battered it. Lloyd then poured the battered eggs in a cooking pan and added the rice on top of it and then he wrapped the rice with the egg. He wanted to eat an omelet for a long time now.
After he was done, he took out a small pack of tea and brewed a cup of it. He then had his breakfast which made him smiled as he greedily devoured his meal.
"That was delicious. I should try to widen my culinary skills some time."
He took a sip of the tea he brewed as he looked down on the busy streets outside through the window of his room which was located on the third floor of the hotel. His face contorted in disgust as it tasted bitter and strange. He couldn't get used to the weird tastes of these rich families no matter what. He preferred something sweet but not too much like coffee added with sugar.
"Alright! Time to start the day by gathering information."
He grinningly said as he cleaned the mess on the table and went out of the room. Upon exiting his room, he encountered a familiar face.
"Whoa, Lloyd. You're here too? I haven't seen you since three days ago."
It was Ray who had also came out of the room opposite to his. Lloyd frowned upon seeing him. Just a few days ago, he was filled with dirt which had dampened his appearance so Lloyd didn't think much about how dangerous his appearance would be if he would tidy himself up. Right now, he exuded a strong charisma and handsomeness which was slightly irritating in Lloyd's eyes.
Although Lloyd was now good looking after his body was reconstructed by the second awakening, he really couldn't compare to this chick magnet.
"Damn punk. You hurriedly sprinted off the moment we stepped inside the city."
Ray let out a lighthearted laugh as he slapped Lloyd's back repeatedly.
"Sorry about that. You and the princess were having a sweet moment so we couldn't possibly interrupt and ruin the mood, could we?"
"What sweet moment? We were just having a casual talk!" Lloyd retorted.
"Oh, did you? Anyway, I was planning on going to the casino today and play. Wanna come with me?"
"Well…"
He thought about it for a moment. The casino was filled with people and he could easily gather information there just by listening. They still didn't know that much about this place, such as how the society was being run and who was in charge of everyone in here. However, he knew nothing about the etiquettes and rules to follow inside the casino so he was a little hesitant.
Upon seeing Lloyd having a hard time in deciding, Ray jolted him out of his dilemma.
"Don't think too much. I'll be there to help you out." He winked at him followed by a grin.
"Fine. I'll go with you."
They proceeded to the elevator and went down to the first floor. Lloyd noticed that his partner, Stanley, wasn't with him today. It was rare for him to not see them together. They were so close that people would sometimes mistake them as siblings, so he wondered where Stanley was.
"Hey. Where is Stanley?"
Ray scratched his head as he avoided looking at him out of shame.
"Uh, actually… That guy got annoyed at me yesterday and went off to mind his own business. He should probably be in the Charles' weaponsmith right now. While we were resting on the Vyris Deadlands, he said that he needed a new weapon enough to destroy higher-ranked monsters."
Lloyd had the urge to laugh at him but prevented it. He also thought that if he had to endure listening to the constant dramatic complains of Ray, he would explode from anger sooner or later too. Despite that, he saw Ray as a good person.
"By the way Lloyd…" Ray spoke once again.
"What?" He raised his eyebrows in response.
"Do you think that Shane had survived there? I know you hate the guy, but…"
He paused to think carefully about the right words to say since he knew Lloyd and Shane became enemies ever since they had that tense confrontation back at the ritual room of the crypt.
"I just can't help but think that it was a shame we lost one capable ally."
Lloyd sighed. He couldn't blame Ray for being worried at their former comrade. He, too, didn't want it to reach that point. However, that bastard Shane forced him into a corner.
"I know. Maybe he's still alive out there somewhere. He is strong. But he is still a dick!" His expression turned sour as he spewed out curses at the guy who was not with them anymore.
"Haha! I guess you're right. Anyway, there's the casino. Prepare some soul orbs to be exchanged for chips since you'll have to play too."
They have arrived at a building situated in the far end of the streets in the market district. It looked quite fancy, with all the elegant decorations hanging on the entrance and a signboard that is made of neon light tubes could be found on top of the magnificent door, saying 'Crystal Oasis'.
After being checked by the guards for safety purposes, they were let in through the door and found many people inside. Lloyd scanned through the area and observed the behavior of the crowd. With his experience in observing people throughout his whole life, he could discern who was an average person or a scion from great families.
He never would have thought that he would see those annoying social barriers crumbling in this world. The people here were all from mixed backgrounds: from poor to an average commoner with a normal life, and to a scion from great families. Nevertheless, they were mingling with each other despite their culture and status differences.
However, not all of them were from Asteria. He had noticed since the day they arrived in the city that almost everyone in this city was not from Asteria. He couldn't find the same group of aspirants who had undergone the trials together with them. As what they have thought, those people probably died after getting pursued by the gravebound ghoul before it arrived in the cave where they had been staying. Or they had encountered another adversary that reaped off their lives.
"Would you like to exchange your soul orbs for some coins, sir?"
A beautiful woman in her twenties and wearing a professional attire asked them as they approached the counter just near the entrance.
"Uh… I don't know anything about gambling. Could you explain it to me?"
Lloyd nervously asked and scratched his head.
"Sure!" The woman happily said. "You can exchange one grunt soul orbs for 100 coins. If you have a champion soul orb, then you'll get 1000 coins. You can get more if you have an even higher-ranked soul orbs. Each type of game would cost an average of 10 coins per game. You can also exchange your coins for different types of prizes, or you can just exchange them back into soul orbs."
"I see. And what kind of prizes do you have in here?"
"We do have a wide range of prizes, from weapons to armors to tools. We even have rare materials if you are a craftsman."
His eyes lit up upon hearing her explanation. Materials! Those are what he needed to study the most. Nevermind the equipment since he could probably craft a better one than what they have, however materials are different. He could craft a wide variety of equipment just by knowing the materials since he could generate it endlessly as long as he had mana.
"Just to be sure, can I directly exchange my soul orbs into materials after purchasing your coins?"
The attendant looked dumbfounded. With an apologetic expression, she bowed and apologized to Lloyd.
"I'm sorry, dear customers. But we're not allowed to do such a thing. The coins are infused with mana so we have ways of detecting if the coins have been used in a game or not. You can only exchange the coins won in the game for prizes."
"I see." He frowned and went into thinking for a bit.
Ray already took out a few grunt soul orbs and two champion ones, and exchanged it with coins. Lloyd didn't want to delay it any further so he also took out an elite soul orb from his pockets. He still didn't have any spatial tool so he could only carry a few soul orbs with him while the rest of his loots were kept by Klaudia.
The eyes of the attendant went wide in shock as she saw Lloyd taking out an elite soul orb.
"T-that's an elite soul orb, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Wait a moment… I'll have to ask permission from the manager to withdraw more coins."
She hurriedly used a device that somehow looked like a telephone to call the manager. It seemed that it was another mana-powered device. Lloyd would like to have one, however, he disregarded the thought since it would be a hassle to keep something that wasn't really in the possession of everyone. He also thought that it could only cover a short distance which would be totally useless when separated by miles.
After a few minutes of talking with her manager, the attendant withdrew 10000 coins from the safe and gave it to Lloyd.
"Thank you for your patience. Here are the coins. Enjoy your day here, sir!" She happily said and bowed to them.
After walking around for a while and observing the different games played in the casino such as poker, blackjack, roulette, slot machine, and many more, both of them had decided to go with blackjack since it was the easier to play.
As they sat at the table where two people were playing blackjack, Lloyd could hear someone calling at him.
"Hey there, handsome. Wanna play?" Another beautiful woman with a seductive smile approached him.