Beautiful, would that be the right word?
No, maybe even the word 'beautiful' could not describe the perfect face Klaus had before him.
She was a beautiful woman. She had chiseled and delicate features and attractive, snow-white skin. Unlike all the people in this strange world, she was not pale. She looked more human.
Her perfect face, red lips, black hair, and, most strikingly, beautiful, ultra-detailed blue eyes made the surrounding darkness dull and recede. The same was true of the dim brightness across the city.
Klaus was immediately drawn to that face as she stared up at him.
Just then, the shouts of nearby people brought them back to their senses.
Klaus frowned, not knowing what to say. But, before he could even speak, he was pulled roughly by this woman.
'God... She's too strong.' Although Klaus tried to resist, her force was so great that he couldn't even move. Soon, she entered the house and went to a rather large basement, where she finally stopped.
After that, she looked him back and forth and frowned.
"You're a Reared in the Mist, aren't you?" She spoke suddenly, in a beautiful but proud voice.
Klaus didn't know how to answer that sudden question, and she didn't give him time to do so before asking anything else.
"You're here to spend your first bath, aren't you?"
At this point, Klaus had to nod and stand up. "I'm a Reared in the Mist, and, indeed, I'm in my first bath. Are you too? Are you one of the people I have to face against?" he asked, curious.
If she was one of his rivals, then the current situation was complicated. This woman's strength to bring him here was too high to beat her. Perhaps an impossible situation in his current state.
But the woman practically ignored his questions.
"I see. No wonder I feel you are so compatible with the cursed energy, but it still attacks you so strongly. But why were you sent to this place for your first bath? This is Second Bath territory."
Although Klaus was confused, he could see a few things from her words. "Are you in the Second Bath?"
"Yes." Although she seemed very curious, her proud look showed that her current status was a source of pride for her.
Klaus swallowed hard. 'There are 4 Baths in total. The first one awakens the power. To enter the Second one, you already have to reach a certain level on the Power Scale; why is there such a powerful person in my test? How am I supposed to beat her?'
Although he was confused, he didn't show it on his face. He honestly felt curious about this woman. It wasn't just about her peculiar beauty; he felt her body was special and strange. Even though he knew nothing about this world, he somehow felt a particular attraction between them, which made no sense.
Still, he knew that his life depended on this. Would he die as soon as he arrived in this world? That would be unfortunate.
So, he wanted to respond with something else, but the woman turned away.
"Running into people who are passing other bathrooms is not uncommon. As you walk through the Cursed World, it is common to encounter others passing through baths above yours. Even it's not impossible to run into those passing through their Fourth Bath." She turned to look at him again.
"The rare thing is to be sent into this territory on your first bath. The curses here are too powerful for you; didn't you get sidetracked?" She was curious about this.
Klaus nodded. "I'm sure the territory of my first bath is left here."
She nodded slightly and averted her gaze indifferently.
'First, enemies of the third bath are hanging around here, and now, a little one is passing his first bath... Certainly, the second bath is dangerous.' She smiled a little.
"If so, that's fine. You can go out and come back to the surface. Although you are very weak, try to train a little in the house, and then you can get out. If you follow the road in front of the mansion, you can get out without a problem; your pursuers don't get into this area."
She lost interest as quickly as she gained it, so she turned around nonchalantly and walked further into the basement.
Klaus was a bit stunned after seeing this and sighed. With no one in sight, he was able to lie down and rest. There were many things to think about.
It was already amazing to him that a person from the Second Bath was here, but from how she spoke, the Baths didn't seem to be divided.
'The Cursed World... That's what this place must be called. So, do all baths occur in the same world and without divisions? Then what exactly are baths?' he thought.
No one could answer him, though.
Good thing he had learned several things. The first was that entering the City was not a good option. People from the start looked at him funny, with a particular hatred. And simply for killing a Curse, he was already branded as a natural enemy of the city.
But considering that these people live in a World of Curses, they may see these things as pets or something like that. With that learned, he understood that he shouldn't wander around this city wandering.
Still, he was hungry.
After several hours since his body had consumed all the nutrients, he needed more.
That was why, after taking one last look at the basement and not seeing the beautiful woman, he went up to the house and stayed near the entrance to the basement. If he was in trouble, he could go in there and flee wherever possible.
After that, he removed the small makeshift backpack he had made from cloth he had stolen in town, where all the curse meat and some dry sticks were. The clothes were a bit special. Despite the cursed beast's flesh's smell, this one did not allow it to spread, so it was helpful.
Then he lit the fire, and a few minutes later, he began to cook the meat.
It's a pity that this System was not like the one in the novels he had read before. It didn't have an inventory mechanism, or at least for now, so he had to throw away some of the meat he had chopped earlier during his long walk.
Right now, he only had enough meat left for two more meals.
Still, enough for now. Not that he liked the taste of the meat anyway; he was sure he wouldn't miss it.
As Klaus cooked the meat, the smell of rotting meat flooded the house and entered the basement.
That snapped Klaus out of his thoughts by a cold, deadly voice.
"May I know what you're doing? That smell..." The beautiful woman was forced to leave after smelling something so bad and found Klaus with his back to her, so she couldn't see what he was doing.
Klaus turned to look at her. One piece of meat was in his mouth, and the other was stuck on the stick. He swallowed and then smiled at her.
"I am eating. I haven't eaten for many hours; I'm starving." He replied cheerfully.
Food had improved his mood, even if it tasted awful. After all, it was better to have a stomach full of lousy food than to have it empty.