Slurp… Slurp!

As I finally got to eat the savory noodles, I felt like a curse of hunger was unleashed on me as I blindly devoured one bowl after the other, of course, without forgetting to take a bite or two of the roast chicken which was surprisingly well done as well!

The source of the great taste could be attributed to the well done cooking, but the spices also seemed to be especially the main cause behind the whole greatness of the dishes, which explained why the roast chicken & potatoes had similarly great taste as well…

I did try to slow down to keep my manners, but a few loud sounds would slip away once or twice from all of my concentration being directed at the food, so I used an 'elemental hack' as I used thunder elements to restrict the sound that came from my mouth, which did work pretty well.

The new methods of using elements differently had started coming to my mind as of late while thinking of innovative ways to make use of having 7 whole different attributes that could not only be used alone but also in interesting combinations, though these were only theories for now, which I planned to test them as time went by.

Of course, what restricted me from doing that before was my own elemental stage, which has recently risen to meet the requirement, so I was still trying up the possibilities and how far they could stretch and bind for now.

"Can I get…"

I ended up being still in a constant state of hunger so I did actually add a whole similar order to my tab, to which the shocked cook could only nod to as he went straight into the kitchen to complete it…

'Well, it's indeed strange to see someone like me have such a big stomach…'

It was still within proper reason as elemental arts and martial techniques were actually a very wide domain, having a technique that allowed you to eat more or simply just needed you to eat more wasn't something that would bring a surprise to most people in battle city anyway…

"Phew… That was indeed as great as expected!"

Having probably filled most of my dragon's stomach, I could only let out a breath of relief as I was finally able to snap out of the 'Hunger: On' mode, not knowing when I might get lured by the aromatic food smell once more, I decided to hurriedly leave the shop for now after not forgetting to leave an extra 1 gold coin of tip, the meal was just worth that much to me!

Barely sensing the cook's pecular stare as he simply stood in his place without questioning me about anything nor even trying to understand, he just shrugged and returned to wash the dishes, which had naturally increased thanks to me…

'Getting a good day of sleep after this is simply going to be perfect…wait, when did he get here, oh, it's…'

Just as I was heading out of the shop and seeing both my front and back with 'Omni-viewing Eye', I almost crashed into someone who I thought to be the cook for the first friction of second, before realising that I have been confused again, this time… it was actually Mountain himself.

"Oh! It's you!" Mountain exclaimed as his eyes lied on me, which made me smell trouble from afar, I just wished that I could leave before he saw me, since I really didn't want to waste this chance to have the greatest sleep of my life to just quarrel with this big guy...

However, unlike what I actually expected…

"It's great you are here! I wanted to tell you something, you just had a meal inside, right? Would you mind eating another bowl with me as we talk for a few minutes?" Mountain's expression didn't turn aggressive, nor did he sound like he wanted to take revenge, in fact he seemed to be even more calmer than usual.

'Eh? To simply talk, not fight or spar or any of that…?'

I could somewhat notice that my expectation actually sounded quite biased against Mountain, who I already put his image in my mind as the 'bully' character who usually appears in novels, but it seemed that I might have been just overthinking for no reason.

"Oh… ok," I simply accepted since it was going to be a quick talk anyway, I actually got slightly interested in what he had to say following his breaking of my flawed expectations.

I did consider that he might just be doing this since he get roughened up by 'Zero' so he decided to treat me well in order not to get beat again, but knowing how Mountain's personality has been till now, I was truly confident, unlike how I was just making guesses earlier, that he would have already attacked me if he really planned on taking revenge.

"Hey little brother! Bring us two big bowls!" Mountain called out to the cook, his twin supposed twin as soon as we sat on a random table…

"You are already back? Sure thing, and stop calling me this way already… oh, you are with him…" the cook reacted casually before his eyes landed one me as I could only smile awkwardly in response…

"Him? You mean Lan? Did something happen…?" Mountain asked in confusion.

"No it's nothing, wait a sec, I will grab what you wanted," the cook didn't bother explaining much to Mountain as he simply resumed what he was doing, as Mountain turned to look at me again with a serious expression.

"I would like to…"

"Here you go," the cook interrupted as he put the two bowls on the table and threw me another awkward stare before he simply left.

"Thanks… So as I was saying, I would like to apologize for how I acted against you and your senior, it was truly unintentional…" Mountain said with a sincere apologetic expression on his face...

"Eh?" I was simply taken by surprise, I did broaden my expectations, but I certainly didn't expect a total 360 degrees flip...