‘What else should I say? The depression taste? The hilarious taste? Maybe the one about…’

As Lenya was thinking about how to continue her story, to make it an entertaining one, she continued to fill the 30 glasses.

“Do you know how much variety of base drinks there are currently on the market?” She decided on this one.

“Nope.”

“Well, the current system is managed by the economy department, the culture department, and the transport department.”

“As long as you prove your passion and talent then you’ll be given a free pair of connected lenses, and then they release you into the competitive market by yourself, their only constraint is that unless you’re a tier 3, then you’ll not have any advantage,” Lenya just had to think back to her first time entering the internet to feel overwhelmed.

“So currently, no one, not even the specialist geniuses from all kinds of fields have their own restaurant, gallery, bar, or anything, we only have access to rented ones, and advertisement is very poor on that side so it’s like we don’t exist.”

“If you want to go to a rented restaurant then you need to search for it on the net, some are trying things like a list of active restaurants with a notation system but they are receiving no support from the government so they remain in the shadows…”

…

20 minutes later, Lenya was soon going to finish infusing all the glasses, they changed the one speaking every 5 minutes so now it was the young human's turn again.

“So… Yeah, the cliffhanger, you liked it? Very proud of myself for having accomplished one,” he provoked a bit, or maybe it was just his way of joking.

Lenya still didn’t know his name, but after speaking 3 times he finished the last with the worst possible timing, the moment he saw the white wall.

“After reaching the white wall, I used my mini ether tower to send back the coordinates, and I even received a transmission after months of talking to myself. It's relevant because my first support told me the IGS had to send a team of patrollers to scout the place, and…”

“Well, I just entered the white wall and then made contact with my first tier 4 monster ever,” he paused, he dared pause.

‘...’

Killing intent appeared in Lenya’s mind for a moment, it vanished when he continued a moment later.

“The first I encountered was a rock, a white rock, a big white rock. It moved slowly, I tried to approach it and the result was that it destroyed my armor in a few moves and was even able to retreat… That’s it,” he made another dumb face as if to say he was living a stupid life.

“And that’s how my first period of not being able to kill anything started, those monsters I called moving monoliths, they were specialized spellcasters and they had fine or grand energy manipulation variations depending on luck, my luck, but now we’re arriving at a very sensible part of the story…”

The young man stopped talking and stared at her. He seemed… Thirsty? For blood?

“So…”

She didn’t like what he was doing.

“I’ll only continue talking if you serve me drinks that I like!” He did another dumb face and then stopped talking, face petrified with the dumbest expression he could make.

“Uhhh… Only 2 glasses to go, you can taste the first set. The reason I prepare 30 glasses is for you to compare everything. Taste each one carefully and compare them to others, they are classified, every 3 with the same base drinks are put from left to right with every energy taste variation I infused into it, so you’re welcome to start your tasting session boy.”

“Ok.”

He started to drink a little from some glasses, some from others, his face didn’t fluctuate much but his eyes told everything she needed.

She had some experience reading feelings with eyes alone, it was very subtle but more often than not, or it didn’t lie, or she read nothing at all.

After he let a contented breath escape his mouth after comparing the first set of 3 drinks he continued his story.

“So my goal was the same as what I did before becoming tier 3, going as deep as I could, nothing else, and that’s what I did, but after months of travels following the cliff, the patroller team catched up to me, and I learned that the prospects selected by the IGS are prospects for a reason.”

“If I never slept and trained non-stop from the moment the Ether law awakened, I’d maybe have a chance at being a prospect, but the IGS prospect path is too different from what I want to do, pure exploration.”

He started the next set, and for this one he made a strange expression, only the last one made him raise his eyebrows a little. He tried the same drink again and compared it with one of the first sets of the same energy taste.

‘Yup, he doesn't care at all, he’s not a drink fanatic or a pro taster that’s for sure.'

His manner, his way of savoring, his way of comparing, they were that of an amateur.

“After they catched up, we traveled together for one month before they had to stop as one of the regulars couldn’t resist the permanent erosion anymore, so I continued alone.”

“I reached like 520 armor per second or something like that? And then, that’s where the most dangerous moment of my life starts,” he drank again, he tasted the third set, and he seemed to have enjoyed this one a lot more than the previous 2.

“Somewhere in the middle of the tier 3 black and white jungle, a breeze forms, it was there when I arrived, it was there when I left. The breeze is permanent, same direction, from north to south, same intensity, in my opinion, it was irrelevant, but this breeze that had always been here ceased to be…”

“Oh, I read some tips that using an intent-infused voice is better for stories that seem too unreal, so let me change that…”

“Ya, ya, yeah, like this, okay,” He launched an intent voice spell, the normal one, the one everyone could do.

“When something that always existed ceased to exist, I did what every adventurer would do if they weren’t suicidal, I retreated.”

“The moment I saw a moving monolith that stopped moving I was sure that something was coming, so I retreated at maximum speed,” he decided to taste the fourth set, he probably found it enjoyable but not fabulous, he compared it to the first and second set.

‘I don’t really think every adventurer has those instincts sir, but if you say so…’

“That’s only at this moment that you realize how the warped distances of tier 4 zones is sort of a deathtrap, even by going at 500 meters per second I needed weeks to escape the white zone.”

“On my way to escape, I encountered the patroller team, convincing them to retreat only took a single sparring session with their leader Lounae, where I got miserably defeated, then we all started to retreat at maximum speed,” he decided to taste the fifth set of drinks, for this one he made truly weird expressions.

‘That’s a unique base drink, after all, not everyone can enjoy it.'

Lenya thought back to some base drinks she banished as they were too unique for her to touch with her current level.

“But when we were still around 3 000 kilometers from escaping, the breeze returned,” he smiled.

“Except it was reversed, it wasn’t north to south, it was south to north, and with each hour passing its intensity increased…”

“From a regular breeze to a strong wind, from a strong wind to a squall, and then it got beyond 300 meters per second, it was the sign that the event wasn’t natural, it was the start of the anomalous event of the erosion zone.”

“For days we continued, we tried to advance, but no matter how strong you are and how resistant your armor is, once it goes beyond a certain threshold, there’s nothing you can do.”

He stopped drinking, he was remembering something, some excitement shined in his eyes.

“Me, 5 regular patrollers and one prospect ended up blocked for hours, with the wind never stopping its inevitable increase towards something.”

“Even the prospect, Lounae, couldn’t have possibly stayed on the ground, she would have been ripped from the ground and brought to who knows where, the plan was that the moment the wind ended we all had to run for our life towards the border, but of course…”

“Of course… It was the first time for everyone back there, the first time even for me where our power had no influence on our survival. Lounae was the strongest, a true shining star burning with potential, but she could do nothing. Now, try to guess, what happened? Yeah, guess it, I give you 3 tries,” he looked straight at her.

‘How the hell am I supposed to answer!’

Lenya cursed in her mind, she was too taken by the cliffhanger to think straight.

“An omnipresent wind that you can’t evade? The erosion increasing to double its previous amount? All the monsters becoming berserks?” She said the first 3 things that passed through her mind.

“No, no and no, the answer is… Tatata, erosion waves! Cannot be seen, cannot be evaded, cannot be blocked by the environment, only our personal energy armor!”

“The first waves took thousands of armor from me, and half an hour later, another one, dealing more damage. Every subsequent wave dealt more damage and came at shorter notice, until the moment their interval got below one minute, combining the erosion of 300 armor per minute with a not yet regenerated energy pool, you have the recipe for a disaster.”

He tasted the sixth set, nothing. This time he was taking his time to savor, probably a taste that he appreciated, made memories emerge, or had some implications.

“The result was that even after me and Lounae used rope to drag the weaker regulars, 2 of them were at one wave of being killed, it was the first time for a lot of things this day, the first time close to someone having given up on life, the first time I could do nothing, the first time I realized if that continued I would have to take drastic action like jumping off the cliff…”

“Fortunately, the Ether law shined on us, and everyone survived. Then we reached the white wall, where the two that survived had a little breakdown that quickly went away…” He tasted the seventh set, then the eight, and then concluded his story.

“And days after we passed through the wall, the true anomalous event started, a constant assault of waves, every 20 seconds, a wave erasing half of your armor at the start, and hours later they erased more than your energy pool could take at one time.”

“If I had an ego I would tell the story like I’m a hero, but that’s how it happened, the breeze vanished, I ran away, I took the patroller team with me, we all lived, happy ending!”

He got back to drinking a certain glass from the third set, maybe his favorite one till now, then went onwards to taste the final two sets.

“Congratulations for surviving then, my stories are really different compared to yours, let me tell you some of the eccentric energy taste I made then, just… Don’t talk about it with anyone else, ok boy?” Lenya decided to tell some forbidden stories.

‘In the end, be it back in the IGS or here, in the Endless, there’s always stories worth hearing from anyone, after so long locked in my rented bar without any clientele I nearly forgot that…’

…

‘The best is the third, absolutely fabulous, the most special is the sixth, don’t know why, the most horrible is the fifth, the base drink is so bad.'

Rune thought after tasting a bit from every glass.

Each drink of each glass needed one minute of preparation to be made, and it truly was something else.

The first set was water, plain water, to give an idea of the 3 energy taste variations Lenya could make, but even then it was pretty amazing.

The subsequent set of 3 glasses for one base drink allowed him to understand why someone would spend his entire life finding the best drink or beverage they could make, the possibilities were endless.

At some point, he asked something that he thought of spontaneously, “Can you mix 2 different energy tastes? Or is it simpler to pre-fuse them? Or does too much taste kill the taste?”

Her answer was simply to smile slightly, “I’ll let your imagination run wild, everything is possible, that’s all I can say.”

“If I asked you to make an ultra-acid taste could you do it? Is there a different method of infusing energy taste in drinks, beverages, and foods? For different types of food maybe? Is there second and third level specialization that allows for ultra specific applications like a multi-taste in this case?”

“Your curiosity is… Very… High? Should I say? I’ll not answer, if you take a holiday one day and have some time to waste you can contact me and I’ll introduce you to the true content, it’s not a secret but the hard-grounded education for becoming a cook or learning what a taste is, is very scientific, Lenya Molrar, tier 2 bartender,” Lenya told her contact information, and expected Rune to do the same.

“Rune Tudor, tier 3 adventurer, unreachable in general and has a tendency to lose sense of time,” he agreed and opened his connected lenses to add her to his contact list.

“Does it have anything to do with your temporal specialty?” She remembered that from his stories, a really peculiar specialty.

“No, I was like that even before I got it, and while at the start I could have forgotten to deactivate it, now that I’m back in the capital, I’m not activating it, too bothersome,” on those words, he decided to compare the same energy taste variation of the fifth and tenth set.

‘Buuuu… The fifth is horrible… Really horrible...’

But it only made the next one better.

He then passed the next hour enjoying the 30 glasses and discussing with Lenya. It was a simple encounter and he didn’t dig deeper than he wanted to, making it enjoyable and light-hearted.

After he finished all the glasses, he said his goodbye and returned to the true festival, the one with lots of people he didn’t know and lots of food he never tried.

His wandering ended when music started playing, announcing that tonight’s show was starting soon, which caused everyone interested, Rune included, to stop what they were planning to do and come to the stage.

Once there, he selected approximately the same place he had been in the previous time and switched to listener mode, he cut his perception sphere, rearranged his senses, and waited.

This time, the mood was very different, every light was stale and shone with a reddish-purple creepy color, no movement at all.

Even the waiting music was creepy chill music, Rune didn’t want to read too much into it but he expected tonight to be something he’ll remember.

Dozens of minutes later, the first change happened. The back of the stage had a point of light appear on it, and then it started to write words by moving.

‘Welcome…’

‘To…’

‘The…’

‘Black…’

‘Parade…? I think I heard that somewhere… Can’t remember, is it a cover? A remix?’

Rune could only wait. If it vaguely told him something, then in the crowd some would have the answer, and he didn’t want to be spoiled!

Fortunately, soon after the words appeared, someone appeared on stage, and this wasn’t someone normal.

Long silky blond hair, deep blue sharp and menacing eyes, chiseled face full of determination and confidence, maybe even arrogance, prince clothing from hundreds of thousands of years ago, telltale of a long-gone age. The man appeared to come from a fantasy.

The moment he appeared the music started to change a little, more creepy, more menacing, and heavy with deep bass and silent blank.

When he came to the forefront of the scene, he turned and did a beautiful gesture towards the back of the stage, and from there, someone appeared.

Long silver hair, a cute and adorable face who was smiling showing all her teeth, expressing deep happiness and contentment, her eyes were also silver, and she was in princess clothing, or maybe a wedding dress from ancient human culture.

She joined the menacing man, and they joined hands.

The picture made Rune’s breathing stop for a moment, and he wasn’t the only one.

Alone they shined like shining stars in the middle of the night, but once they were next to each other, the difference made a romance story appear in his mind without him wanting to.

‘Oh god, why is this generation of connected lenses unable to take pictures!’

Rune didn’t have time to think, because the main event was starting.

“Hello everyone, say hello too Leriel! That’s our debut!” The girl waved her hand, the one that wasn’t holding the man’s hand.

“No Orielle, they don’t deserve it, look at their eyes, she’s mine, stop looking, male or female doesn’t matter,” he condescendingly answered.

Rune didn’t know if the man was acting, but for him, it was something that came from his heart, but even then he was sure as hell not going to stop looking.

“Excuse my husband everyone, but you’ll forgive him soon don’t worry, he’s as exceptional in intent singing as he is handsome, and no one here thinks he’s not handsome right? Right?!” The first part was regular talking, but the last question was an intended question.

“Yes!!!”

Rune and nearly everyone else presents answered the question, by automatism, it was prompted by the intent she sent, and after hearing their answer the man stopped looking at them, appearing cold and indifferent.

“For our debut, we prepared something, back in the IGS, we were already a duo of singers, and the first song we did as a duo was this one, “Welcome To The Black Parade”, it’s an ancient human song that persisted through countless years, and then it became our signature song, tell them Leriel!” She looked at her husband and asked this question.

“If you feel nothing by listening to the 3 variants we’ll do tonight then you should stop listening to music. Between those 3 variants, one by me, one by Orielle, and the finish as a duo, you should feel how deep true music can be, so enjoy it,” his cold face melted, revealing a simple social smile, still indifferent but at least he didn’t appear arrogant anymore.

The music immediately changed, starting the melody for probably the song called “Welcome To The Black Parade”

The crowd cheered and whistled, they had their expectations high.

The girl, Orielle, retreated to the back of the stage where she sat on an ornate throne that appeared from thin air and left the stage for her husband, Leriel.

The melody was a very simple one, only simple piano keys, individual ones.

(Welcome to the black parade, original and cover by Caleb Hyles and Jonathan Young. For better immersion)

“When I was a young boy…

My father took me into the city…”

The handsome man, the prince, Leriel, started to sing, not a deep voice, a normal voice, but the intent behind it completely overwhelmed what Rune expected.

The idol group ADK were amateurs compared to this.

“Sometimes I get the feelin',

She's watchin' over me,”

The creepy and calm tone he used made pictures of hope and despair mix together in Rune’s head, and the intent was just becoming stronger.

But as time went on, maybe a minute, Rune didn’t know, the melody started to become more complex and more lively, till it went from calm to full-blown another style.

The transition was smooth and the emotions were given fully by the prince, Rune was so deep inside it that even his normally lifeless face cracked a little.

He didn’t have the necessary time to process the meanings behind the words, but the prince had the answer.

“We'll carry on! we'll carry on!”

Something raw and primal came behind this, Rune could only feel like the world around him warped to accommodate the prince.

“A world that sends you reeling,

From decimated dreams!

Your misery and hate will kill us all!”

It went on and on, never stopping, like the prince had been depressed for months, just for this moment, looking at him he was gleaming like a young boy covered in sparkles.

“I'm just a man, I'm not a hero!

Just a boy! Who had to sing this song!”

Rune’s brain and mind weren’t able to compute some of those feelings, his life was too short and he couldn’t identify some of them, but it was like seeing anger, it existed inside him, it had just never been used.

“We'll carry on! We'll carry on! We'll carry on!”

When the song ended, Rune was hardly standing, his mind and spirit were processing but it was hard, some people beside him simply surrendered and sat on the ground or on a simple energy platform or chair.

If the prince decided to do another solo, he would have also decided to sit.