After finally finding some clothes, Toby strolled back home to the boarding house. 50 credits lighter, but at least clad in a somewhat suitable, although quaint, green woolen shirt, brown pants, leather shoes, and a short leather cape with a hood. The spitting image of a peasant from the middle ages if he had to say so himself.

Hopefully, he would fit in a bit better now. More people had been coming through the stone portals in the plaza as the day wore on, slowly populating the town. Most of whom were already wearing suitable attire for the town setting, and those who didn't, seemingly hurrying along to get something that did.

It must be a Nexus thing to always try to fit in Toby guessed. Nobody wanting to ruin the mood or something.

No matter. He was almost home, and there better be a bartender present to serve him a nice beer, or maybe he should try mead?

Mead was a thing back in the old days, and you couldn't do medieval without mead right? It had to be mead then.

Thus decided, Toby whistled happily when he entered the commons of the boarding house and sauntered over to the bar. Thankfully the bar was open, and there wasn't any queue either.

“May I help ye sir”, the barkeeper inquired.

“I'd like some mead, and something suitable to eat along with it,” Toby ordered.

“Sure thing sir. It'll be 5 credits for the meal and a tankard 'o mead, 2 credits for every tankard mead or ale ye drink afterward.” The barkeep replied while he drew a golden colored liquid from one of the barrels into a rather large wooden mug. It even had a hinged lid on it.

“Sit right down, and I'll have the wench bring ye the food in a moment,” The barkeep passed the mead over while pointing to one of the tables along the wall.

Toby accepted the tankard and walked over to the indicated table. It was a bit roughly made, but he probably wouldn't get any splinters from it.

Toby carefully sat down before taking his first sip of his mead. It tasted sweet, like spicy honey, but it also had a decent dose of fire in it. All in all, he figured it was a pretty good replacement for some strong draft beer. You also got a lot of it per serving. Had to be at least a liter or more of mead in there. A man could get drunk on less.

The mood in the room was nice. It was a bit dark, especially now that the sun was going down, and the light coming through the windows was dimming down.

But the light from the oil lamps hanging in a cast iron chandelier in the middle gave ample light for eating and drinking by. He wouldn't want to try reading in it, but that wasn't really relevant to the setting either. It had that cozy atmosphere some upscale romance oriented restaurants tried so hard to mimic.

He did wonder a bit how the other people of the Nexus thought of Terra Nova though. It was definitely taken from earth pop culture versions of history. Or maybe most cultures had something similar?

Toby's thoughts got interrupted when an unlikely pair of people came through the front door while arguing about something.

One was short, and with a flaming red beard that outclassed even the biggest beards, Toby had ever seen on a human by a huge margin. It went almost all the way down to his feet. His braided hair wasn't far behind either. It hung loosely over his broad muscular shoulders.

The man was the very idealized image of a dwarf taken straight out of a fantasy novel Toby marveled.

“I tell ya Ortho you darn treehugger. These so-called humans are supposed to have achieved the levels of a higher culture! We have to check it out”. The dwarf man's voice boomed out forcefully with a surprisingly deep baritone for his size.

“Your version of higher culture is the invention of fermented drinks you drunkard”. The tall whose name was apparently Ortho countered in a musical voice. “And how did you hear about these humans only a day after they got uploaded?”.

“I have my sources” The dwarf answered.

“No doubt another one of your numerous exes you philandering goat” Ortho pressed on.

“Why do I keep hanging......”

Toby's curious ears got interrupted by the serving wench just as it was starting to get interesting. Lovers quarrel? Was the tall one a girl? It really wasn't his business, but who wouldn't be curious about such an odd couple right?

The wench put a plate with cheese and biscuits in front of Toby and asked “shall I bring another mug of mead sir? Or would ye prefer an Ale?”

“Yes please, and thank you”.Toby hadn't even noticed that he had already finished off his first one, and another one to chase after the food would be really nice. He could already feel the familiar relaxing warmth in his belly, so he vowed to only make it one more, to avoid getting drunk tonight. He had a lot to worry about after all.

Just as he was about to dig in, he heard a musical voice talking just behind him.

“If what the barkeep told us was true Urist, there is already a human in the Nexus”, By the voice, it had to be the tall one. Ortho, that meant the dwarf's name was Urist.

Toby felt a sting of shame for listening in like this, but they were talking about him after all, So not listening in was out of the question.

“Aye, that is quite unusual,” Urist answered.

“And you know what it means for the first spawn town yeah?” Toby's ears strained even harder to listen in. Now, this was interesting indeed.

“Yes I do” the tall one, Ortho answered. “It means that most of this set is taken from that person's preferences for unreality”. Toby coughed into his mead, startling the duo behind him.

“Are ye alright lad?” The dwarf asked.

“He doesn't look it.” The tall one pointed out while Toby tried to recover from his coughing fit.

Getting a closer look at him, Toby noticed that the man had pointy ears and a smooth face. The first word popping into Toby's mind was 'elf'.

Toby wiped the mess off his face with the back of his hand and introduced himself “Hi, I'm Toby, the human.”

The eyebrows of both members of the duo did a great attempt at jumping off their foreheads. Probably would have done so too if it wasn't for the fact that they were rather securely attached the way eyebrows tended to be.

“I'll be damned. This must be our lucky day. I'm Urist, a Dorf, and this here pointy eared tree-hugging hippie is Ortho, an Eldarix for those who keep tabs on that kind of stuff.”

The both of them stood up and reseated themselves at Toby's table

“Pleased to meet you”. Toby replied. “you two look exactly like dwarves and elves from my people's games and entertainment.”

Toby did a double take on his own outburst. Was he that compromised by the alcohol already? He hadn't planned to blurt that out exactly, but it probably didn't do any harm he hoped. It might even help him break the ice.

“So you had entertainment with people like us in it?” Ortho seemed intrigued.

“That is not surprising by itself really”. “We humanoids do tend towards imagining beings that are a lot like our selves after all”.

“We also tend towards the same kind of food and drinks,” Urist added.

“This Ale is quite a lot like my kinds Beer.”

“Well, Ale is a type of beer” Toby countered. Then a thought struck him. Is this a translation issue? Are these words having completely different meanings, and only a rough approximation?

“I know what yer thinking lad, And I'm wondering about the exact same thing!”

Urist waved at the serving wench. “Break the current immersion and bring us six beers. three human and three Dorfian,” He called out to her.

“Immersion break denied. The order can be fulfilled within area parameters.”

Toby felt a jarring sense of disconnect. He had almost forgotten that this was all a simulation.

“Just get me the two types of beers then”. Urist told the wench, a surprised tone to his voice.

Turning to Toby he asked. “Yer people had fantasies about fine Dorfian beer? How strange”.

“That really surprised me too” Toby added. He couldn't quite believe he would get to taste the imaginary brew the dwarves in his favorite game made. This night was shaping up towards a really good evening.

It took almost no time at all for the wench to return with the six beers. All of them in wooden tankards, and marked with either a blue or black ribbon.

“Here are your beer's gentlemen,” the wench said.

“I've taken the liberty of marking them with their respective origin for your convenience”.

Toby thought he could detect a touch of sarcasm from the wench. She was an NPC, wasn't she? She had responded like one when Urist asked her to break immersion.

As soon as she had set the tankards on the table she swirled around and trotted off to serve some other customers. Leaving behind a stunned trio, with the two kinds of beers none the wiser about which beer was which.

“whelp. I guess there is only one way to find out what is what.” Ortho stated flatly while grabbing hold of 2 tankards.

One tankard in each hand. A blue ribbon in the right, and a black one in the left.

“Aye. I guess you are right” Urist added while grabbing another pair.

“Let the tasting begin” Toby finished while claiming the last two for himself.

The trio looked at each other, each one having a tankard in each hand and started laughing.

“We look like a crew of Dorf's on spring break” Urist rumbled in what could maybe pass for a giggle if his voice wasn't so deep.

“Or humans in a frat party”. Toby choked out while trying to take a deep breath between laughs.

“Let the tasting begin!” Ortho proclaimed loudly and followed it up by chugging down a quarter of his first tankard.

“Aye. Let the tasting begin.” both Urist and Toby answered in unison before taking big gulps out of their own tankards as well.

Notice:

Achievement get: bronze badge Dorf: meeting a Dorf.

Achievement get: bronze badge Eldarix: meeting an Eldarix.

Achievement get: Silver badge Dorf: Befriending a Dorf.

Achievement get: Silver badge Eldarix : Befriending a Eldarix.