Wanderer's Realm, somewhere... [Very well, then. Since you will become the store manager, you can call me Ali. Have you decided on what kind of store you wish for me to turn into?] “Well, before meeting you, I've been thinking about what kind of business I would like to set up if I had the money and expertise... What do you say we open a bar?” I said with a stupid grin on my face showing my current feelings at the thought of it. The voice stayed silent for a few seconds, obviously pondering about my proposition. [Well, I have never considered that possibility before... I guess it is doable. We need to talk about the products that you wish to propose first. Oh before that you should sign the contract.] I nodded while pondering about what she was expecting from me. A comic book store? A toy store? A sex shop? Probably not the last one, and I'm glad since that would have been awkward. My pondering were cut short when I noticed that there was no pen to sign the contract. How the hell was I supposed to do it then? Magic? “Cough! By the way, how am I supposed to sign the paper?” A chuckle escaped the female voice when she noticed my predicament. [You need to put a drop of your blood while infusing your will in it... Just think strongly about your will to sign the contract first and then think about moving that same will into the blood. I will help you do it, since it might be hard for a complete beginner. I will also help you draw your blood.] As soon as she was done talking, I could feel a prick on my right thumb. When I looked at it I saw a drop of blood floating in the air, close to the finger. From her explanation, I understood the process pretty well. I'm not that stupid, okay? I started to think about willing my will (Sounds weird, I know) to the suspended drop. It did not seem to work at first, until I felt a presence in my mind guiding that thought towards the blood until I could feel a slight connection to it. Although it was small, I knew that by using that seemingly inconsequential liquid, an event that would completely change my life would happen. I just made a enormous bet, but I was not sure if it would bring me untold riches or torment. It's time to roll the dice, bitc... Cough! Nevermind... As I was trying to cheer myself up, the floating glob flew to the contract in my left hand. Once it touched the bottom, the paper lit up intensely and I could feel... Something, or someone... I was not really sure. It was as if you were alone in a room your whole life, and suddenly someone entered and sat himself or herself down as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The feeling was not bad per se, but more... Mmhh... Vague would be the right word. Yes, vague. Like a TV during a storm, with the signal not being clear enough to perceive any details. Was it because of the partial soul bonding that she was talking about earlier? Well, it didn't feel too bad, anyway. Less lonely, I guessed. I was wondering what the feeling would be like when we would soul bond completely. I kinda looked forward to it now. After basking in the warm sensation, I started to feel myself to see if something else changed. Not that way, pervert! Anyway, I would probably not be able to tell even if it did, but sometimes you needed those small self-inflicted lies to feel better. The sad fate of the weak, I guessed. As I did not feel anything new beside the connection, I opened my eyes and jumped slightly in surprise when I saw something that was not there when I closed them. It was a multicolored fog that seemed real and unreal at the same time. I could see shapes of... things... inside. I know that it sounds like the raving of a lunatic, but it's the truth. It was just plain weird. [So you can finally see me, little Mortal?] I could hear a hint of teasing coupled with amusement in her voice. “Call me Lucas at least. Being called little Mortal feel very demeaning. Even if it's true that I'm a Mortal. And not tall. Anyway, is your real form a fog? I thought spirits had human bodies?” Now that we were closer, I felt a lot more at ease, even spirited (Pun completely intended). [Alright, Lucas. To answer your question, yes and no. My current form is a fog, but it is simply due to a prior injury. I also used to have a female humanoid body in my spirit form. As for my material form, it is the room where we are situated at this moment.] Her answer surprised me. I wondered how powerful one had to be to injure such a powerful entity. But then again, I was pretty much a complete newbie in the cultivation world, so I objectively had no idea as to how powerful she really was. On another note, I could guess that her objective had to do with healing her injuries. I wondered how I was even supposed to help. I could simply ask, I guess. “So, Ali.” [That is my name.] That made me roll my eyes internally, but my curiosity helped me keep the emotions out of my face. “Right. You said you were injured. May I know how?” [Classified.] “Alrighty, then. Could you perhaps tell me about your objective and how I'm supposed to help you realize it?” [Your clearance is insufficient. Contact your hierarchical superior for any more information.] Aren't you my hierarchical superior, woman? This time I could not help myself from rolling my 'real' eyes, which again elicited a laugh from her majesty the fog. I was pretty sure that she had watched too much TV cop shows. [Joke aside, you have not even started cultivating yet, so giving you more information would be not only useless, but could even be detrimental for you. Some cultivators had their will broken when they chanced upon vision of higher layered cultivator, and others aimed too high which stopped them from breaking through their bottlenecks until they died. Remember that haste makes waste.] “That makes sense. By the way, how come I can understand you? I mean, the words you use don't seem to be either french nor english, but I can still comprehend what you say as if you were speaking my mother tongue. Also, you seem to know some idioms that are specific to Earth as far as I know like haste makes waste.” I asked her puzzled. I mean think about it, in almost all those novels, once the protagonist reached his new world, he spoke the language of the place fluently and everyone in the entire universe spoke the same one. That did not make sense. The first could be explained when he/she fused with the soul of the body used as a medium of reincarnation. But the second? Well, my doubts were quickly answered with a reason that I was not expecting. [You are more astute that I gave you credit for.] She had to dis me, of course. [The reason why you can understand me is because I am using the Common Language, which is used everywhere in the Divine Realm and even those Realms below. To put it simply, it is a language connected to the Wanderer's Realms' origins. That means that as long as one cultivate, he or she would learn it naturally. Cultivation allows you to get closer the three Realms' origin, after all.] Despite feeling perplexed at this new information, I kept listening to her, hoping to widen my severely lacking knowledge. [As for idioms, most of the one you use have a similar version in the Common Language. And since I have arrived on Earth a few decades ago, I learned the few others I did not know previously. And most Earth languages with them. But I prefer speaking in Common. It is easier.] “Mmhh. That makes sense. It's pretty cool to be able learn a language without any effort. And one that is pretty much universal.” I was pretty excited about that fact. I've always been interested in learning other languages. I was just too lazy to actually do it, though. Except English. The second best decision in my life to learn it, in my opinion. The first being when I gave up on strong alcohol. Why? Well, I did wake up on a bench in a middle of a copse of trees one day, not knowing where I was, after having drunk a little bit too much of vodka (a full bottle). Not my proudest moment, to be honest. “I have another question. Pretty important this one. Will I be able to go back to Earth? You said that you arrived there a long time ago, so I'm guessing it's possible, right?” I can't believe I forgot to ask that question before signing that damn contract. Apparently my brain was not working at 100% yet. Probably due to the hangover... Which seemed to have disappeared after I've signed it... Weird. [I did say that. I did not mean physically, nonetheless. I meant I connected my physical body to your planet. That allowed my Divine sense to scour the whole planet at will. That was how I learned so much on your backward civilization.] I mumbled. “Backward, uh?” She continued. [As for your question, you will be able to go back to your planet, indeed. After all, you might need to hire employees from there at one point. One can only do so much with only one body. There other reasons why you would need to go back, but I would prefer if we did everything in order, if you do not mind?] I could feel the goodwill in her voice, so I nodded with a smile on my face towards her form to show my appreciation. “Since I don't have anymore question and I'm sure that any that would come to mind would be answered at one point in time, what should we do first?” Even I could feel my own excitement when I thought about the different tasks needed to accomplish the spirit's objective. [The first task, as I mentioned before, is to define the type of products sold in our bar. I can easily guess that it would be mostly beverages. However, we need to choose if there will be alcoholic ones and/or non alcoholic ones. In the former, do we propose strong alcohol, weak alcohol, etc? In the latter, for the different tastes, do we choose fruit flavor, soda flavor, etc? Once we are finished with the drinks, do we propose some food? I noticed that most bars on earth have some kind of 'aperitif' on their menu. [A/N: The aperitif (in France) is the food you eat while drinking before a lunch or dinner. There are many things like bread with pate, crisps, etc. It's bad for your summer body though^^] Since it is your choice of store, you have the priority in picking what you want. I will only be there to make sure that your ideas are possible.] I decided to sit down to listen to her questions. However, before I could even touch the ground, a linen sofa appeared under my butt, which was extremely comfortable, I won't lie. It was so useful to be able to make a sofa appear under you at will. Imagine when you have to queue at the Tax Bureau because they made a mistake (again) with the amount of money you're supposed owe them. For example, if, let's say, they said that you had to pay the taxes on your current apartment AND your former apartment, which you left a long time ago. They would never do that in reality, of course. (The sarcasm is strong in this one.) Anyway, you could sit comfortably on your magically appeared sofa while you wait for the mistake to be corrected... Now, that I say it out loud, it doesn't feel that great of an idea. Oh well, whatever I guess. While I crossed my arms in thought, I noticed the trace of vomit on my clothes. However, Ali probably noticed my gaze since my vision seemed to blur so quickly that I barely registered it. When I regained my bearings, I realized that my clothes and even my entire body was clean. How could I have noticed the latter? Simply because I did not feel sticky everywhere anymore. You asked, so don't complain about the details! “Thank you. I definitely needed that.” I smiled at her before refocusing on her questions. I started to scratch my small beard while pondering aloud. “Alright, let's do it step by step. What is the most important product in a bar? Definitely alcohol! A bar without it is not a bar. So we have to include it. Now, from my knowledge, there are actually three types of alcohol that would be essential to our bar. Especially since we want to reach the entire universe and even beyond. We need variety but we also can't disperse ourselves everywhere. A delicate balance.” That seemed to intrigue her as she asked me. [I thought there were mostly two types of alcohol: the 'normal' alcohol and the spirits. Is it not so?] That made me smile a little. I could feel my teaching tendency trying to come out, which prompted me to say. “Only the uneducated think that. Actually there are many types of alcohol. There even types within types within types. It's pretty insane, in my opinion, but also very interesting. Anyway, we'll focus on three types for now.” “The first is the low content alcohol. I think beers are the best. It is widely popular and most importantly, it's my favorite drink. Of course, we'll have to decide later on which type of beers we want, depending on what is possible.” [I understand.] “Second, the middle alcohol content. I don't know the name of this category, so I just made it up. Anyway, I believe wine would be the best for this one. And not what the Chinese call wine. Those are just spirits. I'm talking about red, white wine and rosé(Pink wine if you did not know). As a French citizen, those wines are the ones I know the best. But if you have any other good ones, we can add them too.” [I will think about it. At least, it is a good start. What about the third category?] I honestly felt great at being able to teach someone who I saw as a god. Very refreshing for my ego. Especially after being seen as a weak barbarian since I met her. Anyway... “So, the third one is spirit. This one is tricky since the alcohol content can vary greatly depending on the beverage. Moonshine can reach 80% alcohol or more for example. While most spirit sold in bars only reach 45% alcohol maximum. It's mostly to protect people, since the stronger the spirit, the worse effect it has on someone's health. Especially at high frequency. Anyway, I want us to follow those guidelines, since I don't want our bar to become a drunkard's hole. Classy but not uptight. Also warm and comfortable. That's what I envision. Anyway, I think we can with the classics for the spirits: Whiskey, Vodka and Rum. Do you think that everything I said is possible?” [Sure. Let's talk about the rest now.] “Okay.” I said while taking a few seconds to order my thoughts. [A/N: That's all folks! See you next week!]