Divine Realm, Planet Earth, Nantes. That was when she felt that she might have found the right 'partner' as Wanderer put it. But she still had to test him first. After all, she would be by his side forever, at least as a friend. So, she could not make any mistake. ****** [Lucas POV] “Controlling my Aura is so hard.” I said while looking at the beast of hel... *Cough* I meant the chihuahua running away from me with its owner. Probably had to do with my amazingly powerful Aura. *Sigh* It was so lonely at the top. As I kept trying to vent my frustration by spouting some nonsense internally, I noticed my control getting marginally better. Emphasis on the marginally, since, from what I could tell, I might need a day or even a few days for my control to be good enough for my goal. As for mastering it completely? From the novels I read and what I learned recently from Ali and my own new powers, I was pretty sure that it would take a LONG time. How long? No idea. As Yoda said: “Difficult to see. Always in motion the future is.” A smart little bugger that one was... See what I did there? After less than an hour of 'slow walking', I arrived at the commerce plaza and informed Ali that I would go quickly take my stuff from my old apartment and clean it a bit so that I would only have to give the keys back to the landlord later. I also had to cancel my electricity, water, internet contract. Mmhh... My mobile plan needed to be cancelled as well. How much I hated paperwork... Wait! How the hell was I supposed to tell the administration that I live in an extra-dimensional building with a cosmic entity strong enough to destroy the Earth if she felt like it... “I think I should just avoid that topic. I mean, they can't be afraid, if they don't know about the actual danger, right?” I thought with some amusement, while picturing a normal state employees looking at my files with that information inside. Priceless! As I kept thinking about some administrative Hell, I reached the lousy apartment that, one week ago, I called home. 22 Square Meters (Around 236 Square Feet) of plain furniture and bland walls. The story of my life. As I did not want to waste too much time in this place, I quickly used my aura to cover the whole place and activated my Holo-Bracelet to absorb every items that I owned there. Not those dirty tissues though. Those shall be destroyed with fire, and the mention of them shall be forbidden. Anyway, following the disappearance of everything I owned from the room, I started to clean up the apartment, which didn't take me very long with my new speed and dexterity. Since I wasn't exactly fond of cleaning, I felt quite relieved that it did not take the usual few hours. Let me cross that from my list. “John, send a message to my landlord to tell him that I want to leave my apartment and that we should make an appointment quickly so that I can give back the keys.” I instructed my own virtual butler before exiting and locking the door behind me. I then proceeded to walk towards the location of my bar's entrance while focusing on what John answered. “Noted Master. The message has been sent. I will notify you once I receive that person's response. Do you have any further instructions?” “No, that will be all for now. From now on, if you notice anything I missed in my day to day tasks, don't hesitate to let me know. I'm not really known for having the best memory, after all.” I replied with amusement. I was aware that I was not a very detailed oriented person, so I tended to forget small things often, especially if it had to do with the administrative process. To be fair, it was needlessly complicated. “As you wish, Master. I will use the internet to educate myself. That way I'll be able to help Master well.” Hearing his statement, I flinched a bit as something came to my mind. I knew I needed to warn him about some dangers. “Look John, you need to be very critical with what you find on there. There are some very weird stuff that would turn the most peace loving and open minded person into a crazy murderous maniac. NFTs are one of those stuff.” Listening to my warning, John answered me with some puzzlement in his voice. “But Master, from the information I collected, NFTs have nothing to do with anything violent. At least from its definition.” With some seriousness in my voice, I replied while shaking my head to deny his answer. “You're wrong, John. That's only the surface. I actually found out that the creation of NFTs is a conspiracy from the vegans who, having lost their popularity because of too much bragging, decided to create a nonsensical way of making money that they marketed to the general public as something that can make anyone rich quickly and easily. As more and more people became NFT aficionado, they were finally able to feel special again because they were into the new craze 'NFTs'. I know it may sound crazy, but think about it: Vegans always tell you at least 4 or 5 times in under 5 minutes that they are vegans and so do the NFTs bros. It's just logical. Also, when I linked that movement to violence, it's because when you hear someone tell you that NFTs are the future 50 times in a day, a desire to punch that person a few times automatically rises up in you.” “I apologize master, but I fail to see the link between those two movements. Your argument seem to be coincidental at best. However, I understand what you mean about wanting to stop those fanatics from talking a umpteenth time about a thing that they do not even completely understand themselves.” He replied with a similar serious voice. Hearing him made me chuckle, after which I said. “Alright, that was a joke, so don't worry about it. Not the second part, though. I do not like those that blindly believes those guru without even doing their research first and also without thinking critically. In my opinion, NFTs is just gambling with extra steps and I don't like gambling in general. But anyway, just take what you learn on the internet with a grain of salt.” “Master's humor is... strange.” “You'll get used to it, don't worry.” Having finished sharing one of the nonsense stories that I liked to make up when I was bored with John, I accelerated my steps slightly towards the bar, as I had many things to do before the it could open soon. After a few minutes I arrived at the entrance of the bar, which I didn't really observe earlier when I left for my mother's place. I could see the simple but classy double wooden doors with a simple sign over it that wrote: The Simple Bar. The whole thing felt a bit simplistic when one looked at it cursorily, but if one was a bit more thorough, an aura of nobility and mystery could be perceived from it. Although, one may need to be a cultivator or someone more attuned with energies in general to be able to notice it. A random drunk person stumbling around may not be able to feel anything from it. Dismissing my last random thought, I proceeded to enter through the 'entrance' door and found myself directly inside the newly created main room of the bar, observing the result of our earlier discussion with Ali. Well, I couldn't deny that I was pleased. VERY pleased. Anyone sitting on a one of those comfortable looking chair and drinking one of the drinks that we proposed would feel a increase in hapiness. A nice addition that we didn't go over earlier was the multiple windows situated on each of the room's sides which showed different views from Earth. At least, I thought it was Earth. There was a beautiful lake with a waterfall in one, a nice looking Buddhist temple situated on a misty mountain in another, and a few others. There was even one that showed the inside of what seemed like a corral barrier full of fish and colorful crustaceans. “I love what you've done with the place Ali. Especially the windows. They give a feeling of traveling the world without moving from the comfort of one's home.” As soon as I finished talking, Ali replied in a happy tone of voice. [I knew you would enjoy them. And they are not static. What I mean by that is that the location showed will change from time to time. There is a bit of randomness in the chosen locations, but I still pay attention to not show awkward situations. After all, I did not want our bar to have weird scenes appearing behind the windows. That would be too embarrassing.] “Haha, I get what you mean. Oh! I wanted to ask you something. Do you think we could open tomorrow night? I know that I haven't contacted those powerful cultivators yet, but I feel a bit impatient and can't help but want to start as quickly as I can. Also, I'll be able to finish everything I need to take care of tomorrow during the day. After all, I need to resign from my job, get all the official documents about my apartment sent to the right place, etc. It seemed like a lot, but it shouldn't take me more than a day though. Beside physically giving back the keys to my apartment, of course. But I'll be able to deal with that next week by telling my landlord that I'll give up on my security deposit in exchange.” [We can start then, if you want. I already created all the recipes and brewed the beverages with the use of the Laws of Space and Time. All in all, everything is ready and we can start whenever you wish.] She declared with her warm and calming voice. Listening to her reply, I asked, a bit puzzled. “You used the Laws of Space and Time to brew some drinks that are mainly for low level cultivators? Isn't that a bit overkill?” She chuckled at my naive question and answered. [I see that you're not very aware of how brewing work in general and even more in the 'cultivation world'. Well, an alcoholic beverage may take days, weeks or even months to be ready for consumption. And that is for normal drinks. For the later to have any effects on cultivators, it may take years, millennia or even more time. So, no, it is not overkill to use those two Laws to brew those beverages. At least if we want to be able to actually serve anything to customers in a few minutes and not in a few million years.] I felt mortified at my stupidity. I was aware of some of the specifics behind the creation of what I consider as the nectar of the gods, a.k.a. the beer, but I didn't even make the connection with the current situation. I may have become more intelligent with my power up, but I still had to train myself to use that intelligence wisely... *Sigh* Nothing was easy in this world. “I didn't think of that. I do feel stupid now.” [It is fine Lucas, as long as you understand what you need to do for that situation to not happen again.] I said with some exasperation. “Brush up my knowledge on important stuff and try to think before saying stupid things. Got it!” [Hehe. As long as you understand.] After a few seconds of silent chuckle, she continued. [The other thing I wanted to tell you was a few things that I worked on and that I want you to check if you agree with it, or if you wanted to modify them.] I nodded and asked. “Sure! What are those?” Ali then replied. [The first is the rules and punishments of the bar. They are not exhaustive, but at least I chose a few basic ones. You should peruse them and tell me what you think.] As she finished speaking, a holographic 'black board' appeared in front of my eyes with all the rules and punishments clearly written on it. As I went through them, I noticed a few intriguing things. “It said No Credit. I'm guessing you already decided on the currency you want to accept?” [Any international currency at first. And when the planet reach a high enough Grade, Mana stones.] She replied succinctly. “Got it.” I kept reading the rules. “No fight, personal orders...” I mumbled out loud, trying to find something to modify or improve, but I couldn't find anything more on the spot. Maybe in the future when the situation arose, I'd add other rules. “The rules seem pretty good to me. We'll see in the future if there is a need to modify or add some more. Let me check the punishments... Mmmhh... Ban... corporal punishments... Killing? What? Wouldn't it be a bit excessive to kill someone in the bar? I mean it's not as if they would be able to hurt anyone with your presence, wouldn't they?” [Sometimes, it is necessary. Some people will just not care about your threats as long as you do not go through with them. There is an idiom on your planet that states, killing the monkey to warn the chicken. That is the exact situation, since, although they would not be able to hurt you personally, they may bother you or hurt someone you care about. Cultivators can be ruthless, after all.] I knew she was right, but I didn't like the sound of that. Thankfully as she saw me ruminating some dark thoughts, Ali added. [Do not worry too much though. The killing punishment is only for the worst offender possible. It is entirely possible for you to never need it. However, the customers are warned so they can not blame you if they pushed you too far.] I sighed wistfully, feeling a bit confused as to how I was supposed to think of the whole situation where I was able in all impunity to kill someone, just because he or she pissed me off too much. It sounded a bit surreal to me. I thought. “I guess this is the cultivation world and the only reason that I have the choice of not killing is simply because I was lucky enough to meet Ali and become the strongest being on the planet 'easily'. Otherwise, I might have become one of those cannon fodders that no one remembered in those cultivation novels. The ones that met their maker as soon as they angered the main character... What a crazy world. I do prefer serving good drinks and share stories with interesting people. It's much better!”