Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Jaunt

Chapter 6: Jaunt

 

The early morning run was an eye-opening experience for Parth.

Firstly, his performance was unreal. He kept running at a good pace and didn’t feel the throes of fatigue touching him even once. A small trickle of his mana was being expended, but he could feel that his body was better even without actively using mana. He felt way better than he ever did.

He easily ran a couple of kilometers before his mana even came to the fore. His stamina had shot through the roof, and his muscles were not strained one bit. He didn't expect such changes. Yes, he had felt like this during the fight, but he had been actively pumping large quantities of mana back then. This was different. Just having an active mana reserve pushed him beyond the capabilities of an ordinary human. 

Another thing he noticed was that he wasn't sweating. His temperature increased during the exercise, but he didn't feel uncomfortable at all. Moreover, the moment he thought about it, the heat just vanished from his body. If his magic wanted to make him sweat-free, who was he to complain?

It was not just his body though. The cloud of hopelessness that hung over him constantly had all but disappeared. He did not get cured miraculously; no. But he felt way better than usual. His first victory after his fruitless endeavors factored majorly in that. Apart from that, doing magic, and finding his physical capabilities boosted played a major role as well. Palpable signs of better times can give a broken man a lot of hope.

Secondly, Viz was not Earth. He already knew that. But he hadn’t experienced it completely. Now that he had a chance to do so, he was mesmerized. Tava was the largest continent on this planet. Just like Australia, it was both a continent and a country. Although, it was nothing like any other country in his home world. The more he explored the place, the more that fact sunk in. Of course, he hadn't even made it out of the sector he was staying at, but other factors told him so.

Tava was divided into hundred sectors. Each sector was akin to a state. Currently, he was staying in sector one, the capital of the empire. When he first opened the navigation feature in his ring, he had taken a little time to look at the map of the country. He was intrigued by it and decided to do a deep dive later. The device had asked him what he wanted to do, and he had verbally said that he wanted to go on a run. The next instant, several jogging routes from his current location sprang up on the map. He answered a few more questions and it automatically narrowed down the best route for him.

So, he followed the directions. He hadn't expected such a scenic route right in the heart of the capital.

What really impressed him was that pollution was almost nonexistent. There was a metric showing the air quality index on the map, but he wasn't familiar with that, so he couldn't immediately understand what the number meant. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t feel it. The air had a sort of freshness to it that he only experienced in his occasional visits to wildlife reserves. It felt clean.

It was not like the Tavans didn't use technology. They used it aplenty. They had loads of vehicles; different kinds of them even. Yet, the city's air was taint-free. It was otherworldly in every sense of the word.

The lack of pollution was not the only notable observation he made.

Inside the quarters the voyagers were situated in, most of the staff he saw were the D’Raacs. He even knew why. It was tradition for them to welcome the voyagers. It was their home world, they took that duty seriously. All D’Raacs were Tavans, but that didn’t mean that all Tavans were D’Raacs.

He saw so many humans, fairies, synthires, and D’Raacs walking around than he did from his balcony. It made sense since their quarters were secluded and highly secured. It all changed the moment he stepped foot into the city proper.

His observation had been skewed. He was mistaken previously. The others weren’t really outsiders at this point.

It boggled him how everyone was going about their lives as if none of this was strange. For them, it was a fact of life. For him, it was a mind-blowing sight. Fashion here was as diverse as the species inhabiting this world. Even the human residents of Tava were very different in that regard.

Some wore clothes that would be severely outdated back on Earth, while others wore clothes that seemed entirely alien to Parth.

He was wearing a sweatshirt and basketball shorts, both given to him after he described the clothes to the caretaker. They were swift with the execution, so he was sure that modern fashion from Earth will also slowly trickle into the market.

It made sense though. Every hundred years, there was an influx of people from other worlds. With them, they brought in the latest trends of that time. They stayed and adapted to the culture over here. Their descendants were entirely born into this culture. This had been happening for thousands of years. He could see how things can be like this.

Normally, there would be other issues concerning the new people, but the Centurion Challenge solved most of them. The natives did not resent the voyagers, because they keep the dungeon in check. The voyagers did not resent the natives, because they helped them survive the dungeon. It was a symbiotic relationship and it seemed to work well.

Moreover, some of the human bloodlines thriving here had been living here for more than nine thousand years. The same was the case for the fairies and the synthires. At that point, who even was a foreigner? They were the natives as well.            

The metal discs stuck behind his ears fed him a steady stream of music and he found himself enjoying it. Just like everything else, the music here was varied, and almost every genre under the sun was available. Even those that he had never heard of. He missed his playlist, sure, but discovering new music had a different charm of its own. He'd still try to see if any of his fellow voyagers had downloaded copies on their phones. From what Roul told him though, he didn’t have to worry much about such things. That they’d hook him up soon. So, he was waiting for that.

The ring and the discs themselves were comparatively new. He had found from the small tutorial that they were derived from synthire tech two challenges ago. Two hundred years ago. The Tavans had then streamlined it all with a touch of their magitech, and there it was. Tava had other communication devices before that, but these took the market by storm. Of course, over the two centuries, these things had been improved even more. But it clearly showed how much ahead of Earth they were.

As he continued running on the pavement, he held up his right fist and watched the hologram come up at once. He looked at the map and saw that he was beginning to circle back toward the quarters. He looked at the surrounding area on the map and found something interesting. A flight of fancy took him and he quickly rerouted the map to a different location.

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Fifteen minutes later, he slowed down to a brisk walk as he stepped into the marketplace.

He couldn’t stop himself from looking around in wonder. He was a dimensional tourist, and he was sticking to his role. There was no shame about that.

The marketplace itself was a huge street with shops on both sides. Some were big, some were small. It was a cornucopia of just about everything. Some were garment stores, while others were showrooms of various gadgets. There were a few restaurants and what seemed like pubs as well. All in all, the street had everything.

All kinds of people were milling about in this early hour. He saw storekeepers going about opening the shop for the day. He walked past a cargo vehicle that was unloading goods that were carried into different stores. Some early shoppers were already hitting up a few shops. Meanwhile, others were walking briskly, presumably toward their offices. The world might be different, but some things were the same everywhere.

He smiled involuntarily as the familiarity washed over him. He used to do this back on Earth. Sometimes, he'd go on a morning jog, hit up a juice shop near the end of the run, down a protein shake, and walk the rest of the way home.

Here, he was too far away to just walk back to his lodgings. But he had a lot of money now, so a cab wouldn't hurt.

After a few minutes of walking around, he spotted a juice bar that he found appealing. A few customers were occupying some seats and drinking the beverage of their choice. The vibe of the place suited him just fine, so he walked in.

The moment he entered the shop, his newfangled earphones pinged with the sound of a notification. He raised his right hand in confusion and the screen popped up from the ring immediately.

Cleo’s Orchid- the notification said.

He pressed it and found the entire menu of the shop appearing on the screen. It was full of fruit juices and other fruit-based beverages.

Parth whistled in appreciation as he scrolled through the menu. The technological integration was quite smooth. It was standardized as well since Roul told him that the rings doubled up as identification. So everyone was bound to have one.

To his delight, there was a strawberry protein shake on the menu. He selected it without hesitation and was hit with a prompt about payment. He could either go up to the counter and place his order there, or he could do it from his ring. Either way, he’d have to pay using the account linked to his ring. Deciding to see how seamless it was, he decided to place the order from his device. A quick biometric verification later, his order was placed and he was instructed to wait. All it cost him were two credits.

He picked an empty table and sat down. For the next two minutes, he just messed around with the interface and found out that he could place orders from outside and come pick them up, or he could get stuff delivered. Everything was linked to the map, so it made the process easier.

“Welcome to Cleo’s Orchid. Hope you enjoy your drink,” a waitress broke him out of his reverie and placed a tall glass of milkshake in front of him.

“Thanks,” Parth replied with a smile and dispelled the hologram.

Once she left the table, he focused on the drink in front of him.

The container looked like glass, but the light glimmered off of it differently. It gave the whole thing a sparkly quality. It made it look like his entire drink was dazzling, as if it were placed under a spotlight. Even the straw was made of the same material and completed the ensemble quite nicely.

He placed his lips on the crystalline straw, and the milkshake disappeared within a minute. People around him always complained that he drank stuff too quickly. That he didn’t savor the thing. It was all a load of bullshit. Parth firmly believed that if you enjoy something, you shouldn't force yourself to stop every few seconds. If you enjoyed something, you should let your appreciation show. That was the hill he would die on; no matter what anyone said.

It was not as if he did not get to properly taste the drink. Frankly, it had beaten all his expectations. It was fruity. Authentic. There was no way that there was artificial flavoring involved in this. If it was, he'd be really surprised. The blend was smooth, the flavor was strong, and most of all, it was filling. The taste lingered on his tongue, and he was sure that he'd soon become a regular customer of Cleo's.

 After the satisfactory drink, he checked the time and shrugged nonchalantly. He was in no hurry to be anywhere. As he exited Cleo’s he decided to explore the marketplace some more.

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