"My Name's Eckes," The blonde guy gestured for a handshake.

"I'm Greed," I replied reaching his hand. I noticed he was wearing a bracelet with some green beads in the shape of bones.

We sat in a wooden table inside a room that appears to be a tavern. Men and women feasted on food and drinks while a bard set the mood with a joyful music using his lute.

"Looking beautiful as ever," Eckes told the barmaid as she passed our table. He took a cup from her platter.

"Make sure you'll pay up," the girl gave him a cold gaze.

"Sure thing if you accept quints," he waved her off and passed me the cup. "Care for a drink?" he said.

I sniffed and checked the brown liquid that filled the cup. I reluctantly took a sip before gulping it up.

I was expecting something different from its scent but weirdly it tasted bland and plain.

"Don't take too much, Mortal's food are poison to us."

"Poison?" I coughed.

"Relax," he chuckled, "just don't take too much. So how does it taste? Feeling tipsy?"

"This is plain water, right?" I replied hoping its just a prank.

"Pfft, that's a strong liquor you know," Eckes laughed, "but that's that, our bodies do not tolerate eating their food. Anything that is yielded from the land including meat, fish, and dairy products. Water is an exception though."

"So what do we eat?"

He grinned and moved his hand to summon an interface panel in his front. I remembered doing the same when I tried buying some grilled meat which I think was the reason I was called a freak.

"Mortals do not see the interface,"

Eckes said as he noticed me staring at the panel, "its not everyday that these Mortals see us weave our fingers in the air. It's pretty weird for them."

"That makes sense."

"Actually, Mortals are so much inferior to us. They age faster, their wounds take days to heal, and they are prone to sickness and disease. If there's anything that makes them superior to us, its their ability to reproduce."

"The lady didn't mention that."

"Lady who? Ideia? Too much to call herself the guide, right? And she didn't even tell you the most important part."

From Eckes' hand materialized a small green crystal, he shove all the panels off and handed it to me.

"This, is what we eat."

"Huh?"

"Funny, right? Mortals used to call us rockeaters at some point in history."

"You mean, we eat..." I stared at the crystal in my hand that is no more than an inch in size.

"Three small pieces day and night, drink plenty of water and take a good long sleep. There are other ways to make them fancy but I still recommend eating them raw."

I hesitated as I held the crystal closer. Why would we eat rock? I told myself. This is not even a rock... or is it?

I percieved the scent of the grilled meat in the stall but I thought it was not appetizing and the drink I just had here tasted bland.

Eating a crystal doesn't make sense but it got me curious so I swallowed it up. In just a second, the hard solid stuff melted in my mouth and tasted something between sweet and sour.

"Ideia call it essence, but here we call it quints."

"Quints? Wait, essence?"

"Mortal scholars who tried studying the stuff named it Quintessence, the fifth element--or whatever. See, the rules did not specifically state that mortals cannot touch them so these people studied the matter in search of ways on how to give it a meaningful function. Unfortunately they found nothing.

Well, not that its useless for us; aside from serving as food, Ethereals treat quints as currency. Some mortal merchants and craftsmen recently started trading them too."

"This is the essence we obtain from chaos, right?" I struggled to pick the proper term.

"The Empyreal War," Eckes casually spoke. "There are other ways to obtain them aside from battles. But yeah, this is the actual physical manifestation of the numbers you see above your Chalice."

I took out my interface after he spoke and found the option that labelled Chalice which lead me to a panel that shown the current essence that I have.

[ Chalice 200 / 1,000,000 ]

"Boo, you've got a looooong way to go," Eckes commented as he took a peek.

"What will happen if I raise it to a million? The lady vaguely answered me when I asked her that. She said something about a priviledge?"

"The priviledge to meet Kronum, the Reagent. That old man would drain all of your collected essence but in exchange you can make a wish. They said he can literally make anything possible as long as its fair and logical."

"You mean there are people who actually did it?"

"Yeah, its technically not impossible. There's a guy from the other town who wished to revive a mortal. The mortal did came back to life although she lost all the memories she had before. There's another one who wished to be freed from being an Ethereal and so he became free by turning into a Mortal, sadly he died in an accident a few days after. Tragic stories aside, there's one person who wished for wealth, and I mean the wealth of the Mortals not quints, he became a baron and was given a portion of land by the king."

"Why did he not became a king instead?"

"Remember the rule, we are not allowed to hold authority over mortals and he only asked for wealth, not to become a king. The guy did became a baron but his vassals were Ethereals, since then it has became a literal paradise for the likes of us."

Hearing this slightly eased my mind from thinking that I would not be able to do the task of collecting essence. If others can do a million I might as well do my best to reach it too.

I wonder what sort of wish I should make.

I thought the converstion I had with the lady gave me enough knowldege about this world, about Mortals and Ethereals, but it seems I still have a lot to learn. I was grateful for meeting this guy.

"Dream on dude. Go to battle day and night but it would still take years before you fill that up," Eckes said pointing at the panel I have.

"What makes you say that?"

"Math," Eckes explained grinning, "Winning a duel would yield you thirty quints, you can averagely take duels for eight to ten times a day. Clash in the other hand would yield fifty but those battles tend to take more time than duels. Now let's say, you're super incredible that you could win every single duel, the shortest time for you to collect a million quints is nine years."

"I doubt I can win every single battle,"

"Exactly!"

The battle I experienced from the test was already hard for me. I could not imagine myself fighting several battles like that everyday and winning all of them every single time. Doing it for nine straight years?

"You said there are other ways to obtain essence."

"You can join a guild," Eckes quickly answered taking another cup from the barmaid who again passed the table. She once more gave him a mad expression before walking off.

"A guild?" I asked feeling ignorant of all the terms.

"Ethereals are allowed to form guilds. Groups of individuals united by a single interest, a noble cause or whatever. There are several advantages in joining a guild, one of which is a free source of quintessence."

"Why would guilds give free essence?"

"Free quints are like spare funds. Something similar to wages which are given to members inexchange of doing their job. A guild member's job is to participate in battles against other guilds. Since battles between guilds generate more quints than normal, the rest of the members are given extra."

I could not catch up what he just said. Learning about guilds and hearing information about guild battles seemed to be too early for me. I think those battles are the same from what I experienced but then again the only experience I had was the test.

"Did I heard you guys talking about guilds?" Someone else spoke, another guy came into our table.

"Nergal, leader of the Blackdogs, one of the top guilds in the region if I'm allowed to boast," the person gestured for a handshake which I reluctantly took. I got wary of his appearance. His beard and mustache added weight on his muscles and the way he tied his hair gave him a fierce look. On his hand was a silver ring embedded with a black crystal.

"This is Greed, boss, he's a rookie," Eckes introduced me as the guy sat beside him.

"The Blackdogs are actually looking for recruits this year," Nergal smiled. He had a laid-back expression but something in his stiff smile felt off.

"The guild is planning to expand, joining us doesn't sound bad, you think?" Eckes said taking a sip from his cup.

"You mean... I can join your guild?"

Nergal nodded, "I personally train the newbies,"

"Oh... Um... Great!" I tried to respond positive but it felt too early for me to join a guild. The free source of quints was nice and tempting but I just met these two. They are being kind to me right now but I don't have much knowledge about them.

Participate in Guild battles, that's what a guild member do. That's what Eckes said. I barely have experience in battle. I had hard time winning against a golem and I guess a battle against a guild would be a hundred times harder than that. I would be fighting other Ethereals.

Well, It doesn't mean I would be fighting alone. I believe Ethereals from the same guild would be fighting with me too, not just those mindless pawns. The idea of having better allies all seem good.

But then I might become a burden to them. I'm not confident with my current state. I'm still not proficient in dodging or blocking with my weapon and there are times that I fail in activating a skill.

The fierce looking guy said that he personally train recruits. I have a feeling he's good, if he would train me then I might become better.

Thoughts clouded my mind as I tried to decide. Should I join their guild?