It sounds like Orana has noticed that Eseli was peering into the kitchen, with her head sticking out looking intensely at the cake making-baking process. I haven’t seen Eseli be this physically active before, even her facial expression is sort of excited. Hard to use the word “excited” next to Eseli.

Orana: “Looks like this one is impatient. Worry not dear Eseli. I am not simply the only cake baker in Susana, but I’m also a very good one. A profession if you will, someone who can bake them quickly while keeping their quality to a high standard.”

Eseli: “…nnn…good…”

I’m currently looking through the little of possible dialogue choices I could say… I could talk more about what Eseli is doing now, about the Lunar Empire, something about the lord-mayor, or I could simply sit quietly and wait for Orana or Eseli to say something later.

Even though I do want to learn more about all these topics…I want to conserve my energy because at this rate I’ll fall asleep before Krafty and May arrive at Susana. Oh my gosh, this cake shop’s environment is really cozy. I need to do something to keep me awake, maybe I should ask something…

While I sit quietly, I notice while looking back at the conversation window, there are now arrows sitting next to name “Orana”, if I press them, it seems to switch the subject to Eseli. I didn’t know this existed before. Is this arrow option only available in instanced conversation scenes such as this one, or is it because there are multiple people I can talk with right now? I’ll assume it’s the latter reason for now.

I’ve been in this type of conversation mode ever since me and Eseli came here. It’s interesting because characters can still carry out their actions like they usually do, including the Players. Sometimes there isn’t even any dialogue carrying a conversation, like right now. But if I so choose, I could talk instantly and directly talk with the NPCs whenever I’d like to. What’s basically occurring right now is like if a set of pictures (such as in a comic) became an animated show. At this rate, I wont just be learning something new about this game every day, but every hour!

So, the dialogue options available for me in regards to Eseli are basically a list of questions and a few demands. Demands such as, “you better pay me back after this” or “Start talking more normally or I’m not paying for this cake”. However, these are definitely not the things I want to tell her. They just sound like they’ll ruin the whole mood of this conversation. I could tell her to move away from the kitchen because she might be disturbing Orana, but Orana doesn’t seem to mind, so I think it’s fine. I’ve decided to ask Eseli to tell me more about herself, again. Since I still don’t know who she is exactly.

MC: “Eseli, why don’t you tell me more about yourself now?”

Eseli: “…nnn…no, not now…after I eat the cake”

That’s it? Well then, okay.

Orana: “Amulet, do you not know much about Eseli?”

MC: “No, she is simply a stranger to me. I just agreed to find some food with her.”

Orana: “Aha I see. You two are indeed peculiar. Hmm…how about you tell me more about yourself? I’ve already talked some stuff about myself, and we’ll be able to hear more about Eseli after she get’s her paws on the cake. So, we might as well chat away and share some more informationabout our backgrounds!”

MC: “Very well then, let me think of what to say about myself...”

Like what?! I’m just a Dwelf who wants to become a wizard but so far, I’ve only been an axe wielding warrior. Oh, and then there’s that whole thing about “achieve something great”, but that’s a long way off into the future. Let’s look at these response options…

[I am a person who is simply in search of wanderlust in this world]

I like this choice! It’s exactly what I want to be doing in this game.

[I am a Divine Spirit who has recently descended, I wish to help the residents of this world to make it a better place!]

I don’t want to tell her I’m a divine spirit, and for now those goals are beyond me. What will be the point? I could try to make it a better place at one moment but in a month some Players will ruin that.

[I am a Divine Spirit who has descended into this realm in search of power!]

No, that will definitely ruin the mood! But that’s probably the most honest answer for most Players, probably including myself. Get gear, get more skills, become more powerful!

[I come from another world! And I’ve arrived here to seek pleasure]

That sounds like something a demon, or a real weirdo, would say…

[I’m someone strong, and I want to become stronger, so I can slay my foes more.]

Yeah yeah… It’s basically the same as the other response option about “In search of power!” but with the Divine Spirit part removed.

There are some other response options available for me to choose from but they’re pretty much like the first one, which I’ll be pick.

MC: “I am a person who is simply in search of wanderlust in this world”

Orana: “Ah so you are a traveler! I thought you’d be one. So, where have you been?”

MC: “I just recently started my travels… so not many places yet.”

Orana: “I see… Well, my advice is to always stay on the road and never get sidetracked. Unless the road is obviously not a safe choice.”

Thank you for your advice Orana, but you see I’m a player in this game. A player whose goal is to go on high-risk and high-reward adventures, meaning I’ll purposefully be traveling to the dangerous places…!

MC: “I understand, thank you for your advice. Also, Orana, where have traveled before?

Orana: “Oh, not much in these regions surrounding the Holy Lands. Besides exploring the safe parts of my country, I did once go far southwest beyond the borders of the Lunar Empire. I distinctly remember traveling across a desert into exotic far flung cities. It is said, a place somewhere even farther in the south or very far towards the southwest, there is exists a land which all spice originates from. I don’t know if those tales are true, but I do know that in the end I couldn’t become a good spice merchant. That was the job I wished to do. I said to myself when I was younger, that when I’d grow up, I would become a spice merchant and travel around the world! So, I did, I gave it a shot, and it wasn’t for me. Something about travelling across the deserts to far flung cities is a bit too exotic for me.

MC: “So, you’ve sweetened your taste preference from spices to cakes”

Orana: “Haha, not exactly because I’ve always loved baking cakes. But it looks like that is indeed what happened. Oh, and speaking of cakes…it’s done!”

I see that Eseli’s tail has immediately sprang up into the air.

Orana: “It’s still hot so you must wait a while to let it cool down before eating, I’ve also covered it with a kitchen towel to keep it fresh, as you can see. So, give it about five minutes. Alright…I’m carrying it to the counter now…”

Oh no, I see that motion which Eseli is performing right now. While she was a lazy cat this whole time…I can immediately recognize if a creature is dog-like or not. And right now, Eseli is looking more dog than cat to me. Her tail is swinging around rapidly in the air, and it looks like she’s about to jump on that cake so she can instantly devour it. For the sake of me finishing this quest as smoothy as possible…I must stop her!

But how? Obviously, I shouldn’t attack her with my axe. Maybe if I run my body towards at her and hit/push her sideways then the character model will stagger Eseli sideways…or maybe I could try grabbing her like I did the last time when I dragged her to this town. But I’m pretty sure her light weight magic spell she casted unto herself has already faded away. But this will be worth the shot because I don’t have any better idea, so let’s see!

I’ve managed to grab unto her, but will I have enough strength to pull her away by force? I’ll give it a try…run Amulet Pond, run as hard as your little legs can to the other direction! Oh no it looks like I was right! Eseli is still trying to jump away towards the cake! Come on…pull harder!

*Fa-thud! Amulet and Eseli both fall onto the wooden floor on their stomachs face forward towards the opposite directions. While Orana continues to deliver the cake towards the counter, she calmly steps over Eseli after getting a little surprised by the spectacle*

Let me look over…come on get up Amlet…success! The cake is still intact! But it doesn’t mean it’ll remain that way in a few seconds, I must quickly get over onto my seat and sit guarding beside the cake until it’s ready to be eaten. Damnit, of course Eseli still has a lot of energy reserved in her… she’s going to take control over the cake before I will!

Fine, you bring me no choice! I’m taking my axe out…

*Amulet brought out his woodcutting axe and slammed its edge into the wood of the counter, sticking the axe into the wood. That wooden counter must not be high quality if an axe managed to lodge itself onto it*

There, I’ve asserted my dominance! But-Eseli’s eyes! They’re heating up in fiery-wait no…

it’s actual fire in her eyes! Oh no, she’s angry. This is the first time I’ve seen her express this much emotion!

Eseli: “NNnnnnn….NNNNNNnnnnn…”

This must be her own version of hissing!

…But now it seems like she has thankfully decided to calm down a little bit.

This was frightening because it’s like an inanimate object suddenly started to rapidly move around unnaturally.

But I’m glad Orana hasn’t been frightened, actually, if anything she’s gleefully smiling back at us with her head rest on her hands.

Orana: “You said before that the two of you are strangers? How did you meet?”

Eseli continues to glare at me, maybe I should answer this question extra carefully. Just in case. If I could, I would say something like “I found her on the sidewalk, but she’s turned out to be just a lazy cat”. But at this moment, I’m glad there isn’t a response option available like that because I’d be tempted to use it so I could ‘call her out’ or slightly insult her.

MC: “Yes, I’ve only met Eseli today by the side of a small road near a village south of here.”

Orana: “You’ve met only today? Tell me, what is the reason the of two you partnered up and arrived here?”

MC: “Eseli looked like she wished to eat something, and I basically invited her to eat out with me. So, we traveled all the way to Susana to find something fishy or sweet to eat.”

I mean, that’s what basically had happened.

Orana: “Oh, I didn’t think a Dwelf such as yourself, Amulet, would be interested in inviting such strong personalities as Eseli to a cake shop, a Snowmel.”

Don’t say it like it’s a date! Did you see what could’ve just happened right now? This friendly “eating out” almost turned into a grilling out, a burning of me by one of her fireballs! Now I think about it, if Eseli is powerful, she could easily kill me at any moment!

Anyways, I don’t want Orana to get the wrong idea so I’ll be a bit more honest with what happened even though it might risk angering Eseli for some reason.

MC: “Oh not at all, it’s nothing like that. Truth is, she was actually a captive of a band of Marauders. I was going to save her, but it seems like she saved herself, I merely unlocked her bindings and offered to go get something to eat in case she was hungry. And she was, saying that she prefers to have something fishy or sweet. So now we’re here.”

Orana: “Oh wonderful, I understand. Don’t worry, I was merely teasing. Well, anyways, the two of you are lucky to have found “Madam Pink”, the best (and only) cake shop in Susana! I now present to you, a fresh and simple yet exquisite sponge cake!”

Eseli’s glare instantly disappeared as she quickly took half of the medium sized sponge cake and placed it on her plate, in a blink of an eye she began destructively eating it. The cake isn’t tall, and it doesn’t look to be very spongey. I guess it’s because this world probably doesn’t have modern cooking supplies and the resources needed to bake a more modern cake. However, it still does look pretty good, and it feels like I’m watching an online video about “how to bake a cake” using this VR headset.

Meanwhile, Orana has properly sliced a piece of the cake for me. Obviously, I can’t eat the cake (even though I would like to) because I’m in a video game which doesn’t offer any other senses besides sight, sound, and some feelings of touch/control. But I guess Amulet Pond would love to eat it. Also, I wonder how my character will be affected after consuming it? Man…I’m going to buy myself a real cake tomorrow because I really want one now.

Okay, so I tap on the cake through my screen, and I get a “consume” option. What happens now?

I see my character information button blinking on my user interface. Let’s see what has changed…health bonus? No. Increased any of my attribute levels? No. However, it seems like eating the cake has added new type of “attribute level”, but I’m not sure if this is an attribute level or not. It’s called “decadence”, doesn’t sound like a good thing to me… Let’s see what the details of it are.

“Decadence is a scale used to measure how much of an abundance a character has in their physical, mental, or emotional comfortability. Depending on the amount of decadence a character has, it will cause random amounts of temporary or semi-permanent changes to the character’s status and many other factors. These changes can be negative, but also positive. The higher the amount of decadence there is, the stronger these changes will affect a character. Random chance determines some of what these changes will be like. But usually, a high amount of decadence is more likely to give off negative effects towards a character’s mentality and physicality.”

Wait, game, so are you saying that Amulet Pond has a received a little decadence physically, mentally, or emotionally? You say that decadence is an overabundance, but I’m pretty sure Amulet Pond doesn’t have any abundance in either his physical, mental, or emotional comfortability. Earlier today I was chopping wood for a long time, that increased my strength attribute’s level. So, it can’t be that Amulet has an overabundance of physical comfortability. Mentally, he had to fight and kill some Marauders, and it was his first time fighting and killing something! How’s he comfortable mentally? So…I guess eating this cake has gave a little abundance to his emotional comfortability side…but I don’t personally feel it!

Whatever, I’ll look to see how my dependent lady-cat is doing after eating a cake-and woah who is this person!

I’m still in conversation mode, so I’ll change my conversation subject direction to Eseli.

MC: “What happened to you?!”

She’s using a napkin to tidy her face from previously ferociously devouring the large piece of cake she greedily took!

Eseli: “What could you ever mean dear Amulet Pond?”

Since when did she become an actual proper “lady-cat”??? Orana is also still smiling gleefully towards us, does she know something I don’t?