Mundane

Until now, Dorian had never really paid attention to the city, he had treated it like he treated cities in games: He knew where quest givers gathered, the basic outline of the 'streets', and knew of a few important buildings such as the City Lord Mansion or the police station.

Though, Dorian decided he would live normally today. So he he first began wandering in the empty streets. Without his equipment on, he was very cold, but it actually didn't tale long for his Cold Resistance to level up to level 6, almost making the cold disappear.

Like that, Dorian soon arrived to the city's main center of interest, where people spent most of their days. Because it was so early, not many people were here, and only a few shops were opened. One of them was the bakery, so Dorian decided to make his way there.

He was attracted by the fabulous smell that came from that place. And he happened to have a lot of coins with him. He wished the town had any hotel for the nights, but the city was far too secluded for anything like that.

As he entered the shop, the smell intensified and Dorian's eyes set on the different pastries. Their looked strange and their name was foreign. For example the Guli, an elliptic shaped green pastry filled with some kind of cream.

As he looked at the different pastries, a middle aged man with a bit of fat approached and asked with a smile "You are quite early, the first customer of the day. I wished my son was as resolute as you. What can I do for you boy?"

Dorian looked up and smiled sincerely "I just arrived in the city, and to be honest I'm quite lost in this city, my hometown is very different from here. What is this… Gio? Jyom? I don't know how to pronounce it."

As he said that, Dorian pointed at what looked like bread. The man smiled and said "Jion. You aren't from the surrounding Kingdoms are you? Which Kingdom do you hail from?" Dorian replied "A faraway land, I doubt you know of it. I came here to visit an uncle, but the war forced me to come here. How long have you been here?"

The baker replied "I have always lived here, I didn't come here because of the war. So, anything else with that Jion?" Dorian shook his head and said "It's alright."

The baker packed it up and said "That will be one silver." Dorian took out a silver when he heard stomping from above. He looked up in surprise and the baker said "We live upstairs, this should be my son."

Dorian smiled and gave the silver coin to the baker. With a nod, he left the shop and looked around the plaza, searching for something to do. In such a foreign environment, it was hard for Dorian to find anything interesting to do, he had no idea what people in this era did for amusement.

But as he looked around, he heard the door of the bakery behind him slam open, and before he could turn around he felt someone crash into his back. Unfortunately for that person, although Dorian had removed his equipment, his Strength and Vitality attributes were still terrifying, enabling his feet to stay on the ground.

Dorian looked back and saw a young girl had bumped into him, and she was holding her bum in pain. At the same moment, a young man's voice was heard approaching rapidly "Leticia, wait! Hey, what are you doing on the ground… Who are you?"

Dorian looked as a young man barely older than him spoke to the girl, then to him. Dorian nodded his head slightly and said "Good morning. I am no one special."

The guy shrugged and said "Thanks for stopping her though." He looked down and helped the girl up and said "Leticia, I told you to stop running."

The girl looked away and said "I don't want to hear your voice, jerk!" Dorian shook his head and began walking away, this was none of his business.

But as he made his way out of there, he heard the girl say "Hey you! What's your name?" He turned his head and saw the girl coming after him. He tried to stop his face from going cold as he replied "Dorian."

She nodded and said "Then sorry Dorian for bumping into you, it was my mistake." Dorian looked at her surprised. He didn't expect her to apologize, he thought he had fallen upon an arrogant miss.

He said "Don't worry, it's fine. Have a good day." But he was again stopped from leaving, but by the boy this time who asked "Did you just arrive in the city?"

Dorian nodded, and the young man laughed "Great, my name is Florian! If you just arrived I guess you don't know anyone. Why don't you join us, my friends and I currently lack a person for what we want to do."

Dorian was about to reject when he realized this was a chance. So he replied "Sure, when?" Florian shrugged and replied "When are you free?" Dorian smiled "I'm living alone and unemployed, all I have is free time."

The girl suddenly said "What luck, you live on your own! I wish I could, my parents would stop nagging me everyday…"

Dorian said nothing to that girl's remark. Had he been here alone because his family died he would have been offended, but he was here on a mission so he couldn't care less about a girl's complaint about her parents.

Like this, Dorian followed the two around, and learned a bit about the odd pair. They were a couple, they both lived in this city before the start of the war and were childhood sweet hearts. The reason they had been arguing was because Florian had to cancel that day's activity, because they lacked a person, so Leticia was pissed at him for lying or whatever bull crap he said.

Thanks to them, Dorian also got to meet other people of their age, and finally discovered what they were up to. After gathering 8 people, including Dorian, Florian and Leticia, Florian led them all to an old abandoned house, which was in ruins.

Dorian had noticed it when he had been searching for a place to settle, but had discarded the place because the house didn't give any protection against the cold as there were holes everywhere, moreover it threatened to fall on itself at any moment.

As the arrived near it, they hid as they looked at the house with apprehension and excitement. Except for Dorian, who asked "What are we doing here exactly?"

A cute girl who was only 15 called Rose exclaimed "Didn't anyone tell him what we are doing?!"

An older boy, Leon, hushed "Quiet! Are you mad?!" Rose lowered her head and said "You still should have told him…"

Next to her, the oldest of the group, Natasha, who was in her early twenties, said "Dorian, do you know the Butcher?"

Dorian nodded, of course he did, as it was him!

Natasha said "He has been seen sneaking around here, the rumors says that this house is his hideout!"

Dorian made a shocked face, but he laughed inwardly. He liked them.

A brutish looking boy on the side, called Kevin, said "Are we going or not?"

The last boy of the group, Flint, said "Of course we are. But how? Natasha?"

The leader of the group was Natasha, so of course the choice ultimately came to her. After thinking for a bit, she finally said "We try to sneak in. Follow my lead."

Had it been the Dorian from before experiencing the Dreamland, he would have cried out laughing looking at the youngsters trying to be sneaky. But even with the dulling of his emotions that occurred after he arrived in this world, he still let out a smile.

For someone who upgraded his [Basic Sneak] to level 10, calling this Sneak was an insult to the ability. Still, he followed them, pushing down the urge to activate [Fade] and use Sneak, and followed them in their game.