The visitor
For the next two days, Seth remained in the storage room, which was occasionally broken into. Mostly by big or stronger beasts who paid him no mind. Maybe he was too weak, or not big enough for a meal. And the weaker ones were scared off by the three beasts.
He had used the food and water in the storage container for those two days. Thankfully it was enough to feed him and the other three creatures in the room. Water wasn't a problem since they could just melt the ice.
On the fourth day, Seth awoke to complete silence, as he gripped the sword and looked at the armor that he finally had time to check out.
"Status menu." He called out as a screen showed up. He discovered this after some gods told him to speak it. He could check his stats here, as well as his equipment and skils.
[Name: Emerald Fang.
Type: Weapon (Katana sword).
Stats: Attack +10.
Strength +10.
Defense +2.
Agility +7.
Skills: Windslash Lv.1.
Crystal swing Lv.1.
(Other skills locked by The Harem King's authority.)]
[Name: Crystal Ant's Shell.
Type: Armor set.
Stats: Defense +20.
Attack +5.
Intelligence +5.
Skills: Insect missile Lv.1.
Entomancy Lv.1.
Lightning steps Lv.1.]
He didn't really get how it worked, but from the few MMOs he occasionally played during his free time, he knew that these were pretty good for starting equipment.
He stepped out of the room and saw an old man with a sheathed sword standing at the door, and before he could speak, the old man turned to look at him. "Can you make food?" He asked.
"Yeah, I can do that." Seth responded in a monotonous tone as the old man threw a small pouch at him, which he grabbed out of the air out of pure reflex.
"The ingredients and payment is in there, so just make me something." The old man spoke as he took a seat at one of the tables that weren't broken.
Seth took a look at the kitchen, seeing that almost everything was broken, and that all the meat in the freezer was stolen. At least there were corpses of beasts that had died that were thrown around the room, which seemed untouched, as he ordered his tamed beasts to drag the corpses to the freezer.
He then inspected the pouch.
[Name: Bag of holding.
Properties: Able to store items in a 50m³ pocket dimension. Take out the items by putting your hand in it and speaking their names. Alernatively, you can just flip it and make it spit everything out.]
"Does this shit have an A.I. in it or something?" He asked himself as he flipped it, forcing everything out as he saw a giant chicken's plucked corpse flop onto the floor alongside several fruits and vegetables, as well as some strange crystals.
[The greatest cook admires the ingredients you have been granted.]
[He lends you his knife.]
A knife appeared in front of Seth, which he grabbed after putting the crystals to the side, cutting open the chicken extremely easily with it.
He proceeded to skin and separate its intestines and any other parts he couldn't cook while he ordered Vincent the salamander to light the stoves.
He then got the pots and pans ready, picking up the ones that he could still use, or those with minimal damage.
He then rapidly cut the vegetables and meat, preparing it in several ways. Deep-fried, chicken soup and grilled were just a few of many dishes. Obviously he couldn't cook the whole chicken, Luna the moth dragging it into the freezer once he was done.
Several dozen minutes later, he and the beasts walked out with a salad and the dishes he prepared. "Please enjoy your meal." He said as he prepared to walk away, before he felt like he was grabbed by something. He turned and saw the old man grabbing the air.
"Sit down and eat with me, young man. There's no way I can finish all of this on my own." He said as Seth was suddenly set down on a seat by an invisible force.
Surprised, he blinked before realizing he could no longer apply logic to how he lived. "Do you want the chicken's corpse and the leftover food back, old man,?" He asked.
"Chicken? Oh you mean the cockatrice." The old man spoke as he chewed on a deep fried chicken. "Nah, you can keep it. And my name isn't old man, I'm Jin Kang." He introduced himself. "Gimme my Bag of holding back, though."
Handing over the bag, he spoke. "I'm Seth Malik." He said as he began eating, not deciding to ask for compensation because he hadn't seen any money in what came out of the bag. This man could cleanly kill beasts like that on his own, not even leaving feathers, so he minded his own business while they made small talk.
The food filled Seth with energy as messages popped up in front of him.
[Your mana increases by +1. Mana stat unlocked.]
[Your strength increases by +2.]
Several similar messages appeared in front of him, but he felt nothing so he ignored them.
Jin pat his belly and laughed. "I haven't had a meal that good in years." He said before standing up and stretching out. "Thanks young man." he spoke as he handed him a different bag of holding. "Take this. For making such outstanding food."
"Thanks, I guess." Seth said as he put it into his pocket. "Any way to contact you?" He asked.
"Yeah, check the bag. There's a jade slip in there. Put some mana in it and it'll send me a message." He spoke before he looked at the ceiling. "I'll see you later." Jin said before floating outside and leaving.
Seth followed him and saw two people bowing in front of him, speaking in a language he couldn't understand before they flew away on swords.
He also saw countless corpses on the street, his mind overtaken by greed as he put the monster corpses into his bag, ordering Aurum the thunderbird hatchling to throw them into the freezer once the bag was filled, and repeated the process several times, not forgetting to take what he liked from shops and other peoples' homes.
Anything that was still functional, at least. He kept the corpses that wouldn't fit in his bag.
He continued the looting all the way until the middle of the night, returning to his home to sleep in one of the beds he stole, due to his own having been broken.
He stared at the ceiling, contemplating today's events before falling asleep after an unknown time.