Arriving at the city, Shiro immediately noticed how different it was compared to other cities. Rather than a bright blue sky, there was a gloomy red sky in its place. Dark clouds loomed over ominously as the wind sounded like a dead man’s scream, echoing in the distance.

  The buildings were crafted from a matt black material that had a texture similar to that of a person’s bone. Each window was reinforced but still cracked under the strange atmosphere of this city.

  "Welcome to Clomore, aka, the city of decay. The only thing that doesn’t decay in this city are bones and special material crafted from the monsters that reside around the city." Sharis smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrows.

  "Charming place." Shiro shrugged.

  "There are worse places than this haha, for now though, let’s wait for Yin since she should be arriving soon with my subordinate." Nan Tian smiled.

  "Sure. Sharis, is there a café or something nearby? A place where I can just eat for a bit." Shiro asked.

  "Yeah there is, just follow me." Sharis nodded her head and took them into the town.

  Taking a few turns into the alleys, which were quite suspicious, they eventually arrived at an inconspicuous store called Taura. Entering through the doors, Sharis looked towards the man behind the counter with a grin.

  "Claud! I’m here with a few customers for you." Sharis called out with a smile.

  "Mn? You’re familiar with this place?" Shiro asked curiously.

  "Yup. You see, I needed to do a few errands in this city, and I happened to chance upon this store. The location’s not that good and the owner runs it for a hobby, but the food and drinks here are great." Sharis chuckled.

  "Oh you’re back. I thought you were in a different country for a job?" The man called Claud yawned lazily.

  He was a man that looked like he was in his late 20’s and he had long hair that was tied up into a low ponytail and a pair of black rimmed glasses. Wearing a waiter’s outfit that consisted of a black vest, white shirt, black pants and a bow tie, he looked like a serious man despite his current lazy attitude.

  Looking up, he saw Shiro and Nan Tian and quickly sat up straight. Cracking his neck, he brought out a few menus before gesturing for the two of them to sit by one of the tables.

  "What can I get for you two?" He asked with a smile.

  "What about me? You’re ignoring your friend here you know?" Sharis sighed as she leaned on the counter.

  "What kind of friend eats here every time for free? Your money grabber." Claud clicked his tongue.

  "Oh, but I do a few favours in return though. Remember the Geisha incident?" Sharis grinned.

  "That was 2 years ago. *Hais* just get the usual in the back. You can make it yourself since I’m serving these two." He sighed before doing a 180-degree shift in his aura. From lazy and tired to kind and warm, Claud turned towards the duo.

  "For a charming lady such as you, I recommend you the home-made lemon cake that is baked with care. And for a masked gentleman such as yourself, may I recommend you a cup of Paradise? It’s a drink unique to my store." He asked with a smile.

  "Oh my, lemon cake you say? I remember enjoying them quite a bit when I had them in other cities so sure, I’ll order a lemon cake. What do you take for payment in this store?" Shiro asked with a smile.

  "The payment is rather unique in the sense that it is only obtainable within this city. However, as you are first time customers, I’ll let you have the first meal for free." Claud replied.

  "Why thank you. If you don’t mind me asking, what is the payment? We might be staying here for a short while so I may return with my daughter." Shiro inquired.

  "The payment is something called Revenant Essence that you can obtain when you kill one of the monsters unique to this city. Depending on the size of the monster, a different amount of Revenant Essence will be dropped. As you can guess, large monsters drop larger portions of Revenant Essence." Claud explained with a smile.

  "I see…… Thank you for explaining."

  "My pleasure. So, what will you have?" Claud asked as he brought out his notepad.

  "Since you recommended the lemon cake, I’ll have that then. What about you Lil’ Tian?" Shiro glanced over to Nan Tian.

  "Me? Hm…… I’ll have a vanilla cake then." Nan Tian replied much to the surprise of Shiro since she didn’t expect him to order a cake.

  "What? Can’t a man eat some cake?" Nan Tian chuckled.

  "Oh no, don’t get me wrong, I’m just surprised that’s all" Shiro shook her head.

  "Never took you for a cake person." She smiled.

  "Well…… I wouldn’t say that either. I’m just curious about why you enjoy eating snacks like this. I never really ate them." Nan Tian replied since he only ate a proper meal with the exception of what Shiro gave him.

  "I like them because they’re sweet, I guess. Just something that tastes nice. Before I got my sense of taste back, mana stones were the only thing that tasted like anything and they were really sweet so that might have been the cause." Shiro whispered over.

  "I see…… Fair enough." Nan Tian nodded.

  Waiting for a short moment for the cake to arrive, the two soon saw Claud walking out of the kitchen with two slices of cake in hand.

  "A lemon cake for the lady and a vanilla cake for the gent. Please enjoy." Claud smiled as Shiro nodded.

  "If you don’t mind, why don’t we have a small chat while we wait? I’m rather curious about Miss Sharis. How did you two meet?" Shiro asked.

  "Hm, it’s rather complicated. Let’s just say she helped me and I helped her. Unfortunately, we kind of became friends after a few incidents together." Claud sighed.

  "What do you mean by ’kind of became friends’? Aren’t we basically best pals?" Sharis grinned as she came out of the kitchen with a rather lavish portion of an assortment of snacks on her plate.

  "Right…… Anyways, while you’re here, I might as well warn you all about some recent news. There have been earthquakes and sudden downpour of red water which looks like blood in recent times and the cause is unknown. However, many believe it to be a bad omen since even the monsters are becoming restless. I recommend that you finish your business soon before leaving this place. I’m not one to believe in omens and such but when earthquakes and blood rain happen on a daily basis, even I’m considering the thought of leaving." Claud shrugged as she sat behind his counter once more.

  "Oh? When did this all start?" Sharis raised her eyebrows since she hadn’t heard of any news regarding these strange phenomenon.

  "It started around a week ago. Not a lot of news was written about this since many just believe it to be something unique to this city. After all, where would you see a city under a special condition such as this one? Materials other than those obtained within this place will decay. Unless you had a self-repair option on your equipment, you’ll soon lose them too." Claud yawned.

  "True. I have lost a few good daggers to this bloody place as well." Sharis shrugged while eating her snacks.

  Hearing about these activities, Shiro was rather curious but decided not to investigate the matter unless it had something to do with Yin. Right now, she had quite a long list of things to do and this was not one of them.

  Finishing the meal with Nan Tian, they talked for a little longer before receiving a message from his subordinates saying that Yin had arrived and was waiting at the teleport shrine.

  "Once again, thank you for the meal. When I get the chance, I’ll return." Shiro smiled as Claud nodded his head.

  "I’ll be back for dinner." Sharis smiled.

  "I suppose I’m making food for two then." Claud sighed but Shiro could tell that he didn’t mind despite his attitude.

  Waving his hand lightly, he watched as the trio made their way out of the store and back towards the city.

  ###

  Making their way back to the teleport shrine, Shiro saw Yin’s familiar face and was about to call out to her. However, after seeing her appearance, she couldn’t help but pause and say the following.

  "What the f*ck?"