8 Aphrodos Starting Village

"Woman's essence?!"

"Yes. Are you sure you want to proceed?" Aphrodite asked.

"Yes! Of course!" Misho nodded his head immediately.

The forest around Misho scattered to countless particles of light, and he appeared in another forest. This time, it was different. There were birds chirping and some small creatures flitting through the bushes.

"Ahhh! A snake!"

Misho jumped away. A brown snake was slithering beside him. He relaxed when he realized that it wasn't attacking him.

"Wow. This world looks so real."

Misho looked around him curiously. The smell of the trees wafted into his nose and made him think that he was really in a forest.

He looked at his current outfit. He was wearing ragged clothes. As for his body, he looked like a human except for a blue tattoo on his stomach.

Misho opened his status screen.

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Name: QuarterPounder

Race: Demon Incubus

Element: Wind

Cultivation: None

*

BASIC STATS:

HP: 10/10

MP: 2/2

INT: 9

LCK: 1

ATK: 2

DEF: 1

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"What the f*ck?"

Misho felt insulted when he saw the decrease in his intelligence stat. It was like the game was saying that demons were stupid.

Misho bit his lips and felt regretful. He should have gone with humans. At least, he would still have those 10 points of intelligence. Who knows how it might affect his growth in the future?

"Wait, where is Aphrodite?"

Misho looked around him, but he saw nothing but trees and the various animals in the forest.

"QuarterPounder, I'm in your body," Aphrodite's sweet voice suddenly rang in his ears.

Misho stood straight in surprise.

"What? Why are you inside me? Aren't you supposed to accompany me?" Misho asked in a heartbroken voice.

"I'm sorry, QuarterPounder. I will only answer your questions if you have any," Aphrodite replied in a sad voice.

"...Fine."

Misho was disappointed, but he quickly recovered. At least, he would be able to hear her voice wherever he goes. That was enough for him.

When he saw her beautiful body earlier, he had already imagined walking across the unfamiliar land with a beauty accompanying him. It seemed like he assumed too much.

"Where do I go now?" Misho asked her in his mind.

"Head towards the sun. There is a village there," Aphrodite replied.

Misho looked up and found the direction that the sun was. He walked through the treacherous forest and arrived in a clearing after a quarter of an hour.

Misho looked far ahead of him and saw several thatched huts and wooden buildings.

"That's the village?"

"Yes."

Misho carefully approached the village. This was his first time playing this game. He doesn't know if the villagers were hostile with demons.

A few minutes later, he arrived behind a thatched hut. He peeked inside and saw a human man eating food.

"Wow. They look really alive," Misho whispered to himself.

He looked away and scanned the houses around him.

He ran to another house and hid behind it. Just as he was about to peek inside the house, a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"Ahhh!?"

Misho jumped in fright. He took a defensive stance at the man behind him.

"Errr… Are you okay?"

A text floated on top of the man's head.

[NPC]

"I-I'm okay," Misho replied nervously.

"My name is Gerald Kasol. If you want a place to stay, you can stay at mine," Gerald said with a smile on his face.

The text above his head changed to [NPC] Gerald Kasol.

"My name is QuarterPounder," Misho replied.

"Qu…arter Pounder?" Gerald stared at Misho weirdly.

He looked at his ragged clothes, and his eyes lit up as if he was suddenly enlightened.

"I see, I see. You can stay at my house for as much as you want. Don't worry. I won't laugh at your name," Gerald said with a kind smile plastered on his face.

"..."

For some reason, Misho felt that something was off. He ignored that feeling and decided to accept the NPC's offer. After all, beggars can't be choosers.

Gerald led him to one of the thatched huts. Inside, there were three rooms, and two of them were occupied.

Contrary to what Gerald may seem to be, he was actually married. His wife sleeps in the other room. It was a custom that Misho was unfamiliar with as married couples would sleep together back in reality.

In any case, that wasn't important. Misho took that spare room, and he got a new set of clothes as a gift from Gerald.

"Thank you," Misho said to Gerald.

"No worries. As my ancestors say, help a man today, get repaid for the rest of his life," Gerald replied kindly.

"*Cough* Yeah."

That saying basically means that he would have to help Gerald for the rest of his life. No way he would spend his time helping him. He would just pay him with something and leave this village once he becomes strong enough.

With nothing to do, Misho started wandering around the village. He saw women in the village, but they were either taken or too young. Misho was sure that it was forbidden to touch the young girls. If it weren't, the company behind the game would be fined for allowing child abuse.

Not that he planned to anyway.

Misho was persistent. He found that there were 200 people in this village. There ought to be single women that would like to test with him what this woman's essence was.

"Misho!?"

Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded behind Misho. He turned around and saw a ragged clothed, baby-faced woman staring at him in shock.

"Maia!?"

Even Misho didn't expect them to arrive at the same village together.

Similar to the NPC Gerald, a text floated above her head.

[Player] Maisha

"What a coincidence!" Misho shouted.

Maia ran towards him and embraced him tightly.

"Mishooooooo! That forest was horrible! I thought it was a bee nest, and I wanted to grab some honey to taste, but it turns out there were wasps inside! I almost got stung to death!" Maia cried out in his arms.