Addendum, living in a desert sucks.
It’s hot, it’s sandy and there’s basically nothing to do in them except getting sunburned, dealing with dehydration unless you know an oasis, a guy, or have the ability to see the future and maybe get eaten by vultures...or particularly vicious armadillos...
However, the denizens of Stone Claw City figured out a way to bring little bits of more pleasurable environments into the desert, to be more specific, into giant underground caverns that could be modified with a mix of aether crystals and arrays up the ass.
By carefully arranging both in the right way, one can turn an abandoned mining hub covered with tunnels leading evewhich way, into a brand spanking new nature preserve full of mundsnce plant life complete with small water fixtures.
That being said however, when the people of Stone Claw made the first "park", they soon discovered traditional plants wouldn’t grow inside due to the (obvious) lack of sunlight to provide energy for said plants to grow with. Luckily, the people had an alternative... mushrooms
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"Huh. You weren’t kidding about this place being mostly fungi."
"Weird... but beautiful."
For their date, Zhen Liu had taken himself and Jin Fang to one of the only parks in Stone Claw City, the Natural Treasures Under Park. It was one of the few places one could go to in order to escape from the heat and sand, due to the place being located inside a massive underground cavern. Now cavern parks weren’t exactly uncommon, but what made the place standout we’re the sheer amount of mushrooms covering the place from top to bottom in an attempt to mimic an above ground park.
There were fungal trees, fungal flowers, fungal grass and even the light sources illuminating the place were glowing mushrooms that grew into a variety of colors/lights, that mimicked natural light when all of the colors overlapped. The only things that weren’t fungal were the people visiting, the huge underground lake acting as a centerpiece for the park and the occasional crystal jutting out of the ground.
None of these crystals had any monetary value, but they were at least pretty to look at.
[Meh,] Hurricroak croaked, [It’s a beautiful sight to be sure, but I think you should have taken her to the beach.]
[The beach?,] Nepherage asked incredulously, [We have to be at least several hundred miles from the nearest port town at least. How the hell were we gonna run all the way to the beach and back in a day?]
[Damn, what about...]
As the kaijin were arguing in Zhen Liu’s head, the latter attempted to just strike up some small talk with Bellona. This was technically his first date in another world with someone, that wasn’t already in a relationship with the guy who used to own his current body
That sounded a bit odd to harp on, since technically Thomas Lee was now Zhen Liu wholesale, but it was one of those things that nagged on in the back of his head.
’Well, time to see if I can still somewhat socialize after getting pierced in the head.’{And maybe "pierce" her in some places afterwards.} However, before Zhen Liu could pick a topic to talk about, Bellona made the first move.
"You know, I heard a rumor that you apparently faked your own death recently," Bellona mentioned, "something about wanting to run away with a prostitute?"
"Oh that? Yeah I don’t know where that last bit came from but that first part is a bit of a distortion of the truth."
"Someone tried to kill me."
"Oh my. Once is understandable, twice is weird. Why?"
"Wait, once is-? I’ll ask about that later, but well..."
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"And you’re sure this bitch is in this cave?"
"Positive Boss Must, I saw her walk in while arm in arm with some twink ass looking foreigner."
In the same span of time it took Zhen Liu and Bellona to get to the park, Arthur had ran all the way back to his gang’s hideout and informed his boss about the whereabouts of the bitch that had beaten their buddies black and blue.
While Boss Must was initially skeptical on his henchman’s information, the sincerity in which he delivered it made it at least something to look into.
Besides, if he was lying or messing with him, he could still pop Arthur’s head like a grape.
As soon as the two of them entered the cavern park, Arthur immediately noticed the two lovebirds they were after.
"There they are, boss! Let’s go and get-"
"Hold your horses, Arty," Boss Must said as he had to physically pull back Arthur who was about to eagerly rush in, "we can’t just go in swords swinging, that’s how the rest of the guys got beaten up. Also, don’t you recognize who that guy she’s with is?"
"Uh...," Arthur went as he squinted his eyes at the young man in distance, "no?"
"You dunderhead, that’s one of the young scions of the Zhen Clan. You know, one of the Big Four?"
"Oh shit. Doesn’t that mean we should probably leave them alone then?," Arthur asked as his gumption from before suddenly turned to cowardice. Lucky for him, Boss Must understood this.
"Wrong again. That little prize over there happens to be one of the weakest of the Zhen Clan scions, Zhen Louie. Last I heard, he was unable to fight properly without the aid of an aether puppet. If we can move quickly and quietly enough, we can take em both and hold them for ransom."
"Ooooh. That’s smart, boss," Arthur said in realization. "But wait, what if the Zhen Clan doesn’t pay up and try to kill us instead."
"Well...," Boss Must began to say as a cruel smile formed upon his lips, "I bet the Wolfes or Corradas would love to pay for a...’bargaining chip’ against the Zhen Clan."