Pitch-blackness as far as the eye could see. It was a scary sensation, even in Devon’s completely inebriated state, his liver still dumping the highly hallucinogenic and mildly toxic wormfang root infusion into his blood circulation. His post-ejaculation sensation of fatigue was amplified to a completely unprecedented magnitude, perhaps triggering other bodily reactions that he’d never experienced before in all twenty years of his life. 

Maybe his earthling body was simply not suited for the various hallucinogens and toxins and psychedelic mushrooms that existed in this fantasy world. 

It was a strange feeling, to be completely encapsulated in darkness like a babe in the womb. Devon could not make out anything anymore, not even the faint outline of Neomi that he could see from earlier. As things progressed, there were other strange happenings in the realm of his mind. His sense of hearing began to disappear, and then his sense of smell….

What was going on? He wasn’t completely sure.

And as this all happened, an uncontrollable drowsiness permeated throughout his body, and his head began to fall limp, his breath ragged. 

…….

When Devon’s eyes opened for the next time, he squinted, confused. In front of his sight was the same run down tavern bedroom from earlier, and yet… there was no one here anymore. The bed was unkempt and rustled, with hints of blood on his body as well as the rest of the bed, and yet there was not a single sign of Neomi or Mina. It was  clear that they had been here before, given the indentations in the sofa where Mina was crossing her legs just several hours ago, and the dried blood on his body was a clear sign that Neomi was on top of him just a while ago. But her things were gone, as were Mina’s. Their elven slippers, their one piece leaf dresses that merged modern amenities like some sort of spandex with ancient elven embroidery and dress design... Only a single nipple tassle could be seen strewn at the edge of the sofa, uncollected, but every other sign that the twin elves had been here prior was now gone. So what the hell was going on here? The rowdiness from the tavern was gone, too. Just moments ago, Devon recalled there being loud cheering from the tavern below. So what happened? 

Devon groaned and got out of his bed, sliding back on his pants and his belt with the rest of his medium-class cuirass leather armor with chainmail as he opened up the curtain, just to get greeted by blinding light from outside, the sun shining at full volume. Now that was strange… if anything, it should be night time at the moment since it was only a few hours since he fell asleep due to the hallucinogenic wormfang root infusion. 

The rays of sunlight shining and beaming into the rickety tavern inn room said otherwise. The angle of the sunbeams clearly indicated that it was roughly an hour or so past noon. Now that was weird.

Even weirder, Devon squinted to look back outside and noticed that there was not a single trace of a human being out there, although the corpse of howler monkey beasts and slain villagers and other traveling merchants and combatants were strewn all across the village. But where was the rest of the town? Surely some people would be outside, based on the sheer amount of people packed into the tavern celebrating just yesterday. 

Yesterday… hm…. 

Devon groaned and rubbed his temple. How could he be sure that the party and afterparty with Neomi and Mina truly occured last night? And where the hell did Madame Elisa and Countess Ilyana go? He clearly heard both of them downstairs  during the party. They wouldn’t have just left without telling him, would they? No, of course not. Madame Elisa was certainly not that kind of person. 

Devon began to question his sanity as he tried to get to the bottom of this mystery. The blood caked onto his body was not fresh, and the booze smell from yesterday, if it truly was yesterday, seemed to still linger although in a more faint way. 

Devon put on the rest of his clothes and decided to take a look around downstairs. He opened up his tavern inn door and headed downstairs. 

The moment he opened the door to the tavern, Devon realized that there was something wrong. Besides the very minor structure damage caused by Neomi and Mina’s fire and lightning drunken mage duel from yesterday, there were now pieces of clothing, lingerie, and other random items strewn on the ground, as if the place was evacuated in a hurry.

Devon began to step down the tavern staircase, each step causing a creak. What he saw on the ground floor of the tavern began to confirm his suspicions.