“No problem princess, everyone rise you are not citizens of my little country, at least not yet. Now let's continue the tour shall we, I have much to show you!”

That is what the terrifying shadow monster told us. My name is George and I'm a miner and part-time adventurer from the Frostlands. I’m an elderly man at 55 years old which is evident by my grandfatherly face and white hair on my head.

After eating only gruel and occasionally hard bread for the last month I decided to take this mission. My old bones can’t mine or go slay monsters like I used to so a mission where we would be accompanied by an S rank and 20 royal knights meant I wouldn’t need to fight was perfect, and the pay was good!

But even with my 55 years of life experience as a hardened miner and adventurer couldn’t prepare my heart to look directly at such a terrifying being.

He spoke to us with human-like intelligence. What makes humans better than monsters? Their strength or magic ability?

No, Humans are weaker than monsters at fighting. What we have over the monsters is our intelligence. We can work together in parties and through communication we overcome the threat of monsters.

So why is there a being as strong as a 100th floor boss walking around and talking like a civilized human? A monster with this level of strength would already be near impossible to defeat but he can also plan and see-through human strategies!

Hahaha, I can only laugh at humanity's stupidness. NOTHING MATTERS ANYMORE. Money? Armies? Nobles? Politics? All is useless in front of such a powerful existence. I am in awe.

When I say the huge being waved his hand I do mean fucking huge, the thing is easier bigger than a house and yet he managed to sneak up to the princess and tap her on the shoulder right under the nose of 50 adventures and 20 royal knights! The princess could have died today and none of us would have been able to stop it!

Ahhhh I have seen too much ridiculous stuff today and my brain is broken. A pet fucking dragon. Hundreds of undead being used for construction?

My poor old body just shudders from the mental pain this trip is bringing me. I feel like I have aged 20 years in a single day from shock!

Anyways, after calming down a little I see Xia wave his hand and the world changes around me. I'm now standing in the middle of a field and can see wheat being grown for miles around. There are undead goblins with hoes tending to the wheat.

“This is where the food is grown, by growing it in the dungeon I can produce the perfect environment for the crops. Perfect weather conditions, no pests to eat the crops, the soil never becomes unfertile. I also provide mana to the crops to increase growth speed and add a little extra effect.”

That's cheating I scream in my heart. This is completely unfair. He can produce perfect harvests every time with those conditions!

“What's the extra effect,” the princess asks Xia. How can she even talk to such a terrifying creature? It does its creepy smile again “By eating my crops you gain exp”.

Everyone goes silent.

Why would everyone be so amazed by that I hear you ask? Let me explain. Exp allows people to level up and gain stat points. Usually, people have to kill dangerous monsters to gain exp.

Nobles often have monsters brought before them near death and they simply finish them off to gain the exp. But for poor commoners like me, we would have to venture out into the unknown in search of prey to kill.

But why would people need to level up? Well, the average lifespan for a human is around 50 years in this world. By investing points in constitution (CON) it makes the body stronger and more resistant to disease and damage. It also naturally increases your lifespan, and it does so with an extra year per point.

Meaning if you had 20 points in CON then your lifespan would be 50 + 20 so 70 years. (Alice has 620 CON so she has a lifespan of 670 years).

So if someone could level up just by eating food? Well, that changes everything. No longer do you have to risk facing monsters to try and increase your lifespan but can simply eat!

I decided then and there that I was going to live here in Eden. No matter what it took. I'm a single man near the end of his life, I have nothing to lose. I'm too old to do any fighting or work like mining. But if I can eat my way to a higher level to keep on living I will follow this disturbing monster till death!

Xia proceeded to show us some more fields and also some floors dedicated to raising cattle for food. All with perfect conditions and sped up with the help of mana. There was even a floor where the floor and walls were all made of marble stone and goblin skeletons with pickaxes were mining at the rock.

He then took us back to the first floor where the merchants square is located. He showed us all the marble houses, shops, town hall, schools, hospitals, and even a university. All these houses had running water and wastewater was diverted to an underground area filled with slimes that ate the waste.

He then showed us a golden gate against one of the walls. It had two soldiers in full steel armor standing guard. I suspect they are undead humans from the glowing red eyes.

Xia then handed a golden-colored card to the princess. He explained the system of authority to us and the princess was overjoyed being given the highest level of authority, a golden card.

Xia then had the princess demonstrate how the gate worked. He told the princess to walk into the solid hard wall with confidence. She looked a little skeptical that this could be another prank. I mean it's a solid wall behind that gate. I don't blame her for being hesitant.

After some contemplation, she proceeded forward. Once she made contact with the wall it rippled as if made from water and the princess vanished from sight.

A few seconds later she came back through the wall as if it wasn't even there. Xia then had another person try but without the card. They walked into the wall but it didn’t ripple and the man was unable to pass through much to his disappointment.

“Beyond this wall is the equivalent of the noble district in other cities. Only people with golden cards can enter, people with black cards can also be invited in with the permission of a gold cardholder.”

After concluding his tour Xia traded all the mana stones from the merchants and adventures with food and then they all left to go back to the Frostlands.

Well not everyone left, it seems some others had similar ideas to be me including the princess. The princess said she wanted to stay here in Eden as Alice’s friend and she wants to train to get stronger.

I asked to stay as well with a few others. “Perfect, I need some people, what do you all want to do.” We were baffled by the request, we expected to be told what we had to do to stay not be given a choice.

A woman next to me timidly asked “I always dreamed of owning a restaurant, could I run one here?”

“That's a great idea, you can take this building here, the way it works here is that I own all the buildings but that also means you don’t have to pay rent or buy the building. I also provide free ingredients.”
“Thank you so much sir~,” she says happily as she goes to check out her new building.

I decided to ask to run an inn, I had always wanted to be a cool bartender that was always washing the glasses and mugs and people would come to me for information or some advice.

I was provided a very large and fancy-looking building that faced the merchants square, I was also given a black card and told I was a founder of Eden.

And that brings us to the current situation

“Oi George I brought some nobles looking for a room and some food!”

The door to my inn swings open and a merchant that I know called Freddie entered with some well-dressed people following.

I simply continue cleaning the mug which had never even been used and gives the guests a smile.

It's showtime.