Time Marches On

Time started flashing by, and before he realized it, Cain had been in the Vacation Zone for nearly two weeks. Every day there were roughly two to three groups of arrivals of varying size, and not all of them were native to Earth. Cain and Somer would rotate on and off every day, and during his off days, Cain researched his uniqueness. While he and Twilight had worked it out after a while, there were still many things he did not know about it as Twilight had tweaked most of it. Unfortunately, with the lack of information on golems inhabiting Lapis, he was stuck to figuring things out from hearsay at the bar where two people had worn out their souls who were natives.

At first, they gave him a funny look when they heard he was going to Lapis as a monster, but once they drank together, they opened up and became friendly. From their experiences, most golems were made of dirt, and only a few high-ranking golems were actually stone. It was rumored that there was a small country on an island in the ocean that was more experienced with golems, but because the monsters in the ocean were large and quite strong compared to the usual land-borne monsters, only a few sea-routes were safe, and none of the common-folk knew of a safe route to the island.

Most dungeons on the main continent of Asdea don't even have golems. But the drunkards couldn't verify anything about the smaller continent of Grimora, as other than merchants, the humans don't like to associate with Grimora. As for the island country, they had conflicting information and couldn't agree on what its name was. According to the drunkards, anyone on Lapis would be able to simply think 'Status,' and an ethereal board containing information about themselves would appear in front of them, though it would only have basic stuff. For a comprehensive list, one would need to go to one of the capitals and pay to use a 'Myth Monolith.'

Eventually, the two went off on a tangent arguing about which race had better curves, so Cain tuned them out and went back to the administrative building. Now that he worked there, Somer let him stay in the guest room to wake up early for the first batch of arrivals. Somer was either out or in bed already, so Cain just went to bed.

Two months later, Somer pulled Cain aside, "Congratulations, kid, you're above the safety margin; you can receive a portion of your uniqueness now."

Cain was surprised. He had repeatedly told new arrivals they would receive a bit of their own uniqueness when going over the spiel for the plateau but had gotten into the groove and nearly forgot about his own. According to the introduction, there were facilities to the east, west, and south that help in activating the 'starter kit' for everyone. Somer started guiding him to the building in the south before stopping halfway and scrutinizing Cain.

"Say, aren't you tired of wearing the same damaged rags every day?"

Cain raised his eyebrows, "Do I have a choice? I just assumed souls were stuck in the clothes they died in."

Somer just laughed, "That's silly; with all the stuff you can do here, why wouldn't you be able to change clothes?"

"... Ah. I see I've made a mistake. Let's go get some clothes then."

Most clothing stores were in the southwestern region of the second circle and were lined up side to side. It was a bit weird to see, even compared to the normal mishmash of cultures and time periods. Each store was large and focused on a different cultural style, and had different time periods on different floors. There were, of course, stores based on several other worlds to the point that fashion had taken over the entire south-western quadrant. The store that Somer lead him to was called 'Generic Fantasy Four' and lived up to its name quite well. From stuffy noble clothes to heavy cloth garments with way too much leather to, for some reason, black denim with belts every five inches all over the place.

"Even if you don't need clothes when you're a golem, it wouldn't hurt to learn the styles since you said you should be able to freely sculpt yourself. In fact, it might've been better to come here after you awakened your uniqueness... Eh, we can just come back if need be." Somer chuckled as he looked through some dresses, probably thinking about the staff from Divine Massage and Spa.

Cain walked through and chose a few outfits without dawdling too much. Fashion was never really one of his interests. He looked for a teller on instinct but couldn't find one, "Old man, why is there no one manning the store?"

"Just because the bureau has a lot of people doesn't mean they can spare every store a worker. Everything is free anyway, and since everything here is not strictly 'real,' the stores can replenish their stocks without anyone even touching it," Somer explained as he packs away a frilly black dress and some decent-looking noble that didn't look too gaudy, "There are changing rooms in the back."

Cain nodded and went back before settling into a simple outfit of black pants, a black leather jacket with hardened spaulders, and a white inner shirt. Once fitted, he went to the full body mirror outside to check how it looked. Somer came over and whistled, "You're quite the specimen now that you've recovered a bit.

Black shoulder-length hair, silver eyes that hide a gleam of hope, a smooth face with features that aren't too big or small. All but the deepest scars had vanished, with most being hidden under his clothes and only one large jagged line going from the side of his forehead down to his cheek, his last memento from his father when he attacked him with a bottle just before the police arrived. His gaunt figure is no more, now filled out with taut muscles and broad shoulders. Even Cain was surprised how much he changed, and his face didn't even look like his anymore. Somer explained that was the influence of his previous lives surfacing; everyone on the plateau looked at least decent or better as their souls would evolve to show the better features from their past lives, or at least better features according to their own thinking. In the case of delinquents or deviants, their appearances became scarier or more perverse.

After they left the shop, they went straight to the southern tip of the plateau, to the Awakening building. It wasn't too busy save for a few souls in a line at one door and some souls coming from another door. Some of the souls coming from the door had distinct features that were clearly not human, but they quickly vanished, making the souls look human or their original race.

"Just like those folk, you'll be able to put away your uniqueness while you're in the Vacation Zone for when it's inconvenient. Wouldn't want to lose your sense of taste before you left right?" Somer started explaining seeing Cain's confused expression.

Somer ushered Cain to line up then went to sit on a nearby bench.