‘Swiftness sounds explicit enough’ Alex thought to himself.

To try it out, he decided to run from one side of the room to the other.

*Whoosh* At a superhuman speed, Alex traversed the room. Fortunately, it was long enough or he would have had difficulty stopping himself and he would run into the wall like an idiot.

He was quite surprised by how fast he became and grew curious at the further evolutions this atrocious speed would go through if he took more Essence.

Suddenly, he heard something grumble.

Embarrassingly, it was his own stomach.

He’s been playing around with his newfound speed for a tad too long and he felt a bit hungry now. It was also about time to explore the estate, so he decided to look around a bit before going to the kitchen.

He went out of the room and examined the wide corridor with interest. As if to show Hermes’ mark on the place, the wallpaper was of a violet color and it made the place look very charming and appraising it also said it was dyed with Tyrian purple, which was supposedly quite valuable.

On the other side of his room was another room, with a decor equally simplistic but lacking the trademarks of human activity, showing it was vacant.

He suddenly remembered what that annoying attendant said yesterday, that she would be sleeping in the room on the other side of the corridor and that he shouldn’t bother her.

‘She should be awake by now, right?’ Alex wanted to ask her to help him with the unfamiliar tools.

He, therefore, walked down the large corridor in the center of which was a pair of luxurious marble staircases, that led down to a big hall and two large gates that seemed to be the entrance. On the other side of the staircase was a balcony, looking out to the mountain peaks beyond.

Alex smiled, satisfied at the prospect of living here, and continued walking down the corridor where two opposing doors could be found. They seemed to be rooms just like Alex’s except one of them was closed and the other one partly open. He snuck a glance at the room beyond the door and was surprised by the view.

Crista was sitting on a chair by the windows, combing her long hair with one hand and….writing with the other. It was a beautiful sight with the rays of the sun illuminating her face and long locks of hair and was quite a contrast to her loud and vulgar personality.

‘I probably….no….I shouldn’t bother her.’ Alex stepped back and went on.

He went down the staircase and looked at the 3 corridors behind the staircase.

2 of those seemed to lead to similar living facilities like the ones upstairs so he took the center one. After walking for a short while he found 2 opposite doors.

One which led to a toilet and a big bathhouse that he should check later and the latter one leading to what looked like a kitchen, except the modern equipment had been replaced by ancient tools.

There was a wood-powered furnace, a water transportation system, and a big cabinet that, upon opening, reveals to be an icebox, the precursor to the fridge, with a variety of ingredients ranging from fresh fruits and vegetables to various meats and wine.

‘When Hermes said he left some ingredients, he really meant a lot of ingredients, and I think I’ve never seen produce this fresh back on Earth!’ He exclaimed to himself.

Alex has never been a good cook before, as demonstrated by his diet of instant ramen back on Earth and before coming here, he remembered he was craving for pizza, so he decided to make the delicacy of the modern world with what he was provided in here.

He found white flour, water, eggs, and yeast in the storage cabinets of the kitchen.

He started by making a well of flour, separating egg yolks and adding them to the well, and mixing with his hands, which, thanks to the swiftness bonus, turned the ingredients into a homogenous mixture in no time. He then added water which he has heated slightly, yeast and salt, and mixed it until he got a dry and workable dough.

Alex tried kneading it and although his technique was lacking, his strength and swiftness made up for it and the dough soon turned elastic.

He let the dough rest and meanwhile crushed some tomatoes, added salt and olive oil and some dried spices to the sauce, and searched for cheese.

He found some fresh mozzarella cheese, which despite being a step down from the industrial emulsified cheeses of his world in his opinion, did do the job.

He took out the dough he had made and flattened it into a circle, spread the tomato sauce evenly on the flat dough, and added a few handfuls of cheese.

To make it more presentable he also tried to add basil leaves but it didn’t look like a chef’s work at all.

He put the ‘pizza’ on the surface of the furnace and watching it bubble and cook, while simultaneously emitting a pleasant scent, Alex drooled.

He heard steps approaching the kitchen only to see Crista, with her hair wrapped in a ponytail and wearing a light toga. It looks like she was enticed by the smell of food as she paced around and avoided looking in his direction.

Ignoring her, Alex took out the pizza, which was now cooked and looked rather delicious, except he has made a grave mistake.

The basil leaves, which were supposed to be added on top after the cooking process, turned a burnt black and he imagined their taste wouldn’t be any better than their appearance.

Fortunately, though, he just plucked them out of the pizza and was left with a rather tasty-looking piece of pie.

“What the f**k is that, toppings on a flatbread?” He heard the puzzled voice of Crista asking in her usual tone.

“I thought we start the day with good morning, not exclamations and curses?” Alex answered.

“If you want to eat, come on while it’s still hot.” He said to her. After all, he wasn’t so shameless as to leave someone hungry, even if that someone isn’t very pleasant.

Alex cut the pizza in half and started eating.

It was good, not great but perhaps because the ingredients were of high quality and Alex followed a textbook recipe, the pizza was actually tasty.

Crista, meanwhile, looked at him stuffing himself and hesitatingly advanced and very slowly took a slice to eat too.

“Well, i-if you say s-so.” She tasted it. Crista looked a bit surprised at the new flavors she’s experiencing. Alex chuckled, he knew the modern Italian invention could conquer the human population’s hearts, much less that of the ancient era, where the culinary arts were still underdeveloped.

“Some of us nymphs used to dabble in cuisine and they used to make much better tasting foods than this…” Contrary to her usual tone, Crista spoke in a bittersweet, even nostalgic tone. He wanted to ask her more about it but before he could do so, he heard a knock coming from the entrance.