The first day of the Selection Tournament ended without a hitch. In other words, nothing impressive happened.

On the evening of the same day, I took Smoothie along to check out the street vendors and local eateries. She was of course extremely delighted that I was spending quality time with her. With her new body came the ability to eat to her heart's content.

Certainly, I had Blueberry and Blackberry take care of her every need including her food but apparently she retorted with "food tastes better when eaten with those you cherish."

The bars and restaurants in the city were all crowded.

It was a time of festivity. Many people were loud and drunk. If I didn't have Smoothie with me, I probably would have joined the fun despite not being able to get drunk.

"Smoothie, do you want to rest at an inn or go back home?"

"Will we come back tomorrow?"

"Of course!"

"And the day after?"

"Yes!"

"And after that?"

"Yes, yes, and yes. We'll stay here until the whole thing finishes if you like. But, I figure you'd get bored watching random people fight."

"Yay! Then let's stay!"

So you can hog me all to yourself...

With that being said, I was closely monitoring movements behind the scene. The resistance factions, secretly backed by prominent families and nobles, had plans to strike on the last two days of the Selection Tournament. If thing went haywire, I was going to bail the two of us out of here. I wasn't going to interfere with a country's internal affairs. 

Several resistance faction heroes were on standby around the city. They likely entered through secret tunnels or teleported in using magic circles. Either way, we weren't their targets.

The two of us stayed at an inn hidden in a remote area of the city. It took a lot to find an inn that wasn't filled to capacity.

The one we were staying at was mediocre but on the expensive side. I had actually had to haggle down the price a bit. My peerless beauty certainly played a role but I was able to accomplish a side objective which was to advertise strawberries.

With a spoonful of my special strawberry jam in the owner's mouth, I was able to establish a business relationship.

Hehehe... Ahahaha...! You can't win against sweets, mortal!

Thus, for the next few days, I would supply strawberry jam to this inn exclusively. In exchange, I would receive heavy discounts for lodging and meals and drinks. That was to say, the first floor also acted as a tavern or bar that served alcohol in the evenings.

Interestingly enough, he didn't even question me where I got these strawberries from. If he had asked, I would have said it was discovered by a traveller on a remote island to the south of the continent.

"Mother, why strawberries? Couldn't you have used any fruit? Or really, anything?"

"It's a form of entertainment for me. Plus, people like new things right? I want to set a new trend!"

"That's so you!"

After a bit of chat, it was time for her to sleep.

"Can't you put yourself to sleep?" She asked timidly.

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to wake up if I did."

"Aww..." her expression turned sullen.

"Don't worry. Go sleep now, I'll watch over you."

"Nn!"

The bed here wasn't as comfortable as the one at home. The noises coming from the festive atmostphere certainly didn't help either. To neutralize the noises, I enclosed the room within a soundproof barrier.

"Much better." I nodded with a sense of satisfaction.

Once I was sure Smoothie was asleep, I summoned Blackberry, the maid with jet black hair, into the room.

Since she was me, we didn't need to communicate verbally.

Blackberry's job was simple. She was to watch over and protect Smoothie. With a city filled with so many heroes, demons wouldn't dare intruding. Even so, I was extremely cautious, providing Blackberry with ways to fend off demons and heroes for a short period of time.

As for me, I wanted to fulfill my promise with Mera. In addition, I had to be on the lookout for Kanoko's sister or friend. Only once all the promises had been fulfilled could I rest and sleep.

Next destination, the elf country, the Sovereignty of Mist. Sorry, Smoothie, I'll take you there later!

It was kind of difficult to determine where Formere, the capital city of the elf country, was just looking from above.

Trees, trees, and more trees, a sea of trees was all I could see in this region. Green wasn't the dominant color either. In fact, majority of the trees had various shades of blue and purple. The whole spectacle to me felt quite magical similarly to when I first visited the palace hidden in the inner city of Vera.

Well, perhaps it had to do with the timing of my visit. In the past long ago, I had been to places where plants altered the colors of their leaves depending on amount of sunlight were receiving. This phenomena was probably similar to that.

Anyway, even if I couldn't pinpoint the exact location of the city, I could still grasp the general location of this demon guardian. Needless to say, a country's leader always governed in the country's capital if it had one.

Surveying just the forest itself, when I zoomed in, I could see a few elves strolling under canopies. Traces of condensed mana could be seen stored within certain types of trees that acted like batteries. Although individually the trees didn't hold much condensed mana, when added together, they could become a powerhouse to be reckoned with. Moreover, because I had a bird's eye view and a special sight that allowed me to see mana, I could faintly make out the intricate magical circles strewn across this entire region.

In terms of total defensive and offensive capabilities, I could definitely see how low level guardians could be easily overwhelmed.

"I see why he isn't interested in this place... No technology he can tinker with. Though... the magic here is just mind boggling. I just hope they don't have magic that can sever space."

After contemplating on the best way to gather intelligence in this area, I decided to follow the same method as I did in Rotask, the capital city of the human country. The only difference this time, instead of flower petals, I scattered colorful leaves.

"Come, O wind, be the ferry to my leafy plumes, be the messenger that carries the echoes across distant lands, for none shall evade the gaze of divine." I chanted, setting an mystical mood for the stage.

Then, just as I finished, a gust of wind came, distributing them throughout the city.

From here on out, it was a waiting game. My opponent or opponents must show that they were legitimate and that my interference was unnecessary whereas I only had to wait for my opponents to show their true color while researching the area for possible battle plan. Anyway, once I was certain of their true color, all that was left would be to send in Mera and prepare for the summon.

In the best case scenario, someone else would come in and clean up the mess. The worst case scenario would be if Mera ran out of soul energy to fuel to contract. This meant that if possible, I would like to upgrade Mera's fiancée into a guardian even though neither of us had a clue where he went into hiding.

Little to nothing happened the entire night, to my disappointment. I actually couldn't locate that guardian or demon or whatever.

Anyway, now that I had the coordinates of the capital, I could teleport here any time.

Due to the distance between Formere and Rostask, there was a time difference between sunrise.

Even with sunlight pouring into the room, Smoothie was still snoozing away. Blackberry, on the other hand, who didn't need to rest remained on standby watching over the sleeping child.

"Isn't she adorable with that sleeping face?"

"Yes." Blackberry nodded.

From an outsider's point of view, two gorgeous ladies were chatting amongst themselves.

"Hmm... Perhaps it's time you received a separate soul core?"

Albeit only miniature soul cores, I now had the ability to grant those.

The one thing I was concerned with was the permanent fracturing of my soul. If I granted it a soul core, it might affect Smoothie's original mission which was to send me back to my original world. Thus, I decided to refrain from granting soul cores to my clones at the moment. Though, technically speaking she already failed since Snowberry was nowhere to be found.  

Suddenly, an idea came to me.

Mini soul cores? That means I can finally create alcoholic beverages! Ohhh...! Kanoko will be so happy! Actually, I wonder if she's done with her work?

A while back, she did agree to watch the Selection Tournament with us. Perhaps due to her work, she had forgotten about that promise.

Since I knew where Kanoko was, I teleported next to her.

"Good morning, Kanoko. Where are you heading off to?"

"Eek!"

"Don't be like Mera. If you've already reported to the king about the Abyssal Gate stuff, come to the Selection Tournament. Don't tell me you forgot about it?"

"Ahh... That."

"I... I don't want to burden you."

"Burden me?" I let out a soft chuckle, "You're not a burden. Don't give me that look. Pack up, and let's go!"

blanksphere

Since multiple comments asked about it, MC could finally create simple life forms with [genesis] which includes bacteria and such needed to ferment sugars which in turn makes alcohol. To first create bacteria, MC needed to grant them mini soul cores.