"Good Morning!"
"Good Morning too, now move away before I kick you."

I really don't like a shared bedroom. Victor, I know you slept all day but don't hang around other people's face when they are just about to wake up.

"How are your injuries?"
"The combat healers fix me up last night when I was asleep. I woke up a couple of hours ago."

A couple of hours ago? Light hasn't even peeked over the horizon.

"You did spend most of your time on unconscious yesterday. I thought for sure that you would go straight to the tavern to eat some food when you wake up, what are you doing hanging around here?"
"I ..uh,, don't have any money. hehe"

You should have a good amount of money from selling your sculpture to chatterbox. Every vacation, you also do merchant escort work. How could you not have any money? Did you not bring enough for our trip? Wait a minute.

"How much money did you bring?"
"I only brought 5 gold coins."
"How much did you spend on food when we arrived here?"
"There was a beast continent restaurant that sells a huge portions of meat, so 3 gold coins."

The same restaurant the prince and princess took me? I went straight to the centre of the island and he went to find the arena, so I ate there after he left?

"How much to register at the arena?"
"A gold coin to register. It is expensive but it also included the card that records my matches. It also shows my overall rank and arena points! I can use those points to buy weapons, armours, and a lot of things I might need at the arena. I can also use those to exchange for a full healing! It doesn't expire too so I don't have to re-register when I visit the arena the next time!"
"..or so the sales talk they use on you goes."
"ugh... However, if I reach the top 100, they would pay me for every fight! I figured I could just continue winning and earn the money I lost through that."

The arena business is soaring! The audience pay, the fighters pay, and they only need to pay some small change to the top 100 fighters. This didn't include the food, merchandise and betting house. Especially the betting house that can't possibly lose.

"Wait!! How did you lose the last gold coin?"
"I ....uh....sorta....bet on myself. I only needed to win 3 straight times to get three times the amount I bet!"

And that is how they got you. A lot of people loves fights, the gambling on the side is just an extra lure for them. They won't have a problem from the lack of audience or the lack of fighters. There is the beast continent, where the whole land is a survival of the fittest kind of rule. I don't know the exact details about it but from how they talk and act, they love the fight! The ones with carnivores as base at least.

"Anyway!! You are going for your morning training, right?!?!? Let me accompany you! Maybe we can even spar later! I learned a whole bunch from my battles yesterday!"
"I heard from chatterbox about the fight. You went all out on [Holy Armour] that you ran out of mana. The same way that chatterbox needs to build up his strength, you need to build up your mana."
"That may be true but we dwarfs don't have affinity with magic. We can persistently train for it but other than earth magic we can't really go beyond basic level."
"We have our own mages that excel in other magic though?"
"Ah, those didn't actually train at our continent. They trained here at the central island. The earth magic is so overpowering that even a master of the other element won't be able to out more that intermediate level of power."
"Okay, I understand. Stop trying lure me out of focus. You can train [Holy Magic] even at our continent so train that! I was talking about mana, not the specific mana element."
"I don't like how it takes time from my other activities..."
"Then do it like I do, keep it on at all time with a very low output. This way you are always using it. This will help you use it unconsciously while slowly increasing your mana."

I actually have mine in quite a high output but more focused. I don't waste mana by having it shining over my body. During this time where I don't need to worry about others looking at me strangely for keeping a moderate amount of mana cladding my body.

Unfortunately, other races are more sensitive to magic so they can feel me covering myself with [Holy Magic] but since this is the central island. No one is worried that I will use it to cause trouble. I can vaguely feel other races covering their body with some type of body reinforcement magic too so what I am doing is normal.

If only I know how to contain it so no one could sense my mana. Once I learned how to do that, those combat healers won't be able to hound me about it.

*Opens door*

"Why are you following me?"
"You are going for your daily exercise, right? I will come with you!"
"If you have time to do that then concentrate on your [Holy Armour]!! Stay here and practice until chatterbox wakes up then bring him to train his stamina. After my morning exercise, I won't return here but go do some business of my own."
"Isn't it fine, I can walk while practicing. I can just accompany you with your business. The staff at the arena says I can't come back until tomorrow. Something about cheating rich something."
"I only went sightseeing yesterday. You all went straight to do your things immediately without looking through information first. Now, I want to do my own stuff so leave me to my own time! Also, even though you are already healed up, you still lost a lot of blood so stay here to practice."

I don't want any of you to find out that I get a rich group sponsoring my shopping while I am here.

That spoiled thing he mentioned might be those rich kids who use a lot of potions or healers so they could keep fighting nonstop. Those would quickly boost their ranking from beginner to the top 100 in a couple of days. The other fighters must have complained about it.

*Clop* *Clop* *Clop*

Should I buy some rubber soles for my shoes? This inn is made of wood but every time I step it sounds like a horse shoe. It would wear out and I would then have to buy another if I buy one though.

"Going out, brill?"
"Yeah, I might come back late and I don't need breakfast too. Bye!"
"Yeah, take care and don't forget. We only have 4 days left here."

I know, I need to make sure I get as much possible benefits from those princess group as possible.

Now, I shouldn't be obvious in wanting to meet them. I should avoid going to the inner core, that fairy bookstore and the restaurant. I'm sure they have ways of finding me so I could just go to a market and look for things I might really need.

*Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack*

I don't actually know where the markets are and where I could find the things I need. Since I don't have a map, I will let the centibus where I will go. I will just get off when I see a busy looking market place.

"Good morning and welcome to the centibus. Please put your fare in the box at the front and pick a place on the segments. Please hold on tight so you don't fall."

*Clink*

They are much more energetic in the morning. I remember those days when I was a bookstore clerk. Happy in the morning and you slowly burn out as the day goes on. That lead to me burning out as the years go by and I stopped the overly helpful store clerk. I don't miss those days.

Anyway, I should stay in the outer wall. Most of the things a new blacksmith needs are classified as heavy products so I should find most of the things here.

*Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack*

This place looks promising. I see a lot of blacksmith looking people here.

"Thank you for choosing the centibus! Have a good day!"

They actually greet you as you get off? That is customer service right there but this company is the sole reigning transport company in this island. There is no choosing of any kind.

There are other people with their own transport or those from the races that have a convenient ability, like flying, but the centibus is a must for me right now. I don't have to worry about stamina but, unless I want to run everywhere, it would take too long to get anywhere.

Those fat wallet sure are taking their time. I wonder when they will approach me again. Let me look for something worth buying first, so I have it ready when they ask what I want.

"Welcome, How can I help you?"
"Don't mind me, just looking for things."

Don't greet window shoppers! This should be an unspoken rule. Window shoppers are still on the fence whether they want to buy something so greeting them usually end up with them leaving.

I won't leave though since you have interesting things.

This shop has a lot of different forging hammers. Different sizes, different mana elements and even different shapes for those those special material that need a specific way to handle.

I probably won't have to deal with other element infused material other than earth so I should mostly stick to that kind of hammer.

"How much for the 10 kilo earth hammer?"
"5 gold and 50 silver coins."

He toned down the enthusiasm. I guess he learned that I'm not a chatty customer. However, his prices are amazingly expensive. This is a human store so it may be that.

I would get a better deal at my home continent so I should probably only shop for the other element hammer that I could potentially use.

"Is the price the same for the other element hammers?"
"Of course, Do you want the whole set? I'll give you a 10% discount."
"I'll come back later."
"Wait, wait, wait, how about I give you a 20- no! 25% discount!?"
"I'll think about it."

The mana is so balanced in the human continent that you can positively say that their element hammer are most stable, though you could also say that their works don't excel in any other way.

There are aprons here too but I don't need a new one for now. I could always use new tongs so maybe that?

A couple sets of googles would also be nice. I am training my eyeball resilience but having them somewhat steamed every forging is a huge pain. It takes a while to heal too so I am semi blind for a couple of hours after every forging.

Also, it't not related to blacksmithing but I do need some shirts and pants. I only have a few pairs and the dwarf continent boast the defense of its shirts, which is not really good for casual clothes. They would wear out easily in our environment but I want to have a comfortable pajama at the very least.

"Good morning, Mr. Smith!"
"You stalking me now, laddie?"
"Of course not, we are just very concerned about you."

Looks like the prince finally found me. That was faster than I though.

I only went to one market and they found me this fast. He must have stationed people at the dwarf section in this island to inform him when I appear.

Very well, it has been a day. He should have sniffed enough information about me. I wonder what stance they would take now.