CHAPTER 46: BOWEN CITY

Waking up I found myself sandwiched between two naked women that thankfully no longer had an additional limb, honestly don’t know if I could have survived for long if they kept them permanently. Shivering at that thought I also realised that this would likely become a regular occurrence from now on. Deciding that I was very open to that fact only made me grin.

And apparently my shivers had woken my two companions and with them waking up it appeared they were both also horny so I spent the next little bit assuaging them of their arrousal. And so after around an hour from waking up we left the bed with both Kana and Amanda looking fresh whilst I staggered out on wobbly legs but a wide smile on my face.

After a quick wash from a bucket of water that was left in the room I summoned my dress on and went over to see how dawn was doing today. Thankfully the dragon was still fast asleep so I simply picked her up and wrapped her around my neck, she curled up just a touch tighter and let out a soft purr of contentment at being back in her favourite spot.

Finding myself in a great mood and once my companions were dressed again we made our way downstairs where we were greeted by a reasonably busy room as people quietly conversed and ate their breakfast. Noticing Fuarder perched behind the bar I gave him a wave as we walked over to the bar. "Mornin lassy how ya doing? Lookin a touch week at the knees this day ain’t ya?" He announced before erupting into a boisterous laugh and wiggling his eyebrows at me.

Snorting at this I replied. "What can I say I have two wonderful lovers." As I grab both ladies around the waist and pull them towards me with a grin. This causes Lana to erupt in a blush as she tries to look away whilst Amanda seems quite nonplussed and just waves casually at the barkeep.

This seemed to cause another eruption of laughter from the stocky dwarf. "Aye so it would seem! Well enough of that what can I do ye for?"

"Some food would be delightful so long as it involves baked or sausages I don’t care what else comes!" I reply. "And something to drink but please non of your dwarven swill I don’t fancy growing a beard any time soon!" I half nok at the short man.

This only causes him to grin even wider. "Ha! Knew I liked ya for a reason! But aye not a bother sit ye self done and food will be with ya shortly." Smiling at the man I turned around with both women in tow and found us a table to sit down in. Whilst walking to the table I did notice we had quite the number of eyes on us but it seemed more in bemusement at the fact I could so easily convers with the thickly accented dwarf more than anything else.

And sure enough we soon had 3 plates piled high with meats, bread and even a bowl of some kind of soup. Digging in I let out an involuntary moan at the taste which did cause a small blush to could my cheeks but at the same time I was too happy with the food to care. I did hear a particularly loud snort of amusement coming from the direction of the bar so I gave Fuarder a quick glare before going back to my meal.

Making sure I left a some of the meats for Dawn we enjoyed our food and the mug of thankfully quite tame mead in quiet conversation. Mainly chatting about what we were looking to do. Whilst both girls had been to Bowen before, they had only briefly passed through so they were quite unsure about what exactly the city had to offer. So deciding to see if the trope of the barman knowing things held true we made our way back to the bar once we had polished off our food and drink. I stored the extra food in my storage space as Dawn was still asleep.

Arriving back at the bar we only had to wait a moment before Fuarder popped back up in front of us. "What can I do ye for?" He asked with a grin.

"Well I was wondering if you knew of anything fun happening around soon? We just arrived and past doing burning old adventure things I want to explore the city some so I’m hoping you could point me in the right direction." I asked whilst giving him a winning smile.

He chuckled at that but answered non the less. "Well ye just missed the harvest festival but past that not a huge amount happing in the city I’m afraid, you’ve always got the markets though can always find something happening there. But if your more magically inclined the wizard tower is supposed to be hosting an event of some sorts next month." He paused for a moment in thought before slapping his hand down on the bar causing Kana to jump slightly.

"Oh you said ye were adventures? What rank be ya?"

"We all just advanced to Iron, why?" I cautiously answer.

That answer only grows his somewhat manic grin. "Well you be in luck then lassy’s 4 days time they be opening up a trial ground just out of the city. It opened once every 10 years and it is only open to people in early Iron and below. Plenty of treasures and adventures to be had there. Adventures guild be puttin together a expedition of sorts for it. Would be worth checkin it out eh?"

This caused all 3 of us to exchange looks between each other, I could see the calm excitement in Amanda’s eyes whilst Kana was less reserved and blurted out. "Wait a trial grounds is opening!? What kind of trial is it?" She was practically bouncing in excitement at the prospect whilst I just stared at her bemused at her antics.

Fuarder only flashed his classic grin and leaned in a touch closer. "From what I know it was created by some Demoness a hundred or so years back supposedly she was Azure ranked. But I don’t know how much stock I put in that, but afraid that’s all I know bout it, not exactly my kinda scene ya see." He gave a helpless shrug at the end.

We thanked him for the information and I slipped him a couple coppers as a tip before we decided to make our way to the adventures guild to find out more. And to actually inform them that we completed the escort quest I suppose but mainly to find out about this trial ground. As we walked there I questioned my two companions about what exactly a trial ground is and I learnt quite a bit.

Apparently it is a hidden space sort of like an artificial dungeon. They can only be created by either an extreemally talented and powerful mage or by a large group of people. The former is the usual method they are created and they usually do so to leave behind a legacy or just as a way to provide opportunities to grow to the younger generations.

They are also used by particularly powerful guilds and organisations to train their members. A good and well know example of this can be found in the capital city where the king owns one and it is only used by the kings guard to train their new members.

Now better informed my excitement started to match Kanas as I too was eagerly looking forward to what we could discover or gain in this trial. And so with extra pep in our steps we rushed through the city only getting lost twice before we found ourselves in front of a truly grand building.

Matching the style of the rest of the city the adventures guild here was built using the white marble. However, it was a truly grand building that looked more like a palace than anything else in fact I realised looking up it just might be a palace as I realised we were in the centre of the city and I could see 2 of the 4 spires that circled the building and marked its 4 corners. The main entrance held a short walkway lined with trees and went towards a grand set of double doors that were currently wide open. A regular stream of people walked in and out of the building.

As we ourselves walked in I was blown away by what I saw. We walked into a grand entrance hall easily the size of a football pitch. In the walls paintings of adventures battling monsters of all shapes and sizes, I even saw one showing what looked like a freshly minted adventure battling a rat right next to a full part of powerfull looking adventures battling a dragon! It was a true homage to adventuring and it took me a moment to take it all in.

Directly in front of us was a long counter with 10 different receptionists manning it for the continuous stream of adventures that approched them. After we gained our bearings we chose a line and walked up to the guild receptionist waiting there with a clsssic customer service smile plastered on his face. He was a mousekin? If I had to guess, small brown ears topped his head and his small stature and whiskers truly gave him a very noisy look.

"Welcome to the adventured guild what can I do for you?" He said with such forced enthusiasm that I actually started to worry for the guy. Thankfully though before I could bleed out anything inappropriate Amanda spoke up.

"Yes we are here to turn in a escort mission that we completed." Saying so she withdrew a piece of paper that I wasn’t aware we had and slid it across the desk to him.

"Wonderful let me just look over that for a moment!" I blinked at his tone which remained far too chipper for the dead look that was in his eyes. But after a moment he spoke up again. "Everything looks to be in order here is your payment." And saying so he counted out 20 Iron coins and slid them over to us. "Now is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Yes we are hoping to find out more regarding the trial grounds opening in a couple days can you tell us more and how we might be able to enter?" Kana spoke up this time the genuine excitement in her voice a stark contrast to the overly friendly tone the receptionist used.

Sighing the man responded but his eyes seemed to die just a little more as he did so. "You need to be assessed before allowed to join the expedition. Go to testing ground 4 and someone will deal with you there. If that is all I will kindly ask you to move on as I have other adventures to deal with." I blinked and looked behind me only to see no one standing there. I was about to open my mouth and ask him what he meant but Amanda grabbed my arm along with Kanas and pulled us away.

"That guy was really weird." I muttered.

"Yes but we know where we need to go so let’s just ignore him and go see if we can get approved for the expedition yeah?" Kana said her enthusiasm not dampened in the slightest by that odd encounter.

And so we headed off to find this testing ground 4 the peculiar guild receptionist told us about.