The lady from earlier still occupied parts of Ark's mind, even though he tried not to think about her, she still managed to surface in the depths of his mind. She just wasn't someone you could easily forget, Ark felt that something was special about the young lady, he just didn't really know what. After eating their fill, they both headed back to the inn for the day, and just rested a little in their room. Since he didn't have a lot of time as a human, Ark tried to save as much time as needed in his human form, in case of emergencies.
In their humble room, Ark rested on the floor, while Thufrat rested a little on the bed. They had to make a good impression the next day as bodyguards, and they were both a little tired. No matter what they did, each day seemed to be filled with adventures and new developments. They rarely got a real day off, to just relax. After a couple of hours of resting, noon had already passed. They were both getting hungry and decided to eat some lunch.
Walking down into the dining hall of the inn, Ark and Thufrat ordered some lunch and sat down for a while. The food arrived after a couple of minutes, and they both dug in. Lily was watching them a little for a while, whilst serving the other customers. When they had finished eating, Thufrat left to go to the bathroom, and Ark was left all alone. Whirling around the drink in his glass a little, Ark looked a little desolate. He never really thought about it too much, but he seriously liked having a new friend. The feeling of being all alone was seriously the worst, and Ark didn't feel it anyway near as much as he used to. But still, the feeling was there sometimes, and it was kind of horrible.
What if Thufrat one day decided to just leave him, and never came back? The thought seriously scared him. Even though they were friends right now, people were never almost friends for their entire life. Friends were almost always bound to grow apart after a while, but Ark didn't want that to happen, he didn't want to be left all alone again.
After a couple of minutes, Thufrat returned from his bathroom visit. Ark heaved a sigh of relief and gulped down the rest of his drink. Standing up, they paid their tab and left the place. Ark had a little under 2 more hours of use in his human form, all he had done was eat in it today after all, and strolled a little bit. Since they had already rested a little, they decided to leave the inn, and explore the city some more.
As they strolled about, they almost instinctively gravitated toward the marketplace. This place was always cheerful, and there was a lot of things to look at and do there. After almost an entire hour of looking around, eating some snacks, and just browsing the different shops. Ark and Thufrat arrived in front of an inconspicuous stall. The weird thing about this stall was that even though it looked so ordinary, it was quite the opposite. The stall itself was enchanted with numerous kinds of magic, and the things on display were far from ordinary, to say the least.
There was an array of different magical artifacts and mana crystals. What caught Thufrat's attention was a fairly large warhammer that was on display. The warhammer was mainly crafted from a sort of magical tree that was heavily earth attributed. The wood was lined with different kinds of mana conducting metals that would make this warhammer an excellent weapon for someone of the earth element.
"Is it okay if I test it a little?"
The shopkeeper only glanced at him before he nodded, and started polishing a magical sword that was on display. As Thufrat felt the weight of the wood in his hands, as well as the polished metal finishes, he instantly fell in love with it. He tried to inject it with some of his earth mana, which instantly made the hammer swell in size, as well as increase exponentially in weight. The surrounding people gave him some space, and Thufrat gave it a test swing.
Even though he didn't use his full power at all, the air trembled as it was split apart when the hammer was brought down. Before slamming it into the ground, Thufrat stopped it an inch or so above the ground. The hammer still carried a large amount of force, and the surrounding ground cracked for several meters. It almost looked like a large spiderweb covering the ground as the cracks crisscrossed across the ground. And that was when the hammer didn't even touch the ground.
The surrounding people gulped involuntarily, what if the dwarf actually struck the ground with all his power? They didn't dare imagine what would happen to them if they were to fight this dwarf. The shopkeeper gave Thufrat a slight nod of approval when he saw the destruction of the ground. Thufrat didn't want to ruin the man's business, and he repaired all the damage to the ground using his earth magic.
Even though the warhammer was seriously attractive to Thufrat, he didn't have the money to buy it. It cost 50 rose-gold, and Thufrat didn't have that kind of money. At least not currently. Ark could see the look on Thufrat's face, and he knew what he was thinking. Even if they pooled their money together after this mission, they wouldn't be able to afford it. But Ark really wanted Thufrat to get it, and his brain was working hard trying to figure out the best way to make out money, at least for him currently.
He didn't have the time to be doing any of that right now though, it was more for future references. After a little bit more of looking around, Ark and Thufrat left the small stall and walked back to the inn. They didn't stay in the lobby, they just walked directly to their room. After entering their room once more, Ark stayed in his human form, and they had a nice and long chat, before Ark took a nap for a while.
After he woke up, they ate some dinner at the inn, since they didn't feel like going out anymore. And then they just both went to sleep. Ark felt like it was a bit of a waste of a day off, but sleeping was just too blissful when you were tired.