In barely another two hundred yards the dusty road that Gordon and Jessica had started traveling down joined up with a main road. Continuing along he saw a lot more people on this main road. In fact where the smaller road and residential type homes had been facing the street before on this larger road there were only shops.
Two of three stories, each shop had a unique flare. Some had stonework that reflected the goods that had been sold there originally while others were more staid.
Either way whatever had been traded there originally did not reflect what was being sold now. For example a store with fishes flying through clouds on the stone sign above their table was actually selling armor. There was absolutely no connection between what was on the sign and what was on the table to be sold.
And the prices, Gordon's eyes just about bulged out of his head. The prices for these armors and weapons were two or three times what he had seen in Talon. Of course these shops were selling to the elites and for all Gordon knew they might be some really good bargains.
All of this was foreign to him. Just give him a good grocery store or a mom and pop joint like they had in the pits and he would feel at home. Not only had he never bought a weapon before, but some of the fancier shops had goods that he couldn't even recognize or did but couldn't imagine buying ever. Spells and tools made sense, but one shops seemed to be selling manure while another sold scents! It was a whole different world from the Pits where there were plenty of scents. So many strong pungent scents that Gordon thought it would be funny to start his own business hawking Pit aroma therapy.
Briefly he wondered if this world had chain stores like his old world.
'Oh, well, only experience will tell.'
He said to himself.
Since he had no money to speak of and nothing to sell Gordon just kept walking down the main street while gawking at all the business being done to the sides. It gave him a good chance to investigate what some of the crafts that this world had to offer.
Alchemy shops were plentiful. There were more alchemy stores than any other type. And there were plenty of hawkers out with just a blanket set out and their pills spread out on the street itself. Next he could see that there were a lot of smithies. All kinds of smiths were working industriously pounding iron or other metals. Many of the smiths looked like they were doing repairs for gear or roughing out basic gear like swords and armor. But there were also smiths who specialized in different types of gear. There was a jeweler with a tiny hammer and anvil beating out gold and silver.
And there was another armorer who didn't use a forge at all. Instead all his work was done through magical means. As far as Gordon could see there weren't even any tools. Stopping he watched for a few minutes and learned that this smith only did minor modifications to grant magical means and skills to mundane weapons.
Nodding to himself Gordon knew that he had to come back here before he was done with this place. With Portensa looking like she was going to be a support pet he was going to have to find a way to earn money. Going on adventures and killing rouge beasts wasn't an option at the moment. Learning a trade was the path that he thought would be the best way to move forward.
Just thinking about how much money it was going to take to support not only Portensa, but also Ren's development was a crushing weight. Come to think of it maybe Ren couldn't even leave mount Renier. Wasn't she tied by her blood line to it? Of couse they had already left mount Renier, at least they were far enough away that he couldn't access Renier's private folder space. So Ren must be able to leave her mountain. It was just that he had a sneaking suspicion that Ren's cultivation would improve in many ways if she was closer to her earth source.
Seeing that the sun was about to set, Gordon hurried along to the gates of the temple. Where the rest of the buildings were reddish brown the temple rose up into his view as ivory. The Philos family had obviously gone out of their way to preserve the finish and glamour of the building because he didn't see any of the yellowing or fading that ivory would have displayed.
However that didn't mean that there wasn't some obvious signs of neglect. Great rents in the temple's facade betrayed the fact that the Philos family might not be as well off as he had assumed. It looked as if some gargantuan claws had torn the building several times. In a few places the scars where so deep that he could see into the interior of the temple. For some reason this damage had not been repaired.
It was interesting and Gordon supposed that he would find out eventually what had happened here. Then the thought of Jessica came to his mind and he wondered, if Jessica's family were anything like her then these great rents were probably more like battles scars. The family might be proud that they had received such damage and were still alive.
If their enemy had left these scars he wondered what condition the Philos family had left their attacker in. He could only imagine. Jessica herself would have absolutely mutilated anyone who stood in her way.
At the entrance to the temple there was another set of guards performing a security check. This time security was much tighter and it took several minutes for them to finish their various scans. Gordon wasn't worried. He had absolutely nothing on him. His bag and even the few slots of space he had in the system were basically empty.
He was a little worried that they would want the space pocket token that he had received from Renier, but it didn't seem to trigger their devices and other magical means from within the system space.
They directed him to Jessica's box which was one of only ten boxes lavishly decorated above an amphitheater arena type venue. Looking at the arena's size, Gordon thought that this temple might only have this one room and maybe a small additional space behind the amphitheater farthest away from the main doors. However, that extra space might just be storage or cleaning supply rooms. It was hard to tell with the temple being so large.
Most of the new Philos family beast masters and their invitees sat in the stands surrounding the central pit. A low barrier was all that separated the stage from the first row of benches. The spectators would be very close to the action with this sort of layout.
As Gordon walked into Jessica's booth he saw that his two fellow invitees were already there. One of them the brown haired girl rolled her eyes and looked away after briefly sizing him up. The blond smiled and offered her hand.
"Hi! I am Gloria and this is Oneko. Don't mind her she just doesn't see the point in getting to know you."
Gloria introduced herself and her friend.
"Hgh?"
Givng Gloria a confused look, she suddenly blushed.
"Oh, I am sorry, you don't know?"
"Know what?"
He asked politely. There was no reason to intentionally cause any problems.
"Well, I am sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. We thought you wouldn't even make it here, but surviving the challenges that the Philos family sets. Well, ..., we made a bet that you wouldn't even make it here. The trials for the invitees will only be even more difficult from here. You see?"
Nodding, suddenly Gordon understood. Gloria probably won a bet. But despite Gloria's evident enthusiasm both of these girls probably thought that he was as good as dead.
And since time was probably money for them, Oneko didn't even want to try to get to know him.
"How much did you bet that I would make it?"
He asked Gloria.
She smirked and showed him a vial of stamina pills.
"Not much, just some stamina pills. But we have another bet that you won't make it to the end of the trials. That bet is for an elixir!"
Smiling she tried to impress him with the cost of what they bet his life on.
Shrugging Gordon went along with the fun Gloria was having.
"Wow, a whole elixir!"
Really it wasn't hard for Gordon to be impressed. Even one stamina pill was worth a third of his family's income for one year and an elixir was unthinkable. There was no one that he knew that even had seen an elixir. Or at least was willing to admit that they had seen one. That was information that could get one killed in the Pits.