Leaving the knights order behind i headed for the commerce district with my reward in hand.
I was just a village bumpkin, with nothing more than my system and the clothes on my back, mostly thanks to the spite of my former siblings who had delusions of grandeur thanks to my own assistance.
But now I had my rightful reward of the bounty for my kills, and with that I could replenish my missing stock.
First I went into a clothing store sadly not for new clothes but oh well they were new to me.
My total assets even with the bounty and my arena winnings only amounted to a handful of silvers, thankfully my basic meals were covered by the arena but that's not to say I couldn't want more than a simple rice or oatmeal gruel with bits of fruit in it.
Once I had three sets of green shirts and brown pants selected along with a batch of underpants that were closer to loose fitting boxer shorts.
The same went for socks not perfect in that they were very loose fitting but still any covering was better than nothing.
Wiht my clothing sorted I moved on to the general store, and purchased a set of water bags, a wooden pick with bristles that served the role of cleaning teeth like a toothbrush, then there was simple powders and things that served as powder soaps, and deodorants.
I also picked up a newer backpack to replace the falling apart pack given to me within the village.
With my newest goods in tow I returned to the Arena and descended into the pits once more.
My room was still empty so I occupied it once again but a minute after entering while pulling out my new things from my pack.
The door was banged on, and when I opened it to the torch lit hallway the pit master was there, but rather than talk he just tossed me a key before walking off.
I guess this is the key to my room then?
Closing the door since there was no other reason to keep it open other than to peer at the receeding pit masters form.
So ended my first day as a real combatant of the city.
I settled into 'my' room now that I had the key to it I laid ownership over it.
~ ~ ~
When morning came the next day I hunted for and found the pit master after dealing with the morning rituals of getting ready, and after a very short conversation which ended after I asked a single question.
"When do I fight next?"
"Next week."
I tried asking more but never got anything more out of him, so I just shrugged it seems I had the rest of the week off to rest and recover, but just staying in my jail cell of a room would be boring so instead I decided to see what I could do for part-time work.
Mainly checking out the three dungeons that could be accessed from this city.
I gained some more levels thanks to my victory in the arena but it wasn't that many so i'd still need to make the decision as to how I was going to approach the dungeons, I mean I could go in as I was fighting through as a kid, or being like a page to an existing party being a drop running by collecting and ferrying the drops from killed monsters while the party got to focus entirely on fighting, or I could go in as my mysterious armored self, the one seen by the fans in the stands of the arena but this could be a mistake since I would draw attention to myself I was relatively unknown now but if I gained fame in the arena then those envious or jealous would come to call when I dove into the dungeon.
Shaking these thoughts from my head I first decided to just check out the dungeon, and so armed with only my sword I left the arena, and the city behind headed for the nearest of the three dungeons.
It was actually this dungeon that had caused the monsters I saw along to road towards the city to exist, caused by a dungeon stampede failure to quell the dungeons numbers would result in a stampede and if it was not contained they would spill out into the world itself leading to natural monsters existing although rogue monsters were easier to kill than those found in the dungeon since all world monsters were only level one, while monsters in the dungeon were ranked by the level of the floor you found them on.
As I treked the path to the dungeon I got to see an amazing sight upon arriving.
There were about ten parties just relaxing, chilling or getting ready to dive, while new members kept arriving either by walking the path or coming out of portals created by Adventurer's who could use a sort of gate or teleport spell to return to places they'd been to before, well anywhere except for the dungeons themselves since traversing the dungeon floors through the same power was the skill of explorers.
The dungeon itself looked pretty unnatural, just like a square stone gate that had risen from the ground, and the entrance was just a solid black film that seemed to swallow up anyone who entered.
Occassionally someone would speak to the man standing guard at the gate itself, giving a response stating the same information over and over to the new arrival which I figured was the highest... or lowest floor reached in the dungeon so far, which for this dungeon was the fourty-fourth floor.
I tried to ask around seeing if I could tag along with any of the parties but I was rejected, even called a leech at one point.
I mean I get it, if I a kid joined a party but did nothing in the fighting I would just get experience without earning it.
So instead after a number of failed attempts I instead entered the black gate myself.
And after entering, I decided since less people could see me i'd equip at least a stong body armour to protect me but when I did the reset I saw it.
I had a new job [Explorer]