Christopher woke up for what should be an exciting day. When the sun rose to its highest the Arena matches would start. His imagination ran wild as he imagined the Soul Force empowered high-level fights.

After his training the day before, he had been diligently practicing his Soul Heat ability. He had been discussing the theory behind Soul Force with Tamas, and she had given him some helpful pointers. He had jokingly called her master once or twice, which had annoyed her to no end.

He actually did feel that he had grown more efficient in his use, meaning that he was now able to infuse the same amount of Soul Heat into the metal with a lower percentage of Soul Force, he also felt confident that there was still a lot more to be gained.

Tamas had become frustrated with his progress in achieving the Heat effect. She still tried to understand what he was doing to be this proficient but he really couldn’t tell her, it was in fact impossible. He did feel bad about it, he really owed her quite a lot and would have loved to help her. He still had to skirt around the issue of the mental image that he used.

There was plenty of time left until the Arena opened to the public. He decided to be diligent and continue his strength regiment on his day off from training. The regiment was designed so that it could be performed anywhere, and now he went through it in his room where he quickly worked up a sweat.

When the exercises were done, he infused some Soul Heat once again. His Soul Force had maxed out, and he refused to let his regeneration rest for even a second.

Tinos and his family also had not been sitting idle. They had made arrangements with a business associate and were now able to make use of a workshop not far from the Inn. In return, they had to forfeit a share of the profits on all their creations. The materials would be bought with their share of the earnings from the loot they had sold.

Tinos was confident that the arrangement would only be temporary since when they had built up enough capital, they would be able to make a down payment for their own place. Christopher had full confidence in the family’s abilities.

The twins were of course still too young to help out with the business. The family paid for their education and care during the day while they worked. Of course, this did not come cheap, but Tinos said they would have more than enough once they got the ball running and made their first sales. All of this left almost no responsibility to Christopher, allowing him to focus on his own pursuits.

After lazing about for a bit, he left for the Arena early. He was still unfamiliar with that part of the city, so looking around was kind of exciting for him, there was always plenty to see after all. After calmly strolling to the central part of Lumen, the massive Arena quickly appeared prominently within his vision.

He had somehow missed the arena before because there were so many tall buildings and trees blocking his field of view. He had until now foregone moving up to the walkways above him, preferring the solid ground beneath his feet.

He promised himself that he would try to get more confident with the upper walkways. They might come in useful when Lumen ever got attacked, which his gut told him was definitely coming, why else had he been summoned here after all? The walkways were also essential for any Lumen archer.

The arena looked mightily impressive. It appeared as if the outer walls of the Arena were a miniature version of the much larger Lumen walls that circled the entire city. There was a massive gate that allowed entry into the Arena. Flanking the two gates, stood two meticulously crafted 100 feet high wooden statues in the image of two fierce-looking warriors. Looking at the imposing Arena he felt a rush of exhilaration, what he would experience today was no longer seen on present-day Earth.

In front of the awe-inspiring gate, was a very wide plaza that was bustling with activity. He was glad that he had left for the Arena early since that allowed him to explore the plaza at a leisurely pace. Around the plaza were several people performing feats with Soul Force, and Christopher observed them with interest.

There was a middle-aged mustached Man with a strange bulbous hat, who was able to use his Soul Force in quite a peculiar way. He managed to make stunning portraits of people with his Soul Force. There was even a line, indicating that it was a very popular attraction.

Curious how it worked, he watched the man create a portrait of a mother and her teenage son. A piece of dark paper sat on a flat wooden table in front of him. The mustached man told the mom and son to pose and sit very still for a moment, after which he intently watched them for a minute.

With his eyes still squarely on the mother and son, the man emptied a vial of some multicolored liquid on the dark paper. He then proceeded to grasp the edges of the paper, misty blue Soul Light leaking from his hands. Surprisingly, the multicolored Ink starts moving and rearranging itself. The mustached man never even looked at the paper.

With almost photorealism, the image of the mom-son pair was formed on the dark paper, creating a perfect portrait, the whole thing only took a single minute. While the mom beamed at the beautiful painting, the next customer was already moving up to pay for the next portrait. A lot of people were spectating and enjoying the sight of the wonderful Soul Force technique. Christopher also watched for a while, but after about five more portraits, the man packed up his stuff. Christopher thought it likely that this was the limit of his Soul Force reserve for now.

There were other attractions. There was another man that performed a mock battle with puppets on a single metal string. The movements were very intricate and this one seemed to be a big hit among the children.

There was also a magical musical performance on the plaza by a quartet of performers. Two were playing a string instrument that looked similar to those on earth. One other played on a flute of some kind, and the last one something completely different that he could only describe as multiple layers of metal sheets with some space in between.

The three with familiar instruments played as he would expect, but they seemed to enhance the sound somehow, producing a perfect pitch. The person playing the metal plates did nothing but infuse a trickle of Soul Force with his hands, creating a deep and wobbly sound. The interplay between the four performers was exquisite and he enjoyed their playing for a good ten minutes.

After reading the Soul Manual and practicing his own Soul Heat technique, Christopher was impressed with the fine control that these performers and artists had managed to reach, he wondered if he would ever manage to reach that level of control.

He visited the makeshift market next. Christopher had opted to only bring three silver coins, and 5 bronze coins on this journey. The rest of his money he had safely stashed away back in his room. He did not want to run the risk of being robbed for all that he owned.

He looked with excitement at all the different stalls and their wares. He was far from a compulsive buyer in his previous life, but this was a world with magic, who knew what kind of items might be for sale here.

There were the regular food stalls that you might expect in such a place, and he was very tempted by the delicious smells and appearances of the food. There were skewers with meat that had a golden luster, a booth that sold bags of some type of shining hazel candy in the form of bullets. A burly looking female chef was frying some kind of thin and flat spongy substance that surprisingly smelled absolutely heavenly despite its strange looks. He did not let himself fall into temptation. He had paid for three meals a day at the Inn and this would just be extra spending.

There were also a lot of interesting creations that worked on infused Soul Force, which he internally called Soul Devices. Even when reading the writing at many of the wooden stalls, he could still not really figure out the function for many of them.

Others he recognized or were more obvious. There were bronze items used for illumination, which had already been infused to look more appealing. There were also plenty of devices for heating.

He spotted a strange metal device that seemed to shock whatever it touched. He only figured it out due to the stand owner touching it with a stick that had a metal topping, eliciting a spark from the device. Did that chunk of metal somehow contain electricity? It reminded him of a mosquito lamp, although for as far as he knew Lumen did not have such creatures. Another selling point for this world. There were some devices that served as powerful magnets as well.

He finally came to a stall that particularly sparked his interest. Based on the colorful presentation and cute drawings, the stall seemed to be somewhat geared to children, but the items here would suit him as well. They sold all different kinds of training devices for people that were trying to develop their Soul Force.

He did have a little money on him and he was thinking of buying one of the items. His eyes roamed over the different options. The middle-aged woman operating the stall noticed his interest and kindly went over the different items with him.

He finally managed to find something useful that was within his price range. It was a small pouch that contained balls of various materials and sizes. The materials ranged from metal to wood, so from materials that were easiest to imbue to most difficult. It would allow him to practice with increasingly difficult materials.

He would be able to carry the pouch with him at all times, which would be rather useful by allowing him to practice with infusing his Soul Force at any moment. The pouch and its contents cost a total of 2 silver Venarian coins, but he felt the price was well worth it, and he was happy with his purchase

He found a stand that sold some simple weapons, including daggers. They seemed to be of a similar make as his current weapon, so he was not all that interested. He asked the shop owner, a frail and sickly-looking man if any of his wares were Soul Bound, something he had been curious about for a while now. The man simply snorted.

“Do I look stupid enough to sell such an item for these prices?” He said somewhat angrily. Although he did not like the angry tone, it did tell him that there were in fact Soul Bound items in the world as well.

“Where could I buy such an item?” He asked, not really caring how stupid the question might seem to the unpolite man.

“How in Adenium’s balls would I know, I doubt even the Silver Polearm has a single weapon like that in stock.”

‘Hmm, that must be some high-end weapon shop.’ If that was the case, he could give up on getting his hands on a weapon like that outside of the Interface Store. But at least he had confirmed that soul bound weapons did in fact exist out in the open world.

After walking through the market, and learning a lot in the process, he observed that the sun had climbed quite high already. He needed to make his way towards the meetup spot, the gates were going to open soon. He made his way to the agreed-upon location, a new pouch clasped on his belt.