It is my first time visiting a city in this world. I was expecting it to be messier and grittier, but it is surprisingly clean. Must be a pretty affluent city. Lynne and Mari are looking around like everything is new to them. Makes sense, it is likely their first time in a city. Lawra is trying to look nonchalant to the new experiences, but even though she was raised in a more affluent home than Lynne and Mari, she never mentioned having been to a city before. After all, when she ran away from home, it was only across town.

Kira is different, she has clearly been here before, and seen more amazing things. "I am surprised by your lack of amazement." Kira's words hits home. I am supposed to have grown up in the wilderness, a city should be a marvelous new thing for me, but considering my real upbringing this place is still a dump. In an attempt to deflect her comment, I gesticulate that I am just not that fussed.

Since all our luggage is in my soul storage, we head into town as soon as we reach the carriage station. I find myself a fifth wheel on an exploration of the many stalls found off the main roads throughout the city. Lawra is in charge of our budget, and deals with any purchases. I am just there for storage, food sampling and commenting on outfits while the girls explore. Considering my enhanced stamina I should be able to endure much better than the girls, but now they seem to have limitless stamina, and I am starting to flag.

Eventually Lawra announces that we should find an inn. Unsurprisingly, a lot of inns are full, but Lawra is fully confident that we will find something. She seems adamant that she want one near the guild arena where we will be spending most of our time. On our budget, I wonder what we will be able to find. Lawra's find is a small run down inn with no kitchen or backyard. There is a public bath and toilet across the road that can be used for a fee.

However, the room has only two straw mats. There is no other furniture or even a window for natural light. What on this planet did Lawra see in this choice? Lawra promptly asks me to store the smelly straw mats and start to bring out the mattresses, pelts, carpets, pillows and blankets from my soul storage. The previously dark and unwelcome room is quickly turned into a larger and more cozier version of my mud hut.

My homemade flora lamps, previously used in my mud hut, assist our only oil lamp in lighting up the room and giving it a welcoming vibe. Welcoming enough that the girls start to strip and promptly help me get out of my clothes. "Time to get rid of your pent up lust." Lawra seems to think her comment is amusing. The giggle from the other girls implies that they agree.

It hits me that this will be the first time I will be making love to any one of them in sight of the others. I wanted to avoid this to avoid jealousy forming. I guess I was too shortsighted as the girls seem to have no trouble with a fivesome. Guess it shows how close they have gotten to each other. There still seems to be an order though. As I lay on my back the other girls push a giddy Mari on top of me and making it clear that we will be following the order I decided to marry them.

Early the next morning I wake up fully refreshed despite being in a three-way sandwich with Lawra on top of me, Lynne snuggled onto my left and Mari on my right. I can't see Kira. As all the girls are still heavily asleep, I try to carefully wiggle myself free. Mari seems to hold a looser grip on me. Turning her to her side away from me I find room to slide the fully unconscious Lawra next to her. Lynne proves more difficult as she is holding onto me a lot harder than her small frame would indicate.

I check in at the nearby public bath which serves as our bathroom while staying in the city. As I wash, I am lost in thought about the coming days. Brute was helpful enough to explain the way the tournament worked. The preliminaries for the archery start just a couple of days before the main tournament. Luckily neither the preliminaries nor the main tournament for archery and spearmanship overlap.

To reduce the number of archery contestants to a suitable tournament number the preliminary contestants are randomly given a group, which forms a type of mini qualifying tournament. Only the best from each group qualify for the main tournament. Pretty much anyone can sign up to compete in the archery preliminaries. There are no requirements other than to have a very basic level of skill. Time wasters are the only reason for the basic skill requirement.

The spear tournament is quite different. Probably because of the impact of life force levels on melee fights, the preliminaries are dived by the life force level of the contestants. Even a novice spearman with high enough life force level can compete against a skilled opponent with a lower life force level. The starting group is the copper league, which includes anyone with a level lower than 10. The silver league is anyone with a level lower than 20. The gold league is the highest in this tournament, which include anyone above, but not many hunters beyond 30 bother to take part in tournaments this far south.

Just like the best contenders from the copper league are allowed to participate in the silver league, the best contestants in the silver league are allowed to participate in the gold league. I am not sure if it is realistic to aim to qualify for the gold league, but that is my goal. Brute has informed me that there are some fighters in the silver league that are even more technically skilled than him. He can only beat them if he goes all out. The copper league should finish later today, and the silver league will be starting the day after tomorrow. I better sign up today.