Chapter 81: Preparations

Leaving the Guild, Sol headed to one of the registering locations for the knight selection. He decided it was best to get it out of the way before he spent days at a time inside the dungeon training.

Near the Adventurers Guild was a guard station likely placed there to respond quickly to rowdy adventurers. There was a small line leaving from the guardhouse which Sol and Amber joined.

The plan was for Sol to become a knight, but now in the line, Sol remembered that he didn't ask Amber if she would also take the test with him.

"Hey Amber. Do you want to register for the selection with me?"

She immediately shook her head, "No."

He didn't expect such a quick response. "Huh? Why?"

Amber didn't respond as if saying no was enough of a reason. Sol wasn't going to force her to answer so he just let it be.

'It's hard to get a complete answer from her, but she probably just doesn't want to.'

The line moved quickly and it was soon Sol's turn to register. The two guards managing the registration were kind and explained everything he needed to write down. Sol also had to present his adventurers card if he had one and after filling the paper he was officially registered.

Heading out of the guard station, Sol felt relieved.

'They asked for a lot of information but thankfully not my talents or skills.'

While Sol could use the Deceiver's Earring to create a fake status page, he was currently working with the one he made back in Kerman. He still hadn't figured out what kind of talent and skills he wanted to present himself with in the knight selection. Sol knew he had to show more of his abilities to impress the people presiding over the selection, but he didn't want to show all of it.

For now, Sol knew he had to include the [Sword] talent as the first one as it was already registered in his adventurers card. For his second talent, he was thinking of using the unique [Magic Attuned] or maybe even the legendary [Sage]. He knew it had to be a talent that allowed him to use magic as it was a big part of his strength.

For the last talent that most people unlocked around level 60, Sol believed it had to also represent another aspect of his strength that was hard to hide, which was his unnatural durability. He didn't know many talents that shared affinity with [Physical Resistance] and [Natural Armor], but it did remind him of Jayce back in Initium.

Jayce had the rare talent of [Iron Wall] which Sol could impersonate, but that talent was more focused on defending with a shield rather than fortifying the body.

While pondering over the different combinations, Sol realized his time could be better spent on other matters.

'Forget it, maybe when I gain new skills from the dungeon I'll be able to form a better status page for the selection.'

Sol turned to Amber, "Let's go buy supplies. We will need them for the dungeon."

Heading from store to store, Sol bought all the supplies they would need, which totaled a hefty amount. Similar to the dungeon guide, it seemed almost everything cost more than double the price back in Kerman. It made Sol have to plan his spending more as he only had around 50 gold and until he secured a source of income he didn't want to spend it all in one go.

After buying food, dungeon tools, and special containers for collecting dark essence, which was one of the items he could hopefully sell from the dungeon, Sol made one final stop at an apothecary.

'While I can heal us using the [Aqua Ring], it's not ideal to use in the middle of combat or if something happens and I can't or don't have time to cast spells.'

The door chimed as the duo entered the small apothecary. There were all kinds of bottles with different colors and labels slapped on them lined up in an orderly fashion. The one tending to the store was a skinny man whose face was covered in soot and was missing hair off the top of his head. He also sported a large mustache, but half of it seemed to have been burnt off.

Sol couldn't help but worry, "Are you ok?"

"Why of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I don't mean to be rude, but it just looks like you took an explosion to the face."

"Ahh, that. Don't worry about it, I was just experimenting with a new potion."

Sol was astounded, "Is potion making dangerous?"

The man laughed, "Hahaha! Not if you follow the instructions, but where is the fun in that? Either way, it's nothing a good hair growth potion can't fix. But forget about me, how can I help you?"

Forcing his eyes to look at the man's eyes and not his burnt hair, Sol spoke, "We just want some health and mana potions."

"Sure, sure. What rank?"

"They have ranks?"

"Not officially, but it makes it easier to know how much they generally restore. For example, D-Rank health potions heal around 200 health, C-Rank heal around 500, and B-Rank heal around 1000. Same for mana potions, but we also have other potions with different effects. Some can increase your attributes and others can cure poison."

Although Sol was curious about the other potions, he didn't have the money to spend on trying them out and focused on the two important ones.

"Just health and mana for now. How much for C-Rank mana and B-Rank healing?"

"C-Rank mana is 50 silver and B-Rank health is 1 gold per."

Sol barely managed to hide his surprise after hearing the price.

'Just two health potions will equal all that I have spent on supplies…'

Knowing it was still a necessary purchase, Sol decided to buy them anyway.

"Okay… Can I get 10 mana and 10 health potions."

Sol placed 15 gold on the table, a large portion of his money. The man nodded and handed over the potions to Sol, which he split with Amber and they stored them in their spatial rings.

"Hope they serve you well. Let me know if you need anything else."

"Will do, thank you for the potions."

With a final wave, the duo left the store. By now, it was already noon but there wasn't really anything else to do.

Sol looked at Amber and asked, "You wanna explore the dungeon?"

She looked back with her usual expression and shrugged.

"A shrug… I'll take that as a yes! Let's go!"