Now all I really have left to do is to waste time until the start of the auction. Well, there is one thing that I need to do, and that is to stay out of trouble. For me, that is probably the hardest task of all, even when I try to avoid it trouble tends to find me.

As I continue wandering I notice something odd about the city, there are no churches. While I wasn't expecting religion to be a big part of the city I still expected there to be some. If nothing else I would expect to see churches for the god or goddess of magic.

Asking one of the street vendors actually gets me a lot of information. The old guy running the stall likes to talk, so he tells me all about the pantheons of the continent. Of which there are three, all of which are forbidden in the Magic Kingdom.

Followers of the religions are not banned, just the churches themselves. According to the old man the Magic Kingdom was drawn into several wars between the religions in the past. Those wars caused a lot of damage and directly led to all the religions being banned.

The Magic Kingdom is only a small kingdom in terms of size, but the power of its mages is another matter. They can directly challenge the churches in terms of power, so the churches had to obey. Besides, if one of the religions attacked the Magic Kingdom, the other two would join in.

From what the old man tells me, the gods themselves have forbidden such a war. It makes sense to me, there would really be no winners in such a war. Although, it does make me wonder if the three pantheons would work together against the maker.

It almost makes me want to help the maker get to the continent to see what would happen. However, I don't really have that level of enmity with the humans and gods of the continent. Satisfying my curiosity isn't a good enough reason to cause a calamity, even though it would be fun!

Although, knowing my luck, the gods would be like their followers and wouldn't try to work together until it was too late. There is no point in saving the peninsula from the demons only for it to fall to the undead. Because if the main continent falls, then eventually the peninsula would be doomed.

Of course, I could be wrong and they could work together from the beginning, but I doubt it. Considering the three pantheons share the continent, they obviously have conflicts. Aside from the holy wars, they probably plot and scheme against each other.

If nothing else they would be in constant conflict over followers, since that is their source of power. Unfortunately, that is the end of the old guy's knowledge, but it was very helpful. At least now that I know some I can ask better questions later when I meet others.

To thank the old guy I order another helping of food and then overpay before walking away. As I go back to wandering I keep thinking about the pantheons and how I could get more information. However, as I am walking past a building I am pulled from my thoughts by loud cheering.

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Curious, I turn and walk into the building, only to find out that it is an arena. Since I don't have anything pressing to do I pay the gold to enter and go sit in the stands to see what's going on. The building is circular and the stands surround the sands of the arena, just like those in ancient Rome.

There is a fight going on when I sit down, two humans are fighting a wolf-type beast. The two humans are not wearing armor and have low level weapons which makes me think that they are slaves. Instead of watching the fight I check out the enchantments on the arena.

The arena itself is heavily enchanted to make sure no one can cheat by messing with the fights. The rest of the building, on the other hand, is only lightly enchanted, including the holding areas below. Once I am sure there are no enchantments to detect me I send out my mana to scan.

In the holding cells beneath the arena I find five male elves, along with a large number of humans and beasts. Above the stands, in what I am guessing is the owner's box, there are two female elves. They are dressed in very skimpy servant outfits, but most of their exposed skin is covered in bruises.

Instantly I have thoughts of slaughtering everyone in the building, but I force myself not to move. I manage to calm down after taking a few deep breaths, but it only helps a little. Only thinking about the auction keeps me from doing something stupid.

By the time I have calmed down, the fight in the arena is over, the two slaves died. The crowd cheers each time blood is spilled, only those who bet on the humans wanted them to win. Everyone else in the crowd just wanted to see the blood and watch someone die.

It makes me sick, but killing them all would mean I couldn't attend the auction. So, I need to think of a less violent way to get the elves out of here and my first thought is money. The arena owner is most likely someone very greedy and to such people money is king.

So I leave the stands, head back to the entrance, and ask who I can talk to about buying gladiators. After waiting for a bit I get to talk to a manager, but then the manager leaves to talk to the owner. After a few more minutes the manager comes back to escort me to the owner's box.

Owner says "I hear you want to buy some gladiators?"

"Yes, specifically the five elves you have. Oh, and those two as well!"

Owner says "Ah, so you have a thing for elves! Unfortunately for you, so do I! So, I'm not interested in selling them!"

"No matter the price?"

Owner says "That's right, no matter the price!"

"It looks like I misjudged you, you are not that greedy! Yet you own an arena, so that should mean you are a gambler!"

Owner says "You are right, I do love a good gamble!"

"In that case, how about we have a bet?"

Owner says "What shall we bet on? What are the stakes?"

"For my side, I will bet four million crystal coins! For the bet, I will go against whatever is the strongest beast you have!"

Owner laughs and says "That is very brave of you! For my stake I will bet the seven elves that I own!"

"Just seven elves against four million? Aren't you overestimating their value?"

Owner says "Fine! Fine! I will bet the seven elves and three million crystal coins! That should be fair enough, right?!"

"Alright, it's a bet!"