A few days of non-stop travel had Sorin arriving at a very large city with numerous landing pads with various sized ships landing and taking off. He had switched off his title to remain unknown in the city as he didn't need that type of attention. Following the information on the writ of travel led him to a large building labeled "Travel Authority."
Sorin walked in and it was more or less as he expected. A line of counters, charts, and viewing screens that were an aether based television displaying travel times, arrivals, and departures.
He saw different flights leaving for various planets all with names like Lemuria, Aaru, Nysa, Alfheim, Asgard, Agartha, Himavanta, Kunlun, and even Camelot.
He looked down the list until he found Delphi. There were flights leaving each week for the place and one was leaving in about an hour.
Sorin walked up to one of the counters where a stout man sat with a bored expression.
"Good day, what can I do for you?" The man asked as if automated.
"I'd like to get on their flight leaving for Delphi in an hour." He replied.
"That's 5 C rank cores." Came the reply leaving Sorin feeling stupid.
"I apologize, I'll have to come back. I've been away for a while and forgot about the cost. I apologize for taking your time." Sorin replied as he turned and headed out.
Looking around, he needed to find a means to earn that coin, but had no idea where to start. He walked back in to the Travel Authority and to a different counter as he didn't want to bother that one man again. He had a prickly feel about him and he didn't have the patience for that, plus he knew even with his fraying control that would land him in even more trouble should he lose that little control.
"Excuse me ma'am, I'm short on funds, is there a place I can find work to come up with the coin for a trip to Delphi?" Sorin asked. Working to affect a smile.
The middle aged woman with greying black hair looked up and smiled.
"I appreciate the honesty, but for that cost....there isn't an easy way to do that." She said.
"I don't mind the effort." He replied.
The woman just nodded and pulled a card from one of the card racks beside her and handed it to him.
"Head over to the proving grounds. You can sign up for various fights be they against beast or user. Rates are based off bets made, attendance, and notoriety. I don't know much more than that as what I said is common knowledge and I don't care much for the fighting. For more you're going to have to head over there." She explained quickly as Sorin took the offered card.
"I appreciate it." He said as he headed away from the desk to the city map they had posted up on the wall. He searched it until he found a large building on the far right of the city named "Megara Proving Grounds."
It was northeast of where he was now so he left the travel authority building and made his way to it.
As he got closer he began seeing more and more street vendors selling things that made sense for a fighting event. Armor, weapons, and tonics. The weapons were nearly every shape, type, and size many of which he did recognize and some he had not at all.
He didn't need to buy any of these weapons as his skill with earth aether allowed him to shape any weapon from the metal he kept on him at all times, but one weapon gave him an idea.
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After getting the shop keepers permission he picked up a sword. It was shorter in length, but was segmented yet still connected.
"As you swing, you squeeze the trigger located on the handle. It releases the blade, when you're ready for it to return to sword form, you just relax your grip again and it becomes a solid blade once more." He said as Sorin looked it over.
"This is actually a whip sword." Sorin responded with suprise.
"It absolutely is. Extremely hard to use and it's better if you have specific affinities, but its extremely effective if you become proficient with it."
Sorin gave the weapon back to the keeper.
"I might have a goal to work toward." He said thanking him and headed on to the proving grounds.
It wasn't long until a massive colleseum came into view. He was still a long way off, but it was easily bigger than the Roman colleseum by an extremely wide margin. It went without saying that it was also in better condition than the Roman colleseum too.
A few more minutes of walking had him at the front gate, walking in. To his suprise, there were a ton of people in the extremely large lobby with counters set up like the travel authority. There were screens like the travel authority, but filled with all sorts of information. On some screens he saw active fights, replays, the weeks scheduled battles, the premiere battles of the highest ranked fighters, and even current odds of the ranked personnel.
It was something like he would see on a handheld video game he used to play where they would duke it out in an arena with monsters they captured in this big arens with brackets and a league. He wondered if they had video games in this world and if there was a similar company that would go after anyone that used any concept they had if it did better than they did, but quickly shrugged the thought off.
After a moment of looking around he found a rather short line for registration. It seemed most people were already registered. After about 10 minutes the line moved up a single spot. It seemed like this process took a while.
Sorin folded his arms and was about to relax a bit with his sense on around him for potential threats, when the lobby exploded with cheering and excitement. Sorin with his frayed nerves extended his blades and turned for a fighting drawing some people attention, but most didn't care.
Sorin looked where they were watching and smiling as one fighter had another on the ground, blade to their opponents neck as they were holding up two fingers. Sorin heard the sound almost like a slot machine coming from the betting pool screen and he watched the one named Korgon rise by five points and Ilrea drop by 1 point.
Many of the people began heading over to another counter and started walking away with cores they quickly stashed away.
"Pay attention! The lines moving." A gruff voice said.
Sorin turned and looked up at an extremely large building of a man that, to Sorin's suprise, and only one eye.
"A bit rude don't you think?" Sorin said as he turned and began closing the gap in the line.
"I think all the time human, perhaps you should try it." Came the quick comeback.
"Perhaps you should think about developing some manners before it lands you into trouble you don't see coming." Kyrain shot back.
"Never heard that one before....real knee slapper." The Cyclops said stepping forward and looming over Sorin who just calmly looked up.
"If this is your idea of intimidation...it's rather pathetic. You probably shouldn't register, you're going to get yourself killed." He said beginning to turn away but keeping his senses open.
"Oh...this isn't my first time registering. This is me coming back after a half year ban for killing someone in a non death match." The cyclops said with a cruel undertone.
Sorin thought about it for a second, then turned.
"Are the winnings better for gutting a fish like you or are you not worth much since you have to re-register?" Sorin said starting to not care about the fight and seeing if he could goad the moron into a fight if it's worth it.
"Big words for a tiny man. Put your money where your mouth is when you register. Loser puts up all they have on them and the staff here start the rewards at single C rank core. It generally pays much more with betting on death matches."
Sorin frowned.
"Only one core?!" He replied with outrage in his tone.
"Idiot....I said starting." Depending on who you fight determines the full payment." The cyclops said.
Sorin looked up and down the cyclops and even scanned his aether core and channels only to find him at between Tier 10-12.
"Fine, I'll take you on. That should get me what i need or even pay my fare pretty easily." Sorin said nonchalantly.
"Don't go anywhere then. Little nothing matches like this are easy to set up. Few people care about them. It's the named fighters that take time for advertising."
Sorin just looked at him. "Yeah, sure dude. I'll be here. It's not like I have anywhere else to be, but do me a favor...can you look in some other direction? Your breath smells like seafood aged for a week. It's disgusting."