FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As he had decided previously, his first order of business is to find a place where he could go and sleep, though in all honesty he's not exactly sure how safe any apartment would be. They do seem to be a rather violent people. But Blade Tail considers himself capable of anything that this world would throw at him. Finding a simple apartment was actually far easier than he had expected. He just asked one of the guards on this world if there was an apartment complex close to the arena and they just gave him directions. As he steps onto the road and wills himself forward he does have to remark that things feel so much different for him here than the last few times he had come across. No guards following his every move. He wasn't even really being considered to be much of a celebrity here. To all the people here, he was just some person with a golem that was moving from one location to the next.

And to some degree that is still somewhat new for him. Especially in the last few months, everyone he had been around knew who he is. But this is also the first time he can really go about trying to appreciate how these people live. In many ways they live in a very similar way to how they do on Earth. The only real difference seems to be whereas in earth there is this almost overdependence on technology to make their lives able to function. Here, it's on magic. Everywhere he looks he can see things that are only that way because of magic. Even the road is operating under that very philosophy. Accelerating him based on a spell being powered by something or other. He doesn't really have any interest in learning the specifics of the road. Thankfully, it looks like the concept of imp made food is not going to be an issue in that he can see the little creatures practically everywhere.

When finding his apartment complex he enters it and finds it looks fairly simple enough. Not as good as some of the hotels back home but it looks mostly like a giant motel of sorts. Shrugging he heads up to the front desk, half wondering if he needs to ring some bell or something but can feel himself passing through what almost feels like a paper-thin fabric of air. Doesn't even slow him down in any regard but he doesn't even get five more steps before a small, almost rat-like person comes in from a door around the side. Blade Tail turns around and looks at where the air spell was in place and shrugs.

"Well, I guess that would work far better than a bell ever would," he says softly to himself before speaking up and addressing the creature. "Hello, I'm not from around here," he admits honestly. "I just came from the other side of the portal after my tour was up and was hoping to get some lodging. So how does that work here?"

"You got work yet?" the ratlike thing asks.

"Not yet, was going to head over to the arena and get started over there, I guess. I believe those can pay well enough, right?" The squirrel asks.

"Only if win. You think you win much?"

"I'm pretty sure I can handle myself. So are there any rooms available?"

"Oh, yes. We have few. Always have few. Upstarts want try hand at fighting. Thinking make it big. We make money off them. I go by Jaang."

"Blade Tail."

"Good, good. Not real name. Some people are stupid, give real name. Anyway. How this establishment works. And how all places work here. You pay by the hour. Small amount. You have card?"

The squirrel shrugs and hands over the card that has all of his account information on it. Jaang goes over to a computer of sorts and begins typing things in. It's almost anachronistic seeing a computer in this world considering all the magic going around, but then again, in regards to accessing finances and billing, earth probably has far faster and more secure means than just sending a magical message.

"Yes. You have enough money for about fifteen days. You have place we charge you for every hour you have key. You get down to only one day left of money we let you know get more money or we kick you out. If you hand in your key then we don't charge you for any hour after that hour. The first hour you are not being charged for your room we send in an imp to clean out your room, make it good for anyone else to rent. Anything that is in there when we clean it out becomes ours. You win, your account gets more money and you can stay longer. Keep losing and then we kick you out."

"Fair enough," Blade Tail shrugs.

"Very well," Jaang says as he reaches over and pulls out a very traditional looking key. "Here you go. Your account is now being charged. You may do with room as you like. Room number is on key. I assume you can match if not read. Normal rules apply. But as we cater to a lot of arena fighters like potentially yourself, we do have extra thing of no trying to confront other patrons. This is a respectable establishment and people don't come here to be harassed."

Blade Tail shrugs and motions to Jarvis to continue following him. He heads up to the room and is glad for the fact that whatever they did to him a year ago allows him to read the language of the people here just like it allows him to read his spell book. He finds the room in question and puts the key in and unlocks his room, somewhat surprised that the lock is extremely mundane without the slightest bit of magic present. The room is a very simple affair. It's little more than what he had over in that base, just significantly larger. Not only that he has his own bathroom now that he can use, with a shower. He'd be tempted to see how much magic is involved here or if there's any other costs involved in his payment plan but for the time being he has so much more he should be doing and these idle curiosities can simply wait. But with his stuff placed into his room, the squirrel moves over to his golem and puts a hand on its head to feed it some more of his magic before heading back to the door.

"You be good now, okay?" he instructs the golem as he leaves.

There is no real point in taking the golem with him at this point. He needed the golem to be fully materialized when he walked through the portal because there would be no other way for the golem to reach him across the portal. Reality simply doesn't work in that regard. But now that he's over here and he has no need of any heavy lifting there is no real need to have the golem out and about. Most likely Jarvis will probably spend a bit of time tidying up the place, bringing it to whatever state the golem feels is appropriate and then go back into the ground to go dormant unless called. It is a trait that all golems seem to have. When they have nothing to do they just revery to their own element and await being called again. Even the one in the library would do that. It even admitted to it. They can be intelligent if kept around long enough but have no concept of fun. When they have no duty to perform, there's no reason to stay active and so they go dormant. For now, though, it's time for him to go and effectively apply for a job in the arena. And as he's heading there he realizes he doesn't really know if there are multiple tiers for fights. He knows from what occasions he was over here for exhibition matches and duels that there is a one-week grace period between matches so that all combatants can have time to recover. But he doesn't know if there aren't lesser tiers of combat so that he can earn a living a bit more often. If he only has fifteen days before he runs out of money there's no real guarantee that he'll be able to make enough money to guarantee he'll have enough to keep his room. Because he would really not want to have to go and get a new job here, though he'll probably visit the dog's gym and see what he says about getting a good job to take while waiting until he gets to the point where he can live off the fights. He remembers hearing that boxers on Earth would frequently go a few months between fights. He enters into the arena and heads towards the main information area. If there are so many other people who come here to arrange to get a fight there would be some fairly easy way to go about doing so. He can, however, notice that there are still quite a few guards around just in case.

"Hello," Blade Tail says as he approaches. "I would like to know who I need to talk to in order to sign up to start doing fights here."

"Do you have any opponent in particular?"

"No, but I imagine that if you have champions that there naturally should be fighting brackets for people who make their whole job at fighting. I'd like to join that."

"You think you have what it takes to be a champion?"

"Do you not know who I am? I am Blade Tail of Earth. I managed to go a full year contract there and lived to tell the tale. I survived that special event without being able to release. I think my record speaks for itself."

"That you survived a year contract, though definitely commendable only means that you are very good at fighting with your squad. It doesn't guarantee that you'll be any good fighting on your own."

"Fine then," Blade tail says, pulling out his card. "Take half of this as collateral. Then have me go up against whoever would be fitting for that amount as a prize pool. They win, then I've just paid their winnings and you lose nothing. I win, and you know how skilled I can be and will start pitting me against opponents that are at least as strong and worth at least as much. Of course, when I win, I'd expect your group to pay for my winnings. It wouldn't really do for me to be paying my own winnings."

The other person sighs for a moment before writing something down on a piece of paper after scanning in his card, partly to extract the information amongst other things. "Very well. I'll see what I can do. It'll take a bit to get something arranged so come by an hour before sunset tomorrow and we'll have a match set up for you." He hands back my card.

"Thank you very much," Blade Tail bows before leaving, approving for the most part and knowing he'll definitely have to do well in that match, no matter what it is. By giving away half his total account he's given away one week's worth of his savings. So if he can earn at least one week's worth of savings on any match, then even if he can't figure out how to cut out the grace period then he'll be able to keep earning at least enough to keep his apartment until he's built up enough to earn a living.

His main two tasks done he is free to take it easy for the time being. It barely took much time at all to get all of this done too. Now he was simply free for much of the rest of the day. He does intend on going to visit that dog's dojo or whatever they call those here later on but there's no point in going in the morning, especially when considering the fact that his first match won't be until tomorrow. So he literally has nothing else to do and no interest in just sitting in his apartment complex for a while, so the squirrel decides to just go ahead and get himself lost. Or as lost as you can ever really get in this place. When your path through the road is powered by will, he finds that it is actually somewhat harder here to get lost than it is to get to a destination. Because there is no will to get lost. Instead, he finds the only way to even get close is to simply will himself to the next intersection and then change the direction he wants to go.

He decides to try something and see what the response is. So he dips his tail down and into the ground to become much more aware of his surroundings. And the response is simple enough. For starters, apparently using a spell that affects the ground makes him unable to use whatever spell is in the roads to manipulate motion. As soon as he lifts his tail up again he can use the roads like normal. So apparently, it is something on the surface of the road that allows the movement spell. The second thing he notices is that he does get a few curious looks his way, but it doesn't look like any of them particularly care, it's more of the idle interest in wanting to know what someone is doing while on the way to go to somewhere else. Not a single one shows any sign of disgust or slow down any. So that is an interesting situation and it actually does help him get lost because he can simply periodically dip his tail into the ground and then walk around for a little while and feel out the place. It'll also tell him what other spells may be in the various buildings, but other than spells designed to help protect them from damage and maintain stability, there don't seem to be much of any spells on those.

Either way it is very useful information for him to have. Not only does he still have the ability to potentially sink down into the ground if he needed and could potentially just hide out in any of the buildings nearby. So he has an easy escape option at any point if he really needed to. He can still be aware of his surroundings but because of the fact he cannot use the road normally and do it at the same time it isn't something that can be discretely. And he has to mentally check himself for maintaining that almost militaristic mentality, of thinking of everything in regards to having to fight his way out of them. He's a civilian now and trying to earn a living as a prize fighter. Not something where he should have to worry about this kind of thing, especially with the grace periods. So he redoubles his efforts, strange as it is, on getting lost and getting a feel for the layout of this city and what restaurants and other stores that may be of interest to check out once he's gotten a bit more situated.