The little boy's family's hotel was very remote. They walked in a zigzag way for a long time before arriving.
No wonder they sent a little kid to the street corner to solicit customers. It would be strange if travelers could find this hotel without a guide.
Fortunately, this place was quite secluded, which was just right for people like Horn.
It was an old - looking hotel with the paint peeling off the signboard.
But it was very clean, and it was obvious that someone often cleaned it.
When they entered the hotel, it was quite eye - catching. Although everything seemed a bit old, it was extremely clean.
A clean hotel could make travelers feel at ease to stay.
As usual, they booked five guest rooms. The price was still higher than in other cities, but it was within the acceptable range for Horn and his companions.
There were very few guests in this hotel. Horn even suspected that they were the only group staying there.
The landlady was a middle - aged woman with lingering charm. She was very enthusiastic about helping Horn and the others settle in because she didn't want to lose this rare group of guests.
After entering the room, Horn got straight to the point and asked Ian Parker:
"Why did you ask me to choose this hotel? Although I'm really satisfied with it, you didn't know what this hotel was like before. So why did you signal me to choose this one?"
Ian Parker shrugged and said:
"Among all those people soliciting customers at that time, the emotions this child carried were different from those of the others. The others were after money, while this child's feelings were more sincere."
"Just that?" Horn asked suspiciously.
Ian Parker spread his hands and said:
"What else could it be? Do you think I found out that this child is a wild witch? It's just about staying in a hotel. Don't think too much."
Horn pushed his glasses and said sheepishly, "Okay, I overthought it."
After Horn left his room, Ian sat on the bed and fell into deep thought.
There were some things he didn't tell Horn. He felt that this child was a bit strange. It wasn't the child's behavior that was strange but the very existence of this child.
Ian had carefully sensed him. He was just an ordinary child, but he didn't know why he had a strange feeling about this child.
This child was definitely not a wild witch. Ian was very sure of this, but he couldn't figure out what exactly made him feel strange.
Just like this, Horn and the others settled down in this hotel.
After taking a short nap on the clean beds, Horn and Enoch set off for the trading market in Maman City.
Ian and Luke had already left for the trade zone earlier. Once they left the parish of the God of Wealth, they wouldn't have anywhere to replenish supplies because their next stop was the Black - Garbed Forest!
The Black - Garbed Forest was the territory of the elves. Travelers were allowed to pass through, but hunting was not permitted there!
So they needed to buy all the food in advance for the journey through the Black - Garbed Forest.
Thankfully, in the Black - Garbed Forest, travelers were allowed to pick up fallen dead branches for fire as long as they didn't cause a fire.
Otherwise, they would have to live like savages to pass through the Black - Garbed Forest.
The Elven Royal Court in the Black - Garbed Forest was the largest elven territory in Ceylon. They weren't hostile to humans, but they weren't very friendly either.
In the forest, if you violated their rules, you wouldn't be able to get out.
Not even the priests of the church could!
What Horn and Enoch were going out to buy had nothing to do with the Black - Garbed Forest. Horn had many ideas about magic items that needed a lot of materials for experimentation.
He had accumulated so many ideas along the way, but he had been unable to implement them due to the lack of materials.
He had fifty gold coins that old Douglas had given him as travel expenses hanging on his waist, and he thought it should be enough to buy the materials.
The free - trade zone in Maman City was said to be a quarter the size of Lien City. Just this trade zone was much larger than Lien City.
Horn and Enoch, being country bumpkins on their first visit, were immediately shocked by the crowded crowds and the dense shops when they entered.
But when they really started to stroll around, they found it very uncomfortable because it was so huge! It took a lot of time just to get to the places where they needed to buy things.
The free - trade zone could be roughly divided into four areas:
The slave area, the food area, the weapon area, and the sundries area.
There was no need to explain the slave area. Slavery existed in Ceylon.
In Ceylon, the main source of human slaves was criminals. In Ceylon, except for taboo races like wild witches who would be burned alive once discovered, other criminals, except those with very minor crimes or those who really had to be executed, would become slaves.
Slaves of other races were captured by slave - hunting teams. In the human world, capturing alien slaves was legal.
However, directly capturing civilians as slaves was a forbidden area of the church, and no one dared to cross this line.
The food area included the sale of firewood, rice, salt, spices, and some livestock.
As the name suggested, the weapon area was mainly a place for weapon and armor trading.
The sundries area sold a wider variety of things. You could buy almost anything there.
If Horn wanted to find suitable materials for casting spells, he had to go to the sundries area.
But before going to the sundries area, Horn had to go to the weapon area first. He needed to find an experienced blacksmith to verify what material the shield he had seized from the young wizard was made of.
As long as he knew what material the Northern Wind Holy Artifact was made of, Horn would at least have an idea of what materials could be used to make magic items.
In the huge trade zone, Horn and his companion wandered around for a long time. They wanted to find a blacksmith shop that didn't seem too expensive and whose owner was knowledgeable enough to recognize most materials.
Most of the shops here were pure weapon shops, and some blacksmith shops looked very high - end, which reminded the two of the magnificent hotels they had seen when entering the city.
After wandering for a long time, they finally selected a blacksmith shop.
This shop was called Uncle Shorty's Blacksmith Shop.
Before entering the shop, Horn thought it was a dwarf's blacksmith shop. As the most famous race good at forging, dwarves had a high reputation.
Horn and his companion chose this shop more out of curiosity about why a dwarf could open a shop here.
But when they saw the shop owner, Horn found that the reason it was called Uncle Shorty's Blacksmith Shop was simply because the shopkeeper was a bit short in stature.
They had just been being over - imaginative to think it was a dwarf's shop.
It was almost noon. The short - statured uncle was working bare - chested, hammering a long strip of iron sheet.
Judging from the shape, he should be forging a long sword.
The shop boy came out to receive Horn and the others and introduced some swords and other things hanging on the wall.
All the weapons hanging in the shop looked very fine, especially the long sword hanging in the most prominent position, emitting a sharp cold light, with an astonishing price tag below it - ten thousand gold coins!