The fair was held in Gregory's Grand Park, which was in midtown, a place where people of all walks of life could come to gather. Colorful booths cluttered the park with wares and demonstrations of all kinds, except for one very large empty space with a giant circle around it that no one seemed to understand the purpose of. That was where I would demonstrate the explosive power of black powder using bombs of various sizes and functions.

  There were games and competitions set up around the massive booth section that had people clamoring to catch a glimpse of the action. Various things similar to carnival games on earth were set up to take people's money in exchange for their enjoyment. Fighting, duelling, jousting, ranged weapons, ranged spells, obstacle courses—stealth and non stealth—and spell casting duel areas were set up with elevated stands surrounding them for people to view from.

  Fighting was a free-for-all battle, duelling was one-on-one fights, jousting was jousting, ranged weapons was firing at distant targets, ranged spells was firing at distant targets but with spells, obstacle courses were obstacle courses, and spell casting duels were two spell casters duking it out.

  I had to get to the fairgrounds early to set up my booth and demonstration area. At the last minute, it occurred to me to set up an enchanted barrier that would stop any bomb shrapnel from passing through it, which was what the giant enchantment circle was for. Valda, Brent, and Delia arrived when the fair officially opened and greeted me—Valda with a kiss, and my brother and sister with hugs.

  With the help of a brochure with a map and all the events and times on it, Valda signed herself up for fighting, duelling, jousting—although I've never seen her joust—and the non stealth obstacle course, and me up for duelling, ranged weapons, the non stealth obstacle course, and spell cast dueling.

  I didn't know what she thought I was going to do fighting spell casters, but she signed me up for it, so I figured I'd give it a try. I had a couple things I could do, but nothing fancy. I still hadn't learned any actual spells. At least she knew not to sign me up for fighting. I'd get clobbered.

  I set up a music box to play at my booth and waited for people to come to me. After a few minutes, to pass the time, I got out a knife and a chunk of wood and began to whittle. Ever since I turned level 5, I gained a minimum of journeyman proficiency in every crafting skill, including woodworking, which whittling fell under.

  I made a few wooden ducks while I was waiting, then some toy knights, and finally balls. Just perfectly shaped wooden balls. I had a few children come up to me to look at the "toys" I'd made. Then they became enamored with the music and wanted to know where it was coming from.

  I entertained the kids by briefly explaining that the music came out of the box I had invented, and then I just whittled any object they wanted while I waited for their parents to come find them. I had made a dog, a cat, and a wooden bar of soap by the time the first set of parents showed up.

  I gave the children each the carvings they'd asked for and engaged the parents in conversation. The kid who liked soap was named Jeffrey. So I carved "Jeffrey's Soap" into the wooden bar that resembled the cleaning apparatus. I continued to whittle objects for the children while we talked.

  "My name is Tarlen Bonzifred, and this is my wife, Allison." He gestured to himself and then to the woman standing next to him. They were both dressed rather fancy. The man was wearing a brown coat with a brownish red waist coat and monocle and the woman was wearing a beautiful yellow dress with flowing sleeves and intricate embroidery.

  "Nice to meet you both. My name is Gwen Reddinsbury." I shook the man's hand and bowed politely to his wife. I didn't grow up in a fancy environment. I grew up in squalor compared to their lifestyle, but I figured bowing was appropriate from what I knew of earthly historical fact. They smiled, so that was a good sign.

  "Gwen. That's quite an interesting name you have there, my dear fellow. Is there a story behind it?"

  "My mother wanted a girl." I laughed, but in a theatrical way. It wasn't real. They both laughed awkwardly back. "Now, what can I help you with?"

  "Well, what do you do?"

  "I'm an inventor."

  "What have you invented?"

  "Only a handful of things, but they are truly wondrous. Let me show you."

  I walked over to the music box that was currently playing a lovely violin piece and pressed a wooden button on the side. It didn't click or anything. It was a touch activated enchantment.

  "This I call a 'music box'. It can play 50 different pieces of music that I collected from various musical artists in Sunnyvale."

  Then I picked up a quill. "This I call a 'dictation quill'. It can write anything you tell it to write as you speak."

  Then I pulled out one of my new flintlock pistols and a small golf ball sized bomb. "And these are weapons I invented. I don't plan to sell these because they are very dangerous in the wrong hands, but I can explain how they work."

  I lifted the gun up and down. "This is a gun. It propels a metal ball straight forward at incredible speed to the point that it causes severe bodily harm if hit by it."

  I lifted the bomb. "This is called a bomb. What it does is hard to describe. Basically, it creates a sudden force that spreads outwards and breaks anything in a small radius around it. The metal also can fly around and hit people."

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  I put the gun and bomb away into my pocket that had an infinity bag sewn into it. "And those are my best inventions. What do you think?"

  The man rubbed his chin. "I think I'd like two of those music boxes for our children and a quill for myself. I wouldn't mind seeing those weapons in action, either."

  "Can do, sir. Each box is 30 gold, and the quill is 5. So a total of 65 gold. And you'll see the weapons in action if you watch the sporting events. I would demonstrate the bombs like I planned right now, but there are too many people standing in my demonstration circle."

  "Very well. Do you have change for a platinum?"

  "Uh, yeah! I do." I had never seen a platinum coin before.

  They were the higher denomination to gold, but only very rich people, nobles, government, and large businesses used them because one platinum coin equaled a hundred gold, and most people didn't carry more than a hundred gold on them at one time.

  Most small businesses and even adventurers' guilds preferred to deal in large quantities of gold rather than platinum for the very reason that their value made them hard to exchange.

  I handed him his change in gold, his purchases, and an instruction manual for each in a bag.

  "Make sure to read the instructions. Even if it's only the first page."

  "We will, we will, good sir." The man tipped his hat to me.

  "Thank you, sir." His wife politely waved.

  "Thanks, mister!" One of the children waved energetically.

  The rest of the day until the first competition went about like that. I whittled figurines and carvings for children, and their parents came up and purchased music boxes and quills from me.

  I had sold about 30 music boxes and 20 quills by the time the first competition came around and I had to temporarily close up shop. I made sure to put all the merchandise in one of my bags before putting up a sign that said, "Will be back in an hour."

  On a side note, you don't have to worry about me ripping off my customers. My profit margins on the items were both about 40% and that didn't include the cost of the 21 booths I rented.

  Valda took me Brent and Delia over to the fighting area so we could watch her kick ass. Each fight took into account levels, so no one was higher or lower level than anyone else. They had fights from level 5 going all the way up to level 12, which made each fight feel a little less special, but they had a unique rule to counter that.

  The winner of the last free-for-all could participate in the next fight even though they were lower level. This continued indefinitely, so if Valda won every fight, she could fight all the way up to level 12 if she wanted. It was unlikely she'd last that long—since she was only level 9—but the fact that it was allowed was enough.

  The rules were if the back, side, or front of your torso touched the ground for longer than 3 seconds, you were out. So you could roll on your back and get back up or get knocked onto your back and get back up, but you couldn't lie on the ground for any length of time. If you gave up, you were out. If you took a health potion, you were out.

  You could take as many mana potions or stamina potions or other kinds of potions. Just not health potions, because the audience doesn't want to sit there watching the same people wail on each other for hours. They want to see different people doing that.

  The reason the competitions stopped at level 12 was because there weren't enough people over level 12 to do it in Sunnyvale. They existed and there were a lot of them in the kingdom and the world overall, but not in Sunnyvale at this moment.

  Valda, Brent, Delia, and I watched the level 5, 6, 7, and 8 fights while we waited. While I was watching people down potions mid fight, it got me thinking. How could I load up potions to be taken without having to drink them?

  My first thought was hold it in your mouth, but you could only do one or two that way. I tried to think of a way I could compress potions into a smaller size when I noticed a guy eating an orange. My first thoughts were 'huh. Someone eating fruit. You don't see that very often'. My next thought was, 'I can use that'.

  "Could I have your orange?" I held out a gold piece in exchange.

  "Uh, sure. Take it." He handed me the orange and pocketed the gold. Then he quickly produced two more oranges. I gave him two more gold and took them. "Thanks, buddy!"

  "Thank you." I lifted one of the oranges like I was saying 'cheers' with it. For reference, the oranges probably cost him 1 or 2 copper each.

  Holding the oranges and several stamina potions, I thought 'Manufacture'. One orange and the potions combined in the air and a handful of green gummy bears fell into my hand. Steam wafted away as the gummy bears congealed and released moisture. Then leftover orange parts and test tubes fell into my arms.

  Getting rid of the dismantled orange, I did the same for mana potions and health potions and got handfuls of blue and red gummy bears. What happened was, I combined the pectin and sugar in the oranges with the potions and turned them into gummies. They probably wouldn't taste amazing, but I figured out a way we could take potions without having the drink them. We could just stuff some gummy bears in our mouths and swallow them as needed.

  I gave the stamina gummies to Valda. She stared at them intently like they owed her money. "Why do they look like little monsters?"

  "They're supposed to look like bears." I shrugged.

  "What do I do with them?" She squinted at me.

  "You put them in your mouth and swallow them when you need a stamina potion. Two of them equals one rare stamina potion." I tried to sound convincing.

  "Oh, ok!" She threw them all in her mouth.

  "Not right now!" I reached my hands out like I was going to try to grab them out of the air, but I was too slow.

  "It's fine! The fights about to start." Or at least I think that's she said. I heard a lot of vowels and not many consonants. What I heard was, "Is 'ine. The 'i' 'awow' 'ooo' 'ar'."

  She began to walk away towards the ring, but I stopped her. "Hold on. I have to give you something first."

  "Wha'?"

  I put the gummies away and pulled out chunks of steel. Using Manufacture and a few mana potions, I made her a new mace on the spot with three casts of the ability. I wanted it to be as high quality as I could currently make, so I had to use a lot more mana than normal. In a matter of seconds, I was holding a mace that had an icon that read Epic Steel Mace above it in my view.

  "Here. This one is better."

  "Oh! 'an' 's'! (Thanks!)"

  She began to continue, probably to say something really nice to me, but it was hurting my brain to translate her gibberish, so I put my fingers over her lips. "Save it for after you win. And don't talk with your mouth full."

  She gave me a thumbs up, exchanged her old mace for her new one with me, and stepped into the ring with about 50 other people. I hoped she would be alright. People aren't supposed to die or get maimed, but I heard it has happened before. She's the one who told me.

  I knew she was good at what she did, and she was more than a little prepared, but still, I couldn't help but worry. Then the bell dinged, the match began, and Valda disappeared in a sea of people. If worst came to worst, they had great healers, and it only costed 5,000 gold to revive someone. She told me that too.

  "Good luck!" Brent said.

  "Good luck, Valda!" Delia said, waving.

  The people in the fight tensed up, waiting for the bell to go off. There were barbarians, druids, wizards, rogues, rangers, and more. Everything you could imagine and more was represented in the crowd. And they were all ready to throw down and the drop of a hat. I crossed my fingers and tried to breathe normally.