"I have arranged a coach to take these ones back to the Academy, and the Princess will be headed home. Do you need a ride anywhere, young man? I can call you a cab." The Captain offered.
Dominic wasn't sure how much a cab would cost to get across town again, but he really couldn't spare anything right now.
According to his Storage Cube, the magitech item inherited from his parents which exploited the laws of space and nature to collect items from dead monsters and store much more than should be possible, he had twenty-four copper coins to his name.
All of which were gained from the Goblins, and that needed to get him some food and a place to sleep after he traded the Copper Daggers that the Goblins dropped into his storage to the Blacksmith.
If he had been thinking, he should have checked the Arcanist's body to see if his companions had looted his corpse. He might have had something good on him when he died.
They hadn't needed them, but any little thing could have been enough to save one of the students if they had been attacked during the final run to the city.
Not all of the goblins gave him a copper dagger, some dropped broken spears, and one had given his a piece of tanned leather, but it was enough to fill the smith's order.
He was about to leave when a City Guard Captain ran up with a paper in his hand.
"Dominic Wavemates, correct?" He asked.
Dominic nodded. "That's me."
"Excellent, we have been informed of your gallantry today, in service of the youngest Princess.
This is for you.
I haven't read it, but I suspect that it is a Royal Commendation letter. If you need work in the city, that should help. Or you can turn it in for a suitable reward at the Palace. It's your call.
Just know that your efforts have been recognized." The Captain insisted.
"Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." Dominic replied.
Then the Guard pressed a small leather coin pouch into his hand. "This is not part of the official reward, but the Cygnia Guards take care of those who take care of ours."
He looked to where the guardsman's daughter was standing, being fussed over by a group of soldiers.
"It was what any man should do. I won't forget your generosity." Dominic replied.
At least now he didn't have to worry about how to get back to the forge.
With a final wave to the Guard Captain, Dominic headed back into town and started walking. The air in the industrial area of the city was unpleasant, to say the least, and he wished he had a bit of cloth to make a proper mask.
But after only a few blocks, he saw a transit stand with an odd bus waiting at it. The vehicle had some sort of external piston drive, like a steam locomotive, but it was powered directly by magical crystals, with a mage at the helm.
The crude drawing on the stop said that it went all the way across town for a Copper coin, so Dominic hopped up into the exposed rear seating area and dropped his money in the jar.
Dominic opened the paper he had gotten from the guard and began to read as he waited for the bus to move.
{To whom it may concern,
The bearer of this letter, Mister Dominic Wavemates, of the Wavemates lineage, has provided meritorious service to the crown, deserving recognition for gallantry and reward to the second degree.
Let this letter stand as a testament to his good character.}
The letter was signed, but Dominic didn't recognize the scrawl, or the stamped emblem beneath it. However, the simple letter was an amazing reward by itself. Turning it in for money would be a great waste.
It was a literal 'get out of jail free' card if used properly.
"We will be off in one minute, Sir. Schedules to keep and all." The driver informed his with a smile, then returned to watching the clock on the dashboard.
The device gave a distinct ring, and the driver slammed the controls forward, violently throwing the large vehicle into motion and totally ignoring the people running toward it.
Two of them grabbed the handrails and hopped on, while the others stopped chasing and walked back to the station to catch the next one, a sight that made Dominic wonder if this was a normal situation for the bus.
By the driver's attitude, he suspected that the schedule was more important to him than if anyone was even on the bus at all.
The first rider hopped off a few blocks later, not at a stop. He just picked a spot when they were close to the shoulder and hopped off. That was the same way that the next two passengers got on as well, with one not bothering to come up and pay, just hanging off the rear bumper until his stop came a few blocks later.
The driver didn't mind. He just kept up his pace, and the passengers got on and off at their leisure, waiting for safe moments in the slow-moving afternoon traffic to jump down to the sidewalk.
"Thanks for the ride," Dominic called as he hopped over the side in front of the blacksmith, while the driver laughed.
"The stop is in one more block if you need to catch another ride." He called back as the transport rounded the corner to the meeting area for departing groups and slid to a stop with the brakes locked up.
It was probably safer to get off early.
"Master Smith? Pops, are you in?" Dominic called over the clanging of a hammer on an anvil coming from the back room.
"Come on back. Did you get the copper that I need?" The stout Dwarven blacksmith called out from the back of the smithy shop.
"Indeed I did. It was a bit of a mess since I didn't pick the best group to go Goblin hunting with, but I still managed to get the job done somehow." He agreed, then took out the stack of filthy copper daggers from his storage cube and placed them in a bin by the Smith's workstation.
Pops looked over the pile of filthy weapons and nodded happily. "That will melt down to more than enough.
I was sure that you would get the job done, so I already spoke with the city guard and explained that your situation was a misunderstanding. They won't give you any more trouble about it.
I hope that you haven't used the cores you got yet. You'll need them to start learning blacksmithing."
Dominic wasn't sure how many he had gotten, but he checked the items in his inventory cube, scanning past the trash, items under repair and broken magitech weapons.
"Eighteen Level 1 Cores." He replied with a smile.
As he remembered it, a [Level 1 Mana Core] Granted up to 10 points toward a chosen gem, core or magitech item. The points weren't really a measured thing, but a convention used to measure how much progress it would cause at various enhancement levels without all the complicated math.
That would be spells, combat skills and trade skills.
The mana cores were also tradable items, unlike the Spell Gems, which were only tradable before they were upgraded. But they were also consumables, and in very limited quantities, so the market value of Mana Cores was quite high.
He needed 300 points of magical energy from the cores to take a skill from level 1 to level 2, according to the classroom lessons on Spell Gems and Magitech items his mother had insisted on teaching when he was young.
"Eighteen Goblin Kills of your own? I would say that was a pretty impressive day for you, lad. I can't imagine that the students would have traded you theirs. Those cores are quite costly on the open market." Pops mumbled as he washed the copper daggers in a sink full of something that bubbled and hissed when the weapons entered.
"The Acid Bath is the best way to get rid of Goblin filth. Now we're ready to start slagging them down. Watch close, lad. It will help your [Smithing] skills."
Dominic laughed. "I don't have any Smithing skills yet, remember?"
"Right, right, the trade skill core and the training book. Here you go. Use that, and then watch me work."
Dominic wasn't quite sure what the smith meant by use, but when he held the core in one hand and the book in the other, a notification appeared on the cover.
[Attune to Trade Skill of Smithing?] Created by Master Dwarven Smith Pops, will improve the user's skill to Apprentice Smith, Level 1.
Then a string of tiny words appeared on the Trade Skill Core's polished gemstone surface.
[Skill Gained] Smithing -- Apprentice 1
Now that the magitech orb was attuned to him, it would never attune to anyone else, so it was worthless to thieves, and could be openly worn to show off your status, assuming that you had a properly sized socket in your clothing or accessories.
For the moment, Dominic tossed it into his shirt pocket, the attuned gem wouldn't grant his any benefit from inside his storage cube, and trapped against his chest was good enough for the small sphere to be usable.