Turns out riddles were just as annoying and as difficult as I remember. It took me twenty-three of the damned things to get the eleven points I needed. I only had to do so many extra riddles because I messed up and answered six wrong. With each, I lost a point in wisdom. But at least now my wisdom was maxed out at a solid forty-two. It was enough to bring my mana regeneration up to six percent of my mana pool per hour.
Okay, that didn’t sound so impressive, but every bit helped. While my pool hadn't grown any larger, the additional regeneration meant that I could cast a fireball every twenty-five minutes without any issues. Now I just needed to figure out how to do the same for my intelligence. Maybe all it would take is for me to read some books or something.
While I tried to figure out the professor’s latest riddle, we watched the fight. There was a pair of boards that hung over the area floor. While one listed the current status for the fighters in the ring, the other contained information on what battles were coming up and the stats of both fighters.
Unlike the latter, which used numbers, the former board displayed a bar for each of the stats. It even included arrows to illustrate which direction the bars were trending. Not that we got to watch them move all that much. Every match was lightning-fast as one of the participants practically destroyed their opponent in a single move. Finally, my name was next on the list. ‘Kyren Vulpier versus Hal 9000.’
“I gotta get going,” I said to the sphinx.
“Good luck,” he replied while his eyes stayed locked on the fighters below. They were still moving into position but it was obvious who was going to win. While the big guy looked intimidating, the smaller one held the giant warhammer in one hand with ease. He twirled the thing as if it weighed nothing.
I rushed down the stairs and into the tunnels as I followed the signs into the preparation room. “Name?” A woman asked from the doorway behind me. Her sudden appearance scared the hell out of me. Unable to talk as my heart beat a mile a minute, I turned and offered my chit. “You are cutting it a bit close,” she grunted. “We like the contestants to be in this room ten or so minutes early in case a match ends early or someone drops out. Do I need to go over any of the rules, or are you good?”
I was about to say I was good until she held out an object for me to take. It looked like a river rock tied into a bunch of leather. “What is this?”
“In the event you are about to be hit with a skill or attack that will kill you, the enchantment on this object will transfer the damage to the shield surrounding the arena.” She narrowed her eyes. It was as if she could see my mind as it churned on the information. “It only works inside the shielded area, and it is a one-time use.”
With a sharp nod to let her know I understood her explanation, as well as the subtle rebuke, I changed the subject. “Do you need to check any of my equipment?”
“No.” Her eyes turned from me to the sheet on the table in front of her. “At least not at this tournament. Other cities will have different rules.” At that moment, a pair of people made their way through the door on the other side of the room. One of them was helped by the other as the man’s left leg dragged behind him. A trail of blood traced the path they walked and, judging by the staining, it wasn’t the first time this had happened. She gestured at the path. “Kyren, you're up.”
The woman’s frigid attitude was annoying. It was nearly enough to cause me to bonk her on the top of the head as I passed her and entered into the indicated passage. Fortunately, I refrained from doing so. I was pretty sure that would have been a good way to get taken into custody. No telling what would happen to the professor if something like that happened.
A single turn later, I found myself in the arena pit. My eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden brightness. “Kyren Vulpier versus Hal 9000. Participants, please get into position.” The announcer's voice echoed around me. It hadn't been quite so loud up in the stands. With squinted eyes, I stumbled my way across the sand and to a spot lit up with magic.
My circle changed from red to green the moment I stepped into it. The same thing happened as my opponent entered his. I took the moment to look my opponent over and found him to be lacking in every way. He was small. Nearly as small as me. Well, except for his muscles. Those looked to be nonexistent. If I had to guess as to what this guy used for fighting, it would have to be magic. Hell, I doubted he could even lift a sword, let alone swing it with any force. I almost felt sorry for him as I pulled out my sword.
For the first time since I got the chisa katana, Shizukana Arashi sang as I held it in my hand. The glow that had appeared after the material upgrade was more prominent than before. It was almost as if the sword was excited to face off against another player in combat and not training. While I couldn’t fault the sword for its desire to finally challenge itself against someone, this opponent would likely not be worth any true effort.
Not that I would take this lightly. Tindi’s rule two wouldn’t let me. “Ready,” the announcer called as the noise of the arena around us faded, likely cut off by the shield or some other spell. “FIGHT!”
Sand exploded as I charged across the arena floor. Mana poured into Body Fortification as I pushed to finish this fight in one quick attack. My opponent’s face looked panicked as my sword slashed across his neck. The moment my sword connected, it passed through him as if he were a ghost.
The world instantly exploded into sound; as my attack didn’t directly connect with my target, I was fairly sure I was about to die. An attack coming at me from somewhere I would not be expecting.
It took me a moment of frantic searching to realize the source of the roaring. The crowd was cheering at the fight as the announcer spoke, “And Kyren Vulpier ends the match in an instant.”
Hal looked dejected as he slumped to the ground. His mumbling voice was just loud enough for me to hear him. “How? What? Where? God damn it!” Given the cracking in his voice at the end and the sniffle, I was sure the guy was crying over the loss.
I felt bad and knelt down in front of him. My hand reached out and tilted his face up so that our eyes met. “This was not your fault. I was just a bad matchup for you. Take this fight to heart and work to find counters to it for next time.”
His eyes shimmered with unshed tears, but he nodded. I helped him stand up before watching him slowly make his way out of the pit. As soon as he crossed the threshold, I turned and walked back the way I had come in. Unsurprisingly, another person was in the tiny room receiving their stone as they waited for their match to start. As they took off, I walked over to the woman and offered the stone back. She shook her head. “Keep it until you lose.”
“And if I win?” I jokingly asked.
While she rolled her eyes, she answered me. “Of course you will need to also return it if you win. Now go find a seat in the stands. Your next fight isn’t for another couple of hours.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
As I moved to do as she told me, a question occurred to me. “Given how many people joined the tournament, how are we going to get through all the fights in one day?”
“There are multiple fights going on at one time.” She made it sound as if that fact should have been obvious. “The arena floor has also had time compressed inside of it.”
“Then what are the people in the stands watching?”
“The people running the tournament pick and choose which fights they will show. Making sure that those watching are only shown the most entertaining or interesting fights they can. Now get back to your seat.” Aka, this tournament was run just like every other major televised event in history. Going from camera to camera to keep the action on screen and the audience glued to their seats.
As I mulled the information over, I walked back to where I had left the professor. He was still there, lounging comfortably. He looked relaxed as his eyes followed my progress up the steps instead of whatever fight was going on below. “Good fight?” His question told me that it hadn’t been one of the ones chosen to display to the audience.
“Too fast. The kid had no idea what he was doing.” As I said this, I realized how I sounded. “Not that he was stupid or anything. Just inexperienced.” Yeah, that did not sound any better. I was talking as if I had any real experience myself when in reality I had good trainers. It was something that I would likely be thankful for for quite a while.
“Did your opponent even get a chance to attack you?”
I shook my head. A hint of regret tinged my voice as I thought about just how fast the fight had been. “I went for the kill with my first strike.”
He nodded as he spoke, “Good. You would be surprised how many sure fights have been lost in history because someone didn’t do just that.” An explosion in the pit caught our attention. One of the people in the pit hovered high above the ground as they threw ball after ball of fire at their opponent. An opponent that was screaming at him to come down and face him like a man.
We both laughed. “Who in their right mind has ever done that, especially when they are winning?” I rhetorically asked as I turned to look at the board displaying the pair's information. The mage’s mana was dropping, but not by as much as I would have assumed. “Just how high would one's stats need to be to keep something like that up?”
“Depends,” the professor answered. Judging by his jumping eyes, he was looking at a screen I couldn’t see. “Likely he has a class that lowers the cost of his spells. Maybe even giving him a cheaper version of common spells. There is also the possibility that he has a decent mana pool, a good regeneration rate, or an item that boosts either.”
“There are items like that in this game?”
He nodded as a book appeared in front of him. It hovered close enough for me to get a good look at. It looked old and new at the same time. Parts of it looked like they would fall apart if touched, while other parts looked like they could have been fresh off the printing press. “When I used my SoulStone, this is the item I got. It boosts my intelligence and wisdom stats without affecting the seventy percent rule that the NPCs keep telling us to maintain.”
“How does that even work?”
“Wording and use,” he said as the book vanished. “It only affects those two stats when I am doing something related to my class or race. Given that my class is Wandering Scholar, it will likely help with my research. What about your class?”
“Don’t have one.” He shot me a look as if to ask if I was stupid. “That’s not to say I don’t have options, I just don’t know which way I want to go.” Not to mention that I downright hated some of the options. Well, one of the options
“What skills do you seem to rely on most in a fight?”
I answered without hesitation, “Anything mana-related.”
He nodded his understanding. “How many elements do you have access to?”
Did he mean my affinities or those that I can use in my spells? Not knowing, I pulled out my affinity page and told him, “My elemental affinities from highest to lowest are Fire, Dark, Light, Water, Air, then Earth.”
“While that is good to know, I meant those that you can use in your magic.”
Yeah, it figures that my guess was wrong. “Only Fire.” I let out a breath as I closed my interface. “I was told to focus on one element at a time for now.”
“True, but doing so can also limit your class options.” Wait, was that true? I pulled out the list of classes I could take and found that, sure as shit, most of them were for swords or something to do with fire.
“Well damn,” I groaned. “Should I take a second element or even a third if I want the system to offer me some different class options?”
“Yes and no.” He shook his head. “You need to figure out what elements would be useful to you before you go out and spend your points. For instance, what would you use Earth for in your spells?”
I took a second to think through various scenarios before answering. “Mostly tripping up my enemy.” The thought pleased something inside me.
“And Air?”
“Throw dust in their face.”
“Water?”
“Throw water in their face.” And on a few people’s crotch while they are in public.
He narrowed his eyes a little as he spoke. “I am sensing a theme here.” I didn’t say anything, keeping my eyes locked on the fight below. Finally, he sighed and continued. “What about Dark?”
“I don’t honestly know,” I answered truthfully. “It isn’t one of the common elements. Nearly every game treats Light and Dark spells differently, so I don’t know what it can and cannot do.”
He mumbled a bit but then sighed before talking. “To tell you the truth, most of the elements can do the same things. It is more of a question of how effective they are at any given task. While Fire can be used to heal, it will never be as good as Water, Earth, or Light. The only two elements this does not apply to are Time and Space. Those are both as weird as they are hidden.”
Curious about those two elements, I asked, “What do you mean?”
“Groups with access to those elements keep all of the information on them and the spells they use hidden. Even the spells to create larger bags and spaces are kept secret.”
“What about the arena? It uses both, doesn’t it?”
“That it does. From what I heard, the city paid a king's ransom to the group that specializes in such spells to cast the thing.” I whistled and thought for a second about taking the two elements for myself. One look at the price, and glitch, and I thought better of the idea.
Even now, with all the points I had saved up, I didn’t have enough to buy the Space element. While I did have enough to buy the rest, I wouldn’t use them often. Then again, what could it hurt to have them in reserve? Hell, if no one knew I had access to the Water element, they would never be able to trace any tricks I played using it to me.
The sphinx’s eyes narrowed at me. “What are you thinking?”
“Nothing,” I lengthened the word a bit as my hand hovered over the Dark element. One simple tap and I would purchase it.
“Are you about to do something stupid?”
“Nope,” I said, popping the p as I purchased my second element. A ripple passed over and through my body. While it didn’t hurt as much as the Fire element had when I had obtained it, it still stung a little.
“Which element did you just purchase?” He asked with a bit of annoyance. It was as if he was annoyed at the fact I hadn't talked to him before doing something. Personally, I looked at him in awe as I tried to figure out how he knew what I had done. He shot me a look as he answered my unspoken question. “Mana flared out of your body as soon as you touched something on a screen. Not hard to piece it together.”
“The Dark element,” I answered sheepishly.
He narrowed his eyes as he spoke his next words. “And it did little more than send a shiver down your body? Just how much dark mana have you been hanging around recently?”
“None, I am just happy the pain wasn’t as bad as when I unlocked the Fire element.”
“It should have hurt the same amount.” His words confused me, but I shrugged it off. Who cared why it was less painful to get another element? Hell, I was grateful it didn’t hurt as much. When I looked back at the screen, I noticed that the prices for each element had increased a second time.
All of the normal elements now cost twenty points. I only had enough points to buy two of them at the new price. If the trend continued, I would not be able to buy a fourth element with the points I had left. I mumbled to myself in annoyance as I tried to mentally select two of the elements. I hoped that the system would allow me to purchase both at the same time and save twenty points. Sure as shit, another screen popped up.
Would you like to purchase Water Element 1 and Earth Element 1 for a combined price of 40 Points?
I didn’t hesitate to accept the cost, only to instantly regret it as I suddenly felt like I was both drowning and being buried alive. It felt like rocks were grinding away at my skin and bones as water forced itself into every cavity.
Level of steam?
