The Grand Tournament

by Ivan Kal

  Morgan smiled even as he heard Clara groan audibly. The man made way to them before reaching Morgan and slapping his shoulder, hard.

  “Ha! Morgan, my friend, where have you been? We have missed you on game night.”

  Morgan mirrored the man’s move, slapping his shoulder, too. He looked at the man who was at least a head taller than him and grinned. “Ah, Borodar, old buddy, it’s only been a week. Don’t tell me that you missed me that much?”

  Borodar laughed as they stood there with their hands on each other’s shoulders. “Of course I did! There is no one who makes me laugh as hard as you, and I live for the moments you beat Hexna at cards!”

  Morgan grinned at the man’s words. Borodar was part of another adventuring team from somewhere up north, and was a member of a guild called Fearless Hearth. He looked the part of classic barbarian, with two red markings on his face going over his eyes and down his cheeks. His team, the Last Vanguards, had been bronze like them, and once Morgan and his friends had arrived here they had met and Morgan and Borodar became quick friends. The Last Vanguard had become a silver-ranked team a few months back, for their part. He liked the big bastard, and they usually played cards once a week in the common room.

  “We’ve been out on a contract,” Morgan said gesturing to the others. He saw Clara visibly shrink and try to get away.

  “Clara, my love! Is this the day when you finally agree to let me buy you a drink?” Borodar asked.

  Clara frowned. “In your dreams, muscle-head.”

  Borodar didn’t take the refusal hard, but instead just laughed. Morgan was pretty sure that Borodar knew that Clara wasn’t interested—she only liked women—just as he was pretty sure that Clara knew that Borodar didn’t really mean it. It was why he hadn’t said anything, an in any case Clara could take care of herself, and she was certainly not shy about speaking up.

  Borodar shook his head and turned his head back to Morgan. “So, a contract, you said?”

  “Yes, a swarm spider nest,” he said casually.

  Borodar’s eyes widened. “A silver-ranked contract? How did it go?” he asked, looking at them all.

  “We finished it. You are looking at the newest silver-rank team in Irus,” Ves answered smugly.

  Borodar exclaimed and picked Morgan up into the air, spinning him around a full circle before dropping him and slapping his shoulder again. He looked over Morgan’s head to the others. “Congratulations, Sky Force! This calls for a drink. Come, we must celebrate!”

  He pulled Morgan by the shoulder, but he tapped the big man’s hand. “Sorry, Borodar, but we are tired and filthy. We want to get back to our suite. Tomorrow?”

  The big man looked them over again, no doubt noticing their state. They were both covered in grime and visibly tired. Borodar nodded. “Of course, but you must tell me everything!”

  “I promise,” Morgan said as they turned around to leave. They didn’t take more than a few steps before Borodar called after them.

  “Wait!” he said and quickly walked over, motioning them close. “You are silver ranked now, yes?”

  Morgan saw the change in Borodar’s expression and glanced around at his friends, who were obviously all curious. He turned back and nodded. “Yes, we just got back from the Adventurers Guild.”

  Borodar nodded, his hand reaching up to pat his beard. “There is something that you might wish to know. Word just reached Irus that two of the Great Guilds will be holding a tournament soon.”

  “A tournament?” Lucius asked.

  Borodar nodded. “Yes, they call it the Grand Tournament. Its purpose is to find and select a team that will accompany their teams to the Tower of Power.”

  “The Tower?” Vall whispered, his face coming alight.

  “The requirement for entry is that the team is at least silver rank, and that all members are over level twenty five. Seeing as you now qualify, I thought it would be best to let you know.”

  Morgan frowned. “Wait, don’t you need to be at least level thirty in order to get onto the first floor of the Tower? And why are they even holding a tournament? Don’t they have much higher level people?”

  Lucius answered for Borodar. “Yes, level thirty is the requirement, but I think you are underestimating just how many high-level people are unwilling to risk their lives in the Tower. With their levels, and the wealth they have accumulated, they can basically live forever with no need to risk their lives in the Tower. Especially since no one has ever returned after going past the third floor.”

  “Corvus is right,” Borodar said. “There are not many high-level ascended willing to go into the Tower. The truth is that the Great Guilds have enough resources that they can afford power leveling people. And of course, levels are not everything.”

  “Still,” Morgan started. “Are you planning on participating?”

  “My team has discussed it and we are agreed that we will be going. The word is that there will be valuable rewards even for those who are not chosen. It is a great opportunity, both for our team and our guild.”

  Morgan looked at his friends. He could see that Vall was interested, while Lucius had a reserved look on his face and Ves and Clara seemed at least intrigued. “Well, thank you for letting us know. We will have to talk it over.”

  “Of course, Morgan. The last day for registration to the tournament is two months from now in Al’Valor. I hope to see you there.”

  With that Borodar turned around and walked back to his table, leaving them to retire to their rooms. They walked out of the common room and into the back end of the building where the suites were. The others were talking among themselves, but Morgan wasn’t really paying attention—his mind was on the Tower of Power.

  CHAPTER THREE

  About an hour later, Morgan found himself sitting in warm water inside their pool. Another shock that Morgan had to overcome was the fact that in this world people weren’t at all concerned with nudity—it was a normal thing to them, especially the elves. And seeing how Ves was half-elf, that meant a lot of nudity in his life. Still, he had managed to adapt. The five of them were currently all sitting in the warm water, Ves next to Morgan, with Clara, Vall, and Lucius across from them.

  Adventure’s Call was an inn designed specifically for adventuring teams. As such, it had suites instead of rooms. Each suite had several rooms, a common area, a storage basement, and a large bath which resembled what Morgan remembered Japanese baths from Earth being like. The bathing area had a large section for cleaning and a round pool with heating enchantments beneath the bottom. The pool itself was made out of big chunks of rocks which gave it a quaint atmosphere, along with four braziers which painted the closed room in a dark orange glow. There were vents all around the edges of the ceiling which allowed the steam from the pool to escape and prevented the room from becoming suffocating.

  They had cleaned themselves properly and then all settled into the bath to relax, naked—which Morgan was fine with now. Completely fine! He took extra care not to look at Clara’s green skin or her exposed breasts; neither Ves nor Clara seemed to mind but Morgan was raised far differently than people here.

  “So…” Lucius thankfully spoke up and gave Morgan a reason to look at him. “What are we thinking about this tournament?”

  Vall was the first one to answer. “The Tower has always been my goal. That and finding out what happened to our parents.”

  Morgan glanced at Ves, trying to figure out how she felt about it. She made circles in the surface of the water with her finger as she spoke. “It had been my goal too, for a long time. Now… I don’t know, we have the guild, responsibilities. The Tower is dangerous.”

  “I’m with Ves,” Morgan said. “I would like to go to the Tower, but I don’t know if now is the best time for it. Skyreach is at the edge of becoming a tier-two guild.”

  “We have good people keeping things in check back at the valley,” Clara spoke up. “And according to what Borodar said, there will be rewards just for participating. I mea
n, what are the chances that we would actually be selected, that we could win? The requirement is at least silver rank, but you know that there will be more powerful teams present for sure. We will get demolished.”

  Morgan turned to look at Lucius who was staying suspiciously quiet. “What about you? What do you think?”

  Lucius took a deep breath before responding. “Tournaments like this are not completely unheard of. My family’s guild hosted one a few decades ago, and my grandfather told me stories about it. Clara is right—the Great Guilds will provide rewards to those who prove themselves even if they don’t win, and the scraps from the Great Guilds are treasures beyond measure for guilds like ours. If we manage to get even one of these rewards, it would help Skyreach greatly. And the prospect of going to the Tower… That is something else. The only reason the Great Guilds would host a tournament like this is because they don’t plan on just clearing or farming the first three floors, but going further. Few are willing to do that. They probably can’t find enough high-ranking teams to make up the raid group so they are looking to the lesser teams. Hoping to find promising people that they could boost enough to be of use during the climb.”

  “I don’t really understand that,” Morgan said. “What do you mean they can’t find enough people?”

  Lucius grimaced, he had spoken much with Morgan over the years about what he remembered about his life in a Great Guild, and Morgan had always felt his reluctance along with something bordering on distaste in his words.

  “We have spent, what—two years out here among the other guilds?” Lucius asked, looking back at him.

  “About that, yes,” Morgan said.

  “In that time you have seen and learned much. Tell me, what do you think about the way things work here?”

  Morgan tilted his head thoughtfully. He knew what Lucius meant by that, he had mentioned it to him a few times. The way things worked here were…in a single word, exploitative. “Those with more resources and greater levels have more power, and those who don’t are being used.” Morgan had seen people working crazy hours, doing tough work, all so that they could live. If you weren’t prepared to go out and hunt monsters on your own, you were forced to basically be a slave. If you didn’t have skills and abilities that were useful, then you were screwed.

  Lucius nodded. “It is not as bad here, but in the cities? Among the Guild Holds of the larger guilds? Everything is about power. They hoard it, they use it to get more of it, all so that they can live. There are high-level people who have been alive for so long that the ascension crystals they need to take in order to survive have lost almost all of their effectiveness, yet they don’t level and hunt stronger monsters in order to combat that. They use their wealth and power to have others harvest insane amounts of crystals for them, all so that they can extend their lives for a single hour. Most of the high level people are like this—it is rare for them to ever put themselves in danger. Why risk death when you can enjoy life?”

  “But the people organizing this tournament are not like that, certainly,” Morgan said.

  Lucius inclined his head. “Perhaps, but they are the exception to the rule. People don’t like putting themselves in danger, even the adventurers. It is rare for ascended to go into the unknown. Nearly every dungeon has been explored, and there are manuals and tactics guides for nearly every monster and encounter in the world. Even when they go into danger, they know what to expect and are prepared for it. We have done the same. Every contract we have taken, every bounty we have completed—you researched it all, didn’t you?”

  “What does that have to with this?” Morgan asked.

  “If they are holding a tournament, that means they plan on climbing the Tower. There are no manuals after the third floor—whoever goes there will be going in blind. No one who has gone to the fourth floor has ever returned,” Lucius said.

  Morgan didn’t respond. Instead, he just grunted. He did understand what Lucius was talking about. But Morgan knew what the Tower was, and the others knew as well, as he had informed them. The Tower was the Great Lord’s test for the inhabitants of this world, a way to find soldiers for some unknown purpose. Morgan had not yet come to terms with the fact that the Great Lord Oxylus was in fact his father. Sure, he understood that in a sort of an abstract way; he even understood that he had benefited from that connection, that he and the others would’ve probably died in that dungeon where they had been betrayed, had Morgan not been who he was.

  But he didn’t feel any different for it, really. Oxy was someone beyond Morgan’s understanding, a being of incredible power, and Morgan was just human. Well, he was ascended now, but he was nothing like what Oxy was. Besides, Morgan was pretty sure that his dad wasn’t all that swell of a guy. It didn’t make any difference, though. The people of this world believed that a reward waited for anyone who completed the Tower, and Morgan knew that that was true—he didn’t think that Oxy was lying about that—but he was conflicted. On the one hand, he did want to conquer the Tower, to prove himself to his father; on the other, he was worried that he wasn’t strong enough. He was under no delusions. He knew that he wasn’t all that special, no matter the fact that a “god” was his father. He remembered Oxy’s last words to him: Gain strength, conquer the Tower of Power, and you will be worthy of standing next to me. I only have a need for the strong.

  He was just not sure that he could become strong enough to be worthy of standing next to a god.

  “I know that we spoke about it, that we agreed that we would climb the Tower.” Morgan looked around, meeting eyes with all of them. “The only question is: Do we want to do it now?”

  The others didn’t respond immediately, for which Morgan was thankful, as he himself was still unsure. All of them had grown much stronger in the past two years. They were all over level twenty-seven now; Morgan and Ves were twenty-nine, with Lucius and Vall being twenty-eight and Clara twenty-seven. Each of their classes had evolved at level twenty, and they had gained much power compared to who they used to be.

  Lucius was now a Sword Lord, a class focused on fast-paced dual-wielding combat. He had specialized in quick and deadly techniques and abilities.

  Vallsorim’s class had evolved into a Blazing Juggernaut, enhancing his previous style of two-handed combat.

  Clara’s Aegis class had evolved into the Aegis of Restoration class. It had originally been supposed to be a combat support class, but Clara had used it more for healing and it had evolved in that direction. She now utilized shields and health-regeneration buffs to help their team.

  Vestella’s Eldritch Knight class had evolved into Eldritch Conjurer. Morgan had to admit that he had been a bit worried that she was going to start conjuring all sorts of weird beasts and monsters to help her fight, but it hadn’t gone that way. Morgan already knew that the system that governed this world and the classes that ascended had were more of a loose set of guidelines. Ves could conjure weird things, yes, but nothing like what he could imagine in his nightmares.

  Morgan’s own class had evolved prior to theirs, and into an unique class, one that no one else had access to, at least according to Sabila his soul-implant-thingy. The Heart of Verdure, his class, made him especially in tune with nature, more precisely flora. It had been a side effect of his mastery of his nature alignment and his use of it. After he had gained that mastery—not that he had reached complete mastery, simply a level where he was no longer a newb—he had been allowed to choose another alignment to add to his skill set. He had chosen metal, deciding to go with the complete opposite of what he had learned previously. The alignments were not just tied to the elements that they were named after, however; they were also more abstract, aspects that were harder to grasp and understand. Nature had given him ability to command life and death, in all its forms. He had chosen to focus on plants, because he wasn’t really into being someone who tinkered with living beings, or the dead, such as a Necromancer, which he knew existed. Metal was about gravitation and power—things that, like life
and death, seemed simple to grasp, but really weren’t. Gravitation wasn’t just about things like gravity, which he had a few abilities now that could influence it. It was also about the connection between things, just like power was about the transfer of energy from different sources. He hadn’t yet managed to master this alignment, but he felt like he was close, and he was pretty excited to see how his class would accommodate his new style when it evolved at level thirty. His kit still included a lot of plant-based skills and abilities, but he had been doing a lot with his other alignment too.

  He knew that they had all gotten a lot more powerful, and they had grown as a team as well. They were in sync, knew each other well, were effective. He wasn’t afraid of tackling new challenges with them. Yet the Tower, based on all that he had heard, was supposed to be far more dangerous than anything else on this world.

  Ves was the first to break the silence. “I think we should go.”

  Morgan turned to look at her, surprised. She had been the one to point out that they had their guild to think about now. She saw his look and a corner of her lips quirked up. “If there is a chance that we can win even a small reward that can help the guild, I am all for it. But the truth is… I, too, wish to climb the tower,” She glanced at her twin brother across from them. “The two of us have dreamed about it since even before our parents left us.”

  Morgan put his hand around her and brought her close. “You know, I have to be honest. I want to see what this Tower is all about.”

  Lucius took a deep breath. “I think that we should participate in the tournament as well. At the very least it will be good experience for us.”

  Clara snorted. “You all act as if we are going to be climbing the Tower tomorrow. But you are right. I think that we should go.”

  Morgan turned to look at Vall who smiled. “It is settled, then. We go.”

  “But first,” Morgan spoke, “we go back to Skyreach. We need to discuss this with Titus as well as get the loot we gained back to the guild.”