The Grand Tournament

by Ivan Kal

  Lucius nodded, then looked pointedly at Morgan. “Agreed, but we need to use the teleporters; we can’t get to Skyreach and then to Al’Valor in time on foot.”

  Morgan grimaced, both because the teleporters were expensive and their guild wasn’t that far, and because he hated the damn things. The sensation of teleporting was creepy as hell. “Fine,” he said finally.

  “You should probably make plans to go and talk to Azil,” Ves told him softly.

  Morgan winced. He hadn’t wanted to think about that monster.

  “You are the one who sought him out, and you did ask me to remind you to keep your side of the bargain,” Ves chided him lightly.

  “I know, I just don’t know what in hell’s name I was thinking.”

  Clara snorted. “I think your exact words were, ‘Oh my gosh, Clara don’t be stupid! He is going to be my very own Mr. Miyagi. Everybody needs a Mr. Miyagi.’ Whatever that meant. It is your own fault. Lucius tried to warn you.”

  Morgan growled at her and she just laughed. Lucius, he noticed, looked smug. Sure, Morgan had ignored the man’s advice, but he hadn’t realized just what kind of a taskmaster Azil was.

  “You laugh, but while he might be an undisputed asshole, he knows his shit. I bet you are all just jealous he didn’t agree to take you on as well,” Morgan said, and showed Clara his tongue.

  She pretended to be offended before splashing water in his direction, and soon enough their relaxing time devolved into a full blown splash-fest.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The Sky Force team was walking down the streets of Irus, heading to the teleportation building. Owned and operated by the city, it belonged to the Omen Guild, much like everything else. They had rented a cart as they had no way of carrying all the loot that they had acquired in the last few months of their adventuring by themselves. Even with the cart filled to the brim, they still had to fill their own rings of holding as well as the few bags of holding they still had, and that was after they had sold all the stuff that they didn’t need. Adventuring was a lucrative business if one managed to stay alive. They had had a few tough encounters over the years, and Morgan had come to realize just how dangerous being an adventuring ascended truly was.

  Still, as they made their way across town, Morgan couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of trepidation. He hated the teleporters, a thing that the others didn’t understand. They thought that it was the uncomfortable sensation, but they were wrong. He hated it because it scared him, because he didn’t know how they worked. He’d had nightmares when he first used it, as he nearly convinced himself that they worked by breaking down his body and then recreating an exact copy on the other end, basically killing the original and creating a new him. Those fears had been allayed somewhat by Azil, but he still couldn’t get that nightmare out of his mind. According to the man there was no breaking down of the body, but he still couldn’t explain it to him. A weakness of having a system that enabled everything for people—you had an ability and you used it, but you didn’t need to know the exact workings of it.

  Still, Morgan turned to his character sheets to keep himself occupied and not thinking about the impending teleportation. He had acquired many new skills and abilities in the last few years, enough that his screens had started getting cluttered. Thankfully, not only could he sort them however he wished, but he could also create tabs and sort his skills and abilities in them. Now, he had three tabs for his skills and two for abilities. For his skills he had the (Main) tab where he had the skills that impacted his combat, then the (Crafting) tab for crafting-related skills, and finally (Misc) for anything else. For his abilities he had a (Main) sub-tab for the abilities he constantly used and that he considered a part of his kit, then another for all the abilities that he used more rarely. He even found out that he could change the roman numerals to other systems, which was great as his numbers had started getting high and confusing. He opened up his main tab for skills and looked it over.

  SKILLS (Main)

  Elemental Alignment—Nature 15 (+one rank guild buff)

  Elemental Alignment—Metal 8 (+one rank guild buff)

  Hand-to-Hand Combat 5

  Throwing Weapons 5

  Sharpshooter 10

  Energy Manipulation 15

  Unyielding Will 4

  Phytokinesis 10

  Gravikinesis 4

  Life Sense 5

  His Archery skill had changed into Sharpshooter awhile ago, since he had mostly abandoned the use of his bow. He still carried one in one of his bags of holding, but his style had evolved to focus more on thrown weapons, as well as bombs which he made himself as well as plant-based attacks. The Sharpshooter skill included everything that had to do with projectile or thrown weapons, which helped him with his accuracy. His Weapons skill had changed into Throwing Weapons around the same time; he still had the knowledge about how to use other weapons, of course, but his focus had shifted. Morgan had paid a lot of attention on how skills impacted progression in this world, and he had found out that with each level he gained in a skill he gained just a bit more knowledge about the topic the skill represented. For example, his Throwing Weapons skill made him instinctively know how to throw all kind of different weapons, but with each level he learned more—how to take into account wind, distance, movement, how to better grip a throwing weapon, and so on. It was actually quite fascinating. Next, he took a look at his crafting tab:

  SKILLS (Crafting)

  Monster Lore 8

  Skinning 13

  Hunting 6

  Harvesting 9

  Herbalism 14

  Enchanting 7

  Engraving 8

  Arcane Tinker 9

  Alchemy 11

  Arcane Horticulturist 6

  He had focused more on plants and tinkering, which had been an obvious choice once he had gotten his class. With his Phytokinesis he could even manipulate plants to mutate while they grew, and with his Power Infusion he had managed to get some really interesting new plants. Still, he didn’t have the time to spend on leveling his crafting skills as much as he wanted. Finally he looked at his misc tab.

  SKILLS (Misc)

  Language—Basic, Elvish

  Inspect 8

  Inventor 3

  Acrobatics 5

  Medicine 4

  Chemistry 3

  Lightning Reflexes 5

  His misc skills were mostly the ones he had gained recently and hadn’t had enough time to level, although two of them were the direct result of the gruesome training Azil had put Morgan through. And while Morgan nearly hated the man, he had to admit that his training and the skills that resulted from that training had proven nearly invaluable. He had a few points left to spend, but he was saving them. He quickly looked through the list of skills that were available for him to purchase and saw that there was nothing new. The requirements for skills were not always apparent, and one could never know what mundane action would make a new skill available. Following Azil’s advice Morgan had stopped spending points on leveling up his skills, and instead he did it through training. According to the old man, ascended who spent their points on leveling their skills might see an immediate boost, but they were in fact limiting themselves and narrowing their path—and according to Azil, they were lazy pieces of cow dung. Seeing nothing new worth purchasing, Morgan moved over to his abilities.

  ABILITIES (Main)

  Power Infusion 11

  Power Siphon 9

  Ward 6

  Phase Shift 8

  Arcane Mark 4

  Touch of Death 4

  Energy Blade 5

  Vampiric Root Spear 7

  Binding Roots 4

  Iron Skin 3

  Mass Transfer 4

  Gravitic Stomp 5

  Momentum Shift 3

  He had some really powerful abilities which he had received from experimenting with his new alignment, but he hadn’t had as much time to practice and level them. That was partially because most of them were close to mid-ra
nge abilities, while he—if everything was going perfectly—rarely got close to the fight. His Gravitic Shift ability had gained a level after his battle with the spider queen. He was very excited about that, as it was one of his most powerful abilities, one that he had gained as a result of Azil’s training, and one that he couldn’t utilize properly because of his low stats. He was being affected by the same forces that those around him in the range of the ability were, and he would’ve been crushed just the same if he didn’t have the Phase Shift ability which made him completely invulnerable to most forces. He had found that only one thing still had an effect on him, and that was momentum. If he activated the ability while running he would continue to float at the same speed and in the same direction once it was activated. If he was stationary, he would remain so; the ability seemed to be tethered to the world itself since he didn’t go flying out in space every time he activated. It had been an incredible ability before, and was pretty awesome now. He couldn’t use it much since it was energy hungry, but he could hold it for up to four seconds now. Morgan mostly used it to spook his friends by phasing through walls, all while floating like and pretending to be a ghost or an apparition. The first time he did it was to Clara. He put on a large, loose cloak with a hood and then phased right into her room as she was getting ready to sleep. She screamed so loud that she woke up the entire Guild Hall.

  She then proceeded to curse him in Orcish while she kicked the shit out of him, but it was worth it.

  He moved to the last tab:

  ABILITIES (Misc)

  Piercing Shot 3

  Scatter Shot 4

  Energy Arrow 6

  Exploding Arrow 7

  Rain of Arrows 4

  All of these abilities were tied to his bow, which he rarely used nowadays. He had mostly moved on to building devices, traps, and bombs for combat. With his plant-based attacks for range, and his powerful close-range abilities, he didn’t have much need for a bow unless he was hunting. Still, he had been told that it was possible to consolidate abilities and even skills at a later level, so he was hoping that he could get some use out of them in the future. Lastly, he turned to his stats:

  STRENGTH

  20

  AGILITY

  34

  CONSTITUTION

  22

  INTELLECT

  30

  WILL

  32

  WISDOM

  13

  CHARISMA

  10

  LUCK

  10

  He had focused on upgrading mostly his agility, will, and intellect, and getting all of them to thirty, which had been the next threshold. He had seen many more improvements compared to when his stats had been in the twenties. His agility was a requirement, as his build wasn’t focused on strength and constitution so he needed to be fast enough to avoid enemy attacks. It also helped with his coordination and throwing, which was the basis for his build. His intellect was a necessity for using his alignments, as it made them more powerful; also, it helped him with his tinkering and making of all of his gadgets. Will, he found, was actually one of his most important stats, as it allowed him to resist harmful effects that targeted the mind, and it helped to deepen his connection to his alignments, allowing him finer control compared to the greater power of intellect. Still, he had spent some points in strength and constitution simply because he didn’t want those stats to fall behind too much. He still needed strength for his throws and all around survival, the same with constitution.

  Wisdom and charisma he never increased. Wisdom he had thought about since it increased his perception and decision making; but in reality, after discussing it with others, it only made him faster at making snap decisions. Morgan rarely needed to do that since he was more of a planner, and he usually had contingencies for most situations. Charisma he had found was an interesting stat. There were builds focused on it exclusively, but according to Lucius they were frowned upon. People with high charisma could warp other people’s mind, influencing their actions, getting them to do what they wanted to. It seemed powerful in theory, but the truth was that the only people it was guaranteed to work on were non-ascended, as people with high will could resist their ability. Still, Morgan wondered what someone with truly high charisma could do. According to Lucius, charisma was mostly used by merchants and the like, but only to suggest and slightly influence others, not outright control them. It was rare that a merchant could have that much control over someone, as most ascended put at least some points into will, and if they did and were found out they rarely managed to get away unscathed.

  The last stat, luck, governed external factors, the type of loot one found in dungeons and the like, as well as increased the amount of exp one could gain from quests. Morgan didn’t bother with it, even though he knew that it could be powerful, but he hadn’t had any need for it so far. But perhaps he might look into doing it in the future.

  They reached the large building which had been their destination, Morgan and Vall pulling the cart filled with loot behind them. Once inside, Lucius dealt with the administrators and gave the payment, and afterward they were quickly escorted out of the building and into the inner courtyard. There was only one teleportation platform. Irus wasn’t a large enough town to warrant more, as there wasn’t much traffic coming through here. They waited in line until people before them got through. A few minutes later it was their turn. They stepped onto a large circular platform that looked as if it was made out of some shiny metal, but to the touch felt like a rock. They pulled the cart in the middle, making sure that all of them were inside the circle, and then the people operating the teleporter spoke out.

  “Destination?” a woman standing behind what looked like a operating panel asked.

  “Skyreach Guild Hold,” Lucius answered.

  The woman searched through her screens and then nodded. “Ready?”

  “No,” Morgan whispered as Lucius answered. “We are ready.”

  The next thing he knew was a world filled with light, then sudden darkness. It was eerie; he knew that the travel time was instantaneous, but inside this strange world time was a bit wonky. Morgan had trips where it appeared as if he spent almost no time inside, and then had trips where it seemed like hours—yet another thing that made him dislike teleportation. Thankfully this trip wasn’t one of the long ones, as he suddenly felt a tugging sensation and then they had arrived.

  Instead of the colorful town of Irus, he now saw Skyreach Hold. The wooden and stone buildings contrasted the town where he had been spending most of his time lately. His Guild Hold looked like a village compared to Irus. Still, it was home. They had appeared on the teleportation pad that was on the edge of the plateau that housed the Skyreach Guild Hold, a sectioned-off area that they’d had to order be built since they didn’t have the expertise to build it themselves. Morgan hadn’t been so sure that they should pay so much gold for it, but Lucius convinced him that it was an investment, and that it would make things easier for them. Which it had—Morgan shuddered to think about carrying all the loot they had gathered back to the valley. It would’ve taken them months. This way, they had been able to make several trips back and forth over the last two years.

  The man stationed at the controls there looked asleep and had missed their arrival. Morgan didn’t blame him for that considering only their team used the teleporter for now, so his job had to be boring as all hell. I know that I would probably go insane if I had to sit still and watch an empty platform. There was no way that someone unwanted could arrive to their guild, as the platforms would only teleport people who were cleared to come through. Most big cities kept their teleporters open so that they could have visitors from other cities, but Skyreach did not. Only their team had been cleared to use it for now.

  Lucius walked over to the man and hit his desk, creating a loud noise. The man shot awake, his eyes looking around widely as his hand went down to his belt where his sword was hanging. Then his eyes cleared and he recognized Lucius. Morgan
saw the moment when his eyes widened and his cheeks reddened.

  “Guild Leader!” he said, saluting with a fist to his chest, and then he noticed the rest—and Morgan. “Guild Master. We, uh…hadn’t been expecting you lord, lords, uh…ladies.”

  Morgan smiled while Lucius glowered at the man. Lucius had been the one to form the Sky Guard of which this man was a part, so Morgan understood his displeasure, but he wasn’t about to let him berate the man.

  “No problem.” Morgan took a minute to remember the man’s name; there were over a hundred Sky Guards right now but he did know most of their names. “Firr, we have arrived ahead of the schedule.”

  Usually their team came back to Skyreach every four months, but they had been away for only three this time. Lucius made a few comments to the man about being vigilant, but didn’t berate him too much. Vall and Morgan, meanwhile, pulled the cart off the platform. Morgan looked over the plateau, seeing the entirety of his Guild Hold. The plateau was a few hundred meters across all together, only, it was elongated. All in all it was about twenty acres of surface. Still, one could see everything from one side of the plateau to the other. Closest to them was the Sky Guard’s training ground, along with the two-story building that was their headquarters. Behind it were the dormitories for the Sky Guards who didn’t own their own houses or didn’t have families. The building was made mostly out of wood and white stone that the guild got from its own quarry nearby. It was square and not really pretty at all—it reminded Morgan of the images he had seen of Soviet-era buildings back on Earth, with a bit of brown wood thrown in for good measure. It might not be pretty, but it was a functional and, most importantly, efficient design.