Blood and Cupcakes

by Taj McCoy El

  Makes sense, it is only three days after release and no one wants to be left out.

  Each tournament would have its own instance of the same dungeon and prizes. The rare and legendary items would be handed out in a randomized first come, first serve order.

  Faster completion time will give me a better chance at the rares. Check!

  She continued reading the rules. It broke down the specifics for each category, individual and team. In the individual rankings, players would face each other in head-to-head battles with duel rules. Individuals would fight until one reached 1HP. After the battle, all mana and stamina would be recharged instantly and all cooldown timers would be reset with exception of daily use spells. They would still have to recharge for four hours.

  That makes sense. A spell that's so powerful you can only use it once a day would unlevel most opposition and make the tournament unfair.

  The same rules as the duels would be used for summoners and necs. Summoners couldn’t summon their creatures until the battle started, and necs could have their dolls but could only activate them after the start of the match.

  Sounds fair.

  Summoner cooldown timers however, would only be halved during the tournament. That was an unfortunate drawback which would limit some summoners from doing well on their own.

  You could either participate in the individual matches or the team matches, but not both. The individual winners would get class-specific armors or weapons that would be soulbound.

  Nice, makes me want to go for the individual battles. Let me see about the team prizes.

  The three-man team rules were different. It was a last man standing battle where two members of one team could be knocked out and the third could still win the battle. The team winners of the tournament would each get their own identical dungeon to run, an instanced dungeon with rare drops for every member if they could complete it. Sign up was open until fifteen minutes IRL before the actual tourney. That was 7:45 PM EST, so up until 4:30 MJT of the day of the tourney in game. That was only two days from now.

  The real kicker was that anyone who made it to level 10 between now and the tourney wouldn’t be kicked out of the village until the tournament was over. That meant someone could level up, get their third magic skill and compete in the tourney. That meant there might be some real competition to be found. The hairy side of that melon was that if you went to level 11 before the tournament started, you’d be gone. POOF… just like that.

  “Okay. Go find Margaret. If she’s asleep, wake her gently. We’ll meet at Jensen’s in an hour. And if you ever knock on my door like that again, there better be a real emergency or you’re gonna BE the emergency.”

  “Geez… doing that whole creepy thing again huh?”

  She didn’t understand how he made it out of the door without being hit by at least one of the hard objects she threw at him. But he poked his head back in with his paws in his ears and his tongue stuck out.

  “Taste this!!!!” she yelled, hitting him in the face with a heavy stone.

  He fell back out the door with a loud “Mrowr!” After closing her door, she made good on her promise to contact her mom.

  Mayah.Butler@CrysWeb 10:43 EST - Hey mom, good morning. What are you doing?

  Brenda.J.Butler@CrysWeb 10:44 EST - Hey cupcake, missing you is what I’m doing. How are you?

  Mayah.Butler@CrysWeb 10:44 EST - Pretty good. I got a little homesick, but a good friend let me cry on her shoulder and I feel much better now.

  Brenda.J.Butler@CrysWeb 10:46 EST - Oh Mai pie, I'm sorry that I'm not there for you. Have you tried logging out today?

  Mayah thought, logout and tested the grey button. Nothing happened.

  Mayah.Butler@CrysWeb 10:47 EST - Just did. Still grey. Did you see my video?

  Brenda.J.Butler@CrysWeb 10:48 EST - Did I? It’s on the morning streams. Hon, you always did like those creepy movies.

  Mayah.Butler@CrysWeb 10:48 EST- LOL I still do. But seriously, check into a live stream service and see if we can get a good contract. May as well pay for college while I'm in here.

  Brenda.J.Butler@CrysWeb 10:50 EST - We will, babe. Your father says he loves you and Mo was jealous about your duel. But just so you know, he thought it was the best thing ever until he found out it was you. LOL I hope you guys meet up in game soon.

  Mayah.Butler@CrysWeb 10:51 EST - Working on it. Okay got to run... I know it’s only ten minutes to you but almost a whole hour has passed for me. I gotta get to a strategy meeting. Love you

  Brenda.J.Butler@CrysWeb 10:52 EST - I love you more, sweetie. Be safe.

  Mayah threw on her bag and grabbed a few things she might need. Today was gonna be hectic. She strode out of the door to the dorm into the warm sunshine of Majesta. People saw her and stopped what they were doing to stare. A few people stopped their conversations, nudging their friends and pointing. All eyes were on her. Her nemesis had come to haunt her.

  Oh attention… how I loathe thee. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to make big waves, it was just because people always stared afterwards. It made her feel like a small freak in a big world. She really, really hated when people stared.

  She glanced around at the people as she walked and threw on her hood. With her mind on the mission in front of her, she cast Achilles Heel on everyone she saw.

  The shoppers in the square parted slightly to let her through. I’d wonder what they think of me, but there’s no time for that now. We’ve got a lot of work to do. She approached Jensen’s stand and found the others waiting for her.

  “Morning, Fluff.” Jensen had an amused look on his face.

  “Morning, Jensen, Margaret.”

  “Fluff.” Margaret gave her an optimistic smile which Mayah returned.

  “Okay,” Mayah clapped her hands, punctuating the work day. “We’ve got a lot of work to do to make a name for ourselves in the tournament. We have two days in game to figure this out properly. First a few questions, what level are you Grax?”

  He stared at her through slit eyes and didn’t say anything. The silence continued long enough to become awkward, his eyes never wavering as they started to burn holes through her eyes into the back of her skull.

  “Are you mad at me for throwing that rock at you?”

  “Yeth….”

  “What?”

  “Yeth, Ibe bad at thew.” (Yes, I'm mad at you.)

  “Why are you talking like that?”

  “Bidden dung zebuff.” (Bitten tongue debuff.)

  Jensen couldn’t hold his laughter in any more.

  “How did….? Oooooohhh…. Sorry?” She cringed, realizing that she had done this to him.

  “Nobe, nod good enuff.”

  “Oh, c’mon Graxxy, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

  He turned around, showing her his back. “Don caw be Gwaxxy.” (Don’t call me Graxxy)

  “C’mon Grax, this is about the tournament. I really am sorry, but there's a butt load of work to do. I know you want to win this thing as much as I do, so let’s put that aside until we can at least talk about this.”

  “She said talk about it.” Jensen’s laughter intensified.

  Grax looked away indignantly.

  “What’s the matter, Grax…. cat got yer tongue…” Jensen’s voice rose in pitch as he tried to control the laughter that was whistling out like a hot teakettle.

  “Stop it, Jensen.” Margaret pet Grax softly while she spoke. “If you keep treating him like a child, he’ll run away like all children do eventually.”

  “I’m trying,” Jensen wheezed. He walked to the back corner of his stall and faced the corner post. His shoulders shook in silent spasms of laughter.

  “Well, he’s not gonna be much use for a while.” Mayah thumbed at Jensen. “Look, Grax I'll make it up to you. Jensen! Pull it together man. I need information.”

  Jensen held up his finger, gasped deeply, bringing much needed air into his lungs, got out the word, “.... Yeah….” And then started laughing again.

/>   “Where can we get one of those vests for Grax?”

  “Try… Leatherworkers..." he said between gasps of laughter. He pointed across the square, his arm shaking from spasms of laughter. He reached into his vest pocket. “Show… them this. …It’ll...uh …it’ll help get everything done quicker.” He sobered momentarily. “And don’t ye lose it,” he said pointing a finger at her. “Talk about hard to come by.”

  The resilient humor made a play for its escape. His face was contorted and was almost purple from his useless exertions trying to keep the laughter at bay. Little sniggers popped out, each one sounding like a wet raspberry.

  He had handed her a small shield with a lion’s roaring face. A sword and axe crossed underneath on a field of blue and red quadrants.

  “What is this?” Mayah asked.

  “... Another time,” he said breathlessly. He waved her off and turned back to the corner, resuming his fit of laughter.

  Secrets? Oooh… I like secrets.

  “Okay, let’s go cash in some loot. We’ll talk on the way. If you have any active abilities that could be used in a fight, trigger them as we walk. We are officially in training.”

  They walked away from the stand towards the leatherworker's shop. And didn’t notice the man walk up to Jensen.

  “Is that her?”

  “Aye,” Jensen said wiping tears from his burning face.

  “And you gave her the tracking shield?”

  “That I did.”

  “Good.” The man turned and walked in the other direction.

  …..

  Watching Grax getting fit for his vest was the cutest thing ever. He stood upright on a pedestal surrounded by mirrors while the leather workers made measurements in a notebook. He described what he wanted as best as he could. Margaret translated what he couldn’t.

  Mayah stepped up to the clerk who was tabulating the order. And she showed him the shield. He started for a moment. Straightening up he said, “How soon do you need this?”

  “How soon can you have it done?”

  “An hour if the leather is untreated, three if it is.”

  Treated leather has a higher durability, she remembered from her leatherworker trade.

  “Three hours it is. Can you make it as black as his fur?”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Thank you. How much?”

  “13 gold.” Mayah activated Skinflint and gave the man 12 gold 9 silver.

  Next, they went to the armory. “Grax, pick out a throwing knife you like and a weapon or two. Margaret, see if you can find a weapon with more reach than your knife that you feel comfortable with. I'm going to look at hammers.”

  She walked through the racks of weapons, studying the hammers intently. Now that there was a tournament, she wanted to fully upgrade her weapon. She was looking for form and function in a balanced package. She was going to try and scale it down at the smithy anyway.

  She perused the store until her eyes lit upon the perfect weapon. She carried it to the front of the store and waited for the others. Margaret came back with a recurved bow that had ends capped in metal and sharpened into blades.

  “That’s an excellent choice, Mags. Have you ever shot a bow before?”

  “I was in a junior archery competition years ago, but I'm sure it will all come back to me.” She gave the bow a test dry pull, sighting an imaginary target, then slowly easing the tension. She eyed the bow wondrously as she examined its stats.

  Mayah reached out to touch the bow and examine its stats then nodded to Margaret that the bow was a good choice for her.

  At least she won’t have to train from scratch. And she’ll need the agility boost.

  “What type of arrows do you have?” she asked the clerk.

  He counted them out on his fingers. She assumed it was so he would remember them all. “Iron, steel, silver, obsidian, fire, ice, poison, and stun.” He paused, “Yep, that’s all we got.”

  “We’ll take 50 of each.”

  The man looked at her in disbelief.

  “Matter of fact, make that 100 of the iron, 100 of the fire and stun, and drop the 50 obsidian and poison. We’ve got target practice to do.”

  “That's 3 gold 84 silver for the arrows, miss.”

  “How much for the bow?”

  “20 gold.”

  “The hammer?”

  “27 gold.”

  “Mags, go find a short sword as well, and maybe a dagger, too. Better to be prepared. Now, my fine sir, I have some implements of war that you might like to purchase.” She pulled her terravole weapon trove from her bag and the haggling began in earnest.

  Grax came up holding two forward curling daggers with tiger eye pommels that looked like twin claws of steel. “These’ll go perfect with my swords.”

  “You have swords?”

  “I have a lot of things. Even more, now that you're apologizing.”

  “Just got your tongue back and I already wish you’d go back to not talking,” she shook her head.

  He stuck his tongue out at her.

  Isn’t that how you got in this situation in the first place?

  “Did you find any throwing knives?” Mayah asked sternly instead of taunting him further.

  “They were all too big for me, but I did find this beauty.”

  The small pick of a stiletto he held up looked as if it were sized for a child or young woman. Grax flipped it up and caught it point first, balancing it on a single pad of his paw.

  “This,” he made a presenter’s flourish with his other hand, “is a good blade”

  “And you can throw it?”

  “Can I?” He threw the blade into the wall an inch from to the armorer’s head. The armorer didn’t even flinch. His eyes never left Grax. He reached up over his shoulder, pulled the stiletto out of the wall, and threw it back at Grax in one swift motion. The blade parted fur as it whizzed through Grax’s legs and embedded itself in the floor. The armorer had another blade in his hand before Grax could even react to the first throw. Grax raised his hands and froze in surrender.

  “Sorry about the knife. I just got excited,” he said knowing he was seriously out of his league.

  “That excitement will cost you 10 gold if you ever want to shop here again,” the steely-eyed salesman said. “...And a warning, cat, never play with the weapons in my store. They aren’t toys and I don’t want to clean up the blood.”

  “Sorry.” He lowered his paws and slowly pat his “no-no zone” to make sure he wasn’t neutered. Then he carefully worked the stiletto free with his claw tips. He gently placed it on the counter with both hands and stepped back from the armorer’s withering gaze. He stood in the center of the aisle, paws clasped in front of him, rocking back on his heels studying every wall except the one the armorer stood in front of.

  …..

  5.2 Happiness and Spirit

  Thanks to Skinflint and the weapon stash they found underneath the terravole mother, they left the armorer with 20 gold more than when they entered. They headed back to the leatherworkers and added two sheaths for Grax’s daggers to his vest and ordered a quiver of holding for Margaret. Next, they walked to the smithy.

  “HEY JOHN…!!!” Mayah yelled into the furnace of the building as loudly as she could. John appeared from a room in the back corner. He motioned for them to come over. They walked past rows of worktables lined with all types of weapons. Every one of them had a paper tag that described the work to be done on them. Reaching the room, they found it was an office.

  John endured the quick introductions with his scowl firmly in place, and waved them to the seats opposite his desk. Grax jumped onto the arm of Mayah’s chair so he would be able to see over the desk.

  “So, what’ve you got for me today, Fluff? I'm awfully busy with this tournament business.”

  “That’s exactly why I'm here.” She passed him the stiletto that Grax had found.

  “How many of these can you make before the tourney?”

  He
studied the slim blade. “Hmmmmm… at least 50, maybe more. But it’ll cost you a pretty penny.”

  “How pretty?”

  “Now, before we get into all of this negotiations stuff, I want to talk to you about Skinflint.”

  Mayah’s eyes opened just a bit more.

  “Maam is loving the goods you’ve given her, but she knows you flinted her. It is a law of the land, but it’s not always pleasant. So, let’s make another deal first. If you don’t Skinflint me or Maam we’ll both make sure to give you best deals possible. You can always haggle, of course.”

  “That doesn’t sound at all unreasonable.” She reached over the desk and they shook on it. Better to have friends and no gold than gold and no friends.

  “Okay let’s talk price. This dagger cost you how much used, about 2 gold? We’d need to smelt, mold and sharpen each blade. So, with time and labor, that's’ about 3 gold a blade. Now, if we made mass mold, we could pour more blades at once, but it may not be worth it for you. It’s a bit more expensive because of the cost associated with making the mold.”

  John hefted the blade on his palm. “That’s 1 and 2/10ths pounds by my reckoning. That’s going to top 60 pounds of steel because of what you lose to grinding, spills and excess.”

  “Can you simplify the design and keep the balance? These are going to be Grax’s throwing knives.”

  “Who’s Grax again?”

  “I am.”

  “Well I'll be... I’ve seen some strange paladins but you definitely take the cake.”

  “Only if it’s chocolate.” A wide grin popped up on his cat face.

  “I think I like him,” John smiled at Mayah.

  “I won’t hold it against you,” Mayah scoffed. “Do you think you can keep the balance and get the cost down to 2 gold?”

  “Shouldn’t be too hard if you don’t want them as pretty as this one. I can use a higher iron content to make them.”

  “They’re literally going to be throwaways. Function before form in this case.”

  “In that case, I think I can find a way to do it. The hilts will have to be bare and I’ll have to get rid of the guard as well.”