Raising Allies

by Sarah Lin

  "There you are. Settled on a quest for us yet?"

  "Actually, I don't think we should start with taking assignments - the chances of encountering unacceptable risks are simply too high. Perhaps we should begin with safe competitions until we can earn enough money to upgrade our equipment."

  Danniah stopped tying one of her vambraces to clap. "Oh, then do we get to go to the Red Sands after all?"

  "One of the smaller ones, yes. There's a competition every tenday and one is coming up just tomorrow."

  Meara nodded, but some skepticism remained in her eyes. "I assume most of the battles aren't to the death, though. Does that mean you won't be able to harvest any EXP from the fights?"

  "Probably not, but that's where you come in," Bloodwraith said. "While we're signing up and engaging in the competitions, you can check all the requests at the local guilds. Do you think you can judge them like those you did in Cresthaven?"

  "To find ones that have something of value, but aren't deadly? The risks will be higher, but I think I can do better than just trying to guess."

  "Excellent. Then let's finish our business as early as possible today, and after that we can take the rest of the day for recovery. We traveled long enough - we can afford to relax for one day before we begin the tournament and quests seriously."

  Though he was fairly certain the day wouldn't go so smoothly, he figured there was no harm in the goal. The group ate a decent breakfast and then headed out into the city for the day. They didn't have any trouble at the Adventurers Guild, getting their ranks acknowledged easily and then leaving Meara there to discern what she could from the wall of request papers.

  That left him going with Danniah to the Red Sands Arena. It loomed over the eastern half of the city, an imposing structure built from blood red stone. Though the central gate led into a circle of sand with a large seating area for crowds, they'd barely entered before an official waved them down.

  "New adventurers?" The man hastened up to them and straightened his robes, looking over them like he'd done this many times before. "You can't simply enter the Sands, and there's no event today anyway. The system is-"

  "We know there are qualifying events." Bloodwraith cut him off to save time. "Can we sign up for those tomorrow?"

  "Oh, then you know how it works. Yes, you can sign up. No more than three events per person, to keep the complexity under control. Choose carefully." The official gestured for them to follow and they entered the rooms built beneath the audience seats.

  Once inside the first room, they found a confusing sprawl of desks, papered walls, and milling adventurers. It seemed that each event had its own location to sign up, but others had pre-qualifications, with smaller rooms that contained training dummies or other testing equipment.

  To sort through the mess, Bloodwraith did his usual trick of examining all the adventurers in the room via their boxes. Checking Levels showed him that there were many Level 1-2 novices, but they mostly clustered around a few events, and some were angrily turned away even there. Beyond that, there didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason, with Levels 6-12 milling together.

  When he starting checking boxes in further detail, he noticed that they tended to cluster by their class label. One table with a particularly broad range of Levels was used almost entirely by those with the "Rogue" class - which still struck him as unusually judgmental for the boxes. There were events solely for wizards, which was only logical, and simple events like races.

  How would they choose between all these events? It was mostly impossible to choose ones of the appropriate challenge, and he didn't want to spend all day reading the rules of different events to decide which they had the best chance of winning.

  Just when he was about to ask Danniah, he noticed that she had left him, walking up to the official who had greeted them. "Hi! I'm new here, do you have any suggestions for which events I should try?"

  Or... they could do that. Bloodwraith caught up to her as the official answered.

  "The most important qualifying event is the team competition," the official explained. "Two groups of five going head to head until defeat. Just one victory there can qualify you for the main event, though I should warn you that it won't be easy."

  "Ooh, that sounds like it might be fun! But do you absolutely have to have five people to make a team? It's just the two of us."

  The official looked down his nose at them. "While you are welcome to enter, you would lose. Traditionally each group includes a wizard, a healer, and a ranged fighter."

  "We probably shouldn't try that, then... is there anything we have a chance at winning?"

  "The individual competitions for specific skills, most likely. I don't have the time to walk you through those, but head two rooms that way and check the desks to the north. That's where the individual warrior competitions are." With that, the official turned away from them to talk to someone else.

  Though Bloodwraith thought he'd been unnecessarily dismissive, Danniah smiled as they headed in that direction. "That sounds like a good place to start!"

  "I suppose. Do you have something specific in mind?"

  "Well, I was hoping they might have competitions focused on defense, but we'll just have to see, won't we?"

  All the adventurers in the room the official had suggested were heavily armored or at least carrying heavy weapons. Though Bloodwraith felt ill-at-ease among so many thugs, he realized that with his current set of skills, he belonged among them. In any case, he set about looking at the events offered at the different tables.

  One of the simplest was a contest of strength: moving large stones across the arena. According to the boxes it was his best statistic, and he liked that the rules granted smaller rewards to all who could complete the challenge, not just the fastest. Though the boxes refused to give him Might values for the others in the room, he decided that it was worth signing up.

  After that, he was less certain what to try. When he was walking past a group of men who were more oiled muscle than armor, one of the older ones grunted at him. "Hey. You know the Wolf's Fang?"

  Bloodwraith turned to him. "The what?"

  "Ya might know it by a different name. Can you hit that gong from over there?" The barbaric-looking man gestured over his shoulder to a gong hung against the nearby wall. "Not by throwin' something."

  "Ah. Perhaps I can." Bloodwraith extended his hand and released a Fist of Rage, which produced a loud sound when it struck.

  The barbarian grunted without surprise and Bloodwraith looked at him more carefully. Judging from his pure white hair, he was a rather old man, but his body was in excellent shape for a man half his age. And unlike many of the others, he didn't wear a lot of body oil, just simple but effective-looking armor.

  "Yeah, that's it. My name's Kantan, by the way." The old barbarian glanced over him and then shrugged. "Listen, it's up to you, but sign up if you can. We can't always get enough people to have a Wolf's Fang competition."

  "What kind of competition is it?"

  "Doing just what you did, but hitting targets. No potions or enchantments or fancy shit. Just power and accuracy and stamina."

  Though Bloodwraith wasn't sure if he could compete in such an event, he had trained his Fist of Rage skill extensively. If it was a small playing field, the competition might be more difficult, but he had a chance of winning. Besides, it might be interesting to see if any of these brutes could use the skill in a more complex way than raw force.

  That was two events, but he wasn't sure about a third. Before he could decide, Danniah approached him. "Hey, Raigar, do you want to do the tug-of-war together? It sounds like it could be fun!"

  "As in pulling on a rope against another team? It's a paired event?"

  "No, there's a whole bunch of people on each side! Sounds like fun, right?"

  It did not particularly sound like fun, and Bloodwraith didn't want to say that their varying heights would make pulling on the same rope more difficult. Fortunately, he had a simpler reason not
to participate. "Is it only a single competition, with the entire winning team sharing the prize?"

  "More or less. It's just the entry fees of all the competitors minus the Sands' cut, though."

  "Then we have a 50% chance of winning with just you participating. If I join, there's a 50% chance of getting slightly more of a small prize and a 50% chance we both get nothing."

  "That's a good point." Danniah shrugged it off a second later and smiled. "They were eager to recruit me, actually. Said that short people are good for digging in at the back of the rope. Hopefully we can win! I'm not sure what to try other than that, though."

  Before they could make a decision, a man approached them with a smile. He wore impressive red-lacquered armor and a headdress in the desert tribe style. "Are you new to the Red Sands? Greetings, my name is Baratak. I'm an old hand at this, so I think I could offer a few suggestions."

  Though Bloodwraith eyed him skeptically, Danniah gave him a bright smile. "Oh, thank you! What would you suggest?"

  "I was listening earlier, and it's just the two of you? While you might not be able to win the team competition, there's a pair competition midday. No rules except no maiming or killing, and there are prizes if you can win your match, plus points toward the main event. The two of you are an odd team, but I think you have a good chance."

  Since Danniah seemed to love the idea, Bloodwraith sighed and went along with it. The time of it was almost immediately after his entry in the barbarian contest, which might be a problem, but he could drink potions from Meara in between and be back to full strength.

  Once they had signed up, Baratak gestured them out of the main path and smiled. "Have you both fully enrolled? There's no reason not to participate in the full three events, after all."

  "I've selected three, but she hasn't," Bloodwraith said. Danniah nodded.

  "I need one more. I think I'm best at defense, so I was hoping I could try something related to that." She gestured toward a different wall. "There are two events that look kind of interesting, but it's hard to tell how they would actually work. Maybe I should do the 'Hold Your Ground' event - I was curious about the 'Projectiles' one, but the timing is so close to Raigar's event..."

  "Oh, don't worry about that at all." Baratak guided them in that direction with another smile. "Those events take place almost side-by-side, so you should be able to do both. With a shield as big as yours, I think you should be able to win at least a small prize if you give it your all."

  "Okay, thanks!" Danniah signed up, and with that, they had both entered three events. It had taken the majority of their remaining money, so they needed to win tomorrow, but Bloodwraith was fairly certain they would at least break even. If not, they could go back to killing jackals.

  "The two of you are an odd pair." Baratak quickly softened his words with a smile. "And I like odd. Could I get your story? I'd treat you to the best food and drink in the city."

  Before Bloodwraith could snap out a refusal, Danniah shook her head as she responded. "That sounds nice, but we've already planned to meet someone else tonight."

  "That's a shame, but I understand. Maybe we'll see each other tomorrow, hmm?" With a wave, Baratak headed back into the room to talk to some of the other adventurers.

  Did he spend all his time in the Red Sands Arena? Clearly he knew exactly what events he wanted to participate in, but perhaps for him this was purely entertainment. Judging from his equipment he might be wealthy, fighting at the Red Sands more for amusement than need. That would explain his senseless altruism.

  While he was considering this, Bloodwraith realized that he was letting Danniah lead him out. She smiled up at him once they were back on the streets. "Baratak seemed nice, but I don't really want to talk to anyone new tonight. If this is our last chance to relax, I just want to spend it with you and Meara."

  "Hopefully not our last chance. If all goes well, we'll have more time for ourselves."

  Though Bloodwraith was skeptical that all would go well, for once, it did. There were no complications, they simply met up with Meara and everything went according to plan. After sharing what they'd done that day and considering potential Guild requests, they headed out into Manascas and had a relaxed dinner of local cuisine. Bloodwraith was skeptical about the price, but it seemed Meara had already begun selling her goods in the city and said that her normal potions would be enough to pay for small expenses.

  After that, they attended a local event featuring unusual lizard creatures racing about a curved track. It cost only a few coppers and seemed popular with the local citizens. Bloodwraith considered betting on the match and using box analysis of the lizards to determine a likely winner, but in the end decided to simply enjoy himself.

  In the evening Meara left to pursue her own business, though judging from her raised eyebrow, that was just a pretext to give him and Danniah time together. They took advantage of it and soon they lay back in their bed, happy and sated.

  Part of him had been concerned about his choice of Manascas, but Bloodwraith no longer had any concerns. They could continue here, earning money from competitions and slowly building strength. He could begin practicing necromancy again and regain his power at a comfortable pace, undisturbed by distractions. When the time came, it would be easy for them to continue to his lair and create an army, or use it for any other goal he desired.

  For the first time since he'd heard of the strange adventurer called Raigar, Bloodwraith went to sleep feeling like everything was going according to plan.

  Chapter 10

  As the monsters roared and thrashed, Raigar kept throwing sweetass fireballs. True, the troll-like things were smashing the skeletons and zombies he had with him, but those things were practically bait anyway. Their only purpose was to distract enemies while he killed them at range.

  Though being in a lich's body was lame in some ways, it wasn't all bad. It was really easy to cast some of the main spells, like Fireball and some sort of necromancy death ray thing. Plus, he had shitloads of mana. It would have been easier to track if he'd had a mana bar, but based on how many spells he could cast in a row, he had plenty.

  Oh, shit, the melee fighters were actually getting smashed! Raigar bellowed out a challenge at the surviving trolls and began flinging everything he had at them. Their hides resisted the flames, but those death rays sliced into them pretty good. As soon as he found their weak element, he kept spamming the skill until they all lay dead.

  Only after they were all down did Secretary Skeleton appear from his hiding place again, looking around the battlefield nervously. "I see that we are victorious, Lord Bloodwraith."

  "Fuck yeah, we are! They thought they could fight me, but I was all 'Elephant Mork!' and they went down!"

  Secretary Skeleton stared blankly at him and Raigar rolled his eyes. Right, they didn't know anything about memes here.

  "Okay, look, it might not make sense to you, but trust me, what I just said was fucking hilarious."

  "I am... sure that it was, Lord Bloodwraith. It is rather a shame that we lost almost all of our ground troops, however. Until you can regain your necromancy, my weak abilities can only do so much to raise more undead."

  "Sure, but like you said, you can make more. Raise all those troll things. They oughta be good."

  "I will make the attempt, Lord Bloodwraith, but such necromancy is rather challenging for me."

  "Whatever, just try. What matters is that those things were guarding my loot."

  Raigar left Secretary Skeleton behind and began poking around the hills. They were just filled with tiny little caves, and he'd left his stash in one of them. He was having a hard time finding the exact one, though. During his first game he had mostly been watching the minimap and so honestly he hadn't paid much attention to the exact location. Had to be one of these.

  Meanwhile, his underling attempted to turn one of the trolls into an undead troll. Raigar had taken a swing at necromancy a few more times, but it seemed stupidly complex. He was glad to let Se
cretary Skeleton do all the work for now. Besides, it wouldn't matter soon, anyway.

  Finally he found it: the pile of loot. The armor and weapons seemed like they had partially rusted, which was pretty lame, but realism was part of the package in worlds like this. All the enchanted shit was still good, though, and that was what he wanted.

  First he picked up an amulet with a huge ruby that glittered like flame. Fuck, what did this thing even do? He hadn't been reading all the flavor text, just saw that it was Ultra Rare and stuck it into his inventory. It was something good, anyway, so he hung it around his neck and looked through the rest.

  The next thing he noticed was a steel and leather codpiece. Right, that thing! Raigar quickly threw off his robe and pulled it on. He'd worn this thing for half the game, since he liked the look, but had to replace it toward the end because he'd gotten some specialized barbarian armor that had better Might stats.

  Compared to his current gear, though, it was great. Plus, it made him look like he was really packing, and while it wasn't as good as having his junk back, at least he would look good. But he thought there was something else in this stash, something really good... where the hell was it?

  Finally he realized that it was staring him in the face: the thin rod of blue-white steel wasn't a staff, it was a magical weapon. He remembered it had seemed badass when he got it, but his old character hadn't had the required Intellect stat to use it. Well, he had a feeling that his new character would do fine. Now he could finally try out a piece of really fractured endgame gear.

  There was more cool shit, so he stuffed it into his robe. He could figure out what it all did later.

  When Raigar emerged, he found that Secretary Skeleton had raised one troll. Not bad, though it looked like the work had exhausted him. Worse, the puny little skeleton was coming closer as if he wanted to talk about serious shit again. Raigar had gotten sick of that long before they found the stash.

  "Lord Bloodwraith, are these... things... the equipment you sought? They do feel like they possess powerful enchantments, but will they help us raise our master?"