by Brent Tyman
“The results have been everything I had hoped for and more,” Aurielle replied, her crimson hair flowing behind her in the light breeze. “My Magical Power stat alone has risen by over fifty levels. To think that could be possible with only a few days of your grinding…”
More than fifty! I’d been so tired each evening after meditating with Aurielle, that I’d forgotten to check how much my own stats had grown. I quickly brought up my interface to have a look.
Stats
Strength: 146
Speed: 3
Defense: 97
Magical Power: 56
Magical Capacity: 3
Luck: 1
Jeez! This was awesome! After that first day using my new magic, I’d had something like four Magical Power before, so that stat jumping all the way to fifty-six brought me comfortably around what I figured the average Academy student magic user had for that stat.
The rest of my stats had hardly budged.
Well, Magical Capacity had gone up a little. I had noticed the tiredness and dizziness after casting my magic had become significantly less vomit inducing, but I was still limited in how much magic I could use at any one time.
At least by leveling my Magical Power, whatever magic I cast would actually do some damage now.
“My Magical Power is looking pretty good at fifty-six,” I said.
“Indeed, with enough time, I am sure we will both become powerful enough to face any threat,” Aurielle said. She turned her head towards me and leaned forward to whisper just low enough for me to hear.
“And perhaps I will become worthy enough to return to my homeland.”
“Just remember to take us with you,” I said, and Aurielle’s eyes bulged as she looked at me with shock.
“I… well…”
“Trust me, Aurielle. When I said that your problems would become our problems, I meant it,” I said. “You’re helping us out with this tournament and with our grinding. Don’t think you can return to your homeland to fight whatever is waiting for you there alone.”
“But with the sword and more time to power up with this grinding…” Aurielle retorted, but I finished her sentence for her.
“Then we can all journey to the southern deserts and fulfill your duty together,” I said with a smile.
Aurielle’s face went through several phases of emotion, which really was a sight to see.
When she had her game face on, Aurielle was all business—but now, I could see the swirl of emotions inside her reflected on her beautiful face. She wore her heart on her sleeve.
“You… you truly honor me,” she finally said, ducking her head. But the blush that crept up her neck onto her cheeks didn’t leave for several minutes.
We walked in silence for the rest of the trip, enjoying the sights of the city and of the countryside outside of the walls. There were also plenty of adventurers walking in front and behind us as well, along with a host of Academy students all heading to the same place.
Since Aurielle seemed to be caught up in her own thoughts, I listened in on some of the conversations around us.
“I wonder what the first stage will be?”
“Some timed trial thing I heard.”
“Did you hear that Clarissa Vos Hoganna is fighting for Tasberg? She’ll be competing against her own retinue.”
“Isn’t her flame the same guy that Juliana Vos Tasberg was seen with? I had heard there might be a third woman involved, too.”
Wait, what? A third woman? What the heck were they on about?
I turned my head to see who was spreading this rumor, but it was impossible to tell with the throng of adventurers and Academy students around us. I let out an explosive sigh and tried not to grumble.
The past few days had been pretty fulfilling, as my only focus had been on grinding in the Dungeon, with little time to listen to the city’s daily gossip. It seemed that, even after the tournament had been announced, folk still liked to gossip—about me, of all things.
Jeez...
The entrance of the Dungeon was absolutely packed with people, and after seeing the sight, I wasn’t sure where we were supposed to go.
“It appears that they are still getting organized,” Aurielle commented.
“Yeah, let’s just find a space to wait for the others,” I said, pointing towards a lone oak tree that didn’t have too many people standing around it. “Let’s head over there, for now.”
Aurielle followed me and we watched the participants for the tournament pour in.
There really was a heck of a lot of teams who’d shown up for the first stage of the tournament.
I didn’t realize the Adventurer’s Guild had this many members in the city. I mean, the Guildhall was usually packed, most every time I had been there, but to see so many of them together all at once was eye opening.
If they tried to do a roll call for this, it would probably take half the day!
“Well, hello there Alex,” a familiar voice said from nearby, and I turned my head to see Kesara standing there, a grin on her face.
The rest of Juliana’s retinue was also here, and I smiled at them.
“Nice to see all of you again,” I said.
“Likewise,” Karl replied, pushing his glasses up onto his nose. “The past few days had me quite occupied. It’s nice to get a breath of fresh air.”
“More like he couldn’t tear his eyes away from that silly scroll if he tried,” Kesara said as she shook her head.
“Well met Alex,” Daiver said. “Did I hear you incorporated Aurielle into your Clan?”
“That is indeed the case,” Aurielle confirmed for him.
“Perhaps I might regale you on my many heroics and how useful I can be in the field, if you would hear me out,” Daiver said, making quick gestures with his arms. “Have I ever told you…”
“Gods, if you speak one more word about your supposed heroics, you won’t like how late my healing can be,” Vencia warned before she smiled at me.
“And it’s good to see you again, Alex, Aurielle. My Lady should be here soon.”
“But my heroics…” Daiver whined.
“If you want to join Alex’s Clan, you’ll have to try harder to impress the man who killed a Titan, Daiver,” Kesara said before she gave me a wink, a twinkle in her eye. “And on a more important note, is it true that you and Aurielle are together now?”
“Together?” I arched an eyebrow at the little gossip.
“You know,” she clapped her hands together, “an item.”
“Oh jeez, that was you?” I asked, although it didn’t surprise me. Not in the slightest.
Aurielle’s response was simply to blush while suddenly taking an inordinate amount of interest in the oak leaves overhead. I guess she’d decided to take a page out of Juliana’s book.
“Of course not,” Kesara said, placing a hand on her hip. “I’ll have you know my gossip is very much grounded in accurate facts, from reputable sources.”
“If that were true, it wouldn’t really be gossip now, would it?” Karl mused.
Kesara scoffed. “Of course it’s gossip. I just check to make sure it’s true before passing the juicier tidbits along. Who knew that our Alex here would be the talk of the Academy?” she said.
“Ugh,” Daiver groaned. “Don’t remind me. It was hard enough to talk to my peers about the tournament before, but now all they want to drone on about is Juliana’s and Clarissa Vos Hoganna’s flame.”
“That’s the power of gossip in action,” Kesara beamed, enormously proud of how far and wide her gossip had spread for some reason. “They are the latest and juiciest topic of discussion, after all.”
“I might regret this,” I said cautiously. “But what rumors, exactly, are you spreading about me, Kesara?”
“Something about Clarissa Vos Hoganna’s flame and a third woman, that I can only surmise is Aurielle, sharing a bed in a prestigious inn,” Karl mumbled as he pulled out a parchment and dug in his pouch for his quill and ink.
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“Even you heard about it, Karl?” Vencia asked, and the man shrugged.
“Despite my best efforts to remain undisturbed while studying that scroll, even in the farthest corner of the library, I wasn’t able to escape this trivial gossip. Quite annoying, I assure you.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, squeezed my eyes shut and tried to bite back the put-upon sigh that threatened to escape. Why did I always find myself the center of attention? It’s not like I really tried to.
“You still haven’t answered me, Alex. Did you and Aurielle…” Kesara tried again, but I decided it would be best to ignored her for now. I wasn’t going to add even more fuel to that fire.
“Let’s talk about something else. Please? You four are taking part in the tournament, aren’t you?” I asked.
They all nodded.
“We lack a fifth, since My Lady has opted to join your party, but I’m sure we can manage a respectable showing,” Vencia said.
“More than a respectable showing,” Daiver said, grinning. “I, Daiver Vos Hexladanis intend to win the tournament for my duchy and, of course, for the Sovereignty.”
“While admirable,” Karl said, his eyes focused on this parchment, “the odds of us competing against the likes of Alex and Aurielle would be so far removed from our favor, that we’d likely have better odds convincing the sun to rise in the north.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” I said. “I’ve seen all of you in action. I doubt there are too many others who could give you much trouble.”
Someone tapped my shoulder and I looked back to see Clarissa, Juliana and Anny standing behind me.
“Good morning, Alex,” Juliana said, nodding at her friends. “I see that my retinue is keeping you company.”
“Hope you three had a good night’s sleep,” I said, smiling.
Juliana’s retinue offered up their greetings while Clarissa darted to my side and tucked herself under my arm.
“So many eyes on us today, handsome. I can’t wait to show everyone how strong we have become,” Clarissa purred into my ear.
“Some of the Yunissan students had been asking about you, Alex,” Anny said.
I turned to her. “Why would they be asking about me? What did they want to know?”
“They somehow knew I was in your Clan and wanted to know your stats. I ran away from them when they insisted I tell them,” Anny said, her waist slowly rotating side to side in a slow wiggle.
“Ugh. Yunissa probably thinks they actually have a shot at winning the tournament. I can’t wait to see Stephania’s face, when she sees what we can do,” Clarissa said.
“I’ve heard some rumblings of strange things happening with Yunissa,” Vencia said, almost in a whisper. “Remember that exit we used to leave the Dungeon, the one that we followed the blue line to? It’s no longer there.”
“No longer there?” I frowned, not quite understanding. “What do you mean?”
“Oh yes!” Clarissa said, “My father flagged me down one evening and I mentioned how we’d traveled back through a Yunissan dug tunnel to the man…”
“I told my own father of this as well,” Juliana said. “But he was not able to investigate with so many Hogannan troops there.”
“I wish I hadn’t bothered being so honest with him,” Clarissa said, shrugging by way of apology. “He tried to pester Anny about using her pathfinding skill to find this exit, but I sent him off with some vague directions. He came back grumbling the next day that they had found a wall with many circular holes in it that they would begin digging through.”
“Sounds like the Yunissans covered their tracks by sealing the tunnel,” Daiver added. “Exactly why I must win this tournament, to prove the Hexladanis line is able to deal with their unbecoming, devious nature. “
“How could they seal up the tunnel?” I asked.
“Earth mages can remake the earth as they wish,” Karl answered. “In fact, for earth mages, they are able to undo their efforts of ground manipulation most effectively. Most likely they had the original earth mages undo the changes they had made via their magic. This circular hole business suggests to me that the artifact trap affected one or more of the original earth mages who created the tunnel. Consequently, they were not readily able to undo their work. No doubt their other earth mages did their best to fill in the gap, yet lacked sufficient time.”
Oh, yeah. Karl had explained before how earth mages essentially dug tunnels by pulling rods of stone out of the earth. If the Yunissans needed the earth mages we had seen running and screaming away from the dungeon, crying about some illusionary giant monster, then they’d probably had to seal the tunnel the hard way and hadn’t managed to finish covering their tracks in time.
The magic in this fantasy world had some strange quirks to it.
A booming clap resounded in the air, and we all looked towards the entrance of the Dungeon. The headmaster of the Academy stood tall atop a makeshift wooden platform that looked like it might fall apart if he sneezed.
Two wooden beams held a wide wood platform aloft. It looked to have been hastily constructed, but since the headmaster didn’t go tumbling to the ground, I supposed it would do the job.
After the resounding clap, everyone around us stilled as they waited for the headmaster to speak.
“Welcome to the first round of the Tringall Tournament. I am headmaster Zandur Vos Trigson, of the Tringall Academy. We are most assuredly pleased by everyone’s attendance today for this rather… unforeseen event, on such short notice,” he said.
I noted some uneasy murmurings breaking the relative calm, mostly from adventurers, if I had to guess. It was fairly easy to tell the Academy students from everyone else, thanks to their RGB color schemed uniforms.
“For the first stage of the Tournament, please allow me to explain the challenge,” the headmaster continued.
The murmurs died down. When they’d said timed trials in the Dungeon, I’d heard quite a few interpretations of what that might mean, but it turned out to be fairly straightforward. The headmaster explained the rules in detail.
All we needed to do was go through the Dungeon, dispatch fifty monsters on each floor, and collect their loot. They had originally wanted the first stage only to extend to the fifth floor, but since the Lizardnoots had been eliminated and the Slimes as well, the trial would continue on to the seventh floor with the Wolves.
I had thought we’d end up going fairly deep into the Dungeon, traveling as deep as the tenth floor or even deeper, but I supposed that would prevent most adventurers from participating.
Heck, most Academy students only had the stats to tackle up to the tenth floor, if I remembered correctly. When I considered this, this stage seemed far more forgiving than what we had done already, traveling really deep through the Dungeon.
It seemed this trial would come down to not only having some decent stats, but also exercising good team coordination to dispatch monsters efficiently and collect the loot as fast as possible.
Good thing we could rely on Anny’s Speed for that.
One thing that I’d worried about, though, was our storage capacity. My backpack was decent for storing loot in, but we’d have to make regular trips back to the entrance to unload our spoils if we needed to loot fifty monsters on each level. I remember we had to do that quite regularly when it was just me and Clarissa grinding in the Dungeon.
The women usually didn’t carry any storage, at all. I doubted we’d be able to carry upwards of two hundred and fifty pieces of loot in one go. Not to mention, the Wolf pelts from the seventh floor were much larger than the Rat pelts on the first floor, so I wouldn’t be able to carry nearly as many.
Thankfully, the headmaster had thought this through and planned to have his staff and some student volunteers hand an infinite storage pouch out to each team.
They were almost the exact same type of magic pouch I used for my Clan Storage, with a few caveats. I wasn’t entirely sure how, but each pouch was linked to the Academy in some way
.
The headmaster made it abundantly clear that every single item placed into the pouch would belong to the Academy. We would not be able to take anything out of storage, either. We could only place the loot inside. Plus, the pouches would cease working at the end of the day, making them worthless afterwards.
I really wanted another infinite inventory pouch or two, as my Clan storage only had ten slots. Clarissa assured me it would increase as I added more members to the clan, but after adding Anny and Aurielle, it hadn’t budged.
The fact that the Academy would claim all our loot was kind of lame, but I supposed they needed the coin to exchange the rest of the tables in the library for gold ones. Clearly, wood wasn’t good enough for them.
As everyone expected, the groups that managed to get to the end of the seventh floor with the required loot as proof, would secure a spot in the tournament’s second stage. The headmaster didn’t specify how many groups would be allowed to pass, but that didn’t matter to me. I planned on making sure we were the first ones done, to guarantee we progressed.
Once the headmaster was done with his explanation of the rules, I half expected Clarissa’s father to appear out of nowhere to declare that Hoganna was sure to win or something. Fortunately, he was nowhere to be seen.
In any case, the headmaster directed us to wait for our pouches and final instructions.
“This should be easy, handsome,” Clarissa chirped. “I don’t think anyone will be able to beat our speed at this grinding of yours.”
“I would hope so, but don’t want to leave anything to chance. I’m only going to do one cast each of my spells and then rely on my Strength for the remaining monsters. That should be the fastest way.”
“An excellent idea,” Juliana said, nodding her head. “I do find that I still tend to get distracted when monsters unexpectedly focus their attention on me or Clarissa, but other than that, this trial should be straightforward for us.”
“About that… Aurielle, you said your main role was usually as a Tank, right?” I asked the woman.
