CHAPTER 16: “ARENA EVENT”

The Arena Event was one of the long running monthly events that [World Symphony] had to offer. It wasn’t anything too complicated, just your standard PvP duels to decide one winner. The event was set in a separate pocket dimension not directly connected to the open world. To get to the Arena you would need to find the Transporter NPC that randomly showed up in villages or just plain out in the wild. 

Pymule would’ve had one for sure, but Ai had already walked quite the distance before the maintenance and going back wasn’t something he wanted to do for now. Well, the event had a long way to go anyway, so possibly wasting a couple of days to sightsee wouldn’t hurt.

Ai actually didn’t have any intention to join the event. What he wanted was to see the battles take place. He wanted to see how top players fought and how different they were to him. Vastly different, he knew that of course, but he just wanted to see skilled players do their thing and played the game.

Walking through the dense forest, Ai decided that this might as well be the time that he read the first chapter of the book. Why not, it wouldn’t hurt, though reading while walking was probably not the wisest choice.

Honestly, Ai felt kind of giddy as he opened the book to read. The leather book opened in his hand and floated just above his open palms. It was truly magic. 

Surprising, the first chapter of the book spoke of something that Ai didn’t expect. It spoke of Aethera.

In the pitch darkness of nothingness, an existence came to be. Tiny, inconsequential, but held great potential. It was a tiny light, flickering away as if trying to signal other lifeforms to come to him.

Overtime, the tiny life form grew limbs, eyes, hair, a voice, thoughts. This was the first god to ever come to be. He called himself Aethera and with his blood, thoughts and heart, he created many things. He made the land called Oratorio, and made many beings to live and take care of it. He made other deities to help him with his duties.

Overtime, Aethera realized that peace did not or could not reign forever in his newly made land of Oratorio. War would rage between his children, tragedy would strike and suffering persisted endlessly. 

So, he created them. People with his blessings. They were not his first children but they were his true children. For Aethera loved his mediators far more than any being on Oratorio and the heavens.

Yet the almighty god of creation could not give his beloved children everything.  Though they brought some semblance of peace, they were physically weak and could not hold their own in battle. Thus, their numbers dwindled and dwindled until most disappeared.

Aethera’s most beloved children. 

That was what he was now. Lord Aethera’s most beloved creation. Somehow, he felt that it was hard to accept that fact. A slight pressure came down on his conscience. Right now, it was possible that the deity was in fact watching over him or maybe even judging his abilities although he doubted that Lord Aethera was that critical. He seemed like a kind deity that just wanted peace. 

If the god was indeed watching over him at the moment, then he wished that he would be quite satisfied with his performance so far.

EXP Gained!

You have reached level 15!

HP Increased! 500 -> 5500

MP Increased! 1000 -> 2000

Learned [Persuade]!

Learned [Facilitate]!

Ai stopped in the middle of his tracks. His mind took in the words sent to him and slowly digested it.

Level 15?!

H-how? He hadn’t even fought a single mob yet so technically he shouldn't have gotten any EXP. The quests that he did gave him some, but not enough to get him to rank 15. He looked at the book in his hands. He rubbed his hand over the cover and scrolled through the pages with great care. Nothing.

Nothing indicated to him that this book was the cause of this big level jump, but he didn’t have any other explanation for it. Jumping to level 15 was no joke. [World Symphony] capped their player levels at 60. It was a small number when compared to other games where the level cap might be at 100+. However, leveling in [World Symphony] was harder than in the other games. To reach level 15 in one go...that was around a week or two of grinding yet he got it in mere days.

He couldn’t be sure right now that the book was the one that caused it. He would need to get more scrolls to be able to determine it for real.

After walking for some more time, Ai unexpectedly bumped into the person he was looking for.

The NPC was standing right by the road, carrying a big bag on their shoulders. Seeing Ai from a distance, the NPC waved his hand at him, gesturing for him to come over.

Guess sightseeing was not something he was going to do for now.

Ai excitedly rushed towards them. With a few simple requests and explanations, Ai felt himself getting surrounded by a blinding white light that reminded him of the white light at the start of the game.

When he opened his eyes, he was looking at a looming colosseum in a desert plain. There were nothing but sand, cacti and dried plants as far as the eye could see. The desert expanse was quiet, but inside the colosseum, Ai could hear screams and roars either from the contestants or from the audience cheering for their champion.

Not used to massively loud crowds, Ai felt kind of nervous as he took his first step inside the colosseum entrance.

There were two lines and two entryways available. One was for the players who wanted to join in on the fight and the other was for spectators. Ai glanced at the contestant entryway and made a mental note to himself to actually join in on this event when he was stronger. For now, he made his way onto the entryway for spectators.

A stamp on his hand and an icon under his name stated that he was only a spectator. He was now free to explore the colosseum area before getting a seat then watching the fight for real. He was genuinely curious about the interior of the colosseum and what was available there. 

There were actually many many vendors here much to his surprise. It wasn’t only NPCs either, there were actual player stalls where players sold their own items to other players. Since they were in a colosseum where a real match event was taking place, most of the items on sale were related to that. Weapons, armors, potions, scrolls and many more. Ai wasn’t interested in any of them since he wouldn’t have been able to utilize them to their full potential anyway, but he had fun just looking through the stalls and seeing what they had to offer.

The items at the first few stalls that he saw looked incredibly expensive. There were lots of incredibly rare artifacts, legendary weapons, and armor that had been crafted with great care. The player shopkeepers weren’t too interested in him. One look at this low leveled garb, they all turned away as if he didn’t exist and started calling out to another player with a more expensive looking armor. Ai didn’t really mind, getting called out would be uncomfortable, but looking at his own clothes, he supposed that this was the best time to look around for some higher leveled armor.

He didn’t look for player owned stalls since he probably wouldn’t be able to afford them anyway, he went further in where most game NPCs were selling their stuff. Compared to the players, NPC things were much more common and lower in quality, but these were the things that Ai needed.

He approached one of the NPCs sellings scholarly equipment and browsed the goods. It was honestly quite hard to pick an armor. He would prefer more defense against attacks since he was fragile, but getting a speed bonus also wouldn’t hurt. As he pondered between the two armors, the owl on his shoulder flapped its wings and perched itself unto the table to see what its friend was looking at.

“Are you a mediator?”

Ai turned away from browsing the armor and looked back. There was a man he never saw or met before. He was tall. Much taller than Ai, his head barely reaching the man’s shoulders. He had midnight dark hair tied into a single ponytail, equally dark eyes, dark red armor akin to blood, and most notably a single sword with a blood red gem embedded on its hilt.

Meeting the man’s emotionless eyes, Ai scooted just an inch further away. He recognized that players had a deep prejudice against mediators and this player looked high leveled. Ai didn’t want to be a target of other’s ire.

The man blinked at him a couple of times then stared at the book and lantern attached to his waist. He didn’t say much else and Ai was wondering whether or not he should go and find another stall.

The man grabbed one of the armors built more for SPD stats and dropped into Ai’s arms. Shocked, Ai gaped at the man. 

“Speed, better in the long run for mediators. Easier to escape enemies.” The man said, pointing at the armor he dropped into Ai’s arms. “Defense makes you sturdy, but you already have low stats. It won’t help much.”

Ai glanced at the armor then back at the man. So this intimidating, villain looking player was trying to help him? Ah, the first player who was nice to him and he happened to be dressed like a fantasy villain. How ironic.

Unsure of how to thank him, Ai rummaged through his inventory and handed the fruit he had stored. 

[Golden Suite Fruit] - Raise a player's maximum HP by 25% for 10 minutes. Cannot stack.

The item worked on percentage rather than base numbers, so it should help the man anyway. He hoped.

The man didn’t take the fruit at first, he simply stared at Ai with an odd look that Ai didn’t recognize. In his mind, Ai berated himself. This player was too high leveled, of course he would have way better items than this measly fruit. Probably had the best healing items and didn’t even need this item that just temporarily raised a player’s max HP. Dear lord how he wanted to pinch himself for having done something so embarrassing.

After a while, the man chuckled quietly then took the fruit from Ai’s hands. Then suddenly, his own big hand stretched out further and higher until it landed on Ai’s hat. He gave a gentle pat then tugged on the cloth until it sat more comfortably and snuggly on the top of his head.

“Your pet,” the man gestured towards the owl, smiling now. “I think he’s trying to steal something.”

Ai hurriedly turned back to the stall and saw that the owl was desperately trying to grab a shiny bracelet from the owner’s hands. Apologizing profusely, Ai managed to stop the owl. When he turned back to face the man, his dark figure was nothing but a receding shadow that blended into the crowd.

Who was he?