I woke up, feeling full to bursting with energy. Huh, why did I fall asleep like that? The deal was I wouldn’t be negatively affected by using stones. Hmm, well I’d intended to go to sleep after using it, and I didn’t hurt, so I guess it wasn’t bad...except that I was seen. Damn, I should have had Fran stand guard.
I was really buried in warm bodies today. Usually I share the bed with only one person, but there was someone on each side of me today. I wonder what happened last night. I bet I’m going to get a lecture unless I explain..
I started moving around, trying to escape, but the arms around me only tightened. I also saw some eyes looking at me, Ierva’s. They were worried and angry. Yup, gonna be lectured.
“Can I get out, please? I need to use the bathroom.”
She didn’t let me go, instead just picking me up and carrying me to the bathroom. At least she let me take care of business myself. It was embarrassing enough being watched without being treated like a baby.
Finished, we headed to the main room. Everyone was there, with concerned looks on their faces. Except Fran and Alfred. Alfred usually appeared pretty emotionless, though he actually wasn’t. Fran? She was half asleep and didn’t know what was going on. She was also being hugged and petted, so she was feeling good.
Ierva took the lead, having been the one to see what happened.
“Would you care to explain what happened last night? You had something in your hand, then it exploded and you fell into a deep sleep. We couldn’t wake you up. We thought you’d touched a cursed item or something. We were going to call a priest until they said it was fine and you’d wake up this morning. They wouldn’t explain, so you get to.”
So many stares. I wanted to hide.
“Umm, it’s nothing dangerous. It was something I got from killing monsters. I only fell asleep because I was planning to do so anyway. If I used it in the middle of the day, I wouldn’t have. They always have a light show, it’s kind of annoying.”
“That doesn’t tell us anything. What was it?”
I looked around and saw that there was no way I was getting out of this without telling them something. I pulled the goblin stone out of my item box. It was snatched from my hand.
“I have a lot of secrets I haven’t shared. This is one of them. By fulfilling certain conditions, I can get them occasionally. It’s an experience stone. It gives the experience value that would be obtained by killing the related monster. That one is a goblin stone, so it’s pretty much useless. The one last night came from a Crimson Shark, I think it was.”
“What?! Those things are B-Rank monsters and you fought them to get that stone?!”
I hurriedly shook my head.
“No, I’ve never been near the sea. Umm, it’s kind of hard to say. But I got it because of a skill. Please don’t ask me anymore right now. I’ll tell you more later, but I need to get ready for the tournament.”
They just continued looking at me.
“Come on! Haven’t I proven that I can take care of myself?”
“In a fight, maybe, but outside of that we’re not so sure.”
“I really like you guys, but I have things that I can’t say, and reasons for that, some of them including promises. If you won’t let me go, I will force my way out. I assure you, I am stronger than you know.”
The others had a silent conversation, as only those very familiar with each other can, then the arms holding me loosened.
“We’ll trust you for now, but we’ll hold you to your word. You owe us more information later, and that later better be soon.”
“Yes, fine, Now I need to get ready and eat.”
I hopped off of Ierva, who seemed like she wanted to pick me up again, but she settled for following me. Sighing, I went into the bedroom, then closed the door after she came in. I pulled my armor out and started pulling it on. Until it was equipped, you could tell it wasn’t normal, so I could see the questions only growing.
When it was on, I triggered the ability, making it take the usual appearance, getting a gasp.
“Later.” I said. She nodded.
We ate breakfast, but it was tense, even Fran noticed it, and was looking around worriedly. I sent her some mental reassurances. They were passing around the goblin stone. Eventually Gydrin pocketed it. Meh, I didn’t really care, as long as it didn’t lead to more trouble.
We headed out, reaching the arena a little later than usual, but with a half hour to spare. Fran did send me a mental complaint about the seats not being as good as yesterday. I told her she didn’t have to worry, she could view the fights on the media app from other, better angles.
There were a lot of people in the waiting room when I came in. There was actually enough people that we were gathered in a much larger room, since it would take at least three of the smaller waiting rooms to gather everyone. At the time of the drawing, I found out there would be 94 fighters.
With that number there would be at least six fights. At 8:30, they brought in the box with the balls. After pulling our numbers, they told us how it would work. For the first round, there were 2 empty spots, so two people would get byes. This was to even out the numbers. The next four rounds would be normal, ending up with three finalists. All three would be offered the chance to move up to the next rank, but they’d still have to fight each other. The finals would be a three way fight.
Simple enough. They also told us, to convince the finalists to continue fighting, that there were 29 A-Ranks registered, so if all three continued, they’d have a perfect bracket for the fights tomorrow. I was planning on continuing, but many of the others were not so convinced. There was an increasing gap in power between each rank.
I would have a long wait for my first fight. My number was 83. I almost wished I’d gotten the bye, but the quest said that I got points for each victory. I couldn’t really call a bye a win. I found a good seat. Many of the fighters knew each other, but I didn’t know anyone. I was also bad with people I didn’t know outside of specific situations, like shopping.
After a few minutes, a dwarf mage pulled me over to her group. I gave a shy greeting to the people. Fortunately, they were nice. It wasn’t long before I started coming out of my shell. They were nice about not prying into me. Especially since most of them had been watching the fights the last few days. They knew plenty about me, while I knew nothing beyond what I could infer by their appearance and weaponry. And by appraising them.
They congratulated me on my wins all the way from the F-Ranks. This was one point they did ask about. Why did I choose to be an adventurer? Like others, they thought I was the child of a noble or merchant. I gave them rather vague responses.
“I’ve looked up to and dreamed of becoming an adventurer for a long time. I learned how to fight because I enjoyed it. I only just got to sign up as an adventurer, and found out about the tournament then, I hadn’t known about it till the last day of registration.”
Their questions in that vein abated, and we started talking about fighting and magic. They already knew I had skills, so they gave me advice based on what I had done in the fights. I pulled out paper and took notes. They chuckled. I must look like a studious schoolgirl.
As time went by, the members of the group were called away. Most returned, but some didn’t. I was called at a little before ten. I waved to them, saying I’d be right back, getting laughs in return.
I was confident. After all, my stats had doubled with the XP stone I’d used. I had reached level 5. I’d have gotten more out of the Wyvern stone, but I didn’t want to overdo it. I might use that stone tonight. I might need it to be able to win against the A-Ranks.
My first opponent was an elven archer. He was really handsome, and he looked strong. Too bad for him I’d be crushing him.
The fight was actually rather easy. I had a lot more mana to burn. Also, if I needed to, I had potions in storage to restore it. I raised an ice wall between us, blocking or slowing his arrows, then had the ground grab him, putting a spike to his throat. It took 30 seconds to win. He gave me a pat on the head as we left the stage. I let him.
I rejoined the group in the waiting room. They greeted my return with cheers. They knew the guy I’d just been fighting, and were surprised I’d won so fast. Well, you don’t show everything you have all at once. They laughed at my reply.
I sat back and pulled out something to eat, leaving myself unable to talk, so they started talking. They were gossiping about people and groups they knew around the city. It did eventually come back to me though.
“I heard that you have been around the Crimson Blood. How did you meet them?”
“They found out about me at the guildhall, and tracked me down. They thought I was too young to be out adventuring and tried to convince me to go home (with them). They’ve accepted that I’m strong, but they seem to like me and my friend Fran.”
“That’s the Black Catkin that was with you in the F-Ranks?”
“Yeah, that’s her. Unfortunately for her, Alfred beat her, or we’d have gotten to fight.”
“Yeah, that Alfred guy was also strong. It was amusing to watch the two of you fight so many times. There were a lot of us excited for your fights.”
“Yeah, that was kind of fun. We’d never gone at each other like that before. I was actually hoping to fight Fran, but we’ll do that on our own later.”
They laughed at that. They also gave me some notes for the other two. That’d help.
The next round came for me and I headed out. I fought a hobbit next. Well, technically, he was still a human, but he was short. He was normally proportioned, as if he’d just been shrunk. He was also a rogue, which was kind of cliché.
He had throwing knives, but at least they weren’t poisoned. As the fight started I raised another Ice wall to block the knives. I’d chosen ice for visibility. He started running around the side, and fell into my trap. I’d created barely covered pitfalls on either side of the wall. He did somehow notice and tried to jump it, but I sent an air bullet at his feet, flipping him right into it. Closing it up, I buried him. I left a small hole for air. He couldn’t escape, so it was another victory for me.
I let him out and headed back inside. I was really feeling a little guilty with all the damage I’d been doing to the stages, but the staff member leading me told me it was fine.
That was two fights down, and four to go to win today.
When I came back, they greeted me. It seemed my next opponent was going to be the dwarf who’d introduced me. Hmm, a full on mage fight. That’d be interesting. She was confident in her skills, but so was I. The others started calling out bets on who would win. Almost everyone thought I’d lose. Well that’s sad. For the ones who bet against me. I got in on it, betting that I’d win.
We were called to the arena. We both had big grins on our faces as we readied ourselves. The fight started, and I decided to start with a smokescreen. Well, it was dark magic. She was blinded. But she didn’t realize just how I did it. She thought it was an area effect. In a way it was, but it was linked to her helmet, only extending right around her head.
She tried to dispel it, but I was actively supporting the spell. Figuring she had a sense type skill, I kept on the move, in case she tried shooting a spell while preparing my next attack. She did attack, sending waves of fire towards me. I started pushing her back with my attacks, while slowly advancing myself, so she wouldn’t realize how far she’d moved. Eventually she reached the edge. Realizing it, she tried to stop, but got pushed off by my attack. I finally let go of the blinding spell.
“Scamp.” She called out to me, a broad grin on her face.
“It’s more fun that way!” She laughed, and I went to collect my winnings from the people surprised at my return.
It continued like that for the rest of the fights. I’d find some method to exploit, relying on my large mana pool, and beat them. I had pretty much given up on using my sword at this point. My shield did get used to block stuff a few times.
Eventually we ended up with me, a mage whose form was hidden by a cloak, and a Tigerkin swordsman. The tigerkin’s hair was cool, striped in orange and black.
We were positioned equidistant from each other. I positioned myself with the sun at my back. I hoped to use the light to make their lives harder. I had no idea how this was going to play out. Should I attack one of them, should I build defenses? Hopefully, the others were equally uncertain. I decided to defend first.
The bell rang, and an Ice wall rose in front of me. It was immediately struck by a fireball. My wall was nearly destroyed. I raised more defenses. But instead of one, I did one of ice, to be nice and visible, and an invisible wall of wind that I thrust towards the mage.
The swordsman had also decided to attack the mage, drawing the attention away from me. Hah! It also grouped them together nicely. I threw up another wind wall, rotating the other, making a funnel, and then let loose a flood. The others were too occupied with each other to react fast enough and were washed away.
We still couldn’t see the face of the mage, but it became clear it was a woman. We gathered back on the stage and were cheered by the crowd. We all decided to continue onto the A-Ranks. That would make the organizers happy. A nice even bracket, as long as everyone showed up.
I got the usual stuff from the staff, then tried to sneak out. I failed. Several of the people I’d been hanging out with today found me before I could disguise myself and acted as an escort. They were people who were familiar to the Crimson Blood, so they were greeted as friends. Instead of heading to the inn, we ended up heading to a tavern. Fran and Alfred went back to the inn with the merchants.
It was one of the places adventurers tended to frequent, and most non-adventurers tended to avoid. The furniture looked a little rough, showing signs of being repaired. It was filled with scary looking men and women, but it was awesome!
I was greeted with a cheer by the surrounding adventurers and given the seat of honor. Well, it was actually just a seat at a table close to the counter to make ordering easier. Food and drinks were ordered. I wanted to order some ale, but decided against it. What reasonable adult would let a child drink alcohol? Well, Dwarves and Dragonkin would, but only their own young. I was playing human, so I had to stick to water or juice.
The food was great. It reminded my of food I’d gotten at Irish taverns years ago. It wasn’t a true Irish tavern, since I wasn’t in Ireland, but the food was great. We ate, drank, and conversed. I also had an interesting idea I wanted to try, but it would require practice to get it right.
After a couple of hours we headed home. We got a whole bunch of wishes for luck, as we’d be fighting tomorrow. Yeah, I’d kind of need it. I wasn’t feeling very confident about winning against A-Rank fighters.
In the suite, I got into my sleepwear and was going to go to bed, but was caught and brought back to the sitting room. Ah, drat. I’d hoped they’d let it be at least until after the tournament.
I frowned. “I’m not saying much tonight. I might have to fight you guys tomorrow, and don’t want to give away too much.”
“That’s fine, we wouldn’t expect you to.”
“I have a skill that lets me exchange heart stones for other things, like the XP stones. I assume you tried to find someone to appraise it?” I asked, looking at Gydrin.
“I did indeed, but all the appraisers I tried were unable to do so.”
“I’m not really surprised. It doesn’t fit in any of the usual appraisal categories.”
“Were the potions and other items also obtained from this skill?”
“The potions were, the other stuff was from bandits or were items we no longer needed.”
“Very interesting. What kinds of things can you get, and what kind of cost is there.”
“I have said all I am willing to say right now. I’ll decide if I want to say more after tomorrow. Saying more could make it harder for me.”
Gydrin sighed, disappointed but understanding. They didn’t try to get anything more out of me, though I saw the questions burning in their eyes. Ierva especially looked like she was wanting to know about my armor. I should have insisted she leave me while changing, or if she refused to leave me alone, had one of the traders with me. I’d do that in the morning.
Today had left me really tired. Not just physically, but also emotionally. I liked the dragonkin, but I was still not certain how far I should trust them. I was also kicking myself for telling them what I did about the gacha when I was still so uncertain.
I checked my messenger app. It looks like there’d been an update. There was now a quest log.
---
[Quest Complete!
Bonus Quest 1: Win the B-Rank Division
Reward: UR Ticket: Use to receive an UR item from gacha category of choice
Quest: Continue the fight! (Ongoing)
Details: The gods have enjoyed your creative and chaotic fighting methods. Continue onward into the Higher ranks!
Rewards: Points towards the gacha for every victory! Each victory doubles points won.
Current total: 12700
Next victory: 12800
Bonus Quest 2: Win the A-Rank Division
Reward: LR ticket: Use to receive a LR item from gacha category of choice.
Fortune favors the strong!
Rewards will be released upon conclusion of tournament.]
---
Wow! That’s a lot of points. I did the math. I’d gotten 100 points for the first win, and it doubled each time. It looks like the last fight counted for two, since there were two opponents. If I won the A-Rank division… oh gods that’s a lot! The total would climb to 409,500 if I won the entire tournament! If I used those to max the number of pulls, I could get forty-five thousand items. If I did the categories, it’d be a tenth of that.
They’d also decided what the bonus quest items were, and they were nice.
I was going to pull out the last XP Stone, but a new message came from the angel.
---
[To mortal01
From &%#@)4^#<$
You will fail all the quests if any additional gacha items are used. I got reamed for you using the one last night, but you weren’t told so we can’t withhold the rewards.
Also, remember you need to give your body time to adjust to stat gains. If you did use the stone, you likely would die. Please don’t die, we’re having lots of fun watching you. Also, accept me on your friend list on WoW next time you log on.]
---
I thanked him mentally for the reminder. I’d wait at least a couple weeks before using the stone. I curled up in bed and drifted off. I liked having dark magic, the sleep spell makes going to bed on time easy.
