The rest of the day dragged on. The anticipation for the tournament amongst the trainees was palpable. Dalen had left Kal to join the gathering crowd taking the seats around the ring. The area's transformation surprised Kal, it went from a muddy patch of ground to a small but incredibly ornate arena in a matter of hours. There were several engravings covering every piece of furniture and barriers, depicting warriors in red-gold armor in battle. He really needed to get his hands on a dimensional storage bag. Kal joined the gathered trainees as the Prophet arrived with his vanguard spread out behind him. Kal couldn’t Identify the Prophet's guards but suspected they were easily the highest leveled people in the camp, besides probably Leo who was sitting with Dalen, quite out of place with his imperial guard plate mail. As usual, the Prophet looked across the crowd of people almost sneering when his gaze fell on Kal his face changed, Was that a smirk?
“As our honored faithful march towards our enemy, we shall honor them as Dhinir demands. Before us are hopeful soldiers of our god, and today they shall be tested. Their right to join our honored warriors in battle will be decided today,” the Prophet raised his hands high,” May Dhinir grant me the authority to bless this tournament.”
Kal flinched as a searing red-gold light lanced down from the sky and into the Prophet's outstretched hand. The sensation Kal felt earlier returned, burning through his chest. He froze his heart beating like he was running a marathon, but as before the sensation vanished as suddenly as it came. It faded as the red-gold light slowly accumulated in the Prophet’s hands. Forming a metallic circle.
“Our lord has answered, and has blessed us with a mighty boon,” the Prophet held the circle out towards the crowd and trainees.
Kal almost flinched again when a notification appeared in front of him.
You have received a quest.
Rite of Domination
A Prophet of Dhinir has been allowed to perform a sanctioned tournament on behalf of Dhinir.
Defeat all who oppose you and claim your reward.
Do you accept? Y/N
A quest?! Kal had never received a quest before, he had always assumed that he couldn’t until he had ascended. Quests were incredibly rare, he hadn’t realized a Prophet could initiate a quest this way. It was no wonder the followers of Dhinir were so strong, Quests were great sources of experience but they were an unreliable way to level due to their rarity. Kal had heard stories of system-generated quests but those were even more rare, almost mythical. Kal wouldn’t gain experience from the quest since he still lacked a core but whatever the reward was would probably be worth it and besides, he still wanted to kick the shit out of Julin. He accepted.
A list of participants appeared next along with instructions on how the tournament would play out. The tournament would first be a series of group battles with teams of four with the winning teams moving on to the individual ability rounds which consisted of a series of duels. For each bout, the weapons would be randomized until the final round where the two final combatants would choose their preferred weapons. Kal was ok with that, he had been practicing with most of the weapons he had available. Sure he preferred a sword but so did most of the other participants and his swording training was just barely palatable for an unskilled fighter. The fights would continue until either side is incapacitated and all incapacitated participants are disqualified. Kal scrolled through the participants and saw that all of the participants' names and classes were listed. When he found his name he frowned, his class was listed as Quotz’ Freak. Well… clearly the Prophet has some control over these notifications. Kal looked towards the Prophet to see the man staring straight at him sneering. Many of the trainees had noticed and slowly moved away from him.
“So the freak is foolish enough to fight our hopeful soldiers?” he snickered, “well let us begin our holy rite and show this weakling what it means to follow Dhinir.”
Kal heard Julin and his little gang snicker along with the Prophet. Kal ignored them and simply tried to prepare himself for the tournament. A new notification appeared.
First Match
Team One
Team Two
Julin Alagore | Serf 16
Lanly Forse | Laborer 16
Henwick Lenda | Serf 12
Peter Alsan | Serf 15
Lilian Sora | Laborer 10
Portan Sora | Laborer 12
Kalum Lesta | Quotz’ Freak
Udret Lake | Serf 11
Kal couldn’t help but laugh. Sure it sucked that he had to be on the same team with the idiot but he knew the man’s expression would be worth it. He looked at Julin, the man looked like his head would burst as he glared at Kal. Julin and his entourage walked over the man’s face going darker and darker.
“You better not fuck this up for us freak, I won't be held back by the likes of you,” Julin said, sending spittle a good foot in front of him.
Kal sighed, “Seriously Julin, you're a god’s damned serf. You should be worrying about yourself.”
That was enough to send the man into a rage, a fist flew toward Kal’s face. Kal was about to dodge but before he needed to, Julin's hand slammed into a red-gold barrier. He yelped as at least one of his knuckles cracked on impact.
Please refrain from violence outside of the sanctioned battles.
Julin Alagore [x][ ][ ]
Further violence will be punished.
Kal looked around to see others around him just as surprised as him.
The Prophet spoke up first, “I suggest you all refrain from further unsanctioned violence, though our lord would see it just. The system ultimately controls the rules of this tournament. Now the first match will begin in fifteen minutes, combatants prepare yourselves. Kal turned and waved to Dalen and Leo then followed the rest of his team to the opposite side of the ring.
Since they had some time before the fight Kal decided to take a look at his status.
Kalum Lesta
Status
Class:
Null
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Level:
0
Race:
Human
Health:
200
Stamina:
240
Mana:
0
Attributes
Strength:
24
Agility:
15
Endurance:
24
Vitality:
20
Intellect:
12
Perception:
19
Will:
30
Wisdom:
19
Titles
Core Bane, Defier of Dhinir
Skills
Soul Forge [Corrupt]
He was surprised to see that several of his stats had increased, apparently, his meditation and strand training were doing wonders for base stats. He even got a point in agility. He figured he got it from dual-wielding training. He willed the comparison screen to appear.
Statistic Comparison
Health
20
Stamina
0
Mana
0
Strength
0
Agility
1
Endurance
0
Vitality
2
Intellect
1
Perception
3
Will
0
Wisdom
0
Total
7
Nice, A total of seven points in a single morning seemed insane. He started thinking about what kind of class he would get with his base stats being so high but quickly shelved the thought. He needed to concentrate on this fight.
Kal turned to see his three team members discussing their tactics for the match. Henwick was one of Julin’s pals but the other was not. Lilian was a small dark-haired woman, her eyes were intense. She was clearly taking the fight very seriously. Julin’s plan? well, it pretty much came down to Julin charging in, targeting the weakest member first while the others tried to keep the rest of the enemy team off him. Kal thought it was a stupid plan.
“Shouldn’t you be dealing with their highest? It would be a better match-up and reduce the chance of the rest of the team being incapacitated.”
Julin glared at him, “Shut it freak, you being here wrecks all the good plans.”
“I agree with Kalum, your plan sucks,” Lilian said, speaking up to Kal’s surprise,” I think we should take one each, and as soon as one of us gets a win we move in to help out one another.”
Kal nodded, “What about our weapons? I know we don’t get to choose but where do we get them from?”
Julin scoffed, “Gods are you stupid or something? The system will give us one at the start of the bout.”
Kal ignored him, “Who is fighting who? They have a higher average level.”
Julin tried to answer but Lilian spoke over him, “I’m not confident that I can beat my brother,” she looked between the three of them, “He has beaten me every time we spar, his strength is his highest stat but he has also put a lot of points into endurance.”
Kal smiled at her willingness to talk over Julin, he was liking her more and more. He could also understand her unwillingness to fight her brother, even if she did come out on top she would be the one actively lowering her brother's chances of a good reward.
Kal shrugged, “I’ll fight him.”
They all looked at him like he was mad.
“What? Worst case scenario I just try to delay him and you can all gang up on him at the end,” Kal said, he was pretty confident he could beat him. But even if he couldn’t he knew he wouldn’t lose but he figured he would ask a few more questions,” How many points per level do Laborers get?”
Liliana looked reluctant to say, “Well, eh we get one point in endurance and two free points. I’m pretty sure nearly all his free points have gone into strength.” She shrugged,” Maybe a few into vitality as well.”
Kal nodded, “Ok, thank you.”
With two free points per level, Portan would probably have somewhere between twenty-six to thirty-four strength, including his base strength which was rarely above eight for fresh ascendants. With Kal’s twenty-four strength, he was significantly weaker, but like he had suspected Portan would have low agility, probably somewhere around eight to ten.
The rest of the group decided their opponents, Julin would fight Lanly, Henwick would fight Peter, and Liliana would fight Udret. With their semi-plan in place, they readied themselves as best they could.
----------------------------------------
“Hmmm, it appears he is currently protected by a system-sanctioned event,” Nyx said, as she deactivated her perception skill and turned to the rest of the retrieval team.
Kiara sighed, “It is not ideal, but we have time to wait. It will still be a few hours before their army reaches the ambush site.”
They had all gathered in one of the larger trees west of the Empire’s camp. Kiara used one of her skills to hide their presence for the time being. The spell wasn’t permanent but it made camping out in a tree significantly more comfortable once they had the freedom to stretch out and place small portable platforms around the tree.
“What I am more concerned about is the energy signature we detected a few minutes ago. Is the firmament truly getting so thin?” Kiara said, looking to the rest of the team.
“The Elders believe it to be true, they are saying that taking the passages is becoming more dangerous because of it.” Eliza replied, while she inspected her equipment, “It will only get worse too. With all the gods recklessly interacting with our world it was only a matter of time.”
Danar shook his head in disgust, “Fyrborh would not have allowed that to happen.”
“We know Brother, That is why we work, to see a new dawn,” Kuri said, staring out into the enemy camp.
Nyx had stopped listening, she was too intent on watching the tall man standing amongst a group of weaklings. He didn’t look like anything special but she knew it was Him. How he hadn’t ascended was a mystery to her but it was yet another piece of evidence proving that he was the one They spoke of. They couldn’t reach him now, but they would strike at the earliest opportunity. For now, they would watch, they would bear witness to Him.