Chapter 41: Jubilation

For Alois, it had been the most shocking two weeks of his life. None of the other experiences he’d had even came close. He’d experienced two [Dungeon Descents] at once, had seen someone max [Sword Mastery] within a month of getting their [Blessing] - he’d asked Crimson when his birthday was -, and he’d been treated for a terminal condition. While it hadn’t gone away - he could still feel it slowly gnawing at him - the severity was so greatly decreased as to be almost unnoticeable.

The morning after Crimson had finished treating Rhea, he had explained what he’d done to treat her to them. He’d started by reducing the amount of [Void] in her body by destroying it, then he’d created a ‘canal’ system of [Mana] that guided it to various parts of her body, and had created ‘nodes’ at points of larger build up that spread the [Mana] out like a ‘watering can to destroy the [Void].

Alois felt he followed the explanation well enough, but he was utterly baffled at how any of this was possible, as well as how Crimson had figured any of it out.

There was one big downside, apparently, Crimson would need to maintain what he’d created until Rhea got her [Blessing], so he’d made this offer.

“Rhea, what kind of [Class] do you want to have?”

His daughter sat in thought for a long moment, he could see from the slight twitching of her ears that she was unsure, but eventually, she said, “Honestly? I don’t really care. I never thought I’d live that long. I want to be a [Cook], but that feels more like a [SubClass] than a [Class].”

Alois watched Crimson take in that information. After a long moment, he spoke, “I will not push you into taking a specific [Class], but I would like to offer the idea that I have several positions open in my party, and I’d like you to join it - depending on what kind of [Class] you want, of course.”

Alois let out a low warning growl. Crimson’s words could be interpreted as a threat that he would only help her if she took the [Class] he wanted, and Crimson amended his words, “I think it’s best that you choose a [Class] you want. I…am rather clear about my desires. These past few days have demonstrated that your physical ability and combat senses are remarkably high for someone with your condition. I very dearly want you for my party, but I am currently taking the role of Attacker, and I have someone to be the Healer, but I don’t have a Defender or Ranged attacker.”

He continued, “I know you’ve said you don’t have any preferences, but now that you have the chance to, I don’t want to you sacrifice your will for mine. Just, think about it. I’ll help you regardless, but I will require that you travel with me to Falst no matter what. I have something I need to do there. I’m willing to pay for your transportation, and I’ll sponsor you while you’re in Falst so you can try out all kinds of things, so don’t feel pressured.”

Of course, as a father, Alois was nervous about sending his daughter into the world, even more worried about sending her out into the world with a man, but Crimson had demonstrated himself to be a man of character, and had a undeviating interest in swords, to the point that Alois wondered if he felt any kind of attraction to women.

There was also the point to consider that it would be good for her education to step out of the Den. She’d spent her entire life in Lupaken without leaving, it was probably filled with mostly negative feelings for her, so letting her out into the world would be good.

Under normal circumstances, Alois would be able to follow, but a [Natural Dungeon] could appear at any time, and he was now able to fight, so it was important that he remained to help with any that appeared.

The gods were typically nice, typically. One [Natural Dungeon] would appear at a time. They would get a break of anywhere between a few days to a few weeks after when the Dungeon would’ve broken open if they failed to clear it before another one appears.

Nav had informed Alois of the results of the investigation, it was determined that the time limit for the higher leveled [Natural Dungeon] was significantly longer than expected, while the lower leveled one had a shorter time limit than usual. It allowed them to appear with their usual timing, but still break open simultaneously.

The investigation had yet to reveal why neither of them had been discovered. Some had suggested bad timing, the Coming of Age Ceremony was something that the entire city prepared for, but something still smelt wrong to Alois.

He absolutely hated to think this way, but part of him suspected insidious intentions. It was either that, or disgusting levels of incompetence, and he knew their teams were better than that.

Alois didn’t weigh into the discussion between Crimson and Rhea, beyond giving his permission for her to make the decision, these kinds of negotiations were very important, it was a hallmark of adulthood - especially among Wolfkin - to find a group to work with. No matter what the result, he could only be proud that she would be scouted by someone as monstrous as Crimson.

“I’ll go with you to Falst, sure. I think it’s only fair since you’ve done this much…but I’ll need to think about it. I think there is more room in your party than you’ve said.” She eventually said.

Crimson bobbed his head, “You are likely right. I need to be more flexible.”

Alois, and seemingly Crimson, picked up on the fact that she wasn’t very interested in being a Defender or Ranged. Whatever she chose, it could only be something that would make him proud.

—————

Crimson and Rhea left in the late morning that same day, and Alois saw them off. It was a bittersweet farewell. He loved to see his daughter looking so happy and excited. Her tail was furiously wagging the entire time as she got ready to leave. She didn’t have much variety in clothes, and practically nothing in terms of personal items, so Alois had made sure to include her favorite kitchen knives.

Crimson was carrying them in his [Inventory] for her to keep them in good condition.

It ended up being fortunate that Alois stayed behind, a [Natural Dungeon] around Lv.40 was found the next day.

Stalking into the meeting to decide the group that would assault it, he was the highest leveled person in the room. Reah, his wife, had left a few days back with some of the younger members of the pack to participate in the Falst Tournament, so that left him in charge as the strongest person in the room.

Precisely one person challenged him on it, an old party member named Ryn who’d been angry at him when he retired. It was bad enough that she’d had a long running feud with Nav. Challenges like this were dealt with swiftly, and Alois subdued her instantly. The rest of the wolfkin looked at him in shock, some of them started to break out into grins. Nav started whooping, then howling, and other members joined in.

Alois couldn’t help but grin, “I’m back, now let’s get to work.”

—————

Rhinese al voth Alda found herself very grateful that she wasn’t the Regent Princess. Kaine could have the position, she didn’t want it in the slightest. The reason why was sitting next to her as they looked out over the fighting grounds of the colosseum.

To her right, a Dark Elf, captivating and fascinating beyond description sat with her eyes closed, and was quietly waiting for the tournament to begin. She was an Am’zavac, a person representing a Dark Elf ideal that served as an example to other Dark Elves how to behave.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Her position gave her no direct power, but it gave her influence among her people greater than Rhinese’s was among her own. A single word from her could cause an international incident, a single gesture could get Rhinese confined to her room for a month.

Her name was Elegance. She had another name, but as long as she was Am’zavac, she had to go by her title, and it was an incredibly imposing title. There were certain Am’zavac titles that were ‘worth more’ than others. The more meaning the title contained, the more dangerous…the more influential they were. Elegance was a higher title, containing the meaning of two lower ones: Grace, and Beauty.

If it were any other race, Rhinese would’ve assumed it was a lip service or beauty contest, but Dark Elves didn’t give the kind of freedom she needed for that kind of flippancy.

Gleaming white hair, eyes like polished rubies, skin a bit lighter in color than a typical Dark Elf - rumors indicated she had some human heritage a few generations back -, and tall, her physical appearance alone was a form of intimidation. If she were to name one flaw, it would be that she tended to look very angry when she had a neutral expression.

Rhinese had a lot of practice reading expressions, so she wasn’t offended by it, but anyone less informed might have thought her to be perpetually angry with the world. She’d seen Elegance smile twice, the first had been a fake, and only made her look more intimidating. The second smile had been a genuine one, and had been so lovely as to make Rhinese question her preferences in a partner.

She’d snapped out of it quickly, the cause of why she was so fascinated was clear: Elegance had a ridiculous amount of [Charisma] based [Skills]. Even now, several lower leveled members of the audience were hypnotized by her, including other people sitting in the box with her.

Rhinese had attempted to count the number of [Skills] she could notice, and gave up after 7. There was one that made her presence compelling, one that made her words compelling, one that made her face compelling, one that made her actions compelling, and on and on it went!

The first time Rhinese had met her, she’d been stun locked by how swiftly her attention kept bouncing between different aspects of Elegance. It was like being distracted by dozens of important conversations at once.

Glancing at Elegance once more, she noticed that the Dark Elf wasn’t waiting as patiently as she’d originally thought. It was subtle, but there were signs in the twitching of her fingers that she was very excited.

Rhinese felt a little proud at seeing that. Falst was the host of the biggest tournament in the world, one of only two yearly tournaments, and the second one was restricted to Lv.50 and above, so participation was significantly lower. Every year, Alda worked hard to put on the tournament. It always put strain on the locals, but they were willing to put up with it because of the economic boom it always brought.

Shipping rates were very low, so there were always a lot of foreign goods, and the increased number of people meant that locals could sell their stock at prices above what they did during the rest of the year.

When they’d first started hosting this tournament at the behest of the God of War, there’d been issues with locals pricing things so high as to cause riots, only compounded by many of them forming gangs to intimidate the foreign sellers. It had caused such a nightmare that it took years after the first tournament to recover attendance to the same point. They’d laid down rules and started to strictly enforce them to prevent that in the future.

Rhinese hadn’t been alive for those events of course, but she was firmly drilled on the history of the Falst Tournament - also called the Tournament of Exhibition due to it being overseen by the God of War - to the point that she even knew the names of all the winners in all the categories for each of the 50 years it had been running.

There were a total of five categories to compete in: Under Lv.10, under Lv.25, under Lv.45, under Lv.50, and Open. A person was allowed to participated in the category the qualified for, as well as the next category up, so Rhinese - being at Lv.3 - could participate in both the under Lv.10 and under Lv.25 categories, but there was an unwritten rule that you didn’t participate in the category above. It was considered boring for the audience since the conclusion was obvious. It was an official rule that you couldn't participate in the category below your intended one, though that should have been obvious, there were still some people who tried to slip in anyway.

The only exception was the Open category, anyone could participate in that category, in the past, it was even opened up to those at Lv.100, but had since been restricted to those Lv.50 and under - so long as they hadn’t broken through with their [Class]. The rules for the open category meant that everyone had a fair shot because all stats had to be restricted to 10. Victory was determined based on points, while typically it was first to 50% health.

Murder would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and there were observers that sought to prevent anything like that from occurring. There hadn't been a death since the first tournament, but there were always psychos who decided to try their luck.

Cheering in the crowd started to grow as people walked onto the Arena, Rhinese didn’t have very high [PER], but there were magically enchanted lenses spaced evenly across the balcony that showed a zoomed view of the field, so she could clearly see a familiar face: Crimson.

That wasn’t good, this wasn’t the participants, these were the staff managing the tournament.

There’s no way he wasn’t good enough for the preliminaries, so he must have missed the deadline somehow. They hadn’t been meeting regularly for a while, and Rhinese’s memory was quite fuzzy because of the amount of drilling she’d undergone, but she did recall he’d gotten a request that made him leave Falst.

That mean…her attention was completely side tracked, and the cheering paused for a second. Elegance had an excited smile, a genuine one.

Rhinese felt blessed for a fraction of a second before snapping out of it. One of Elegance’s [Skills] seemed to encourage positive feelings toward her, and much like all the others, it was passive, so there wasn’t a way for her to turn it off, but it made things very difficult for her.

Rhinese was a little annoyed that Crimson seemed just as fascinated as everyone else. She’d hoped he was immune considering his high [WIL] and tolerance to pain, but that wasn’t the case.

After a momentary pause, those with higher levels or higher [WIL] snapped out of it, including one of the members of the staff, the Tournament Master, the TM.

“A greeting to our gracious attendees! I am your TM for this tournament, Draven! I am a Lv.32 [Grand Orator], and I am honored to have held this position for the past 15 years! We are further honored by the biggest turnout on record! Both among participants that passed the preliminaries, and among the audience! We are grateful for the support you offer, and are proud to introduce our team to help you have the most enjoyable experience!”

He went on to salute the Royalty, Rhinese’s parents weren’t in attendance and neither was Kaine, but they’d be there for the finals. So he bowed first in the direction of Falst, then at the box Rhinese was in. He then welcomed the foreign dignitaries, clearly naming both the wolfkin chief and Elegance in his greetings as they were closely allied nations. Following that, he introduced the referees for each of the categories, the leader of the three Healer squads, and other important members of the staff.

Despite how over the top it was for him to introduce that many people, it was a necessary part of the ceremony, the God of War had clearly expressed his desire for those involved to receive proper recognition. The one thing that left Rhinese confused was the fact that he hadn’t introduced Crimson yet. He was on the field, and was clearly separated from the Healer squads, so he didn’t have a clear role.

Eventually, they did reach Crimson though, he was very last.

“Finally, for those of you who are in attendance for the first time this year, we typically invite a special commentator to join me in commentating the matches! Typically we would ask the Guild Master, but he had declined this year, and recommended this individual instead! Now, if you’re a Falst resident, he needs no introduction, even if you are not a Falst resident, you likely know his influence if not his name. Please welcome the creator of the [True Adventurer Style], the Falst Runner, the Legendary Mentor, the Orthodox Priest! Please welcome, Crimson!”

Crimson bowed neatly to the box, then to the rest of the crowd. It was easy to tell where the Falst residents were, he was a local celebrity, so they were cheering quite loudly in comparison to the rest of the crowd. Fortunately, cheering was considered polite, so Rhinese was also able to cheer for him, just with more restraint.

The zoomed in view also let her see that he was blushing.

“Now Crimson” said Draven, turning to him while holding out a magic circle that was floating above his palm, “I hear that you recently got a [Class], mind sharing it with us?”

Crimson lightly replied, his voice echoing over the crowd, “It’s a sword-user type [Class]. You’ll have to forgive me for keeping the rest of the details to myself.”

Draven grinned into the mic, and turned to the crowd, “Now isn’t he so humble?” He turned back to Crimson, “I have been informed by the Guild Master himself that your [Class] is High grade, so there’s no need to be so humble!”

Crimson shrugged, “It’s something like that. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well well, we shall let your humility win out today, but let’s ask you this, what are you looking forward to this tournament?”

“I, like everyone here, am excited to see unique and [Skilled] warriors battle before the God of War. He will be directly watching the participants today, so do everything in your power to prove yourself to him, and he will reward you. Victory, defeat, it doesn’t matter. Fight with honor, fight with all your might!”

“And with those rousing words, let’s get this Tournament of Exhibition started!”