Chapter 47: Terrifying Warning

Crimson and Verity were in the room she shared with Rhea, he needed to tweak the [Mana] keeping Rhea from slipping back into [Void] on a daily basis. One of his goals had been to create it using only her [Mana], but he’d failed in that goal during the treatment, so it was his [Mana] that provided a lot of the structure that held the weave together.

It was too late for him to change it, so he had to fix it daily to deal with her body’s natural rejection of a foreign substance. If he was more adept, he could try matching the properties of his [Mana] to hers by tweaking the quantities of [Affinities] floating through it. It wasn’t a guarantee that would be better, but it would be a fascinating experiment if nothing else.

Verity was present for each of these treatments, acting as chaperone for propriety’s sake. She seemed to be investigating whatever new [Skills] she’d gotten from her [Class]. Crimson was admittedly not very good at reading people, but even he could see how smug she was acting after getting her [Class]. She’d hadn’t told him what the other [Skills] she’d picked up were, but she seemed to think they were good.

Crimson felt guilty for pushing her to take [Enhanced Recovery] over [Damage Reduction]. What was more important was her choice in the matter, but he genuinely thought [Enhanced Recovery] would be more useful in the end. He was gambling on the ‘Naturally occurring conditions like Exhaustion will not impede regen’ becoming something like ‘healing and recovery cannot be prevented.’

There were ailments out there that prevented any kind of recovery, and while it might be more effective to encourage her to focus on spells and [Skills] to remove status conditions, he was curious enough to push her into making this gamble.

He felt really bad about doing that, feeling like a manipulative scumbag. He didn’t necessarily ‘know better,’ he just had a better general idea. She had more experience than him though - she’d been good enough to reach Lv.50 with a Low-Grade [Class], making up for her lacking stats. Ignoring that fact wouldn’t be good for him.

Finishing up the maintenance, Crimson stood and stretched a little. He was fairly tired after the day of fighting he’d done, but there was one last thing.

He sat on the ground by Verity’s chair and said, “okay, you don’t need to hold back any more,” to her.

She grinned, and said, “My [Class] is Hidden-Grade,” he nodded, it would have been surprising for her to be anything less. It was more confusing that she hadn’t reached Exceed-Grade, but the gods probably prevented that one after they made that deal.

She continued, “It is called [Stellar Healer], I get 14 stats per level and the four [Skills] I picked are [Enhanced Recovery] - as per your recommendation -, [Divine Might], [Recursive Purity], and [Infused Life]. The last three all have 100 levels instead of 10.”

Verity looked at him with a massive grin, a combination of excitement and smugness, and said, “[Divine Might], [Recursive Purity], and [Infused Life] are all passives. [Divine Might] increases the effectiveness of all my [Holy] spells and [Skills] by 1% at Lv.1. The other two have the same effect for their [Affinities].”

Crimson reached a hand high over his head and got a high-five from Verity. Not really a cultural norm here, but he’d done it a few times, and she’d taken to it with passion. It allowed him to better convey his personal excitement for her better than words.

These three [Skills] for her would act as an underlying power for her [Class], much like his [Advanced Sword Mastery], it would act as a perfect foundation moving forward. Passive [Skills] like those were also among the hardest to learn, so he couldn’t think of a better choice she could have made.

He was too drained to have a stronger reaction, so he said, “I promise I’ll help you learn the [Damage Reduction Skill] you wanted. Sorry for misleading you.”

Verity shook her head at him, “I only expected to get 3 [Skills] anyway, and I got the 3 I really wanted, so if my only cost is taking one that you think will be good, then its okay with me, but I want an explanation now.”

Crimson nodded and said, “I think you might be able to turn [Enhanced Recovery] into a [Skill] that prevents ailments and conditions from preventing you from healing us. Imagine fighting a boss who uses a [Skill] that prevents us all from regaining HP, either naturally or from your healing. If [Enhanced Recovery] could let us prevent those kind of dangerous situations, then I think its worth gambling on. Also, if you manage to evolve it just right, you might be able to get it to enhance how much healing we receive from healing spells or [Skills].”

Verity sat back in thought, processing what he’d said, and he stood, dusting off his backside. Leaving her to her thoughts he went to bed. There was something else he wanted to do with her, but he was too drained to work on it, and it would likely take a couple days, but he wanted to see about getting her an [Artificial Mana Pool].

Rhea’s currently didn’t qualify as such, but he’d learned a lot about working with [Mana] from helping her, so he figured he’d be able to create a functioning one for Verity. If the system could pick it up as a [Skill], then it might actually work right.

—————

The last proper day of the tournament was just a few exhibition matches, just some important people over Lv.50 fighting each other. It was the most exciting day for many, but Crimson could only feel bored. What he cared about was fundamentally different from everyone else. These matches had no commentary, so his job was done. He was still on-call as tournament staff, but he wasn’t assigned to do anything, so he had watched the matches in the hopes of seeing something interesting or helpful.

What he ended up seeing was people with high levels bashing into each other recklessly, led around by their [Skills] as opposed to using them. There was one particular individual that was simply a one trick pony, and kept performing downward smash style attacks. From a spectacle perspective, they were certainly the best fights, the staff had to repair the ground after every fight as a result of the powerful clashes and [Skills].

Despite all the [Skills] on display, Crimson could only lament how unskilled they were. He probably wouldn’t have felt so strongly this way if it weren’t for his fight with Fade. He’d been looking forward to this tournament for months, and aside from one or two exceptions, had been left severely disappointed.

Granted, one of those exceptions was the best two fights of his life, but still…

They eventually reached the end of the festivities, it was probably around three or four in the afternoon, and the award ceremony began. Draven started by inviting the tournament staff on to the field, Crimson joining them, and they took a bow before the crowd who cheered.

He then turned the time over to the king, who said, “It is the will of Riskter a small reward to all the tournament staff who worked so hard will be granted. Each person will receive 1 stat point that they may use on any of their stats. Speaking for myself, though it is small compared to what the participants will be awarded, I hope the amount we’re paying you is satisfactory.”

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It was. This was the best paying job, not just for Crimson, but any member of the Adventurer’s Guild under Lv.30, that could be found. No danger, and high pay? Literal fights would sometimes break out over the opportunity.

The extra stat was nice too, but he planned to sit on it before deciding what to apply it to.

Draven dismissed the tournament staff after a few other well wishes from the king, and called all the participants to the field. Crimson elected to just stand still, so he stood out in the sea of people, and some in the stands pointed at him, recognizing him from yesterday. He could no longer hide in the crowd like he’d wanted to.

It was a bit arrogant to just stay there as he did, but he wanted to be present, on the field, as a participant. Regardless of what rewards he might or might not receive, it held a lot of meaning for him to be directly on the field.

Draven didn’t say anything to him, so he remained confidently in place as the participants streamed onto the field. Anyone who passed the qualifiers was eligible for rewards from Riskter, so there was significantly more people than he’d seen during the tournament. That also meant that everyone who participated in the Open category was there.

Fade walked up and stood next to him on one side, Mortimer stood on the other. Crimson heard some murmuring from the crowd at that sight. The three best performing participants of the Open category, side by side made for quite the sight.

It felt a little awkward for Crimson though. He was shorter than both of them, Fade by over a head, and Mortimer by a few inches, so being sandwiched between them felt a slight bit claustrophobic.

Looking up, he saw the king had bowed his head, eyes closed. After a long moment, he raised his head and spoke, “All participants, regardless of placement will receive 1 Level’s worth of experience toward their [Primary Class] as a reward, or 50% of the experience needed for [Breakthrough] if they are at the level cap.”

That was clever. Very clever indeed. In one move, the God of War had disqualified many of the people abusing the rules to dominate the competition. Bullies who felt inadequate in the more dangerous categories had intentionally held their levels back to try and soak up what rewards they could. Now, those same people who had carefully controlled their levels couldn’t terrorize the Under 10 category any more. The same was true of the Under 25 category too, but to a smaller extent.

Crimson covered his mouth and smiled. He almost didn’t get his hand in place in time to cover the grin, but he had the sense to realize that he might provoke a fight if his glee was too obvious.

Since Riskter had spoken through him, some of the other participants were already directing their discontent with the situation at him, seeing him as the cause of the situation - though he firmly believed that their blame was misdirected. The only ones who should actually be mad at him were the ones he judged for the Under 10 category since that was more personal.

The king’s booming voice echoed again, “Now, we will have the winners of the Under 10, Under 25, Under 45, and Under 50 categories step forward.” Once they were in place, he said, “The winners of the Under 10 and Under 25 categories will receive a [Skill]. The winner of the Under 25 category will also receive a [Title]. The winners of the Under 45 and Under 50 categories will receive a [Skill] level each, to apply to the [Skill] of their choosing.”

The winner of each category had to receive something, they had won after all, but it appears that only the Under 10 and 25 categories had winners that actually deserved to win. The [Skill] level was a pity reward. Valuable to some, and on the face of it, very good. It was on the level of the rewards that had been given out for the past few years, but after seeing that another winner got a [Skill] and the second got a [Title] too, it became clear how much less impressive the ‘reward’ of a [Skill] level was.

The king called some other people forward, ones who had particularly distinguished themselves and who received specific rewards. Stats were the most common, though one person was given a warning as their reward, letting them know that a [Natural Dungeon] would be appearing in their home town soon. Ignoring propriety, they turned and sprinted out immediately. It was one of the participants for the Under 45 category.

Crimson could only appreciate the decisiveness. He couldn’t remember how that person performed, but he could always appreciate a person of character - especially considering what a cesspit the tournament had been.

The king wound down, then after a long moment of hesitation, said, “Crimson, step forward.”

He had been the only one to be addressed by name, but he wasn’t sure what that meant.

“Riskter wishes to directly commend you on your achievement. You are not the first to hold the central square for the entire duration of the Open category, but you are the first to do so while losing so few points. You shall receive a [Skill] and the effects of a few of your [Titles] will be strengthened. Speaking for myself, you shall be provided a bonus to your pay as tournament staff for excellent work.”

Crimson bowed deeply, it was hard to be excited when the weight of the stares around him made it hard to even move, but he could still show gratitude just fine.

The king said, “In the name of Riskter, I call upon everyone here to seek greater heights, use the examples of those you admired during the tournament to refine your [Skills]. Do not content yourselves, disaster encroaches, and those who’s preparations fall short shall find their lives cut short as well.”

That was…an extremely strong warning. Though events of this nature were few in number, it wasn’t unheard of for the gods to offer advice or instructions to those listening at the end, but this was a direct warning. What could it be referring to? If it was a [Natural Dungeon], then why not say that’s what the problem is?

Crimson felt very nervous trying to consider the implications, but his thoughts had no direction to move in, so he could only quietly deal with his mounting anxiety as the last few details of the tournament wrapped up and they were all dismissed. His [Blessing] tried to give him a few alerts for his rewards, but he ignored them.

The second he could, he broke out in a run, head ducked low to try and keep people from recognizing him, and dodged through the crowd to reach the point where Verity and Rhea had been sitting, relatively unscathed.

Head ducked as much as possible, he glanced around, trying to spot where they’d gone. Fortunately it hadn’t been too far, and they came back to the spot after seeing him run up like that.

“Crimson, what’s going on?” Verity demanded.

“You heard the warning?” He asked.

“Yeah, what do you think of it?”

“I don’t know, but we’re stepping up some plans immediately.”

“Plans?” Verity asked, confused.

“More like ideas, but whatever, let’s go!”

He led them back to their inn as fast as possible. Verity was the slowest of the three, so they matched her pace, but they stood out as they ran to Falst. Once in Falst, he managed to lead them both into a secret passage, and once they got back in the inn, he first did a quick round of maintenance on Rhea’s [Mana], then had Verity take her place.

It took a hours of work, but compared to treating Alois, it was much easier to create an [Artificial Mana Pool] for Verity. He kept tweaking it until she mentioned that it appeared in her [Blessing] as a [Skill]. It apparently only held 10MP in its current form, but that would grow with time.

He went and crashed in bed immediately after finishing treatment.

—————

After dropping Rhea off at the ‘day-care’ that was the [Brass] class of the Adventurer’s Guild, he and Verity went to hit up one of the [Godmade Dungeons], [Goblin Manor].

They caught a wagon there for a few Royals each, and though the ride was bumpy, it was worth it as they got to the dungeon faster. Some of the other people in the wagon looked familiar, and he’d gotten some appraising looks from strangers, but he was so wrapped up in the anxiety that he didn’t pay them much mind.

While he waited for the wagon to arrive, he finally had enough room to breathe to check his [Blessing].

—————

-Level Up!

-[Sword Savant] 1/25 —> 2/25

-Admin Riskter: The determination with which you take on those stronger than you is admirable. May this assist you in your journey.

-[Skill: Defense Pierce] acquired.

-[Title: Mentor] becomes [Master].

-[Title: Holy Interpreter] becomes [Holy Envoy].

—————

[Defense Pierce], from what he could discern using [Skill Peak], would allow him to still deal a small amount of damage to a target, even if their CON is higher than his attack. It was simple, but it could likely become an extremely good utility [Skill].

Like Riskter said, it would give him a chance against opponents too strong for him to fight.

Arriving, he and Verity disembarked from the wagon with everyone else but the driver, and together, they walked over to the fog wall. Crimson had to be careful, he needed to be stronger to face the warning that Riskter had given, but if he focused on his level too much it would only be to his detriment.

For now, the goal was Lv.5. Hopefully it would be enough.