Chapter 138: A Sneak Peek at Innovation
“…Incessant Rain is well known for their onslaught of projectile attacks,” the female announcer said, “Who do you expect Meat Skewer to bring to counter this tactic, Marv?”
“Well Jenn, that’s a good question. Meat Skewer has suffered under the storm of Incessant Rain in past matches. Meat Skewer is well known for their adaptable team members and line up, but sometimes you just need a solid, defensive line up. They don’t quite have that.”
“You’re saying they’re overcomplicated, Marv?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying Jenn. Meat Skewer has excelled against a variety of opponents, but their weak battles have always been the same. Plain old monster killing, and simplistic battles.”
“This battle isn’t quite that though, Marv. I don’t think it’ll be the same. This is the premier match of this year end festivities, a battle between two top-of-the-line bronze rank teams.”
“They’re about ready to move on out of here, Jenn. We better enjoy them while we can.”
“I completely agree. Let me get back to what I was saying—Marv, can you explain the match style for this opening battle for our audience?”
“You got it, Jenn. In honor of the passing year, this year’s theme is preparing for the unpredictable. Can you guess what that means?”
“I know Marv, tell the audience, not me.”
“Haha, my bad, Jenn. You know how it is. This is not quite your typical mirage battle. The battlegrounds and the competition type are completely hidden from our competitors. They’ll have to rely on their wits and experience to navigate a completely unpredictable battle.”
“And how will they fare?”
“This may be the advantage Meat Skewer needs to pull ahead,” said Marv. “An unpredictable battleground with an unknown objective plays to Meat Skewers expertise.”
“But conversely, they could have a simple match instead, right Marv?”
“That’s right, that’s possible Jenn. Personally, I think we’ll see something spectacular. We’ve all seen plain old arena matches. This is the first match of the festivities, Jenn. It’ll be a showstopper!”
“Our audience certainly didn’t pay a premium for a basic team battle.”
“You got that right, Jenn. Now, let’s see what the Mirage Society has come up with…”
The projections around the empty arena flickered to life. It was as if they were looking down, inside of a large landscape like gods looking down on a civilization that lived inside a snow globe.
The battlefield was unique, as Marv had predicted. Six massive stone cylinders extended from abyssal depths up into the sky. They formed a circle, the center an empty drop into certain death. The stone towers had thin stone branches extend outwards, forming a three-dimensional caffeine drugged spider web of thin and oblong platforms. They stopped before reaching the center, forming that perfect circular void, a chute from heaven to hell.
“By the gods, they’ve managed something spectacular.”
“I wonder how they got the mirage crystal data for this one, Marv.”
“We might be seeing a new crystal recording technique in action, Jenn. Let’s all keep an eye out for new developments from the Magic and Mirage Societies. We may be getting a sneak peek at innovation here. Ain’t this a treat to behold.”
“It sure is Marv. We can see the competitors manifesting into the arena. It appears they’re completely scattered. We’re getting the objective now.”
A glowing golden orb slightly smaller than a soccer ball manifested in the middle of the arena, above bottomless pit. A set of rules manifested on the projections as the announcer read them off.
Rules of Engagement
1. Competitors must be in physical contact with the points orb to earn points. 1 point is awarded for every 5 seconds of possession. Possession below 5 seconds will not award a point.
2. Points are earned for the competitor’s respective team. The team with the most points at the end of the battle is the victor.
3. The points orb will progressively grow in temperature and heat while in possession. The temperature of the points orb will reset upon loss of possession and passing through the empty center of the arena. In this space, the points orb will float and will not fall.
4. Destruction of the orb results in a 1-point deduction to the team that destroys the orb. This will reset the orb in the center of the arena after 5 seconds. If the orb is destroyed while a team is in possession of the orb, no points are deducted.
5. Upon death, competitors become incorporeal for 30 seconds, and recover half of their maximum health. Cooldowns and recovery are paused during this penalty. During this time, they cannot be affected by external abilities and cannot affect others with abilities. After 30 seconds have passed, competitors become corporeal wherever they stand and can participate in battle.
It was the closest thing Nara had seen to modern sports, if modern sports were a no-holds-barred fighting competition where competitors killed each other with special effects. According to Encio, the common forms of mirage battles were team versus team battles, duels, and different forms of monster killing competitions, such as competing in speed against one powerful monster or total kills against a swarm. Casual sports without essence abilities did exist, although they were usually location specific with local rules.
This new ruleset had also no basis in practicality. If it was Earth, there may be debates and controversy—how it detracts from the reality of killing monsters and genuine battle. However, adventurers couldn’t care less what those who weren’t fighting anyway were doing. If they wanted to make fancy rule sets and entertain the people, they shrugged and went about their business.
They even had a respawn mechanic, which mirage chamber battles had not seen before. It was even like her Phase Shift ability. Nara wondered if it had been based off of that ability; she wasn’t the first one to have it.
Despite being thrust into an entirely unfamiliar and impossible battlefield, the competitors immediately sprang into action. Nara had her first look at the famed teamwork of mirage competitors.
Team Incessant Rain leveraged their continuous projectile volley to make initial possession of the points orb difficult. Approaching the center of the arena to grab the orb was the quickest way to experience penalty time as a porcupine. Team Meat Skewer broke the initial stalemate with quick thinking. A team member lassoed the orb, yanking it towards themselves. With the ball flying freely through the air, not technically in possession, Team Incessant Rain had to be careful about destroying it.
Stolen novel; please report.
“The Spider-Fighter from Team Meat Skewer starts of the engagement. He has the orb in his hand now. Incessant Rain has reacted too slowly—Meat Skewer has formed defensive protections to stop Incessant Rain’s damage. That’s 1 point to start off the battle.”
“Spider-Fighter?” Nara muttered, “Spider-man was right there.”
The audience cheered, a wave of energy and aura sweeping through the arena. She felt the aura surge—a wonderous tide of unified energy and excitement.
“Wow,” Nara said breathlessly, “I wonder how a concert would feel?”
The maximum capacity of the mirage arena could not compare to what Earth could output. The shaking bass, the echoing music, the audience packed like sardines swaying, jumping, and singing. The beat echoing through their bodies and their hearts, colorful lights illuminating the night and song.
No matter what, she wanted to see it. Even as someone who hated crowds, that sounded like a transformative experience. With aura perception, the way she perceived the world had changed.
It was a dizzying battle of heights and acrobatics, one that Nara herself was perfectly suited for. Plain battlefields with no cover were, conversely, an area of weakness. The two teams demonstrated impeccable teamwork, although their physical capabilities and mastery of acrobatics had clear deficiencies. Not all adventurers even trained the way Laius and Amara had trained her, which she had passed down onto her team. Basic parkour mastery was expected, but the two teams underutilized the terrain, struggle against it instead of excelling with it.
Team Meat Skewer fared better. The Spider-Fighter was the most adept and their top scorer. He used web shots to rapidly change direction and gain speed. The arena slowly became a razor wire trap, boxing in Team Incessant Rain.
Consecutive scoring was limited by the growing heat of the points orb. After around 30 seconds, Spider-Fighter had no choice but to toss the orb, allowing a chance for the opposing team to gain possession.
“I had thought this battle type was entirely impractical,” Encio mused, “But I must revise my earlier judgment.”
“How so?”
“It’s a useful tool for teaching mobility, as well as dealing with a complex objective with severe restrictions. For difficult terrain like this, the Adventure Society usually employs specialty teams. Those with flight and mobility abilities, across all members.”
“That isn’t Sanshi’s style.”
Encio grinned.
Team Incessant Rain shifted tactics, realizing their onslaught of projectiles in a 3D environment was ineffective. They spread out, taking high and low ground and utilized more complex projectile trajectories. A flying wind user began to dedicatedly cut web-wires and chase down Spider-Fighter to cut his effectiveness.
The battle was more spectacular than ever, projectiles exploding from every conceivable direction. The audience was a drone flying between fireworks, with the colorful chemical lightshow replaced by streaks of flames, needles of water, beams of light, and glittering shards of crystal and glass. Slow motion replays screens replayed particularly detailed engagements; Although bronze rank wasn’t the speed at which the normal viewers couldn’t perceive anything at all, CQC could still be too fast to entirely appreciate.
“Team Incessant Rain demonstrates an impressive aerial denial tactic, stealing back the orb and momentum of the match. They killed 2 members of Team Meat Skewer, but will this momentum last?”
“That’s right Jenn, we’ve been treated to an impressive showing. I see you’ve recognized the disadvantages of this technique in this situation.”
“That’s right Marv, I’m sure our experienced audience can see it too. This is a costly tactic. The members of Team Meat Skewer will be back in just…15 more seconds. Is this mana cost worth their temporary departure? They have the rest of the match to think about.”
“That’s right Jenn, death is less valuable here than in other battles. The Mirage Society is still working out the specifics.”
“You mean they may add points for killing a team member, Marv?”
“This is the first showing, so we all can look forward to how this points battle develops.”
*****
The match was recorded onto recording crystals that could be purchased out at the front of the arena as they exited. Nara bought a copy, storing it in her inventory under ‘stuff I can show my family but not necessarily PG-13’.
The audience streamed out of the arena, conversation rippling through like the sound of water babbling over rocks. It had been a successful opening match and a great beginning to the week-long festivities. The Advent couldn’t stop all magical development. The development of mirage chamber magic was one they hadn’t the resources nor the intent to block. Adventurers had a widespread culture of recording battles, partially for their own review, but partially for the benefit of mirage chambers—to teach the youngers who came after them. Recordings of battles could be converted into scenarios into the crystal rods that were inserted into the chamber console. Mirage chamber specialists were responsible for creating these scenarios and recordings from real recordings. Console could store hundreds of scenario rods simultaneously, and adventurer families had large stores that they’d exchange out for training scenarios.
The emergent technique was creating a scenario while lacking a prerequisite recording—the closest thing to video games this world had. Scenarios were constructed with a variety of techniques, such as splicing together other recordings to create the desired battlefield. The points orb had been created in reality first rather than construction in mirage from scratch. Erras still lacked the true ability to manufacture illusion from scratch in the mirage chambers.
At least, that was what Nara and Encio had learned from the presentation at one of Sanshi’s outdoor event halls. It was a presentation for the population by the Magic Society, one of many events available at the festival. Normally technical presentations weren’t well attended, but the Mirage Chamber battle had ignited the fervor and interest of the audience. The even hall was packed full.
As usual, magic and science had inverse strengths. Magic had already achieved realistic virtual reality with mirage chambers. They required plentiful space and resources, so use by the general population was impractical, something that technology excelled at.
“The Mirage and Magic Society’s plan for the future is to grant additional abilities in mirage chambers. As of now, mirage chambers reflect reality. We hope that one day that we could produce a mirage scenario that allows an iron ranker to become a diamond ranker.”
The presenter paused.
“Of course, we don’t have the knowledge of most abilities at diamond rank. It’s an impossible dream we strive to achieve, nonetheless. The shared knowledge of abilities benefits all aspects of society.”
“Speaking of,” Nara noted, “I guess I should update my abilities at the Adventure Society. Did you have any new abilities, Encio?”
He shook his head, “I may have a 5-star essence, but this combination is the most popular combination with the Dimension Essence. Most of those with my combination are from adventuring families, so most have also survived until silver rank. Enough that almost all of my abilities have up to silver rank recorded, and some to gold rank.”
“I guess unless you have an ability divining the best combination for you, most people want to go with a proven and tested combination.”
Encio nodded, “I did say a few were unknown at silver.”
“Which ones?”
“Vorpal Slash, Time Sovereign, Blue Shift, and Fragment of Time.”
“Ahh~,” Nara teased, “Your aura?”
“Willfully ignoring the rest of the abilities I just listed, are you?”
“No one else as audacious and arrogant as you have survived past bronze rank.”
Encio smirked, “You think just any grandson can pull off my personality? This takes skill. Lineage.”
“I think we usually associate arrogance with the opposite of skill.”
“It’s not arrogance if it’s warranted. What about yours? I assume many haven’t made it to bronze.”
“Not that many. Blade of the Boundary, Infinity Domain, all of my familiars, Astral Blessing, and Avatar of the Boundary. Moonlight Raiment has made it to bronze but not Silver.”
“Your aura too,” he smirked. “And you don’t think yours says something about arrogance? Your presence itself a blessing?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure that’s a winning argument. Are you saying my presence is divine?”
“If I do, you’ll join us with the nicknames, godling.”
“Fuck.”
Her combination was far rarer than Encio’s, since it was unpopular. If she had known about the Time Confluence, would she still have chosen her set? To have the power to manipulate time and travel at hyper speeds, who could resist?
If she went back to the Adventure or Magic Society to update their catalogue, it would be after the festivities. During this time, some adventurers took on patrolling contracts, usually left to the local authorities, to keep an eye on pickpockets and thieves. It was easy money and adventurers could still enjoy the festival instead of traveling out of the city.
Since most adventurers took a break during festival time, it was those on punishment contracts that maintained and cleaned up the roads of monsters. Punishment contracts were undesirable contracts assigned to misbehaving adventurers. If they wanted to keep their license, they had to take them. It was chaperoned by a higher ranker, so it was used as a save way to whip underperforming adventurers into shape, teach them important skills with practice, and set them back onto the straight and narrow. Moreover, back-to-back contracts usually resulted in a pretty penny, killing three birds with one stone. Or was that five birds with one stone? Either way, a family of robins were dead.