Kyrie was walking with Rella and Ledia to one of the stadiums where the opening ceremony was going to take place for the tournament. Kyrie was feeling a bit nervous while Rella and Ledia seemed excited. They were talking about the upcoming matches and also regarding what to expect from the opening ceremony. Their enthusiasm was infectious and it did help Kyrie’s nervousness, but only a bit.
There were six stadiums constructed for this tournament. They were all constructed on the outskirts of Karzasham, near the outer boundaries of the cities. They had literally appeared overnight. These stadiums were simply erected by the Game Masters, and by that, it was Rauros who had erected them, specifically for this tournament.
Kyrie was surprised by the response this tournament for the selection of the future ruler of Karzasham and hence Golimath had garnered. There were a total of 12,256 participants in the tournament and this included both adventurers and non adventurers. The non adventurers were either from Furorin’s faction or Gorin’s faction and were representing them to win the throne. There were still a lot of participants and Kyrie was excited to fight. There was going to be a lot of adventurer versus adventurer after all.
Currently Kyrie, Rella and Ledia were going to the stadium which was near the palace in the first mountain. Each of the outer stadiums had the capacity to sit a hundred thousand people while the one inside the mountain had the capacity to sit a hundred and fifty thousand people. That was a lot of people according to Kyrie but she had a feeling it was going to be still less.
The crowd that the tournament had attracted was beyond astonishing. Not only adventurers, but there were visitors from across the landmasses who had come to watch the tournament. There were also key officials and dignitaries of the other landmasses and they were housed in the palace. Most important of all, the Game Masters were also going to be attending. It was one major political and fun event according to Kyrie.
Kyrie entered the stadium and they made their way towards their seats. The opening ceremony had limited invitations. The participants were obviously invited. Other than them, there were important dignitaries and guests from other landmasses which filled the stadium seats. Kyrie had her seat with other participants while Ledia and Rella were seated near the royal pavilion. Kyrie understood their sitting arrangement considering they seemed to be close to the Ori brothers.
Kyrie’s seat was near the front and she could clearly see the platform on which the fights would take place. It was beautiful. Moreover the excitement of the crowd was also getting to her. The audience was murmuring, some shouting and a lot of cheering at random intervals. There was a small smile on Kyrie’s face as she looked around the stadium. The royal pavilion was opposite to her seat and it was currently empty.
Kyrie took her seat between two other nymphs. From a glance she could tell that they were fire nymphs. Now that was interesting. She had not met any fire nymphs on Una till now. Meeting them was new for her. It was new for the fire nymphs too to meet a water nymph who was an adventurer. They chatted for sometime before there was an announcement that the royal family was arriving.
A hush fell over the stadium. Kyrie was surprised considering how much noise everyone was making and now, everything was quiet. Eerily so.
First to enter the royal pavilion was King Throwrin Gurnhold. Kyrie could tell he was weak as he was being supported by two aides on either side as he made his way to his seat. He was followed by his wife whose name Kyrie had forgotten. Orim had told her, she was sure of it but for some reason she could not remember it. She was also quite far enough to read her name through her status.
Following the king and queen were their children with Furorin in the lead. After they had taken their seat, the siblings of King Throwrin came into the pavilion with their families. As the royal pavilion got filled up, Kyrie wondered how large the royal family of Karzasham was. It was filled up with quite a large number and now the size of the pavilion made sense to Kyrie.
Kyrie had her first view of Gorin as he stepped into the royal pavilion. Even from her seat, which was at quite a distance, Kyrie could see the scowl on his face. It seemed to her that he was not happy with the seating arrangement or the order of entry and was showing his displeasure openly.
As the royal family got seated, murmurs started amongst the audience. Kyrie paid half a mind to what was being discussed around her. It was mostly boring political stuff. Her sights were set on a large throne-like seat in the middle of the royal pavilion which had remained empty. Kyrie had assumed that King Throwrin would be sitting on that seat but it was empty. The King sat to its left while Jarison sat to its right. The two people whose children were vying to be the heir to the throne. Was this the reason why the central seat was empty or was there some other reason? She missed Marcus at such times. He would have an answer for her question. She would have to ask one of the Ori brothers later.
Kyrie put the throne-like seat aside in her mind and focused on the fighting platform in the middle of the stadium. The platform was where the fights for this stadium were going to take place. It was four feet high and circular in shape with a diameter of around hundred metres. Moreover, the platform was at least twenty feet away from the crowd. It was made up of white tiles and had stairs on two opposite sides of the curve.
A dwarf was climbing up on the platform. He had a long staff in his hand with a glowing orb at the top. He was wearing long flowing blue robes glowing with purple runes. His hair and beard were long and well groomed and Kyrie could see the smile on his face as he climbed the stairs.
“Welcome good people of Karzasham”, shouted the dwarf at the top of his voice and his voice could be heard clearly across the stadium, “Well good people of Golimath landmass. And welcome good people from other landmasses. And a special welcome to all the adventurers who have come here for the tournament. I welcome you all.”
Kyrie could see the dwarf’s name. It was Loring Gloomtooth. Kyrie found it weird but then thought, who was she to judge anyone’s name.
“I know you are all excited for the tournament. And I know that you all know what this tournament is for. So, without wasting much of your time, I am simply going to announce that this tournament to decide the future of Karzasham is now officially live.”
There was a loud round of applause and cheers from the stadium. Kyrie joined in clapping too. Finally! She was really looking forward to fighting adventurers from all around Una.
Loring continued, “The tournament would be a one on one tournament and we have exactly twenty thousand two hundred and fifty six participants.”
There was another round of cheering and stomping and clapping before Loring continued, “That is quite a turnout indeed. Each of the participants is fighting either on behalf of Princess Furorin or Prince Gorin. The rules are simple, the stakes are high and today is all about celebration. So, let the celebration begin.”
Loring set off the stage as dancers came on to the platform. Kyrie was a bit disappointed. She wanted to know about the rules of the tournament and how the fights were going to take place. However, she would have to wait till the inauguration ceremony completes. She was also a bit surprised with the lack of speeches. She wondered why they were not there.
However, Kyrie was soon distracted by the many performances taking place on the platform. After the dancing troupe, there was an acrobatics show, a bard performing songs and stories of dwarven culture, mock battles and even a comedy show. Loring came in between performances giving a bit of background about the performer and set the audience expectations. He was a good announcer and managed to engage the crowd effectively. Kyrie found herself enjoying the inauguration ceremony immensely.
The performances lasted till mid afternoon. After that Loring got back and asked for silence.
Loring said, “I am sure you are all enjoying the performances. However, I must dampen the mood. I am now going to read the rules for the tournament.”
There were some boos from the crowd and Kyrie wondered why. The performances were good but this is what she was here for. The tournament. The fighting. She was excited to listen to the rules. What was wrong with the others?
“Alright, stop your gorking incessant grumbling”, grumbled Loring. This elicited a laugh from the audience.
Loring continued, “The rules of the tournament are simple. Out of the twelve thousand odd participants, there are two thousand two hundred participants who support Princess Furorin while there are ten thousand fifty six participants who support Prince Gorin. Now we can’t gorking have two thousand on one side and ten thousand on the other fighting each other now, can we? That would be quite unfair. So, we are going to whittle down the numbers on each side. In the end, one hundred and twenty eight participants from each faction would be fighting each other.”
There was a round of cheering at that statement. Loring continued, “We are then going to whittle down the participants till there are eight participants representing each royal heir. Then we shall have the quarterfinals, semi finals and the finals. The winner of the finals shall determine our next monarch.”
There was a lot of cheering at that. There were some other fine details that Loring announced after that. The level cap for the participants was level 150. That meant that those who had more than level 150 would have stats similar to that when they were at level 150 and the level of their equipment would be scaled accordingly. For those who were less than level 150 would be given an option to temporarily level up once before entering the tournament so that their stats are those of level 150. Those stats would remain till they remain in the tournament. Outside the arena, all the participants would be at the level they were at now.
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Kyrie wondered how the dwarves had managed to pull off such a condition. Then she thought about the arenas popping up overnight. Rauros had to be involved somehow. This condition did get her thinking though. She was at level 103 currently. She would have 47 level ups and 94 points to share. She would have to plan her stats to have an effective fight during the tournament.
Loring soon completed announcing the tournament rules and the performances began again. Kyrie was now not interested in the performances and gave half a mind to them. She was now thinking about her stats. She was also thinking about the start of the fights. The fighters supporting Gorin would start their one on one fights tomorrow. The fighters supporting Furorin would start after a couple of weeks. Made sense considering the number of fighters fighting for Gorin were more than those fighting for Furorin.
Kyrie was still pleased that she had time before her fight would start. It meant that Goros would have sufficient time to craft her armor set and she would be able to wear it from her first fight itself. Lucky her.
Kyrie soon left the stadium. Several other people were also exiting from it. The royal pavilion was still full and Kyrie was sure that they would have to sit till the event was over. She hoped not everyone left. That would be awkward.
Kyrie started walking towards the inn. She did not have much to do. She wondered if she should have trained but it was okay. She was sure she would be alright.
Kyrie watched as the days passed by. She went to one of the stadiums each day and watched the fights from morning till night. Each of the participant versus participant fights was given a time limit of half an hour. Then there was a short interval of fifteen minutes and the next fight began. In the short interval, the fighting platform was cleaned and any damage done to it was fixed; magically.
Kyrie was impressed with the fights. None of the fighters seemed to hold back and it seemed that good adventurers had answered the call, even if they were on the side of Gorin. The non-adventurer fights were taking place in the stadium inside the mountains and no adventurer was privy to those fights, not even the Ori brothers.
Kyrie had two fold objectives for looking at the fights taking place. One was to find out how the fights would take place throughout the day. And the second to find out the level of competence of the competition. After all, she was going to be fighting some of the fighters when she reached the shortlist of 128 fighters. She realized she was being overconfident.
She visited a separate stadium each day for a week till Goros contacted her. She grinned all the way to his workshop. It was ready. She was excited. Her armor was finally ready.
Goros welcomed her and they spent some time talking about the tournament. Kyrie realized that the tournament was all the majority of people in Karzasham were talking about. She was no different from the majority.
Finally, Goros took out her armor set from a chest in his workshop and handed it to Kyrie with a bit of reverence. Kyrie took a sharp breath as she looked at the armor set. It was beautiful.
The chest piece looked like normal leather armor in appearance but it was completely light blue in colour with diagonal patches of white ice covering it from front and back. Whorls of pattern in the form of snowflakes were etched on the front and back and they seemed to glow with a faint silvery light.
The bracers were of a similar nature but their design was such that it would not hamper Kyrie when she used her bow to attack. They extended up to her elbow and had a similar snowflake pattern on them. The bracers extended from her knee to her ankles and ended in the form of some sort of sandals.
Kyrie unequipped her tank top and shorts immediately and put on her armor. Goros took her to where a mirror was and Kyrie looked into it. She held her breath. She was looking like a fierce fighter. Well, a fierce fighter in blue but the effect was still beautiful and terrifying at the same time. She grinned.
Kyrie said, “This is amazing Goros.”
“I am glad you like it”, said Goros with a smile.
Kyrie now examined each piece of her armor.
Armor of Never Melting Ice
Physical Resistance: 10
Magical Resistance: 10
Health Regeneration: 10 hp / sec
Description: Armor made from the waters which freeze to form the never melting ice. This armor can neither be damaged, nor be broken and it would never melt. Blessed with the properties of the water under the moon, it would give additional health regeneration to the wearer of the armor.
Bracers of Never Melting Ice
Physical Resistance: 10
Magical Resistance: 10
Health Regeneration: 10 hp / sec
Description: Bracers made from the waters which freeze to form the never melting ice. This bracer can neither be damaged, nor be broken and it would never melt. Blessed with the properties of the water under the moon, it would give additional health regeneration to the wearer of the armor.
Leg Armor of Never Melting Ice
Physical Resistance: 10
Magical Resistance: 10
Health Regeneration: 5 hp / sec
Description: Armor made from the waters which freeze to form the never melting ice. This armor can neither be damaged, nor be broken and it would never melt. Blessed with the properties of the water under the moon, it would give additional health regeneration to the wearer of the armor.
Kyrie took a sharp breath as she read the description. The gain in armor was not much. However, that total of 25 hp / sec regeneration. This was amazing.
Kyrie looked at Goros and said, “This health regeneration?”
Goros shrugged, “The waters which form the never melting ice were rumored to have restorative properties. I guess this proves it.”
“Isn’t this too much though?”
“Considering how you were fighting till date, I believe this is what you deserve. At least.”
Kyrie smiled at that. She finally had a good armor set. And now she simply needed to practice fighting in it. Before her first fight. She sighed. This was going to be fun.
Later that night, she finally decided to allocate her points. She was going to be temporarily level 150 during the tournament. That was 47 levels higher than her current stats. She needed to allocate 94 points for the tournament. She did just that and looked at her stats.
Name: Kyrie Shiningstar
Race: Water Nymph
Designation: Adventurer - Rank 3
Age: 83
Current Location: Karzasham
Adventurer Statistics:
Adventurer Level: 150 (Tournament)
Experience: 0 / 0
Strength: 30
Dexterity: 122
Intelligence: 30
Vitality: 60
Agility: 60
Wisdom: 30
Luck: ???
Health: 580
Mana: 280
Active Effects:
Health Regeneration: 25 hp / sec
Passive Effects:
Fast Draw - Level 12
Precision - Level 14
Longbow Proficiency - Level 18
Stealth - Level 12
Water Proficiency - Level max
Description: The outcast traveller from Tarados, flowing into Una, taking huge steps now and sweeping demons away is still enjoying herself by bashing other adventurer’s heads. She is the water nymph to watch out for.
Spells known:
[Power Shot] [Fade] [Enchant Weapon: Poison] [Summon Water Elemental] [Detect Magic]
Spells Equipped:
[Power Shot] [Fade] [Enchant Weapon: Poison] [Summon Water Elemental]
Spell Slots: 4
Physical Attack: 573
Magical Attack: 91
Physical Resistance: 274
Magical Resistance: 259
Critical Attack Chance: 45%
Critical Attack Damage: 107%
Status:
None
Levelling up like this also gave Kyrie a roadmap on how she was going to level up from her current level to 150. It was interesting.
Kyrie then sent a message to Orim, asking the help of Ori brothers to help her train. They were already using a facility to train for the tournament. Kyrie joined them. They were all impressed by Kyrie’s new armor.
Orik whistled, “Goros has gorking outdone himself.”
Orim nodded, “This armor is amazing. It gorking suits you so well.”
Oril wiped a fake teardrop as he said, “Look at our little Kyrie. All dressed up.”
That elicited a smack from Kyrie which he promptly dodged.
Orin did not say anything but simply nodded.
Kyrie then practiced daily with the Ori brothers. She got used to moving, attacking and dodging with her armor effectively. From the Ori brothers she got to know that the fights for the participants of the Furorin faction were officially going to take place exactly after three weeks.
The three weeks passed faster than Kyrie expected. Every morning she woke up, had her breakfast and trained with the Ori brothers. Then she went and watched the matches already taking place. At night, she strategized, planning her fights against a variety of opponents.
The days passed fast enough and soon it was time. Today was the day. Today, Kyrie had her first match of the tournament. Kyrie grinned as she woke up. She was ready!