The five roles were, by their very nature, unbalanced. Tanks and healers were without a doubt the least popular roles to take, an almost paradoxical idea since they were often the most sought out and critical roles in any team. The unpopularity came from a lack of damage and a high mortality rate. A monster with any sort of intelligence would immediately aim for the healer and the dumb monsters (which were blessedly the majority) would aim at the tank. It meant that, between the two roles, they managed to account for 63.28% of adventurer deaths.
Rogues were almost as unpopular for the same reasons, lack of damage and spectacular deaths. Rogues were a semi-utility role that focused on trap detection/dismantling and scouting, meaning they would often range ahead and consequently, often ended up catching a bad case of death at the hands of a trap or two. The occasional sudden and unexpected death had a tendency to put most 'normal' people off the role, leaving the rogues an assortment of adrenaline junkies, suicidal nutjobs and one guy named Phil.
Ranged Attackers were surprisingly not the most popular. Despite common sense dictating that, when attacking a bloodthirsty monster, distance is preferable, melee attackers managed to eke out a victory over their ranged brethren. This was either a scathing indictment of the savageness of society or a wonderful testament to the bravery of the young, depending on if you viewed Melee Attackers as bloodthirsty psychopaths desperate for action or noble warriors who were willing to brave death in order to vanquish the enemy.
Whatever the reason, melee attackers were definitely the most popular, followed by ranged, rogues, tanks and healers. This spread was quite obvious in the participants this year with only eight healers and eleven tanks in the 103 that made it to the tournament rounds. Gengorio couldn't help but shake his head at the simple-mindedness of the public. Yes, tanks and healers had the highest death rates, no doubt about that, but that was usually because the moment one of them kicked the dust (A/N makes as sense as biting the dust or kicking the bucket) the rest of the team high-tailed it out of there as if their asses were on fire.
Gengorio was currently sitting in his office looking over the lists of participants, trying to see if there were any hidden gems or, more importantly, if there were any with potential but no immediate power. It wasn't an easy thing to tell but after over fifty years Gengorio had developed a knack for it and had found certain indicators to look out for. One obvious one was if the participant had only recently gotten their class. If they had managed to get to the final round of the trials within a year of gaining their class then there was definitely potential there. There were over half a dozen who had on the list who were under nineteen, four of which had even been marked by his scouts as having decent talent.
Another thing to lookout for was those in-between classes. That is, the classes that were difficult to reliably slot into one role or another. The Shadowmancer for instance, was both a half decent rogue and a half decent ranged but didn't really specialize in either, making it difficult to beat those who did. That being said, some of those classes were worth their weight in mithril, able to cover multiple roles or provide unique abilities. The lists included almost twenty of such classes, the majority being crafters who decided to get more action in their lives. Most of them wouldn't amount to much but the ones that did would be a big boon to the guild. The fee's they paid to the crafters guild was quite frankly criminal and a few crafters of their own might help alleviate the financial burden.
Gengorio listed a few names that he thought might be important and turned his attention to the television just in time to see one of the names on his list get beaten. He sighed, somewhat annoyed, but he knew he would be rewatching the recording crystals later on anyways, so he couldn't be too annoyed. He knew that at least half of the names on his list wouldn't even be shown on the television but he never expected them to. HE made a note of the names because he knew that, despite their immense potential, they were unlikely to succeed this year. Potential took time to develop and, depending on what he saw on the recordings, he planned on helping those with good character develop to a position where they could complete the trials with ease. On the sly, of course. It wouldn't do for the public to learn that the branch Guildmaster was grooming participants.
Despite wanting to pay attention though, Gengorio found his attention drifting pretty quickly. The tournaments were plenty exciting, if you hadn't seen it fifty times before. Worse, they were currently showing the tanking tournament, by far the most boring of the five tournaments. The rounds simply involved two participants occupying an arena in which a runic damaging field had been placed. The field would hit the participants with ten points of damage every ten seconds with the damage increasing every 100 seconds, making the tournament a test of endurance. The participants could damage each other, which you would think would make it interesting, but more often than not it just became two heavily armored meatheads smacking away at each other. As a mage Gengorio could never be satisfied with such an unmagical display.
The Healer Tournament was almost as bad, again featuring two meatheads smacking away at each other. The only difference was that this time the term 'meathead' was far more literal with them being flesh golems. The healer participants had to keep healing their respective golems with the last golem standing. The only reason that it was any better, beyond the magical aspect of most healing, was that occasionally the healers could have an interesting buff or two, a magical effect that could boost the golems abilities in some way.
Sadly though, it was still just two meatheads pounding away at each other with little in the way of finesse. Gengorio idly wondered if maybe this was why healers and tanks were unpopular. Fortunately his attention span was saved by the view switching over to the rogues' tournament. The rogues' tournament was as tricky as the people who participated and generally offered a wealth of entertainment. Rather than a simple arena the rogues' tournament took place in a series of seven rooms set up in a row. The rogues were faced with a hallway filled with inactive traps, a large room furnished with several sleeping monsters and finally the central room containing a fake treasure.
Starting Area Traps Monsters Treasure Monsters Traps Starting Area
The aim of the game was to grab the treasure in the middle and race back to the starting area. The first to return to their starting area with the treasure in hand would win, but it was not all that easy to do so. For while the traps and monsters may be inactive at the start as soon as a participant touches the treasure in the center they would become active, making the return journey difficult to perform at a speed greater than that of a slug. Worse, since there was only one treasure, the participant's opponent would be hounding after them. The strategies for completing the trial were endless, ranging from methodically disassembling the inactive traps and monsters to running like a headless chicken on fire and trying to dodge everything. Only one participant had ever tried the headless chicken tactic but Gengorio had found it endlessly entertaining.
In many ways, the varied nature of the role lent itself to an interesting tournament. Based on that, the seemingly focused and simplistic nature of the two attacker roles should have led to more basic kinds of tournament, equivalent to slug-fests or shooting galleries. Of course, nothing is ever that simple. For both the melee attackers and the ranged attackers, the main focus of the trials was consistency. Massive damage was nice, but in the lower levels the ability to consistently and reliably deal damage was far more useful. As such, both the roles were supplied with a self repairing golem on which they were to pile on the damage for as long as possible, making sure to keep the amount above a certain level of dps, or damage per second.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
For the melee attackers there was the understanding that, even though they were meant to get in close and dish out the damage, they were very much not meant to take it. As such, the golem would deal out damage in various forms, usually with a clear indicator, and the participants would have to dodge. Each participant started the round with a hundred points but if they failed to dodge any damage then they would have points deducted equal to the amount of damage received. When they reached 0, they were finished, and with increasingly complex and powerful attacks they would always reach 0 eventually. The person who lasted longer would naturally advance, leaving their opponent beaten both literally and figuratively.
The ranged attackers tournament was similar in that they still had to attack a singular golem, but there the similarities ended. Rather than each participant attacking their own golem and fighting to outlast their opponent, the ranged attackers were fighting to outscore their opponent. Besides attacking the central golem 'Boss', they were also presented with various 'adds', smaller non-self-repairing golems that were each worth a variable amount of points depending on their size, durability and speed. The rounds, unlike the melee attackers, lasted a specific amount of time (10 minutes) at the end of which the participant with the largest amount of points would progress to the next round. The largest difference though, was that the two participants would be in the same arena, attacking the same golems. It meant that the points would inevitably go to the participant with the best accuracy, speed and power.
Gengorio always enjoyed the two attacker tournaments, especially the ranged one with all the flashy magic that inevitably populated it, but they still couldn't beat the sheer enjoyment that came from watching the crazy antics of the rogues. Admittedly, most of the participants were the sneaky, quiet and thoroughly shady type, but every year there would always be one or two participants who joined the role for the sheer thrill of it. Those participants always managed to make the tournament exciting. It had gotten to the point that Gengorio, beyond looking for those with potential, always kept an eye on the Rogues participants to try and predict which of them might be a crazy thrill seeker. It wasn't easy as, on a certain level, they were all a little crazy.
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"Finally, it's my turn! Let's get this groovin!" Torin exclaimed, his fists raised in excitement. Then he realized what he'd just said and quickly checked to make sure his surroundings were devoid of people as he lowered his fists. After he was sure no one had heard his embarrassing phrase he walked through the portal with a more dignified air, completely unaware of the laughter of those monitoring him.
The portal dropped him into a small concrete room devoid of anything even slightly interesting other than a small archway covered in an opaque white barrier. Before Torin could do anything more than look around a loud voice sounded out, seemingly coming out of nowhere.
"Greetings Participants, And Congratulations On Making It Into The Final Round Of The Trials! In A Moment The Barrier Will Dissipate And The Round Will Start, But Before That I Will Go Over The Rules For This Round. Don't Worry Though, I'll Be Quick. In Fact, I'm Already Done As There Are No Rules. From This Moment All You Need To Do Is Grab The Tantalising Treasure From The Treasure Room And Return It To The Room You Are Currently In. How You Do It Will Be Completely Up To You But Remember, This Is Your Trial To Enter The Adventurers Guild, How You Pass This Trial Is Just As Important To Your Future As Actually Passing It.”
“Now, Without Further Ado, LETS BEGIN!"
With that the barrier popped like a soap bubble with Torin rocketing through less than a second later. He'd already started running before the announcement even finished. It never even entered his mind that the announcer might pause to build up tension and was quite fortunate that he didn’t as his match was already being displayed on the main screens and a full speed face-plant was not a good way to start an adventuring career.
The first room was filled with traps but Torin ignored all of them as he raced to the doorway at the end of the room. Once there he skidded to a stop and whipped round, intently studying the layout of the traps. After a full thirty seconds of intense concentration he turned back round and continued his mad dash to the treasure room.
The next room was much wider than the long hallway he had just left but lacked the length. It was also occupied, five sleeping monsters dotted around the room. Torin slowed slightly, trying to make as little noise as possible, but still made a bee line towards the archway leading to the treasure room. Despite trying to make as little noise as possible he only managed to get half way across the room before a footfall that was just a fraction too loud managed to wake one of the monsters.
As soon as the worryingly large ape opened its eyes Torin abandoned any effort to remain silent and bolted towards the archway. Before he’d even reached it all the monsters were awake but fortunately still far enough away to not be a bother.
Bursting through the archway Torin raced up to the podium containing the treasure, a small chest the size of his butt cheeks (A/N Torins description, not mine). Torin grabbed the chest, taking a small moment to peer through his opponents archway. He got the smallest impression of a surprised face staring at him from across a monster filled room before he turned and sprinted towards the now cacophonous room he’d just come from.
Thanks to the quick grab, and the fortuitous placement of the monsters, he managed to get through the archway before the monsters got near. Of course, with all the monsters being placed far away from the treasure room it meant they were now spread in front of him, thoroughly blocking the exit. With his opponent no doubt rushing to come and relieve him of his treasure Torin couldn’t afford to slow down, so he instead he sped up. Leveraging every bit of his agility Torin flashed towards the charging monsters. Holding the fake treasure chest in one arm Torin grabbed an arrow from his quiver with his other hand. As he approached the Monsters he grabbed a bit of his Mana and released in a puff while chucking the arrow at the lead monsters face. The burst of Mana combined with the object speeding towards its head had the Monster, the obnoxiously light sleeping ape from earlier, immediately raise its arms to protect its head.
Admittedly, it definitely managed to block the arrow. It also managed to block its own view of Torin, arguably even more effectively than it blocked the arrow. Torin, taking advantage of the ape’s momentary blindness, leapt and rolled under the ape’s massive legs. Surging upwards like a mighty hero Torin immediately bolted to the door like a mighty coward.
He only managed to get another ten feet before a hippo sized wolf leapt at him, claws outstretched and jaws ready to rip him into shreds. Torin was momentarily amazed at the stupidity of the wolf as he simply repeated his earlier maneuver and rolled under the wolfs flying body without losing any momentum. After that it was clear sailing and Torin managed to get to the trap room without having to dodge any more deadly lunges.
It was here that many participants slowed down. The traps were varied in location and type and trying to run through them would be suicide. Any one of the traps could take a person out of the competition and most of them couldn’t be escaped once triggered. Worse, many of the traps were positioned in such a way that their triggering would trigger others so even if you did manage to escape one you would still be screwed.
Torin did not slow down. Instead, in a show of agility and Agility that left many speechless, he ducked, weaved, leapt and shimmied his way through the corridor of traps, often just barely managing to avoid the seemingly endless amounts of traps. The spectators only now realized that Torins pause near the beginning had been to memorize the layout of the traps. That realization only served to astound them more as memorizing the layout of over 50 different traps within thirty seconds was truly amazing.
Sadly for his opponent, who shall forever remain unnamed in his shame, Torin managed to deftly maneuver his way through the gauntlet of traps and into his starting area long before his opponent could sneak past the clamoring monsters left in Torin wake. As soon as he set foot in the room the announcers voice returned, congratulating him on his amazing victory. Torin didn’t care thought, he was currently bent over, greedily sucking in lungs full of air and trying not to think of how many times he almost failed.
Despite all the near misses though, he couldn’t keep the grin off his face. That had been fun.