A vacation for a group of incredibly strong classers, where two of them could literally create money from thin air, was different than Kelsey had expected. She had thought that the group would have wanted to visit the capitol or go out to dinner at fancy restaurants after seeing an expensive play.
But that’s not what the group wanted to do. For them, a vacation apparently meant training with a view. Accompanied by some good food and frequent breaks. This was perfectly fine for Kelsey; she was just glad to be able to spend time with her friends.
The first few days of the vacation were spent mostly separately by the various groups. Thadius and his family spent most of the time decorating their new rooms and relaxing by a pool they asked Kelsey to make for them. She even user her magic to make the kids some pool toys that didn’t exist in Anoura so they would have something to play with. She wasn't able to make anything out of plastic as she had no idea what plastic was actually made of, so she settled for toys mostly made of rubber and leather.
Owen and Lisa both spent most of their time down at the training field playing, rather than practicing, with their new skills. This was when Kelsey learned that Anoura had its own version of sports that included Classer abilities. The game was kind of like dodgeball, except that the players were able to use their creation and manipulations to attack one another with the objective being to push their opponents off the field. It was called Mage Arena.
There were strict rules about shape, size, and density of the created objects as well as rules for the ways players were allowed to manipulate them. For instance, once an object crossed the line between the teams, no one would be allowed to manipulate the projectile anymore, even defensively. The players were also only allowed to use a certain amount of mana for their manipulations, which meant that a referee with Magesight or Manasight needed to watch the game closely.
The players were split into teams of equal numbers and then had to stay on their sides. They could be pushed out of the ring towards the back, or either side.
After about an hour of Lisa and Owen playing by themselves, a bunch of members from The Librarians began to watch and started joining in on the games.
While level was certainly an advantage in the sport, it was less impactful than Kelsey would have expected. She frequently saw lower leveled individuals beat higher leveled people due to a smart strategy or simply being better manipulators.
The largest advantage by far, however, was the materials that someone was able to create and manipulate. Lisa for instance was at a massive disadvantage with her fire, light, and shadow creations, versus Owen who had access to metal, ice, and earth, which were all traditionally sturdy and heavy materials.
It was a super fun sport to watch, and Kelsey decided to make a dedicated arena for the game with a single field, seating, and amenities like bathrooms and water fountains. Because of the size of the field, the building was huge. Over 150 meters long, 60 meters wide, and the walls were over 20 meters tall to account for all of the seating. Kelsey was pretty sure that it was nearly as large as an American football stadium back on Earth, which is why she decided to make the play area a 100 meter long by 50-meter-wide field. With the population of the current settlement, they weren't able to fill even one hundredth of all the seating Kelsey made, but she figured it was better to have too much than too little seating.
It took her over two days to create, and she had to relocate dozens of Thorn Wolves, but it was actually quite a fun project. She had Gwen help her with the design of the building itself, as well as the decorating. Once the building was open, the public could frequently be found playing the game during their off hours down at the building. Kelsey was ecstatic that her little settlement finally had some real entertainment.
Gregory for his part spent the first few days of his vacation actually relaxing in meditation while Owen and Lisa played. Kelsey could tell by the constant look of concentration on his face that he was spending his 'vacation' working out how to control his skills. He hadn’t asked Kelsey for any more help, and she wasn’t going to assume he needed it. Gregory was definitely the type of guy to try to handle things on his own, but he wasn't too stubborn, and would ask Kelsey for help if he thought he needed it.
On the fifth day of vacation, everyone in the group was sitting down on the bleachers surrounding the Mage Arena field watching two teams battle it out. The Librarians had broken into various teams and formed a tournament style bracket.
None of Kelsey's friends or family decided to participate during this tournament, choosing instead to simply go to the arena and watch the game like normal. Lisa and Owen did however assure her that they would be playing in the next one.
Gregory was also with them today, having finally come out of his meditation to eat some food, drink some water, and enjoy some time to relax. He seemed much better after several days of mediation and looked incredibly confident. She had a feeling that he had some sort of breakthrough on his skills, and she was excited to see what it was after the tournament finished.
Gwen and Claire had both expressed interest in heading to The Trial to advance, and they were all wanted to do so right after the tournament ended. Kelsey was planning on going with them to supervise.
But, before all of that, they had a few games to enjoy. They were currently watching the quarterfinals and there were eight teams left in total. There was one group of three people led by Thomas, the boy she had seen in Saldeya, that were the heavy favorites to win. Thomas, despite being a warrior primary class, was an incredible sand creator whose skill with his magic surprised even Kelsey.
He was able to do things with his sand manipulation that truly blew Kelsey’s mind. The most prominent example of this was his ability to put just enough spin and mana into a disk of sand that would cause it to explode into a cloud of sand right before hitting his target, all without manipulating the disk after it crossed the line between the teams. He would follow up the sand cloud with a perfectly compact and stable disk of sand that would slam into the chest of his opponent, usually sending them flying out of the arena instantly.
Kelsey was pretty sure that she wouldn’t even be able to beat the kid at the game, despite her massive attribute and level advantage. At least not without using her body enhancement and armor skills. Those two skills were the entire reason that Kelsey was actually banned from playing with anyone. She simply wasn’t able to deactivate two of her skills. Well, technically speaking she could deactivate her armor, but not while she was actively playing; deactivating her armor simply took too much concentration.
Those two skills meant that she had an incredibly unfair advantage, which made her somewhat upset because the game really did look fun.
Watching Thomas fight with his sand magic truly was incredible, and Kelsey no longer wondered how the boy had gotten to level 144 before his 17th birthday. It was clear that he would be able to push much further than that. Now that he had a Mageblood body, there was no telling what he would eventually be capable of. He was a true prodigy, and everyone watching knew it.
Over the next few hours, the tournament proceeded about how everyone expected. The team led by Thomas cleanly swept all of the opposition and landed themselves squarely into the finals. The team opposing them was a group of people who were all nearing the Immortal tier themselves. Their leader was an ice mage who, while not as good as Thomas, was incredibly skilled in their own right, able to single handedly win most of her matches.
The one major difference between the two teams was overall skill. On his team, Thomas was basically the only one who was truly good. His teammates were his two roommates, both of which would have never made it to the quarterfinals, let alone the finals on any other team. The ice mage’s team however was made of three relatively skilled people, with the ice mage being marginally better than her teammates.
Everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for the match.
“Alright everybody, it’s time for the main event!” the sound mage announcer shouted across the stadium. “On my left, you know them, you love them, The Sandstorm Sentinels!” he said as he pointed towards Thomas’ team.
The crowd exploded into an excited cheer, yelling as loudly as they could. Kelsey and all of her friends and family joined in as well, with Thadius’ kids being particularly fond of the Sandstorm Sentinels.
Once the crowd quieted down a bit, the announcer continued. “On my right, the fierce, the frosty, the deadly, The Froooooozen Phantoms!” he shouted, directing the crowd’s attention towards the team led by the ice mage.
The crowd once again erupted into cheers and screaming, nearly as loud as they were for the Sandstorm Sentinels.
Kelsey would have thought that there would have been some level of favoritism between the two teams, but the reality was that everyone was just excited to see what they thought was going to be a great match.
Once the crowd had once again quieted down the announcer looked to both of the teams and said something quietly. They both nodded so he backed up out of the arena and stood on the edge of the field. “Okay let’s get started. 3… 2… 1… FIGHT!”
Both teams bolted into action immediately, creations and manipulations flying across the field directed at the weak links on the teams. Within just a few seconds Thomas’ teammates were both launched out of the field by the combined efforts of the Frozen Phantoms, who were all three ice mages, leaving Thomas to dodge and weave through three separate people’s projectiles.
It was a situation he had been in many times in the past games, but this time was different. The Phantoms were so well coordinated that he had little to no time to actually use any of his own skills and was being pushed back quickly.
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The crowd was cheering in excitement as Thomas got closer and closer to the edge of the field. Everyone thought that he was moments from being knocked out until he did something no one expected, he planted his feet firmly on the ground, braced himself, and caught an icy disk that had been launched in his direction. He slid back several meters, nearly being pushed out of the arena completely.
Once he had the disk in hand, he began running towards the three Frozen Phantoms who had briefly been stunned by the surprise. As he got closer, he began attacking back, not to knock them out of the ring, but to disorient them and stop them from ganging up on him like they had been doing. He kept the disk of ice in his hand the entire time, and it eventually became clear why.
As he was attacking one of the mages behind her, the leading ice mage launched a small, but rapidly fired disk directly at Thomas. Instead of dodging, or blocking, he threw the icy projectile directly at the opponent's disk of ice, knocking it off course just enough for him to dodge.
This once again stunned the opposing team, and Thomas took advantage, sending two disks directly into the sides of the ice mage’s teammates, knocking them off the field into the bleachers.
It was now a one-on-one fight, and the crowd was going wild. Kelsey could feel the vibrations of their shouting through the ground. There were only roughly one hundred and twenty people in attendance, most of them being players themselves, but they shouted loudly enough for thousands.
Both Thomas and the ice mage watched each other patiently, neither of them wanting to make the first move.
A few seconds later, the ice mage said something to Thomas that the audience was unable to hear. Thomas shook his head and dropped into a fighting stance, clearly ready to end the match.
Grinned excitedly, the ice mage lowered her stance in preparation for the fight as well. Once she was ready, she lifted her arm and began creating an ice disk. As she did this Thomas burst into action, creating a projectile as quickly as possible and launched it at the woman.
At first, the disk looked like it was off target. He had launched it at a slight angle and towards the right, but it was almost immediately clear that the disk was curving towards the woman and would hit her squarely in the chest. She reacted too slowly, making dodging backwards her only option, but Thomas was clearly prepared for that as he had sent another disk right after the first directly at the spot he thought she would be after dodging the first disk.
The second disk connected, slamming into her chest, sending her spinning into the ground, nearly being thrown out of the ring. Not wasting any time, Thomas followed up the second strike with a third, hitting the woman as she began standing up.
The third disk was more than enough, and the ice mage was unceremoniously launched off the field to the roaring of the excited crowd.
“And your winner is…. The Sandstorm Sentinels! Everyone make some noise for your brand-new Mage Arena champions here at the Serenity arena!” The announcer shouted across the stadium.
The audience screamed more loudly than ever before, but this time Kelsey didn’t join them, she was too distracted by the name she had heard.
Serenity? Did they name my… village? Town? Wait… do I have a village now?
All of her friends and family were staring at her, confusion written plainly on their faces as they registered the name as well.
“Did you name this place, Kel?” Thadius asked.
Kelsey shook her head. “Was it one of your guild members, maybe?” she asked, looking at Gwen.
Gwen shrugged. “Not that I know of. Decent name though. I guess they needed to call it something, so they just came up with it.”
“I guess I should just be thankful they didn’t call it 'Kelsey'. It makes me wonder if Neim was founded in a similar way. Immortal decided to start a base of operations in the middle of nowhere, a city springs up around them.” Kelsey said thoughtfully.
Gregory interjected this time. “Aye. I’ve not looked into the history of Neim, but it certainly do be possible. Whitebranch was formed in a similar manner. A group of adventurers were camping there and within a few years, a small village sprang up around them.”
Kelsey nodded. “Well, I guess this place is called Serenity now. Congratulations everyone, you just founded a village. Hopefully Alana won’t be too pissed at me.” Kelsey said, scratching her chin.
“I don’t love that you’re on a first name basis with our mother. It’s concerning, Kel.” Owen said sardonically.
Kelsey just grinned. “Listen, Ally and I go way back, you wouldn’t understand.” She said as she stood up and began walking down towards the field with the intention of talking to the announcer. As she walked away Kelsey continued exaggerating how close she and the queen were, to the bemusement of everyone except Gregory and Owen, who were acting much more annoyed by the jokes than she was sure they were. "Lana and I are borderline inseparable. We comb each other's hair, tell scary stories, and gossip about the things her sons are up to. It's wonderful."
Once she got down to the field, she quickly walked up to the announcer and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey.”
He turned around and looked at Kelsey before nearly jumping out of his skin and hopping away. “Ma’am.... Madam Kelsey… Ms. Kelsey… It’s a pleasure to meet you… How can I help you?” the young man said as he began bowing awkwardly.
What the hell is with this guy?
Kelsey held up her hands in a calming motion. “Calm down guy. I’m just here to ask who came up with the name for this… village? Town? Whatever this is…” she said as she waved her hand dismissively.
Almost without thinking, the man responded. “Technically speaking, it’s a nation–” he said before covering his mouth.
“A what!?” Kelsey shouted in shock. “A nation? Explain, now.”
Everyone in the area was now staring at Kelsey and the young announcer who was looking at Kelsey with a significant amount of fear.
Sighing deeply, Kelsey calmed herself. “I’m sorry. Let me ask that again. Would you please explain what you mean by ‘nation’.” She said gently while putting air quotes around the word nation.
The man brought his hands away from his face and began stuttering out an answer. “Um.. well, you see… we aren’t technically recognized by… the government of Cardona… as a village, town, or city… Not even really a hamlet. So, until we get written permission from… the Queen… we’re technically a foreign nation inside their borders.”
Kelsey rubbed her temples.
It likely wouldn’t end up being a problem, but she was incredibly curious how this had happened. “How did this happen? We’re supposed to be a guild headquarters.” Kelsey asked, frustration clear in her voice.
The young man nodded. “Yes… you see… because of the population, and the number of semi-permanent and permanent structures that have been constructed, we passed the threshold for becoming a settlement. The problem is that we don’t… have… permission...” he said, trailing off.
Kelsey nodded a few times in thought.
It really isn’t a big deal. Alana will surely give me permission. I do wonder if we’ll need to set up some sort of official government though. We may also need people to construct infrastructure such as roads and bridges. Sewage won’t be a problem…
She continued thinking along those lines for several more seconds before turning her head up and looking at the young man. “Hey, what’s your name?” She asked, her tone friendly.
“Marcus, ma’am.” he said nervously.
Kelsey smiled. “Marcus, what do you do for the guild?”
As she asked this question, his demeanor changed somewhat, and he gained confidence. “I am effectively the Guild’s operations manager ma’am. I run the day-to-day operations as well as manage the guild’s larger contracts.”
Kelsey grinned. “Good. So, you work quite closely with Gwen then?”
Marcus nodded. “Yes ma’am. She deals with all of the big picture problems and guild direction, I deal with the smaller stuff.”
Without saying anything else, Kelsey looked up towards Gwen and made eye contact, motioning for her to come down to meet them. A few seconds later, Kelsey’s partner was standing next to her.
“What’s up, Kel. Did you figure out why they named this place?” she asked as she arrived.
“I actually forgot about that part. Marcus?” Kelsey asked.
Marcus looked somewhat embarrassed. “I realized it needed a name for the tournament about twenty minutes ago, so I came up with one… We can change it if you hate it!” he said, once again nervous.
Kelsey shook her head. “No, it’s okay, it’s a good name. Serenity. The forest is quite a serene place when you aren't being hunted by wolves twenty levels higher than yourself.”
She spent the next few seconds catching Gwen up to speed with everything her and Marcus had talked about.
“So, Gwen… if this place is going to be a real settlement, what do we do?” Kelsey asked somewhat seriously.
Gwen thought deeply for several seconds before answering. “I think the answer is pretty obvious… We start advertising. We need people to manage the... village itself. I don’t have the manpower to run the guild at the scale I would like, let alone an entire town or city. Plus, I know you definitely don’t want to do it. I don’t think any of our friends do either… Thadius, maybe wouldn’t mind being mayor.” she said thoughtfully.
Kelsey nodded. “Alright. Can I open a contract for your Guild then?” she asked.
“Sure, what do you want us to do?” Gwen asked.
“Send word to neighboring towns and cities that we are looking for skilled professionals and are willing to pay for them to expand the town.” Kelsey said.
“How much money are you willing to put behind it?” Gwen asked seriously, hiding the fact that money was meaningless to Kelsey.
“Let’s go with one million gold for now. I think that should get enough people interested to get us started.” Kelsey answered.
Gwen nodded. “Alright, we’ll take ten percent of any contracts signed due to our intervention.” she said looking at Marcus. “Does that sound fair?”
Marcus’ eyes were wide in amazement. “Yes… that should be… great.” he said before mouthing what looked like the words ‘one hundred thousand’ to himself.
Kelsey smiled. “Get the contract written up, and I’ll get the gold prepared. Can you have it ready in the next three or so days?” Kelsey asked the young man.
He nodded furiously. “Absolutely. I’ll have it ready as soon as possible!” he said, practically shouting as he excitedly ran towards the Guild headquarters.
“Nice guy… I see why you chose him as your operations manager.” Kelsey said thoughtfully as she took Gwen’s hand and began walking up towards her friends.
“Ready to advance?” Kelsey asked, a grin popping on her face.
“I couldn’t possibly be more ready.”