“So, how long ago did you get to this floor?” The mage who had first waved me over asks as I approach the group of five.
“About seven hours ago.” I say. “I haven’t really been here too long.”
“Just seven hours? How long did it take you to get out of the slums?”
“Not even an hour. I took out some local crime leader and scared off his underlings. I got my next mark right after that. What’d you guys do for yours?”
The mage laughs, patting the fighter in the group on the back. “Flynn here sparred with one of the gate guards to prove we were worthy of entrance. It worked pretty well. We weren’t even in the slums for 20 minutes.”
“Impressive. Did you try it with the guards to the next section of the city as well?”
“We didn’t dare to.” Flynn says, shaking his head. “They are each level 40, and it would be very stupid to think I could take one of them on.”
“No kidding.” I say, identifying each member of the group. They were all exactly level 25. When I was level 25 I wouldn’t have had any confidence facing down a level 40 opponent. Maybe I would now, but only if it was necessary. “Is this your plan for getting the next mark?”
“Yep.” The mage cuts in. “Hopefully we put on a good enough show to be allowed entry to the fighting arena within the next ring of the city. We’d probably be fodder there, but it shouldn’t be too bad dealing with whoever tries to come after us in here.”
“Well from the looks of it, you are also gonna have to deal with me in there.” I stick out my hand. “I’m River, nice to meet you.”
“Ryker.” The mage says, shaking my hand. “And I am sure the five of us could handle you.”
“You wanna make a bet on it?”
“Confident much?” The archer ask, her face clearly showing how unamused she was. Ryker at least laughed, though I hadn’t meant it as a joke.
“I’m serious.” I say. “I’d wager I can at least fight on equal grounds against the five of you.”
Okay, that definitely came across as over confident. Arrogant even. I couldn’t help myself. This was the first opportunity I’d ever had to truly compare myself to others who were at a similar level to myself. Sure they were five levels lower, but there were also five of them. Put together they had 95 levels on me. That wasn’t really saying much, as I’m sure anybody 95 levels higher than myself could kill a hundred of me, but that wasn’t the point.
“What exactly would you wager?” Ryker asks.
“Well it isn’t unreasonable to assume the winner of this tournament gets their mark upgraded, so whoever wins our little sparring session wins the mark upgrade.”
“Sounds fun.” Ryker says, and at the exact same time Flynn speaks.
“Seems like a waste of time.”
“Oh don’t be like that.” Ryker says, elbowing Flynn. “You worried we might lose?”
The healer of the group finally speaks up for the first time. He seems to have identify as well, as he knew my level. “He is five levels higher than us, and from the looks of it wasn’t traveling with anybody. He must have something to back up that confidence.”
The entire rest of the group seems to contemplate that for a moment, and the archer speaks up again. “Have you been traveling through the floors alone?”
“Yeah.” I say, shrugging. “It’s better for levels that way.”
“Sounds boring being alone for so long.”
“It’s not too bad. I’d rather it be like this than have allies to worry about during a fight.”
“So you fought that skeleton sentinel on your own as well?” Ryker asks, looking like he didn’t quite believe it could be true.
“Yes I did.”
He looks conflicted for a moment, not sure if he should take my word for it. After a moment, he seems to come to a conclusion. “I guess we will just have to wait and see if you live up to that story during this tournament.”
__________
After the sun had set and night had fallen, the arena stands were full of spectators who all seemed eager to watch the fights play out. I was honestly pretty interested myself to see them. The rules of the tournament had been explained at to all 50 of the participants at the start. Every 90 seconds somebody would be released into the arena, with the order being completely randomized. Someone would be sent out right away if there was only one person left in the arena, leaving very little time for recovery. Non-lethal attacks only were allowed, so you were eliminated when you were either thrown out of the main arena or deemed too injured to continue. Nobody knew the order of who would go out, so we were all waiting for our names to be called.
“First; Commoner Granet!” The announcer called with a booming voice. Somebody nearby walked out into the arena, stepping into the elevated ring on the floor that represented the main fighting area. The floor was made of packed dirt, making for solid enough ground to run around on. “And joining him in the ring; Slum Lord River!”
I was more upset about my title being called out than the fact that I had been thrown into the fray early. I inspected the man, finding him to be only level 13. He runs towards me with a sword in hand, and I dodge to the side before shoving him hard enough to send him stumbling out of the arena. There weren’t any cheers coming from the crowd, and I realized I might have to put on a bit more of a show.
When the next individual came out, also a commoner, I did a poorly remembered martial arts move from some karate movie I remember seeing years ago. It was poorly executed, and would not have worked if he had been a similar strength. Thankfully he wasn’t, and his entire body flipped as he was sent into the ground. I picked up him and over head tossed him out of the arena after that, getting a few more cheers than last time.
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The next several opponents are subject to my experimentation. I try various flashy yet ineffective moves in an attempt to get the crowd engaged in the fight, and steadily they seemed to be getting more and more into it. My reign of terror was brought to an end when the next name was called.
“Next into the arena; Brawler Flynn!”
Flynn stepped out and onto the arena. I look at him, speaking just barely loud enough for him to hear but soft enough that nobody else heard it.
“Fake a half decent fight for now. We can get serious when everyone else shows up.”
He nods, and we start exchanging blows with one another. He swings his sword at half strength and I either knock it away or block it with my arm, my mana shield absorbing the impact. Anytime somebody climbed their way into the arena, they were quickly thrown out by either me or Flynn.
“Next up, Commoner Jen!”
The other mage from the party enters the ring, and she joins the fake spar. I assume she got the commoner title due to getting in on association with Flynn. When Ryker got into the arena soon after, he too was announced with the commoner title.
Before any more of the party members came out, a new name was announced that wasn’t part of the group.
“And at long last, our champion of the night enters the arena and is ready to take out the opposition! Welcome Brine the Breaker!”
I glance at the man briefly, identifying him.
Human (level 27)
Looks like this guy is supposed to be the main opposition for this tournament. Ryker gives me a look, and I nod.
My staff swings around in front of me and points to the man, delivering a concussive blast of mana directly to his chest. It doesn’t quite send him back far enough to knock him out of the arena, but the second cast of the spell does.
Just like that, the reigning champion had been eliminated.
Once the only remaining competitors in the arena were me and the five party members I had entered with. We all stared each other down. They tried their best to surround me, and with how many of them there were I couldn’t do much to stop it.
I activated empower at full burn, and I could feel it eating away at the mana stored within my aura. A small dagger of mana appears in my offhand, and without hesitation I threw it towards the healer of the group. He steps to the side to avoid it, but once it is as close as it is going to get, I release all the mana within the dagger into a blast of pure force. It sends the healer stumbling, leaving him off balance enough for me to sprint in his direction.
Flynn met me halfway, raising his sword between us to try and keep me at bay. The entire time I was running, spells and arrows impacted my shield, draining mana with every single attack.
I step in close, pushing the tip of the sword as far to my left as I can. Flynn tries to take a few steps back to keep me from getting too close, but I am already past the tip of the sword. Anything attacks he tries to get off will be far more difficult to execute.
My palm slams into his stomach as he flies back from the blast of mana. I can hear the air leave his lungs as he flies, and I raise my staff to fire a concussive mana bolt at him mid air. That only added to his momentum, and he had no way to make it back to the arena before landing. He landed on his feet, looking like he hadn’t taken very much damage, but dealing substantial damage wasn’t the goal of this particular fight.
Before he had even landed, Van the healer had joined him in the air, his trajectory destined to fall out of the arena.
I turned around, and I could see that my remaining three opponents were all trying to huddle up in the middle of the arena. Clearly they realized that being anywhere remotely near the edge of the arena was a bad idea.
I danced around the edge of the arena, avoiding the spells and arrows flying my way. I sent a few bolts of mana towards the group, but a shimmering barrier of mana appeared in front of them to block each attack. It seems that Ryker or Jen had some kind of barrier spell to defend a group instead of a single person.
I began running towards them, taking the attacks to the face and praying that none of them would be powerful enough to pierce my mana shield. When I got close enough for it to be a viable option, I used mana spike to slam an attack through the barrier. It weakened considerably as it pierced the defense, but it got the job done and managed to cut into the shoulder of the Archer, Jade. She stopped shooting arrows just long enough to grab the injury, which gave me enough time to send several more spikes of mana straight through the barrier and into all three of the group.
I was forced to dodge around every time I saw a skill our particularly powerful spell being used. The two mages seemed to have a weaker version of my mana spike, and the archer had a skill that allowed her to shoot some of her arrows with quite a bit more power.
I summoned myself a spiked maul, slamming it repeatedly on the barrier of mana. I could see Ryker straining with each hit, and it wasn’t hard to figure out this was his spell. If I could drain his mana enough to force him to drop the barrier, this fight should end pretty quickly.
At that exact moment, I could feel that I had used about half of the mana stored within my aura. It was supporting the drain of both my shield, keeping the maul together, and keeping my empower skill running. With all these skills active, it was burning its reserves fast.
I send a few blasts of mana into the barrier, my only goal being to break it down. Soon enough, the first crack appeared, and the next hit shattered the entire thing. Ryker stopped throwing out spells, as he had clearly run out of mana. With a few casts of concussive mana blasts, I had sent Ryker, Jade, and Jen flying towards the outside of the arena.
To my surprise, one of them manages to stay within the arena. Jade had used some kind of skill that redirected her momentum downwards, allowing her to stay within the bounds of the arena. She tried to run around and shoot arrows for a while, but the absolute hail of concussive mana bolts I sent her way eventually forced her out of the ring.
“We have our winner!” The announcer shouts, and cheers erupt all around the arena. A very well dressed man approached the ring, jumping up and walking towards me. He held a pillow in his hands, on which rested a very nice looking ring.
“Your reward.” The man says, bowing his head very slightly.
I take the ring and identify it.
Spacial Ring (Uncommon)
Allows the wearer to store items of Uncommon or lower rarity within the ring. The maximum storage capacity of this ring is determined by the wearers Spirit stat.
I slip the ring onto my finger, admiring it for a moment. Not having to carry all my shit around all the time sounded extremely convenient. I store my staff in the ring, glad to not need to always carry that everywhere I go.
The announcer says a few more things, but I ignore them when I start to get an odd feeling in my aura. I can’t quite place it, but when I activate my dimension sight briefly I see the source of the feeling.
A faint outline of my staff is hovering around me. So, it was stored within my aura, at least partially. That’s why the rings capacity was reliant on my spirit stat. Does that mean I could just...
I pull the outline of the staff towards myself using my mana, and it moves towards me. I reach out to grab it, and I feel a chunk of my mana disappear from my aura as the staff appears back in my hand, having been retrieved not with the ring but having been brought right back from the dimensional space thanks to me having a half decent grasp of my trait.
“Right River?” Ryker asks, snapping me back to reality. I hadn’t been paying enough attention to know what was being discussed, so I took a leap of faith and decided to trust whatever he had been saying.
“Yes.” I say, putting on a fake smile.
“Great!” The announcer shouts. “Then it is decided. You six will participate in the inner ring tournament tomorrow night!”
The marks on the shoulders of the party members I fought changed to a roman numeral three, and I could feel my own do the same.
Mark upgraded, Slum Highlander (Tier 3)
Floor 7 completed!
Welcome to floor 8!
Blind faith has once more led me true. Unfortunately, my faith that I would get a better name for my mark has failed me.