Erani, Ainash, and I stood in the nighttime roads with the courier, who apparently had a message from Sylvie.

“So, what is it?” I asked.

The courier showed us the paper in her hand. “She says…‘Hey, currently kinda in the middle of a financial crisis. Shit’s going down. Anyway, I can’t really afford much, so hopefully you can come pick me up from Salvation and take me to Precipice? I know you two are probably busy with your terrorism or whatever, but here’s hoping you can spare some funds or influence to let me room with you for some time. I’ll help you out with whatever if you can. Anyway, sorry for contacting you right after you left, but a lot started happening once you were gone. So, y’know. Whoops. Anyway, see you soon. Sylvie.”

“Financial crisis? Isn’t she rich?”

“That’s all that was written in the Message Paper sir, sorry.” The courier stuffed the paper back into her pouch. “Regardless, I wish you well. Good luck with your affairs.”

With that, she left.

I frowned. “Huh. Do you think that’s real?”

“What do you mean?” Erani asked.

“I dunno. Random person suddenly asking for money and all that, sounds like it could just be some sort of scheme to steal from us. How do we know that was a real messenger?”

“Didn’t you see the bottom of the paper? She put her signature down.”

“Have we ever seen her signature before now?”

Erani pursed her lips. “That’s fair. But we have that item, right? A short trip to Salvation shouldn’t be much of an issue.”

I nodded. Right, with the Beacon, it wouldn’t technically cost us anything to go to Salvation and back. Just some Mana. “True. Guess we can pop over to see what’s up. And, actually…”

I glanced around to ensure there was nobody around, then continued in a lower voice, “It could be beneficial to go there anyway, right? Annor and Eita have been seen around in Precipice. If Arlan and Erani are seen all the way in Salvation the same day, with no record of anyone having used the teleportation circle, then it could help keep people from guessing we’re the same people.”

“That’s…smart,” she said. “Only, it does require that Arlan and Erani be seen publicly in Salvation. Which is dangerous, considering we’re known fugitives.”

“I built up some goodwill for us when we killed Jon, remember? Shouldn’t be an issue as long as we’re careful.” I glanced around the area. “So then, should we figure out where to put it?”

We walked through the desert, in search of a secluded area that would be fitting for what we required of the Beacon—namely that it be easy for us to find while being difficult for everyone else to find.

Generally, that meant walking a far way off in a random direction, foregoing roads and anything else that could guide a person to randomly stumble upon the location we chose.

As we walked, the night grew darker, and eventually, midnight came.

Time Loop has refreshed its uses.

Recycled Loop has activated. Due to 2 uses being leftover, you have gained the following Stats:

+1 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence

5 Stats remain until you must Level up.

We’d technically come to the first day of the tournament—though, nothing would start until later in the morning. Hopefully we could get whatever Sylvie’s “financial crisis” was sorted out in time.

I also still had two more Spells to Upgrade—Ray of Frost and Curse of Echoes. Normally, I liked doing them one at a time so I always had as many Time Loops available to me as possible, but with the tournament coming up, I’d most likely try to get both of them done before this new day ended, since soon we’d be seeing the beginning of the fights themselves.

“Are you excited?” I asked Erani.

“I mean, we only just left Salvation, so I don’t see why I’d be excited to return.”

“No, for the tournament. Excited to compete?”

She chuckled. “Maybe half excited, half stressed out of my mind.”

“Nah, don’t be. Even if you lose a fight and get eliminated, you’ll still have me and Ainash. One of us’ll win for you.”

“No, no, it’s not about the end results, I don’t think. I mean, the high-stakes nature of this whole thing certainly contributes, but I guess…I don’t know, this feels like the first time my abilities as a Sorcerer are really being tested.”

“What?” I asked, laughing. “You know you’ve fought a Young Dragon before, right?”

“Well, sure, I guess. It’s not really a logical feeling. But fighting Humans is different, you know? Against a monster, it’s very asymmetrical. You were both given completely different toolsets, and sure, you’re comparing who utilizes their abilities better, but if you lose, then maybe your opponent simply had a better set of tools than you did. But against other people, we all started at the same point. So if I lose, then it’s because I made the wrong decisions along the way, and they didn’t.”

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“But that’s only true if you lose to someone who’s the same Level as you. If they’ve got even just two or three Levels over you, then it wasn’t really fair to start with.”

“No, even in that case, I still had opportunities to Level up more or shape my build to be better against opponents who have higher Stats than me. You’re a good example of that—your build is good at evening those odds.”

“I still don’t think that you losing can be chalked up to you just being objectively wrong, or anything. Besides, you’ve fought against plenty of people before.”

“Right, and I don’t really think that, either. But I do feel it. Like I said, it’s illogical. Just…a formalized competition like this, everything made equal except for your individual choices, it puts the pressure on. Especially with so many spectators. You don’t feel what I’m talking about?”

“Not really. It kinda makes it more exciting for me. Maybe it’s the same aspects that’re making you stressed, except they’re just amping me up.”

Erani snorted. “Well. Glad to know you’re confident.”

“I am confident. I’m telling you, one-on-ones are where I thrive, and I’ve beaten way more powerful opponents than some random adventurers. It’ll be easy.”

“See, now I’m just worried about you. I sometimes fear that Time Loop is making you feel immortal.”

“Oh, c’mon, you know I was playing it up to ease your worries. I don’t literally think it’ll be some piece of cake. But, that said, I do think we’re gonna win.”

“You can’t just say that. What if we lose?”

“We won’t.”

“But see, now if we do lose, it’ll be even worse because you’ll have to remember all that time you were so confident.”

I looked at her. “Do you think the moon is made of cheese?”

She blinked. “What?”

“The moon, up in the sky. Do you think it is a very large ball of artisan cheese?”

“...No?”

“But how can you be so sure?”

“Because I don’t see any reason it would be made of cheese. Do we need to get you to a healer?”

“No, no, but now if we ever find out that the moon is made of cheese, you’re gonna be so embarrassed about how wrong you were.”

Erani rolled her eyes. “Okay. Sure. I get your point.”

“But aren’t you worried about how you might be wrong about the moon not being made of cheese?”

“You do realize you’ve made a terrible comparison, right? One of these two is completely possible and you’re understating how likely it is, while the other is completely impossible and you’re overstating its odds.”

“Nope. They are equally likely. Both completely impossible.”

“Arlan, the longer this conversation goes on, the worse it’s gonna be if—”

“You’re right. If the moon is made of cheese, I’ll probably be pretty embarrassed that I compared it to the completely nonexistent possibility that we lose this tournament.”

She gave me an unamused look.

“Okay, fine, I’ll drop it,” I said. “But only if you admit that we’re gonna win.”

“I’m not going to—”

“C’mon, c’mon,” I said, wrapping an arm around her. “It’s easy. Just say, ‘We’re gonna one hundred percent dominate all the losers who are unlucky enough to be paired against us, and we’re gonna win the whole thing, and Emperor Etrin himself will come down and bestow upon us infinite Enchanting materials, and everything will be good forever.’”

“I’ve never said I think we’re doomed to fail, or anything. You’re too worried about nothing.”

“And you’re too reluctant to act confident. See, now that I’ve had this whole conversation, I’m gonna have to do as best as I can, because if I fail then you’ll never let me live it down. But you’re acting all modest and everything, meaning you’re leaving the option to yourself to not try as hard as you can. And see, that’s just not fair.”

She sighed. “Okay, fine. We’ll win. Happy?”

“Great. Now, if we fail, I’ll make fun of you.”

“For saying something that you made me say?”

“I’m trying to give you some motivation.”

Erani smiled and rolled her eyes. “How kind of you.”

She pecked me on the lips, and we looked forward, continuing in our journey. Ainash had run ahead and was standing on top of a large dune, surveying the area.

“How would we even find out the moon is made of cheese, anyway?” Erani asked.

“I dunno. Maybe we’ll run into a moon denizen.”

“You think there are people who live on the moon? And, what, they’ve come down to our world to say hi?”

“It’s possible.”

“I’m going to go ahead and disagree.”

“Fine, fine,” I said with a laugh. “If we actually meet someone who’s from the moon, I’ll be very embarrassed.”

“Found place!” Ainash messaged us from up ahead. “Little cave that we could hide Beacon thing in!”

“Oh, perfect,” I responded. “I think we’re far enough away that it’d be unlikely someone would run across it, too.”

It didn’t take long, but soon the Beacon was set up and ready to go. Standing in the small covered area, sandstone all around us, all it took was a simple push of the mind, and suddenly the small crystal was floating in the air. From there, all it needed was a simple 1k Mana before it’d be charged and we could teleport back to the Goblin forest in Salvation. To return, it’d take 10k, and from that point the cost would be so high it would basically be unusable. But the cost reset after a week, so it would hopefully not be a problem.

It took less than ten minutes to charge it up this first time, with me simply holding my hand around it as its glow became more and more intense.

Then, eventually, I got a notification.

Anchor Point is charged with 1k/1k Mana.

“Okay,” I said, looking at Erani. “Ready to head to Salvation? Time to see an old friend.”

“Old friend? We saw her a day ago.”

“Yeah, but it sounds better that way. Like we’re doing something important instead of just going to help her with what’s probably some random annoyance.”

“I don’t know, she did say it was a ‘financial crisis.’ Sounds important.”

“See? So don’t you agree that we should talk about it like it’s important? I mean, we’re using this new magic item that lets us teleport, for the gods’ sake. We get the right to be at least a little dramatic, don’t we?”

Erani shook her head and let out a chuckle. “You are so weird. Okay, sure. Let’s see an old friend.”