Andy and Arlene rejoined the group by the gate. The fruit tray had been picked over, but several slices of melon remained.
The conversations continued between the different guild masters, attendants, and others in the hall.
Out of the crowd, Gar emerged and grasped Andy's elbow roughly.
Andy jumped. And looked up, the hulking man bent down to be eye level with Andy.
"At first, Gar thought you were puny," he said. "But you are… a strong warrior."
Andy nodded, attempting to discern whether there was any sarcasm or hint of mocking in Gar's voice.
He detected none.
"You save your friend, and you defeat a powerful opponent," said Gar. "You are not as weak and stupid as you seem."
"Thank you, Gar," said Andy, amused at the berserker's backhanded compliment, but sincerely grateful for the intention behind it.
"When you go out, remember this, the maxim of our berserker guild: let Temmo's cry echo in your own."
Andy nodded.
"Is Temmo your god?" Andy asked.
"Temmo is our deity, hated by many, beloved by those filled with a rage for justice. He is a strong warrior, like you, wielding a magnificent warhammer. And I see some of Temmo in you," Gar said, pushing his finger against Andy's forehead.
"Thank you Gar," Andy said, caught off guard by the berserker's sincere compliment. "Really, I mean that."
"After you complete the arena, then you will train and build hard muscles," Gar said, stepping back and crossing his arms.
"Thank you Gar," Andy said again, attempting to excuse himself gracefully and avoid revealing the fact that now he was holding a separate conversation in his head.
What do you want? Andy thought with some intensity of focus.
Andy looked around the hall. Sure enough, Antoine was leaning on the wall in the opposite corner, smiling at Andy from across the room.
Don't worry, I have no idea what's coming.
What's that supposed to mean? Do you know the next challenge?
Andy broke his gaze and turned around, not wanting to appear too awkward. He decided to stare at the fruit table instead… for some reason.
How?
Sorry if I don't believe you.
"Are you going to take more, or may I clear this out of the way?" an attendant asked Andy, who appeared to be eyeing the fruit table for an unusually long time.
"Feel free to take it, sorry," Andy said, smiling nervously and looking instead at the floor.
What is it, then? Andy thought.
Absolutely not.
What does that mean?
Andy connected eyes with Antoine again.
Antoine smirked, lowering his glare, before he pushed himself off of the wall and slipped across the room, politely joining a conversation between an attendant and another guild master, perhaps the charlatan. Andy couldn't quite tell.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"What was that all about?" Arlene said as Andy headed toward the arena entrance. "You and Antoine looked like you were trying to fuck eachother silently from across the room."
Andy laughed.
"I learned two things," he said.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. First, Gar says I'm a good warrior now, so that's nice. Second… we should definitely never choose the second option in the upcoming round."
"What? Why is that?"
"Because whatever Antoine says, I think we should always do the opposite."
Arlene smiled and nodded.
"Based on how much you seem to despise him, that makes perfect sense to me."
The group that Kermit had been entertaining with his jokes and laughter started to disperse, and Kermit walked across the room and joined Andy and Arlene.
"This is the last one right?" Kermit said.
"That's right," said Arlene.
"What happens after this?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," Andy said. "If we succeed, it sounds like we may have a job lined up, or we may be asked to join the guilds."
"If we take a job or join a guild, does that mean we can't look for Millford?"
Millford. Millford? Shit, that's right… Millford.
Somehow Andy had forgotten Kermit's entire reason for entering the game. He wanted to find his brother Millford. Kermit had gotten so wrapped up in learning the culinary arts the last couple of days that Andy had completely forgotten his most important goal: finding his brother.
"Of course not!" Arlene said.
"When do you think we will be able to?" Kermit asked.
"To tell you the truth, Kermit," Andy said, "I'm not sure."
Kermit's face fell into a saddened frown.
"Here's what we're going to do. After the arena, we will consider our job and guild offers, and then we will immediately go talk to Lilly and Rowan and ask them how we might go about finding your brother."
Kermit's face lit back up.
"They'll know," Kermit said.
"Yes, they'll know, and they'll tell us what to do," Andy said. "And then, we'll have a better idea of how long it will take and what we'll need to do to prepare."
"Don't worry, Kermit," Arlene said. "This is going to take some time, but we're going to help you. There's just a lot of things we don't know yet."
"I wish we knew," Kermit said.
"Me too," said Andy.
"But step one," Arlene said, "is completing the challenge in front of us."
"We can do it!" Kermit shouted with unbridled optimism. "And then we can find Millford!"
"That's the spirit," said Arlene. "But listen, we have to be careful, ok?"
Kermit nodded.
Dilgur approached the group.
"Ready to go?" the druid said.
This was it, it was almost over. Just one more round.
"Yessir," said Andy.
***
The group stepped out onto the sand yet again, but this time, the arena was much different. It looked like some sort of stone structure had been built up.
Two large wooden doors stood before them: a blue one and a red one.
"THAT'S RIGHT HAPPY FRIENDS, PLEASE FIND YOUR SEATS AS WE COMMENCE THE THIRD ROUND."
Andy looked up at the announcer, it was the original one, the one he had stolen health from and that he and Kermit had sent flying into the sky.
The red-robed man looked like he had been located, rescued, and healed up. And judging by the way he was glaring at the group, he was pissed.
But he didn't let his negative emotions affect the sing-songy professionalism of his announcing voice.
"LET'S GET OURSELVES READY FOR A DUNGEON CRAWL WITH A TWIST!"
The crowd cheered.
"Of course there's a twist," Arlene said.
"JOINING OUR NEW ARRIVALS IN THE LABYRINTH TODAY, THREE OF CRESTHAVEN'S OWN TREASURE HUNTERS… PLEASE GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO THE FORTUNE FINDERS ADVENTURING COMPANY!"
The crowd cheered as a group of three emerged from an adjacent gate.
"I recognize them!" Kermit said.
Andy recognized them too.
An elephant-man humanoid with a warhammer and shield, a young woman with black hair dressed in a dark cloak, and a little girl in a pink dress. They had been at Tobo's for pudding time the other day.
The woman in the black cloak approached the group.
"Hello," she said with a timid smile.
"Hi," said Andy.
"Listen," she said in a low voice, "Nobody needs to get hurt, ok? At least not as far as we can help it. Our company needs cash, so we're going to try to win so that we get our bonus. But there's no need for violence between us."
Andy remained silent. Was she trying to trick them, or was this sincere?
"How do we know you won't resort to violence first?" Arlene said.
"We're getting our participation fee regardless of the outcome," said the woman in black robes.
"We don't want anyone to get hurt," she continued, "but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get in the arena and get a paycheck from the Noble Court. We wouldn't mind the victory bonus, though, so we're going to try to move fast."
Andy nodded.
"We won't strike first," Andy said.
"Neither will we, then," said the woman. "May the best team win."
She returned to her group.
"We won't strike first?" Arlene asked in a hushed whisper.
"Look at that little girl, and think about Kermit. I'm sure whatever is about to happen is dangerous enough. We don't need to worry about combat with the opposing team on top of things."
Arlene sighed.
"THE RULES ARE SIMPLE. EACH TEAM WILL ENTER THE LABYRINTH. THE NEW ARRIVALS WILL TAKE THE RED ROUTE, AND THE CHALLENGERS WILL TAKE THE BLUE ROUTE. EACH ROUTE CONTAINS AN IDENTICAL SET OF CHALLENGES, AND BOTH ROUTES TERMINATE IN THE SAME ROOM, WHICH HOLDS THE PRIZE: THE EMBLEM OF GOHESH, GODDESS OF THE ARENA!."
"Ah, looks like a good old-fashioned capture the flag game," Andy said.
Arlene nodded.
"We get a flag?" Kermit said.
"THE FIRST TEAM TO RETURN TO THE STARTING POSITION WITH THE EMBLEM WILL WIN."
The announcer flew closer to the participants, but retained his distance, snarling as he made eye contact with Andy.
"ON YOUR MARK, GET SET… GO!"
The crowd erupted into cheers as the Fortune Finders opened the blue door and sprinted through.
"Let's do this," Andy said. He opened the red door and entered.