The arena was the only building on campus that was bigger than the Gymnasium above ground. The Stirling Tower was normally taller, but it couldn’t match volume even at its tallest. The Arena was where the Academy held finals for the sports leagues, important gatherings, and dueling tournaments. Several classes also met in the building’s rooms or even out on the field. When it wasn’t in use by the Academy, the city frequently used it for similar events.

Duels between Chester and Dale Lemmings technically qualified as use by the city, but those lines were so blurred for the Imprinted that no one worried about it. Dale occasionally showed up to provide swordsmanship lessons, but he told the students to just call him Dale or Mr. Lemmings instead of Instructor. Maybe the Dean argued about the specifics with city bureaucrats every few months.

Every Academy student over the age of eleven would be in attendance, so it was basically an Academy event in Alex’s opinion. They monopolized a majority of the arena’s top floor. The arena would inevitably be packed, with thousands of people coming to watch from around the city. Over 100,000 seats surrounded the field where the two would duel, the building having been transformed over the last few days to maximize capacity.

Alex and his friends had arrived a full hour and a half early, needing to show up at 4:30. They had only grabbed a snack before arriving, not wanting to waste time. Student identification was all it took to enter the arena, but an Aspirant from the Defense Forces recognized Jess and waved them in with only a cursory glance.

“Where do you know that guy from?” Muhammad asked.

“He graduated last year, how did you not recognize Manjot?” Jess replied.

“A bit more than a thousand people graduate every year, Jess,” Becca said, “Of course we don’t remember everyone.”

“Yeah, but I dated Manjot for a few months back in eighth year,” Jess answered, “I’d think you all would recognize him.”

“Oh, that guy,” Muhammad frowned, “He’s bulked up a lot.”

“I really don’t see how that’s relevant,” Jess leaned into Muhammad reassuringly, and the group moved on from the topic.

One of the downsides of an arena that sat 100,000 people was the stairs you had to climb to reach the top. As untiered students, Alex and his friends were all seated in a section in the nosebleeds. Only Attuned sat close to the field, with many of them actually being able to track what was going on without a slow-motion projection.

Neophytes made up the bulk of the city’s population, and also the bulk of the stands. Tens of thousands of the city’s Tier 1s would’ve traded in favors or Credits to get good seats, and free seating for Academy students was relegated to the top floor.

This was part of the reason they were here so early. It didn’t matter how in shape you were, climbing hundreds of stairs took a while. With the superhumans who could easily handle the climb monopolizing the good seats, they could only grumble at the injustice of the world as they ascended floor after floor.

“Well, we’ve made it halfway. Might as well take a break and sit down.” Alex said as they reached the fifth floor. He was faring the best out of the group, with Jess also yet to struggle with the stairs. Muhammad was a bit winded, but still going strong. The three of them set a decent pace, ascending quickly.

The weak links were Becca and Anthony, who both spent significantly less time on physical training and more time on studying. Becca was training to become a mage and Anthony was learning the beginnings of healing magic. Neither of them was as focused on conditioning as the swordsman, the girl who routinely trained in sixty pounds of armor, or the archer who didn’t want to be weaker than his girlfriend.

Realizing that contemplating Becca’s lean frame was a dangerous road for his thoughts to go down, Alex pushed the topic from his mind.

“You know, magic is really cool and all,” Anthony was breathing heavily and leaning over as he spoke, maybe Alex should’ve called for a break earlier. His friends were too prideful to ask, “But I sometimes wish that I had been born into the age of elevators.”

“Magical elevators are possible; they just don’t want to remodel the full building extensively enough to add them.” Becca opined, also catching her breath. She wasn’t struggling quite as much as Anthony, but Alex still felt guilty about the pace he and Muhammad had set.

They had already climbed quite a ways to make it to the fifth level, and they would have to recover before the group made it all the way up to the eighth, final level. Magical construction could make buildings stable at an incredible height, and the arena went high enough that they’d barely be able to see the people standing in the field.

Muhammad just grinned at the two of them, “Maybe if you did more sprints…”

“Oh shush,” Jess swatted Muhammad’s arm, “Don’t give my healer any thoughts of not healing.”

“He can split his focus,” Muhammad defended, theatrically flinching away and holding his hands up to defend himself while he spoke.

“Studying is hard work,” Alex replied, “I’m exhausted and I only did around forty-five minutes of training today.”

“Yeah, what was up with that?” Muhammad asked, “I joked about how you didn’t study that hard for certs, but seriously.”

“I don’t know, it’s just a feeling I’ve had all day,” Alex frowned, “Like I can use this for a way better Achievement.”

“The last thing we need is you turning our surprisingly safe exploit into a novel method for blowing yourself up.” Becca rolled her eyes, “Just because Legendary might be within reach if you put your life on the line, doesn’t mean it’s worth considering.

“That Legendary Achievement reward is really nice,” Alex replied, realizing too late that the statement didn’t help his case.

“Yes, Alex, it is,” Becca frowned at him, “And hundreds of people die every year chasing rewards just like it.”

Alex bit back a retort, assuming that a claim that he would succeed where others failed wouldn’t go over well. A morning and afternoon spent researching the danger he’d be in if things went wrong with his new idea had left a mark on Becca’s mood. He couldn’t blame her, his own enthusiasm was also doused by the reading.

Not enough to discard the idea, but he still had several days to figure something out.

“Anyway,” Muhammad changed the subject, “Have you guys heard who’s running the illusions today? Should be Mrs. Stirling, right?”

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“She didn’t say this morning,” Anthony replied.

“Instructor Martinez, then?” Jess asked. The list of illusionists capable of running the full suite of projections the arena was capable of creating was a short one.

“Maybe,” Alex said, “I know she’s still working with Seniors on certs. Marlin said he’ll be in her office for a bit this afternoon trying to get the uncommon one.”

“Definitely not, then,” Becca disagreed, “No way she’s going to limit the time for students to work on certs.”

“Who else could it be?” Alex asked, “Anthony would’ve heard if it was his mother. Instructor Martinez is working on certs. Commander Silver is on rotation at the southern walls. The Dean never projects these duels.”

“Councilman Stemke?” Anthony asked, “He’s more likely than the Dean, at least.”

“Maybe it will be the Dean,” Jess said, a hopeful expression on her face.

“I doubt it,” Anthony frowned, “He’d probably have to go down a clone to focus enough on the projection. Remaking them takes days of effort, I’d be less surprised by Commander Silver being recalled from the wall for the day.”

“Nah, the DF cadets always talk about how much the commanders hate surprise schedule changes. I’ll believe it’s Stemke first,” Muhammad replied.

“I think it will just be Anthony’s mom and she was too distracted to mention it,” Becca argued, “It sounds like she’s been busy if she went to speak to David, and she has good reason to be distracted if she’s worried about Anthony trying for an Epic achievement with Alex.”

“Good point,” Anthony replied, “She does love to do these, it's almost always her when she’s around.”

It wasn’t super common for the specific trio of Alice, Chester, and Dale to all be in the city at once, so Mrs. Stirling running the projections could still be considered a bit of a treat. The only active monster sweep at the moment was being led by Micah Carvalho and a few of his most powerful adventurers, they were supposedly raiding goblin encampments to the East. Normally, two of the cardinal directions would be actively swept at all times, but any monster sweep required one of the Imprinted to answer the rare Imprinted monster.

“You know, I’m surprised more people haven’t figured out that David is probably back with only one sweep out,” Alex noted.

“That’s because there’s a horde building to the North,” Anthony mentioned offhandedly, “The Defense Forces have been fortifying the Northern wall for the last week.”

“There’s a horde building?” Alex asked, surprised.

“Oh, yeah, the healers I take night classes with are all chattering about it constantly the last few days.” Anthony replied, looking over at the surprised gazes of his friends, “Did I not mention that?”

“No, but we’ve been busy,” Jess said, “It’s not like it will affect us. Our planned delving route starts to the South.”

“Maybe we could sign on for the horde,” Muhammad suggested, “The Defense Forces always add some adventurers to the ranks. The monsters make for great levels.”

“They would give you a bunch of levels,” Anthony shook his head, “The rest of us would just be sitting around waiting for orders for a few days while the horde exhausts itself on the wall. We might not get any levels at all. No thanks.”

“Yeah, Muhammad, why are you making everything about yourself like that?” Alex grinned.

“Very selfish,” Becca chimed in.

“Okay, okay, forget I said anything, sheesh.” Muhammad backpedaled.

“We good to get back to the stairs?” Alex received nods in response, and the group returned to climbing.

They took another break on the seventh floor but just took a quick breather before continuing to the eighth where they would be seated.

“Seats aren’t assigned in the student section?” Becca asked a kid in the arena uniform. Alex felt bad for the girl who must have drawn the short straw to have to work this event. She’d still be able to watch but might miss some of the introduction helping people find seats. And she would have to help clean up afterward.

“It’s separated by class, and there are a few seats reserved for chaperones in the younger student sections.” The girl replied, “You guys are just gonna keep going that way until you reach the senior section.”

None of this was surprising for any of them, but Becca had heard from Instructor O’Connell that they might be giving out tickets to make things a bit less chaotic. The chaperones for the younger students were mostly instructors with a few parents who signed up for the free seats, and they had their work cut out for them corralling full sections of teenagers.

Alex and his friends didn’t need to worry about that, they could just find some seats and sit down. They still had nearly an hour before the show began so they didn’t need to rush. Plenty of other students were milling around the top floor as well, and there was already a slight line for concessions.

Payment for concessions took Academy Merit, which students received from working a job or from strong performances in classes, tournaments, and events. Alex, who had worked in the gymnasium a few times a week since he was fourteen and consistently did quite well in tournaments, had plenty of merit and little way to use it before graduation.

“Anyone wants anything?” Alex asked. The concessions mainly just amounted to popcorn, but there were a few different drinks.

“Might as well,” Becca replied with a shrug. She had even more leftover merit than Alex.

“One of you got me?” Muhammad asked. He had not worked for the Academy for the past years, and cert performance didn’t come with any merit as Seniors had so little reason to spend it.

“Of course,” Alex smiled, “I don’t think I could use what I have left if I tried.”

“It rolls over after graduation,” Anthony reminded him, “There are a bunch of Neophyte-specific facilities that are open to graduates for a price, and we’ll have to pay for any of the stuff that has been free before now if we want to train here.”

“Well, yeah, but who knows when I’ll get around to that?” Alex replied, “Graduates can earn plenty of merit bringing back new variations on runes or detailing their mana bodies for the library. Do you want popcorn or not?”

“I want popcorn,” Anthony replied, moving to join them in line.

The lack of variety made the line move fast, and Alex’s group only had to wait ten minutes to reach the front and then another minute to get their food. Academy merit was imprinted on their student IDs, and the students running the concessions booth just had to mark down names and spent merit for an instructor to track and update on the IDs later.

With popcorn and water acquired, the group finally made their way to the seats. They managed to grab spots near the center of the fourth row from the bottom of the level.

In front of them, a massive array hung in the air. When the fight started, it would transform into a projection of the fight below. Lower levels had different amenities to make watching easier, but untiered students couldn’t use temporary ocular enhancements or individual immersive seating. Instead, the seventh and eighth levels got an oversized projection of the fight moving at less than a tenth of the real speed. For important moments, that would be slowed further, especially if Alice was projecting for them and commentating on the match.

The group settled in, knowing they had a while to go but not wanting to lose the seats. The conversation covered a range of topics, but serious stuff was avoided in favor of banter about who would win and further speculation on which illusionist would handle the projection.

Muhammad had decided that it would definitely be the Dean, and was arguing his point with style, “Well, why not?”

“Besides all of the reasons I’ve already given you?” Anthony replied, he’d said the same thing already.

The minutes ticked away, and the ambient noise of the crowd steadily grew louder as more and more people filed into their seats. Alex’s anticipation continued to build before finally, the array in front of them transformed from hovering runes to the scene currently on the ground below.

On one side, Chester Lemmings was covered from head to toe in metal armor. Since unlocking his domain well before Alex was born, the man had transformed his style from a heavily armored knight to a juggernaut whose armor held no flaws.

Across from him, hovering a few feet above the ground, and wearing light leather armor was Dale Lemmings. The swordsman held his blade in front of his chest in a ready position, prepared to start chipping away at his opponent as soon as the match started.

And in the middle of them was the man whose voice echoed across the arena in greeting. Muhammad crowed in excitement as he was proved right against the odds.

Dean Carvalho was running the event in person today.