“Argh!” As I opened the door to the tavern there was a moment of resistance followed by the unmistakeable sound of a body falling to the floor. The following sounds of thumping and cursing informed me that the body was a breathing one.
I gave a quick survey of the room in front of me. The first floor of the tavern was a large open area with an island bar in the middle. Bartenders were serving drinks to patrons both seated and standing next to the bar. Tables were arranged around the room with adventurers playing with cards or dice. A raised stage on one side of the hall held two adventurers in battle against each other. From the cheering and support from nearby onlookers it did must be a common occurrence. On the other side of the hall was a set of stairs leading to a second floor… And below me was a sprawled out black furred beastkin in leather armour.
He glared at me from the floor before starting to pull himself up. “Are you blind or just stupid, lechon?”
I reached down and picked him up from his shoulders and placed him squarely on his feet. “Sorry mate, I can’t see through doors. Maybe don’t stand right behind one in the future.” I brushed down his shoulders in a friendly pat and took my own advice and stepped in from the doorway.
The beastkin made a weird hissing noise and puffed himself up, his fur standing on end and making him all fuzzy. I remembered cats doing something similar back on Earth when intimidated.
Not wanting to frighten the poor beastkin anymore I offered out my hand. “No hard feelings. How about you join us for a drink? What’s your poison, do they have some kind of milk beverage here?” I glanced to Mac and noticed that he was glaring at me. His expression made me feel like I did something wrong. I went over the interaction with the clumsy beastkin in my head but couldn’t find fault with my actions.
“What?” I asked him.
Mac opened his mouth to speak but I did not catch what was said as the beastkin slapped my hand away and bared his teeth towards me. “I’m not your hissing mate! You mock me? I’ll have you know I am one of the highest levelled climbers here. I think you need to learn…”
My hand stung and I looked down to see four cuts on the back that were bleeding slightly. I noted that there were now long nails protruding from the beastkin’s fingers. This prick just scratched me. No more friendly Reigner, this guy needs to go before he hurts someone.
I brought my full attention on the beastkin. He must have realised he made a mistake as he took a step backwards, but he not fast enough to escape my grasp. I stepped forwards, reached out and grabbed the furrball by the scruff on the back of his neck. I lifted him clean off the floor, walked past a mortified looking Mac, out the Inn’s door, and tossed the creature a good five meters into the street. The beastkin made a screeching noise and I noticed a long black tail flailing in the air behind him.
I dusted off my hands and watched at the beastkin managed to land on his feet before tripping over and rolling over a few times. Nodding in satisfaction I walked past Mac and headed to the Bar.
Taking a stool for myself I waved over the barman. Mac took a seat next to me and let out a long breath from his nostrils. From the corner of my eye, I could see he was still glaring at me.
“What’s wrong?”
“You…” He took a breath. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t get in trouble? We only just walked in and you already started an altercation.”
“No, you’re wrong. I finished it. And besides...” I flashed him a grin. “I didn’t kill him.”
Mac panted his face into his hands. “Tower, save me from this man.” He said under his breath.
Laughing, I slapped his back. “Relax, I’m only joking. Besides, that guy deserved it. Who the hell scratches people? Guy was crazy.”
The bartender arrived, a red haired beastkin with fox ears. “Hello gentlemen, what can I get you?”
Mac pulled his face out of his hands. “Melon sour with double syrup.”
Sure enough, the fastest way to calm Mac down was a drink. “I’ll have the same, just with the ordinary amount of syrup, thank you.”
“Good choice. I make the best Melon sours here” The bartender pulled two glasses out of the air and placed them on the bar. She waved her hand above the rim and a small portal opened to fill each glass with a green liquid.
I watched intently as the glass filled and the portal vanished. “Amazing.”
The foxkin gave me a wink. “A bit of bartender’s magic, or barmagic as I like to call it.”
“Very cool. Maybe I should learn the skill.” I took a sip of the drink and enjoyed a sweet and sour hit to my tastebuds.
“Why? You can already summon drinks from thin air.” Mac commented.
“Yeah, but portals.” I explained as I pointed to the glass.
The bartender laughed. “You are a conjurer? The founder of this Inn was a conjurer. He cooked the most amazing food.”
“He was a conjurer and cooked his food instead of conjuring it?”
“Of course, he had to eat too. No conjurer can survive off their own summoned food after all.”
Looking between the foxkin and Mac I asked. “They can’t?” I have been eating my own summoned food for the most part now and have not had any issues.
Mac gave me a look that told me he had no idea how I made to adulthood. “Anything a conjurer creates costs their own mana. There is no way for a conjurer to create something that can provide more sustenance than what it costs to create the food.”
“Yup!” The bartender said excitedly. “One of the advantages of having a conjurer is that the team only needs to carry enough food for the conjurer, since they can provide for everyone else. That why some of the best chefs are conjurers. The cooking skill not only improves their conjuring, the team can afford more expensive ingredients, giving the conjurer bonuses to their stats.”
I was quite for a moment while I thought over what I just learned.
Realising something I asked, “Do conjurers get any bonus to their creations?”
“Bonuses like what?” Asked Mac.
“You know… Like a 10 percent bonus to anything they create.”
Mac eyed me suspiciously. “There have been some legendary items that can do something similar but never something so broad as what you are describing.”
“I heard of a conjurer that had an artifact that imbued their conjured weapons with lighting.” Added the bartender.
Mac chuckled. “Yeah, and that guy supplied the slumiberation resistance army and wrecked half the city. Items like that are very, very rare.”
“I always wondered what happened to him.”
“He joined the tower knights and is part of an outer city exploration team.”
“Oh, is that something you can just share with anyone?”
Mac just shrugged and finished his drink.
The foxkin took the empty glasses. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
I pointed to where the glasses were a moment ago “Another couple of those, thanks. Oh, and how much does it cost for a room here?”
“Ten copper per night if you just want a bed. A room costs fifty copper which includes four beds and a bathroom.”
A room sounded nice. Burin could always take one of the extra beds too, once he arrived.
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I handed over a silver. “I’ll book a room for two nights for now.” I did not want to spend all my silver and if the room was not to my liking, I planned to just camp on the first floor.
“Very good.” The foxkin placed a token in front of me. “Just push a bit of mana into this and it will guide you to your room. Now, if you need another drink, or something to eat, just wave me over.” She moved away from us, towards another patron at the bar.
I sat in and looked around, just enjoying the atmosphere of the hall while sipping the drink. There was a flash of light and a crackle of sound that brought my attention to the raised platform where one person was standing above their downed opponent. People near by cheered and raised their mugs as the victor helped his opponent off the floor. They both looked really beat up, until they stepped down from the platform. A wave of light wrapped around them, which healed all their injuries and blemishes.
“Sparing ring.” Mac commented. “Every self respecting Tavern that caters to adventurers have one. Think of the damage they receive inside of it as an illusion. Hurts but can’t kill.”
“Interesting… I thought you said this was an Inn.”
He snorted and took a swig from his drink.
A projection appeared above the centre of the bar. It was a view of one of the arenas.
“Another group challenges the rabbits!” Someone yelled from behind me.
“Five copper says they don’t get past the second wave.” Called out another.
The projection showed a group of adventurers walking into the arena. The point of view appeared to be from one of the spectator stands. The adventurers could be clearly seen but their faces were hard to make out. From their team and equipment loadout, they looked to be the same group we watched outside.
Someone laughed and yelled, “It’s their third time today. Do they think they can exhaust the arena if they keep challenging it over and over?”
“They record arena fights here?” I wondered out loud.
“No sir, we just project the rabbit arena since it’s the closest and most entertaining.” Said the bartender who smoothly moved from across the bar to stand in front of us. “We don’t record any of the matches and offer a free drink to those that fail… Only one free drink per day, of course.” She clarified.
Finishing my drink, I stood up from the bar. “Well, I’m going to rest. I have a companion, a dwarf named Burin. When he arrives can you point him towards my room?”
“Of course, sir.”
Mac downed the rest of his drink and turned to me. “Don’t forget to meditate before you sleep. You need to practice daily if you want to be able to master more advanced mana manipulation.”
I nodded to Mac. “Will do. I enjoy meditation over sleeping anyway.”
The room was nicer than I had expected. The beds were made with wooden frames and supported soft bedding. There was a wooden chair by each bed and wooden dividers split up the room, offering a small amount of privacy. The bathroom was nice too, with what looked to be a private waterfall that flowed out from the wall and into a smooth grate on the floor. I immediately stripped and jumped under the falling water to tested it out. The water was warm and heavy, and massaged my back and shoulders as I stood under it.
After washing and drying myself, I sat down on one of the beds and meditated. It was becoming easier now, focusing inwards and feeling my mana spiral inside my body.
The sound of the room’s door opening broke me from my meditation and I opened my eyes to see Burin walking inside.
“Burin. How’s Torva doing?”
He moved over to one of the free beds and flopped on top. “She’s sleeping. Mac introduced us to one of their healers who believes she can recover… Till is with her now.” He had placed the back of his arm over his eyes, his body trembling slightly. “I’m so glad.” He managed to say. I let him have some privacy and went back to meditating.
The Inn seemed like a different place the next morning. As I made my way down the stairs I could hear people yelling and calling out. As I reached the hall there were a number of tables placed together with adventurers standing around them.
Calls of, “Group challenging Ogre Arena, seeking Melee specialists.” and “Healer looking to challenge Demon Arena.” could be heard.
I spotted Mac, seated at the bar and headed over towards him.
A hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder “Hey there. You look like you could use a group. Like to challenge the Rat Arena with us? It has great loot for sneaking around.”
Removing the hand, I turned to the owner. “I have a group, thanks.”
The adventurer snatched his hand back and let out a ‘tsk’ before turning and yelling out for someone to join his little group.
Taking a stool next to Mac I waved over the bartender, it was not the foxkin from last night but instead a human wearing a black apron. “What’s with the atmosphere today?” I asked him.
“The mornings here can be quite energetic to say the least. Not to worry, we only allow advertisements in the morning so it will quiet down soon enough. May I interest you in a breakfast smoothy?”
“Aye, make that two.” Interjected Burin as he took the stool to my right. He grinned towards me and clapped his hands together in excitement. “Sure, is lively today. What shall we do?”
“Not much you can do without a team.” Mac said from my left. Surprisingly he was drinking a smoothy of his own. He must have noticed me looking as he added, “Believe it or not, I only drink on special occasions.”
Burin laughed. “Aye, and it’s always a special occasion with Reigner.”
Mac let out a chuckle. “You are pretty close to the mark. Being assigned as Reigner’s babysitter has freed me up from a lot of busy work. It’s quite relaxing when he isn’t throwing cats out of doorways.”
“Throwing what now?” Burin asked. “Wait, forget I asked. I rather not know. Anyway, ye deserve a break, and a drink after what ye done for Torva.” Burin drank from his glass and looked down at it appreciatively. “Unless we want to join a random group, challenging an arena is nay possible. How about we do some scouting and decide what arena we want to challenge?”
“This might be helpful for you then.” Said the barman as he placed a small booklet down in front of us.
“What’s this?” asked Burin as he flipped over a few pages.
“It’s a listing of discovered arenas and their rewards from this floor.”
I leaned over to take a look and sure enough, each page had information on different arenas and their location from the Inn.
Some of the arenas recorded, included:
Ogres that dropped strength items, Rabbits that dropped speed, Bandits for dexterity, Rats for stealth, Demons for healing bonuses, beastkin for wisdom, and Elven for mana regeneration. Each page stated what the first wave consisted of and what loot was typically rewarded when completed.
The Elven Arena sounded interesting to me as it provided bonuses to mana. The faster I could regenerate mana the more I could play with magic. Seemed like a no brainer to me. According to the booklet it was an hour’s walk away.
“Let’s go check this out.” I tapped on open page that held a drawing of an elf.
“Good choice.” Burin commented. “It’ll be good practice for when we see that prancing pointy ear.”
“I was not even thinking about that. I just want the mana bonuses.”
“Aye, that will be good too.” Burin looked around the noisy room before adding. “We should get going. Some of these adventurers are starting to look desperate.” Sure enough, small groups were looking at us like they wanted to approach. I assumed it was Mac’s presence that was preventing them but as time dragged on, they were looking at us with increasing interest.
The sun was warm with a cool breeze, making the walk between arenas enjoyable. The architecture of the floor was fascinating as each arena looked unique from each other. Each one had different materials, design, and colours. Often the very street changed from carved tiles, to stone worked slabs, to wooden flooring, and back again. There was even the occasional stream or waterfall coming from one of the arenas.
Many of the arenas we passed had their portcullis down, showing that they were currently being challenged. We did not bother to look inside and instead made our way to the elven arena. When we arrived, unlike most of the others we passed, this one was not currently being challenged. We decided to go up to the spectator seats anyway and have some lunch.
As we ate, thanks to an amazing walking talking magical vending machine, named Reigner, a group of challengers walked into the arena.
We sat and watched them fight, firstly against a few elves with daggers, and then against bowmen and swordsmen. After the second wave, casters started appearing that would cast enchantments on themselves and their allies, making the elves move much faster than before.
The group of adventurers were skilled however and methodically took down each wave of elves without suffering much damage.
After the tenth wave one of the adventurers hit the pedestal in the middle of the arena. There was a flash of light and a pile of items exploded out from the centre. The adventurers let out a cheer and picked everything up. They looked exhausted but happy.
As they were leaving the arena floor, they noticed us and waved.
“Seems pretty straight forward.” Commented Burin as he returned a wave of his own.
“Yeah. Only need to worry about those casters. Left unchecked I’m sure they would cause a lot of problems.”
We heard people walking up the steps into the spectator stands and turned around to see the team that just cleared the arena walking towards us.
The team was made up from a mix of races. There were two beastkin, a human, a gnome, and an orc.
The human smiled towards us and extended his hand. “Thanks for watching. It’s nice to have an audience.” He gave a friendly wink and added “Hope you learned a thing or two.”
I accepted his offered hand and shook it. “Your team works well together.”
He let out a laugh. “Thank you. I would hope so. We have been clearing this floor for a few weeks now.”
“You don’t want to move on to the next floor?”
“We will.” He leaned forward. “Just its so lucrative here, selling the rewards. Believe it or not, not many people like this floor and the wealthy skip it entirely… but this floor is the first floor that drops gear sets.”
“And rich, lazy adventurers pay top coin for a gear set.” His orc companion added.
“Ye don’t say.” Mused Burin. “So ye farm an arena and then sell the set?”
“Actually, we work on commission. Someone picks out what gear set they want and then we go farm the arena for it. Good experience, training, and coin. We actually have a few extra pieces you might be interested in.”
“From his arena?”
He frowned. “No, the Glade gear is always in demand and is considered one of the more difficult fights. We do, however, have some amulets from the bandit and ogre arenas. They provide a nice bonus to dex or strength.”
Both stats I really did not need at the moment. I looked to Burin who just shook his head.
“Sorry. We are just scouting out the arena today. We will challenge it once the rest of the party arrive.”
The adventurer smiled “Fair enough, but beware. This arena is not as easy as we made it out to be. We are just that good. Don’t fear bailing out early.” He gave a wave and headed back down with his team.
Burin let out a chuckle “Bet they thought they had an easy sale.”
Nodding in agreement, I looked up to the sky. “Looks like it’s getting late. Let’s head back.” I wanted to make good use of the room’s shower.