59. Betting Round 2 (1/2)
The announcement for the second part of the tournament was somehow even more half-assed and nonsensical than the first, but at least the microphone had gotten fixed. Isaac suspected the height of the booth earlier had been the source of the screeching problems.
Underneath the layers of vague phrases disguised as explanations and commentary, Isaac picked up the general gist of things. There’d be multiple events running for the next week, with the schedule projected on the magic screens. Participants could compete in whichever ones they liked, and they’d earn points based on their performance that would be added to their total count. The more events someone went to and did well in, the more likely they were to place high in the final results.
It was a simple enough explanation, and once Fable was finally done and set the microphone down, the Underside inhabitants turned to the screens and began making their way over to various competitions while others, either spectators or uninterested in the ones currently running, moved to the stands.
The tablet, which Isaac had set on the edge of the table, was glowing a vibrant gold and emitting a slight humming sound. For a second Isaac wondered if the thing was overheating (could magical system-bearing tablets overheat?), but it was cool to the touch. On its screen, various sheets flashed through rapidly, though Isaac found that he could pause the screen on one sheet by pressing down on it.
He turned to Fable, who was resting their elbows on the table, watching the proceedings lazily. “Well? Which one’re we looking at first?” It was better to get things over with.
“Hmm, how about…” Fable’s voice trailed for so long that Isaac knew they were doing it on purpose. He was about to try to trip the chair again, never mind that all four legs were on the ground this time so it was basically impossible, but the other Traveler finally pointed ahead. “Strength event,” they said. “Easy one to start with, since I’m so nice.”
Isaac rolled his eyes and turned to the event in question. A line of participants were waiting in front of what appeared to be a solid wall of rock. He watched as the first in line, a Solonell City human by the looks of it, stepped up to it and punched it with all his strength. Isaac squinted as, instead of making the expected thudding noise, the wall sunk in on itself like a very dense pillow before rising back up again. A few seconds later, an attack value popped up on his tablet at the same time as it showed up on one of the large screens encircling the competition area.
[ATTACK: 7]
The human scowled in disappointment and stomped away as the next participant, a Woodlands fey, stepped forward.
Fable hadn’t actually said when he was supposed to start guessing, Isaac realized, so he decided to take full advantage of the other Traveler’s vagueness and watched the first ten or so people go. Technically he wasn’t breaking any rules.
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He’d been thrown off by the weird wall at first, but it looked like it actually behaved closer to an actual wall than he thought. It cracked when hit with enough force, and someone had even managed to crack a chunk off with a well timed kick. Of course, the fact that the wall regenerated was weird, but at least for the purposes of guessing stats, it wasn’t actually too different.
The next person stepped up, and Isaac’s eyebrows raised slightly when he recognized the Woodlands merfolk from the opening event, the one who’d fought with Aster. Seaton, he remembered his name was. He had the same spear in hand, though it was entirely solid instead of partially made of water, and he got in a ready stance that looked a fair bit more refined and practiced than most of the other people who’d gone up so far. The end of the spear seemed to shine in the red tinted light filtering through the barrier, mimicking a similar effect appearing on the merfolk’s scales.
Isaac glanced at the tablet screen and tapped on the man’s stat sheet to freeze it. 14 attack, it read. Isaac looked back up. Seaton was staring at the wall intently, unmoving. The man inhaled, long and calm. In a sudden burst of movement, he lunged forward and violently stabbed the spear into the wall with a single sharp thrust.
Isaac watched as the spear sunk into the wall and cracks immediately spread from the point of impact, climbing rapidly across the surface in a web-like pattern. Seaton yanked the spear out, and the entire wall came crashing down. Isaac thought back to when he’d updated Olzu’s stats and the demon had punched a wall to similar effect. He tapped the tablet screen.
“That one’s an update,” he said, slightly surprised at how confident he sounded. Fable turned to face him, and to his satisfaction, [↑ATTACK: 15] soon flashed across both the tablet and the projector screens. Seaton smiled triumphantly and turned away to allow the next participant to go, the wall slowly reforming itself behind him.
“Not too bad,” Fable said, grinning. “But that one was pretty easy. Try that one next.” They pointed to an event taking place nearby, where it looked like participants were lined up to sprint a short distance away. There were no obstacles, just a smooth plain to race across at maximum speed.
This time Isaac didn’t take nearly as long to observe before beginning to call out updates in an even voice. It felt almost instinctive, to watch participants sprint across and guess a stat number. He supposed 4 years of doing stat updates had left him with a better grasp of what the numbers actually meant than most. It felt oddly satisfying, to be proved right again and again.
In one particularly noteworthy instance, the air elemental from the opening event stepped forward and flew across. The creature was undeniably fast, but the 21 speed listed on their sheet didn’t feel right. The Abyss worm creature thing that he’d failed to bet on had had 21 speed as well, and it had definitely seemed faster. Isaac frowned. “Update, but stat down,” he said. Sure enough, the results soon flashed across the tablet, and the air elemental officially only had 20 speed.
The creature looked so dejected that Isaac couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for them. Fable, meanwhile, laughed heartily with 0 sympathy and clapped a few times. “Not bad at all,” they said once they were finally done reveling in the air elemental’s misery. They grinned. “I’m almost impressed.”
Isaac rolled his eyes. “What’s next?”