Chapter 21

The receptionist had been right. It was hard to miss the large flamboyant banner advertising The Competitors’ Inn. Only it wasn’t a banner, but a sign. The thing was etched into the wood on the overhang of the roof, stretching from one end of the building to the other. The building itself was no small thing. Large and decorated enough to rival the city’s own Council Office, it had a contingent of security personnel standing guard by the entrance. At least I thought they were guards. They had the same black white uniform I had seen on the registrars, only theirs was on near full-plate armor with a black cape hanging behind them.

Their presence was enough to keep the passersby from straying too close to the entrance itself. What did the competitors go through to warrant such protection? It made me slow down my pace as I approached the entrance. I didn’t remember being told to present my card to the guards, only the receptionist. So, how was I supposed to pass the guards?

Luckily for me, someone else just waltzed in while I was around ten meters from the guards. They hadn’t stopped them or done anything really. I didn’t think they had even stared at them. I steeled myself and did what everyone always said, behave like you belong.

But I failed miserably. I was visibly sweating, and it was not from the afternoon sun, and shaking too. And the way one of the guards kept eyeing me as I passed them told me that they noticed. And something in me just snapped.

I stopped and backtracked a step or two, and stared them directly into their eyes. “You can tell that I’m nervous, can’t you?”

“Yes,” the guard simply said, their voice muffled through the helmet making it hard for me tell their gender at all.

“Good to know. Good to know.”

I resumed my walk in to the Inn with a renewed sense of confidence. Which quickly disappeared into the aether the moment I walked in to the Inn.

I was way out of league. No, it was the other way around; the place was way out of my league. Wait, both were correct. Anyway, the point was, I was not the kind of person to be found in such a place. The décor was completely modern. Glossy finished floors and walls, with black tables and chairs with white cushions. The walk way in front of me was wooden brown in color, a complete contrast to the gray of the rest of the floor and walls and completely dividing the sitting area in two.

The receptionist was directly ahead of me on a high wooden brown counter, similar to those found in bars and restaurants. Looking around, I concluded that that was what it was, a restaurant. By the sides of the counter, there were two curved stairways that disappeared into the ceiling above. Either there was more dining area room, or those led to the lodging area of the inn.

I slowly approached the two receptionists in the counter, ignoring the few patrons I could see in the dining area. They both had a light-tan skin tone and wore relative modern looking attire compared to everyone else I had seen. Their white shirts had buttons running down the front of their chests and I couldn’t tell what they had for the lower half of their bodies. They both had long brown hair, one of them letting theirs loose while the other had theirs tied up in a low pony tail.

I placed my card on the counter upon arriving, and slid it over to the receptionists. “I am a competitor, here for The Grand Competition.”

The pony tail took the card and did things with it behind the counter that I couldn’t see. After a few seconds of waiting, they returned it to me, together with a key with the number thirty on it.

“It’s on the second floor. Anything else we can help you with?” they asked.

I was feeling a little famished, but I didn’t think my budget would allow for the two meals I would be forced to eat for the day if I had one then. It could have been free, but I decided not to risk it then. Evening would come, and as long as I had a room to spend the night in, there was no hurry for the other things. Well, except for armor. I needed to go look for that. The armorer at Yange had told me to try my luck at Sjuma, he didn’t deal with armors that had imbued magical protection.

“Not right now. Maybe later,” I replied, and turned for the left stairway. I assumed they both led to the same corridor in the first floor.

I didn’t bother checking out the first floor as the stairs changed from curved to two straight adjacent stairways on both sides of the corridor. Half way up, they turned around and meet up again in the corridor of the second floor. The corridor moved straight ahead before branching on both sides to form a T-shaped corridor. I assumed those on the branched end of the corridor to be the washrooms. I began to slowly walk down the corridor, checking the numbers on the doors. One on my right, two on my left, four on my left, three on my right… I guess I’m near the washrooms then.

I picked up the pace to the end of corridor. The last rooms on the corridor were twenty-five and twenty-six. Since the numbers had begun on my right, I chose the left side. There were only two doors, and the corridor shorter than I had anticipated. Both doors were near each other with the first on the right side of the corridor at the end of the corridor. The other one was directly in front of me at the end of the corridor. It had the number thirty glaring back at me in all its silver glory.

I approached the door, the key working smoothly with no clicking sounds to tell me that there was a locking mechanism behind it. I slowly pushed the door silently and walked into my new home for the next seven days at most.

The door opened to my right, presenting a reading desk and chair against the wall adjacent to the door, with what looked like a reading light on top of it. On closing the door, I found the bed behind the door and another door located diagonally from the door to the room. I locked the door behind me and placed my bag of belongings on the desk. On the opposite wall from the desk, there was what look like a rail for hanging clothes on. It even had coat-hangers on it.

I turned to the bed, a big thing. Bigger than any bed I had ever slept on, but still smaller than those I had seen shown in mansions from the old earth. It looked fluffy and inviting in its grey covers, making me feel very tired all over a sudden. I forcibly tore my gaze away from it and approached the other door in the room.

Inside was a bathroom, complete with a shower and a toilet inside. Yes, toilet. A flashing one at that. It felt like I was dreaming. I had done nothing more than sign up for the competition and I was already enjoying such luxurious treatments. For the Realm, that is. But it had me wondering, just how good were the accommodations at the highest levels of the competition. And what about the kingdom and empire nobles, what kind of luxuries did they enjoy?

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With accommodations like that, I could join The Grand Competition every year just to enjoy them. Even if it’s just for a day. Come to think about it, why didn’t a lot of people join the competition for just that? Their loss. I gave the bathroom a longing stare before returning to the main room. It was time to go looking for that armorer.

…

I found the armorer right where the receptionists had told me I would find them. It looked like most things that a competitor would need were located close to the Inn. The armory, a tailor, a library and even the training grounds were close by.

Inside were all kinds of armor; cloth armor, leather armor, chain armor, plate armor, and was that scale armor? I moved closer to the glistering blue silver armor presented on the left most side of the shop. I just had to know.

‘[Identify]’

‘[Saltatrix Scale Armor] – Armor made from the scales of the Saltatrix.’

‘Really Clare, really?’

And I got nothing from them. That was not an explanation at all. Just a poor attempt at joking with me. Was it even possible to ask for a different Daemon? One that can actually answer my questions fully.

‘I have been wondering, Clare. Is it that you are not allowed to tell me? Or that you choose not to tell me the answers I want?’

‘Does it matter? The end result is still the same.’

‘What kind of answer is that? I will have you—’

“Hah, I see the scale interests you. Quite a keen eye you’ve got there,” a deep hoarse male sound interrupted my sub-vocal ranting, startling me in the process.

I reacted better than the last time someone had startled me. Even though I had the staff in my right hand, I didn’t swing it. Nor did I jump in surprise, but I did squeak loudly. That one could not be helped. What was with the shop owners of Mesily and sneaking up on me?

“Yes,” I answered in my efforts to recover from the embarrassment I could feel coursing through me. I was glad for my brown skin then, otherwise, I would be bright red. “Does it offer any magical protection?”

“Sadly, no. But it is as light as leather armor while offering the protection afforded by the ordinary plate,” the man offered.

He was dark skinned, closer to my brown than any tan I had seen before. And tall, way taller than I was and very bulky. If I had a level 20 [Strength], then he was most definitely in the 50s; maybe even 60s. Why wasn’t he in the competition? He could easily knock me dry of my HP in one punch.

I was just glad he wasn’t, then I could stand a chance at winning a prize for myself. Back to the armor. What was the take away then? Other than the fact that it offered no protection against magic. Was it brittle? Weak against blunt force attacks, or maybe piercing attacks. It was most definitely not slashing attacks. That much I was sure from what little I knew about scales.

He continued talking, “It’s a bit pricey, but it will allow you to move as fast as if you had leather armor on.”

Right, the price. How could I have forgotten that? And here I was claiming to be a money miser. Too shay to myself, too shay. I didn’t even bother asking for what the number was. I turned to the leather section, and went for the coolest black leather I could find. I black edgy thing made of straight lines and sharp angles. It was lined with sliver at the edges with metallic studs at every angle. The overlapping abdomen cover looked like rock hard abs on display. I really wished I had those. The abs, not the leather armor. Well, I did want the leather armor too but I was sure it was out of my acceptable price range.

I turned to the dullest one I could find in the shop, a worn brown thing that if I wasn’t standing so close to it, could have sworn it had seen better days.

“How much for this?” I asked, pointing to the brown leather.

My new clothes might have given the impression of a well of person, Detta had really outdone herself there, but I was still the little old me with nothing more than two pairs of farm clothes to my name.

“Hah, that is cheap. Only ten golds,” he said. “I could even throw in a helmet.”

Why would I want a helmet? And a leather one at that. Oh, right. The marvin, it made him think I liked wearing things on my head. But that was only to make my head look bigger than it was. I actually didn’t like enjoy wearing the marvin all that much. It was headache inducing, and would stay so until I got used to having it. Besides, in a fight, I would want my head to be smaller not bigger.

Then came the price. If I turned everything I had into golds, I would have 11 golds and less than ten silver and copper coins. That price was already way out of reach for me. I had expected something in the four gold range.

“Does it offer any magical protection?” I asked him.

And the look he gave then was all the answer I needed. In fact, I didn’t think any armor in that armory offered any magical protection at all. I spent another few minutes browsing the armory before leaving for the training grounds. With my pouch still as heavy as it had been before I walked into the shop.

…

The training grounds were an actual stadium. A large circular thing with terraces for spectators to sit or stand on. There was a height difference of more than three meters between the barrier of the first terrace and the floor of the arena itself. The floor was made of loose earth just like in the fighting pits of Yange. And was around hundred meters across by my estimation. Enough room for me to run away from my opponents until I ran out of Stamina, and then not enough room to keep them away from me.

I had come in through a tunnel, which had led from the waiting rooms. I had had to present my Citizen Card to be let into those. And I was staring at a fireworks display. White, red, yellow, blue, green and all other colors that I didn’t know the names for. In shapes that were hard to describe. Some were easy though, like the arrows and balls of energy being hurtled towards targets and sparring partners.

If they have practiced together like this, they must know everything there is to know about each other’s fighting styles. How are they going to win? Or surprise their opponents? Then again, by the time I made it to the Kingdom level, if I survived that long, everyone would know everything about my fighting styles. How would I even win then? My musings were interrupted by a harsh exclamation from the middle of the field.

“Is this a joke? Level 28! You couldn’t even manage to get to Level 30 before the competition began.”