Chapter 39

I was back in the dream that wasn’t a dream, in a place that felt eerily familiar. If I didn’t know better, I would say it was in the area where I had woken up when I came to the Realm of Mesily. In fact, I didn’t know better. Nor did I know whether it was a continuation of the dream I had had before, or a new one altogether.

It felt like I was held in place by an invisible force which, try as I might, I couldn’t get free from. The body I inhabited wasn’t even trying at all, it had given up already, looking at the figures that surrounded it with murderous intent, that much I could pick up from it. I tried studying the features of the figures but they were covered up in black robes, and the low light of the forest didn’t help much. Was it nighttime? Dusk or dawn? Maybe a full-moon.

One of the figures spoke in a language I couldn’t understand, but I got the meaning enough, there was nowhere else I could go. As I was focusing on the figure that had just spoken, I felt something go through me in my chest, protruding in the front as a black oily thing, the state of it so horrifying that I jolted awake immediately.

The pain that shot through my chest was worrying enough, it scared me senseless that the dream injury had carried over to the real world. But after a few seconds of looking at the surprised faces of the arena healers, my situation came back to me, and I was so relieved I went right back out of consciousness.

…

By the time of the closing ceremony, I was already healed up from getting stabbed in the chest, twice. I still felt uncomfortable and weird, and I kept touching where the swords had gone through just to make sure nothing was wrong. Nothing was. Not even a scar to remind of what had happened had been left behind.

Like before, the ceremony was held in the Main Arena, but unlike before, we the competitors had seats at the middle of the arena. There was a podium on the side of the special view area, I had not yet learnt what that was called, and it was from there that the announcer donned on about the competition, talking about some of the highlights of the fights as if they had watched them all, as the crowd screamed during some of their dramatizations. I wasn’t sure whether it was in excitement, joy or even plain old booing, and I didn’t really care that much.

There were several other dignitaries on the podium too, of note being the noble I had once seen in the special viewing area and the other Barony of Sjuma officials. The rest of his family were not on the podium, must have been back in the special viewing area.

I had obviously taken a central seat in the arrangement that had been made, and the others had been kind enough to sit on either side of me, properly hiding me from the crowd. Not that it did anything, but my mind was at ease with their presence. I just failed to account for the fact that they might try to actually start up a conversation instead of paying attention to the announcer, not that I was paying that much attention either.

Being in the center of the sitting arrangement meant that I was an unwilling participant in their conversations, and the most I did was agree on whatever was being said. It was a good thing they weren’t having a debate or I might have found myself in a very uncomfortable situation.

I really wished that the ceremony would be completed in a fastidious manner, the only reason I was there was to get my gold and nothing else. I had not managed to win it all but I still had gained something, it was just a pity that the competition would end with me having roughly the same amount of gold as I had had before it began.

In other words, it had been a completely useless venture and I had suffered more than I would have had I stayed in the farm. Mesily, I would have even gained a gold or two. I had rushed into the competition without thinking things through, and I wasn’t even sure whether it would be better for me to go back to Yange, or try my luck at the Counties.

Had I even qualified? Everyone said I had, but we had never being given the official quota of who would actually qualify. Maybe only the top finisher would qualify, that would be on brand for me. Maybe it would be a good thing after all, taking away the option for me of advancing to the next level of The Grand Competition. Who knew, I might actually die for good there. I had come close to death more than once during The Baronies, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to keep tempting fate.

I was brought out of my musings by Paul, shaking me on my shoulder to get my attention. Had I spaced out too much? Missed out on answering a question? Looking around, I realized they were all paying attention to the podium more than they had before. I tried getting the flow of what the announcer was talking about, but my mind was still somewhat in its dreamy state and all I got were unintelligible mumblings. I turned my attention to Paul, hoping he would understand the question without me having to voice it. And he did, thank Mesily.

“They are about to announce those who have qualified for the next level, the Counties,” he said, before returning his attention to the podium.

I didn’t understand why they were all so keen on knowing who had qualified, it would either be… wait, what was her name again? Did I ever get her name? I couldn’t recall, leave it to me to fight a whole fight without ever getting the name of my opponent. I might actually not have checked her [Status] at all during that fight.

Anyway, the one who stabbed me was an obvious qualifier, and that only left me as a maybe if they went with the previous qualification standards. Maybe the other semifinalists would qualify too, but for someone like Paul, there was no hope at all.

“The Baronies are over, and the following are the competitors who have made it to the next level, the Counties.”

As the announcer made that statement, the view screen that had been used to show how the fights would go came alive. Seeing it again brought home the fact that I wasn’t sure how it actually worked, I didn’t have a clue at all. Was it a glass pane that actually floated above the arena, or was it an actual projection in the air? That was a very likely possibility. My image popping up in it brought me back to what really mattered.

“… and finally, Artina!!”

Wait, what? Had she… I mean she had obviously, that was why her image was up there and not Dawkins’. But still, she had won? That was unbelievable, not that I doubted her fighting capability, it was just that I didn’t think I would have won had I been the one to face off against Dawkins. For that matter, it was slowly dawning on me that my mentality for the last fight had been off kilter, like I had already given up.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I checked to see what the top finisher’s name was since I had missed it in my musings, but only the images were on the screen. I turned to Paul to ask about it, but then the announcer began talking about the rewards and nothing else mattered then. It was finally time to get what I was owed, which would quickly disappear to nothing after I paid off the debts I had incurred in the short amount of time I had spent in the City of Sjuma.

After receiving my gold, the rest of the ceremony was a blur. After being released from the ceremony, the first place I went was to the healer because I didn’t like owing people at all. And if I couldn’t help it, I liked being timely with my payments. She had really helped me at a tough time, and any loss I suffered was all because I wasn’t good enough, and I was okay with that. If I had had a nonfunctional arm in the finals, then I would have most definitely blamed it for the loss.

I didn’t spend too much time at her store though. As much as I appreciated what she had done for me, she was still a healer and that store was her place of work, making it a hospital. And I didn’t like being in a hospital any longer than I needed to. I thanked her for her patience, and I would have given her a little something extra but I didn’t have the gold to do that, not with what I planned. If we met again in the future, and I was able, I told myself that I would give her something then.

Sending a few golds to Silas proved easier than I had thought it would be. There were banking institutions in Mesily and all I had to do was make a deposit, pay the processing fee and that was it. The bank at Yange would notify Silas through the Council Office once they got the gold from the bank in Sjuma. It looked a little risky to me, but after learning where I was headed for the Counties, there was no way I would be going back to Yange to deliver a few golds and then turn around again. That would add around four days to a day trip, not worth it where I was concerned.

I spent the rest of the day saying my farewells to the few people I had come to call acquaintances in the short span of the Baronies, and more importantly, planning my trip to the Choska City with Xan, that was where the Counties would be held at. The fact that the Counties would begin in two weeks’ time meant that I couldn’t afford to waste time taking a break. I didn’t want a repeat of what had happened in the Baronies; I would make sure that I wasn’t the last person to arrive.

Maybe I should be cautious with Xan, after all, he was uprooting his stable life in Sjuma to follow me around after only knowing each other for five days. Whatever kind of friendship he thought we had, it didn’t warrant that kind of behavior. Then again, it was his life, he could do whatever he wanted with it. Mesily knew that I wasn’t the person to be criticizing him for his choices, given the fact that I was participating in a deadly competition because of the meagre rewards they called prizes.

I had myself a hearty meal for supper and went directly to bed. We were leaving early in the morning before the sun even came out, and that meant I had to wake up long before then. Xan had refused to tell me how we were travelling, not that I minded, though he had been aghast when he learnt that I had planned to walk the whole way, shushing me with a ‘everything will be taken care of’. I was apprehensive of that but if things didn’t work out, I could always follow my original plan and walk the whole way. I wasn’t planning on using any of my saved up gold, or any other coin for that matter, on transportation.

I had a restless sleep that night, tossing and turning the whole night with nigh a wisp of sleep to be had. Thankfully, I never had any dreams, at least not ones that fell under the category of weird, like the one I had had the night of the finals. And immediately after. I still hadn’t figured out what those where but I planned to when I had the time.

Two hours to the departure time, I began packing everything I had into my one bag, which wasn’t an issue at all. The problem came to dealing with my staffs, all four of them. I could comfortably carry two, or three if I pushed myself, if I had to walk the whole way to Choska City. If Xan had something like a carriage arranged for us, then carrying all four would be no problem. After a lengthy internal debate, I decided to bring all of them to the gate, if there was no carriage, I could simply leave the extra two there. Some lucky fellow would find themselves a competition grade staff, what a day it would be for them.

When I arrived outside the gates, the first signs of dawn were making themselves known and there was more than half an hour to go. I sat by the side of the road leading up to the gate and decided to have a little chat with Clare to pass the time.

‘Hey, Clare. How have you been?’ I chided myself as soon as I asked them that.

‘I am fine. Thank you for asking.’

What the Mesily!?

‘Clare, you do not have to go along with my idiocy, you know that, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Okay. You know what I want to ask, right? The dreams that are not dreams, what are they?’

‘You will have to be more specific for me to help you.’

‘You know, the one where I was being chased through a forest before I fell down a slope, and the one where I was completely frozen in space before getting stabbed through the chest. That specific enough?’

‘I cannot help you there.’

‘What? Why? I –’

“Hey, you are early too. Good, good,” Xan said, interrupting me from my conversation with Clare.

“I couldn’t sleep,” I told him as I got up to join him. He was standing alone outside the gate, with no sign of a carriage anywhere.

“Well, the earlier we leave, the earlier we arrive,” he said as he turned back to look at the gate.

I wanted to ask what he was looking for but the opening of the main gate made me belay that question. Out came a moderately small carriage, made for around four people inside with a driver up front based on the little I knew of carriages. From the little light that dawn afforded us, I could make out enough details to ascertain that it wasn’t overly decorated; that would have been a nightmare for me to travel in.

The carriage driver brought it to a stop in front of us, and Xan greeted him as he went directly for the door of the carriage. I followed instinctively. When he opened the door, the first thing I noticed was that,

“It’s full, with cases,” I unhelpfully pointed out.

“Yes, my clothes,” Xan said as he sequenced himself among the cases, and I followed suite, barely finding a place to comfortably lean on. I was afraid that I might somehow ruin his clothes if I leaned too much for comfort.

“How is this better than walking?” I asked as I felt the carriage begin to move, quickly forcing me to lean more than I wanted to.

“You can walk if you want, no one is stopping you.”

Now that I was in the carriage and it had begun moving, I didn’t feel like walking to Choska anymore. And so I kept any further complaints I might have had to myself. Embarrassingly enough, I fell asleep almost immediately after we left Sjuma.

[+][+][+]

[Species: Human]

[Name: Hartie]

[Sex: Male]

[Level: 32]

Status:

[HP: 4519/4799]

[MP: 4581/4581]

[SP: 6811/6941]

Attributes:

[Agility: 39]

[Constitution: 32]

[Endurance: 39]

[Intelligence: 29]

[Strength: 21]

[Vitality: 30]

[Wisdom: 34]

General Skills [4/4]:

[Health Regeneration: 3]

[Identify: 1]

[Language Proficiency: 4]

[Mana Manipulation: 8]

Primary Skills:

[Daggers: 7]

[Enhanced Hand: 6]

[Earth Grab: 8]

[Fast Dash: 8]

[Fire Ball: 10]

[Hurtling Projectile: 11]

[Staff Strike: 9]

[Staffs: 13]

[Unarmed Combat: 8]

[Wind Gust: 10]

Other Skills:

[Acrobatics: 7]

[Archery: 3]

[Bludgeons: 3]

[Carpentry: 3]

[Enhance Plant Growth: 3]

[Fire Bolt: 8]

[Herbalism: 3]

[Shield: 2]

[Spears: 3]

[Stealth: 2]

[Staff Making: 6]

[Staff Shield: 7]

[Water Ball: 5]

[Water Punch: 8]

[Weeding: 8]

[Whirlpool: 4]