Chapter 68
The new restaurant that Xan brought me to was located on a street full of flags, parlors and what I thought to be fortune readers’ shops. Should have expected the last one, maybe even paid one a visit. They might be able to tell me whether I was wasting my time participating in The Grand Competition. It could safe me a world of pain, and heartbreak when I finally got knocked out of the competition. Then again, I didn’t believe in such things, the same way I didn’t believe in magic. Maybe it was time to change that stance.
The restaurant itself was a cozy nook with nearly a dozen tables on the front and a long wooden bar running half the length of the room. The faint scent of mingled spices hanging in the air gave me thoughts of the Indian cuisines. Or at least what I thought their dining areas would smell like.
I didn’t think it a place Xan would visit, but I didn’t really know him that well, and I hated being prejudiced against, so I tried my best not to do it to someone else.
“Come again?” Xan asked as he took a sip from his cup of water, with what I assumed to be ice cubes glancing inside.
Whoever said it got easier once you did something for the first time clearly lied. For me, it felt even harder to say it a second time, but I had no other choice. “Would you invest in a staff for me?”
He stared at me unblinking for several long seconds, as if expecting me to say more. If he was expecting a ‘pretty please’ from me, then he would be waiting for eternity.
“You very clearly weren’t interested in my investment before,” he finally said.
“Yeah…”
And I still wasn’t, but it was like the old saying went, once in debt, you’ll always be in debt. Or something along those lines. I didn’t know whether what I was doing was a financially sound decision or not, getting more in debt in the hopes that the pay up later would be better. There was no guarantee that I would even get high enough in the ladder of destiny to be able to pay back what I already owed Xan.
“You’re lucky I’m not the kind of person to lord this over you,” he said.
“Until I paid you, then you would have nothing to use against me,” I murmured to myself as the waiter arrived with our foods.
After a long time of wanting to try something new for the first time, I had taken the time to go through the restaurant’s menu, and Xan accommodated my forays. Truth be told, I had never been to a restaurant with menus that had anything more than the basic foods for my area. A few breakfast specialties, usually tea and maandazi, or chapatti, and then main meals, which were never more than five.
After getting past the shear amount of options that were available to me, I had decided to go with something that was vaguely familiar to me, beef chili stew with something they called a Urky bread. I mean, there was no way beef could be anything other than what I thought it was. The bread was me being a little daring.
In front of me was a bowl full of a thick dark red stew, with a generous serving of what I guessed where beef chunks and other green, white, orange things. The aroma was heavy, and it had me salivating enough that I forcefully swallowed to avoid drooling into the food. I ran my spoon through the stew, and couldn’t help myself as I brought it my mouth almost immediately.
My mouth was awash with different tastes; spicy, sweet and sour, all blended together with the beef to create the best soup I had ever tasted.
“What else is in this?” I asked Xan after helping myself to another spoonful of the stew. “It’s sooo good.”
“Mmhh… let me see. There is green onions, ginger, eggplant, basil leaves, chili, lemongrass—”
“So, a ton of vegetable herbs.”
That was one too many things for me to really care what else was in it. As long as I could have it all day, every day, I would be fine. More than fine even. I pulled the plate with the bread closer, and immediately dug in, all talk of staffs forgotten. And who would pay for the meal, apparently.
…
‘I could have been a child?’ I asked in surprise, completely loosing track of the thread of Mana I had being weaving through my left thigh, numbing it for a few seconds as the Mana quickly spread out through the leg. But I had more urgent things to worry about, apparently, I could have arrived in the Realm of Mesily as a wailing new born baby. Literally at birth.
‘Yes.’
And Clare’s answer was simple and clear as always, at least when she wanted it to be.
‘Would I even remember anything?’
‘Yes.’
‘That would have sucked,’ I dryly commented.
I could just imagine all the years I would have spent as a toddler, doing all those nasty things I had learnt not to do. I didn’t even want to think about having to be cleaned up, especially after doing the nasty things.
I shook my head as I got back to my [Mana Cultivation]. It felt like I had finally made enough progress in that area that I could begin trying to advance my Skills further past their current stagnation point. I spent the better part of an hour Mana attuning the two staffs Xan got me. He had wanted to purchase four, one for each of the remaining rounds and a spare just in case. I didn’t think they allowed competitors to replace weapons in the middle of a fight though, that, and my persuasive persona convinced him to only purchase two staffs. For now, he had said.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
He had also wanted to purchase metallic ones, but given that I hadn’t worked with metal yet in my Mana attenuation training, it would have been a detriment to start using a metallic staff in the middle of the Counties. After the Counties, then maybe. Besides, with enough Mana attenuation, the material the staff was made of wouldn’t really matter that much, only the Mana needed to maintain a particular attribute of the staff. And that was entirely reliant on the staff user. I had read somewhere in the library that at advanced enough levels, a twig could be made deadlier than the sharpest of steels.
I had already done as much attuning as I could to the staffs. I would do the final touches before the fights were scheduled to begin, an hour or so before most preferably. The surprising thing with the staffs was the fact that even though the quality was better than the ones I made back in Sjuma, it wasn’t by much. For a moment, it had me wondering if I could actually make a career selling staffs. Then I remembered the cost of them, and how many people actually used the kind of staffs that I used. And I gave up.
Artina and the finalist from Sjuma found me in the Ithima training facility, deep in [Mana Cultivation]. Artina had offered to spar with me when I had somehow mentioned about my lackluster [Unarmed Combat] Skill in one of our conversations, I just didn’t understand why the other finalist from Sjuma was there. I had given up trying to learn her name.
“Are we late?” Artina asked as they joined me in the bench I was sitting on. A very secluded bench, far from any other patrons of the training facility. Not that there were that many to begin with; as the rounds progressed, the number of people I found in the training facility had steadily gone down.
I thought of asking instead why she had brought her friend, but gave up on that. She is already here, might as well make use of her.
“Nah, right on time.” They were three minutes late, but that was not worth pointing out. Life was easier that way. “Let’s get on with it then.”
“Just like that? No preamble?” Artina asked, after sharing a look with the finalist.
“What preamble? I’ve been ready since I got here,” I said as I got up from the bench. A muscle spasm in my right thigh made me stumble a little, forcing me to add unabashedly, “Maybe a little warm up wouldn’t hurt.”
…
“You suck at this,” Artina said after another sounding defeat for me, from her.
I lost count of the number of bouts we went through after the fifth loss. In my defense, ever since I got into the Realm of Mesily, the only form of [Unarmed Combat] training I got was from Boni, a non-combatant. And maybe my tussle with the not-caterpillar could be counted as another.
“Last time we brawled, who won?” I asked as I slowly got up from my prone position, slowly making my way to the bench for a much needed rest.
“I had the upper hand.”
“Who won is all that matters.”
“Then why are you training?” she asked as she squared off with the finalist.
“To increase my chances of winning.” I had thought was obvious.
They began their bout almost on a high note, like they had done throughout the training session. They used them as a way to show me how to fight, right before Artina used me as a rug to mop the floor. Artina won more often than she lost against the finalist, which had me wondering if she might have won the Baronies had she made it to the finals.
And soon enough, it was my turn again, with another win for Artina. How was she beating us up so much without getting a rest? I stared at the finalist who looked a little too winded and worn out, maybe I would have better chances with her.
“I should fight her next,” I said as I pointed to the still panting finalist.
They both stared at me before they looked at each other, in a way that had me second guessing my idea.
“Are you sure?” Artina asked, not helping matters at all.
I nodded a little too much, quickly getting on the sparring area, doing little stretches in preparation for what could be my first win for the session. Artina promptly left the sparring area as the finalist quickly composed herself, and I was reminded as to why I referred to her as a killer.
As we squared off, I was no longer seeing the winded, panting, beaten down opponent from before, but rather a ruthless killing machine with eyes dead set on its next target. To break the spiraling descend to feardom I was experiencing, I decided to say something,
“You are not even going to say anything?”
“Begin.”
“Begin what?” I asked, but she was already on the move. Before I could register what she was up to, I was already falling to the floor, nearly unconscious. I couldn’t even tell where she hit me, all that I felt was numbness, everywhere.
“The fight,” she finally said.
“You are supposed to say that before you hit me!” I exclaimed, taking a breather as I waited for feeling to return to all parts of my body. I used [Mana Cultivation] to quicken the process.
All I got in response from her was a smirk.
…
In the end, I won not a single bout against them. But I did spar with them both nearly equally. Artina was slow and methodical, wearing me down before she pounced for the kill. The finalist on the other hand was quick to finish the bout, taking the first chance she got to go for a vital point. I hoped all that beating I got at least helped me somewhat.
“When are you heading back home?” I asked as we slowly made our way to The Competitors’ Inn.
“Maybe after the Semis, and I’m not going home,” Artina answered. “We are planning to visit the Mbien Sovereignty.”
That seemed to gain the interest of the finalist, and it had me curious. I was sure I had come across that name before; I just couldn’t remember where. And before I could bring myself to ask about it, she was already talking about other things.
“I want to get better and I thought it would offer the best opportunity for me. Besides, I want to see for myself all those things I’ve heard about,” she said, and the finalist silently nodded to that.
I really wanted to know more about the Mbien Sovereignty, but I somehow found myself tongue tied as we made it to the Inn. They bid me goodbye as they headed to their rooms while I went to get myself a much needed early supper.
With the success I had with the previous meal, I decided to try my hand at choosing another new meal. In the end, I settled in what turned out to be a hearty serving of potatoes, pork, lamb and beef mixed up together into a bowl. It had less herbs than the other one, but it was still as mouth-watering. And delicious too.
“Hey!”
It took me a while, and maybe even a few heys, for me to realize that it was me that was being addressed. I blamed it all on the food, it was just so good. I quickly swallowed what I had being chewing, taking a sip of water to help it down before looking up to who thought it was okay to disrupt me at such an important moment in my life.
A stranger.
In front of me was a hulking figure, not as big as Fred but not by much. I tried raking up my brain for anything that could help me place him, but I came up blank. There was no way I had met him before. At least I hoped I hadn’t. Am I sitting in his seat? Is that a thing? Do I have to vacate? I stared at my half-full bowl of food, and then back at him again. Couldn’t he have waited a few more minutes?
“We haven’t met before,” he began after I dumbly stared at him for seconds, maybe minutes, “and I don’t know if you know, but I’m your opponent for the quarterfinals.”
And just like that, my appetite was gone. Do you want to start now? I wondered, as my stomach began feeling uneasy. I didn’t think I would be able to finish my meal anymore.