The feeling of abrupt lucidity spilled over Seth like bucket of cold water.
His eyes shifted wildly in their sockets as the fog lifted and revealed his dim surroundings. For a moment, he tried to push himself upright, only to find that he wasn’t still in his room like he had previously thought.
Huh?
Seth went to reach up and rub his eyes but grunted in surprise when a pale knub rose up toward him rather than the familiar onyx fingers he had become accustomed to. He stared blankly at the knub before annoyance settled in, finally cementing the remains of his consciousness. He looked around again, finding the loathsome sight of his skewed childhood home waiting before him. It seemed dodging sleep had finally took its toll as it combined with his recent loss of blood to force him into unconsciousness.
Whatever, let’s get on with it then.
His blurry figure slowly drifted forward as it had done tens of times before. Seth glanced around in habit, trying to find anything new that would signal the reason for the reoccurring dream. He inwardly sighed as everything remained in the same state of flux, glitching around in brief bouts of refracted lights before resuming their place in the twisted reality. He waited with bored patience as his ghostly form finally reached the dark oak front door. His surroundings dimmed for a brief second as he entered the foyer of his old home. After the initial bloodcurdling scream and restoration of the lights, Seth laid his eyes on the still figure of his mother.
Time froze for a moment as the foreign pressure in the back of his head made itself known once again. Before he had the chance to rub at the new headache, the picturesque scene became tainted with motion and the dream started back up again. He slowly drew closer to his still motionless mother. Her long chestnut brown hair spilled down her shoulders while her soft green eyes gazed forward in a look of worry.
Every time he had this dream, he was always bewildered to see the soft wrinkles that marred her youthful face. It was an expression he had never remembered from his childhood. As far as he could think back, his mother always had an air of calm about her, never truly getting angry at any of his mistakes and always comforting him afterward. But as he examined her now, he couldn’t help but think the wrinkles looked practiced, like she had a constant worry that had aged her years past her true lifetime.
His figure finally stopped in place, signaling the end of his examination as her whole body tore through space like a buffering video. In only a second, his mother resumed her place in reality with a muted screech. Seth watched as she silently screamed at something in the doorway while gesturing wildly with her hands. His headache slowly crawled forward through more of his head before the scene gradually dimmed to nothing. As the darkness fully obscured his vision, he could finally feel his eyelids fall and his mind recede back toward reality.
--------
Seth’s eyes fluttered open and stared at the white ceiling. He lay still as he felt his muscles ache; a telltale sign of a restless slumber.
His internal clock told him only a couple hours had passed, and upon checking his actual clock, he found that he had been incorrect. A little over eight hours had expired since he passed out, leaving Seth with around ten hours before the challenge would end. Despite this, he remained on the bed, unmoving. His body felt heavy. His mind felt muddled.
Not my best idea. He lamented.
It felt like he was back in his high school days. Waking up with zero energy and not enough motivation to even roll out of bed. But Seth was no longer in high school, so he fought the wave of afflictions enough to sit on the edge of the luxurious gem studded bed. He let loose the old blue collar father groan as he wrestled himself up to his feet. After a few stretches and more groaning, Seth hit the bathroom and threw on his fatigues. After splashing his face a few times to alleviate the lingering sleepiness, Seth left his room in search of some food.
Bare feet slapped loudly on the tile-like flooring of the large facility. Seth didn’t bother to put on any boots, as the only ones he owned were those from his previous armor set, and he didn’t really like them anyway. There wasn’t any reason to wear regular shoes either because they most likely were less durable than his own feet at this point. He didn’t think it was that weird of a thing to do, as he also saw other people going around barefoot every now and then.
Seth had even rolled up his pantlegs to an extent so it looked a little more natural, though he didn’t know if it helped at all. He also left out his cloak for the time being, as he wasn’t a fan of the weird looks it would surely get him by walking around normally. It seems his worries were unfounded though, as Seth was able to go all the way to the cafeteria area, eat his food, and walk back, without seeing a single soul.
“Maybe things ramped up sooner than I thought they would.” He mumbled to himself.
He thought about opening up the rankings on the console in his room, but then decided against it and started heading for the main hall. After a few minutes of walking, Seth’s theory was confirmed as a tremor of noise began gradually increasing the closer he got. Soon enough, the noise became a roar of voices yelling as if they were at a concert. Finally, he arrived to find that the main hall was packed with all the remaining participants crowded in a circle around the middle of the room. It seemed that everyone was watching the large monitors that usually showed the top leaderboard positions.
After a brief examination, Seth’s jaw dropped as he recognized the live feed of a match being streamed on all main screens. Furthermore, two well known participants were currently duking it out right in the middle. Seth watched with disbelief as Remus, the previous second rank, and Princess Caladenia, the previous first rank, clashed together in a wave of mixed energies.
“Hey Seth!”
He tore his eyes away from the screen to look around for the familiar voice. Finally, he spotted Drake pushing his way out of the crowd toward Seth. He greeted Drake with a fist bump before gesturing at the screen. “Why are they dueling? If neither of them fought, both of them would’ve still probably gotten into the bonus challenge.”
Drake gave him the telltale eyebrow wiggle that told Seth he was about to lay out a juicy piece of gossip. “You should’ve been here, it was crazy! Everyone was going at it with the duels, but then a couple of minutes ago, the two of them started arguing about who would win the top placement in the end. Finally, Princess Caladenia demanded that Remus should agree to a duel and solve the issue right then and there. And I’ll tell you right now, Remus agreed to it so fast that I would’ve been worried if I was the princess.”
He tapped Seth to get his attention before quietly pointing at a nearby group. The two of them watched as various bets were passed around between onlookers. “The duel was apparently such a big deal that they started allowing bets with actual challenge points. You wouldn’t believe how many points are on the table right now!”
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Greed flashed in both of the boys eyes as they thought of the ramifications. “Also, I like the new look man! I’m happy you aren’t homeless anymore!” Drake grinned before heading back over to where Seth assumed Blair and Licht were staying.
Did I seriously look that bad? He thought before shaking his head.
Ah, whatever. This betting factor certainly added a little bit of chaos to the mix though. Theoretically, someone could jump near the top of the leaderboard if they find another person crazy enough to bet their entire balance on this match. Seth grinned to himself.
His own plan just kept seeming more and more attractive. Without wasting another second, he dove straight into the crowd, finding the largest groupings of participants to bet with. He didn’t know how long the match would last, so he laced as many bets as he possibly could. They were deceptively easy to make too, as both participants only had to hit yes on a screen after verbally declaring the terms.
Within minutes, Seth had already bet the entirety of his challenge points with a large variety of participants. He had even tried to go further, but the screens stopped appearing after expending his stockpile. Satisfied with his work, Seth leaned against a wall while watching the remainder of the match. It had lasted almost ten minutes since he had arrived; a truly incredible amount of time. Seth had glanced at the match multiple times while laying out bets, and he knew that the two had an insane amount of endurance to last this long. Something itched at him a bit though, as it felt a little odd how long the match was lasting. It smelled of politics though, so Seth decided to keep his nose out of it and just be happy with the gains he was about to reap.
With that settled, he picked out a console an acceptable distance from all the commotion and sat down. He wanted to check the ranks as they stood beforehand to see not only how far he had fallen since last time, but also take notes on those he had marked through the entire challenge. As he scrolled through the leaderboard, Seth was unsurprised to find he had dropped nearly all the way down to 40th. His time asleep combined with the time he spent practicing with his abilities had resulted in a severe drop in placement.
The other participants were certainly meeting his expectations in their desperate struggle for last-minute points. It seemed that a point vacuum had been created in the weaker participants. Every time they lost a duel, they rushed off to scramble for more challenge points in normal matches, yet again bringing the newest ones back into the gambling pool and losing them once again. This basically rose the ranks of all those at the top with virtually no risk involved.
Bet those guys who kept losing points are kicking themselves now at the thought of the easy bag they could’ve gotten in this bet.
As Seth chuckled to himself, a cheer rang out from the center of the hall. Seth looked up from his station to find two new bodies amongst the masses. Both were worn and bloodied, but only one was still upright.
A single hairy fist rose above the crowd and a wave of sweltering heat rushed throughout the crowd like a bomb. As everyone took a step backward from the display, Seth was able to catch a glimpse of Remus’s glorious figure towering over a nearly collapsed young woman. Her usually glittery opal armor was now covered in an unhealthy dose of crimson blood and light brown sand. She was looking like anything but a princess with her crooked left arm and blood freely gushing from a series of wounds scattered across her torso.
Seth watched as the slick looking Galdir Ruminold and another dark haired man whom he assumed was Angus, also from The Radiance Court, began hauling Princess Caladenia away. Remus spared them no attention as he turned to revel in the cheers from his audience. Half of the crowd went ahead to congratulate him, while the other half either looked crestfallen or glared in thinly veiled anger at the retreating figure of the princess.
Looks like some aren’t too happy with the results. Seth thought to himself as he giggled with a hand over his mouth.
Only a second later, a new screen appeared on the main screens of the hall.
Results of Match:
1. Ruler of the Inferno, Remus +(121,050)
2. Galdir Ruminold, Believer in Love +(110,110)
3. Herk’El +(32,500)
4. Jewel of the Northern Regime, Francis +(25,250)
5. Eminence +(18,000)
.
.
47. Undecided +(0)
Many stared at the screen above them in bafflement of the results. Some cheered at their gains while others took attention of the individuals at the top of the results board.
Seth himself couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the participant who doubled his score. He had expected some parties to face a large gain, but seeing that only one participant had been privy to inside information was kind of disappointing.
I suppose we can’t all be winners.
Seth didn’t care much for the results though, as he had a different plan in place. Within minutes, chaos was sewn through the crowd once again as those that lost bets began up roaring against their counterparts and demanding duels. It didn’t take long for some to turn their attention outward and spot Seth.
“Hey you! Gimme a chance to win back that five thousand you made me put up!”
“Wait your turn loser, I got a bone to pick with this guy!”
“Did you think I would let you swindle me out of half my challenge points? You are gonna regret putting that duel clause in our agreement asshole!”
Seth tried hard to bite back a grin as a small mob of people started to approach him with varying expressions of rage or greed. “Hey, I’m just as surprised as you guys! Don’t worry though, I already agreed anyone I made a bet with would have express rights to a duel in the case that they lost. If you all don’t mind, just decide amongst yourselves what order you want to duel in and we can start the queue up!” Seth exclaimed in an innocent voice tinged with fear.
He threw his hands up in a gesture of surrender as a large young man planted himself directly in front of him and leered over Seth. “This isn’t a debate, I’m going first. The others can have whatever’s left after I scrape you off my boot.” He proclaimed with a confident growl.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, I have the right to start, he made a bet with me first.” A woman with icy white hair declared from behind the man.
Soon enough, the growing mob began arguing amongst themselves as eight total voices tried to vie for the first seat. Seth did nothing but watch with an amused expression as he cherished the fruits of his labor. He had purposefully bet everything he had with a large amount of people in order to gain their attention in the case any of them lost their bets.
Betting large amounts of points made him their number one target for regaining their losses, as they thought if they could just beat him, the point loss wouldn’t be that bad. He even made sure to add a clause within each bet that he would guarantee anyone a free duel with him in the case they lost the bet.
This allowed him to coax more points out of each deal, as every one of the participants he made a deal with were confident in their own abilities enough to think they could squeak out a win if it came to that. It wasn’t a trait everyone in the entire challenge had, but Seth had paid extra attention to make larger bets with people he already marked down previously.
This obviously wasn’t a full proof plan though, as he honestly had no idea who would be the victor of the main match. Luckily, Seth was able to circumvent this problem by making enough bets on either side so that whatever the result, he would still end with zero gains or losses. Unfortunately, it would severely cut down the possible gains he could get from those looking to get their points back from him, but that problem could also be fixed through persuasion.
Despite him previously always wanting to avoid confrontation, Seth had changed, for better or for worse, to the point that he was able to deal with it for long enough to get what he wanted. His new tolerance would afford him the ability to talk some people into putting a few more points on the board for each duel. Seth silently thanked the scammers of Earth for teaching him all he needed to know for the upcoming tribulations.
Finally, after ten minutes of deliberation, the queue was created in an agreed upon order, and the first challenger walked forward. It seemed the large boy who previously threatened Seth was able to bully his way into the first slot. “You said I could get a free duel in the event I lost the bet.” The larger boy stated.
“Yep, that was the deal.” Seth affirmed.
“You didn’t say anything about a point limit though. That means you have to accept any duel we give you regardless of how many points are on the line.” He demanded with a tone that left no room for argument.
“I suppose that is correct.” Seth conceded with a disgruntled look.
“Alright then, I bet you 15K originally, but I’m not gonna be satisfied with just that. We’re doubling that. I’ll bet you 30K so I get my points back and take what I should’ve gotten in the first place. Accept the duel and let’s get this over with.” The young man growled.
“Happy to oblige.” Seth said with a Cheshire grin.