"Are you alright?" Ron asked Scarlett once he and Sabrina got to her, Ankhtakelot had sent one of his healers to check her out.
"I won't die but I think I might've ruined my shoulder" Scarlett said, overall she was glad to win against someone who was at the third level for a much longer time than her but she had sacrificed her shoulder to squeak out a win.
"Unless someone uses a very powerful medicine I don't see a way to recover that shoulder" The healer spoke, he and the rest of the healers were powerless and if he was honest she was lucky to still have her entire arm and only burned off her shoulder.
"I see, well guess I have to live with it" Scarlett said looking like it didn't disturb her, Ron however knew her long enough to see it was bothering her.
"Mind if I take a look?" Sabrina who was quiet ever since she came here suddenly spoke up, everyone looked at her with Scarlett shrugging. It couldn't make it any worse so why not, the healer also just shrugged clearly not impressed with Sabrina's confidence.
Sabrina didn't say anything and looked and prodded at Scarlett's shoulder, before the healer could say anything Sabrina held a piece of chalk. Ron remembered she also grabbed chalk and was even able to draw on sand. Could she also draw on skin? Sabrina didn't say anything and instead made a magic circle on Scarlett's shoulder, she stopped before explaining to Scarlett what would happen if she activated it. "Basically i'm going to increase your metabolic rate and your regenerative rate in your shoulder making it so your body will heal it, however you will need a ton of food to sustain your life"
"Can I keep the scar? It will serve as a cool reminder" Scarlett wanted to keep the black scar which surprised Sabrina a little, as a fellow woman she knew appearances were important to them. She acknowledged Scarlett's wishes and changed the magic circle a little, Ron was blown away that magic circles could even do this he voiced his enthusiasm to which Sabrina said "Magic circles can do almost anything however due to their massive knowledge requirement not many people practise them"
('Magic circles can do almost anything? If that's the case…') Ron thought about his lack of a special crafting type job, if anything those jobs could be said to be support type fields. Ron could in theory make magic circles his supporting type field, he was friends with Sabrina and would be travelling with her for the foreseeable future. The more Ron thought about it the more sure he was, it would reduce the amount of wish points Ron needed for enchantments, tracking and so many more opportunities.
Before Ron could voice his thoughts however Ankhtakelot came over, the man was bandaged up and seemed to be in great spirits after losing the battle. "Can I invite you all to a banquet? Today has been a great day for me and I want to celebrate it". Scarlett would need a ton of food for the healing process so it came at a nice moment, Ron also wasn't going to turn down free food.
A grand banquet was held and the entire manor seemed to be in uproar, Ankhtakelot discussed what would be the story for the outside to hear. The story would go as follows, Scarlett broke through the third level and wanted to challenge Ankhtakelot for rights to the town. Ankhtakelot accepted and held their duel inside the manor to not damage the town, the guards and another 3rd party who had a coincidental appointment with Ankhtakelot witnessed the fight. Ankhtakelot fought hard and ultimately defeated Scarlett, keeping the town under his regime.
Ron knew why he had to spread the entire story this way, having the backing of an entire town as big as this one was a great boon. Scarlett didn't mind the story being told this way because she knew the real results and didn't care for public opinion. It also kept everyone in the dark about Ankhtakelot's powers and Scarlett's, Ankhtakelot made every guard swear to not spread the truth which they all strangely accepted easily. ('Was this a common occurrence?') Ron thought before dismissing those thoughts, if they were he couldn't or wouldn't do anything about them.
During the banquet Scarlett ate like a monster. Ron was sure she was going to bankrupt Ankhtakelot at this rate, the magic circle on her shoulder shone brightly during her eating frenzy and soon she regained movement in her shoulder but it was still completely black in colour. Ron took the opportunity during the banquet to ask Sabrina if she was willing to teach Ron how magic circles worked, she was shocked at first but happily accepted his proposal. Initially Sabrina was still a little worried about how easily Ron agreed to her requests to tag along, if a deal was too good to be true then there was likely something behind it.
*Ding!* As the banquet was wrapping up Ron unexpectedly received a message, he shouldn't have gotten an achievement for something like this right? The message however wasn't an achievement message it was actually something completely different. A message that the wishmasters over the entire floor received, inside the town multiple people who gathered in the guild looked at the message with greed in their eyes.
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To the south there was a man in a business suit with two guns in his hands, next to him were the corpses of multiple cougars, the man read the message and looked towards the north smiling "I guess we'll meet each other again" the man muttered this was the same man Ron rescued from the spiders Jacob.
There were other people on the entire floor who looked at the message, a young man with mysterious small red and white orbs on his waist, a blonde woman who looked in deep thought at a number of cards in her hands, a man with extremely pale skin. There were many more but all these people would soon be heading north, what was north? Well Ron's message made that more than clear.
"CONGRATULATIONS FOR SURVIVING A MONTH IN THE TOWER AS A NEWCOMER, IN CELEBRATION OF THIS ACCOMPLISHMENT THE TOWER HAS ORGANISED AN TOURNAMENT TO DECIDE WHO THE BEST NEWCOMER IS. ENTRANCE IS FREE AND NOT REQUIRED HOWEVER THERE ARE PRIZES AVAILABLE WITH FIRST PLACE EARNING 15,000 WISH POINTS. RULES AND REGULATIONS WILL BE MADE CLEAR IN TWO WEEKS FROM NOW, LOCATION OF THE TOURNAMENT IS AT THE CENTRE OF THE FLOOR, PLEASE FOLLOW THE ARROW IN THIS MESSAGE FOR DIRECTIONS. GOOD LUCK TO THOSE WHO DECIDE TO ENTER THE TOURNAMENT!"
It took Ron a moment to digest the news, a tournament to decide the best with wish points up for grabs. It was going to be a massive tournament and Ron wondered how many people were going to enter, was there going to be a reward for second place? What sort of people were going to enter? All these questions and Ron could only wait and see, but he was getting more and more excited thinking about it and it showed to those observant of his actions.
"What's wrong?" Scarlett asked as she felt Ron was stirring in his place, she wasn't the only one who noticed. Sabrina, Ankhtakelot and the old man also came to Ron who's energy was slowly leaking unknown to Ron.
Ron explained the message he just received from the tower, everyone except for Ankhtakelot seemed surprised at the sudden turn of events. "I see it's that time again" Ankhtakelot said, surprising Ron, "Something like this has happened before?" to which Ankhtakelot nodded and explained his knowledge of the tower "Every three years newcomers will enter the tower, at a certain time frame an event will take place to 'rank' the newcomers. However there will be those who also use this event to their own action, those from the higher floors come to scout out the new blood. Not much is known about the upper floors except for the fact that people like me are at the lower end of the power there" Ankhtakelot revealed what he knew about the upper floors and the tower.
There were multiple points of interest in his story, the first one only came once every three years. If that was the case shouldn't there be millions of people entering the tower? Clearly there was more to the selection process. The second was that there were people from the higher floors who would be present and act more as talent scouts, Ron guessed the tower would limit their wishing powers otherwise they could just wish for compliance and nothing could stop them with their abundance of wish points from the higher floors. The third was something Ron had already suspected, the third level was only the lower end of power there.
"Is the event always the same or different every time?" Ron asked Ankhtakelot, if he knew about the event then maybe he could ask about the rules ahead of time. Ankhtakelot however shook his head "The event is always different and even at different times, there have been some recorded to have taken place a 3 months after newcomers came". Ankhtakelot explained he knew about these facts due to his family recording and passing it down from generation to generation.
"How long does it take to reach the centre of the floor?" Ron asked, there was a time limit on when he could enter as the tournament started two weeks from now. "The centre? For me I could get there in a few days if I travel at top speeds for you? Walking there would take around a month" Ankhtakelot dropped a bombshell Ron couldn't make it if he walked all the way.
"Then I guess I have to run" Ron would have to run and it was best if he had started running yesterday, there were still preparations he had to do in town however. Ron turned to Scarlett and Sabrina "Guess I'm going to miss your extermination of the goblins in the south, Sabrina could tag along if that's okay with you" sadly he couldn't be in both places at once and Sabrina would just slow him down if he had to wait for her.
"I-If i'm too slow you two can just go ahead and-" Sabrina wanted to argue but Scarlett cut her off "I'm going south, I can't wait any longer. Get first place in the tournament" And with that Scarlett was walking away, it seemed cold however Ron knew why she wanted to go the south that badly, every second that she didn't deal with the trauma was a second too much.
"Scarlett!" Ron yelled at her which caused her to turn around. "Kick their asses" Ron told her to which she responded with a feral grin, he then turned to Sabrina "If you want to see the world following Scarlett is the best course of action at the current moment, and despite her cold attitude she means well and is kind" he egged Sabrina on to follow Scarlett, Ron knew Scarlett well enough to recognise she was walking away slowly as if allowing Sabrina to catch up.
Sabrina seemed to mull over it for a bit watching Scarlett walk away, she had seen Scarlett's strength and it was even more than Ron himself and in the time she had met and talked to Scarlett she didn't seem to have any negative feelings towards her. She took a deep breath and came to a conclusion "I'm going to follow Scarlett, goodluck in the tournament" and with that she ran off to catch up to Scarlett, Ron could see Scarlett slowing down even more as she most likely heard Sabrina's words. He said his farewells and went off to see an old acquaintance of his, he still had stuff he had to take care of while he was in the city.
Ron walked the streets and could feel multiple stares directed at him, he wondered who would try and target him. It could be people who wanted information for what transpired earlier in the day at the manor, or it could be other people. Ron dismissed those thoughts for the time being as he came to his target location; the alchemist.