Once Maria logged back into the game the next day, she immediately pulled her friends over to the Colosseum Arena and began queuing up for the ranked team-mode PvP. The one she queued them up for was the Colosseum Battle Royale. It took a while but soon, their match was ready and they were sent right into the sub-dimensional space where the battle was going to happen.
You have entered the Battle Royal Colosseum Dimension - Void’s Edge!
You are now in the White Room, please select your Skills and Equipment!
Maria was feeling quite giddy with excitement but before she was thrown into the battlefield, she was sent into a white space along with her friends which was sort of like the dimension’s waiting room where the players would have to select their skills and weapon load-outs before the actual battle started.
“Eh? What’s this place?”
“Mary, this is where we pick our skills and equipment. Don’t tell me you haven’t even tried this mode before and this is your first time?” Liz asked.
“...Uhh, it is?”
“...Well, this might take a while then,” Emily said after she tapped on a floating menu and moved over to Maria’s side.
“What’ll take a while?”
“Choosing your skills and equipment. To make this mode fair, the devs made it so that everyone would start with the same amount of stats and our equipment will be uniform and have only 1 effect.”
“Oh, I’ve read about all of that already. We can only choose a few things, right?”
“Great, that saves us time from explaining. We’ll only stay in this space for around 3 minutes so let’s set your loadout.”
“You don’t have to set yours?” Maria asked as she turned towards her two friends that didn’t seem too anxious with setting up theirs and had decided to help her out instead.
“We’ve already tried this mode before and our previous loadouts have been saved so don’t worry about us. Let’s pick out yours first!” Liz replied.
“Alright!”
Please Select your Skills! (0/4)
Maria quickly tapped on her empty window and right beside it, a window that was visible to both Liz and Emily, immediately appeared. This window wasn’t large but there were multiple stacks of it that were floating on top of each other.
Seeing the many window stacks, Emily and Liz immediately exclaimed, “What the heck?!”
When she heard their exclamations, Maria immediately asked, “What’s wrong?”
“You have so many skills!”
Normal players at this stage of the game would only have 2-3 windows of skills but Maria had 5 which was about double that amount. Of course, others would have that much as well if they learned trash skills and only bothered with their collection and not raising their proficiencies. Typically, the number of effective skills that normal players would own is only 2-3 windows worth. Emily and Liz didn’t believe for a second that Maria was like one of those skill hoarders and they were right since they knew her so well.
There were no useless skills in Maria’s large repertoire. All of the skills in her skill windows were abilities she constantly used. Naturally, this included all of her sub-class and equipment skills on top of her main class’ skills and the magic spells she learned from Paimon. Emily and Lizzy spent a few minutes reading through all of her skills that the waiting and preparation time was almost up.
“Q-Quick! Pick something!” Lizzy said in a panic after seeing that there were only 20 seconds left on the clock.
“Damn, there was so much to read through. Mary, you’ve got too many skills and spells!” Emily exclaimed.
“S-Sorry…”
“Anyway, choose the ones that you think would have great synergy with your other skills. Remember, you can only choose 2 main skills, a normal one, and an Ultimate. 1 equipment skill and 1 passive! Quick, make your choice!”
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“R-Right!”
The passive skill that Maria chose was definitely her [God Save the Queen] which granted her immortality if her HP dropped too low and prevented her from being hit by a fatal blow. The weapon skill was [Calamity Cleave] and Maria didn’t even hesitate to choose this since it was the one she was most familiar with. After that, she quickly picked [Angel’s Rage] as her normal skill and [Gehenna’s Eye] as her ultimate. Once her skill loadout was completed, a new window appeared.
You have selected the skills: [God Save the Queen], [Calamity Cleave], [Angel’s Rage], and [Gehenna's Eye]! Confirm? Y/N
Maria quickly tapped on the [YES] to confirm her selection and soon after, a new window for the equipment selection appeared.
“Mary, quick! Pick your equipment loadout!” Lizzy said.
There were only 10 seconds left on the timer now.
She could pick 3 things so without hesitation, Maria chose Calamity, Greed’s Chains, and the Dire Queen's Crown. A player could only pick 3 equipment from their inventories that they could bring into the battle which would be unique to them. Players had to choose wisely because these equipment would usually be able to provide an edge to their fights inside of the Battle Royale mode against other players alongside their skills.
Everything else such as the armor, helmets, boots, etc. would be obtained inside of the game so at some point, the equipment each player had would be more or less uniform in the stats that were given. Only these 3 selected equipment would be different, so players had to be critical in their selection. Usually, however, players would select their strongest equipment, but this was sometimes not really smart. Bringing in equipment that had unique effects and skills were actually the smart thing to do since all of the equipment obtained in the game had very little chance of providing an extra effect or skill.
She quickly tapped on all the confirmation buttons that popped up and once all of the system menus were dismissed. The girls were about to let out a sigh of relief thinking that it was over, however, another window actually appeared which surprised the girls.
Please select your Awakened Trait!
Maria was an Awakened Player so this menu appeared for her that un-Awakened players like Lizzy and Emily wouldn’t be able to see.
Before they could read anything, Maria’s eyes were already darting through the words and she immediately selected one of the options on the new window just before the timer hit zero.
“Done!”
Right when she said her words and tapped on the confirmation one last time, the white room immediately disappeared. In the room earlier, Maria’s character had been stripped of her equipment and she was only wearing some rag-like clothing. Now that the white room disappeared, she noticed a box suddenly drop in front of her and when she opened it, she saw her Calamity, Dire Queen’s Crown, Greed’s Chains, and 4 skill books in it. She picked up everything in the box and heard Lizzy call out to her..
“Mary, quickly grab your skills and use them! After that, equip your items! We’re going to drop onto the battlefield soon!”
“O-Okay!”
Maria quickly did as she was told and equipped her items. She had been so used to having Greed’s Chains weigh on her wings that after they were unequipped earlier, she felt like something was missing but now that they were back, she felt comfortable again. It felt quite awkward to be dressed in rags, but seeing that Lizzy and Emily were also dressed in rags, everyone in the lobby was probably in the same situation.
It felt a bit uncomfortable because Maria was used to wearing a lot of power armor and equipment. Despite it being a bit uncomfortable, it was a refreshing and new feeling so Maria wasn't too bothered by it. Once everyone in the party equipped their equipment and finished learning their skills, a window appeared in front of Maria that showed her the map of the entire battlefield. A similar one appeared in front of Emily and Lizzy as well. Since Lizzy was the party leader, she was the one who chose where they would appear on the battlefield.
Please select your starting area!
“Any opinions?” Lizzy asked before making a decision.
“Anywhere is fine,” Emily replied.
Maria also nodded at her words and said, “I'll follow your lead! This is my first Battle Royale match after all.”
“Okay...then I suggest that we start in the ruins! With our team's flight capabilities, we’ll be able to use the landscape to our advantage! Just be ready, there’s bound to be a few teams starting in this area, so keep your eyes peeled and your wits about you! I don't want any of the other teams getting the jump on us!”
“Roger.”
“Yes~”
Selection confirmed! Teleporting players into the battle map!
Once the location was decided, their team was immediately teleported into the battlefield. Maria expected to immediately start moving but they were confined in some kind of bubble after appearing in the middle of an ancient ruined house.
“Why can’t we get out?” Maria asked.
“We have to wait. The bubble will only disappear once all of the other squads have chosen the locations they want to appear in,” Lizzy replied. "Of course, the bubble will disappear after 30 seconds and the teams that haven't selected a starting area will get a randomized location instead."
“Oh, okay! Maybe I should've researched a little more about this battle mode...”
"It's fine. Just learn through experience! It's always fun to try new things completely unaware of everything."
“We should split up and search the area for the monster spawns. Keep your eye on the map and don’t stray too far away, you hear me, Mary?” Emily quipped as she eyed Maria in particular.
Lizzy did the same and this prompted Maria to nod her head vigorously, “D-Don’t worry! I’ll try not to get lost!”
“...yeah, I don’t believe you. Em, you should stick with Mary just in case. You know how bad she is with directions.”
"I guess that would be for the best. Mary, stick close with me, okay?”
“Y-You guys don’t need to babysit me…” Maria replied with a pout.
“This time around, we will and we have to…”
“...Fine…”
Maria groaned and readied her weapon. She wasn’t floating anymore so it felt a bit weird for her to move around with her feet ever since she got so used to just floating around with Wrath’s Heart.
*DING*
All squads have chosen their landing areas! Warning: Protective bubble will soon disappear!
*DING* *DING* *DING*
Void’s Edge Warfront has been initiated! Let the games begin and happy hunting to all participants!
“Finally, let’s do this!”