The Main Stadium

“Now that the competition is underway, let me introduce my cohost!” King Oberon declares as soon as he teleports the competitors into the competition. Then he motions to the side when another dragon, albeit smaller than him, appears next to him. “The fae should all know who she is, but the cohost for the Fae Crown’s Tournament will be my sister, Elder Princess Nyx!”

The fae in the audience all begin to applaud. But the applause doesn’t last long as a loud shattering sound echoes from the screen and the maze beneath them all, drawing everyone’s gaze immediately back to the competition.

And King Oberon opens his mouth slightly at what he finds, only to close it again a second later. Then he mutters, “Should’ve expected that…”

Everyone within the stadium stares at the aftermath of Scarlet punching one of the walls of the maze with her Red Plague-covered fist. An aftermath that leaves the wall with glowing red cracks.

Then they watch her pull her fist back again and slam it back into the wall, making the cracks expand.

“This…” King Oberon mutters, only to pause as she slams her fist into the wall once more, making the wall in front of her completely fall apart for a few meters around the point of impact. “…isn’t how this competition was meant to be played…”

His contracted partner breaks out into laughter alongside a large majority of the audience. Even Oberon’s sister, covers her mouth as she looks away from Oberon.

Eventually he lets out a sigh and smiles as well.

But that smile goes away when he hears Scarlet’s muttered comment echoing out through the stadium as the main screen above them all focuses on her, “Why bother with finding my way through a maze when I can break my way through it?”

And even that isn’t what bothers him. What wipes his smile away is the sound of his son, Tarankar’s, voice echoing after hers, “Yeah, Father probably knew about this already. I can’t imagine him not knowing about it after all.”

King Oberon grows silent for several seconds as King Arkaz and his sister both share a look before glancing at him with amused looks in their eyes. But neither say a word.

So Oberon just changes the topic, “It looks like a competitor has found a loot box! Which meeeaans, this is the first set of points given out during this tournament! Give Leonidas a round of applause!”

Applause echoes out throughout the stadium Leonidas stares at the gray loot box for a second before he continues his way through the maze.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Now, to get back to what I was going to say before I was interrupted,” King Oberon says, having successfully driven the topic away from his embarrassment. “A bonus rule for this competition that the competitors will become aware of soon enough are that legendary and higher loot boxes announce their location when they spawn. But let’s put that aside for now as my sister explains the spectating side of the tournament to you all!”

Nyx, whose black scales glitter with starlight, floats up in front of her brother and declares, “For all of you who don’t know who I am, now you know. So to keep things simple, the main screen above the stadium will change periodically between the competitors, focusing on whichever competitor my younger brother is focusing on at the time. You may also use the screen that should be appearing in front of you whenever my brother gets around to spawning it-” she pauses has her brother sends her a frown and makes the screen appear in front of everyone, giving them access to the System Menu without a word “-to view whichever competitor you wish to view on your screen. Lastly- oh, looks like Amelia also found a loot box. And Satan ran into a Class V Guardian.”

The Elder Princess – the only royal aside from the King who isn’t participating in the tournament – stops the introduction she was doing as she focuses on the screen and instead begins commentating on it, making her brother scowl at her in response.

I’m regretting bringing her.

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Scarlet

This really is a nice method to get around.

I let out a light yawn as I punch through another wall, only to find a glowing green box on the other side.

Oh? Is that…

I walk up to it and touch the box, making a +3 show above it in green text. Then I find a count appearing in the corner of my vision, surprising me for a moment.

Interesting. Looks like the System itself is actually involved in this tournament.

Although, considering how the System was made by Titania, and this tournament was designed by Titania, it makes sense that it would be.

Anyways, got my first points.

I begin walking through the maze a little bit before punching through a wall when I hit a dead end. And through this manner of travel, I manage to find several more common and uncommon loot boxes. But I surprisingly never find any of those ‘monsters’ the king mentioned.

Wonder where those are?

“You’ll probably run into them soon enough if you keep making so much noise destroying walls,” Tar comments, making me nod my head in agreement.

That’s good. Then I’ll be able to take one on and figure out if they’re a good source of points. Or something I should run away from.

I hope they aren’t something I should run away from. They would make for good points after all.

“Considering the Red Plague, I doubt there’s anything you have to worry about in the combat part of the tournament,” Tar mutters, making me glance at him before I continue walking.

No, I’m not gonna use the Red Plague on people who have the anti-death clause on. I know it’ll kill them even with the anti-death clause.

And I’m not gonna go around killing people just because of a tournament.

Demons or humans.

Although, if they don’t have the anti-death clause, and I’m left to using it as a last resort… then it’ll depend on who I’m fighting.

I’m obviously not gonna kill one of the Demon Lords, my own parents, or Aria for example.

“No surprise there,” Tar says, only for our conversation to end at the sound of a loud roar.

Guess we’ve found one of the monsters.