I opted to watch the remining challengers rather that return immediately to my personal space. After making my selection, I appeared back at the arena entrance where the ticket and participant registration booths were kept. The streets of Somhagen were behind me, but when I tried, I couldn’t get my body to walk out into the city.
You are restricted to the arena grounds during the arena challenge. To venture into Somhagen, you need to reach Tier 1, Rank 5.
The system prompt wasn’t really needed since I was being physically prevented from leaving. With the option of hitting the city and doing some shopping shut down, I decided to explore the arena grounds. On my previous visits here, I had just been in the ticket booth area and the arena floor.
There was nothing stopping me as I strolled around the outer ring of the arena. Crude stone viewing stands were placed around the portals on the arena floor, but nobody was sitting there. Whichever way the population of Somhagen watched the arena contests, it wasn’t from sitting in the stands themselves. A few workers moved about the place, busy with various tasks and stadium maintenance. Still a bit unsure of what to do next, I flagged one down.
“Hey, do you mind answering a question for me? I’m new here, how do people usual view the contest?” I asked.
“Oh, you’re one of the participants, how’d you do?” The worker, an older human woman asked.
“I was just eliminated, and I wound up 67/1000,” I replied.
“Not bad, you made it to the top 100, which should get you some nice rewards. As for viewing the rest of the contest, all you need to do is sit in the stands and you’ll be moved to a private viewing area, or if you prefer the roar of the crowds, you can enter the community viewing area,” the woman answered.
“Is there anything else to do here?” I asked. The place seemed deserted, but if all the people had been teleported to viewing areas, that would make sense.
“Sure, there’s a refreshment stand, restroom facilities, and a gift shop in section R1,” she replied.
“Thank you, I appreciate your help,” I said. The woman gave me a friendly wave and left me to my business.
Unlike in my personal space or when competing in the arena, I wasn’t being sustained by the system. I expected the contest to end soon, so grabbing Somhagen’s equivalent of a hot dog and nachos from the snack bar would be a waste of funds since I wasn’t feeling hungry or thirsty yet. While I had the option to watch the rest of the match, and see the final contenders make their way through the challenge, I’d been there and done that.
There might be some intel on the other participants that I could glean from watching the remaining challengers, but there had been over a thousand participants, and I’d only get to watch a few, not even seeing their full range of abilities. The odds were good that the ones I watched wouldn’t even be in the same future arena matches since we were all going to climb ranks and tiers at a different pace.
What I wanted to do before the contest ended was check out the gift shop. If it was anything like the ones back home, it’d have overpriced stuff, but maybe there was something that would appeal to a summoned being. The worker had given me good directions, and I soon spotted the gift shop not too far from where the ticket booths were.
The gift shop reminded me of a gas station convenience store. It had a few narrow aisles, and various products and snacks displayed. About a half dozen people were in the shop with me, and a dwarven clerk manned a counter near the entrance. So far, my experiences with the workers here hadn’t been bad, so I had no qualms about asking the clerk for help.
“Excuse me, do you have anything on offer that a summoned being can use?”
“All of our delicious snacks and beverages are available, and you could buy a souvenir to decorate your personal space with. Other than that, we do have a small shelf of things that might interest you,” the clerk explained, pointing toward a small wooden rack near the back of the store.
I made my way over to the rack, noting that the other people in here with me seemed to be locals or tourists, given their shopping habits. Food and drink seemed popular, as well as commemorative drinking mugs, and ribbons with various names that I was unfamiliar with on them. My destination was a rickety wooden rack that had a few odds and ends on its shelves.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The rack had been picked clean by previous shoppers, or maybe the store just didn’t bother to restock very often. I perused my choices; it was mostly several brightly wrapped packages that promised the possibility of a chance for an ability, spell, or skill scroll. Both abilities and skills were high on my list of purchases. I still had two slots still open for abilities. Many of the skills tended to be more passive things, like armor proficiency, that didn’t always take up an ability slot.
The whole mystery box thing was annoying, and these weren’t cheap ones either. Each brightly colored box could contain nothing but air, and at a gold a pop, it was a very expensive way to throw away money. With a sigh, I realized that I was going to have to buy at least one box to see what I got. I convinced myself it was for future research.
While the mystery boxes seemed to make up most items on offer, there was also a single magic missile wand for an exorbitant price. I had one wand in my loadout, and one at home. Adding another was of limited benefit, especially at the cost of three gold and fifteen silver. Other than the wand, and the mystery rip-off boxes, there was another group of packages that caught my eye. It was a plain box with stamped on simple text.
Commemorative Summoning Figurine. Tier 1 Arena special! Each guest is limited to one commemorative figurine.
I had no idea if the figurine was something I could summon, but at twenty silver, it was worth the chance to find out. So far, I’d only found a good selection of figurines in the shop that used summoning points. If my arena visits could net me another consumable when I wasn’t able to shop in the city itself, that would be great. Maybe the clerk would be willing to shed some light.
“Sorry to bother you again, but is there any way to tell what these wrapped boxes contain?” I asked the clerk, holding up one of the mystery boxes.
“No, and if you try to pinch open the paper to peek, the system will force you to buy it. All I’m allowed to say is that there will be at least something useful inside each one,” the clerk replied. He was a younger-looking dwarf that looked bored to be there, but at least tried to be helpful.
“Okay, I appreciate the info. Now, about these commemorative figurines, are they summoning figurines or just something to display on a shelf as a souvenir?” I asked.
“Those I can tell you are summoning figurines, and they could be from any of the challenges you’ve faced today. Each will contain at least one item, but don’t bother shaking them or anything, they’re magically enchanted so that to the customers, they all appear the same. As a summoned being, any purchases you make in the shop will be automatically delivered to your personal space,” the dwarf advised.
“Thanks again, I hope you can accept a tip,” I said, sliding him a silver for his time.
“I certainly can, and generous tips are always welcome for my assistance. Now that I have a chance to get a better look at this one, it appears the edge of the box is a little battered up. Why don’t you bring another one over and I’ll have this repaired later,” the dwarf said, his eyes gleaming with mischief. I got the hint, if I could slip him some coins, the dwarf would be willing to bend the rules on the commemorative figurines.
Back at the wooden shelf, there were four other figurine boxes, and I hauled all four back to the counter. I stacked ten silver coins next to the boxes, and after seeing the slight frown on the dwarf’s face, I doubled the number of coins. His frown turned back into a devious smirk. Just to make sure, I also added a couple stacks of copper coins, to which dwarf gave me a little nod. This was all I was willing to risk, after all, I still had to pay for the stupid box.
“A fine selection sir, are you ready to complete your purchase?” The dwarf asked, giving me a brief nod of no when I went to grab one of the mystery boxes.
“Yes, I’m done for this visit, just that figurine,” I replied, giving a general wave of my hand toward the figurine boxes lined up on the shelf.
“That’ll be twenty silver, enjoy your purchase,” the dwarf said, taking my payment and handing me a box that he appeared to select from random. The box disappeared as I tried to grab it, the item teleporting to my personal space. My tip disappeared just as quickly a moment later, the dwarf swiping the coins into his personal coin pouch. I gave him a wave and exited the shop, hoping that the dwarf hadn’t done me dirty with the whole box selecting shenanigans. I was going to get more visits to Somhagen, so I could look him back up if he had ripped me off.
With my shopping done, I opted to hit the arena stands to get a look at the rest of the challenge. I opted for a private viewing and suddenly found myself inside a small booth that seemed to hover above the arena. As I looked down onto the arena floor, I could see small windows appear in front of my vision. One was there for each competitor that was still participating. I could select each individual competitor and my view would expand to focus on them. The darkness in the cavern was eliminated and I could easily watch all the monsters that slowly creeped along the ceiling, looking for victims.
There were only a handful of competitors left, and most of them fell prey to the strange creatures that dropped tentacles down like they were fishing. A few had figured out the challenge and were doing something similar to what I had done. Just like with my less than spectacular finish, a few were killed by other competitors just before they reached the end of the cavern and the swirling portal that waited beyond it. As the last competitor finished, a system prompt appeared.
This arena challenge is complete, your standing has not been altered by any of the final competitors’ performance. Prepare to return to your personal space.