Chapter 286. Top 100.

There was a brief pause in the void before I found myself stepping out of a portal and into a small lobby near the entrance to the arena. One by one, other contestants popped into view as their challenge ended. It was an odd collection, with about half of us being humans, and most of the rest were weird insect-like creatures I wasn’t familiar with. Other than that, we had a smattering of all the other species I was familiar with and had run into one time or another.

“Please step up to the nearest agent, and you will be assigned your appropriate rewards. I’m aware they are normally distributed through your reward chest inside your personal space, but for top 100 finishers, the arena prefers to award you directly, tailoring your rewards to fit your specific class needs,” a small halfling with a loud voice shouted.

There were about a dozen of those ticket-booth looking stands nearby, and everyone started queueing up behind the shortest line. I waited my turn behind one of the insect people, and a human woman in full plate armor. None of my line mates seemed up for chitchat so I kept to myself as the line moved forward at a modest pace.

When I finally made it to the front of the line, I was greeted by another of the serpent people. She had a fake, customer service smile plastered on her face as she spoke in a monotone voice.

“Congratulations on reaching the top 100 of the tier two arena challenge. Please state your name and place your hand on the indicated mark.”

“Thank you, I’m Rico Kline,” I replied, noticing the glowing spot on the counter in front of me. Placing my hand there, I felt a slight tingle as the system made sure I was who I said I was.

“Based on your placement in the final tally, you are entitled to three special rewards. Your normal rewards will be found inside your reward chest inside your personal space. Please step into one of the private rooms to redeem your rewards. Once you have reviewed them, they will be logged and stored by the system, and you will be returned to your personal space,” the clerk said, passing over three glowing tokens and pointing toward a line of doors at the far wall.

I snatched up the tokens and headed toward one of the open doors, a bit curious why the system didn’t just dump these token things into the reward chest. The tokens looked like silver coins that were visibly glowing with powerful mana. Entering through the door, I was greeted with what looked like an oversized changing room at a ritzy department store. It had a mirror on one wall, and a comfy looking leather chair with an ottoman if I wanted to sit. Next to the mirror was a long shelf with locked storage boxes under it.

There were ten storage boxes, and each of them had a glowing coin slot at the top. A system prompt appeared, telling me what to do.

Congratulations! Based on your performance, you have earned 3, top 100 reward tokens. Place your token in the desired boxes to unlock your rewards. Strive to achieve more in your next arena challenge to earn better rewards.

I had to guess that the top winner probably got all ten rewards, and the numbers trickled down to me at 96/100 getting three. I picked the far-left box to start with first. Dropping my coin inside, it made a rather satisfying sound, like a coin going into a slot machine. A moment later, the top of the box slid back, revealing a scroll.

Opening the scroll caused a burning sensation to start in my chest as the system explained my reward.

You have acquired Mana Core Shielding, Rank 3 with a Minor Regeneration Engine upgrade. At this rank, you can shield 15 of your mana from being drained by a mana-starved environment. In addition, the shielded core will act as a mana generator, regenerating the shielded mana at a greatly reduced rate.

When outside of a mana-starved world, your core will now boost regeneration of your shielded mana by 300%.

That was huge, I finally had a way to regenerate mana back home, which would be a game-changer. The system didn’t tell me how long it took to generate a point, but I had a feeling it wasn’t lying when it said the rate of regeneration would be greatly reduced. There was even bonus regeneration when I was in a world with normal mana, at least for the fifteen points contained in the shielded portion of my core.

Excited by my first reward, I picked the next box in line, dropping my coin and having it open to reveal black tactical gear, including a helmet. It was similar to what the soldiers back home wore. By touching the helmet, the armor set automatically was equipped, replacing my existing set and triggering a system prompt.

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You have acquired the Minion Master custom armor set. Modeled after the gear favored on your home world, this set of light, flexible armor provides protection equivalent to masterwork plate armor, with additional piercing damage resistance. In addition, it is well protected against most environmental effects. Your previously equipped armor has been sent back to the armory inside your personal space.

In addition to the armor’s protective properties, it is also enchanted to enhance your minions. When wearing this gear, all minion summons will appear as 1 Rank higher than their actual rank. The Minion Master armor will also cut down their respawn time by 10%. Should your armor become severely damaged, it will unsummon and begin to slowly repair itself inside your armory. Once fully repaired, the armor can be resummoned again.

This gear is shielded and can be summoned on your home world. When summoned and equipped on a mana-starved world, the additional effects relating to your summoned minions will not function, though the armor’s physical and environmental protections will remain in effect. If unequipped after summoning it on a mana-starved world, there will be an extended cooldown period before it can be summoned again.

Having armor that I could summon at home gave a huge boost to survivability. Sure, I had a set of normal body armor that the military had issued me, but this was a step above and could be summoned at will instead of having to take the time to put on each piece.

Excited, I dropped my token into the next box in line. This time, another small, sealed scroll appeared. There was no burning sensation when I opened this scroll, just a mysterious system prompt that didn’t offer any further explanation on what the item was.

You have acquired a Class Transformation Token. It will unlock at the appropriate time.

“Well, thanks for everything,” I said as a portal to my personal space opened next to me. I wasn’t sure if the system, or people in charge of the arena were listening, and I didn’t want to seem ungrateful for the rather useful rewards I’d just received.

“Welcome back, Rico. From your new armor, I take your arena experience was a favorable one,” Tzes’zod said as I returned. He was back at his desk writing furiously on a piece of parchment. Melvin suddenly appeared next to me as he shifted from his armor form and back to normal now that he was home.

“I didn’t do too badly, hit the top one hundred which netted me some nice rewards. In fact, there are a few more that should be waiting in the chest for me. Are you doing okay, Tzes’zod?” I asked.

“I am well, thank you for asking. Now, along with my congratulations, I must also offer my farewells. I have a project I need to attend to that will require my presence for some time. Despite the time requirements of this new project, I remain, as per our agreement, ready to assist if you should have need of me,” Tzes’zod said before rolling up, then placing the parchment he had been working on into a scroll case. Once it was secured, he stepped through a portal that had opened for him.

“Shall there be anything else you require?” the head butler asked.

“I think I’m good, thanks for this,” I said accepting a glass of cold fruit juice and a warm scented washcloth to wipe my face with. Having these folks here was great, and I was glad that I had shelled out so much money for the upgrade. Melvin sent me a mental nudge toward the reward chest, my friend almost as eager as I was to see what else we’d gotten.

You have received the following new rewards.

1. Kobold Warband figurine, reusable. Note, this figurine will lose its reusable trait and become a normal summoning figurine should you take it back to your home world.

2. You have unlocked special request summoning offers. These offers are presented by those either seeking you personally, or someone with your specific class traits. These summonings are not obligatory and you may accept or deny them with no penalty. Rewards for special summoning offers are enhanced.

These summoning offers typically have more details about what is required of you, as well as basic background information on the person requesting your assistance. Special request summoning offers will only occur during a normal summoning series and will not pull you directly from your home world.

3. Summoning Pass (1). Immediately end a summoning and have your ratings and rewards for this summoning be considered “Good”.

4. 917 gold.

Wow, another round of great rewards, as well as a whole bunch more gold. Seeing as how I was already loaded back home, I’d keep the gold here to spend in Somhagen when I hit tier two, rank five. I should reach that rank during my next summoning series, since I was already at tier two, rank 4.

I also liked the idea of special summoning requests, which had enhanced rewards, and I could turn down any that seemed shady. The summoning pass was just the icing on the cake, allowing me to bail on a dodgy summoning without being penalized. I’d need to check for more of these the next time I was in Somhagen.

Looking at the kobold summoning figurine, it depicted an entire kobold squad from my arena challenge. I’d have eight kobold warriors, a sergeant, two crossbowmen, a sorcerer, and last but not least, one of the war lizards. It was also nice to see the Tier and Rank were bumped up. I had expected them to be just Tier 0, Rank 5 based on the challenge, but these were a solid Tier 2, Rank 0 summoning figurine.

Leaving the kobold warband in my summoning loadout so it wouldn’t be ruined on Earth, I gathered my things and prepared to return home.