by Ivan Kal
You have now entered into the Grand Tournament. Good luck and may you prevail over your peers—the Tower of Power awaits!
Morgan nodded and he looked around. A few minutes later, the woman on the platform nodded and Ragnor started speaking again. “With all of that out of the way, it is time for me to explain how this is all going to work. Firstly, that which I know you are all most curious about: the rewards.”
A small cheer started around the arena, but was quickly stopped when Ragnor raised his arm. “As I said, there will be three stages to the tournament. Each team will compete for itself, and each stage will be rated and rewarded separately. At the end of the first stage, only sixty teams will be allowed to proceed to the second stage, and at the end of the second stage only twenty teams will proceed to the third. At the end of each stage, the top ranked teams will be given rewards, ranging from gear to ability and skill stones from our guilds’ vaults.”
That caused a bit of a stir among the crowd. Morgan, too, raised his eyebrow. That would mean that they would have three chances to get a reward.
“Of course, we will be evaluating your progress during all three stages. The grand winners will be chosen at the end, we are looking for potential as well as skill.”
Again the murmurs started. Morgan saw Vall and Borodar discussing something in whispers.
“Now, before we start, I will explain the way in which we will follow your progress through the first stage. Grand Mage, if you would explain,” Ragnor said, and gestured for Ta’elara to step forward.
The woman walked to the edge and looked over the crowd, then raised a hand, causing an orb of white light to appear and rise into the air. “Most of you know what this is: an orb of farsight. Each of your teams will be followed by one of these, watching your progress. Ordinarily, only the caster of the orb can watch through it, but recently new abilities and skills have been developed that allow others to see as well.” Next, she raised her other hand and brought out a glass sphere, one which looked like a crystal ball about the size of a soccer ball, with some metal straps surrounding it. A closer look told Morgan that the metal straps were engraved, and from what he could see the work was far beyond what he could manage.
Then the crystal ball flashed, and inside of it Morgan could see a crowd of people. It took him a moment to realize that he was in fact looking at the people in the arena.
“We have found a way to not only show what the farsight orbs see on these viewing crystals, but have also found a way to record the sights for later viewing. We call these viewing crystals farsight vision—or FV for short. Several teams of my students and teachers will be overseeing the recording of your dungeon runs so that the Guild Leaders here can review it later.” She nodded at Ragnor then and stepped back, the orb and the viewing crystal both disappearing.
“Oh my god, they have TVs!” Morgan exclaimed.
Clara scowled at him. “She said that it is called FV.”
“What, that’s not what I… You know what, I’m not even going to try and explain.”
Before Clara could respond, Ragnor spoke again. “With that out of the way, we may begin. Behind us you will find boards that contain every one of your guilds’ names, as well as a dungeon that you will need to conquer. Of course, since there are more of you than there are available dungeons in the vicinity, those of you who have the same dungeon will be entering them at different times. Next to your guild names is the day when you will have your slot. The last thing that you need to know is that you have been given a dungeon and a slot based on your capabilities, your level and team rank. The stronger teams will have less time to prepare, and the weaker will have more. You only have one chance, so prepare accordingly—the Al’Valor Adventurers Guild is at your disposal. We will be evaluating you based on many different factors and adding your scores up to form a final number.
“With that said, may the Grand Tournament begin!”
There was silence for a long moment, but then sound returned as people started moving around the platform to the boards placed on the other side of the arena. Morgan and the others followed and quickly enough they found the boards. It took a while for them to get close enough, but they managed. When they did, Morgan found their name and read the information.
“Here we are: Sky Force. Palace of the Eternal Watch dungeon, five days from now,” He read. He didn’t know anything about the dungeon, which was to be expected since this was a new area of the world that he had almost no knowledge about.
“Night Cavern, four days from now,” Borodar said, identifying his own team’s challenge.
Morgan nodded. It looked like they had been given quite some time to prepare. They walked away from the boards and found a small alcove, where they all gathered.
“So, what’s the plan?” Vrshar asked.
Morgan spoke up. “I think that we”—he gestured to his team—“will probably go to the Adventurers Guild to see what info they have on the dungeon.” The Adventurers Guild usually had information on every dungeon in its vicinity, but they of course charged gold for that information.
“We’ll do the same, I think,” Borodar said. “Are you going right away?”
Morgan glanced at the others and saw them all nod.
Since there was nothing else to discuss, they all headed to the Adventurers Guild. They arrived quickly enough, only to encounter a lot of other teams already there. It looked like many of them had the same idea. Still, they went in, and Morgan fought his way to the information desk.
“Hello,” Morgan greeted the person at the desk, a female half-orc by the look of her.
“Hello, how can I help you?” she asked with a wide smile.
“I am looking for information on the Palace of the Eternal Watch,” Morgan said.
“We have quite a lot on that dungeon—a full report on the layout of all the rooms, including all the hidden-treasure rooms, a full report on all the enemies found inside and their capabilities, a list of traps and their locations, and of course a report on the dungeon bosses. Additionally we have a dungeon guide compiled by a gold-rank team, detailing the safest way to get through it.”
Morgan blinked at all of that. He knew that Adventurers Guild had a lot of info on dungeons, but the one in Irus didn’t have nearly this much. Morgan had managed to find only rough layouts and perhaps reports on the enemies inside. It looked like Al’Valor’s Adventurers Guild was on a completely different level.
“How much does that information cost?” Morgan asked.
“The full Eternal Watch package costs two thousand gold coins,” she said. “Should I fetch it for you?”
Morgan’s mouth opened, but no words came out. That’s a fucking fortune! He coughed uncomfortably. “Uh, what can you give me for free?”
The woman’s smile slipped just a little bit, but she turned around and walked to the shelves behind her. She grabbed a small a rolled-up piece of parchment and came back with it. “This is all the information that is available for free.”
Morgan took it and unfurled it, taking a quick look. The only thing that it said was that the dungeon had long ago been the palace of an emperor—which made Morgan frown, since he knew that this world didn’t have things like that—and that it had been become a dungeon after he died in an experiment. The only other thing that was of interest was the information that there were three bosses in the dungeon. It wasn’t much at all.
He looked back at the woman.
“Do you sell separate reports?” he asked.
Her smile brightened again and she nodded. “Of course. Which ones are you interested in?”
“Can you tell me how much each of them cost on their own?”
“Of course. The report on the layout of the rooms is four hundred gold coins, the report on the enemies and their capabilities is two hundred, the report on the list of traps and their locations is one hundred and fifty, the report on the dungeon bosses is four hundred and fifty, and the gold-rank guide is eight hundred.”
Morg
an thought about it for a while. They had some gold that they had set aside for the tournament, but he really didn’t like spending on reports and guides. But on the other hand, they had decided to come and participate, and they did not want to go back home without even trying. He mulled it over in his head, thinking on the things that he would need to create a plan. Finally, he decided on buying three of the reports—it would make a big dent in his coin purse, but it was the bare minimum he would need if he was to limit the risk of their dungeon dive.
“I’ll take the report on traps, the one on the enemies, and the one on the bosses.” He grimaced as he said the last one. The bosses were the most expensive, but seeing as he didn’t want to get killed, he felt like that was a necessary expense. He paid the woman, wincing as she took the pouch out of sight. She stood up and retrieved three scrolls.
“Thank you, and good luck in your dives!” she said by way of goodbye, and Morgan walked away, heading back to his team.
* * *
A few hours later they were in their own suite back at the inn. They had spoken a bit with the Last Vanguards, but then retreated to their respective rooms. Each of them had a lot of work to do. Their suite was similar in layout to the one they had in Irus, only this one was more opulent. The walls were brown wood, with glowing gems hanging from the support beams on chains illuminating the room. Morgan had seen the bath, and it looked amazing, with marble floors and a pool larger than the one they had in Irus. But now they were in the common room, sitting on the couches as they read through the information Morgan had purchased.
“We could go back and get the full guide,” Vall offered.
“It is a lot of gold, but we could pay it,” Lucius said. The team had been nearly appalled at how much gold Morgan had spent, but when he explained just how little information there was in the free version they had been mollified somewhat.
“I don’t think we should,” Morgan said. He had been thinking on it ever since he left the counter with the scrolls, and more and more he was sure of his decision to buy only the three reports.
“I know that it is a lot of coin,” Vall argued, “but with the guide it will be much easier to conquer the dungeon.”
Clara and Ves remained quiet as they looked over the scrolls unfurled on the table in front of them. Morgan sat between the two of them as he too looked at them and the information written there.
“I don’t mean that we shouldn’t just because it is a lot of coin,” Morgan said.
“What do you mean?” Vall asked.
“We are in a competition,” Morgan started. “And there will be many teams that have enough coin to purchase the best guides and reports. With them, getting through the dungeons will be easy—but the Great Guilds are not hosting this tournament in order to find teams who can follow instructions to the letter. They want to climb the Tower; they are looking for people who can adapt and survive there. I am sure that they can tell the difference between a team that goes through the dungeon following a guide and one that develops their own plan.”
The others looked at him without commenting for a moment.
“You are right,” Lucius said, sighing. “I should’ve seen it. Even this is a test. They will be evaluating everything that we do, won’t they? They want to see which guilds purchase the guides.”
“Probably,” Morgan agreed.
Ves put a hand on his knee as she turned to look at him. “You think you can make a plan with what we have now?”
Morgan looked at the scrolls. The one about the enemies was in front of him, unfurled and held open by two of his daggers. There was quite a bit of information on the page—it said, much as the free report did, that the dungeon was a result of an experiment by the emperor who had ruled from there. He’d had his mages try and make golems for his armies, but he wasn’t content with what they had managed; so, somehow, he came to the idea to turn his living soldiers into golems. The mages had succeeded, but they turned everyone inside the palace into sculptures of themselves. The Palace of the Eternal Watch was therefore populated by such animated sculptures. From the descriptions and the drawn sketches on the scroll, the sculptures looked human, and in fact to Morgan resembled terracotta sculptures from Earth. The sculptures came in three types: normal stone, mist stone, and dark iron. The traps were not really a problem from what he could see, and there weren’t many of them anyway.
The bosses were three more powerful golems. In order for a team to reach the end of the dungeon, they would need to defeat all of them, and before being able to reach the last boss the first two had to be defeated. Each boss was made out of one of the materials the dungeon mobs were made out of, and each had been an important figure in the past of the dungeon.
Morgan wondered how it had become a dungeon. Had the Guiding Force just taken over it once the accident happened, and turned it into a dungeon? Had that been their punishment? He didn’t know, but he did know that whatever mobs were now inside were not the original people that had been turned into sculptures—those had probably been killed or destroyed long ago. Since then, the Guiding Force had replenished the dungeon thousands, if not even more times.
He wondered how she did that. He remembered seeing a tank with a manticore growing in it when they had escaped the Mountain’s Heart dungeon through the Guiding Force’s lab, but how she would replicate sculptures? Probably with far less work. Morgan shook his head, clearing them of those thoughts. The workings of this world were far beyond him. If he had a few hundred years to study it perhaps he would understand.
“Yes, I can come up with something,” Morgan said. A plan was already forming in his mind.
CHAPTER TEN
Five days later, the Sky Force team arrived at the entrance to the dungeon. Morgan had spent all that time planning as well as discussing the gear that they were going to bring for the fight. Most of them fought with swords, which weren’t really all that effective against this type of enemy, so they had Ves and Vall switch to blunt weapons: a two-handed hammer for Vall, and a mace for Ves. They were the only adventurers whose style wasn’t tied to swords, and they had trained with such weapons before.
Morgan had left his daggers back at the inn, as there was no point in taking them when they would do little against such opponents. He had his crossbow mounted on his arm and he put blunt bolts inside the magazine. He had a small selection of different kind of bolts thanks to Artos, but he didn’t have many of them—the six blunts in his magazine were all that he had of that type. His belt was filled with his orb canisters; six were black and four brown, and he had many more in his ring of holding. He could theoretically just use them directly from the ring of holding, but he needed to concentrate in order to pull something out, and he didn’t want to risk not managing it in battle. On his other side was his satchel filled with all kinds of plants ready for battle.
Lucius and Clara carried their old weapons, Lucius because his class revolved around swords and he couldn’t use anything else with his abilities, and Clara because she already had a weapon perfect for dealing with this type of opponent.
As they reached the dungeon, Morgan could see it stretching before him. It was really a palace, set into the mountain. There was a tall wall at the base, and stairs that led up to a building that was above the walls and set into the mountain itself. It was an impressive structure, but even from far away he could tell that it was rundown. As they grew closer they realized that there was a man there waiting for them. From their conversation with the Last Vanguards last night, they knew who he was. Borodar’s team had managed to complete their dungeon, which had been a monster-type dungeon. Of course they didn’t know yet how they did, and they wouldn’t until the Great Guilds show the results.
“You are the Sky Force team?” the man, wearing a robe of some kind, asked as they got closer.
“Yes,” Morgan said as they walked up.
The man, one of Ta’elara’s students, nodded and then produced a glowing white orb. “Here is the orb. I will be guiding it to
follow you through the dungeon.”
Morgan nodded as the orb flew up and settled in above them. “Thanks,” Morgan said.
“Good luck!” the man said, and they stepped forward.
The massive doors of the Palace of the Eternal Watch opened up and allowed them inside. Once they stepped inside, Morgan glanced behind them and up. He saw that the sky above the wall now looked like a shimmering wall. They had been sealed in; since it was a dungeon open to sky, there seemed to be some kind of a dome shield that prevented them from leaving by air—not that they were capable of that, but Morgan had seen races with wings.
Finally, he turned to the dungeon itself. They were now in a large courtyard, one which led forward to a broken fountain and then to three sets of stairs: two leading to the sides, and the middle one up into the large building that dominated the view. It was in a single word a castle, but Morgan could see the massive doors leading into it and they were closed. He knew that in order to open them they would need to defeat the other two bosses first. The paths to them led through the other two sets of stairs, and the two buildings to the sides.
But the other thing of interest in the yard were the enemies. The first of the “terracotta” soldiers were close to the entrance, standing at attention with their spears held upright. There were twelve of them in that group, but they hadn’t reacted when they came into the dungeon. From what Morgan could figure out from the reports, they would react once threats came near them or entered the area that they considered theirs to protect. Morgan didn’t know exactly where those areas were, so they were going to proceed carefully.
“All right, people, let’s get this show started!” Morgan said with a grin while the others had grim expressions on their face. “Vall, Ves, you are front and center. Lucius, you are on finishing duty. Clara, buffs up and help Lucius. I’m ranged support, just like we planned. Ready?”