by Andrew Rowe
First off, there were the advantages I could purchase. I’d already disregarded those for the first round.
Basic potions were the cheapest items available, at three points for a healing potion or five points for a mana potion. They had higher-level potions available for more, with the most expensive being over a hundred.
Identifying an item would cost me three points. I’d need to do that for anything I came across, unless I found someone who could do it for me cheaper.
Beyond that, the list got into all sorts of mundane items — usually around ten points for something like a sword. That stuff was boring, so I ignored it.
Magical items were the real draw.
They had everything from traditional speed-increasing boots to strength-enhancing gauntlets. And, of course, a wide variety of magical swords. It was a sword-focused tournament, after all.
The items were labeled by their attunement level, but in the Edrian style, not the Valian style — meaning they didn’t use gem names. I’ll translate, though, for the sake of making it easier.
Carnelian-level magical items ranged from about thirty to about a hundred points. Sunstone started at two hundred and went up to around eight hundred. Citrine-level stuff was all over a thousand.
After that, they listed things called “elixirs”.
I can see Corin perking up at the mention of those, and I can understand why.
There were two types of elixirs being offered, each at a variety of different levels. Enhancement elixirs were designed for increasing the power of someone’s attunement, and thus, I didn’t think they’d have any use for me. They might have been able to increase my sorcerous power, but I thought the odds were relatively low.
The others were called reinforcement elixirs. According to Reika, they were supposed to permanently improve someone’s abilities in a specific area. They had names like “Adamantine Muscle Elixir” and “Lightning Movement Elixir”, presumably implying those two improved resilience and speed, respectively.
I had a lot of questions about those. Both the enhancement elixirs and the reinforcement elixirs were extremely expensive, ranging from three hundred to over a thousand points. There was also an “Elixir Set” for three thousand points, the highest cost I’d seen of anything on the list so far.
After that, they had a listing of “spell books” and “skill books”. Some of these were the same kind of mundane books of magic in my homeland, but Reika mentioned that some of the expensive ones — costing hundreds to the low thousands of points — were supposed to implant knowledge directly into the reader’s mind.
That whole idea sort of creeped me out, so I decided to avoid those.
Finally, at the very bottom of the list, there was a “Mystery Item” for ten thousand points.
I couldn’t even imagine how someone was supposed to earn that many unless the rewards for each round increased exponentially.
There was also a note indicating that everything was limited in supply, which was good to think about. If I saw something I really wanted, I’d need to buy it fast.
I saw a few things that sounded like they could be immediately useful, such as getting a Carnelian-level shield sigil or a returning throwing dagger. The Sunstone-level rewards were out of my price range and potentially worth saving up for, though.
Buying some magical items might be a good way to test if I can acquire their abilities. I still don’t have a very good idea about how or why I’m picking up powers from items as quickly as I seem to be.
There’s a risk in doing that, though, since my aura is going to wear down any items that I buy. It might break them before I learn anything useful.
Reinforcement elixirs might be better, since they supposedly provide permanent benefits outright, just from drinking them...but there’s another risk there. If they’re built for the people of Kaldwyn, they might not work on me at all.
Hm.
I’d have to figure out what I wanted to prioritize later, but for the moment, I couldn’t afford anything expensive either way.
I also had something else I was curious about.
“How much gold do we have left?” I asked Reika. She was carrying most of the coins because, in her words, “In the absence of books, I have to hoard something.”
“Lemmie count.” She checked her pouch. “Thirty-eight gold and some silver. Why?”
I was only carrying five gold on me, just in case we got separated and I needed to buy something. That left us with forty-three total. “I’m thinking about going down to find merchants and compare gold prices to these. We can figure out if there’s a gold-to-points conversion ratio, or if some items are much more efficient than others.”
“That’s a good idea! I don’t think I’m going to get any rewards yet, though.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Waiting to save up for the advantages for later rounds?”
“Nah. I want the ten thousand point mystery reward.” She grinned. “That has to be something super special, right?”
“It might be. Or it might be useless junk that just looks fancy.” I’d never been to a tournament like this before, but I’d been to other tournaments, carnivals, and the like. I wasn’t expecting any of the rewards to be too impressive — whoever was running the tournament wouldn’t want to lose money on the whole experience.
Then again, I’d never been to a tournament with hundreds of thousands of attendees, and thousands of contestants also paying fees. Maybe I was underestimating the scale of their funding. I hadn’t looked at ticket prices, but if they were anything close to the twelve gold per person that contestants paid, the tournament might have been taking in over a million gold.
That was a mind-boggling amount of money. I couldn’t even imagine how to spend that.
Reika shook her head. “I’m sure it can’t be that bad. After all, anyone good enough at fighting to earn ten thousand points isn’t the kind of customer you want to disappoint.”
She had a point.
Still, I wasn’t comfortable spending my own points on anything unreliable.
That meant that I didn’t plan to purchase advantages for any rounds until I had a better idea of what they might mean. I’d prioritize magical items I could use under any circumstance, especially ones that might be of use outside of the tournament. They’d be long-term investments that could help even if I didn’t get my hands on Diamantine.
I wasn’t planning to lose, of course. But I also was prepared for the strong possibility that the final rounds would be rigged, or that I’d simply run into a challenge that didn’t suit my skill set.
I nearly choked on my food.
I’m pretty sure I’m not going to have to deal with any angry sentient rocks, Dawn.
***
After eating, I returned to the reward counter and made a single small purchase. “I’d like to have this identified.”
I showed them the gauntlet.
“Wait one moment,” the attendant asked me. He then took the item into a back room. I pushed away a moment of irrational distrust that he’d run off with it. He came back just a couple minutes later, then handed the gauntlet back to me with a piece of paper. “This paper summarizes the properties found on the item. Can I help you with anything else?”
“Can you identify items that weren’t found in the tournament?”
That’s a good point; I don’t know what the rules are on that. Still, it’d be good to know what they can offer us, even if we’d prefer to go with a different option.
The attendant shook his head. “I apolo
gize, but we only offer identification for our own treasures. I can provide you with the addresses of a few Seers and Diviners that work in Sword Row, however.”
“Sword Row?”
“That’s the mercantile district just to the north of the arena island. You’ll find an abundance of goods for purchase there with tournament contestants in mind.”
I liked the sound of that. “I’ll take those addresses. And thank you for the help.”
I packed away my gauntlet, took the papers with the addresses and the summary of gauntlet functions, and then went to find Reika again to see if she wanted to accompany me to Sword Row.
***
I found Reika getting another meal. “Yeah, obviously I’ll go shopping with you. Lemmie eat first, though.”
I took that moment to look at the paper they provided with information on the gauntlet.
Shock Gauntlet
Carnelian-Level Item
Enchantments: This gauntlet has three enchantments. The first is a minor shielding enchantment, increasing the item’s durability. The shield recharges naturally over time, similar to a shield sigil, but focused entirely on the gauntlet itself.
The second enchantment stores lightning mana, which automatically recharges over time.
This can be activated in two ways. If you say the word “electrify”, it will channel lightning into whatever you are holding in the gauntlet. This works with hand-held metal weapons. If you are not holding anything, the lightning will be discharged into the next thing you touch.
You can also say “lightning strike” and discharge a blast of lightning toward a distant target, similar to firing a blast from a dueling cane.
The enchantment stores enough lightning mana for three uses, and takes one hour to recharge itself.
The third enchantment protects the gauntlet, and thus your hand, from lightning. This prevents you from shocking yourself when using the electrification function.
I whistled appreciatively. “That’s...actually pretty useful.” I didn’t like wearing armor in general — it always felt clunky, and offered minimal protection when my body was already tougher than steel. But magical armor could exceed even my body’s level of defense, and being able to electrify a weapon sounded extremely useful.
I explained it to Reika, and she paused from eating to look at the gauntlet. Her expression took a turn for the serious. “It...protects from lightning, does it?”
“Just the hand itself. Why?”
Reika took a deep breath. “Can I buy that from you?”
I blinked, startled. I’d never seen her express any interest in armor before. “Uh, sure, I guess? Why?”
“Raizo.” She tightened her grip, unintentionally destroying a fork. She looked briefly mortified at that. I took the fork, concentrated for a moment, reshaped it and handed it back to her.
“Raizo. That’s the one who...”
<...killed her father,> Dawn finished in my mind. I knew, of course. That wasn’t the sort of thing I’d forget.
And I understood her reasoning. I’d primarily seen the copy of Raizo using air magic, but he had a lightning-bolt shaped sword, and I assumed the real one also used lightning of some kind.
I slipped the gauntlet across the table. “Take it. It’s yours.”
She stared at it. “You sure? You earned that in the tournament. I—”
“It’s a gift. And don’t worry, I’m not much for armor, anyway.”
She reached forward. Instead of taking the gauntlet, though, she put her hand on mine. “Thanks, Keras. I...I won’t forget this.”
I squeezed her hand. “Don’t worry about it. And if you want to prepare for Raizo, I’m sure we can get you a lot more than just a gauntlet in time.”
She gave me a solemn nod. “We’re going to need to. There’s something I haven’t told you about him yet.” Reika glanced from side-to-side. “I...didn’t want to keep anything from you, but I wasn’t ready. I think we should talk about it, though. Just...not here.”
I nodded. “Take all the time you need.”
Our fingers slipped together and our eyes met.
...and our hands slipped quickly apart again. I gave Reika a smile. “C’mon, your food is getting cold. We can talk more later.”
“...you’re right. Thank you.” She gave me a nod, but I could tell from her expression that food was no longer the highest priority on her mind.
Chapter VII – Shining Resonance
You know, if you actually want me to flirt with Reika, you have to stop interrupting me like that.
Probably not, but you’re hurting your odds of seeing a romance scene if you keep interjecting in dramatic moments.
That has some awkward connotations to it, you know.
I tried not to think about that too much, especially because I was far more excited about our next activity than any sort of romance.
Sword Row.
I was as much of a sucker for a good name as anyone else, and Sword Row sounded amazing. And, unlike the ironically named “Opulent Alley” in the slums of the city where I grew up, Sword Row actually lived up to the name.
The double-wide streets were surrounded by towering buildings containing a broad variety of businesses. The majority seemed to be equipment shops, but many others offered lodgings, food, or even various “tournament services”. One particularly large building even claimed to be an “Adventurer’s Guild Office”, whatever that meant.
The buildings weren’t the main attraction, though.
The streets were overflowing with vendors touting their wares. I saw some merchants with simple stands, some with weapon-laden wagons, and even one guy who appeared to be selling swords directly out of his cloak. That last case was so obviously sketchy I didn’t know if I should be scandalized or impressed. And how was his cloak even holding up all those swords?
The streets were equally crowded with potential customers. Many were carrying as many weapons as I was, indicating that they might be competitors in the tournament. Others looked more like mere tourists looking for souvenirs. I winked at a wide-eyed child who was pointing enthusiastically at Dawnbringer and tugging at the hand of a distracted parent.
The kid gasped at my acknowledgement, but failed to draw her parent’s attention before Reika and I were swept out of the way by the tidal movements of the crowd.
Looks like you’ve got a fan, Dawn.
I didn’t mention that I saw at least four or five other people that looked to be wearing Dawnbringers on their sides. I saw two stands and one entire larger shop advertising replicas of the Six Sacred Swords. At a glance, I evaluated most of them to be extremely poor quality, but one or two of them looked like they might actually be enchanted.
Reika and I continued to follow the path with the crowd. While I gazed longingly at swords and spears, Reika drifted toward the street vendors that were selling a wide variety of foods.
I made a brief stop at a vendor that was selling gloves and bought two extra pairs. My existing gloves were falling apart pretty badly, and I needed to make sure I wore them continuously. Dawnbringer’s glowing mark on my right hand was an identifying feature that could be used to tie my masked image to my maskless appearance, and I needed to be able to make sure people couldn’t tell we were the same person.
The mask was supposed to prevent that sort of correlation in people’s minds, but I didn’t trust that it would be foolproof for something as obvious as Dawnbringer’s symbol.
By the time we’d made it half-way down the first street, Reika had acquired a s
kewer of meat, a cinnamon-and-sugar coated apple, and an entire bag of some kind of fried pastries. I ended up carrying those, since she’d run out of free hands.
After that, I pulled Reika closer just to make sure she didn’t go through our entire savings before we made it back to the hotel. She grumbled a little bit, but offered me a bite of her meat skewer anyway.
It was delicious. The meat was just the right kind of warm and juicy, and it had been marinated with some kind of vegetable and spice blend I couldn’t quite identify. I resolved to return and get more meat sometime when Reika wasn’t liable to buy a hundred other items while I was distracted.
As we kept walking, I listened to some of the merchants attempting to attract people to the wide variety of shops. Most of it was predictably in Edrian, but I picked out a few bits of Valian and other languages.
“You, there! You look like a woman of discerning taste. Come, come, see the best blades in the city!”
“Some say that this glaive once belonged to the great-grandson of Katashi himself!”
“Only the finest of goods, enchanted by the legendary Vellum the Magnificent!”
“Stop, thief!”
I paused.
Wait, what was that last one?
“Thief! Someone, stop them!”
I turned toward the sound of the yelling. Someone who looked like the most stereotypical nobleman I’d ever seen, dressed in reds and greens and wearing a many-plumed hat, was pointing and shouting.
It took me a moment to find what he was gesturing at — a blur of shadows pushing rapidly through the crowd. I mean that description in the literal sense; the running figure was completely covered in an impermeable shroud of darkness. I couldn’t make out their face or even their build.
As far as thieves went, it was a useful skill. I only knew one person who could manage something like it.
It couldn’t be her, could it? She wouldn’t be this blatant, but...