ALL NOVEL CH.488 Adventuring Tournament, preliminary round
[Unika POV]
“... I got our list.” Eline reported, as she returned from getting the list of items we were to retrieve from the Castle dungeon. She handed it to me, along with a map the organizers gave us, and I looked them over.
The list had a list of items, and a list of trade points we could get those items from. I then compared the map we got from the organizers to a map Brian got us.
Brian’s map was a lot more detailed, showing all item trade points, while our map only showed those that we needed. And a few of the points we needed were in different places on Brian’s map compared to the competition map. I don’t know which one is true, but I’ll trust Brian on this. I’m sure he wouldn’t lead us astray.
Maybe the dungeon master changed the locations of the trade points or something and the map we got was done with the old ones. But Brian just made his map, so he wouldn’t have been fooled.
“Alright. So …” I then pointed out each of the trade points we’d have to visit, while also showing Brian’s map, so I could point out locations from which we could get large amounts of dungeon points, so we could afford the items.
“... shouldn’t we take on these A-ranks?” Einar asked. “We’d get a lot of points, and we should be able to deal with them.”
“Yes, but they are too close to these trade points.” I pointed out. “Other adventurers will likely have items they will need to pick up from those points, so better not to get too close. We don’t want to get attacked by them, if we can avoid it.”
“... isn’t that against the rules?” Eline asked.
“Do you think someone will be able to govern all the rules? To see everything that happens inside?” I asked.
“Brian could.” Einar pointed out.
“But Brian isn’t organizing this tournament, so we can’t assume everything is as good as it would be with him.” I reminded them. “Also, if we need points, we have this spot. At least five S-ranks. They might not be easy points, but we can deal with them, if we use our cards.”
“A bit risky.” Eline said.
“Yes, but because of that, no other adventurers are likely to touch them.”
We made an overall plan, and got ready to head into the dungeon.
“Group C, head in!” We heard the announcement.
The adventuring teams were let into the dungeon in smaller groups to avoid excessive grounding on the first floor. We were in group C, so we headed in with nine other parties.
In total, I counted over 50 parties taking part in the tournament, but only eight will get to the finals. I think we can make it, but I will admit that we are at a slight disadvantage.
The party size for the tournament is minimum of two, maximum of five members. We naturally have three, which isn’t the minimum, but most parties I saw were five members.
And it isn’t like we get easier items to get just because our party is smaller. The only advantage we have is requiring less food for the dungeon dive.
Except that that isn’t true, because two of us are tamers, and we have monsters with us. In Tamer’s Paradise. But despite the fact that we can hold our monsters there, we still need to feed them.
Thankfully each of us is carrying both a magic fanny pack, as well as a large magic backpack, so we shouldn’t run out. And if we do, Brian did make sure we carry some holy water, which we can use to purify the miasma from the monster meat we can find in the dungeon, so we will still have food.
On the way into a dungeon, we all quickly touched a crystal of some kind. I didn’t know it at the time, but the crystal was a sort of ‘anti-cheating’ measure, as Brian would call it.
After we were inside, we stuck to the plan we made and headed deeper into the dungeon. Most likely the earlier parties already cleared all the monsters from this area, so we will not be sticking around.
“Nitrum.” I called out, to let my hippogriff out of Tamer’s Paradise. While I did so, Einar released his wind griffin.
Einar and Eline both got on the griffin, just so Eline doesn’t have to waste mana summoning a monster, while I rode Nitrum and we got a move on.
We flew past the early floors, only fighting monsters if they were blocking our path. From those few monsters, we did manage to get a dungeon card, which I registered for myself. We will only need one, because there is no point spreading the points to multiple cards.
Once we got deeper into the dungeon, we began hunting monsters and turning them into points. Thanks to Brian’s map, we knew exactly how many points we’d need for all the items we were asked to get.
Luckily we were able to use our real weapons inside the dungeon, not our tournament regulated equipment, because while our tournament equipment is good, it isn’t as good as our regular stuff.
I pulled the string on my bow, as I lit an arrow on fire with Foxflame. While doing so, I also put some mana into my bow, to increase its power even more. I then let the arrow fly, landing a good hit on a B-rank monster. The initial hit already did a lot of damage, followed by the Foxflames burn, only that single arrow took down the B-rank monster.
I then fired another few arrows, taking down more B-rank monsters, while Einar and Eline took down the C-ranks. While they could also take down B-ranks with relative ease, I do the most damage out of us, except for a full power Lightning spell from Eline, so it is best for me to take down the B-ranks.
When we decided to call it a day and rest, we had collected over half of the points we will need for the items. We hadn’t picked up a single item yet, as it will be better to collect them all on our return trip. We will have more space in our bags then.
Since we were sleeping in a dungeon, we did have to have someone keeping guard all night, but we did have a cheat Brian gave us. It is a card called Swords of Revealing Light.
It was apparently a card Brian used when he, Alice, Lua, Ria and Agunan cleared HomeBase. It will prevent any monsters from attacking us.
It really made the night easier, and while Einar and Eline slept, I made sure to take care of my tamed monsters.
The next day, we arrived at the location with the S-rank monsters. They will give us the rest of the points we need, so we decided to take them on. For it, we summoned our most powerful monsters.
Einar and Eline summoned their Sphinxes, while I let Nio out of Tamer’s Paradise.
I then summoned Familiar-Possessed - Hiita, before doing a reverse union with her. I learned how to do it from her in the first place, and doing a reverse union with her gave my Foxflames a major power boost.
I then used my Foxflames to inflame one of the S-rank monsters. This was a technique I developed to work with another card monster I could use. Because while inflamed by Foxflames, the burning monster is treated as a Fire attribute monster.
And that is important because I flip summoned Hiita the Fire Charmer, to bring that monster under my control. Well Hiita’s control, but Hiita is under my control.
I then used Spiritual Fire Art - Kurenai, tributing the inflamed S-rank monster to inflict massive damage to all the other S-ranks. Yes it does cost us the points from one of the S-ranks, but we will get enough even without it.
Because of the damage they took from that attack, the S-ranks couldn’t stand for much longer, so we collected the points. I confirmed we had enough, and headed for the closest dropoff point.
It was after we had collected three out of the ten items we were tasked to get when we ran into a party of adventurers.
They waved at us, while we were riding towards the next trade point, acting as if one of them was badly injured, and asked if we had potions we’d be willing to sell them, or if we one of could use healing magic.
I was a bit hesitant, as I assumed this was a trap, but Eline quickly used a Gift Card on the injured adventurer, and it did heal him, so it must not have been a trap.
They sincerely thanked us, and asked if we needed anything, but we were good, so we just kept going.
Perhaps it was because of that earlier successful meeting, or maybe it was just me being tired that I somewhat let my guard down on the second meeting.
We were returning to the surface, with all ten required items collected. It was already past the time I would have stopped us for rest, were we not almost done.
We were again stopped by adventurers, but this time they were actually blocking the road. Some of them seemed to hesitate a bit, because we were riding on a C and B-rank monster, but they didn’t falter.
“Hey! Did you get all you need!?” A big, burly guy called out to us.
“What is it to you?” I asked. “Now please give us way. We would like to get to the surface.”
“Hah! Not happening missy! This path is blocked and unless you give us all the items you collected, you aren’t getting through.”
“... you guys do know that fighting other adventurers is against the rules, right?”
“What rules? You think we are taking part in your stupid tournament?”
“... oh. So you are just assholes. Fine. We will find a different path.” I quickly decided.
It wouldn’t be that much of a detour, only about 30 minutes, so it was better to go around than to go through.
Or so I would have said, if the second party had not run up to us from the direction we were coming from. They had a map and list like we did, so they must have been taking part in the tournament, so I assumed they would help us.
But I was wrong. Instead, with the people blocking our path, they boxed us in.
“So, how about those items, missy?” The burly guy leading the first team asked.
“Or perhaps you’d prefer to pay with your body.” A guy from the second party said.
They must have planned this. Box in a team and steal their stuff. And then the party that is actually a part of the competition can just blame the party that isn’t.
Smart, but won’t work on us.
“... alright. We give.” I said, and began to unzip my magic fanny pack.
Einar and Eline looked just a bit panicked, not knowing if they should act or not, but I gave them a reassuring smile, and they let me do what I was doing.
And what I was doing was getting out a card.
“Swords of Revealing Light!” I called out, as I activated the spell.
The shining swords rained down around us, encompassing both of the aggressive parties, as well as us.
It froze all of them in place, but all of us could move, so we bypassed the party that was blocking us, but before we could leave, Einar came up with an idea.
“Wait! We should check their cards. Either the dungeon cards, or their guild cards. We can see their names!” He told us.
“Then we can report them!” Eline agreed.
And that is what we did. Not all of the roadblock team had cards, but some of them did. All of the members of the ‘ambush squad’ did have cards, so we were able to identify all of them.
After we got everyone's names, we left the area, and I deactivated the spell.
I wish we could have been there to see how confused the adventurers were when we just disappeared, but we are not all powerful.
After we got to the surface, we reported our return, and handed in all ten of our items. We weren’t the first party that had returned, but they did tell us we had a very good time, and most of the parties that returned before us didn’t have all ten items.
We then had to touch the ‘anti-cheat’ crystal again, and after Einar asked, the organizer explained that the crystal can show what we have done in the dungeon, so they can see if we used dungeon cards that had been pre-filled with points.
We then reported the parties that tried to extort us for our items, which the organizers seemed taken back by. They then promised they would look into it and punish the adventurers if they really did do something like that.
On the way back to the hotel, I called Brian with the phone he gave me, and informed him that we had returned. I felt a bit bad, because it was the middle of the night, so he was sleeping, but he still answered, so hopefully it didn’t bother him too much.
Once we got to the hotel, Einar and I released our tamed monsters to the stables the hotel had, before we headed to our room and to bed. And almost immediately after we got to bed, all of us fell asleep.