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1142 Words
I’m so screwed.
Matt was in a constant state of stress that slowly built until he was about to explode. Luckily, he had their arrival to take his mind off things as they had finally reached East Flower. They stood with hundreds of other Tier 10 Pathers, who were also arriving early.
It looked like a lot at first glance, but the impression was misleading. A large number were showing up now, but it was nothing when compared to how many would be arriving in the final three months.
They were five months early for the final check-in time and start date of the tournament. The majority of those present wanted to get one last delve in or practice their abilities just that tiny bit more. But Matt, Liz, and Aster needed to arrive early so the bipedal members of their group could set up their identities to participate.
The Tier 10 tournament lasted for exactly one standard Empire year and hosted thousands of smaller competitions simultaneously with the big three.
The big three were the main attractions of the tournament; everything was centered around them. The length of the event ensured that he and Liz could swap between their identities without issue until their real identities were quietly lost in the middle ranks.
The first was the largest attraction, where most of the prestige and rewards came from: the team duels.
The second of the big three was the solo duels. Although popular as well, the solo matches had slightly smaller rewards compared to the team event.
The final portion of the big three was the crafting event. None of them had any hope of competing in it, and they didn’t intend to even try.
As a part of their deal for competing, their cover identities would be shooting for the top spots in both the solo duels and team battles.
Matt was slightly peeved at the rules for the solo duels as they made it impossible for team members to fight against each other in the lower brackets, and the structure of the top fifty ensured they couldn’t fight there either. The final rounds of the competition were a point system where each contender would fight everyone in the top fifty at least once.
If team members met in the finals, it would be considered a draw to prevent hard feelings from a loss and missing out on earning points.
He had been looking forward to fighting Liz for the tournament victory spot but had to hope that he earned more points than her against the other contenders.
Other than wanting to win in both categories, there were a few of the lesser competitions Matt had his sights set on as well.
There were a number of single weapon or fighting style tournaments that had fantastic rewards but were less prestigious than he wanted to get involved in. The reported rewards never changed but never lost their value either.
Legacies.
Matt had only seen them in movies before, and they were purportedly extremely rare, with strict requirements to create and use. But over its time as one of the Great Powers, the Empire had amassed quite a few. They offered use of the Legacies to the top three winners of each style.
He had to ask Kurt about them. The movies were fairly accurate in their representation of Legacies, but a few details were lacking.
There were lots of things that Kurt wasn’t able to tell Matt about Legacies for reasons that Kurt also couldn’t explain, but the main takeaway was that they stored some fraction of a person’s experience and gave the ability to pass their expertise on to the person who earned a use of one. While only usable to those under Tier 15, and with onerous requirements for finding and making them, the Empire had accumulated a supply of them to hand out to those it deemed worthy.
There was a longsword only bracket with a longsword Legacy that Matt desperately wanted to get his hands on. It was the main goal of the tournament for his true identity.
Matt was brought out of his musings once the teleportation countdown started, and his nerves built to a crescendo.
As the familiar feeling of swapping worlds enveloped him, Matt felt nauseous. He wasn’t sure if it was his fear of meeting Liz’s parents for the first time, or the rougher than usual teleportation, but it took him a few seconds to clear his head as they arrived at East Flower.
His first impression of the Tier 43 planet was that the name was apt. Tur’stal’s Talents made nature love her and bend itself to her will, and it showed.
Even inside the teleportation hub room, it felt like they were outside with the number of flowers lining the room. Vines crept up all the walls, washing everything with greens and browns.
That first impression was dwarfed when they exited the building to the city proper and found that the greenery didn’t stop there. The metropolis seemed to be more of a well-curated garden than a true city.
He had seen green cities before, but they were like a snake trying to imitate a dragon. Just from their first steps onto the street, Matt saw half a dozen gardeners taking care of the variety of plants, trees, and flowers that lined the streets. Though, he didn’t know what they were actually doing if Tur’stal’s Talent worked as he believed.
Tur’stal’s vision of a perfect city seemed to be one of beauty and aesthetics as every flower seemed to already have its perfect place in the city landscape without disrupting the city flow.
The sidewalks were long, wooden platforms suspended above the ground, allowing for all manner of flowers and bushes to blossom underneath. Smaller trees formed a faint canopy above him, casting shade in some places and faintly glowing in others. Plants drifted through the air on currents of wind, some of which were large enough for park benches, though Matt didn’t know how you’d get to them without flying. Birds chirped from just out of view, bridging a marvelous symphony that blended with the background hum of the enchantment work and infrastructure of the city itself. It all just…worked together.
The majesty of the sight was only enhanced when Matt felt the ambient essence pressing down like a heavy blanket. The Tier 43 planet was the strongest world he had ever been on, and the essence was on a completely different level than what he knew from other planets, or even the rift monsters.
That illusion of grandeur was shattered when he noticed the absolute absence of mana.
He had been on planets with a notably sparse amount of mana, but he had never encountered something like this before.
There was no mana in the air at all.
- Writer
