As such, when James was offered a ‘Resting Room’, basically a “Silver Room” for the night at 50 gold he took it. Yes, it was vastly more expensive than the normal 5 gold, but in his opinion, worth it. Besides, they were large enough for all of them, so it was really only a third each.
Morning had brought several changes.
Firstly, he was fully refreshed in a way he’d missed over the last couple of days.
Secondly, the food here was expensive, yet exquisite.
Thirdly, they’d signed up for the team battle Monster slaying tournament, while Edward had signed up individually for the martial tournament.
Fourth, Squire’s Drake Aspect had progressed by another 10%. She looked half drake now, yet was still only the size of a rather large squirrel.
But the biggest change was the notification that came mid-morning, as he was eating breakfast.
System Notice - Message from Bob.
Recipients - All Card Commanders.
Good morning Commanders. I hope you have all finished your tutorials and are ready to face my challenges. You’ve all been here for a full six days now, with today marking the seventh. That means it's Round One of the eliminations in 24 hours! To celebrate, I’ve set up a leaderboard in your system tabs screen. Basic stuff, for those without the card info upgrade.
No one has dropped more than three levels below the next lowest Commander, so there’s been no early eliminations.
You are here to fight and grow, so here’s the new rules that apply:
At this time tomorrow the bottom four leveled commanders will be teleported to the Arena of Prax. If you want to see the fight, head there. Access is available in all of your worlds, if you can find it.
The rules of the fight will be explained again then. Want to be sent home? Then forfeit before the fight starts. Not fighting for too long will result in the same outcome, an automatic forfeit. Forfeiting does mean losing everything you’ve earned so far, but at least you’ll be back at home.
Fight and no one dies, you will be subjected to the whim of the crowd. Cheeromatic 101, whoever gets the loudest cheer wins. If you get booed off from barely participating then you also will be considered forfeiting.
The winner gets the champion’s badge. Hand that in at your respective Guilds for a special reward.
Oh, and if you have a party, they won’t be fighting with you for this one.
Good luck!
System Notice - Commander Leaderboard added to system tabs.
James flicked to the Commander Leaderboard tab.
Commander Leaderboard
James was surprised he was in the middle. He hadn’t been pushing every moment, but had done a lot since getting here.
His biggest surprise was Kirsty at the top. She hadn’t struck him as someone that worked particularly hard but it seems adversity brought out the true steel at her core.
Surprise wise, a close second was LT. ‘The Necromancer’ was a worrisome title.
He looked over to Edward and Ken, before shaking his head, eating some more eggs, and not asking.
What would he say?
Everyone would be fighting harder now to level. He would have to as well. Here was not the right place to speak about it. Given there were people like Killian out there James decided to stop thinking about it entirely.
“I was thinking maybe there could be a market of some sort here? Somewhere we could get rare items, or even bonds, that we couldn’t find normally?”
“Yep, good idea. This place defies the standard Dungeon rules. Anyone here is a champion, as that’s the only way to be allowed back. That, or they’ve been carried in a Dungeon to this level. Only nobles would do something like that, and probably only for so long,” Edward explained.
James didn’t know if Edward and Ken had noticed his change in demeanor. If they stayed here another night he would explain in the Silver Room.
Their first fight was coming up soon so they headed down to the staging area.
A dwarf with Studded Leather armour, and twin axes on his back met them. He had a clipboard in his hands.
“Team ‘Rock, Paper, Squirrel’ I presume?” he said, a device that looked like a pen held hovering over the clipboard.
“Yes, that’s us,” James said.
With the seer’s quest complete, Ken handed party leadership back to James. Rewards would now be paid out in full instead of being split, and the rest of the party gained a few extra inventory slots.
“And you signed up for the Arena monster battling tournament?” he asked with eyebrows raised. “There’s a 500 gold entry fee for that so I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I was informed that we could loot anything we defeated. Right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.. assuming you survive.” The dwarf mumbled something to himself.
“Right. You’ve been signed in. Through that gate over there,” he pointed to a gladiator-like metal gate, “when your name is announced.”
“I’ll reiterate the rules,” the dwarf said.
“No attacking the crowd.
Feel free to attack each other.
No attacking me, or any other handlers that come into the arena.
You can tell who we are because we won’t be in chains.
Survive for ten minutes and you pass the round.
A chain mage will re-bind the monster or monsters immediately.
Kill the monster and you win.
Any coins, tokens, weapons, or food thrown into the arena or at you is yours to use and own at the end.
Shout ‘I’m a baby’ in the first minute and you’ll lose your deposit but we’ll rescue you.
Beyond that and you’re on your own.
The fight starts as soon as the chains disappear.
Got it?”
They all nodded.
The dwarf ticked something on his clipboard and walked over to where another group was approaching.
“Well, he was delightful,” James said, jokingly.
“No, I wasn’t,” the dwarf shouted back, then guffawed.
Twenty minutes later, James, Ken, and Edward walked out onto the Arena floor. The crowds barely paid them any attention at all, apart from a few punters. Charlie and Squire were currently tucked away in Commander’s Space, ready to come out when needed.
Scattered around the Arena floor were boulders roughly waist high. James wasn’t sure if they were meant as cover, or ammunition for the strong.
James unhooked the strap on his upper arm, swinging the bone shield into position. He drew his sword.
A loud voice boomed out.
“Welcome new fresh Challengers, or should I say fresh blood to the Arena of Prax. Will you be champions, or will you be babies, crying for their mommies.”
There was a round of laughter.
“It’s time to find out! Presenting Rock, Paper, Squirrel!
James held up and shook his sword and bone shield into the air in an attempt to excite the crowd. Edward followed his example, waving his warhammer around fiercely.
There wasn’t much of a reaction from the crowd until Ken opened his book. That earned a round of “oohs” and “ahhs.”
“So what should they fight? A shadow beast maybe…” There was some applause. “Harpy hags perhaps…” some louder applause. “A Gorgon?” There was a shocked hush before laughter. “You’re right, this is just round one. Let’s get some blood spraying. Bring out the lions!”
The crowd fell back into their chairs, turning back to their drinks or food. Clearly this was considered to be an easy round.
The doors across the way opened and six lions entered, chained.
“Let the fight… begin!”
The lions chains dropped off the lions and they fanned out.
“Aggressive or defensive?” James asked.
Edward called out, “Aggressive.”
Left most, then pivot.
They ran to meet the lions, who fanned out more. James attempted to face the majority of the lions, while Ken and Edward were to try to take one down.
Ken fired two lightbolts at the left most, the second of which imposed shock. The lion in question yelped and fell to the ground.
Sensing its vulnerability, the next lion charged in towards Edward’s side. James lost track of that fight as he focused on the other four.
The rest weren’t quite in position yet, so only two came at James. One straight on, while the other swiped from his sword side.
Rather than wait, James shield charged the lion in front, bashing its body away. He swiped to the right where he assumed the lion would come from. It took the sword slash while raking its own claws against his leathers.
It still hurt.
The other two then came at him, so he backed up. The blows came so constantly after that that James had to go fully on the defensive.
The lions backed off for a moment to better surround him.
This was not going as planned. He jumped in and out of Commander’s Space so quickly that he barely fell an inch. He’d uttered one word. “Attack.”
He paid for it by getting knocked over. A moment later, another lion moved past for a swipe, drawing a deep gash along his leg.
Then Charlie was there, taking them by surprise. His growl was terrifying, and his retribution swift. Steel claws dug into lion flesh like a knife to butter. The lion roared in pain and tried to get away, then dropped to the ground.
Charlie must have hit something important.
Another lion sprung at Charlie’s back only to have Squire pop out and claw at its nose. It didn’t like that but it didn’t matter as Squire had leapt off Charlie’s back and was gliding over its head. It did an upwards leap, but was too slow.
The other two lions backed off to assess this new threat. Charlie spun, narrowly avoiding scraping James with his now very long and very sharp blade like steel claws.
Charlie leapt, then swiped at the now descending lion and drew large gashes down its side. It managed to get its own swipe in on Charlie's face as well.
Now the crowd was roaring their approval.
James got to his feet, Edward and Ken joining him.
“This is where we would normally call for a surrender.”
The lions now looked like they wanted nothing to do with them. Charlie defeated the wounded one with a bite. The claws retracted quickly with the lull.
But it wasn’t a lull.
Ken fired off some more lightbolts, flashing across the Arena, while Squire easily kept ahead, weaving through boulders, almost taunting them. It was only a matter of time and Ken’s shock went off.
Charlie would then pounce, four claws extended, dealing massive damage.
The last one attacked Edward in desperation, so it was he that got the final kill, blood spraying the Arena from the warhammer’s thundering blow.
That was exactly what the crowd loved to see, which garnered them a massive applause, along with some coins thrown onto the Arena floor.
Squire quickly touched all the lion corpses as they were glowing.
System Notice – Essence Stabilized
Additional information unlocked:
Savannah Lion:
- Category:
- Rarity:
- Aspects:
- Slots Required:
- Abilities:
- Traits:
- Crafter:
- Size:
- Weight:
- Level Requirement:
- Rarity:
He didn’t hesitate.
James bound all six of them.
The voice of the presenter rang out.
“Well there you have it. Round One goes to Rock, Paper, Squirrel, and to the victor goes the spoils. That’s a pot of two hundred and fifty gold. Not enough to cover the entrance fee. Do you want to take it and run or will you progress to round two?”
“ROUND TWO!” James and Edward roared together.
The crowd seemed pleased by that as, on cue, many of them echoed, “ROUND TWO!”
The presenter's voice interrupted the ambient noise that followed.
“I’ve just received word from our beloved sponsor Prax.
It looks like we are going to be hosting Bob’s Card Commander elimination rounds.
Oh, wow, this is a real treat. We have one already here.
He just defeated those lions.
Let’s give a round of applause to James, the Life of the Party!”