Arganthes: The Capital of Dungeons 24 Chapter 16: The Tournament of Beginnings - Part I - Entry

The sun shined down upon the window of our bedroom. The light breaking through as it gently warmed my face. The day was finally here... the day if the match. I woke up with Yami on my foot end.

Sitting down to change into my clothes I decided it was best to wake her up as well. Gently petting her fur and touching her ears she awoke to the gentle touch.

Slowly opening her eyes blinded by the sunlight she blinked a couple of times before turning around and taking her time to stretch.

"What is it, master? Is it time to wake up?"

I jumped up all excited as the day had finally arrived.

"Yes! It's time for us to register ourselves for the Tournament of Beginners. They say that anyone from the represented three guilds is allowed to enter, as long as they don't have an adventurers license yet.

Oh man! I can't wait to see what kind of challenging and strong people we have to face. Haha.

Come to think of it, I think it's best if we both join in separately just to gain as much experience as possible. That would mean we could end up against each other, wouldn't that be exciting?"

Yami jumped up twirling her tail in excitement as her air began pointing up high.

"Yes! Yami would like that very much! Now we can finally see what we are made of off! Let me get ready to master and I will join you along the way."

"Sure, I'll be waiting outside."

Knowing she needed a little time to change I made my way outside of the room and sat down against the wall next to the door.

A few moments later Yami opened the door and jumped excitedly in front of me.

"Let's go, master, Yami is ready!"

I stood up as we both made our way to the main hall of the Guildhall. The guidance team was in charge of all the preparations and wanted to inform everyone who would like to enter.

Beardal was the one who had the honor of presenting the event to us all. At the center of the hall, a stage arose from the ground. In the middle of the hall, there was enough room for every single member of the guilds as well as spectators to boot.

Beardal then got a sign and walked up on stage as he began to speak with his calm and raspy voice.

"Like last year, I wish to welcome you all to the Festival of Strenght and Virility. For those who have never experienced this before, it is an event with lots of good food, where we praise the Goddess Helena. As we thank her for the opportunity to find fresh and new talents to strengthen the Adventurers' path.

In honor of that cause, we at the Guildhall together with the three main guilds like to present our annual Tournament of Beginnings. Here students get the chance to show off their talents and get the chance to be scouted by one of the other guilds.

But most of all... it is to celebrate strength and health.

In front of the Goddess Helena! This year The Rogues Association has allowed us to join their guild as the top three from the tournament will be allowed to attend private lessons in their guild.

Yet the number one will go home with a magic essence scroll containing ancient texts, who knows what it could contain?

As for the runner-up special chakra pills that will help cultivate their energies.

The third price won't go home empty-handed either as they will receive price money containing fifteen gold coins.

Now the format of the tournament will be elimination depend on how many of you apply for the entry, the preliminary rounds will be held to find the first hundred and twenty-eight contestants.

Then half will be eliminated, yet another time until only thirty-two remain for the final bracket.

Citizens from around the continent come from far and wide to witness these fights, not just for the spectacle, but also in the hopes of finding new members. Now... that the rules for the preliminaries are clear the rest will follow later.

The rules for the final bracket will be concluded tomorrow. If everyone would be so kind as to make lines toward the guidance desks, there every one of you is allowed to register for the tournament.

Tomorrow everything will be starting so be quick if you want to enter. That is all for today, please enjoy the festival everyone!"

Beardal smiled and waved as he left the stage.

Excited a line was formed allowing anyone who wanted to register. After a while, the line reached towards the entrance of the Guildhall. Even a few familiar faces were here to join. Everyone who I met at the obelisk as well as members of each represented guild.

Yami jumped out of my shadow taking on her human form as she too had to register. We were both excited beyond belief. When our turn to register finally arrived. A small fee of one silver coin had to be paid, quickly proofing why this was held every single year.

They made a huge profit out of this. We were finally a part of the event as we were guided towards the main fighting hall. Making our way there we spotted a young muscular light brown-skinned tall man with hazel green eyes and brown, blond curls.

He too was part of the group who got summoned,

If I remembered correctly his name was Geo.

The man, just like Brendan, was hitting on all the girls only to be shot down, because of his direct and overbearing use of words. That... and he was even more of an open pervert than me, haha.

Sometimes it's better to restrain yourself a little.

But not for him, I got the feeling it was either going double or leave with nothing. Which made me admire him. Whenever he got shot down by one of the girls? He tried even harder with the next... only to get shot down by all of them, but hey... I know he will find a feisty woman in the end.

Maybe I had to fight him in the tournament? Man, that would be great! I couldn't wait as the excitement got me pumped up. Even more of the summoned group could be found in the ever-growing group of people.

All of them were here, even Aqua, who spotted me and came straight to us in the excitement of the tournament.

"Hey, Michael! You here too?"

She asked with a huge smile on her face.

"I can't wait to start... look at all the contestants, this event must be huge!! Maybe we get to fight against each other in the end? Oh, I can't wait! Haha!"

"Yeah, I know how you feel, can't wait either, oh man! What a huge turn up of people, already more than 200 seeing at a glance? And all of us are here too I see, this is getting me even more excited. Haha."

I decided to go greet Geo as Aqua was now talking to Yami, they should be alright together.

As I headed to Geo he was yet again hitting on a woman, it seemed to be going better than before,

but he had to comment about the sexiness of her being which made her pissed and slap him.

"Boy! You made a mess of things... to me it looked like you almost had her man, what happened?"

Geo surprised to hear a familiar voice turned around to find me.

"Hey! Who were you again?"

He said scratching his head looking for his next prey.

"Wait... weren't you one of the people who got summoned together with our group?"

Glad he recognized me a little I slapped him on the back.

"Yes! It's me Michael, the one who stood in the back with the blue-haired girl."

"Ah yes! How is it going, mate? Found any fun ladies lately? And man! How are things going with your training? As you can see mine is going great!"

Geo flexed his muscles as he spotted another good looking woman, winking to her and making a pouty face because he got shut down so quickly.

"I think I have improved a lot, you might find out during the tournament, can't wait for it to start.

Well... I see you got your eye on a new target so I'll let you be, maybe we could go grab some grub together after the preliminaries?"

Geo laughed and put his arm around my neck, gripping me tight.

"I am always up for some food Michael, if we make it through the preliminaries I will cook up some freshly caught meat! Look forward to it!."

He left with waving goodbye with a few fingers, hopping towards the annoyed dark-haired lady further in the back.

After a while Yami caught up with me again as the middle of the room suddenly began opening up, creating several stages to fight on.

In the most middle part, a stage lifted higher than the others as well as in the back where Helena took her seat. The one in the middle had an announcer standing on it. Cracking of a microphone could be heard as the announcer tested to see if it was working.

*crack*

"Test... test... Is this thing turned on?"

*crack*

"Good! It seems it's working..."

"Ahem"

"Welcome everyone to the Tournament of Beginners.

I am proud to present to you lady Helena Spetra of the Spetra guild. She is the main sponsor of this event. Before we continue a few words of the head sponsor herself."

Helena stood up proudly scanning the audience.

Our eyes met, she then teasingly winked at me before starting her speech.

"Welcome everyone to this week's main event!

We are here to celebrate the powers of trading and prosperity by giving each of you the chance to become a better version of yourself. Note that this event is also to scout for potential adventurers, while allowing recruiting members for the guilds around the country. Now then, I hope you all will give it your all and enjoy the events. That is all!"

Everyone cheered loudly getting all pumped up for the tournament. Yami pulled my shirt softly.

"Master? Why was she winking at you? Do you know her?"

Startled I tried to avert the question.

"Haha, no... that can't be... don't pay attention to it, the tournament is about to start, we should get ready too."

The announcer took up the mic again getting us stoked for the tournament.

"One last thing before we will begin the preliminaries,

It has come to our attention that the turn-up today is bigger than ever before, meaning we have to get through these rounds as quickly as possible if we want to have 128 remaining contestants by the end of the day. If you all would like to look at the box in front of me I will explain the rules."

The announcer grabbed something out of the box, revealing a button with a number on it.

"All contestants are to receive their assigned number before continuing if everyone please would look to the sides of the room, their assistants are ready to distribute and assign your numbers. Please head there now."

Everyone made their way there as slowly but surely everyone had their numbers handed out. Geo seemed to be one of the first receiving his number asI received my number a little later, the number 666 as Yami had 667. Receiving our numbers we were brought to a waiting room, where we could relax for the time being. Then after a few hours, it seemed that everyone had received a number as the announcer could be heard through some broadcasting crystals.

"It seems everyone has received their numbers. Now then, let me explain what it is that you all need to do.

In the forests next to sharoo, there can be found a huge open plain, with pillars, boulders, and ponds all over. The heavy fog there makes it difficult to see which helps in our event today... you see everyone had received their numbers for a reason.

Look at the ones next to you, or even in front or behind you. With the 3000 contestants, we have here, we hope to lower that number to 750 with this first round alone. The rules are simple. Your number is worth two points to yourself, as all the other numbers will be one point each. You pass this around if you have a total of five points. The time limit will be five hours where we will be taking the 750 people with the most points.

As for the ones who will have lost their points when the time is up, they can try again next year,

but until the buzzer sounds, in the end, everything goes so don't give up until the very end.

Now if everyone would kindly follow me."

The announcer said turning around as the gates opened behind him.

Chapter end