61: Selecting A New Planetary Leader

I have a week to put together a tournament that will select the best person to be the next Planetary Leader of Earth. No pressure or anything. I think the smartest way to start will be to check their ability to solo a dungeon. Nothing hard, let’s say a level 25 dungeon or so. I know we can use the Biltmore dungeon. It is an instance dungeon so I can send in contestants one right after another and they will each have their own instance dungeon to complete. The criteria to make the next round will obviously be survival and I can add a time component, let’s say 48 hours minimum. Next will be a general melee just like the Great Game competition. This format will get the participants used to the competition and also showcase their strategies to survive this type of round. The top 32 will then progress on to the next rounds which will be one vs. one.

I will have double elimination unlike the competition’s single elimination format. This will give someone who has a bad matchup the chance to still make it into the top 4. The top 4 contestants after the one on one rounds will have a special session with me. I will test their skills and interview them with a truth crystal. I have to make sure that they are willing to dedicate themselves to the protection of the whole world and are not going to abuse the power they are going to have. In fact if all four pass the interview I can level all of them so there are backups. The five of us could team up for 1 week in a dungeon and earn experience. The fourth place contestant would leave after one week, allowing the next three to split more experience for a second week. The Third place person than drops out and numbers one and two spend a week with me leveling. Finally, only the champion would be left for a single week of leveling. At the end of his or her power leveling session I will take them to the bloodline dungeon and we can select one that they find useful.

With a rough plan in place I start using my connections, a.k.a. tell Jacob, and start to set up everything needed for the tournament. I will have to house and feed the contestants, make an arena for them to fight in, and then transport them to the dungeon. I need to hire someone to register everyone and keep track of records and monetary spending. Walter can be in charge of building a basic arena. Let’s say with a center field of 400 meters in diameter. With simple benches or stands surrounding it for those who wish to watch in person. I should also see if anyone knows how to broadcast it using magic.

The next week has many different people from around the world teleporting into the capital. I have Jacob put them up in some of the barracks at my expense, but I make sure that it is only for a basic room and board. Anything else they have to pay for themselves. With the Universal Language perk everyone can talk to one another and it seems that this will turn out to be one of my better Perks. There is a distinct lack of racism and elitism. After surviving the change over, little things like skin color are hard to care about. Divisions between people are also reduced when everyone speaks the same language. It was soon enough time for everything to begin. I had made a few changes over the last week but the general format was staying the same.

Once everyone that was participating was gathered into the new arena I had Walter create a large platform and raise about 10 feet above the arena floor. I wanted them to focus on me and I needed to be dramatic to instill the right tone to this set of trials. As soon as the platform stopped raising in height I switched into my Primal Elemental Dragon form. I could see that I had everyone’s attention now. Seeing a VERY large indigo dragon appear in front of you probably does focus the mind rather quickly. In my nice gravelly dragon voice I started my speech.

“Welcome to the tournament to choose my successor as Planetary Leader. First I am going to explain a few expectations and rules to you. I expect you to follow them or suffer a permanent removal from the tournament by me personally. A Planetary Leader needs to put ALL of the Earth’s inhabitants in front of everything else. This does not mean you cannot have power, wealth, or fame. I have all three. However, when the need arises you must be the person at the forefront defending everyone else. If you feel that this responsibility is to great, then please leave now without penalty and no regrets.”

I paused and waited to see if anyone would leave. There were a few mutterers and some shuffling of feet but no one left.

“Next you need to know that contact outside of the competition that affects the results will be punished by the instigator. This includes hiring others. In the competition I do not care what you do or use to win. Everything is acceptable to me in the defense of the planet. Use tricks, poisons, etc… without fear of reprisal. However, remember this is only inside of the competition. If your fights leave the arena or other designated area then you will at the least be kicked out and at the worst permanently dealt with. Your first task is simple. You have 24 hours to get to the Biltmore Estates dungeon on your own. I do not care how. As soon as you arrive you will check in with my tournament staff and then start the Level 25 instance dungeon on a speed run. You need to complete the entire dungeon in less than 48 hours. The 32 fastest times will be moving on to the next part of the tournament. There are directions and pictures of the dungeon on the boards at the two entrances to the arena. There will be no interfering with another participant in this first part of the challenges. Now go!”

With that final admonition I took flight from the platform and used my Unique Skill Master of Shadows to hid my presence from everyone. I watched from the air as they digested the information I had just presented them and then several started running toward the boards that had been covered when they entered but were now showing information that they needed to continue. Every one of the contestants started to scatter. It looked like the majority were going to go on foot, several had some type of mount, or some even started to shimmer out with teleportation. The game was on. I wanted to test as many aspects as I could in a short amount of time. Level was not everything. Luck, skill in a variety of different tasks, and even weapon choice might influence how someone could survive an encounter. So just getting there and then completing a lower level dungeon was to weed out the slow and uncreative.

I teleported to Biltmore to watch the proceedings as they occurred. I switched back to my humanoid form after landing and went to talk to the person Jacob had hired and put in charge.

“Alan talk to me about what we have so far.”

“Yes sire, we have had 14 participants teleport and go in before you arrived and 7 more are being processed in. We expect 90% of the 426 people who signed up to be able to pass this portion of the test. We can have the results delivered to you as soon as the 72 hours are up.”

“That sounds fine. I will watch for a bit then go back and prepare for the next stages.”

“Yes Sire.”

I saw several people arrive over the next hour and enter into the dungeon. After 4 hours it was starting to get monotonous. I thought at least one standout would have come out by now. Maybe I was really a broken and strange individual when it came to the Great Game. I mean I set the speed record for the dungeon back in the day. I was not even high leveled, I just thought outside the box. It only took me a little over 3 hours. I guess my record is not going to be broken anytime soon. I went and told Alan that he should contact me as soon as they had the top 32 figured out. I was going to head back.

Instead of heading back to the castle I teleported directly to my Antarctic Lair. I needed at least 24 hours of solitude before dealing with sheer amount of people necessary to make this tournament work. I quickly took out two communication crystals.

“Jacob, I have decided to spend the day away from the kingdom.”

He sighed before he spoke.

“Certainly sire, I will contact you if there is an emergency and let the relevant people know you are unavailable for the next 24 hours.”

“Good man, and thank you.”

“Have a good rest sire.”

Next was my daughter Nicole.

“Hey kiddo what are you doing?”

“I am working on helping with the tournament you set up daddy since you won’t let me join in and participate.”

“I am sorry pumpkin, but I do not think that this would be a good fit for you or your companions. I just wanted to let you know that I am out of contact for the next 24 hours.”

I could hear her giggle.

“Dad are you hiding from everybody in your room like a little kid?”

“Now see hear young lady, I am not hiding, I am just taking a well deserved break from the masses of people who want to annoy me, and no I am not in my room.”

“Whatever dad, just don’t do anything to fun without me.”

“Alright Nicole, I love you and will see you soon.”

“Bye Dad.”

With my fatherly and kingly duties taken care of or at least passed on to others I could hide with a clear conscious. I mean rest. I called out Walter and together we started putting some polishing touches on my hidden sanctuary. I was using this opportunity to not only wind down but to train some fine control on my magic, especially with my new element Primal Magic. It seems primal magic is what everything else comes from. This means it was all the properties of each of the other elements. I had used it briefly in the tournament, but only as a destructive force that basically burned and exploded like the fire element but much stronger.

After thinking on it awhile I decided to see if it could do other things and I was correct. I was able to make it move freely like air and water, I could sculpt it like stone, and most importantly it would take on any aspect of the elements that I concentrated on when using it. So if I needed a bigger badder version of lightning I could use primal lightning or say for some reason I needed a very intimidating ice spell I could use primal ice. The only drawback was that it took more concentration than I was used to and it cost an amazing amount of mana to use.

Luckily with practice the control and concentration was becoming easier and I had mana to spare. In fact I was probably one of the only people in the Great Game that could use it without consequence. If the normal spell took 500 mana Primal could take between two or three times that amount to accomplish the same thing. You had to increase the amount of mana past that to increase the damage. Most users of the Great Game even around level 500 only had 2000 or 3000 mana at the most. I am sure there were some that were much higher than that but you can see why it would be a problem. I currently had a mana pool of over 160,000. A few extra mana did not bother me.

Speaking of extra mana several months ago before I went into the Machu Picchu dungeon I set aside 500 mana every fifteen minutes to claim Antarctica. I had forgotten completely about it until a couple days ago when I received a Great Game notice.

The designated area has been claimed. Mana will no longer be drained from your mana pool.

Neat I owned an entire continent, mostly due to no one else living there and of course me forgetting that I had even started claiming it. Still it was something to maybe bring up at parties. Who am I kidding I am never invited to parties and probably would not go even if I was. It was fun to get some random feats knowing that I would not have to worry about anything on Earth. I mean with my level there would have to be a serious flaw in the Great Game to kill me at this point until the levels of the world and monsters increase.

However, I had been thinking lately that I needed to be careful. The Great Game told me I was walking the Path of the Gods. It promoted me from Demi God, to Low God, to Mid God, and finally I am sitting at the title of High God right now. The only requirement was stat point. This implies that other in the past may have also stepped onto the Path of the Gods. If they have then they would need similar stats to myself. There levels might be different, but the actual stats would have to cross a certain threshold to be promoted to the next tier of Godhood in the game.

I was having Walter create intricate and beautiful detailed stone sculptures and pictures in stone throughout my entire Antarctic lair. I was following behind him and practicing with my primal element by having it outline and flow along his artwork and emit the primal indigo light without destroying anything. It was actually much harder than it sounds. I had to follow all of the ridges and shade the different areas by adding more or less mana and then tie a permanence enchantment into it without letting go of my concentration. At the beginning let’s say that I ruined several pieces of art, but now I was doing fairly well and only ruined one occasionally when my mind started to wander.

We finally reached the time limit for training I had set for myself and then I bid Walter goodbye and sent him back to the castle. I wanted to be totally alone. As I slipped into a welcoming sleep I started to dream about a different world. One that was tremendously larger than Earth that was set up as a spiral. Seen from above it was quite beautiful. I was flying along in my dragon form covering great distances and always trying to get to the center. As I got closer and closer suddenly a communication crystal buzzed and woke me up.

“My king, this is Alan. I know that there is still over 24 hours left in the deadline, but I am fairly confident that we have identified the top 32. We will continue to wait just to make sure, but you said to contact you as soon as we had the list.”

Still a little groggy, I tried my best to answer in a kingly manner.

“Thank you for your hard work Alan. Please have the list delivered to Jacob at the castle and I will pick it up from him soon. If there are any last minute changes please let me know.”

“Yes Sire, signing off.”

Wow that was an intense dream and I must have been more drained and tired than I thought. I slept for over twelve hours. I wonder if that is a dragon thing? In the stories dragons always seem to have brief periods of activity followed by long periods in sleep or solitude as they grow older. Nah, that is probably just wishful thinking on my part, an excuse to be lazy because of my bloodline. Even if it was true, no one who knew me from before or even recently would buy that excuse. Oh well, back to civilization and responsibilities.

When I teleported back into the throne room, Jacob as usual was waiting for me.

“Sire I have the list that Alan sent over.”

“Just give me a range of their levels, Jacob so I know what I am dealing with.”

“Yes sire, the lowest level is 45 and the highest is 62.”

“Thank you for the summary Jacob, hold onto the list for me and Alan will send an update if needed. Now can you tell me where I can find Randolph?”

“Yes sire, he is at his estate.”

“Randolph has an estate?”

“Sire, he is one of the most important people in your kingdom. The leader of your armies and also your designated heir for the time being, he might also be the second most powerful individual on the planet. Of course he has an estate.”

“Sorry Jacbo, I know dealing with some of my more shall we say unusual behaviors and short comings must be trying at times.”

“Sire as strange as you are at times, you are the best person I have ever had the pleasure of working for.”

“Really Jacob, do you mind telling me why?”

“Of course not my king, you allow those with more knowledge than you in any area to be responsible and in charge and use their hard won talents. You do not micromanage, and perhaps best of all you disappear for long periods of time which as your head domestic makes my life difficult at times, but usually means less work for everyone as we are not expected to be on call 100% of the time. Oh and you pay extremely well.”

“Well I am glad I am not a horrible person to work for and keep up the good work. Wait can you have someone show me the way to Randolph’s estate?”

“A page outside the throne room can lead you my lord.”

“Thanks Jacob.”

As I left the throne room a young boy of about 13 or 14 stepped forward.

“I will be your guide to General Randolph’s estate my king. My name is Henry.”

“Very well lead the way Henry.”

It was a pleasant walk of about 15 minutes from the throne room to an area just inside the front gates where we approached a cluster of teleport circles on the ground. Henry led me to one colored blue and after we had both stepped on it he very carefully filled it with his mana to activate it. It may have taken longer, but letting him do it without help from me just felt right. Soon enough we arrived inside another gate with two guards facing us.

As soon as they saw who they were pointing their weapons at they immediately put them away and started stuttering apologies. I waved them off and commended them on following orders and being alert. I bid goodbye to Henry and told him I would find my own way back as I did not know how long I would be here. He smiled and nodded and teleported back to the castle. While I was taking care of that one of the guards had left, I assume to let Randolph or someone else know that I had arrived.

I started walking to the front door of the large house. It was no quite a mansion, but it was rather nice. Before I could reach it Randolph came running out.

“My lord, if I knew you needed me I would have come to you.”

“I am sorry if I inconvenienced you Randolph. It dawned on me when I needed to talk to you that I did not even know where the general of my armies even lived. Come to think of it we teleported here so I still do not know. One second please.”

I quickly shifted to my dragonkin form and flew straight up to get a birds eye view. Spin around and locate the castle, there. Okay, now I should be able to find this place if needed. I landed quickly and Randolph seemed a little flustered.

“Calm down Randolph I just needed to ask you a couple of quick questions. You are probably one of my few subordinates that I can count as a friend also so just relax.”

Randolph visibly took a big breath and settled himself.

“How can I help you my king?”

“Well the preliminary results are in from the Planetary Leader first round. The contestants look to be between levels 45 and 62. What I need to know is if that is below average, average, or above average for a planet after one year. “

“Well sire for this planet I think it is average. For any other planet it would be above average.”

“I don’t understand what you mean Randolph. Why is this planet different?”

“I think it was because you raised the tier so quickly sire and also purchased extra experience, which increased the levels of monsters and citizens rather quickly. Remember I was in my 60’s for levels when I came here. I came from a planet that was young but well established. We had participated in 33 Great Game competitions. That is 99 years of living in the Great Game. I was a third generation user of the Great Game, but after 50 years of my life dedicated to war I was only able to get my level to the 60’s. I was not top tier on my planet, but I was probably in the top 1,000.”

“I am starting to understand Randolph. You mean that after 3 generations the average level was what about 40 for an adult?”

“Probably closer to 30 my lord, remember not everyone has a job that allows them to fight and level quickly.”

“So why is Earth so different? Is it just those perks I bought?”

“I think it is about 50% the early perks that gave boosts to levels and about 50% attitude. I have never seen a group of people world-wide that work so hard to get to earn enough to be able to be lazy. It is very strange.”

“Huh, I never really thought of it that way, but I guess you are right. Most of us do work hard so we can be lazy later, myself included.”

“I realized this early on my king and have adapted. The perks that you have gotten this world are unheard of also. My own planet has only had one perk earned in 3 generations. You had 3 perks before you even left for the first competition. Your choices were very helpful in leveling up the rest of us also. With the most recent round of perks you selected I feel like a new man. I have gained 10 levels and an extra 30 points in each of my stats in one year working for you my lord. That means in one year I earned more than I did in over half of my life on my own planet.”

“Well your welcome I guess?”

“Thank You my lord, I do not think you understand how loyal each and everyone of the people you hired from other planets are. We have a quality of life, a level of pay, and bonuses that no one would believe from our old lives.”

“Alright, calm down Randolph. By the way, be thinking about what bloodline you want, I think I will take you and Jacob with the champion of the tournament. That will make it easier on all three of you. Be prepared to make your argument to sway the other two to your way of thinking. I will inform them of the same thing. Together we will choose what would be best for all three of you to have. I expect you to protect my family, I expect Jacob to take care of my family, and whoever gets picked will be protecting the world. I want to make sure that you have the best chance possible to do that.”

I teleported out before Randolph could say anything. It looked like he was about to cry with joy and I do not do well with sentiment and crying or hugging or anything of the nature.