Altura

I took a deep breath in as I stepped into the Land of Warriors, the First Warriors continent. I was just realizing the danger I was in. The entire event was organized, run and monitored by the First Warrior and his cronies, coming here wasn’t really the best idea if he was trying to kill me.

“Is it really compulsory to participate?” I asked Elder Norvane.

“Yes, and I doubt the First Warrior will let you be if you don’t come, if anything you will be in more danger. The Tourney often has chances to level up built in, avail yourself of them. The purposeful killing of others is not permitted in the Tourney, but there are always a few that do.”

“Participating in the Tourney will avail you of opportunities, and I doubt the First Warrior will let you back out now, your name was submitted for the Tourney long ago.” Elder Norvane said.

“And what exactly can I expect from the Tourney?” I asked, a bit miffed at the fact that I had been ‘volunteered’ for this competition without my consent.

“The Tourney changes every time, so there is no set format, but the first round is almost always a free for all of some sort.” The Elder replied as we reached our place of stay.

“Now, come, your mother awaits you.And do call your allies here, we will need a planning session before the Tourney.” the Elder said as we went in. Ugh, mother was here. I would have to deal with her again. I wonder what she would do this time.

“Altura! And you’re a Grand Tree now! Just like your mother when she was your age!” my mother said, her smile so fake it was clear she was acting.

“Actually, I know for a fact that you were not a Grand Tree at fourteen, so I am better. Also, hello mother. How have you been?” I said, trying to maintain some civility.

Mother’s smile froze as she said, “I have been well. I kept track of all your accomplishments from across the sea. A fine empire you’ve got there!” Now I could give a sarcastic remark, or even a quip in response, but why were we even fighting?

“An Arch duchy, but thank you.” I answered.

“I suppose you want to go in and meet the others. Come on.” Mother said as she led us into what seemed to be a lounge room. The room was currently occupied by three Grand Trees, one Late and two Mid.

“As you know, the Tourney allows three participants per contender. The contenders from the Land of Frost are Quarlessa.” Mother pointed at the Late-Grand Tree. “Diana and Bianca” The to Mid-Grand Trees.

“Grand mother has five other Elders under her, making a total of twenty-one contestants from our side.” Mother answered. “What level are yours?”

“Xerte and Kerrin have both reached the Grand Tree stage, in addition to that the Gorge will be giving a Grand-Tree and two Late-Tree stage cultivators.” I answered, smug. I knew she expected a much weaker showing, but I had my own power now.

“A surprising showing. I remembered hearing that you had aided a Spirit Tree break through, but I didn’t realize that he was so loyal to you now. Does he know how dangerous this could be?” Mother asked.

I had told Elder Portal all about it in extra detail to warn him of what was coming. And he had laughed in my face. ‘Archduchess, the Gorge was already dying before you came, and somehow I doubt it will die now. I have seen you grow, so I doubt whether this First Warrior is ready for you. A few dozen Grand Trees is not going to cut it.’ he had said. I couldn't really refute that, I didn’t really consider the Grand Trees a threat either. I even had backup now.

“I would leave you all to catch up, but the event is starting. The First Warrior has said that those not here yet will get teleported in with the relevant information. Considering that we are the only ones not here yet, I think that means you can expect an ambush as soon as you get there.” Mother said. A preponement? Seriously? Ugh, I hated having enemies.

“Come on, the initiation ceremony is in the middle of the continent.” Mother said, opening a portal. I could open portals within a continent, but from one to another was something only a Spirit Tree could do.

The portal emerged before a massive gladiator stage, with the stands occupied by what seemed like various dignitaries.

“On behalf of the First Warrior, I, Grand Elder Betaca welcome you to the thirty-seventh Elder Tourney. The Tourney shall take place in the newly opened Land Of Vines, in case you are unaware, the Land is our dear moon, now civilized.”

“An ancient legend says that the moon is the land of self reflection, a place where ancient leaders sent criminals to reflect on their crimes. In addition to this, the First Warrior has been kind enough to add a very special vine to the moon.”

“The vine that grew on the System moon itself. Now, onto rewards.A sum reward has been instituted for the Tourney. A total of five hundred tokens, each token containing one million Qi, are to be rewarded on killing the participants.”

“The rewards for killing each candidate are as follows, Altura Selrin 150 tokens. Quarlessa Rovere 50 tokens. Bianca Redress 10 tokens…” the Grand Elder said as Mother's face darkened.

The bias was as obvious as day: of the five hundred tokens, three hundred were assigned to our group. And half of those to me. The First Warrior wasn’t even being subtle, it was a bounty hunt, and I was the prized deer. I did wonder how the other Elders felt about their heirs and young talents being put under bounty.

The other prizes might not be high, but they were still sizable. And they would be awarded in addition to whatever Qi was gained on killing them. I was sure to make sure to avail myself of some. The Elders were hunting me? Ok, then they could make do with having no heirs returning at all.

“In the end, the Lands shall be divided based on the one with the most tokens. The portal to the moon will be opened in five minutes.” The Grand Elder ended her awful speech. I had to give it to her, she made an obvious witch hunt seem plain.

“Altura. I don’t have a lot of time, but here, take this. The red jewel will glow if the First Warrior acts against us down here. Do not return unless you are a Warrior Tree, hide and grow until you can take revenge. And should you come under attack, put Qi in the yellow jewel, it will send a distress signal. Now go, the portal has formed.” Mother said as we all rushed to get into it. The Tourney was not organized well. Or organized at all.

In fact, wouldn’t the entire thing become entirely unbalanced if a single faction killed mine? I accounted for three-tenths of the tokens alone, and whoever killed me would gain three tenths of the land for the next decade. What a mess.

And how were they making these tokens anyway? Was the System not protesting? Or could a Warrior Tree overrule it? I passed through the portal, feeling significant spatial disruption from it. Oh, great, the portal wasn’t good either.

On the other side, I vomited as I emerged, feeling as if my insides are coming out. But I was still a Grand-Tree, my stats encouraged quick healing. On the point of stats, I hadn’t checked my stat sheet in a while.

‘System, status’ I said.

Name

Altura Selrin

Title

Royal Archduchess (In name)(landed)

Element

Dragon Fire, Snowflake ice, Royal Lightning

Age

14 years

Seeds

Royalty (Early-Grand Tree stage [33,600,003/49,321,600]), Energy (ungerminated)

Stats

Strength[The amount of brute force one can use]

678

Endurance[The amount of time one can work continuously]

682

Flexibility[The range of movement of the body]

688

Precision[The accuracy of one’s movements]

682

Perception[The ability to notice nuances and advanced concepts]

678

Intelligence[The ability to comprehend the advanced concepts]

688

Wisdom[The ability to effectively use the concepts]

693

Aura Force[The ability to force your will on your surroundings]

697

Combat[The speed of one’s reactions, ability to process situations and other general combat abilities]

702

Oh. I had reached the six hundreds. A lot of stats, huh. But I did not have time to think, I felt an attack coming at me from the side, forcing me to dodge.

“Luck, oh fickle luck, how you favor me today. The prey of mine is here before my eyes, ready to be plucked.” a young man said, emerging from the trees as he launched attacks at me incessantly.

I dodged, calling on my staff as I did so. I formed a typhoon around him, forcing him to pause to dismiss it, and then aimed the staff at him, firing a bolt. The man dodged, but not before he lost an arm to the attack.

“Oh, what a tempestuous lass you are, attacking twice in a second’s time. But do you think this will save you? I fear not, for today you shall die.” the young man said as his arm healed before my eyes. What the heck was that healing power?

The attacks resumed with renewed ferocity, moving me to the passive. The young man, I realized, was using the same strategy I had used with Norvane, speed so fast that the enemy could not fight back. But I also knew the solution, an elemental lock. The kind that forced the speed down.

I sent out my will as I dodged, lock. And it worked, the space was locked, forcing the young man to slow down. At the cost of Qi. A lot of it.

I sensed another aura coming this way, likely detecting the fight.

“A competitor comes, my prey, but I will not let him have you. The lands shall be mine.” the young man said as his aura suddenly increased. The half-Spirit-Tree stage. The guy was breaking through in the middle of the battle! Were all these people suicidal? Wait, they were. The lot of them were probably death soldiers, trained to die for the betterment of their masters.

I needed to finish this fast, before someone else came, and I was outnumbered. As the guy fought against my lock, I gathered my Qi on the staff crystal, and then shot out. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Lightning, Space, Sound and any other element I could harness in quick succession.

The guy tried to dodge, but I wasn’t having it. The attack cost me nearly thirty million Qi, emptying my reserves to three digits after the battle I had just fought, but it ended in my opponent’s death.

I quickly ran away from the location, taking shelter in a nearby cave as I observed my surroundings. The Land was, as mentioned in the name, covered with vines. The bloody things hung from the trees, occupied the ground, and made travel so much harder. But hiding in a vine covered cave so much easier.

‘System, notifications please’

The Elder Tourney has begun.

The Quest:

Get tokens by killing other participants. Participate in treasure hunts to retrieve the valuable treasures scattered across the Land of Vines. Discover the secrets of the moon.

Requirements for completion:

The killing of 300 tokens worth of participants.

Rewards:

Land and Qi based on tokens collected. The treasures and secrets collected.

Qi gained

Half-Step Spirit Tree human- 30 million Qi.

Level up requirements unmet.

(Early-Grand Tree stage [33,600,003/49,321,600]→ (Early-Grand Tree stage [63,600,003/49,321,600])

The trial may be begun once Qi has recovered to full capacity.

A tutorial? Thank you System! The notification already told me more than Grand Elder Betaca. Actually, why did she not mention all of this? Or were these things I wasn’t supposed to know.

System, is a notification like this usually compiled.

The compilation of this notification was done to ensure fairness in competition during this event. The System shall now assume control of the even administration due to use of unlawful practices by previous administrators.

Oh, System, you rule bound machine. How I love you and your weird take on fairness now. The System taking control was very good news for me, it meant that something had gone terribly wrong with the First Warrior’s plans, and things were officially out of his control on this side.

Now, it was time for me to make a plan. I needed one dearly, lest I find myself dead. The first step was to contact everyone else. And the next was to get more Qi, the System had mentioned some natural treasures.

Suddenly, auras started to fill the sky, one, two, three…a total of nine auras filled the sky, marking that nine people had broken through to the Spirit Tree stage. The only way this could be happening was if these people already had the ability to breakthrough and had been waiting.

But my plan didn’t need to change, I still needed to get Qi. I required even more of it now. The problem was the increased competition for the treasures now. I would have to compete with Spirit Trees and that would be hard, especially if they had back up. I could handle one, but so many would certainly leave me dead.

I needed to up my plans. The natural treasures weren’t enough, I needed to hunt. The prey had to hunt the predators, the ones actively hunting me. Finding them would be easy enough, just make some noise and see who comes looking. The ones not involved would run away, or not be interested. The ones that came would die. The plan had the added benefit of reducing the people hunting me.

But it also had me actively looking to kill people, it could be called self-defense, but it was premeditated. Just a reaction to the kill or be killed world I was in now. I had tried to escape the Xianxia, and failed. But before I could go down that line of thinking any further, I found myself facing another notification from the System.

After further investigation, the System has found the Tourney rules to be unsatisfactory. In accordance with the Systemic policy, further changes are being implemented to rectify this oversight.

A system of zoning has been instituted in the Land of Vines. A participant may not cross the line until either only one participant remains or the time is up. The previous token system, while deemed unwise, is not a System generated reward and thus still viable.

…Did I accidentally hack the System or something? Why was it making things easier for me? The only thing the zoning system did was make it harder for people to gang up on me. And make it harder to fight among themselves. Oh, and also make it harder for me to meet up with everyone.

Grand Elder Artica, Altura’s Grandmother.

‘What is it that troubles the world greatly?’

The question had puzzled Artica for a long time, halting her progress as she attempted to figure it out. And she had done it. The test had been successful, the System had changed the Tourney rules on her request after she quoted the answer.

The Tourney, as it was, would lead to global instability, war and a probable return to the warring era before the First Warrior. The crux of Artica’s statement, and she was sure it still held true. The Tourney would cause infighting as the factions debated who would get all that juicy land that the First Warrior had offered. Artica had laughed at the distribution, three fifths to her faction?

Did the First Warrior really think the other Grand Trees would do nothing if one got hold of that prize? The First Warrior may be powerful, but there was a limit to how much the Grand Elders would take before they began testing how many he was willing to kill. A single one having three tenths would be too much. The distribution was just calling for a civil war. And the System did not like it any more than her, something Artica had used to her advantage.

The System as it turned out had a teensy tiny flaw in its working. The seeds and their elements, were decided based on the society at the current time. The problem? The seeds also kept society the same. The ‘man’ that programmed the System had apparently not planned for how much the System would influence the world’s culture.

The System would only reward people for certain actions based on its assessment of the society. At the moment, those actions were things related to killing. Or things that would lead to killing in the future. The only exception perhaps was Altura.

The previous nobles had taken to waging war and killing to level up, but not her. No, Altura had revolutionized her land. And touched upon something the System desperately wanted.

Because the System, for all its rules, was also an intelligence.

And it could see that as it stood, the powers of the world would fight among themselves until they destroyed society. An act that was against the System’s core principles. So the System worked hard to make sure that things moved away from constant infighting.

The question came to be. A Warrior Tree, someone that stood at the top of the pyramid answering it, had given the System more leeway in acting, furthering its goals. The problem? The First Warrior had absolutely no intention of actually solving the issue.

The Tourney had brought peace among the Spirit Trees, but it still forced the powers to remain locked in the struggle. In fact, it might even be worse, before, it was always possible that everyone would collectively come to their senses and decide not to wage war. Now, they were always struggling against each other to keep their Lands.

And then there was Grand Elder Betaca. The woman had been one of the fairest Grand Elders, and suddenly she was the First Warrior’s favorite. What was up with her?

But whatever the case, Artica had it. The answer to the final question, a question she suspected her granddaughter would find terribly easy. And on that note, she began her Trial. The final chance she had to break through. But she already knew that she would be succeeding, and then the First Warrior would learn exactly what happened when someone targeted her family.