A couple weeks went by and our party strengthened by learning each other’s past and as a result blazed through the party ranks and by the day of the tournament we were a level 8 party. It seemed Emi still hadn’t responded to the words from Foxy but I’m sure she was still trying to make up her mind.

We walked together to the tournament signup near the center of Paolona where we agreed we would split up and concentrate on fighting our own battles. When we arrived we were greeted with a flood of people who had all obviously tried to signup to fight.

In the middle of the crowd was the signup table with a sign above it showing STATS AT THE READY. Where a man who was completely overwhelmed with all these signups was trying to create some semblance of order in the chaos.

“DUE TO MASSIVE DEMAND ONLY THOSE WHO ARE LEVEL 20 AND HAVE AT LEAST 200 SKILL POINTS IN AT LEAST 2 OF THE FOLLOWING STATS CAN PARTICIPATE IN THIS TOURNAMENT, STRENGTH, ENDURANCE, DEXTERITY AND AGILITY. THIS IS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD OTHERWISE YOU RISK INJURY. EVERYONE ELSE WHO DOES NOT MEET THE REQUIRED STATS PLEASE MAKE AN ORDERLY EXIT INTO THE STANDS!”

The crowd groaned one of them shouted, ‘That’s impossible! I’ve been training for years and I’m only 200 in my strength stat!”

Another of the crowd joined in, “Yeah why shouldn’t we be able to?!”

“Shut your mouths you useless peons!” A man barged through the crowd to the front of the signup table. “Only those worthy of this tournament should be able to enter! Put me down for fight. Chosen fighting style LIGHTNING STYLE!” He grinned as showed his status tag. The crowd slowly filtered out into the background as they resigned to their fate. They gasped at his stats. The sign above changed its information to show his stats.

NameLord Christopher HelmsworthRaceHumanGenderMaleAge23Level25Health2550Strength203Endurance180Dexterity220Agility200

“Welcome Lord Helmsworth.” The Man sitting at the signup table bowed to him.

“Not many qualified for this tournament have they George?” Helmsworth grinned at the man who was called George.

“Not many my lord. It looks like you have a good chance of winning this tournament.”

“Good Good Good. I’LL SEE THE REST OF YOU AT THE TOURNAMENT.” He gestured to the handful who still were there and he walked away.

A purple haired woman with a striking appearance in standard adventurer attire this time stepped up to the signup table. “Mary Andrews, Water Style.” She showed her status tag to George.

Her stats flashed up onto the signboard

NameMary AndrewsRaceHuman HybridGenderFemaleAge18Level23Health2190Strength280Endurance150Dexterity208Agility300

The crowd gasped in awe of her skills. One of them shouted, “Marry me!”

This went on as more and more people flitted in signing up, the crowd subsided to the cafes around the town center as most of the contestants only just about hit the requirements and the initial excitement had worn away.

We had decided to try and be as covert as possible and try and draw as little attention, so we waited until the near the end of the signups for the tournament to join in.

Foxy stepped up first, “Uhhhh Rene Foxworth, Light-“

George cut her off, “Little animal girl are you lost? This is the table for signups for the big sword fighting tournament.”

“I know!” Foxy let out an uncharacteristically angry voice. Obviously pissed off at the guy from underestimating her, “RENE FOXWORTH, LIGHTNING STYLE.” She shoved her status tag into George’s face. That drew the attention of the people around. Looks like our plan had failed…

NameRene FoxworthRaceKitsuneGenderFemaleAge15Level26Health4270Strength380Endurance349Dexterity320Agility500

The crowd let out a shout at her obviously insane stats. Even I gasped as I had never actually seen even part of her stats before. Emi had a similar expression as she wowed at her Rene’s surprising stats. 500 agility was insane!

“Am I have high enough for the requirement?” Foxy returning to her more usual deadpan face. I could obviously tell having been around her for a while she was saying it rather smugly.

“Uhhhh yes…” George was obviously eating his words at this moment.

I was next up to the plate I walked over trying to ignore the obvious stares from a lot of people. We had come as a group and they were obviously waiting to see what type of monster stats we all had.

“Boy what’s your name and what is your sword style?” Obviously still down from the embarrassment by Foxy.

“I’m Clover Aurora and my sword styles are Rock with a bit of water.” I gave him my status tag

“Mhm….” He took it and checked it. The display board changed as it revealed my name and stats. His eyes opened as he checked and double checked them to make sure they were right,

NameClover AuroraRaceHumanGenderMaleAge11Level22Health4680Strength421Endurance412Dexterity394Agility401

“Holy crap those are some insane stats!” The crowd had reformed and were looking intently at the signup board.

“That must obviously be fake there’s no way someone would have those stats…” Another person chimed in.

“Why on earth is this scary child even joining our sword tournament?”

George gave me my tournament pass and waved me away.

Emi was the last one to go up, there were murmurs in the crowd,

“She’s so pretty, is she going to be insanely strong as the others?”

A shout from the crowd came up as a man ran in front of her and shouted, “Marry me!”

“Errrr no.” Emi who although looked old for her age was still inexperienced and obviously embarrassed and surprised at being randomly proposed to on the spot. She walked around him and continued to the signup table.

“Name and Style?” Poor George was a bit depressed at the sight of us.

“Emilia Rassi errr, Water Style a bit of rock.”

“Status Tag.”

“Oh yeah here.” Emi gave her status tag, she was obviously still a bit nervous at being around such a massive crowd who were all obviously intent on watching her.

NameEmilia RassiRaceHumanGenderFemaleAge12Level24Health4540Strength360Endurance382Dexterity432Agility416

The crowd tirelessly again gasped looking at those stats in awe of how strong she was. I had figured out that our stats were this strong was aided in the fact that our swords were equipped and were giving us a massive stat advantage.

We walked off trying to ignore all the stares we were getting. A few of them tried to follow but we lost them in alleyways as we made our way home.

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