The Dwarven-Jura Ditch Games

“Hraaam…” I yawned as Petra and I walked toward the Dwarven-Jura Coliseum, to the east of the statue in the center of the capital. “I guess I didn’t get enough sleep yester night.”

“Oh shut up, you can’t possibly tell me you, the son of Pride, is afraid of the dwarf event.”

“Okay first of all, keep your voice down. According to a few of my sources, Pride doesn’t seem to have many friends—neither does your mother for that matter—so mentioning any relations to him is dangerous.”

“Alright, alright.”

“Hm, second…of all(?), aah whatever, I’m not afraid, nor nervous, nor anxious, I was just preoccupied.”

“Hm? Sure whatever, stick to the plan, right?”

“I know, geez, I go win the game, get gold, shut Aoyama the fu…dge, the fudge up, yada yada yada. All the while, you keep them from the event—since anyone willing to pay can watch, I’m sure Hana will want to watch it with some saved up coin.”

“Ruining the whole reason for the secrecy and the game, I also know.”

“Alright, we’re here.”

I announced as we arrived at the coliseum for the ‘ditch games’, though I didn’t get why it was called that. I would soon find out anyway.

We parted ways at the entrance, I entered and Petra left for Cray Zee’s Inn.

The coliseum was huge, so huge that the entrance seemed to stretch on for miles, in actuality it was about half a mile and that wasn’t even the main entrance to the arena but the signup room. From there, it took the same distance to reach the arena.

I wandered around looking for an empty sign up room since the four I found were packed with the maximum of four combatants already. After searching for about an hour, I went back to one of the busy rooms where I found three challengers. After joining them and signing up for the month long event; which was the ditch games of course, we —by ‘we’, I meant all the signed up event challengers and I— were directed to the briefing area of the coliseum.

“Welcome to the Dwarven-Jura State’s sixty third annual ditch games, my name is Bachniro Quartz, the owner, director and event planner of this, our great coliseum, and it is with much excitement that I stand here before you all today.” A stout dwarf stood on the stage in front of us while we sat on uncomfortable wooden chairs listening.

“Frankly speaking, this event isn’t really one of my favorites since it doesn’t bring much money. Every year, countless challengers go into the ditch and every year they all die. We do give warnings and such but greed is much greater than caution I suppose.”

“Oy, when will we get out of here? My butt’s killing me.” A random beastman asked.

“Ooh those, well it is the recommended waiting seat since the magic in them keeps you uncomfortable and on your toes. Any distinguished combatant would know this, are you sure you signed up for the correct event. We don’t need amateur deaths around here.”

“Ha ha ha…” Laughs from the others enveloped the room as they mocked him. After a few minutes, Bachniro continued with the briefing.

“Now then, we will need you all to sign these…” He said as some dwarves passed some papers around, two to a person. “The first is a non-disclosure agreement and the second is a non-accountability waver. In case one or a few of you survive the ditch, we’ll need you to keep everything to yourselves—keep in mind, they are death pacts.”

A death pact is a magical pact formed from ancient unknown, but probably demon, origins. It activates when the contract or pact has been broken and kills the responsible one instantly.

“And the second and most popular agreement in the ditch games, the non-accountability waver, is…well…I hope I don’t have to explain it.”

The waver was thought up a few years after the first ditch games began, when the rich cousin of a dead ditch challenger tried to sue the coliseum. The case went on for a few months before it was finally resolved when the coliseum paid the rich woman—who already had more than enough gold—the prize of fifty gold coins.

“Now on to the game’s rules. As some of you may know, the coliseum has a huge labyrinth of sorts built under it filled with different monsters. You will be dropped into the heart of the labyrinth at the start of the game.Killing the monsters for materials like fur or hiding from the monsters, both of these scenarios are acceptable.”

“I don’t know which cowards here are determined on hiding, but I hope they show themselves so I can smash their heads in right now.” A dwarf warrior said, prompting some discussions to spring up.

“Yeah, this ain’t no cowards mission, this is real.” An obnoxious looking mercenary voiced his thoughts to follow up. “Especially for the adventurers in here…” he turned toward me, “ain’t you s’pose to be adventuring? Run on back to your guild you lil pu—”

“Settle down! No interruptions till I’m done.” After waiting for the room to calm down he continued, “To survive means you found one of the three teleport stands that are down there, or you find another escape route. To win, you’ll have to take this necklace off the Boss of the Ditch.”

He pulled out a sheet of paper and passed it around. The necklace looked familiar but not familiar at the same time. I had a sort of photographic memory so not being able to remember the emblem on the necklace troubled me.

“It’s easy to spot since it’s big. You can’t take off the necklace until the boss is dead, because of a spell.”

“Where is the boss located? It’s not like there’s a map of the ditch.” A dwarf adventurer sitting behind me asked. He was glared at by a few mercenaries in the room but none of them said a word so he ignored them.

“From here, you are to head straight to the ditch when the gates are opened to you. For now, you can converse and get to know each other while you wait. Or… sleep or plan or something. Oh! And the answer to your question silver ranked adventurer guy, you’ll find out soon.”

With that, he was done with his job. He left the room followed by the four guards he had brought with him.

I looked around to find anyone smart who wanted to team up but I was a little surprised at the answers I got. Seemingly, most of the challengers didn’t come for the gold reward but the fame they would receive for conquering the ditch.

As I observed the majority and their behaviors, I noticed that they mostly had high-grade gear, of at least C class strength, on them. I couldn’t decide whether that was dumb or smart since I myself had equipped my full steel equipment. I had armor, weapons, masks and other equipment in various materials, like steel and wood, for different occasions. I kept them all in my personal space so I could swap out different pieces when needed.

I decided to try and form a team with the dwarf adventurer from earlier and found him in the top right corner of the room surrounded by some mercenaries.

I moved toward the circle of six mercenaries without hesitation.

They obviously identified the dwarf as the weaker adventurer of the three in the room, me included of course.

“Hey, is there a problem here?” I asked casually.

“Look at this, we got us a gold rank adventurer.”

“What do you want?”

“Are you warrior class?”

“Hold on boys…” The obnoxious human mercenary from before, possibly their leader, stopped them. “We’ll take care of you later, get out of here before things get messy.”

“And what if I refuse?”

“Hm, wanna act tough huh? Fool, can’t your dumb adventurer eyes tell you my rank?”

Now that you mention it…

I noticed his tight body shirt’s neckline humming a nice gold. Apparently, he was a gold ranked mercenary on par with any gold ranked adventurer.

“Sigh, that’s the problem with you mercenaries.”

“What?!” He yelled furiously.

I held up a finger to stop him in his tracks then continued, “You’re way too full of yourselves. I didn’t come here for them, are you alright?”

“Oh me? I’m peachy, just…peachy…” he answered as if drunk.

“What the hell is wrong with this one?” The mercenary leader continued.

But—

Of course—

I ignored him, “So I came over here to team up but if you’re busy I can come back later.”

“Hm? Well…teaming up sounds goooo….snort, huh? Oh erm…good, sounds good.”

“Well great.” I answered as I walked toward him.

“That’s it, kill this one.”

He gave the order, but the mercenaries hesitated. They couldn’t be foolish enough to try any violent acts in the dwarf kingdom, one of the most orderly, peaceful nations in the world. The guards in the coliseum were some of the most diligent in the nation as well. Any foolish act tried would surely be foiled swiftly.

The dwarf and I left the surrounding of mercenaries to find some seats in the center of the room. While we were leaving the mercenary leader kept calling out threats like “we are many and we are coming after you first” and “we’ll kill you in the ditch, then the boss”, but we ignored him again.

“So, what’s your name friend?”

“Hehe friend aye? Tze name’s Vorn, Vorn Nard.” He answered.

“You are not really helping against the stereotype, are you drunk?” I asked.

“Stereo wipe? Got me no sweario wipes ’n yes, I am drunk.” He answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Yeah any stupid person would fall for that, but judging by the lack of alcohol scent, your non-wobble walking, the question you asked earlier and the fact that you were surrounded and cornered immediately after the Bachniro guy left, I know that you are not drunk.”

“Alright, you passed the test, I’ll team up with you. You’d be surprised how many idiots stereotype every single dwarf as a drunk smelly midget.”

“Well I haven’t seen any short dwarfs since I got here so the other stereotypes were gonna follow quickly.”

“Haha! You’re a funny one, haa, haa, haa…”

“…So on to business?”

“Yes, of course. Tell me your skillset and I’ll tell you mine. It’s that simple.”

“Honestly speaking, I think it’s stupid to tell people about one’s skillset…”

“But?”

“No buts, its stupid.”

“Oh?”

“Well, I don’t have anything to fear from anyone in this room so yeah, I’m obviously a spell casting swordsman.”

“You are a very interesting fellow, I myself am a dwarven magician. Before you speak…” He interposed, “do you have a scar or something? What’s with the mask?”

“Oh, it’s part of my outfit. I don’t take it off for any reason, except when it’s beaten off me haha.”

“Hahaha, funny, funny. When I saw you from behind wearing a shirt, I assumed you were a mercenary as well but had taken out the gold or something.”

“Oh yeah…I know mercenaries are mostly known for their tight shirts and all, but I assumed the steel chainmail would give some information.”

We went on chatting for some time before the doors were opened by a guard.

“Follow me.” He said, then turned around and walked down the arena path. Everyone in the room got up and followed him quietly. We reached a huge gate that gradually started opening when we reached it. We were led to the arena in the center of the coliseum, a large space that was probably used for gladiators or something.

The total number of people in the room I was in was fifty. Together with the others from other waiting rooms, the total number of challengers was three hundred or so.

We were all led to a portable stage in the center of the arena. On the stage was Bachniro—even though he was around five foot eight—who…

…Now that I think about it, I’ve not seen that guy on the ground before.

“A few of you asked for guides and maps, well that is what we’re here to present to you. For just a gold piece, you could buy a map with all treasure routes, a straight route to the boss or the route with the most monsters. Eventually, all routes lead to the boss anyway.”

After waiting a few minutes while some challengers purchased the maps, Vorn came over to where I was.

“Why aren’t you buying any? Before you ask me the same question, I’m flat out broke.”

“Hm, I could also use that lie but I prefer to tell you a few reasons why I won’t.” He smirked at me knowing that I knew he was lying to me, “One, you never know who might be following you if when you follow a route. Two, someone could just knock you out or kill you and take your map. Three, there is no guarantee that the routes are legit.”

“Whoa, looks like we got a cautious one here; want me to call you Ryuuguuin? Ha, ha, ha!”

“Yeah I don’t get the joke.”

“Neither do I.”

“NOW THEN!”

Everyone turned toward Bachniro who was holding a green flag in one hand and a red one in the other. The guards ran out the gate and closed it behind them. Then Bachniro waved the green flag, which made me twitch but nothing happened.

A few seconds later, three magic circles appeared on the stage.

“I HOPE YOU’RE ALL READY, NOW, BEGIINN!!!”

With that, he waved the red flag then, like my premonitions were right, the ground disappeared and we all fell in—excluding the stage of course.

“Hollyyy Craaaappp!” I screamed as I fell. I activated my [Flight] spell but the ground had already reappeared and shocked me. I guessed it was a few spells put in place. The disappearing floor, then a strong four second gravity spell, followed up by a reappearing wall which became a ceiling and had a lightning spell attached.

“Hollyyy Craaaappp!” Again falling, I screamed again. A few inches from the ground, I activated my {Flight} skill. It saved me from some damage but not death. “Whoa this place is huge!”

I exclaimed aloud intentionally to wake up a few of the unconscious challengers. It failed so I went around looking for Vorn. I found him under a pile of dwarves and pulled him out.

As soon as he woke up, he started rambling.

“The ditch is genius. The fall is designed to kill weaker beings while at the same time incapacitating some other beings. Those with flight spells are definitely incapacitated by the shock before they drop. Those that come with potions have their potions ruined from the fall straight away. Some weapons or armor can also be a weakness since you could be impaled by them. The conscious ones can also kill the unconscious ones and take the valuable items they have or—”

“Snap out of it!—thwack” I slapped him back to a normal state.

“Huh? Oh uh…thank you”

“Don’t worry about it. Right now…” I turned in a really dramatic way toward one of the three entrances behind me, “we face the labyrinth…”

“You mean the ditch.”

“We face the ditch…”