Kyrie and Marcus had split up after visiting the Adventurer’s guild. After meeting with Commander Timothy, Kyrie and Marcus had gone to the Adventurer’s guild to set up the respawn point. Then Marcus had gone to the library while Kyrie decided to go to the arena to check out the Adventurer versus Adventurer scene in Opulential.

The arena was near the Northeastern part of Opulential while the Adventurer’s guild was in the center. The arena was approximately five kilometers away from the guild. It was a long walk. Kyrie considered taking a taxi but, in the end, decided to walk. She was only going to observe today. She will participate in the fights tomorrow.

As she walked, she looked around observing the people and the buildings of the city. From the map of Opulential, Kyrie could see that the city was constructed more or less in the form of concentric circles.

As Opulential was the capital city of The Gnome Kingdom it was majorly populated with gnomes. Kyrie could see other species walking around but the gnomes were the largest in number. Standing at about four feet tall max, the members of these little species hurried around their daily work as Kyrie made her way to the arena.

It took her about an hour and a half to reach the arena. As the structure loomed over her Kyrie drew in a deep breath and sighed, “Ah! Home sweet home.”

Kyrie looked at the board where the fights for the day were displayed. Besides the fights, the odds for the fighters were also displayed. Gambling in Adventurer versus Adventurer was legal, and many adventurers and non-adventurers took advantage of that to earn quick units. Match fixing was also done but Kyrie despised that.

Kyrie looked at the ranked matches and there were none for the day. There were only open fights. There were two types of fights for Adventurer versus Adventurer. Open fights were simply fights where adventurers tested their strength against each other. In open fights the adventurers mostly fight for money or experience.

Kyrie’s main interest was the ranked fights. Each adventurer is assigned a rank in the arena based on their Adventurer Rank, their level and their previous experience with Adventurer versus Adventurer. Then they need to challenge higher ranked adventurers to a fight. If a low ranked adventurer wins against a high ranked adventurer, then he jumps up to their rank and the adventurer who lost jumps down a rank. That was how you ranked up. If you lose three fights in a row, then you lose a rank too.

Kyrie registered herself in the level 21 to 30 bracket. It seemed that there were 10 level brackets for fighting. Made sense. Very high-level adventurers would make mincemeat of low levelled adventurers.

Kyrie checked her rank. She was at rank 323. She sighed. She would have a long way to go to reach rank 1. She hoped Marcus would be patient till then. This was now the true test of their team. They had found out in Sosquatch forest that they fought well together. However, she still did not know if Marcus would wait till Kyrie finished reaching to the top till, he started some quest in which they would both be required.

Kyrie went in to watch the fights for the day. She would check out the competition. It would be good. She even bet on a few fights.

She left the arena at night, when all fights were finished with a grin on her face and more units then she had. She had won 5,000 units after all. She checked a message from Marcus. It seemed that he had found a cheap inn for their stay. It was near the Southern part of Opulential.

Kyrie read the inn’s name. It was The Whispering Willow. Nice name. Kyrie groaned and started to walk. She had a long way to go.

***

Marcus and Kyrie were having breakfast. It was good. Marcus was thinking about what he was going to do today. He wanted to find out more about The Gnome Kingdom and Opulential was the best city to do that. He also wanted to get another spell. He wanted to research certain spells. He wondered what he should prioritize first.

Marcus saw that Kyrie was playing with her food rather than eating it.

Marcus asked, “Are you alright?”

Kyrie broke out of the deep thought she was in, “I am fine Marcus. I am just thinking about adventurer versus adventurer. Strategizing about my way to rank 1. Visualization helps. It is a form of positive reinforcement. I am going to have my first ranked fight today. Will you be interested in watching it?”

Marcus thought about it. This was an interesting offer. He had not seen an adventurer versus adventurer fight till date. He had been curious about it and he was sure that watching a live fight would be more interesting and informative rather than reading about it.

Marcus said, “Why not? Let me see what this adventurer versus adventurer is all about.”

Kyrie beamed at him and started to explain all about the rules and the ranked matches and stuff. Marcus half listened to it. He nodded to most of Kyrie’s explanation though. He did ask some random questions to show he was completely invested.

After finishing breakfast Marcus and Kyrie started off towards the arena.

As they walked Marcus grumbled, “We need a vehicle.”

Kyrie said, “Our first priority should be to get ourselves well equipped. The second priority should be getting good spells. The third priority should be getting rid of our debt. Then we can think of a vehicle.”

Marcus said, “I would rather go for a vehicle soon if we are required to walk this much. I mean initially it was okay. I was new to this adventuring world and I walked a lot for my quest in Solaris. But this continuous walking is getting to me. I mean walking occasionally is fine. Also walking would also be good in situations of stealth. But, daily walking. I think I would get grumpy very fast.”

Kyrie laughed and said, “Come on then Marcus. Think about how we can earn units fast. I mean the quests we have done till far have not given us any units, especially the major quests. I have won a decent amount in adventurer versus adventurer but it is still not enough. What do you propose we do?”

Marcus frowned at that statement. He said, “You know, Orin told me not to worry about units because as an adventurer I would be rolling in units. I do not see that here. Is there really a high paying quest available or are we supposed to have units just to survive?”

Kyrie shrugged. She had no answer for that. They walked in silence for some time.

Then Marcus said, “I have decided that I shall be joining the Librarians. It is a faction that makes sense to me.”

Kyrie did not say anything. They again walked in silence after that.

Then Kyrie said, “Give me time till I reach rank 1. Then I shall tell you my decision. Is that okay?”

Marcus nodded. It made sense to him. They reached the arena soon. Marcus was impressed by its size.

Kyrie said, “I am going to register myself for today’s fights. Get a ticket and go on in. Take pavilion seats. The daily pass is cheaper if you want to watch multiple fights. If you want to bet on some fights there are gambling booths. Go for any of them. They are mostly reliable.” She shrugged and said, “It is gambling. It is by default unreliable. You will do well. See ya from the fighting platform.”

Kyrie sat off to the left of the arena. There seemed to be a registration window for fighters where she was going. Marcus went straight. He could see the ticket window there. He bought the daily pass for the Western Pavillion. It cost 1,000 units. Marcus wondered how Kyrie considered that cheap. The Umaru lady at the counter gave directions for gambling booths if Marcus was interested and also the directions for the food stalls. Marcus thanked her and left.

Marcus was not interested in food as of now and so he entered the arena from the West. The seats of the Western pavilion were situated at the bottom of the arena, near the fighting platform. They covered a quarter of the arena space on the West. Marcus could see that there was also an Eastern pavilion and special closed viewing booths on the Northern and the Eastern side. Rest all were normal seats barring the entrance, exit and the pathways to the seats.

Marcus sat in the third row from the bottom and in the centre. The seats were comfortable, especially considering how hard the normal seats looked. Marcus received a notification and he opened it. It was the list of fights for the day. Kyrie was fighting two times that day. Hers was the second and the thirty sixth fight.

That was fast. Marcus saw a total of one hundred and twenty two fights for the day. Only ten of them were ranked. Others were open fights. Marcus got himself comfortable. He hoped he would enjoy adventurer versus adventurer. It was going to be a long day of watching fights.

***

Kyrie was in the waiting room. Her fight was next. The first fight was over and they would be announcing her fight. She was fighting the adventurer ranked 292. She read about him.

Callous Gallows

Gnome, Level 25

Health 140 / 140

Callous seemed to prefer twin daggers while fighting. It meant he was a close ranged melee fighter. He would definitely try and close in to Kyrie as soon as the fight started. Kyrie had to ensure that did not happen.

Callous’ fighting record was good. Before coming to Opulential, he had started in a town named Chivis. Kyrie had not heard of it. But then, Kyrie had not read much about the geographical locations of Umanahash. Maybe she should start spending some time on the Globalnet as Marcus did.

She shook her head and stood up. Her name had been announced. Kyrie exited the waiting room and walked into the arena. She looked towards the Western Pavilion to find Marcus sitting there, popcorn in hand. He waved at her when she entered. She smiled back.

As Kyrie walked towards the fighting platform, she looked around the arena. There was not much of a crowd today. It was still quite early in the morning though. The crowd usually filled up after lunch and most during the evenings.

Kyrie looked at the fighting platform. It was in the middle of the arena, about twenty feet away from the seats on each side. The platform was rectangular in shape and about fifty feet long and thirty feet wide. It was sufficient space for adventurers to fight.

Kyrie climbed onto the platform to find her opponent already present. He had arrived fast. Callous nodded once to Kyrie as he saw her and she nodded back. It was a sign of respect and Kyrie appreciated it.

Both the adventurers walked in the middle of the field. A gnome referee was present. The referee explained the rules and asked both the fighters to take their fighting positions. There was a line crossing the fighting platform in the middle. The fighters can position themselves anywhere on the opposite side of the line at the start of the fight.

Callous took his position, right at the line, in the middle of the arena. Kyrie chose a corner and readied herself. The referee looked at both of them and confirmed whether they were ready. Both Kyrie and Callous agreed.

The referee exited the fighting platform and stood on a small platform constructed specifically for the referee. The referee looked at both the fighters and then began the match.

Callous immediately rushed towards Kyrie, his daggers out. Kyrie smiled as she took aim with her bow and activated [Power Shot]. Callous thought she was attacking immediately and tried to dodge the attack. However, Kyrie knew he would be doing that. She immediately corrected her aim and fired.

The [Power Shot] did its trick. It hit Callous head on for 42 points of damage and made him stumble. Kyrie took this opportunity to fire arrows on Callous in quick succession. Before Callous could even reach Kyrie, it was over. His health dropped to zero and he was teleported out of the fighting platform. He would have been teleported to the waiting room.

Adventurers who died in the arena respawned in the waiting room of the arena free of cost. Kyrie smiled as she was declared winner. She was a bit disappointed though. This was too easy. As she had defeated Callous, her rank jumped from 323 to 292.

If most of the adventurers were like this, then she would reach rank 1 in no time. She went to her waiting room. Her next match would take time. So, she decided to join Marcus in the pavilion. As she walked towards the pavilion, she hoped Marcus would appreciate adventurer versus adventurer like she did.

***

Marcus said as Kyrie dropped down beside him, “That was fast.”

“Yes”, said Kyrie, “I am surprised too. I thought he would put up more of a fight.”

“Were your matches in Solaris like this only?”

“Yes, but Solaris is a starting town. Most adventurers are inexperienced there and so they are easy to beat. We are in Opulential now. Shouldn’t adventurers be more experienced here? I mean if they are at level 20 and above they got to have a certain number of quests in their belt. They would also have got a part of their major quest completed too, I assume.”

Marcus shrugged and ate more popcorn. He said, “I don’t think many of the adventurers here at levels equivalent to us have gone through what we have gone through.”

“What do you mean?”

“We have taken down two demon lords. It is true that we had help. I am pretty sure we would not have been able to take them down without help but we have taken down two demon lords. That is two more than ninety percent of the adventurers in Una I believe.”

“Only ninety percent?”

“Can’t really tell much considering the chatter on the Globalnet but I am pretty sure only ten percent of the adventurers have faced a demon lord till date.”

“And we faced two. And won.”

“I have a feeling that is why our adventurer rank went up.”

“I noticed it too. I do wonder how it goes up. There is no hint anywhere regarding leveling it up.”

Marcus paused as he ate more popcorn and said, “From what I have read on the Globalnet, our adventurer rank goes up when we perform major actions which have major consequences.”

Kyrie looked confused, “What does that mean?”

Marcus said, “There is not much information regarding adventurer rank on Globalnet. It does not have much impact for an adventurer. There are many adventurers who debate why it is there in the first place.”

Kyrie said, “Then we should not think much about it for now till we find out its utility.”

Marcus said, “True. Although I believe that currently we should view some matches. I find them interesting and entertaining.”

Kyrie grinned at Marcus. Marcus smiled back and focused on the match going on.

***

As the days passed, both Marcus and Kyrie fell into a routine. Marcus started to read up on Opulential, the Gnome Kingdom, the Librarians and spells he could buy. He asked around various magical shops in Opulential to get an idea regarding the spells. Kyrie had been right. They were expensive, the cheapest of them being [Mana Shot] at 10,000 units.

Kyrie on the other hand focused on getting to rank 1 in adventurer versus adventurer. From what Marcus understood, till she got up to rank above 100, she could challenge adventures 50 ranks above her. After reaching 100th rank, she would be able to challenge adventurers 10 ranks above her till she reached a rank between 11 and 15. Then she could challenge the top five.

How that worked was that Kyrie needed to challenge all five of them, starting from the 5th rank. She needed to challenge the adventurers. The adventurers needed to accept. Then the fight would occur in a maximum of two days unless there was an emergency or the adventurer dropped out of the fight.

Kyrie had told Marcus that the top five ranks would take time. The others, she would be done fast and she was not wrong. In two weeks she was ready to fight with the top five.

Marcus, in the meanwhile, had visited the library so much that he had been officially invited to become a member of The Librarians faction. Marcus had told the representatives that he needed some time because he wanted to wait till Kyrie reached rank 1 in adventurer versus adventurer.

In the meantime, he did some escort and fetch quests in the city. He also did some quests where he simply performed the function of a messenger boy. He did these quests to earn some units. Kyrie joined him in one or two such quests.

The quests he completed did not give him much experience but they did give him good units. Not a large amount of units, but sufficient for him to survive living in Opulential.

He went to watch each of Kyrie’s fights and bet on her winning. He did make a decent amount on betting.

By the end of two weeks both Marcus and Kyrie made some contribution to their debt towards NAIF. Marcus was starting to understand what Orin meant. If they did quests in the city, especially quests which gave them units, then they would be able to pay their debts off to NAIF. It was true that Kyrie would require quite a number of years though.

Another thing Marcus noticed was that there was a vice versa for experience and units while considering quests. Quests which gave units did not give sufficient experience while the quests which gave experience gave insufficient or no units.

Moreover, the split of experience was weird too. As Marcus and Kyrie had formed a temporary team, the adventurer system in Marcus considered them as a full fledged team. This meant that the experience that Kyrie earned from her adventurer versus adventurer fights was shared with Marcus even though he did not fight. Also the experience Marcus received from the small quests that he did was also shared with Kyrie even though she had not done the quest with him.

The ratio of experience sharing was also not consistent. Only units were given as per who received them. They did not directly get in Marcus’ inventory.

Marcus also bought another spell in these two weeks.

[Whirling Weapon]

Spins the weapon a foot away in front of your hands at a very fast pace. Deals continuous damage equal to half the attack power of the weapon to anything that enters the spinning weapon. Also acts as a form of defense from certain physical attacks. Spell duration of 30 seconds. Spell cooldown of 2 minutes.

Marcus considered this spell useful as he wielded a twinblade. This would make his twinblade attack powerful and also defensive.

Marcus had levelled up once from all the experience he had received. He had also gotten a reputation with Opulential and Order of the Golden Sun now. He checked his status.

Name: Marcus Blank

Race: Human

Designation: Adventurer - Rank 2

Age: 25

Current Location: Solaris

Adventurer Statistics:

Adventurer Level: 25

Experience: 240/640

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 20

Intelligence: 20

Vitality: 15

Agility: 14

Wisdom: 10

Luck: ???

Health: 130

Mana: 120

Active Effects:

None

Passive Effects:

Stamina Regeneration - Level 5

Well Rested - Level 2

Twinblade Proficiency - Level 8

Alcohol Tolerance - Level 2

Stealth - Level 4

Description: The anomaly has now become a better adventurer. With a little effort people may forget he is an anomaly after all.

Spells known:

[Enchant Weapon: Holy] [Whirling Weapon]

Spells Equipped:

[Enchant Weapon: Holy] [Whirling Weapon]

Spell Slots: 2

Physical Attack: 20

Magical Attack: 30

Physical Resistance: 11

Magical Resistance: 9

Critical Attack Chance: 7% (max 27%)

Critical Attack Damage: 15% (max 55%)

Status:

None

Social: 750/1000 (Neutral)

NAIF: 950/1000 (Neutral)

Solaris: 2300/4000 (Very Positive)

Nymphs: 2000 / 4000 (Very Positive)

Opulential: 800 / 1000 (Neutral)

Order of the Golden Sun: 500 / 1000 (Neutral)

He was happy with his [Well Rested] passive effect. It had levelled up to level 3 giving him slightly more experience gain then before. Kyrie had been jealous of this passive effect. She did not have it. Actually, Marcus had not met anyone who had this passive effect.

He had also gotten a good reputation in his Social section and Opulential section. He was happy with it. He had not done anything further for the Order of the Golden Sun other than informing them about the demonic activity in Sosquatch forest and it had earned him quite a reputation experience.

Marcus looked up from his book as he saw Kyrie. He was surprised to find her in the library.

Kyrie said, “It is tomorrow.”

Marcus grinned and said, “That is good. Who is ranked 1 again?”

Kyrie replied, “It is Cassandra Sharpleaf. She is an elf and wields a bow like I do.”

“Ooh!” exclaimed Marcus, “Ranged versus ranged. This could be interesting.”

“And tough”, added Kyrie, “I have heard about her. She is a good fighter. I have my work cut out for me.”

“Did you not have your work cut out for you when you fought other adventurers too?”

Kyrie gave him a short smack on the shoulder and said, “Cassandra is different. The other adventurers were relatively easy. She is going to be tough.”

Marcus did not say anything. They soon went to get dinner and turned in for the night. Tomorrow was a big day for Kyrie. Marcus hoped that she would win.

***

Kyrie looked at the information about her opponent again.

Cassandra Sharpleaf

Elf, Level 29

Health 142 / 142

Then she looked at her status.

Name: Kyrie Shiningstar

Race: Water Nymph

Designation: Adventurer - Rank 2

Age: 83

Current Location: Solaris

Adventurer Statistics:

Adventurer Level: 25

Experience: 350/640

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 29

Intelligence: 7

Vitality: 10

Agility: 20

Wisdom: 7

Luck: ???

Health: 120

Mana: 114

Active Effects:

None

Passive Effects:

Fast Draw - Level 5

Precision - Level 6

Longbow Proficiency - Level 11

Stealth - Level 10

Water Proficiency - Level 100

Description: The outcast traveller from Tarados, flowing into Una, taking huge steps now and sweeping demons away is still enjoying herself by bashing other adventurer’s heads. She is the water nymph to watch out for.

Spells known:

[Power Shot] [Fade]

Spells Equipped:

[Power Shot] [Fade]

Spell Slots: 4

Physical Attack: 25

Magical Attack: 22

Physical Resistance: 8

Magical Resistance: 6

Critical Attack Chance: 10% (max 20%)

Critical Attack Damage: 22.00% (max 42.00%)

Status:

None

Social: 970/1000 (Neutral)

NAIF: 1100/2000 (Positive)

Solaris: 2300/4000 (Very Positive)

Nymphs: 4500 / 5000 (Hero)

Opulential: 800 / 1000 (Neutral)

Order of the Golden Sun: 500 / 1000 (Neutral)

Kyrie noted that she was 4 levels below Cassandra and there was 22 points of difference in their health. This could affect her during the fight as she would have to attack Cassandra one more time then Cassandra needed to attack her.

Kyrie felt the butterflies in her stomach as she waited for her match in the waiting room. Her match was in the evening. As this was a ranked match for the 1st rank, her match against Cassandra was going to bring in quite a crowd.

Kyrie heard her name called and exited the waiting room to the fighting platform. Kyrie and Cassandra both reached the platform at the same time. They both smiled at each other when the referee told them the rules. Then they took their positions on the opposite corners of the fighting platform.

The referee initiated the match. Cassandra fired first and started running along the edge of the fighting platform. Kyrie dodged the arrow and shot back. At the distance that they were, both the adventurers had sufficient time to dodge each other’s arrows.

Kyrie started to move in and Cassandra did the same. They still dodged each other’s arrows but it was getting a bit hard as they got close to each other.

Kyrie dodged one of the attacks and activated [Power Shot]. Cassandra did not dodge immediately. She knew about Kyrie’s spell by now and waited. Kyrie shot the [Power Shot]. Cassandra dodged it but the arrow still managed to graze her dealing 10 points of damage.

First blood, thought Kyrie as she shot three more arrows in quick succession. One of the arrows hit, dealing 40 points of damage to Cassandra but one of the arrows of Cassandra also hit Kyrie, dealing 43 points of damage to her health.

Cassandra suddenly charged Kyrie and tried to punch her. Kyrie jumped back shooting an arrow. As soon as Kyrie jumped, Cassandra notched three arrows together and shot them at Kyrie. Kyrie twirled her bow fast but two arrows went past her defence hitting her. The arrow she had shot did hit Kyrie head on in the neck, a critical hit.

Kyrie was down to 33 points of health while Cassandra had 52 points of health remaining. That meant that Cassandra could defeat her with just one shot while Kyrie had to hit Cassandra twice.

Kyrie activated [Fade]. She disappeared from sight. Cassandra stopped moving but she did not lower her bow or the notched arrow. Kyrie had not used this spell in the rest of her matches and she was sure Cassandra would not know about it. Her assumption turned correct as she saw Cassandra turn slowly trying to find her.

As soon as Cassandra’s back was turned from Kyrie, Kyrie activated [Power Shot]. She did not make any noise and so Cassandra was unaware that Kyrie had just turned visible.

Kyrie shot the arrow and it hit Cassandra in the back. Cassandra’s health hit 0. She disappeared from the fighting platform. It was over. Kyrie had won. She was now ranked 1. It was at that time she heard the cheer coming from the crowd. She grinned and waved at her audience. She sought Marcus in the crowd. He always sat in the same place in the third row of the Western Pavilion. Marcus gave Kyrie a thumbs up as she looked towards him.

They celebrated that night. Cassandra also came to congratulate her. She had done it. Now, on to the next step. Now, she would decide on a faction.