Enchark: An unexpected modification and a celebration

"Tourney participants," a broadcast of Councilman Kyanar appeared in Karlyle's sight, "due to a fault in the enchantments which run the tourney, we will have to extend the tourney duration from one week to one month."

"What?!" Karlyle shouted in response.

"The next round will occur in a week, we will see you all then. Make sure to train hard and win!"

The broadcast ended and Karlyle turned to Mimi.

"What does that mean?"

"Hold on."

Mimi's vision was bombarded with notifications about alterations to the trainer program alongside congratulations about her trainee's victory.

"It means you're going to have to train a lot, everyone else will definitely be doing that and you can't fall behind."

Foster interjected even though he also had a frenzy of changes to his work schedule. As an Elite corps member, he had to be on duty more often when the tourney was being hosted.

"Yes, Foster is right."

Mimi kept having to close notifications so she was still too occupied to make eye contact with Karlyle.

[Arkana Network tourney mode deactivated]

The spinning circles reappeared for a moment and then were overwhelmed by congratulating notifications from spectators and other tourney participants. To not seem arrogant, Karlyle willingly sent back congratulatory messages alongside a series of 'Thank you's.

"Can we still celebrate today?"

Karlyle closed all the notifications quickly using the mass reply feature which showed up alongside the messages. His minor ego shattered when he realised the other participants most likely used a feature similar to it.

"Of course! Where do you want to go?"

"Maybe some sort of restaurant or something, I'm hungry."

Foster spoke up after reviewing his new schedule, "alright then, restaurant it is. I'll pay."

Mimi nudged Karlyle's arm and whispered, "let's order a lot of food then Lyle, Elite corps members get paid a lot."

Foster chuckled at Mimi's devious plan he managed to overhear. She wasn't lying though; the Elite corps was the third highest-paying group in the entire city and Chief Lissandra Waltz was the tenth richest person in the entire realm. However, the richest throughout the cities was the high priestess of Arkphis. The council weren't included in these statistics because they don't bother with finances and technically have no money since everything is free to them.

The trio went to a nearby tavern for food. Though the city had multiple futuristic elements, it still kept to its rustic charm when it came to the general population. The inside of the tavern was illuminated by candle chandeliers. The chandeliers themselves were made of gold and had multiple varying gems attached to them which refracted the light, creating rainbows all throughout the building.

"How can I help you?" The staff member behind the wooden counter asked the group as they entered, visibly tired and annoyed.

"Are there any seats for three?" Mimi replied with a smile. Her contagious joy spread to the grumpy server and slightly lifted his mood.

"Yeah, in the corner over there."

He pointed to an empty booth at the left side of the tavern.

"I'll be with you soon, there's menus on the table so prepare your orders."

As instructed, the party went over to the booth and sat down. Karlyle sat alone while Mimi and Foster sat together opposite to him. They picked up the menus and read them, trying to find what they want to eat.

"Hmm I think I'll take grilled prawns with a side of pickled lemons and some heaberry juice."

"Juice with grilled prawns?"

Foster was taken aback by Mimi's weird pairing.

"If you never tried it, don't judge it."

"I won't," he raised his hands as a sign of surrender to the comeback, "I'll just take what I usually order. What about you Lyle?"

"Don't know, I have no idea what most of these dishes are."

"Try the golden nectar, shrimp, and kelp pasta. Apparently, it helps with concentration and has some mythological healing properties."

"It better be good."

"It's not like either of us is paying."

Mimi nudged Foster's arm with her elbow and chuckled.

"Now I'm only paying for Lyle and myself."

"WHAT?! Oh, wait you're joking. Right...?"

"We'll see when it is time to pay."

Mimi's face dropped. If Foster was honest about not paying then she better watch what she orders. She slightly slid down the seat and pouted. The server they previously spoke to came over.

"What do you guys want?"

"Grilled shrimp with a side of pickled lemons."

"Golden nectar, shrimp and kelp pasta."

"Roasted chicken thigh and two slices of heart-apple pie."

"Hey! why not three?"

"Not paying for you also means not ordering for you."

Crossing her arms, Mimi went completely silent.

"Any drinks?"

Mimi muttered her response, "I'll take water."

"Thought you were getting heaberry juice?"

Foster got no response from her. She fell to his bluff.

"Well, he and I will take heaberry juice."

"It'll be with you soon."

The server wrote down their orders on a notepad and walked away from the booth towards the kitchen door. The group started to discuss the tourney after Mimi broke the vow of silence she made in her head. The server came around with their drinks and Mimi started to establish the schedule Karlyle must follow for the next month.

"For any day there is no round, you have to train a minimum of 6 hours total without me and 2 with me."

"Isn't that a bit much?"

"If anything it's not enough. Now, on the day of each round, you have to train for 4 hours, take a break, and then an hour before the round starts. If you win the round we will celebrate, otherwise, you will have to train more."

"Oh god."

"Don't worry, now that I got some insight into your next opponent, we can adjust our battles to that."

"So what do they do?"

"His name is Owen Reed. He wields flyrokinesis so he can manipulate forcefields. However," she took a sip of her water, "his forcefields are unusual. They have strong resistance, which is common, but when damaged, instead of shattering or cracking they tear and stretch."

"That might be annoying then since I can't do that much blunt force damage."

"Yeah but I guess you can melt them. They don't seem so resistant to heat."

"How do you know?"

"The girl he fought had geo-thermokinesis and her magma quickly melted them."

"My fires aren't as hot as magma."

"I know that, but they're still hot so you could probably melt them after a few hits or doing the same thing you did to Dakhyo."

The server came back with the food they order and placed it down. Foster distributed the food around the table, Mimi last.

"The pie you ordered was finished so a new one had to be baked."

Foster asked, "are they both from the same pie?"

"Yeah, is that a problem?"

"No no, don't worry about it."

A small grin appeared on Foster's face but it quickly faded away. Now that there was nothing else to discuss, the server walked away to take care of the other tables.

The group quickly started to eat their food. Karlyle was shocked at how good the recommendation was, especially since it didn't sound the best to begin with. Mimi ate like a starved person. If she was paying for it, then everything on the plate will be eaten. Foster ate his food slowly, mostly playing with the fork and knife in his hands.

"Hey, Mimi, Karlyle's estimated rankings should be published by now."

"Oh, right! Let me check. Arkana, open the trainer module."

[Welcome, trainer Rivera]

[Trainee: Karlyle Montgomery]

[Trainee Rankings: A, B, B, A+, B+, A-, SSS+]

"Ok so before I tell you this Lyle, you must remain calm."

"What is it?" He replied.

"You got one SSS+ ranking!"

"Really?!"

A mixture of joy and shock appeared on Karlyle's face, "In what?"

"I'm not sure, it doesn't say sadly but this is great! You have a very high chance of keeping your kinetic just from that battle."

"Congratulations Lyle!" Foster exclaimed.

All three of them hugged, reaching over the booth's table. Then they sat back down and got back to eating their meals, Karlyle was still visibly ecstatic.

"The rest of your ranks are a mixture ranging from B to A+ so we need to either keep them at that or raise them. As long as that SSS+ stays and the rest of your ranks don't go below a C- you're 100% keeping your kinetic."

"Can my opponents see these ranks?"

"Oh, no. Don't worry about that, only your trainer can see your rankings to prevent bounties from appearing on your head."

"That's great, but I seriously need to know how I got that. I mean, that fight was so quick and barely anything interesting happened."

"Personally, I enjoyed watching it," Foster cut in before taking a sip of his heaberry juice.

"Thanks."

Now that they were done with the main course, Foster and Karlyle got to eating their heart apple pie. Mimi's stare made everyone feel her jealousy and envy for the desert. Karlyle took a bite out of his slice and swallowed it, a warm feeling overtook his body as the pie travelled through his body.

"Damn this tastes so good, thank you Foster."

Foster also took a bite out of his slice and they interlocked their eyes.

He smiled, "no worries, you're welcome Lyle."