‘DRINKS FOR EVERYONE’

The moment It said 'claim your reward', a pink holographic diamond appeared before me. I reached out to feel it but the moment my fingers touched it, it vanished.

"Congratulations victor,' said the AI.

Then the rink returned to normal with that ring hovering in its middle. The crowd dispersed since the show was over, returning to their previous engagements. Fargo laid on the floor before me, it seemed that he was dead because he wasn't moving. But I could see his chest moving.

"You alright there champ?" I asked.

"Shut up," he mumbled in reply.

I walked up to him. "Hey you actually put up a good fight, that was fun."

I stretched out my hand to him to help him up, but he rejected it, pushing it away.

"I don't need your pity human," he replied, standing up by himself. "What I need are my power stones back."

"Power stones?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

He looked at me with his eyes wide. "Huh? That's a joke right?"

My eyes rotated, I turned my head looking around, then I looked at him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I replied.

"What the hell did you think Caldoran is about?!" He held his head in frustration. "Argh shit, you've gotta be kidding me, I lost half my power stones to this bozo?"

He grumbled under his breath, getting out the rink and walking away with a nasty glare at the floor. Zeno and Ezekiel watched him walk past them, they couldn't help but laugh. The gun he held prior to the fight dragged through the floor leaving a screeching echo in the silence behind. I approached the laughing duo, shrugging.

"You did that to piss him off, didn't you?" Ezekiel asked.

"I didn't think the Power stones were actually gonna be taken, if I did, I wouldn't have agreed to the fight in the first place."

Of course, there was a spec of lie in that sentence…I knew exactly what I was going into. But I didn't agree to the fight in the first place, I was forced into it.So losing his stones was all on him. Maybe that was the major reason he was pissed—losing to a guy you challenged, who didn't have any clue how the game worked. Ezekiel's laughing dropped gradually, he hit the table clearing his throat, then he said;

"Pull up your system son, I gotta see how much he lost this time."

This time? Well it seemed Fargo had a reputation. Zeno said he had a habit of challenging newcomers of the bar and always won. That's until he challenged my dad twice and lost almost all his power stones. Ever since then, he's been losing at every game he initiated, and still he never stops, an addiction. Kind of like gambling.

I activated my system. Right in the middle of the usual options there was a hovering chest, it felt like one of those ads you see when you're scrolling through the internet on your Bandphone. Under the chest was the word 'new notification' . The moment I tapped on it, a notification folder opened up, showing me three new messages.

[UPDATES]

You've gained five thousand power points

The Silencer and the Cosmo Shooter has been added to your ability arsenal

You've gained new skills

This was a new development. It felt odd to me that the notifications didn't appear when I defeated Shilois and other magnificent creatures. The Keeper explained that it only appeared whenever I achieved power stones greater than three thousand and also when I defeated the boss of any arena species. And, as experienced, it also appeared when I defeated other knights and guardians, in or out of Caldoran.

"But you should never attack a Knight or Guardian outside a game of Caldoran," he added.

"Is that some kind of law or something?" I asked.

"It's the code of the arena," Ezekiel replied, pouring himself a glass of what he was drinking. "If we begin doing that in the arena, many knights will die, and in turn, the Arena will become desolate and collapse. The safe haven of the knights will be gone."

"So the code protects the Arena?" I asked, taking a seat.

They nodded in reply. Zeno, poured me a drink and shifted the glass towards me.

"It's on the house," he said.

I smiled, holding the glass up, then my eyes returned to the system screen. The Silencer was probably the axe used by Fargo and the Cosmo Shooter was the gun I used. Now I was in possession of both, which had me thinking; 'what exactly were the rules of this Training Arena? Ezekiel had barely told me anything and it was my third day in the arena. Heck, all I knew was that you got pixels from defeating creatures and those pixels are then converted to power stones. Power stones which you could use to unlock the abilities in your system.

And now I'm learning that you could also get half the amount of power stones knights and fellow Guardians had just by defeating them in a battle, a game called Caldoran. Somehow I knew there was still much to learn, and then there was this thing about getting weapons too? As spoils of the game you just won.

"There's a lot I don't know about this place," I said, pushing the drink down my throat. "And your teaching skills are slow and poor, Ezekiel."

He exhaled, pouring another cup of Asmat. "One step at a time young blood."

"Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say," I replied, yawning and asking Zeno to pour me another. "One step at a time won't get us the power stones we need for that ability I need to unlock."

Ezekiel sighed, resting his head on the counter. He stared at me and I stared at him.

"Maybe this would help," Zeno said, pulling up a dusty old book the size of a dictionary.

"Homework?" I replied, squinting my eyes at the book.

"Did you get that from the Royal Library in the north?" Ezekiel asked.

He nodded.

"Yeah, it was sent here by my brother, Ik," he replied, raising the book up. Then he read the title aloud. "'Chronicles Of The Guardians,' writer unknown."

"Cool title," I replied, my face flat on the counter. It was obvious my Dad and I were getting drunk.

"It's yours," Zeno replied. "The first half tells everything you need to know about the Arena and the origins of all the guardians before you."

"Hmm," I yawned, pouring myself another glass of Asmat. "Awesome bro, thanks."

"The other half of the book seems to be in a language even the guardians can't re—"

"Yeah, yeah," I interrupted, waving my hand after taking a gulp of my drink. "How many power stones for this drink?"

"Um, three?"

"Hmm, what are there, like twelve people in here?" I asked getting off the chair and looking around.

"A hundred and fifty," he replied with furrowed brows.

"Nice," I smiled in my drunk stupidity. "Hey! Drinks for everyone! Bill's on me!"

The Keeper exhaled with a facepalm.