9 Competition

Everyone groaned at the word competition. They knew that meant only trouble for themselves, just like every other time the guild held some kind of event for members, they always received the short end of the deal.

Guild competitions are publicity stunts they hold ever once in a while to keep the younger generations enticed at the idea of becoming adventurers. If you signed a five year contract with the guild, you'd gain access to the gates without a fee and a chance to enter the competitions. Of course, the downside was the guild's sponsorship fee; a moderate percentage of the income was deducted from the orbs sold to them and only them. Adventurers couldn't sell the orbs to other businesses or people until receiving a kingdom issued license on their plate that they would gain from the end of the contract benefits.

That didn't stop Galahad from giving some of his orb portions to his dad as a form of rent to keep living at home. It was his was way of helping the family business save credits instead of constantly paying for overpriced orbs the kingdom or licensed sellers would offer.

"Listen, I wouldn't have signed us up if we couldn't gain from this. Today the guild is notifying all teams that two weeks from tomorrow; they will be hosting a competition for teams of six to eight in the dungeons. The competition will have the teams with the largest weight of mana orbs win a magic weapon."

Everyone's eyes lit up at the idea of obtaining a magic weapon. The tune suddenly changed once they found out a decent prize was being presented.

"Did they tell you what kind of magic weapon?" Mycroft asked excitedly. If it was a sword based weapon, they could train to use it and whatever powerful abilities it held. If no one could find a use for it, they can always sell the weapon to purchase some gear that was better than what they currently owned.

"They didn't specify, but I heard mention when I walked out. Somebody claimed they got a glimpse of it when the shipment arrived and it appeared to be a sheathed saber with possibly a ruby at the hilt."

The brothers were even more excited now, they were familiar with medium sized swords and saber training was a part of their arsenal too.

"Bah, What you really need is a good set of magical armor, not weapons." Interrupted a rather gruff looking man at a bar stool. His voice was carrying little too far and loudly, thanks to the ghost ale that nearly disappeared from his glass mug.

He spun around in his chair pointed at himself. "This chest piece *hiccup, is forged with shock absorbency. If not for that, I would have be killed by an elf archer's most powerful arrow years ago." He proudly finished off his statement with a suppressed belch through his nose.

The Bartender was rolling his eyes as he was pouring another glass for a different patron. He knew how often this guy would come in and try to share one of many stories about his encounter with an elf or the so called dragon he once fought.

Galahad was the only person to lock eyes with the drunken man, he was suddenly very curious about the details of the elf. "Where did you meet an elf?" He asked.

The gruff man puffed out his chest and drunkenly grinned from red ear to red ear. "Well someone is finally coming out and willing to admit that they want to hear about my great adventures."

That earned another eye roll from the bartender and now a few customers at the tables and bar. The drunken gruff simply ignored them and prepped the story for Galahad.

"About five years ago, I was taking part in a mercenary job in Moulford to flush out a convict who skipped out on his trial and bail. I had gathered some information that claimed he fled to a little safe house he built deep in the forest. The Greenhorn mountains of Moulford were a dangerous place, luckily I played it safe and managed to find his safe house nearly two hundred feet up the mountain side with no struggles at all."

Someone in another stool scoffed as they remembered him last week saying only a hundred and fifty feet to a pretty brunette that was high ranking potionmaker and clearly out of his league.

"The real kicker was that I found him dead three steps out the entrance of the hidden space on the mountain. He had a clean opening larger than a keyhole going completely through his skull." He brought a finger up to each side of his temple, gesturing the motion of an object piercing completely through.

"An elf had killed him?"

"Not just him, there were three other bodies inside the base as well as a shit ton of incriminating evidence."

"Did you actually see the elf?"

"Oh yeah, once I strapped all the bodies to a wheelbarrow, the tall and lengthy prick showed himself. He had already notched an enormous arrow at my head from a tree."

"He? How did you know it was a male elf?"

"Yeah a male, its hard not to notice when the males' average height is well over six feet tall."

"I see."Galahad suddenly lost interest once he confirmed it wasn't the same elf he was looking for, the man didn't seem to care and continued on anyway. The one he saw as a kid was most definitely a female elf, it was a longshot if they were talking about the same one, but the gender confirmed his doubts.

The older man finished on how clever he was to pull out a puffer-fire bomb and held it out to hold the forest hostage against the elf. He said that the elf killing him was a risk burning down the forest, going against the sacred duty of the elven race, but no one was truly listening at that point.

The chest plate he wore was not ever a part of the story, so the bartender didn't understand why that gruff man made such an odd point to tell his story to the group of young adults at the table. Though his thoughts stopped wondering after having to pour a few more rounds to his customers, reverting his mind back to profits and tips.

At that point, everyone finished eating and ordered local cheap brewed beer to drunkenly entertain themselves late into the night. Heath was the only one drinking for a reason without fun, after a few mugs into the cheap ale, he admitted that he attempted contact with Clatia that morning. She obviously told him 'no' in a harsh enough form that he wanted to forget about his failure earlier in the day.

No one at the tables consoled him for his dumb actions, they only commented on how he received exactly what was coming to him..

When the bells rang midnight, they all paid their own bills and stepped out of the pub with different levels of sobriety.

Galahad stumbled a little on his walk out the doors, but not nearly as bad as Heath, who was leaning against his brother for support. Mycroft promised to take his brother back to their apartment between hiccups, but quick-to-sober Victor walked behind them anyway to make sure they made it back, it wasn't his first time he watched a disaster befall them from a long night of drinking. He'd rather not get a earful from their mother again if she found out they slept outside again.

Rosetta and Trista lived in a house in the nearby Eastern district that a few other girls also roomed and split rent together. They offered to let Galahad crash on the couch if he needed, but he admitted to being almost as sober as Victor, so his walk home shouldn't have any problems and it didn't.

Crowds had spilled out of the dungeon after the shift caused another reset, so Galahad followed the flow of people and made his way to the familiar street corner. Everyone was chatting about the monsters they fought or the announcement about a competition starting up again.

Galahad made it home to the all the light crystals in the house and shop shut off for the day. His parents never really stayed up often unless he was in the dungeons. Those were the nights they planned for late night dinners like the day before.

After walking through the dark and empty forge, he grabbed a cup of water from the kitchen to take into his room on the final floor. He properly undressed in his room this time and began to check his credit balance on his plate.

The Vault of Etherite Credit Check

[ Balance: 1,682 ]

[ Savings: 34,243 ]

Select for more:

[ Request ] [ Deposit ]

[ Activity ] [ Help ]

Rosetta has gone earlier that to the guild building with an appointment to have the mana orbs exchanged for credits and then distributed the money between the team of six at dinner shortly after they discussed the competition.

He scrolled through his activity and saw over 400 credits deposited from yesterday. He would have earned a few more, but he took a portion of the mana orbs for his father and secretly Apharine. He would have earned at least six hundred credits like the rest of his teammates if he didn't hold onto the goblin mana orbs.

Just below the positive 400, he saw a negative 78 from the dinner and drinks. Along with a few other purchases throughout the week as well. Clothes, food, crystal shards, books, armor repairs, and snacks from the vendor booths all around town.

After a few more minutes of staring at the glowing crystal, Galahad let his eyes give in to the increasing droopiness to fall asleep. His dreams started to take over.

When he opened his eyes, he was once again up in the hills with a single tree. The scene was exactly the same as before. The black and white color scheme with only the blue rising through the tree.

"Oh cool, so I guess I get a do over." Galahad walked up the five beads growing along the trunk of the tree. Instead of manipulation the flow of mana this time, he inspected the entire tree base and saw nothing else that was significant.

After a few minutes of looking, he gave in to temptation and started touching the mana flow. It focused around his finger again and started moving along with him. Following the pattern as last time, tree caught fire and exploded just like before.

Galahad woke up with no new knowledge gained of his weird dream or what it meant. He tested his skills and felt no differences to them, so Thorne's description of a skill evolution was getting farther and farther from what he was experiencing.

The whole thing was a mystery he had no time to worry about since he needed to work hard before the competition in two weeks.