1 The Long Awaited Day

"Ring ring"... "ring ring" I awaken to hear the loud and unforgiving ring of my alarm. Checking my phone I notice that I left myself a message reading, "Malek, tournament today. Good luck!". "Finally" I mutter to myself. "Finally I can get outta this dump and become a warrior".

I have been waiting for this moment my entire life. You see when someone decides to join the light empire's military force they don't get the glory of being a great and noble warlord of the highest class.

They become a lowly grunt.

The only way to rank-up from a grunt to the next rank up is to collect 50 stars and fight a trainer of the warrior rank which is the next rank up. For years I have been waiting, working my ass off, to become a warrior and join the ranks of the Light Empire to fight in the war against the Dark Alliance.

I get ready for my journey to becoming a warrior by grabbing my relics. I grab my two [Water Enhanced Dagger] relics as well as three [Berries] relics. Sadly after all of the work that I did at the farms of Klathron, the world where I live. I barely managed to make enough credits for weapons. The two [Water Enhanced Dagger] relics were all I could afford, but I made do with what I had and trained in my down time between work and dinner to enhance my reaction time and speed to be twice as fast as the average human almost as fast as the average snake-men. I also trained my strength to be four times as strong as the average human, making me just as strong as the average tiger-person.

Once I leave my home, I head towards the portal station in order to get to the spaceport of my home world Klathron. Once I get to the portal station I am surprised by my friends Wrog and Klooth, they congratulate me on my training and wish me luck for my tournament. "I'm gonna need it!" I exclaim, doubting myself. After saying my farewells I walk through the portal and enter the spaceport. The spaceport is large and filled with many ships. I start to search for a taxi ship heading to the hub world Etheria of the system Ethron which my home planet is in. As I am searching I notice an unfamiliar sight. In front of me lies a magnificent battleship built with two large cannons covered in the Light Empire's flag symbol. Speechless I walk towards it to see the pilot of such an amazing spacecraft but see that it is empty. A couple other people surrounding the battleship take notice of my awe and tell me, "That's Ren's ship." Awestruck I yell "The legendary Ren!" and I see them nod their heads. Ren was a captain in the Light Empire's military force, the 4th military rank. The strongest ranking soldier that my home planet Klathron has ever had. He is legend among the Klathronians for his rank. I am gutted that I could never meet such an individual but happy I get to see his battleship in all its glory.

After the encounter with Ren's battleship I find the taxi ship heading to Etheria and get on.

While on the taxi ship I read the tournament invitation email by using my wrist-phone to make sure I don't forget anything about the tournament. It reads, "Welcome! Grunts living in the Ethron system are invited to join the annual grunt tournament in hub world Etheria." I scroll down from the invitation part of the email to look at the rewards. Only the first 1000 people who register get into the tournament, out of those 1000 only the top 125 get 50 stars. That means that I need to win all three fights in order to get the 50 stars that I need to be able to try the rank-up challenge of fighting a warrior. I also see that if I win the first round I can receive 5 stars and the second I can receive 10 more. After reading about the rewards I scroll down to the bottom of the email. "Further information will be given at the event" I read.

After finishing reading I turn off my wrist-phone and prepare my mind for the tribulation that will soon occur.

The taxi ship drops me right off at the building entrance. The great tournament building!

I reach into my pocket to grab my relic that reads [Berries]. I hold it and say "Obtain" which causes it to fade away and replace the relic with actual berries. I eat them and feel revitalized with energy.

As I enter the building I am surrounded by people similar to me. On our badges, they read different numbers signifying our star-count. I walk to the waiting spot I notice a grunt rank with a whopping 62 stars. He has more stars then needed to become a warrior but likely isn't strong enough to beat the trainer of warrior rank that he needs to beat in order to rank-up. I feel a fluttery sensation in my stomach as I realize I might have to fight many people as experienced as him in this tournament.

Clenching my fist I wait for instructions.