Looking back on his speech, it may have been a bit much. Who uses "hear ye, hear ye" anymore? Sure, it fits the contexts of the competitions, but seriously? He sounded more like a nerd than a leader. Then again, he was a bit of both.
Still, the message was out and the important information was there. He'd announced the events, location, place and the name of their guild, so it should be pretty easy for people to find them. He just hoped that that "guild wars" function wasn't going to pop up at all. The last thing they needed was for more humans to die in a pointless war.
As Jay stepped away from the crystal, its previous glow dimmed slightly. Toromir had told him it should work a couple times before it stopped working completely, so it kind of made sense it would physically indicate that decline. Jay set off to improve himself for the competitions now that his official guild-master work was done.
His focus was largely on magic, but Jay planned to compete in all three categories. His swordsmanship was nowhere near the level of most of the guards, but he could hold his own. It was the other two categories that Jay expected he'd have a good chance of winning. If Silver showed the same strength he had in the dungeon, even Addy and Bluejay might have difficulty beating him.
And as far as magic went, few were as capable as Jay was. He had the greatest versatility out of any mage he'd seen. He could use fire, earth, water, lightning, healing, metal and some basic shadow and light magic. Although the last two evaded him a bit more, the next most versatile mage was Kyle.
Kyle's ability to use water, earth, shadow and healing magic could be tricky and his control over them may even exceed Jay's own ability, but the elements he lacked were the ones that Jay was best with. Lightning ignored defenses better than any of the others so far, and metal let him modify his armor in the middle of combat, blocking attacks or striking back. Light magic wouldn't be particularly helpful, but he had it, at least.
In order to hone both of their skills, Jay spent much of his time practicing with Kyle. Both were eager to show their worth and they improved by leaps and bounds. Jay's manipulations became easier and stronger, while Kyle's mana costs went down and his damage went up. With daily meditation and frequent meditation between their bouts, both of them had insanely high mana recharge rates.
In short, they were ready to kick some butt. After about 2 weeks of this, Jay went to ask one of the guards for some tutoring. He'd have asked Pete, but Pete had a…unique fighting style. His tutor, whom he lovingly referred to as "devil-man Mike", had a simplistic but effective style. There was nothing complicated about his movements, but they worked wonders. A week worth of training couldn't make him a truly great fighter, but it did give him a shot at making it past the first round.
Jay's last week was spent exclusively with Silver. He tried all sorts of things: telepathy (didn't go so well), verbal commands, hand signals, and trying to get Silver to turn big again. Silver's combat abilities were already top notch, but he never got bigger than a lynx in the week Jay spent with him. Maybe it was a life or death type of thing, but Jay would just need to wait and see how his pet did in the competition.
Of course, Jay's friends were plenty busy too. Pete had been battling more and more monsters, slowly venturing out of the safe zone they'd established. He'd come back mostly okay, but his adventures were incredibly dangerous if his tales were to be believed. Scars and cuts lined most of his visible body, only disappearing when a healer took him aside to fix him up.
Kyle, in Jay's absence, had grown even better with his magic. He'd even picked up a new staff from the store, though Jay wasn't entirely sure how much it improved his stats. By day he'd practice his water, earth and healing magic and by night he'd practice shadow magic. Sometimes he even mixed them into incredibly constructs. Layers of healing magic would lace his body in a secondary armor. Mud traps suddenly appeared in front of him, submerging an imaginary foe.
The best one that Jay had seen, though, involved all three of those elements. At first, it'd seemed that Kyle had simply made an earth armor over his actual armor. Until be broke part of it, that is. Stone flowed like water to fill in the hole, instantly repairing the breach. It was probably pretty mana intensive, but it was crazy impressive.
Sarah and Andrew had kept busy as well. Sarah had learned to utilize her new cloak regardless of the time of day. Arrows flew from all directions, all of them hitting dead center on the various training dummies they'd managed to make. Fortunately, she'd decided to withhold her elemental applications or else most of them would have been destroyed.
Andrew was doing much the same as Jay had done with Silver, except with notably more success. Thanks to his class, he was able to communicate freely with his pets, watching their backs and helping them dodge attacks they couldn't even see coming. Jay imagined his greatest issue would be his pets trusting him, but they seemed to trust him wholly and completely with their lives. Even the new Shadow Cercopes and tiny Light Beetle did exactly as they were told. It was actually pretty frightening.
And on top of all this training, the entire guild was learning magic. Water cores were distributed like candy and healing cores became the second course of most meals. While they only had enough shadow and light cores for a few individuals, those numbers were growing every time Jay's party entered the dungeon. By the time that the tournament was set to start, nearly the entire guild had at least 3 types of magic. Not everyone took the classes those cores offered, but at least they had the magic.
After weeks of waiting, entrants began arriving. Some were holed up in lower level areas, living in fear every moment and desperate for a safe place to live. Some had thrived in those same areas, boasting levels up to 5, 6 or even the occasional 7.
Some came from further away, having established or found their own safe zones where they were able to gather and take on dungeons. Those were typically the strongest of the groups, prizing entire parties of level 6, 7 and, on one occasion, a level 8.
Before long, nearly 100 extra people were residing on guild grounds. Some immediately joined the guild, merely seeking sanctuary from the harsh reality of their new word. But the majority came to compete for the mysterious prizes mentioned in Jay's broadcast.
When they learned of the nature of the prizes, most groups became quite excited. It seemed many groups had struggled to realize they could learn magic, so there were few mages and they tended to be lower levels. As such, a weapon with as much utility as the prize was well sought-after.
It also meant that Kyle and Jay were shoe-ins for the magic final. Some competent mages showed up and Jay couldn��t help but wonder what magics they might use, but none of them were anywhere near his level.
That is, until a particular trio showed up. They wore gleaming silver armor and brandished weapons of all three styles. The first looked like a powerful knight as he rode in on a unicorn with a sword in one hand and a kite shield in the other. The second held a hand crossbow with another across his back. His mount was smaller and less majestic, but he looked fierce all the same.
It was the last one that held Jay's attention though. Her figure showed prominently through her beautiful armor and her blonde hair and green eyes somehow went perfectly with the reinforced robe she was wearing. An obsidian-black wand graced one hand, while the others held the reins to a young green dragon. Put simply, she was breathtaking. And she was level 10.