Two weeks later. . .
"I have decided, I shall be living a life in seclusion for the rest of eternity." Akiol suddenly proclaimed.
Jarvis asked, "Where did this come from?"
"I'm tired of having hospital visits."
Akiol was recently discharged from the hospital. His arm was tightly wrapped in a cast, and he was instructed to do his best not to move his arm. Several surgeries were needed, so it took a while before he could be sent home.
Tilia laughed, "You tend to injure yourself quite a bit."
"The difference is, there is no healing magic here."
"This is true, so healing isn't going to be an overnight thing."
Akiol leaned back in the car seat as Tilia drove them home. As he examined the view through the window he asked, "So how is everything?"
"They're still cracking down on Withered Oaths, we have a twenty-four hour surveillance on our house just in case. Your sister is slowly recovering from the trauma. While it isn't a smooth outcome, it's better than some of the alternatives."
"Can't argue with that."
Jarvis looked back from side passenger seat, "So what are you going to do now?"
"Live life in seclusion."
"Give me a proper answer please."
"Don't know, probably the same I was doing. Play the game and live."
Jarvis nodded, "I'd figured you would say that, though it sounds depressing."
"What do you mean you figured that I would say that?"
"Don't worry about it. Check this out though."
Jarvis passed Akiol a phone, on the screen was a forum post from the developers:
-That time again! The Professional Competition!-
Many have asked, now that the majority of players reached Level 250. . . where is the Professional Competition? Yet this question remained unanswered for a long time.
Well no further! We are here to announce to second ever Professional Competition! However this time it's different.
Before players would match up via queue in the menu. This was a rushed feature, something we didn't like. So we tweaked it a little.
By a little we mean we revamped the whole system. If you want to participate you must register at your nearby Kingdom! There will be a specific place for you to do so. Once assigned there will be set times for the preliminaries. If you have any specific questions about this a receptionist would be happy to answer your questions.
Now time for the big reveal, once you somehow managed to pass the preliminaries you will be invited to the Professional Competition!
Sounds ordinary right? Perhaps you're thinking, 'This was already a thing!'
It may seem ordinary, but the Professional Competition will be held in an official building! We decided to call it A World's Arena.
(Tickets available soon!)
That's not all, I'm sure many of you do not wish to pay money to visit a large building to watch the battle on a screen. Good news! You won't!
The battles will be shown in the latest hologram technology! That's right! You will see the fights, in real life, in 3D!
Yet of course tickets are limited, so we have some extra deals for some of you who may be unlucky. Here are our packages:
•The Physical Seat - You will be in A World's Arena physically. Seeing the fight with 3D holograms!
The Spectator Seat - You have a special camera in the virtual world (or computer one!) to move about during the fights. This won't affect the contestants of course!
•The Virtual Seat - You will be granted access to a special viewpoint inside the game! This viewpoint has different settings. But you can (almost) be there in person!
Finally, for those who do not wish to spend any money on this, the official livestreams will still be available for free. Feel free (pun intended) to join and cheer for your favorite team or player(s)!
The preliminaries will be starting in two weeks! Make sure to prepare thoroughly! We wish luck and fortune to all of your journeys, and we hope to see you in A World's Arena!
-End-
Akiol scrolled up and looked at the date of post. It was posted exactly a week ago. He then handed it back to Jarvis, "So how is it going down this time?"
"Tilia can take over from here."
Tilia checked her surroundings as she answered, "They are holding around the same format as last time. There is the Guild battles, both singular and team variants. Then there is the public one. There are three different variants this time. Solo, of course. Trios, which was surprising. Then team of six. . . Apparently the next one will be Duos, Quad, and Tens."
"Six? That seems a little convenient."
"I also thought it was strange, as do many players. So what do you think? Are we going to participate this time?"
"I like the sounds of it. How long is the registration?"
"We still have three days before it closes."
"Nice, wait what is today?"
"The twenty-seventh?"
Akiol sighed in relief, "Good, my meeting is on the thirtieth."
Jarvis asked, "Meeting?"
"With someone from the game, having to do with the incident with our first encounter with Rygeth."
"Ah."
"So what's the plan?"
Tilia pulled into the driveway of their house, "Plan? That's your job."
Akiol made a face, "Fair I guess, call a meeting. I have some information that I want to know first."
"In-game?"
"Yeah."
. . .
Akiol logged in only to be immediately bombarded with questions.
'Where have you been?!' -Stars
'I thought you were gone for good!' -Givale
'I don't know about this emotional dragon, but I knew you were coming back. Just why did it take so long?'
'Excuse you? You were pacing about more than I!'
'Delusional.'
Akiol closed his eyes, what a way to return.
Givale stopped the arguing first, 'It has been forever! I am starving!'
Akiol suddenly remembered that Givale hadn't eaten in six weeks. He immediately felt bad but couldn't help but ask, "Are you okay? Normally people die for not eating that long."
'Dragons can go months without food. . . We can use mana to replenish our energy. I was doing so until you returned.'
"So why do you need food?"
'Better option. While mana can keep us alive we cannot live off of it forever. We all need something to eat. I think the old ones go years without eating though.'
"Alright I'll give you a quick meal. I have some things I have to do real quick. Then we'll get you a proper meal, that sound okay?"
'Sounds good to me!'
Akiol teleported back to Chalkworth and bought some quick snacks off of multiple vendors. Stars sent these into his world, in which they were consumed by Givale in a heartbeat.
Akiol then went to his house and opened the doors. Sitting on the couches the party slowly quieted down.
Akiol walked over, "We have some briefing to do everyone. Kan'na if you would please."
Kan'na created a small magic circle and sent it off. It expanded into a rectangle and turned white. It was a magic version of a whiteboard, almost completely useless.
Akiol merely had to manipulate the mana a little for it to change color. Allowing easy writing and erasing.
Akiol stood in front of the whiteboard, "The question is, are we confident in our current strength."
Wrock answered this, "I would say so, I feel like our strength is definitely amongst the top of players."
There was no disagreement so Akiol wrote on the board: Things to works towards.
Akiol continued to write, "Regardless of our current strength there are still several things we can improve or aim for."
Akiol double underlined a phrase, "Number one, the unknown. Abilities in this game are far more vast than from our world. With strange assistance in casts we usually are incapable of figuring out what they are going to do. So we need backup plans many dangerous hypothetical situations. Preferably an singular omniscient one."
Yielya spoke up at this point, "Honestly I think my War Sight could be that backup plan. Being able to get anyone out situations sounds like an option."
Akiol nodded, "Yes, but is the inventory available during the competition?"
Tilia shook her head, "No, only your current equipped items are allowed to be used."
Akiol continued, "Exactly, there is no guarantee that there may be anything to switch with. What if we are battling on an unbreakable platform? What would you use then?"
Yielya pondered, but came up with no immediate answer.
Still Akiol continued, "Next, I feel like some upgrades are needed for some of us. Especially in equipment. I know Wrock is still using that pair of gloves."
Wrock defended himself, "Hey man, the effects are simply too good to pass up."
"Mainly because we haven't found anything that can replace it. Wait, why haven't you upgraded them?"
"I need a material that they were made from. I don't see any Land Guardians made of disease anywhere."
Akiol shook his head, "Why didn't you ask? It dropped one when we fought it."
Akiol dispelled the material and tossed it to Wrock.
Wrock caught it and put it in his inventory, it was a bit disgusting to look at.
"Next. . ."
The party continued to plan out their goals before the competition. They planned on taking this a little seriously.