The Forgotten Legacy

Shaun was sitting in one of the restaurants with Gabe and Eric, they only had a few hours before they were due back at the arena for the first day of fighting, the real start to this stage of the tutorial, and he was barely able to keep his frustrations to himself. Eric was the first to pick up on his mood, Gabe quickly followed when he had asked where he wanted to eat and he just replied back with I don’t care. He had spent over a full day reading the book on races, then rereading the book on factions. Had he learnt a lot, sure, but did he learn anything more on what he really wanted to know about? Not one bit. And that was the cause of his current mood. He had wasted so much time reading those books and he didn’t learn anything more about the Great War or what race his heritage was tied to.

They ordered food, which in all honesty was the best meal that he had ever eaten, it had been cooked by professional chefs that specialised in low tier meals. It was costing them about a silver coin each but it was definitely worth it, it even helped him cheer up a little. Shaun spent the time in the restaurant going over each of the major powers with them, giving them the rundown on what each did, what they focused on and who led them. They asked a few questions here and there, echoing the same shock as Shaun had when he started telling them about specific factions that were present within Earth’s myths, and when there was less than an hour before they were meant to be in the arena they all decided to head there early, not wanting to miss getting a decent spot. They had all worn their battle gear to grab food, just in case they ended up being in the first few groups to fight. There would be 100 fights a day for the next 5 days, 200 people would be up to fight their opponents straight away while the rest had to wait for their turns in the coming week.

He didn’t really care when he would have to fight, his plan was always going to be to read the last of his books and run the dungeon a few times, whether he ended up fighting his opponent first up or on the 5th day it didn’t make a difference. What he was more curious about was going to be how the faction representatives would interact with those of us who were competing, would it be done at the end of a fight or would there be some kind of mixer that they would all need to attend? Either way he had a general idea of the factions he wanted to avoid and those he really wanted to talk to, mostly whoever came from The Alliance.

As they walked to the arena, they were not alone, it seemed most, if not all, of the people in this stage of the tutorial had the same idea, get there early and try and get a good spot, in the end it was a pointless endeavour. When they walked out of the corridor and into the arena area they saw that their were spots marked out on the ground where each person was going to need to stand. It was formed into a triangle, where one point was practically right in front of 12 more prominent seats. Looking at each of the spots, it soon became clear why, the places where each person was to stand was marked out by not only name but ranking on the leader board, which put him at the very tip of the triangle.

Rather than go directly to his spot, Shaun stood around and spoke a bit with Eric and Gabe, nothing too interesting, just where they hoped they would fall in the fighting, whether they had a preference to fight first or last. They both wanted to fight towards the end of the week, each wanting to spend more time in the dungeons to keep levelling up. They had both taken another trip in the peak F grade dungeon, pushing as far as they could to help gain levels. They had both managed to gain 3 class levels, which was a good amount of experience considering they were only getting half of what Shaun would get as there was two of them.

When there was only about 10 minutes left before they needed to be in positions, everyone made their way to where they should be standing. He walked around to his spot, skirting the edges of the arena rather than walk through everyone, and noticed that most of those who had already found their position were watching him move. It was eerie, the way they all seemed to stare at him, he wanted to ask them what was so interesting but thought better of it. When he got close to his spot he caught Rodger’s eye and they nodded at each other, Louisa simply ignored him, while the others who were closest to where he was going to be standing eyed him up and down.

*Li Al Sal – Level 31*

Li was standing right next to Rodger and when he identified her he was pretty impressed, at level 31 she was only two levels lower than him, only one level higher than Roger.

*Vivenne Grace – 30*

Vivenne, being in the number 4 spot was the same level as Rodger was, but however the system had made the distinction between the ranking she must have just missed being in the 3rd spot. Neither of them spoke to him, or even gave him any acknowledgement, just stared for a minute, taking in everything he had on him, from his sword to the gauntlet as well as the lack of any other armour. Meanwhile he did the same, Li seemed to be a Magic type judging from the lack of weapons, although she did carry a staff, while Vivenne was definitely an archer type.

With Shaun taking his spot the top 5 were now all accounted for and in position, they only had to wait a few minutes before the show started and he decided that, when it came to the factions, he wouldn’t actively engage with them, if anything he would come across as polite, but not do anything to draw attention to himself any more than he had to.

The time came with a flash of light and Dijaun appeared again surrounded by sparkles. “Hello again my dear future champions and contestants in this battle royale! How lovely that each and every one of you made it here on time, and all in your correct places!” Everyone had gone silent as soon as Dijaun appeared, although Shaun now recognised what creature it was, a Jinn, and from what he had read they were a creature that could exist in human form but was mostly a spirit that was aligned with performative magic, however they were also known to be somewhat powerful in the way they could use illusions.

“Now, before we get started I am going to give you instructions as to what you will all need to do and what will occur. In a moment I will be signalling that all those who will be attending to watch the fighting that they may enter, after that you will see many different races appear within the seats, now this may be shocking at first but please, do be polite. Afterwards I will introduce some of our special guests to you all, those who will be seated in the main seating area behind me. These guests are from the major factions, however they may or may not wish to stay for all the fights, if any. Only then will I introduce the top 5 of you to the audience, giving them all an opportunity to see who is currently at the top of the food chain here, so to speak. After I shall show the line up of fights in the boards and we will start the good part of the tutorial. At that point everyone shall leave except those needing to fight straight away. For those of you with upcoming fights you will need to wait in the waiting area just through that corridor.” The Jinn pointed to one of the main exits to the arena, giving it a moment so that everyone could digest what he had said.

“At the end of each day, after all the fights have concluded, you will hear me announce that a little get together is going to take place in one of the closed off areas where any of our guests and viewers may invite you too come and join. That’s right, it will be invite only. But do not fret, you will be able to mingle with all those at the little soiree, and all will be given a chance to attend the feast at the end of the weak to celebrate the winners.” The Jinn paused then as everyone started to voice questions or exclamations on their feelings about these soiree and how unfair it was. “Enough! I didn’t ask for questions, thus I don’t care to hear them. You understand what I have said so live with it, or don’t live at all, your choice. Now I shall invite in our guests”

With that Dijaun raised his hands into the air and like that people started to fill the seats, he saw so many different races present that it was overwhelming, he didn’t try to identify them as a name would give him nothing and he doubted anyone here was going to be in the E grade. After a minute every single seat was filled within the colosseum except for the twelve directly in front of him. There was no noise coming from the guests, although he could make out some of them whispering to each other, too quiet for him to hear though.

“Welcome to all of our special guests to this showing of what could possibly be the elites of this new universe! Please let us give them a round of applause for making it this far!” This caused a very polite clapping to come from some of those present but for the most part all of the people were looking over everyone that was standing in the arena, assessing each and every one of them to see if any held any appeal to be recruited.

“Now may I introduce everyone to our major representatives, please let us welcome Polrias Iusrus from the Collective of Beastial Creatures, Wilaron Striden from the Creators Guild, Eurios from the Life's Union, Friosh from the Death's Legion, Quinter Light from The Holy Light, Drakunsher from The Nine Circles, Sleese from The Elementals, Octavius Dimentus from The Pantheon, Claude from The Unending Void, Alannah Druic from The Dynasty and finally Xavier Barshen from The Empire!”

Every time Dijaun introduced one of the major faction representatives the crowd cheered, some more than others. When someone from their own factions appeared they went wild, the rest of the time it was polite cheering. About half of the representatives were human, the only ones that weren’t was the demon from The Nine Circles who was purple in colour and had horns growing from his head, he was a huge, muscles grew on muscles, and he had talons growing from his hands. The Beast representative might have passed for human if it wasn’t for the hair, and fangs, and ears, and honestly most of his features. He was a shifter, that was clear, and he looked likethis was his humanoid form when not a wolf, although he could have been a hybrid. The Life rep was an elf, Death’s was a vampire, who smiled at them in a way that honestly looked down right predatory, Sleese, the elemental, was maybe a Ice elemental, water maybe? He had no idea what Claude was , he doubted that was his real name, probably just a weird translation from the system, he was more of a black blob in human shape, it was weird.

When the crowd started to calm down Dijaun started speaking again. “With our esteemed guests now seated let me introduce to you the top 5 ranked contestants! In first place we have Shaun Clermont! What we know of him so far is that he likes to fight alone and is rather good at it! Most recently he has taken the top spot in the Low E grade dungeon in this very colosseum!” What the fuck! How did they even know that! Are they spying on us? Shit! “If only that was all folks! We can all see that shiny gauntlet on his hand and the impressive materials that went into making it right? It would be one hell of a find if he found such an item! Except did he find it? We don’t think so! We believe he crafted an EPIC RANKED ITEM and he is only in the lowest levels of E grade!” No, no, no, no! He was stressing now, that wasn’t something he wanted announced. And the stir it caused through not only the other people from Earth but the audience was insane, every single eye was on him, the Crafter Guild representative was also paying very close attention to him. It took every ounce of control not to outwardly react to what was being said or the looks he was getting. Every instinct in him was telling him to run which he had to completely suppress. If it wasn’t for his enhanced mind skill working double time to control his expressions he would have had his every thought written on his face.

“Now moving on to the 2nd ranked contestant……” At this point he was focused more on staying calm than listening, what Dijaun was saying was interesting but nothing that gave him much information. Like him, both Li fought alone but apart from that they had no further similarities. Vivenne was apparently an expert marksman which was interesting but not helpful. Finally when the introductions were done Dijaun focused back to the board and matching up people for the fights. When Shaun started paying more attention and he noticed that there was still quite a lot of looks on him, especially by a few of the major reps, which was not good at all.

“If everyone will shift their attention to the boards. There are five in total, each one will fill for one of the days we will be in the first round of fights. A reminder if you are not fighting today please remove yourselves from the arena completely, do not return until it is your day to fight. Remember to pay close attention to your orbs contestants, as they will glow when it is time to make your way to the arena. And with that I wish you all good luck!”

At that moment the boards filled with names, he skimmed over them, only paying attention to the people he knew. Gabe was set to fight today, one of the first to fight in fact, Eric was also fighting this afternoon, he didn’t recognise either of their opponents which was a good thing. The top 5 were spread out, each on separate days and fighting no one he recognised. He found his name on day 2 and he was the last fight of the day and when he saw who he was fighting he almost laughed. Trevor fucking Rule. There was no way that was random. Someone either told someone about their little fight when they first entered or, and much more likely, they were being watched.

As he wasn’t fighting today he immediately left the arena with everyone else, although not before he caught the eye of several of the major reps, the crafter even smiled at him, he didn’t return the smile, too freaked out at that moment by the attention, and immediately walked with the others out of the arena. When they got to a room halfway down the corridor, he found Gabe and Eric and immediately wished them both luck. They had decided to wait there together until their fights, he just told them that when they were done, and when they had both won, they would celebrate.

He didn’t have much to worry about for his fight tomorrow, he was 8 levels above Trevor, and even if he spent his time non stop in a dungeon, there was no way for him to catch up. That meant there was now 2 things left he wanted to do. Read the affinity book and run the dungeon.