The Traveler Initiative [A Monster Evolution LitRPG]

I leisurely walked along the line of stalls that had been erected at the festival site, about halfway between the two city territories. Team Nimma was strolling along with me, making it seem like I was some sort of big-shot VIP they were guarding. While I may be considered to be just that, I sure didn't feel like it. All I did was accept a quest for my own gain, yet ever since then, certain Asphons had begun to treat me like some sort of messiah. Sure, they were able to leech off my opportunity, but I felt like they were taking it a bit far.

Lophan was the worst of them, stumbling over himself to thank me profusely whenever we met. And, in the few days leading up to the festival, he called me into his office several times, even going so far as to visit us in the house on occasion. Thankfully he had become too busy with organizing the festival as of yesterday.

But now, it was finally time, and the festival was in full swing.

The system had cleared a large area from any obstructions, half of which was then filled back in with a giant colosseum. And, around the entire thing, Asphons swarmed. Stalls had been set up selling everything from food to magic tomes, and everything in between. Stages were erected, and each and every one of them constantly hosted some kind of performance. Smaller areas had been fenced off and warriors were taking turns holding mock battles, eager onlookers betting on every fight.

The atmosphere was electrified, the excitement palpable in the air as the moment of the first official tournament fight drew closer and closer. Streams of asphons were already filtering into the arena, vying for the best seats to watch the upcoming fights from. It was all a bit much, to be honest.

While I didn't have much issue with being in large crowds in my past life, as my therapist advised me to call it, I had an odd aversion to it now. I had spent a long time in isolation, fighting for my life with only myself to rely on. If my therapist was to be believed, I was constantly on edge, expecting the next attack on my life to come at any second. It was a good instinct to have out in the field, but I had somehow unlearned to turn it off in a social setting. While I felt like I was relaxing properly, my subconscious was always in the ready position, which apparently put a lot of stress on me, mentally.

Wise words, spoken by a wise man. Wise words that I had dismissed after they were spoken, but now? In the middle of this crowd, feeling almost a bit paranoid? I was inclined to agree.

"Hey, do you smell that?" I suddenly asked, glad for a tasty smell to distract me. "What is that?"

"Lungus skewers!" Orbos exclaimed happily. "Let me get one for you!"

Orbos scampered off toward a nearby stall grilling some questionable-looking meat, leaving a questionably looking nightmare slug behind. I glanced at Orbos, who simply gave me a thumbs up in reply, and I shrugged as I waited for Orbos to come back with a whole bunch of skewers. Apparently, I wasn't the only one getting some meat, as he proceeded to hand them out to everybody in the group. I gratefully accepted mine and curiously bit into the still sizzling meat that gave off faint hints of mana, not expecting too much since my taste buds were still mostly non-functional.

To my surprise, I could taste the juicy flavor just fine as the mana trapped within the meat was released every time I chewed. The skewer disappeared within seconds as I greedily munched on the tasty treat, much to the surprise of my companions. "This is amazing," I stated with a glitter in my eyes. "I can taste! Tell me, what is a Lungus, and where do I need to go to kill more of them?"

"A Lungus is a high-tier version of a lava bull," Andrius explained in between bites of his own skewer. "They come down from the layer above on occasion, but it's pretty rare and they get hunted on sight since they are so tasty. Their meat is usually only brought out for very special occasions since it's considered a luxury."

I cursed fate once again. If I had known that I could make something like this, I would've scoured the entire layer while I was stuck there and hunted them to extinction. Sadly, the teleport ban by the system was still in effect, so I couldn't even cheat and go back up to get more. Curse these damned voidlings, inconveniencing me even now!

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"Well that's just grand, isn't it?" I mumbled angrily, waltzing up to the store selling the skewers. "I'll take your entire stock!"

I walked toward the Colosseum in a childishly angry huff. The vendor had refused to sell me his entire stock of skewers on account of them being such a rarity, and "others should get to enjoy them as well." I could only reluctantly agree, but I still bought as many as he would allow. As such, I now had ten Lungus skewers sitting pretty in my inventory, ready to enjoy whenever I felt like it.

After discovering the fantastic dish that even I could enjoy, I dragged my party all over the festival grounds in search of either more people selling Lungus skewers, or something similarly tasty. Of course, there wasn't anything of the sort. Much to Orbos's amusement. I wasn't certain why he thought it was so funny, but it was obviously just some good-natured jabbing, so I rolled with the punches and huffed and puffed the entire way.

I would have loved to explore the festival some more, but it was almost time for the first match of the day to begin and I didn't want to miss it, just like seemingly every single other Asphon present. Thousands of them were currently attempting to get into the Colosseum, showing that the ones going in earlier had the right idea. They were sitting pretty while the common rabble had to stand in line. Fortunately, I was a competitor, which gave me certain advantages.

"You guys enjoy standing in line," I said to the group, waving one of my tentacles to say goodbye. "Oh, and the fights too, I suppose."

"Yeah, yeah, just make sure you two win your matches," Orbos waved me off. "We'll cheer you on."

"Thanks," Nimma said, moving to stand next to me. She was the only one in her group that got a spot in the tournament. "We'll go and win ourselves another city or two."

With that, we left the rest of the group behind and made our way to the competitor's entrance. A single Asphon guarded the unassuming door and after checking our credentials, he let us in without a fuss. We followed a well-lit tunnel until we arrived in a small waiting room, where the rest of Lophans participants were already gathered. Both sides had gotten eight slots for the tournament, resulting in a sixteen-person, single-elimination bracket.

From my perspective as the quest-taker, this was just fine. All I needed to do was get as far as I could and I could collect my rewards, easy. But for Lophan, the tournament was massively rigged against them. The neighboring cities were more focused on combat and striving to reach the pinnacle of strength in an attempt to surpass the limit, while Lophan was a mostly academic gathering. Of course, Lophan also had respectable fighters, but overall, their prospects of winning this thing were slim.

Which is why Lophan was relying on me to steal the win for them.

I was still a bit skeptical. Could I really do it? Sure, I could punch way above my own tier, but these were experienced, intelligent fighters of the ninth tier. I had no doubts that I could win a few matches, but winning it was a different question. Rollo was Kurra's champion, and I could not see the fight going easy. At least I wouldn't meet him until the finals if I even made it that far. I took a look at the system-generated bracket that was conveniently floating next to a big window giving a nice view of the arena.

For now, the matches were neatly organized so that the cities were pitted against each other in each match, but after the first round was over, it would look a lot differently. The system would ensure that there was no tomfoolery like surrendering to your cities' other fighters, so every fight needed to be fought in earnest, or the system would disqualify both fighters or so I'm told. I'm sure the system rigged it so I would meet Rollo in the finals should I get there, and I was actually somewhat looking forward to it.

I was craving a proper fight.

We mingled among the other fighters while we waited for the Colosseum to fill in, and about half an hour later, it was finally time. A loud chime announced to everyone that the tournament was officially starting and an eerie silence descended upon the crowd as the system displayed the first match-up for everyone to see.

[Rollo vs. Garam]

"Good luck out there," I said as Garam made his way to the door, nervously clutching a giant glaive.

I didn't envy the man. Not only did he feature in the first match, but he also had to go up against the strongest fighter of the opposition. It was bound to be a short fight, but I couldn't wait to see Rollo in action. I eagerly hopped to the spectating window, my eyes glued on the Asphon stepping out from a similar room on the opposite of the arena.

"Show me what you got," I murmured excitedly.