When they arrived at Sardi city, they were praised by the residents of the city and a lot of forgers who converted magical materials into equipment offered to do it for them, free of charge but Walt said he would rather keep the magic materials and turn them into the appropriate equipment later, when they would really need it. He was convinced that their yellow epic equipment could help them win the competition and they could convert the magical materials after.
Green Light team stayed in the city for five more days because Walt wanted them to train and thought the abandoned island would be a perfect place to do that. He helped Miranda practice her newly acquired skills. He and Scott had sparring sessions which made him way better, Scott confessed that Barnett hardly trained with them and mostly used them for bait or shields. Jenny and Ailsa fought against each other, making Ailsa’s aim better and allowing Jenny to improve her offensive attacks. Michael and Ailsa practice their magic together. Hogan sparred against Miranda because she wanted to teach him to be more cool-headed with his strikes and nothing made him angrier than her. On the fifth day, Walt assessed their skills and was satisfied, so they left the city and made their way to Shewhart town where the regional team matches were held.
“So, what do we get if we win this thing?” Scott asked. They had just walked out of the city gates. It would have been easier to ask Michael to transport them but Walt wanted his magic points to be completely full for the competition.
“Yeah, I’ve wondered that too,” Ailsa added.
“Well, I’m not really sure…I haven’t participated in the regional team match before because I was a lone player. But, I’m sure it’s like magic materials,”
“Plus bragging rights,” Miranda said with a giggle. The most exciting part of the whole thing for her was the fact that she would get to use her new skills on some people that she could actually hurt. Walt was too good for her to beat and Jenny whined like a little girl when she tried to hurt Hogan.
“Yeah that too,” Walt agreed and laughed too.
They arrived in Shewhart town in two days, the same time it took them to travel from Shewhart town to Sardi city. The place was overflowing with even more people than the last time they had been there. The competition was in about two weeks and it was important to get registered early enough.
After checking into the inn, they were told to proceed to the town’s adventurer’s hall where they would register and get briefed about the rules, regulations and how to’s of the competition. It was a mostly straight forward competition. The match was broadcasted live all over the world. All teams were placed on the playing field just outside Shewhart town.
The game involved playing cards and the leader of each team is given a card. The objective of the match was for the teams to compete against each other and obtain as many cards as possible. The team with the highest number of cards when the game is finished is the winner and all players who are killed will drop to a low level, lose all their equipment and will have to return to the village in Land of Origin to regain their strengths.
The cards given to the leaders had special qualities. It projected a topographic map which shows the location of all the other cards in the game. There were a lot of teams and consequently, there were a lot of cards. So, the holder of a card can find another holder just by projecting the map and following it. This made it impossible for any team to hide or use stealth because they had to carry their card with them or risk it getting stolen.
“How long will this take?” Ailsa asked the male system prompt that signed them up for the competition and handed Walt a card that had their team name on it. He had explained everything about the game to them and advised them to train as much as they could.
“Until there is only one team left,” he replied.
“Wait,” Miranda said “how does that make sense? If the team with the highest number of card win, shouldn’t there be-”
“Next!” he interrupted. Miranda frowned and they moved out of the way for the next team to sign up. Walt looked around at the other teams as they left the hall, there were a lot of swordsmen but he had only seen one other spell swordsman apart from himself. There were also elves but no one was a nomadic elf like Ailsa. There were also no paladins, Jenny was the only one. Most of the adventurers there seemed to be ordinary with no hidden professions. It made him feel very smug and satisfied about his group.
“Well that was rude,” Miranda said then smiled “but on the bright side, were going to kick some ass!”
“Yeah, but we need to train some more. We shouldn’t get too cocky,” Walt said then smirked “but we are definitely going to kick some ass,”
Heather tried to sit up straight in his chair but his back was killing him. He had been popping more painkillers than usual lately and his doctor said he needed to rest but he had no time for that. The board of directors at Minan Group was up his ass about Minan Club. Complaining about how the players were not doing well enough and how their money was slipping from their hands because of risky bets they had placed and lost. As if he was not stressed enough with that whole mess, one of his most important players had been brutally defeated, another broke their contract and the former was now in his office bitching about the latter.
“I’m telling you boss; I don’t know what came over that bastard Scott. He cut off my freaking arm, now I gotta play the rest of the game with one arm, it’s not fair,” Barnett whined, he was seated across Heather who took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Listen, I will deal with Scott, okay? But first, I need you to tell me about this team you fought, what’s their name again?”
“Green Light team. It’s led by a smug son of a b***h, he’s a spell swordsman. I could have beat him if it were just us, you know?” he said but Heather highly doubted that was true.
“Okay, thank you Barnett. I have heard your grievances and I will address them accordingly. You may leave.” Barnett did not say anything else before he left because every employee in the company knew that when the boss was through, he was through. Heather grabbed his phone as soon as the former leader of their now-disbanded team had left.
“Yes, hello. Get me a file of Green Light team in the Fantasy game, immediately,” he commanded then placed the phone down and folded his hands underneath his chin. If what Barnett said was correct and the leader was a spell swordsman, it could be a very big asset to their company. He would profit a lot more by inviting him to join them, rather than fighting them as the nincompoop wanted. If they did not accept, he would then have to destroy them. In any case, it would be a win for him and maybe it could ease his stress a little.
He had been losing players of late and it was really starting to irk him. A lot of the player was now thinking that they can do as they pleased with no consequences. That bastard Walt for example insulted him and left the company but that was not even the worst part. When Heather discovered later that Walt had lost all the equipment in their account and had dropped back to the beginner’s level, furiously did not even begin to describe what he felt. Explaining what happened to the board of directors had been as painful as trying to peel off a fingernail. A knock on his glass door interrupted his reverie, his assistant was waiting outside.
“Come in,” he said. She hurried him and handed him a manila folder.
“Here is the information I could retrieve sir,” she said. He opened the folder and skimmed his eyes over the information. The name of the team, the professions of the members, and pictures of their avatars. Heather was feeling very impressed and was smiling, determined now to recruit the team. Then he flipped the page to land on the team leader and his smile disappeared. He frowned and stared at the team leader’s avatar. He read the skills, movements, and achievements carefully.
“Dammit!” he screamed and threw the folder on the table. His assistant jumped and looked at her boss wearily. She knew she could not leave without his permission and she dared not ask. He looked up at her with his eyes blazing in anger.
“Get me, Felix, now!” he screamed again. She flinched in fear and ran out of the room to do his bidding.
Heather got up from his chair, trying to calm his raging nerves. He looked outside the floor to ceiling window of his office, down at the view, and took deep breaths. One perk of working for Minan was the view and size of his office. He had managed to calm down when he heard the door of his office open. There was only one person who entered his office unannounced and without knocking.
“Felix, I have a task for you,” Heather said and turned around to smile at the blond handsome man that earned the most money in the club and was the best player he knew.
“What is it, boss?”
“Remember Walt?” Heather asked and held the folder up, throwing it to him “that’s his new alias. I want you to find him, and his stupid team and then I want you to destroy them,” Felix said nothing and flipped through the file his employer handed him. Then he looked up and gave Heather a small smile.
“Yes, sir.”