Chapter 514 - Day MMCIX, Part II

As we were finishing, I saw Will walking towards us, and behind him were a lot of my friends. Martin, Hailwic, Nil, Nobuo, and Boris, all following him. Some of them were yawning and stretching, the others looked more awake. All wearing casual clothes.

- Good morning - he said passing by us.

- Good morning - replied Aram, smiling at him.

The same thing repeated itself, with the rest. Soon after the whole crew got the attention of the waiters, other hunters started to also appear. Crews from behind the Hungarian gate gave me and Adam curious looks, as they picked mostly tables away from everybody. 

Only Alban's team sat next to us. Kiril and Oscar didn't really seem to care, but he clearly was..

- Good morning - he said with a smile. - I didn't know you two were such good friends.

- We decided to entertain each other with a conversation during the breakfast - explained Adam. - Do you have a problem with that?

- Nooo... I was just curious.

I couldn't help but smile.

- Opposite fraction - the mage explained lowering his voice.

- I know the pain.

- You mentioned something about someone great and Bahum... something.

- Oh yes. I guess I do owe you an explanation - I said and sighed.

Then I started a long explanation of the whole story of Bahumdabars rise to power, Xuvi, Uhms, Yashasvee'mies, and his connection to The Great One. I tried my best to not say too much besides the already well know knowledge.

I focused some more on the Uhms, their culture, and other things I knew about them since they were the only officially still-existing race, and the whole world knew about them.

He listened to me very carefully, but he wasn't the only one. Actually, everybody was, even my friends.

- That's... Incredible - said Adam as I finished. - So the aliens are actually the ones behind the ball. I had some thought that it might be some alien technology, but now I know.

- Well, we don't really know if The Great One is the creator of those devices... Saplings, to be correct. We only know he had access to them and distributed them among Bahumdabars, which led to them expanding between multiple planets and worlds.

- This explains soo much. I wish we would know more...

- Maybe one day - I said with a smile.

I really didn't want to fuck up and indicate in any way that I know more than that. Even if I was feeling a little bit bad about lying to him.

- Now this technology is ours - said Alban. - And we can create our own empire.

- First, we would need more balls - Adam pointed out. - And we don't have them.

- He just said that there were other cities on their planet - Alban pointed out. - They are there for the taking.

- The other saplings can't be taken - said Ki'rai.

I just realized that she sneaked upon us, and was listening from a very close distance to everything

- There are dead Bahumdabars roaming the wastelands. We call them ghosts. If they notice you, you are dead.

- Are they that strong? - asked Adam.

- We just saw them from a very far away, killing some monsters created by the broken sapling, but they seemed incredibly strong - I quickly lied, before she could say a thing. - Who knows what they really can do if they go all out since they have been hunting for a really long time. Maybe they have their original strength, or maybe they don't but what we saw, was enough for us to resign from going to that part of our world.

The fire mage nodded.

- All we need to do is get strong enough - said Alban.

- No - said Ki'rai. - It's our gate, not yours.

- Maybe after this tournament that will change - he replied to that.

I noticed her eyes changing. She was ready to jump on the guy, and reap him apart.

- Maybe it will, maybe it won't - said Adam. - There is no point in discussing it now, when we will soon find out, so please, Alban, go back to your food.

I noticed immediately, that he didn't deny his words, and almost smiled, knowing that to get the Arc they would have the first walk over my dead body, and that wasn't happening.

- Come Ki'rai, you didn't finish your food! - shouted Martin.

My little lizard, gave Alban another look, before she slowly walked away, heading towards the table she left.

- Well... - started Adam. - It was a lovely and very informative conversation, but I think it's time for me.

He wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin, and stood up, then left. I did the same, just looked towards Will, before that. He gave me a nod, and I knew that he would make sure there were no troubles, so I could just go in peace.

The rest of the day was kinda boring. Except for a visit from Vikram, as we went over all the information he had about the teams from the other gates over a drink.

There were quite a few weaklings amount people that came from Hungary, just like from Arc. They were looking for fame, but there was not much they could really do when confronted by really strong people.

He also informed me that the whole structure of the ladder was supposed to be officially announced the next day, but he already knew a bit about who would face who.

Apparently, my request to face Gavriil Semenov couldn't be granted despite efforts from both US and India, although as long as both me and him won our first fights, we were to meet with each other in the second round.

There weren't many interesting fights in the first round, since so many no-names decided to participate, but among my friends, there was a single interesting clash. Urho, Kagiso Mbeki, and Andy versus Valentin, Lorenzo, and Mai.

They were scheduled to fight on the fourth day of the tournament, my match on the other hand was on the first one.