Chapter 272 - 272 The Tournament Begins

After having finished off the wine, Marcus set his glass down and looked intently at Amelia before saying, "If it is not too rude of me, could I ask a question about if a certain item will be up for auction."

Amelia was a bit taken aback by this sudden question but since she did hope to foster a business relationship with Marcus, she figured it would be fine, so long as he was not asking about any of the surprise big ticket items that would not be released in the auction's catalog.

"Yes, feel free to ask but whether or not I can answer will depend on hat you want to know."

"Very well, then could you tell me if any ingots of adamantine will be for sale."

Letting out an internal sigh of relief, Amelia was glad that Marcus did not ask about something that she could not talk about.

Certainly, adamantine was exceedingly rare, but it was not a one-of-a-kind item, and until it was turned into something was just a lump of metal.

Smiling and nodding her head, Amelia said, "Yes in fact we will be having five sets of three ingots for sale, though I must tell you that the price of each of those is likely to exceed even the weapons and armor you have provided."

'Yes, I should definitely be able to get my hands on some adamantine.' Marcus thought internally celebrating.

Of course, Marcus was also aiming to get the rewards from the tournament, but even with those to make everything he wanted was going to require more adamantine.

'Now the only problem is if I will have enough money.'

Marcus had a pretty good idea about how much the adamantine would cost, and he was fairly certain he would have enough to buy at least one of the sets of three, though only if someone with deep pockets did not want them all no matter the price.

Unfortunately, buying adamantine at auction or winning it at a tournament was the only way he could get some for himself.

Certainly, if he just wanted to work with it, he could accept commissions from high-ranking families, but he would not be able to use the adamantine how he wanted.

With everything he wanted to do accomplished Marcus stood up and gave a respectful bow before saying, "Thank you for your time and approving the sale of my items at your auction Lady Peningar. It has been a pleasure, but I am afraid that I must go now to prepare for the upcoming tournament."

"I see and here I was hoping to talk a bit more with. Oh, but before you leave, please take this with you."

Amelia then stood up and took out a silver card with her name and the auction house's emblem on it, and handed it over to Marcus.

"When you come to the auction present this to the staff at the entrance and they will lead you to a private room where you can participate anonymously and in comfort."

Taking the card Marcus gave Amelia another quick bow before saying, "Thank you very much, I will be certain to take you up on this generous offer."

After that Marcus was led out of the auction house and back to his carriage, before heading back home.

…

"Well, it is time to get going."

Jumping out of bed Marcus was welling up with anticipation since today was the day he would begin participating in the tournament.

Of course, the tournament had actually been going on for a few days already at this point, but because of his connection with Aira and Thabon, Marcus had been seeded to the final preliminaries without having to fight.

But today was the day his battle was scheduled, and Marcus was ready to get started.

Going downstairs Marcus found a large breakfast waiting for him and his maids were going in full gear to make sure he was in tip top shape for the tournament he had been preparing for, for months.

"Thank you Stella, as always your cooking is delicious." Marcus said complimenting his maid who had the highest cooking skill and was in charge of most of the meals.

"I am glad it is to your liking Lady Irene." Stella said giving a slight bow.

With his breakfast eaten Marcus went up to his room and changed into the clothes he had specially made for the tournament.

They were a pair of pants and a long sleeve shirt that were made from the wool of an epic grade magic beast called a diamond ram that boosts incredible defensive abilities.

The clothing had also been imbued with a self-cleaning and repairing function that made it ideal for fighting in, and the only negative was that it had cost Marcus around four thousand gold to buy.

However, it was well worth the price and Marcus was happy to not have to worry about his clothes ripping anymore, since up to this point, he had just been wearing his everyday clothing while fighting.

After that Marcus checked over all of his gear for the last time and when he was satisfied that he had everything he needed he made his way back downstairs.

When he arrived, he found that all of his maids had gathered around to wish him luck.

They all knew how hard he had been working to prepare for this tournament and wanted to give their support.

"Okay I will be off. I will be staying near the tournament arena until it is over so hold down the estate until I return." Marcus said as he waved goodbye to his maids.

"Blitz it is time to go." Marcus said as he hoped on top of his beast companion.

Riding down the city streets, Marcus soon exited the inner city and made his way towards the south end of the outer city where the tournament arena was located.

Naturally the tournament was open to all to watch for only a couple of silvers, so its venue had been built in the outer city so that people would not have to pay more to enter the inner city than watch the tournament.

Soon the large arena came into view though this was not Marcus destination as only the main tournament would be held there, and the preliminaries were held in ten smaller stadiums nearby.

'This is the place.'

Stopping in front the stadium where his match was going to be held Marcus got off of Blitz and tied him up before heading towards the entrance.

Yet as he was approaching one of the guards in front of the entrance came up to him and said, "Miss this is the competitors' entrance if you wish to watch the match please go around to the other side and enter through the public entrance."

'I guess I do not look like much of a fighter, I probably should have put on my armor or taken out my weapon to look the part.'

Of course, Marcus currently just looked like a delicate young woman, so he could not fault the guard for his misunderstanding.

"Yes, I know. I am one of the competitors Irene Geist."

"I see then may we please see your ID to confirm."

Taking out his ID Marcus showed it to the guard who looked it over before going down a list in his hand and saying, "You are free to enter. Just follow down the hall and go into the first door on your left to enter the waiting room. When it is time for your match to start, someone will come to get you and those you will be fighting against."

Thanking the guard Marcus entered the stadium and following the direction he was given walked into the waiting room.

Once inside he could see that around two hundred people were waiting, obviously the other competitors who had advanced to the final preliminaries.

'So, I will be fighting four of these people, I wonder who I am going to get paired up with.'

For this final preliminary round, it was going to be a free for all of five people and the last one standing would make it to the main tournament.

And currently there were twenty-five hundred people vying for five hundred spots in the main tournament which would consist of five twelve people, twelve of which had been seeded already.

Finding a seat in the center of the room, Marcus could tell that everyone was looking him over and he was certain some of them were using an appraisal skill on him.

Of course, he was also curious and began to do a sweeping appraisal of everyone but found that most of them were not above level thirty-five.

'The strongest guy I found so far was level forty-six. Though I suppose I have not gotten everyone, and a few have still yet to arrive.'

Then as Marcus continued to appraise the people entering into the room, he saw someone he knew and the two of them locked eyes.

Unfortunately, after what had happened with this person the last time they had been together, Marcus had begun distancing himself since he felt a sharp sense of guilt whenever he was around them.

"Irene it is good to see you again it has been a while."

"It is good to see you again as well Yrsa" Marcus said doing his best to feel how uncomfortable he felt.

He had not seen any of the members of the Eternal Queens since they returned to the city after Jesnay and Branna's deaths.

Marcus felt responsible for their deaths since it was Jared's grudge against him that caused it, so he felt uncomfortable around any of them.

"So how is everyone I have not seen them for a while."

Yrsa' face darkened a bit hearing this and said, "Everyone has gone their separate ways and the Eternal Queens have been disbanded. In fact, the only one I still see is Bridget who joined the army."

Hearing this just made Marcus feel worse about the situation, but it was already done so there was nothing he could do about it.

"So, what brings you to enter this tournament Yrsa." Marcus said trying to change the subject.

"Oh, I am hoping to get scouted by some noble family. I have had my fill of adventuring and settling down as some noble's personal guard or maybe even becoming a knight would be great. So, I am really hoping I can make it to the main tournament and catch someone's eye."

The two of them continued to have idle chatter until a staff member came into the room and started calling out names for the participants who would be fighting in the first round.

However, neither of them was called first so they continued talking until when the seventh round was to start and the staff member said, "Landen, Lady Irene Geist, Sir Layton Whitlock, Clay, and Yrsa please follow me, you will be participating in this round."

Both Marcus and Yrsa after hearing their names got up and walked over though Yrsa now had a glum look on her face and Marcus was feeling uneasy.

Yrsa already knew how strong Marcus was months ago, and she stood no chance even if he had not gotten stronger. 

On the other hand, Marcus did not want to beat up one of his friends, especially since he still felt guilty about what happened.

But he still had no intention of losing and could only apologize to Yrsa in his mind.

Soon they were all brought out onto the raised stage of the stadium and looking around Marcus could see a few thousand people gathered in the seats.

Naturally these preliminaries did not garner as much attention as the main tournament, but plenty of people still came out to watch the matches even though some of them could be pretty one sided.

And after looking over his competition Marcus was fairly certain that this match was going to be one of those.

'The only one above level thirty-five is the man called Clay at level forty-one. I can tell he has seen some battles and is likely quite strong, but he does not feel like a threat to me.'

However, as he was appraising the other fighter Marcus noticed Yrsa going around talking to them and looking and pointing at Marcus.

Marcus wondered what she was doing but he found out when the referee of the match loudly said, "And let the match begin."

When the match was started Marcus could see that the other fighters had not begun duking it out amongst each other and instead had all turned towards Marcus ready to take him out first.