Chapter 343: Start of the 2nd event

Chapter 343: Start of the 2nd event

The 2nd event - The Siege of Aether Keep will be starting in 1 hour!

In 1 hour, everyone will be transferred to the Aether Keep.

All difficulties will participate in the same instance.

You will be facing a gradually increasing number of enemies trying to destroy Aether Keep. The numbers and strength of the attackers will grow over the duration of the event. You will have 5 hours to prepare your defenses and then 5 hours to defend Aether Keep.

Participants will be rewarded according to their performance during the defense.

Note: You can leave the event at any time you want.

Note: Cooperation with natives from Aether Keep and with participants of the tournament is required and fighting among defenders, be it tutorial attendees or natives, may decrease your points.

Note: You can use [Restriction] for this event.

Well, the event seems interesting. The only thing I dislike is the part about not fighting other participants, but it says that there “may” be a punishment. So maybe a bit of infighting is allowed? It also makes me wonder who or what the attackers are and what kind of place Aether Keep will be.

There doesn’t seem to be any restriction on mana or stamina regen, I can’t help but like that part and I have to wonder if I should set a [Restriction]. Placing one might increase my rewards, but not placing one would give me more options for defending the place, which might work out better in the end.

The question is how difficult the second event is going to be. If it's easy and I placed no [Restriction], it could end up being overkill and earn fewer points.

If it's difficult and I placed one, I may regret it, and find myself hamstrung during the defense.

Well, I’ll have to leave that to future Nat. He can decide a few seconds before the event starts.

Closing the window, I open another and put three items up for auction. Each one quickly made and apparently, according to the assholes who give me funny names, graded at mid rare. So this time I set the starting price for each one at 300 shards and set the time of the auction to 30 minutes. Let's see how they do.

As I did before the 1st event, I create a small orb inside my body and start filling it with my mana, trying to smuggle it in again.

Entering the house, I find everyone already inside, spread out over the living room. The most notable is Biscuit who is facing Noodle in a staring contest.

The white snake feels a bit stronger now. Did one of our animal overlords have a breakthrough in his training and is trying to fight for the position of Absolute?

Well, in the end, it doesn't matter. Biscuit doesn't even release any mana, just looks at Noodle with his usual silly expression. The one that makes him look like he is smiling with his tongue slightly sticking out.

Even that is enough and Noodle lowers his head and leaves in a clear state of defeat.

(Asshole,) sounds proudly through everyone’s mind as Biscuit announces his victory.

That makes the introverted snake lower his head even more and burrow under the blankets on the couch.

It might seem harsh, but Biscuit is cute so he can do anything he wants.

"Yoo, can you lend me the ax for the event?" Maya asks shamelessly as the fight between two animal overlords is over.

"One thousand shards per hour."

She blinks a few times staring at me.

"You can’t afford to buy it so a subscription might be a good idea. Even if it’s damaged, it's an arcane item. It performs at the level of a mid to upper epic item and sometimes even a bit higher."

"I heard you were offering an epic item to find someone to help you make a good pizza in a few days. We are teammates, right? You can be nice to me too."

I shake my head, "That pizza is for my precious minion. She deserves it."

I still remember Vega asking me about my food, and now that I have a token that will allow me to summon her for a day, there is no way I wouldn't prepare a nice welcome for her. While the 5th floor wasn’t all that long ago and it's only been a few days since I saw her, this is too good an opportunity to waste, given that we are currently in the middle of a somewhat safe tournament.

Maybe I could let her fight some of the people from Easy and Normal difficulty. I kind of wonder how my minion would do.

"Can I become your minion too?" Maya tries again.

I ignore her and pick up Biscuit from the floor, setting him in my lap and grab his lolling pink tongue, pulling it gently.

Shaking his head, he woofs at me and calls me an asshole.

In exchange, I pull his whiskers and whisper, "I’m going to introduce you to someone in a few days."Geett the latest novels at novelhall.com

(Asshole?)

"No, she isn't an asshole like me." I boop his nose.

(Food?)

"No."

His rambling has put me in a better mood, so I may as well throw him a bone, “The moment you shoot your invisible projectiles you move a lot of mana that makes it super obvious when you will shoot them. I can even read the trajectory that way. Then, the projectiles themselves are unstable and leak mana which makes them more apparent. I recommend using half of the mana you are currently and focusing on making them more dense. If you’re fighting other humans you can make them a quarter the size, they’re too big as is.”

“Noname!” he shouts happily. “You have to train me! I can trade you some items worth a few hundred shards per lesson.”

Huh? He thinks that's enough?

“It’ll be at least 1000 shards per hour-long lesson. And that’s heavily discounted already.” I answer. That much should make it worth it.

“Fuck man, that’s too much.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Brainiac seems to be thinking, “I can get a few guys and we can split the cost. I bet after the 1st event there are plenty who would be willing to join.”

“Four thousand shards worth for group lessons. Five thousand if it’s over 5 people. Ten thousand if it’s over 10 people.”

“What?”

What does he mean by what? There is no way I’m going to let a bunch of people drain all of my energy if I don’t have to. Sure, I can endure it for a while, but only for the right price.

Now that I think about it, if I do well during the other events I might ask more. I wonder if there are actually people who would be willing to do that.

“Come on, Max, leave Noname alone,” Lootenant jumps in, pulling the red-haired Brainiac away.

As Brainiac gets dragged away to the other room, he keeps shouting that I'm a scammer or some other nonsense.

With less than ten minutes left on the clock, everyone else returns and Brainiac and Lootenant leave to rejoin their group.

While I continue to prod and poke at Sophie and the twins' web, Tess and others have some sort of important meeting which I half listen to. I spend my remaining minutes thinking about what kind of [Restriction] I should set, or if it is even necessary.

In ten seconds you will be moved to the location of the 2nd Event!

The message finally sounds and the final countdown starts. 3, 2, 1,...

You will be transferred to the Aether Keep. You have three seconds to place a [Restriction] if you wish to do so.

Everyone else disappears, followed by me.

Entering the area of the second event I look around. All two thousand tutorial participants are spread out across a massive courtyard, surrounded by a tall wall.

Off to one side is a mountain rising into the sky with windows carved into its faces. Telling me that the mountain's insides are filled with rooms and buildings. There are also more walls like the one currently surrounding us.

The air here is slightly colder and the clouds almost seem to be close enough to touch.

I give myself some time to examine the place. It's simple, yet its architecture gives off the impression of old strength and power, and there are rough and fascinating mana-powered inscriptions.

Interestingly, there are thousands of humans all around. Both armored and not. Each one scrambling to prepare the defenses. A dozen well-dressed men with guards following them are heading toward the participants whereupon they start explaining the situation.

Well, it seems like we won’t be defending this place alone.

Looking around I spot and check in on a few people.

Gareth (Hell, 4th)

Tess (Hell, 4th)

Grumpy (Hell, 4th)

Tacita (Hell, 5th)

And then there is also this guy.

Savant (Hell, 3rd)

I see. I think I know his reasoning and I had the same thought. The event has all of the tournament attendees participate and even calls for cooperation. It’s very logical to assume that the event will be somewhat made to reflect that fact. Forgoing a restriction would probably be overkill and far from worth it.

But, the system isn’t always logical.

The system is an asshole.

That’s why the text the others see over my head reads thusly.

Noname (Hell, 6th)

And as far as I can see it’s the highest out of any Hell difficulty participant.