Apprentice Town Eight, Underground Market, Sky Tower level one.
Angor’s group came to the market and headed straight to the Sky Tower. Angor and Nausica both planned to challenge the fights so they were here to get a feel of the battles in here and see what kind of opponents they should be expecting.
There were 15 levels in the tower in total. Every level had a standard for promotion. Getting enough points to reach this standard would get the participant to the next level. The participant also had the choice of staying at the same level, but in this case, winning more matches would only yield a very small amount of merit points. This was how the arenas protected low-leveled challengers.
The interior of the Sky Tower was expanded using space-expansion spells, so every level was a giant area consisting of dozens of arenas. Each arena was a platform 40×40 square meters large and came with audience stands around it.
Watching battles on the first level did not require any tickets, so almost every arena was surrounded by audiences, many of whom were mortals. These mortals were basically civilians working in the underground market. With no other ways of entertainment, watching fights in the Sky Tower was their only choice to pass time.
“It’s only crowded at this level. Higher levels ask for tickets, and mortals don’t have magic crystals on them so they can’t get up there. However, level 13 to level 15 will have more people because apprentices tend to stay there.” After becoming an apprentice, Sailum went to the Sky Tower many times out of curiosity in these months so he knew a lot about this place.
“Let’s stay at the first level for now and see how good the fighters are,” Angor said and found an arena with relatively fewer onlookers.
The battle was not on, and no challengers were in the arena, so they took the time and talked about random stuff. A moment later, a hunched old man carrying a box on his back moved in front of them.
The old man was a mortal. When Angor wondered what he wanted, he saw Sailum giving the old man a silver coin and took out some juice glasses from his box, along with several fried doughnuts.
… A snack vendor?
“They’re pretty smart. One silver coin is enough to support an ordinary individual for a month in other places. They can just earn them quickly by selling cheap drinks here,” said Sailum as he handed the food to his friends and recalled his life back in Versailles Principality.
Angor took a bite on the doughnut. He was very satisfied with the soft touch and mild smell of milk of his food.
“You like it? I knew you would,” said Sailum. He looked proud at Angor’s reaction.
Before Angor could agree, Nausica commented first, “Too much milk. You kids probably like this, but I prefer something with more salt in it.”
Nausica took a bite before placing her food aside.
Angor calmed his expression when he heard Nausica’s words. “It’s fine. Actually, I agree with Nausica.”
They munched and drank while waiting for the battle to begin.
It did not take long before the two challenger passages on the sides each revealed a challenger. They both covered their faces and bodies with loose robes.
Also, Angor noticed that a giant glass frame above the arena brightened up and showed a countdown timer as well as the names and portraits of the challengers.
[Battle starts in: 3:39]
[King of Beasts VS Monarch of Eternal Freeze]
A moment ago, Angor was surprised at how the glass frame resembled his hologram tablet so much. Floating Mech City deserved its name as a paradise of machines and alchemy. Each product they created contained amazing technologies.
However, when Angor saw the display on the screen, he coughed up all the juice he just drank.
Thank goodness the seat in front of him was vacant.
“What the heck? King of Beasts? Monarch of Freeze… What’s with these showy names?” Angor began to doubt if he just stumbled into the battlefield of legendary wizards instead of an apprentice arena.
At the same time, the two individuals on the stage threw off their robes using really exaggerated poses and revealed themselves.
The King of Beasts was a dark-skinned man equipped with a giant bow on his back. He had colorful totems painted on his face, a beautiful decorative feather on his head, and tiger-striped loincloth as his only piece of clothing. This man kind of looked like Hookdick with his primitive way of dressing except that those totems and feathered headband were worse than Hookdick’s style.
The Monarch of Eternal Freezing was also a male. Also, to show off the “freezing” word in his name, he was fully covered by white-themed clothes decorated with all kinds of shiny and transparent accessories. More importantly, his hair was also white.
However, considering the occasional strings of dark hair that showed up on his head, his white hair must be the result of dyeing.
“Well, those are pretty showy looks and names. They must be someone strong,” Angor thought to himself.
The countdown reached zero.
They both moved. The Monarch yelled out first, “Freezing Earth!”
He remained stationary after yelling. It seemed that he was building up his spell model in his mind. After about three seconds, a small area on the ground in front of him began to catch traces of frost.
The King of Beasts did not back down at all. Under people’s puzzled gazes, he did a backflip, which did not help him move an inch at all, put a hand on the ground, and looked up.
“Show yourself, my king!”
After quite a while, some mist was released from the King of Beasts’ body, and a snow-white… kitten, appeared from the mist.
“Go, my king! Thrash his Freezing Earth!” The King of Beasts pointed forward with great might as if he was commanding an army into war.
The white kitten followed his master’s action, lifted its head, and meowed.
… A really timid, gentle, and somewhat terrified meow.
Angor’s group was left speechless again.
Sailum remained silent for a moment and curled his lips. “They don’t seem strong at all… Maybe we should go to another arena?”
Nausica raised an eyebrow. “Actually, I like that cat. Adorable.”
“Since when was Frost called Freezing Earth?” Angor mumbled. Frost was a level-0 cantrip which held a similar effect to Grease. It summoned frost in a small area to prevent people from advancing. Between these two cantrips, most apprentices chose to learn Grease because they could lit up the oil and cause burn damage enemies.
As the three of them complained about the terrible fight, all the audiences around them cheered in excitement. Someone even screamed loudly, “Go, King, tear that arrogant monarch apart and drag him down his throne!”
No one commented on his embarrassing words. People only grew more excited.
“Let’s… go?” Sailum asked again.
“You decide. I don’t even need weapons and spells to take these people down,” said Nausica as she put a hand on the dueling sword on her waist.
Sailum looked at Angor, but Angor shook his head. “Let’s wait a bit.”
Angor watched the fight carefully.
The white kitten already moved inside the range of “Freezing Earth”. The Monarch humphed and chanted something else. An ice blade appeared in the air and went for the kitten. Slowly.
The kitten was fast enough to avoid the ice blade easily. When it jumped into the air, the monarch suddenly moved closer. With the kitten unable to change directions in the air, the Monarch slammed the kitten onto the frost-covered ground with a mighty kick, leaving the kitten yelping helplessly.
“Oh no! My King!” The King of Beasts exclaimed in an emotional tone as if singing an aria and rushed to the white kitten. He held the animal up gently and displayed a painful look.
The audiences were also touched by the scene. Someone wiped tears off their eyes.
The King of Beasts looked up with tears around his eyes. “I surrender. Monarch of Eternal Freeze, you’re very strong.”
The Monarch let out a disdainful “Consider yourself lucky!” and turned to leave.
The glass screen above the arena changed its display: [Winner, Monarch of Eternal Freeze]
Angor’s group was left speechless again.
“Okay. I regret my decision. Let’s go,” Angor said in the end.
Sailum had already covered his eyes. “And quickly. I’m getting embarrassed myself looking at them. Thank god no one knows we’re here.”
…
They switched several arenas to look.
“Master of Sorcery VS Demonic Flame Dragon”, “Unparalleled Warlord VS King of Thunderclouds”, “Philosopher of Time VS Swordmaster Junior”…
Angor realized that every apprentice got him or herself a really outstanding title, but they were only ordinary level-1 apprentices. Even mortals who knew how to fight could easily defeat them.
“This is the Sky Tower, right?” After watching several more matches, Sailum began to doubt reality.
“But when I came last time, they weren’t so bad. Why are there only these losers today?” Nausica wondered.
“You forgot? Phantom Island,” Angor reminded them.
Sailum and Nausica exhaled an “Oh!”. Most apprentice wizards went to Phantom Island for destiny, and only weirdos were left behind.
Besides, the incident around the island killed hundreds of elite apprentices. The Sky Tower would probably only have these terrible people in the predictable future.
Nausica’s eye glimmered. “I think this is a good chance for us.”
“Chance?” Sailum saw Nausica bumping her fists and getting all worked up. “Miss Nausica, you’re not going to…”
She nodded. “Yes, I am. I’ll challenge the tower now! I’ll see how many levels I can beat on the next couple of days so that I don’t have to spend money on magic scrolls.” Nausica was planning to buy her way through. But since there were only weaklings here at the moment, why not go for the opportunity?
Angor agreed. “Good choice. At least Nausica won’t run into any rivals on the first level.”
They already watched enough. Next, they accompanied Nausica to the management section on the first floor and helped Nausica get registered as a challenger.