And while we are on the subject of godlike, universe-spanning patterns and rules. In the future when you train mageknights, here’s a couple of tips on what you need to do and the order in which to do it to ensure they are as powerful as possible.

  — Excerpt from Notes For Newstar

  Day 6467, 8:00 PM

  The first event was trivial for me, just wandering down corridors, beating up two people in each room of opponents until I reached the end and won first place. The only interesting gimmick was that the labyrinth hid the contestant’s identity.

  I wasn’t sure why they put in the feature. In my opinion, it was wholly unnecessary.

  Maelstrom’s group placed sixth, and Newstar tenth, both of which were great results worth celebrating.

  “Congratulations, Dandelion,” Newstar smiled genuinely as he and the rest of his team approached me.

  “Yeah, great job! You won me a lot of money. Let’s go celebrate. My treat!” Given the greedy gambler’s look in her eyes, I think she would’ve been throwing manarium like confetti, had she received her winnings.

  “I already reserved five tables at the best wine-house in the city, but we have to gather everyone.” There were a number of acquaintances amongst the participants and their chaperones, including Everlast, Honor Helmsworth, and a few other patients from Glory.

  Five tables turned out to be a bit cramped for all of us, but most of the people sitting there were unused to squeezing, and it made for a novel experience.

  The atmosphere was cordial, important people of the next generation slowly building connections with other important people of the next generation. While most seemed used to it, Newstar and Everlast definitely weren’t. Their awkwardness was slightly entertaining, and whenever they tried to drift out of the conversation, I would pull them back in by asking attention and shifting everyone’s attention towards them.

  “So, you spent all your time in the winter kingdoms after leaving?” Honor asked. “Were we crazy enough to drive you away?”

  “No, dear Honor, not at all.” I smiled. “I got invited by the Tidebreakers, and well, functionally, a capital of one kingdom has just about all the amenities of that of another, so I didn’t really feel like wasting time and manarium on travel when I had everything on hand.”

  The man nodded. “I see you have been training hard. And based on what the speaker said, you’ve spent a lot of time honing your trades. Where do you get the time?”

  “Do you remember what I told you about practicing swordsmanship?”

  Honor nodded. “Patience, diligence, and never waste your time.”

  “See? That’s where I get the time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, others want a piece of this champion who knows how to throw a proper party.” I winked at him and moved on as he snorted a laugh.

  By the time the crowd dispersed, I was feeling drained. I had forgotten how exhausting it was to host a party for a large number of people, and worse, I would have to do it again.

  “Good morning.” I approached the proprietor. “I would like to make changes to my next reservations. We will need more tables…”

  I left the tavern and scribes’ guild, not to use the meditation chamber, but to practice.

  “Good morning, Grandmaster Dandelion,” the overly eager young man manning the desk bowed deeper than etiquette required. “Did you hear the way the spokesmen disrespected you and the guild? I can’t believe anyone would be dumb enough to do that…”

  Apparently, an anchorman got fired for saying the guilds were retroactively fighting over me. Which was surprising. It made sense to me that people making public statements about those more powerful than themselves would do proper research. Then again, you can’t expect everyone to have good survival instincts.

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  I stayed at the scribes’ guild until the next event, even taking a short nap in my private chamber. The others were probably training and having last-minute strategy discussions, anyway. Besides, Everlast was making rather strong advances for a person as shy as she was, and I feared the escalation, as well as the fact that I would have given in if she proved dogged enough.

  “Hi Dandelion!” She greeted me the moment I stepped foot outside the scribes’ guild. “Do you mind if we walk together to the stadium?”

  “No, not at all.” I smiled, genuinely amused by her persistence.

  She’d probably been waiting to ambush me for hours. And her chaperone allowed it, meaning her order’s leadership were thinking either of recruiting me or my child. On a completely unrelated note, Lady Frostgrave was conspicuously absent for this event. Despite her ward’s participation.

  “So,” she started after we had moved away from the guild a bit. “What do you think is going to be today’s event? Hunting? Survival? Endurance?”

  “I just hope it isn’t an event that favors teams.” I had naturally read the extensive records describing the previous tournaments, and to say the challenges were diverse was an understatement.

  They went from straight up arena combat, through stalking and hunting saurians, all the way to commanding massive armies of awakened beyond your realm to fight each other. The last one happened only once, and was a complete mess, since your subordinates moved and acted faster than you could process what was happening.

  It seemed like a great humbling experience, getting swatted by mirages at the seventh or eighth realm, but there was little talent or learning involved.

  “I think going against you as a full team is the only way we can win. And even then, I’m not certain.”

  “You’re overestimating me,” I said with a warm smile, but she wasn’t. Not really.

  Based on the first event, only the full power of the Swordpeaks could defeat me, and I wasn’t all that certain they could. The Diamonsouls were nominally the second most powerful force, but they specialized in runic seals, meaning they were doomed in a direct confrontation.

  “What kind of event are you hoping we get?” I asked.

  “A hunt in an enclosed space. It would be best if it’s under water or in caves made of ice; that would give us an even greater advantage.”

  “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t believe there was ever an underground level.”

  “I know. It’s wishful thinking. Besides, we didn’t do that badly. Perhaps not quite as good as the Explorer’s Gate, but placing twenty-ninth is very good, considering two outliers wormed their way into the top ten.”

  We kept chatting, me carefully driving the conversation towards safe topics, while Everlast tried to steer it more towards personal topics. We made it to the colosseum without incident and separated.

  I went to wish good luck to the handful of familiar faces before going into a corner, waiting for the organizers to signal the start of the event.

  One moment I was standing there waiting; the next, I stood before a rundown wooden wall, unfit to be called a palisade.

  “Welcome to my realm.” A voice that reminded me of a eunuch sounded from above, explaining the trial. “I have been asked to create a realm that would challenge and help the younger generation improve their abilities and power. Our race has been struggling with the inhabitants of the wealds for generations of awakened and for hundreds of generations of commoners. Being able to overpower the beasts has always been important; in fact, our first victories against them represent a pivotal moment in history and our rise to awakened culture as a whole. As such, I shall seek to recreate those ancient times here.”

  “Help me,” a child squeaked behind the wall, but I ignored the illusory props, focusing on the realm ghost’s voice.

  “Your task is to protect the helpless and keep them alive as long as possible from an onslaught of savage manabeasts. The walls can take five attacks, but by following the path to its source, you can repair the corresponding wall. Should you dare venture into the jungle, you may find other benefits, or even items provided by those maintaining this realm. I mentioned additional benefits; they include permanently reinforced walls in the lane from which you have entered the jungle, ten additional civilians to protect, traps along the lane you are defending, and more. Larger teams are split into random groups of five to leave enough deep jungle to make locating these items difficult and to make reinforcing other paths at least somewhat inconvenient.”

  The NPCs kept whispering behind me, probably trying to unnerve me, but I waited calmly for the speaker to finish.

  “I believe most of my… fellows… will choose trials which favor the strongest member of any given group. I find this ridiculous. Armies break because of the weakest link, not the strongest, so I shall test how well you can cover your flaws and help the weaker members of your teams. The tournament placement is based on how long you resist the onslaught of attacks, with waves starting three minutes apart. Each wave will be gauged to eliminate roughly a third of the contestants, and you lose once all your villagers perish. The challenge begins.”

  Stampede thundered from straight in front of me. Trees swayed all around as artificially as a computer game environment while the saurians were obviously coming down the path void of foliage.

  Let’s see what this one will be like.

  I charged forward, Batsy III ready to crack some illusory heads.