207 – Dungeon Competition Awards Ceremony
Almost surprisingly, nothing happened when they appeared on the other side. They just appeared on another temporary teleportation platform in a small room, and were brought down a hallway to a dressing room. The dressing room was partitioned, and each side had two showers, so Telvir and Frank took one side, and the girls took the other as they washed up and prepared for what was apparently going to be an award ceremony. There were clothes laid out for them, uniform in style with the University’s logo embroidered on the chest so they wouldn’t have to deal with their Dungeon clothes, though the employee who explained this all mentioned that they could just wear their Dungeon clothes if they wanted.
They also asked for any materials they had gathered in the Dungeon, as well as maps they may have made and information they may have gathered. Hannah was in charge of all that, and gladly handed it over. In fact, she seemed a bit proud of the small stack of maps she had created, and for a good reason. They had actually gotten quite lucky by being placed near the wyrms, since that region was constantly shifting as new tunnels were made and old ones collapsed. The map would not actually be too useful, as the region would change unrecognizably over the next few months, but it would give them a lot of points for exploration.
Elise let Sophie and Hannah use the showers first, taking the time to sit down in a chair and focus her senses outward. As far as she could tell, they were underneath an auditorium of some kind, and the hall was filled with other groups just like theirs who were preparing for the awards ceremony. There were far too many people for her to check all of them, but just her cursory once-over didn’t spot anything overly suspicious.
Once she had verified that they were safe, or at least as safe as she could reasonably verify, she summoned the communication scroll given to her by Oberon from Astrid’s Star and shot him a quick message asking if anything strange was going on with Ostra. The response was immediate, and only made her more concerned, as he mentioned that he had not heard anything from anyone in Ostra in a few days. This wasn’t actually unusual for him, since he wasn’t really all that connected with the organization, but he did promise he’d send one of his clones to investigate once it was done with its current task (an affair with a countess).
An hour passed uneventfully. Elise showered and changed her clothes into something more formal, but still practical. She stashed the University-provided clothes away, just because, but she opted to change her custom outfit to something completely different, a forest green dress that was elegant enough for the occasion, but light and loose enough not to inhibit her movements. She also donned the rest of the jewelry set that Hallbjorn had given her. The rest of the enchantments would most likely not be all that useful, but it at least completed the look so the earrings didn’t stand out as much.
Between the lack of sleep over the past few days and the stress of both having a potential assassin, and not knowing why, she was starting to get twitchy. Every sudden noise made her turn, and every movement outside the door made her clutch at the teleportation scroll in her pocket. Her mood extended to the others, making them just as nervous, if not more so, than her.
Still, nothing happened for another half hour, and when a knock finally arrived at the door, it was just one of the University employees coming to ask them to get ready to take their seats.
They walked out into the hallway and joined the small procession of Dungeon Competition teams heading the same direction. Some of them were nervous as well, though for completely different reasons, of course. Elise heard excited whispers all around as the students talked about which of the other groups they thought would have won.
Though still keeping her attention on her surroundings in case of danger, Elise did eavesdrop on a few such conversations and was surprised at how well-informed some of the students were. She had hardly paid attention to the other teams, and was only vaguely aware of the names of some of the other clubs, but these other students seemed to know everything. And there was one name in all of their mouths. Attalaya.
It seemed that despite her reticent nature, Attalaya had built up quite the reputation. It made sense, since basically all the students participating in the Dungeon Competition would be taking combat classes of some kind, but apparently, enough of them shared a class with Attalaya that just about everyone knew her. And it seemed she was just as overqualified for those classes as she was for Basic Magical Combat, since she was the clear favorite.
Other names Elise heard being thrown around were Liam Grane, who was with the Pyromancy Club, someone named Freida from the Geomancy Club, and a certain Thaddeus from the Swordsmanship Club. None of them were in the same conversation as Attalaya, who seemed to be a lock for first, but they were suspected to be second place.
Interestingly enough, Elise actually heard her own name mentioned once or twice by whisperers who were not as quiet as they thought they were. She had apparently built up a bit of a reputation as well, mostly after beating Liam Grane in the duel. She didn’t hear if they thought she was in the running for second, but she did hear her name mentioned a few times.
They soon arrived at a staircase that took them up to a large waiting room where it seemed the entire lineup for the Rookie Dungeon Competition had gathered. One of the employees magically amplified their voice and explained what would happen next. Inside the auditorium, there would be tables for each team, and each table would also have the club’s mentor, so they just needed to find their mentor to know where to sit. This would be at some point in the next quarter hour or so, depending on how things inside went.
As the minutes ticked by, Elise found herself beginning to relax somewhat. If someone was waiting to ambush her, they would have done it already, and she couldn’t imagine an assassination taking place in such a public place. Not one from Ostra, at least. Publicly executing a monster—even a “traitor”—would not be good for their image. She didn’t completely let her guard down, but she was able to get less jittery, at least. For a minute or so. Then, she heard something that made her head whip to the side.
Hannah had at some point struck up a conversation with another girl as they were walking, and the conversation had turned to politics, and the other girl had just mentioned the name “Ostra.”
“…oddly secretive about the whole thing.”
“Well, it’s not like they’ll just release the details to the public,” replied Hannah.
“Yes, but my father said there was something strange going on. Count Abralor is my uncle, and he’s usually quite loose-lipped, but he hasn’t said a word about the peace summit. My father thinks he signed some kind of secrecy contract.”
“Did you say there was something suspicious about the peace summit?” asked Elise.
“Oh yes, very suspicious,” said the other girl, eager to have someone else to share her gossip with. “Well, that Ostra group was always suspicious, but don’t you find it strange that after everyone made such a big deal about the peace summit, there’s been no news of it since it began? Not even gossip!”
“Where did you hear that?”
“I’ve been talking to my sister ever since we got back,” said the other girl proudly. It seemed her entire family was a bunch of incorrigible gossips. “See, her ex is actually one of the Jelorian knights, and apparently, he was sent on a secret mission on the same day as the peace summit began, and he won’t say where. Well, it’s a secret, of course, but still, you’d think someone would spill.”
“Well, aren’t the knights oathbound to their order?” commented Hannah. “They wouldn’t be able to share secrets of the crown even if they wanted to.”
“Half of them hire contract breakers to get out of that as soon as they join,” said the other girl dismissively. “It’s not a very robust contract. The knights are actually terrible at keeping secrets. Except for right now, when none of them seem willing to say anything at all. My sister even broke up with her current boyfriend to seduce her ex again, and he still refused to say anything.”
What the heck is wrong with this family?
“My father did say that he couldn’t say anything over scroll…” said Hannah. “What do you think happened?”
“My sister thinks that the monsters killed the king.”
“What?!” said Elise. “Why would they do that?”
“Okay, hold on, just think about it,” said the girl, raising her hands. “These are monsters, right? And half of them are demons and fey, so they live waaay longer than us, so they could be, like, super strong. What if they killed the king, and replaced him, then forced everyone to obey them while threatening their families. They have a bunch of changelings infiltrating the noble houses, you know. They could totally hold everyone hostage. This whole peace summit was actually a ploy to take over Jelor.”
“Are you stupid?” asked Telvir, suddenly jumping in.
“What?” asked the other girl, taken aback.
“If they were going to do it, why bother with the peace summit? Why draw so much attention to themselves? Why not just assassinate and replace the king in secret?”
“…Oh yeah,” said the girl, scratching her chin. “But wait! They need to be public so that they can legalize themselves! So they need to draw attention to themselves.”
“But they already did that,” said Telvir. “They don’t need to draw even more scrutiny by causing trouble at the peace summit. In my opinion, it’s related to Empress Wei Lan. She was only added to the summit at the last minute, and depending on what news she’s brought from the east, it may have complicated things beyond what was initially believed.”
“Oh, that makes sense too,” said the girl.
Meanwhile, Hannah shot Telvir an appraising look, apparently unaware that Telvir was politically inclined.
“Speaking of Wei Lan, I heard that she found herself an Angel lover. Apparently, after the first peace summit meeting…”
Elise began to tune out as the girl turned the conversation to more meaningless gossip. She was tempted to try to bring it back to Ostra and the peace summit, but it sounded like she had already gotten as much as she could, since the main news seemed to be that there was no news. And while many others nearby were listening in, no one had bothered to add their own knowledge to the conversation, so if anyone else knew anything, they were keeping it to themselves.
And it wouldn’t have mattered, because before the girl even finished her story about the Immortal Empress and her definitely romantic, non-business meeting with the representative of the ainar, the University employee announced that it was time to enter.
One by one, the Dungeon Competition teams entered, taking seats at their designated tables. They found Professor Sucri quite easily, as the motherly woman had conjured roots from the ground to raise her chair high above the ground so they could see her. Many of the other mentors were doing similar things with their various specialties, though Elise was somewhat proud to say that Sucri’s display was one of the more elegant ones. It was at least better than the professors who were just using a basic {Levitate} to float.
The auditorium was arranged so that just below the stage, it was mostly open floor with tables for the teams, while the seating only started beyond that. Elise was somewhat relieved to see that not every seat was filled. There were still thousands present, but it didn’t seem to be too big of a spectacle. Especially when she knew that most of the seats in the audience were friends and family members, and occasionally scouts looking for potential interns and recruits.
They took their seats at the table while a small orchestra played a triumphant tune at the back of the stage and the audience applauded them. There was a man on the stage that Elise thought might have been the headmaster who was also smiling and clapping at them. When the students had settled in, and the applause died down, the man began giving a speech about the history of the University and the Dungeon Competition.
Elise mostly tuned him out, focusing instead on her surroundings, but after a few minutes, began to relax again. The lack of news worried her, but she was also fairly certain that at least until she left this room, she would be safe. If her assassin was some kind of anti-Ostra group, she might have been more worried about becoming a public example or something, but since it was internal, she doubted anything would happen.
Unless Firona is trying to create conflict…
That thought put her right back on edge for a few minutes, but then she started to relax again. She knew she was just unnecessarily stressing herself out. If an assassin could sneak up on her while she wasn’t on high alert, they could probably do the same while she was on high alert. There frankly wasn’t that much difference, at least in this setting. No one was moving around, so anyone who started doing so would immediately stand out, even if she wasn’t specifically keeping an eye out for something like that.
Also, the headmaster’s speech was boring. She wasn’t even paying attention, but something about the tone of his voice made her want to yawn. He was talking about some past graduates or something and how the Rookie Dungeon Competition had helped to shape their futures, and how it was an important milestone in students’ lives, and blah blah blah. Sophie was fidgeting with magic under the table, Frank was openly dozing off, and even Telvir and Hannah were struggling to appear interested.
Only after nearly half an hour did the headmaster finally wrap up his speech so they could get on with the event.
“...But I don’t want to keep you all waiting for too long,” he said with a smile and a wink. “So without further ado, let’s get to the results.”
…Does he think that speech helped to build up anticipation or something? Elise wondered. Anticipation for the speech to finally be over, maybe…
“This year's Rookie Dungeon Competition was one of—no, sorry. It was the best one in the University’s history. Not one, but two teams managed to break the all time points record, and even the third place team had what would have been the highest score in more than two decades. And on top of that, more than seven other all time records were broken, some not by any of those top three times. I dare say we may have some future archmages and battlemasters among us tonight.”
That statement was met with a brief round of applause before the headmaster continued.
“We must save the best for last, of course, so let us start with some of these new record holders. Cartography Club, please rise!”
A team at a table nearby rose to their feet giddily, and when Elise looked over, she was surprised to see her deskmate Cassie among them. She had not realized the girl was participating in the Dungeon Competition, but it did make sense that she would be with a club like the Cartography Club.
“This impressive group may not have the combat prowess of some of the others, but they managed to set a school record for most miles of Dungeon mapped! That achievement may not sound too impressive to many of you, but let me assure you, this is no small feat. A club with no combat specialization at all not only managed to safely navigate the Dungeon for five days, but they managed to safely navigate more of the Dungeon than any group of students has before. Why don’t we give them a big round of applause.”
The Cartography Club was beaming as they waved and bowed to the audience, and when it was time for them to be seated, one of them was so giddy he almost fell out of his chair.
“Next is the Monster Anatomy Club!” said the headmaster as another group stood. “This club only rarely participates in the Dungeon Competition, but when they do, they always bring interesting results. This year, they set the record for highest mass of usable material retrieved from the Dungeon. From meat to hide to fangs to eyes, they managed to successfully harvest nearly everything from nearly every monster they killed, and they did so with enough care and precision that in the end, it was almost all usable. And, on top of that, this is the record for both Dungeon Competitions, both rookie and official. Another round of applause!”
When their turn was up, the headmaster this time let the noise in the room fall to near silence, waiting an extra half minute before he started speaking.
“The other records broken this year were all broken by teams who placed within the top five, so let’s not waste any more time and jump right into the countdown. In fifth place with a very respectable 10,789 points, this team spent much of the competition delving as deep as they could go, ultimately defeating a late 7th tier monster to give their score an extra boost. Pyromancy Club, please come to the stage to accept your prize!”
The members of the Pyromancy Club stood and walked quickly up onto the stage. Elise saw Liam Grane wearing a bit of a sour expression as he walked, and couldn’t help but send him a quick {Whisper}.
“Don’t forget to smile.”
He flinched, nearly leaping into the air before locating her in the crowd and showing her a very unhappy smile before finishing his journey to the stage. The headmasters introduced the members one by one, giving Liam Grane extra time and extra praise for apparently having dealt the finishing blow to the aforementioned 7th tier monster. Liam seemed to genuinely cheer up at this, no doubt winning the headmaster many points of favor in his eyes before the club accepted their winnings and exited the stage.
The fourth place team was the Geomancy club, led by Frieda, a willowy girl with frizzy orange hair that Elise would never have guessed was an earth mage had she not been told. The Geomancy club had broken the record for most new tunnels created, apparently, though Elise wasn’t sure why exactly the University was tracking that particular factoid.
Third place was a dark horse in the competition, the Artificery Club, who had set the record for most explosives prepared, and used said explosives to wipe out an entire nest of 7th tier spiders. Their score of 13,984 was the highest in the past 23 years, behind only the top two teams. The headmaster mentioned that they actually would have scored higher, but they lost points due to a miscalculation in their explosive preparations, resulting in one of their members losing her leg. It could be regenerated, eventually, but it would be expensive, and the University would not be covering the costs due to it being self-inflicted. The headmaster tried to be grave and call this a lesson, but the effect was somewhat ruined by the girl in question smiling and waving and not looking at all bothered by the fact that her left leg was now a steel peg below the knee.
“As I said before these top two teams both scored better than the all time Dungeon Competition record,” said the headmaster when the Artificery Club left. “But I did not elaborate on exactly how much better they did. The second place team beat the previous Rookie Competition record by more than 1,000 points, and the first place team would have scored first place in last semester’s Official Dungeon Competition. Both of these teams had absolutely incredible performances, the likes of which the University has never seen, and likely will never see again…
“So, on that note, let us have a brief intermission.”
There was an audible groan from the audience as the headmaster made like he was walking off the stage. Then, he stopped and returned to the podium with a wide grin, his teeth bright white under his gray beard.
“Just kidding!” he said. “Let’s jump right in.”