Round Robin Preliminaries
In the end, none of the qualified participants stepped forward to answer the King.
"Hey, Evan." Mille spoke her mind in the party chat. "Soul Demolitionist– that's your class, right? Isn't that what the King is after?"
Where did she get that from?
"Probably."
"Then why aren't you stepping up?"
"Because I don't want the whole world to know."
"Oh, it's kind of too late for that. I've been livestreaming this whole event."
"WHAT! SINCE WHEN?!" Evan completely lost his poise.
"Since the teleportation gates."
An unpleasant sensation crept up Evan's spine. Who on Aerth would want to reveal their secret cards to the whole world?!
Evan had always suspected that there was more to his class than its two-word representation, 'soul' and 'demolitionist'.
For one, 'soul' represented something widely intangible and mystical. Moreover, 'demolitionist' would represent the potential devastation and destruction the class summoned on the battlefield.
Was it that straightforward though? No.
Evan now believed that there was a more intricate puzzle behind his class. His class Quest had given him that clue. The devastation wasn't purely physical and could be ascribed to harvesting the souls of other Soul class players.
In a sense, it meant that his repository of explosives only represented half of the spectrum. The other half was aimed at the soul of a player. In other words, there was a connection between him and other Soul class players.
The game title finally made sense!
Knowing Mille, and knowing that Mille's viewers already got a taste of his special class traits, it was too late to relent.
"Ah, screw it." Said Evan, raising his hand.
The King's gaze shifted toward him.
"Hoh. Adventurer, step forward and let your answer be heard." The Edin King announced to everyone in the audience.
Evan hesitated but eventually took small strides toward the forefront of the qualifiers.
"Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses." Evan bowed in the direction of the king, the queen, and the princes and princesses at the podium.
Back home in Nightland city, the Cleverly family were all stupefied.
"Holy shit, is he about to–" Ken couldn't even finish his sentences.
Lisa even forgot to scold Ken, too taken in by what was happening on the Holovision.
Evan paused to exact the answer that had been scrambling his mind.
He wasn't the only one that had decided to step forward to answer this particular question. Elsewhere, in other dukedoms, kingdoms, empires, and smaller settlements situated in the east, plenty of players had decided to do the same.
Whether they were brave or stupid was up for debate.
"It all starts with meeting my Guardian, Raphael of Amber." Evan then spoke of the events that followed– how he'd decided to opt for the Nigh Impossible riddle, how he'd gotten the opportunity to choose a Soul class, of course, omitting which class he had chosen, and finally, revealing his Class Quest.
"This leads me to the answer. To be Soulbound is a path given, not chosen. As I recall, adventurers of Aerth are proficient in different specialties. Some wield magic while others excel in physical combat.
To be Soulbound is to go beyond the magical and the physical. It's a path to transcendence.
I believe that everyone, when the circumstances are timely and opportune, will have the chance to walk on the same path I am treading upon.
To be Soulbound comes with benefits, but also hidden dangers and competition between our peers, and I'm ready to stand at the top. I am Midnight and I am a possessor of a Soul class.
Bound by my fate, I shall overcome all challenges that lie ahead. For I am Soulbound!"
At least, his speech would have sounded something like that if he had actually raised his hand in the first place.
No way in the deepest and most troubling pits of hell would he actually put a large X-shaped target on his back.
"Hey, look at me! I've got a Soul class."
If someone was actually stupid enough to come forward, they were either very brave or very stupid. Probably the latter, because these players were now the targets of every other Soul class possessor.
Sure, Evan was angry with Mille for doing something unannounced, and he was already scolding her in the party chat. But the milk was already spilled. At least some of it.
What they needed to do now was damage control.
Luckily, Even had only revealed his Oak-Leaf Boomerang and tossed a few Makeshift Grenades. The grenades could be purchased and used by any class from various NPC vendors. The issue was his boomerang, exposing the fact that he had an abnormal class.
Therefore the problem became Mille's continued stream, which would continue to reveal more of his secrets. Using skills like Soul Blitz would definitely stand out!
"Does it matter though?" Mille shot back in the party chat. "The Recordigoes have a much larger viewer base than my stream. Your secrets will be revealed eventually if you plan to get far in the tournament."
"Oh." Evan realized.
"Just call yourself a Demolitionist and remove the Soul part. No one will know the difference. At least I wouldn't." Facebasher reconciled.
That was actually a pretty good idea.
The opening ceremony continued without much fuss. As the King's speech ceremoniously ended and a round of applause subsided, a young announcer in his early 30s entered the field below the royal podium.
"Good evening, everyone! Now, let's get the tournament officially started!"
Another round of applause filled the Colosseum, this time with greater jubilee than the King's uneventful speech. Everyone was here to witness the action, not some grand sod asking superfluous questions.
"Among the qualified participants, there are exactly 136 adventurers that have shown their prowess in some way.
The Edin regional preliminaries are split into three separate brackets. Three-versus-threes, four-versus-fours, and five-versus-fives. Take a look!"
Many of the smaller Recordigoes went out of their previous formations, and together they began to form square shapes, projecting snippets of light that created holographic screens of each bracket for everyone in the audience to witness.
Excitement and enthusiasm filled the Colosseum as oohs and aahs came from the respective directions of the seated audience.
—
[New Braves Tournament:] [Edin Kingdom Preliminaries!]
[3 versus 3] [16 teams] [48 participants]
[4 versus 4] [12 teams] [48 participants]
[5 versus 5] [8 teams] [40 participants]
—
"As you can see, there are more teams in the three-versus-three bracket!" The announcer continued. "That doesn't mean they will have to win more matches to advance to the single-elimination stage! How does this work, you might ask. We will follow a round robin tournament system!"
He gestured toward a new, larger screen as the Recordigoes concentrated their projections, displaying new information.
—
[Round Robin Format:]
[Rules:
All three brackets and their teams fight for 4 rounds against other teams in the next four days.
Win condition: At least one surviving team member.
Every team starts with 10 Preliminary Team Points (PTP) per match. If all members survive, 1 additional PTP is awarded after the battle.
1 team member Death equals 9 PTPs if victorious. Two team member Deaths equal 8 PTPs if victorious. Further team member Deaths will not lower the PTP score upon victory. Losing a Team Leader will cause the loss of 2 additional PTPs regardless of a win or a loss.
Loss condition: No surviving team members remaining.
The losing team will earn no victory points, but can still redeem PTPs for Kills acquired during a match. Team member and Team leader Deaths still apply.
Kill rewards: Team member 1 PTP, Team leader 2 PTPs.
Other: Forfeiting a game will earn the opposing team a maximum score of 11 PTPs. Deaths will not sanction any Guardian's Nurture penalties, what adventurers refer to as experience, during the tournament!
[Bracket Example: 3-versus-3
Round 1: Team 1 vs team 16, team 2 vs team 15, team 3 vs team 14, et cetera
Round 2: Team 1 vs team 14, team 2 vs team 13, team 3 vs team 12, et cetera
Round 3: Team 1 vs team 12, team 2 vs team 11, team 3 vs team 10, et cetera
Round 4: Team 1 vs team 10, team 2 vs team 9, team 3 vs team 8, et cetera]
—
Murmurs and conversations filled the Colosseum. Everyone in the audience and the separate teams initiated discussions around the round robin format and its rules.
"Looks legit, guys. We won't be up against the same team twice." Facebasher stated. "What do you think about the points system?"
"If we win all four matches we can potentially earn 40 points, plus additional points from kills, minus the deaths we will acquire." Sightseer analyzed. "There's also a higher chance that a three-man team will have three surviving team members at the end of a fight."
"Pft, none of us are gonna die! We'll send everyone flying!" Mille cheered, pointing to the sky and posing for her livestream viewers.
"That's probably why they implemented the extra PTPs for Kills to balance things out for the bigger teams." Evan deemed, ignoring Mille since he was still royally pissed off at her.
The announcer hushed the crowd.
"Now, let me present you the match-ups of each bracket! First the three-versus-three bracket!"
All the players in the three-man teams became attentive and measured who they were up against in the first round.
Soon, it was the four-versus-four bracket's turn to be displayed. The Recordigo bots had once again separated and formed their own little square, displaying the match-ups for the four-man teams.
Evan's eyes narrowed in on his team 3 and the opponent's team 10 that they would be facing in the first round.
—
[Round 1:
...
Team 3 (Havocking Bunnies) versus Team 10 (Relentless Iron Fists)
...
—
Evan's party tried to locate the other team, but it was hard to tell in a crowd of over a hundred players. In either case, they'd soon find out anyway. Though it was a missed opportunity since they couldn't obtain any information on their foes beforehand!
Once all three brackets had been presented, all the participants were to enter one of three portals. The portals would then lead each team and their opponents to a randomly designated area near Harshwood Citadel where the first round's matches would play out.
"Wish us luck, guys!" Mille encouraged her viewers as they entered the four-person team portal.