“The free for all is starting in 5 minutes,” the announcer said. 

I was waiting in the tunnel behind the gates into the fields. The rules had already been explained and were basically fight until you were done, and then there were pills that you could bite that would turn you gaseous, which would allow you to get away from the fighting.

These were actually surprisingly advanced for the relatively low number of magic herbs that I left. My best guess is that someone had residual memories in their soul of being an alchemist.

“One minute remaining until the battle to determine the fates of the contestants in the tournament begins,” the announcer says in an overdramatic tone of voice, “The betting tables are taking bets for up to three more minutes on how long the free for all match will take.”

I grin as they finally open the gates, allowing us to exit onto the field. From what I could tell, there were just over a hundred people, which likely meant that it would be about seven rounds of the singles tournament.

“3… 2… 1… FIGHT!!!”

Almost a dozen people were knocked out in the first five seconds after it began. I almost immediately find myself facing an older tigerkin, who really looks like he would have been a Navy SEAL if they existed in this world. However, he also clearly couldn’t use Mana or Aura shields, which would have created a tell-tale shimmer around him, which left him at a rather large disadvantage against me, though I’m pretty sure that he would have crushed everyone else there given the chance.

Why am I so sure of this? Probably because two hours later, we were still fighting, and it was another hour after that that I defeated him, thanks in large part to the shields and enhancements I had put on myself. Likely if he had been a single level higher, I wouldn’t have beaten him.

“Sir, we have been instructed to take you to one of the Arena bathing areas to wash off,” one of the staff told me as I left the ring.

Looking down at myself, I realized that I was covered in blood, dirt, sweat, and bile from when I threw up after a bad blow to the gut. I likely would have been taken out then and there, but three other people in the free for all attacked him immediately afterward, giving me just enough time to recover before he was free to attack me again.

“Yeah, I could really use a bath.”

They led me through the training area, leaving me at the entrance to the baths. Going into the bathing area, I stripped down before stepping into the water. I sighed at the relaxing warmth of the water and spent around 30 minutes in it. After that, I went through a process eerily similar to that of the Roman Baths. I was steamed, sweated, oiled, scraped off, then finally cooled, and left the bathing area feeling extremely refreshed. I was also forced to use the gaseous pill, which it turns out is not perfected, as it leaves behind everything that you have on you. Luckily, this does include dirt being left, unfortunately, it includes any armor you might be wearing as well.

“When do I need to be back?” I asked the person in charge of organizing the competition.

“You need to be back by midday tomorrow in order to compete in your first match,” he responded, “You will compete in up to six matches over the next two days, as a result of the odd number of contestants, while several people will have to fight seven matches.

“If you get to the top sixteen, the prize is ten gold, top eight is twenty-five gold, top four is fifty gold, top two is a hundred gold and an audience with the king, champion in two hundred fifty gold and an audience with the king.”

“Ok, I’ll be here at eleven to get ready then,” I said before going back to the Wandering Inn. I didn’t care if I got free sleeping areas while competing, it would be far more rejuvenating to sleep in an actual bed and eat real meals. Luckily, I had at least been able to confirm today that the leveling system was working like intended.