“Jurot, aren’t I strong?” Adam asked.

  “Yes,” Jurot replied.

  Adam slowly nodded his head. He checked his payment, and realised it was more than he expected, sidering his showing up to that point. ‘Yeah, he retty strong, I guess…’

  The day, Jurot and the other Iyrme with their oppos with retive ease. Adam tio bet, wanting to make as much free money as he could while iour. He no longer felt any gold troubles, and was gd for it.

  ‘My ons have probably aued off by this month? How much have they made me?’

  Ohe fifth fights were dealt with, the wo days were exhibitions to show off the prowess of various warriors and the great magie possessed. The military, the priests, and even the various orders put on a show for the crowd, taking donations as they advertised themselves, inspiring the people with their shows.

  Adam didn’t spend much time at the arena during the weekend, though allowed his group to watch as much as they wanted, using the party fund to pay for them. Instead, Adam spent time with Vonda, expl the market, which seemed as lively as ever.

  “What?” Adam asked ohey were back at the guild, with his group currently rexing together with drink and food.

  “The Grand Master of the Order of the Thousand Hunts is a Paragon,” Jurot repeated. “He has revealed his ability to use Fate spells during the exhibitions today.”

  “Oh,” Adam replied. “Nice.” ‘I guess that’s pretty big hen?’ Adam thought, though he couldn’t quite uand how big it was sidering he was certain the Iyr had far more Paragons than Aldnd.

  “He ow match King Merryweather,” Jurot said, seeing how lost Adam was.

  “Oh,” Adam replied, before his eyes fshed with even more surprise. “Oh! Wow. Yeah, I fot about that.”

  “Their bout would be too close to tell, but King Merryweather would have the slightest edge.”

  “That sounds like pretty big news, then.”

  “The city will speak of it for some time.”

  “Are there any other Paragons whrand Masters?”

  “There are two which are firmed,” Jurot stated. “The Order of Wings, and the Order of Three Hundred Bdes each have Paragons.”

  “Why would they not want to reveal it?”

  “There are many reasons to hide one’s strength.”

  Adam he look in Jurot’s eyes, before bowing his head slowly.

  “The Order of the Thousand Hunts has closed its gates,” Jurot said. “It is an order within the south, which is rebelling. They have decided to remairal, though some warriors, who had bee outside before the war began, have chosen to fight for King Bckwater.”

  “So they’re not ral?”

  Jurot slowly nodded. “The Grand Master remains withi Port. His presence will deter any skirmishes from approag too close to the city or the coast. Aswadasad has chosen against sending any ships he area sihe tour is ongoing, but ohe tour passes, and duskval approaches, they may think to send their navy.”

  “Aswadasad? Ah! They’re fighting their civil war and Aldnd at the same time, aren’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  “I wonder how the war is going…” Adam gnced around, before recalling Dunes wasn’t around. ‘ht.’

  “Prices have begun to increase i Port,” Jurot said. “Trade has decreased, and though tral Aswadasad deals with much of the food supply, East Port still o send some supplies southward.”

  “I heard the war was going to end before the year ends.”

  “It will,” Jurot said, with the certainty of an Iyrman’s truth. “It will be too costly for all sides to tihe war. her side will be able to make any signifit gains. Even Aswadasad’s borders have been drawn, with Aswabayad, the name of the eastern shendom, taking much of the northern forests, and has expaself southward towards what was once South Aswadasad, but is now an ejirate.”

  “How long ago did the borders shift like this in the regions?”

  “Aldnd has rarely ged borders, save for it expanding further north, it has remained a unified kingdom. There were various camities, pgues and great invaders, which had temporarily ged its borders for no more than a year at a time. Aswadasad, too, was simir, though it had lost much of its easterories during a terrible betrayal of family. However, Aswadasad is reisable today as it was during the formation of Aldnd.”

  “Two thousand years?”

  “Yes. Aswadasad grew much rger, expanding to cover most of the federacy, but that sted no more than a couple of geions, and its currently borders have remained near stant since.”

  “Damn,” Adam whispered. ‘Cool.’ “Oh, Fming Hyena, Rook, he was from Aswadasad wasn’t he?”

  “He is from the federacy,” Jurot stated. “The Golden Savages follow particur oaths, drawn from many of the merary groups which are active in the east. The region has a long history of meraries which follow such a path, and there have been many Merary Kings, though the title now holds less weight after the federacy of the Seventeen United Free Ejirates of the People of Many Bloods and Oribe.”

  “The what?”

  “It is the full title of the federacy.”

  “Oh…” Adam couldn’t recall any of the title. “What’s so special about them anyhow?”

  “It is a great pce,” Jurot stated. “The nd lit by her family, or people, but by the terrain.”

  “The terrain?”

  Jurot nodded. “Even the Western federacy, which was once a siate, split among its terrain. It had held the most influence, and gave it away, in the same way other states had, in order to form the federacy. It still holds the most sway over the western states, as they were all once part of Aswadasad, and share many of its beliefs and culture. The rgest state still dominates, si must do so.”

  “Why?”

  “Aswadabayad borders it, and it has held bad blood with the region for a long while. Ohe nd was ruled by a great Faro, whose renorobably as great as any Shen’s, though he was lorded over by the greatest Shen in history. The Shen of Shens, they titled him. The Faro was in charge of the western region during the beginning of the dee of the great empire. Once he passed, the territory lit between two brothers.”

  “Ah,” Adam said.

  “One brother killed the other. The child of the dead brother lived on to fight, and fought his uncle. He was killed too. His desdaually mao deal with the family which had betrayed them, and though there have been many ges of nd si ed long. The current borders have remained sihe federacy was formed.”

  “Damn,” Adam whispered. ‘I should go to the federacy.’

  “The Bloody River makes the current border,” Jurot said. “Aswabayad will surely wish to recim the eastern portion of the federacy, for it was ohe, now, Shen of Aswabayad’s territory. However, it will be difficult taierritory when evehe Shendom was whole, it did not wish to war with the federacy.”

  “Damn,” Adam whispered.

  “The road work in the western most ejirate of the federacy is the greatest.”

  “It’s roads?”

  “They call the roads the Web of Azhar, after the name of the Faro who started the project to ect the various settlements of the hills together,” Jurot said. “The only roads which match the ejirate is the neighb ejirate, which was also part of Azhar’s domain.”

  Adam whistled. “Damn. That sounds so cool. So is Rook from that particur ejirate?”

  “He is most likely from one of the various tribe states. They are those who refused to join the federacy, and are sidered ral territories, though some are antagonistic towards nearby regions. However, they are costly to deal with due to the fact they are typically within the hills, mountains, or the deserts. There are also greater threats to the federacy.”

  Adam leaned in slightly. “Greater threats?”

  “There are fifteen Dragons which are antagonist towards the federacy,” Jurot expined.

  “Fifteen?”

  “Yes.”

  “Didn’t Lady Shamia say that three of the ejirates had fallen? So that’s more than one per ejirate within the fedracy.”

  Jurot nodded.

  “That’s a lot ons which don’t like the federacy.”

  Jurot nodded again.

  “Damn.”

  “Rook must e from one of the various tribe states or free states, many of which provide great warriors as meraries,” Jurot expined. “Many are ral, and provide warriors for various resources. Eveates which are antagonistic provide warriors to other ejirates. It is often a sore spot for the ejirates which border such tribe states.”

  “Yeah, that would sound annoying.”

  “The Golden Savages e from one of the many merary groups of the tribe or free states. They are a group of six who are firmly Experts.”

  ‘Between Experts and Masters? So about Level 7 then?’ “They’re more experiehan I am, then.”

  Jurot watched as Adam thought. He was unsure of what Adam meant by that, certain that Adam was more experiehan them.

  Sihey had finished five fights, the preliminaries were over. Those who hadn’t gained enough points were cut off from the sed stage of the tour. The groups were also shuffled so it was unlikely for someoo face the same person again.

  Though Adam had defeated Bde and Rook, the pair had mao ehe sed stage of the tour, as well as the other ued warriors, whicluded the likes of Sir Roseia, Sir Karra, and Vasera.

  Though Jaygak had the opportunity to tinue fighting, she dropped out of the tour, not wishing to face against any of her panions. Kitool, Timojin, Amokan, and Jurot all had passed, and each held the title of Ued. There were still many warriors to fight, but the people of East Aldnd made note of how many Iyrmen had passed through. Each of the Iyrmen youth had also mao gaile of Ued, and so had Nobby.

  As the days passed, the fights almost seemed like repeats of previous fights. Adam beat his oppos with retive ease, still betting rge sums on himself and the others. There were three fights this time, the points adding to the previous round’s points, in order to find the best of each segment.

  There was also an importa he o deal with.

  “Happy birthday, Dunes,” Adam said, casting his Sending spell, which allowed him to sent a short message to anyone he knew.

  Dunes gnced around in the m, before looking to Korin. Then he realised what had happened. “Thank you, Adam. I wish you the best of lu the tour.”

  Adam wondered if he should tell Dunes he was about to p the top four, but there was something else he o deal with which was more important.

  “Happy birthday, Taygak,” Adam said, casting the spell a sed time on the same day.

  Taygak, who was currently in the middle of exerg, stopped, gng around. Kaygak threw a look to her daughter.

  “Thank you, Cousin Adam,” Taygak replied.

  Kaygak blinked. “Taygak?”

  “Cousin Adam, speaking,” Taygak said, tapping her head.

  ‘What?’ Kaygak thought, before taking Taygak to go see Elder Zijin.

  Meanwhile, the young Iyrmen prepared themselves for their st fights. Due to the fact all of them had mao reach the higher stage, some of them had begun to fae another.

  Nobby faced against Nirot first. It was a fight between two people who khe Rot family’s way. The hugely built Nobby mao forirot back almost immediately. Even with Nobby attag wildly, Nirot found that Nobby was much harder to hit than even Jurot. Nobby, somehow, was not only as strong as Timojin, he was almost as nimble as Kitool, and he was tougher than any of the monstre Dahat were Adam’s patriots.

  Nirot’s heart pounding heavily, and her lips almost formed a wild grin as she faced the monster known as Nobby. Thanks te, she sted lohan anyone who had faobby thus far, but she was eventually whittled down, like Jurot’s wood carvings, until she finally fell.

  “You did well,” Adam reassured her.

  Uwajin also faced Faool. The Rage Dancer had prepared herself, while Faned himself to his fate. He couldn’t bme Fate, as he had mao reach the top ten in his first ever tour.

  After the fight ended, Faool clutched his staff tightly, staring down at Uwajin. His face was full of uncharacteristifusion. The crowd erupted into hectic appuse as the greatest upset iire tour set them off.

  Even though Uwajin had forced herself scious from the first time she was knocked out, and had mao press Faool back, Faool had mao knock her down food. He stared at his staff, questioning how it had mao do it.

  ‘Uwajin lost?’ Naqokan thought, hearing of the defeat as she stepped into the arena. She exged gnced with Laygak.

  The Devilkin Iyrman approached her and took off his helmet to reveal his bewilderment, before bowing his head. “Okay?” he asked.

  “Okay,” Naqokan replied, as the pair prepared themselves.

  Spurred on by the knowledge that Uwajin had lost, Naqokan fought with an eveer abandohan typical as she faced Laygak. She had mao leave a deep dent into his shield as she found victory.

  Laygak sat beside his cousin, Jaygak, wing as he felt the pain in his arms. Jaygak pat his back, smiling down at her cousin who had mao p the top ten, as had the others.

  Naqokan sat beside Uwajin, who had accepted her loss to Faool. Though it was a shock to her, it did make sense, since Faool was quite skilled, and he could strike as many times as a typical Expert, though he wasn’t one himself.

  “The st phase is full of Fate’s Golden,” Vonda noted. “Even those iop ten, they’re mostly Fate’s Golden.”

  ‘Crazy,’ Adam thought, gng betweeeen Iyrmen. His pride was overtaken by his shock. Adam was sure Uwajin was going to win. He would have bet five hundred on her if he hadn’t made a rule not to bet when his people faced one another, but she lost to Faool?

  ‘The Ool family is so damn scary.’

  Shaool came to Adam’s mind, Kitool and Faool’s grandaunt. She was one of the first Iyrmen who had truly frightened him, and was sidered to be one of the top ten in the Iyr. ‘Yeah, that makes sense.’

  Adam had fotten it wasn’t just the top ten in the Iyr, but in all of Aldnd.

  Then came the st fights of their segment, with Jurot and the others also fighting that day. They had all mao win, as expected. Jurot and Amokan had mao take two of the top four spots.

  “What?” Adam had been worried something like this was going to happen. It was more than obvious that at some point the youth would be fag against one another due to how many of them there were in parison to the others in their age range.

  However, each of the older Iyrmen had yet to fae another since Jaygak faced Kitool, and somehow, Kitool was fighting another Iyrman. He gnced between Faool and Uwajin, w how this could be.

  As the bets came, Adam refused again, and the others took the same cue.

  Jaygak, too, refused to bet.

  “Who do you think will win?” Vonda asked.

  “Kitool will win,” Jaygak said.

  “Why is that?”

  “She should win if she beat me.”

  Adam narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Jaygak. ‘She’s starting to sound like me.’ Adam’s eyes fell to Kitool’s oppo. If Adam truly had to bet, and he wasn’t close with Kitool, he’d have bet against her.

  However, he had thought the same when the younger Jin and Ool faced against one another.

  The dice are scary, man.