“So… what did get you so excited? And why did you want to meet us in person so much? Couldn’t you use the chat?” As soon as we’re all seated, I glare at Ricard.

  He has been so persistent the past few days, asking again and again when we could meet, but for some reason, he didn’t want to tell us why. What’s worse, I’ve been trying to make him talk since I and my little sister sat at the table – he was the first one to enter the café near our university – but he has just been smiling ‘mysteriously’ without saying anything at all.

  I hate when his inner geek comes out. I’m so tempted to punch him right in the face… Luckily, now that Laura has come, he’ll stop acting like that and give us an answer.

  “Why? Are you curious?” He smiles foolishly. “You’re curious, aren’t you? Do you want me to tell you? Should I, or should I not–”

  “Baldy,” Laura cuts him, “If you aren’t going to tell us, we’re leaving you alone.”

  Although she sounds angry, which would be completely understandable in this situation, and her eyebrows are furrowed, I can see the tips of her lips slightly twitching up. Is she laughing at Ricard’s pathetic behavior? If he weren’t so annoying, I’d too…

  After hearing Laura, Ricard starts looking around in a panic. What’s wrong with him?

  “N-no! Don’t call me that here! What if someone heard it!?”

  Ooh, now I understand. He doesn’t like that, huh…? I never called him with his nickname in real life, so I didn’t know…

  But it makes sense. He doesn’t like his nickname, and this is a place frequented by all the students. We might be in the middle of vacation, but there’s always a chance one of the students who knows him is nearby.

  If that’s so…

  “Yeah, Baldy,” I say. “Weren’t you so eager to tell us, Baldy?” I make sure to put extra emphasis every time I say his nickname. “Baldy. Tell us already, Baldy. We’re extremely curious, Bald–”

  “S-stooooooop!” Ricard’s sudden shout makes everyone in the café turn to look at him.

  You didn’t want to get anyone’s attention? Good job, Ricard. Truly, what a good job.

  His reaction makes me chuckle. Mentally, I start clapping. Hahaha, that’s payback for being so annoying. You got what you deserved, Baldy.

  Aah, I suddenly feel a lot better. I wonder why.

  Ricard lowers his head in shame, covering his red ears as his eyes spin around. I snap him with a flicker to his forehead.

  “Tell us already and stop acting like a fool,” I tell him. “Nobody will care about you if you stop acting like a madman.”

  He takes a long breath. Then, his eyes start shining in a dangerous light.

  Oh, no…! It’s coming…!

  “Right before summer ends, there’s a large Dungeon Masters Arena event that everyone is looking forward to.” I didn’t know ‘I’ meant ‘everyone’ now. “Unlike the other event we participated in or the Mystery Event, this one is taken very seriously by the players because it keeps a formula a lot more similar to the usual Dungeon Invasions. If you succeed in this event, you may get famous!”

  Famous? Famous for people like Ricard? I might prefer staying as a nobody…

  “Oh, do you mean the one our sister–”

  “Yes. That’s the one,” Ricard rudely interrupts Clara before she can finish speaking. “This is the competition Anthemia first won, displaying not only her battle skills but also her strategy and capacity to adapt to new circumstances. She was the one who won the first time they did this event, in the most competitive of all categories: single player.”

  So he’s saying Marta, our older sister, got famous after winning this thing? Now I’m a bit curious…

  I know she’s one of the top DMA players in the PvP rankings, and her dungeon is always within the top hundred for Dungeon Invasions, but this doesn’t explain why she’s so well-known. Other players in similar positions aren’t nearly as popular as her. They might be popular or well-known but that’s just because they reached the top. If you ask a random player about them,

  For example, you can’t compare the player’s expectations every time our sister plays against Incognita, who most players consider her rival, to when some random top players fight, like Calixtroso and Imbatibilix.

  Umm… who were they again? Do they actually exist? I might have made up their names on the spot, hahaha!

  “Stop talking about their sister and talk about the event,” says Laura. “You asked us to meet in person, so don’t waste our time. How is this event any different from the one we participated in?”

  Laura’s remark snaps me out of my thoughts. Ricard must have been explaining stuff about how Anthemia won that competition.

  Clara shows a bit of disappointment at the sudden interruption but doesn’t complain. She knows that Ricard can spend a whole day talking without saying anything, and being on the receiving end isn’t nice.

  Oh, I’ve missed part of Ricard’s explanation! How (un)lucky!

  Ricard, unperturbed by Laura’s interruption, starts explaining once more.

  As long as he’s the one who’s talking, he can’t get angry. No, seriously. I’ve tried it before, and as long as he’s talking about something he likes or he’s interested in, he’s the happiest man in the world.

  You can pinch him, insult him, or even swear you’ll kill him if he doesn’t stop… but he’ll just laugh at it and continue with his explanation.

  “Oh? Ah, yes. So the main difference between the two is that this event isn’t separated by levels. Every player participates with their current level and assets, which makes it very hard for newbies to shine. But at the same time, if you do reach a certain amount of success, it makes you shine even more! Another big difference is that there are three categories, depending on the number of players on each team. There’s the single-player one, the duo, and the four-player team categories.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Wow… for a moment I thought he’d run out of oxygen… He didn’t stop to take a breath in all of that!

  “Though the fewer participants in each team there are, the more competitive the category is. Just as an example, almost all the top players participate in the single-player category because it’s the one most people watch…”

  Wait, he’s still going!?

  Despite my surprise, Ricard proceeds to explain everything about the event, from how the teams work, to the limits and requirements of the dungeon, to how the matches are decided, and so on.

  He explains every, single, fucking, detail.

  I’m not kidding. By the time he ends, the sun has set and the café, which was packed when we came in, becomes almost empty.

  “...and that’s why I thought it would be a good thing if we could participate in a team of four. We can’t compete with pro and high-level players anyway… But we’re used to playing together, and if we’re lucky, we might get some fame! What do you think about it?”

  Ricard finally ends his monologue.

  ‘Aaaah, I want to go home and kill myself…’

  I almost spill my thoughts out loud. My brain feels like it’d melt at any moment now…

  When I look around, Clara makes a similar face to mine. Only Laura kept up with Ricard’s explanation.

  “So, in short, it’s a chance to show how good we are. We’ll create a dungeon and that dungeon will be fixed throughout the whole event. We can’t change the layout, nor can we change the monsters or traps…”

  Is she… is she our savior!? She’s perfectly resuming everything Ricard said in such a way that my brain can keep up.

  “This means we need to get info on our opponents as the matches continue and adapt on the go. Furthermore, unlike the first event, we’ll have to decide who goes on offense and defense before the match starts, as there’s no connection between dungeons. And as always, the first team to destroy the other team’s core wins.”

  Thanks for the summary, Laura! I love you. Well.. not in that kind of meaning, you know what I mean.

  Laura smiles at me and winks. Wait. She can’t read minds, can she?

  “That’s right,” Ricard nods, assuming his ‘sage’ persona once more. “That’s how it goes.”

  Wait a moment... Why couldn’t you explain it like she did? Why did you have to waste three hours of our lives to explain it!? I want my time back, you bastard!

  “And the reason I wanted to talk to you before the event comes is because we must use this time to train! To achieve perfection, one must train their body and mind! Hahaha!”

  How do you train your body inside a game… You know what? Let’s forget about it.

  “But how are we going to train? Do you know another team?”

  Ricard flinches at Clara’s question. I can see his eyes quivering for an instant before he awkwardly coughs. “T-that’s… I, I don’t know, but…”

  Is there something he doesn’t want to tell us?

  “...ah! I know! Why don’t we split into two teams and fight each other with the same rules as the event? We fight two versus two a few invasions, keeping the same monsters and layout all the time, but try to change tactics between each match to beat the other team. This way, we can learn how to adapt and change our tactics…”

  Well, we can try. There’s no easy way because the rules don’t match either Dungeon Battles or Dungeon Invasions, though.

  In PvP, the game allows you to use elements from two different players but doesn’t allow you to defend your dungeon. In PvE, you can defend your dungeon… but can only use elements from your own faction.

  The closest to what Ricard explained and Laura so kindly summarized would be the PvP rules, though it’ll force us to go on the offense all the time.

  Well, we had experience defending our dungeons during the other tournament. It might be enough.

  Everyone agrees with Ricard’s proposal since we’re all free. The summer break is quite long for students.

  “So with this decided…” Ricard rubs his hands together, “...let’s decide the two teams! Who wants to pair with m–”

  “I’ll play with Andreu.”

  “Andreu, you’ll play with me, right?”

  Laura and Clara say at the same time. They grab my hand and arm respectively, surprising me with their sudden enthusiasm.

  “Why doesn’t anyone want to pair with me…” Mutters Ricard in a barely audible voice.

  “Did you say anything, Bald–”

  “N-no, I didn’t! I didn’t say anything!” He quickly cuts me off.

  I chuckle at his quick answer. It seems he’s really worried about someone listening to his nickname.

  Though I’m not sure who it could be, as the café is almost empty, and it’s his own doing.

  There can be multiple reasons why both Laura and Clara want to pair with me, some of which might not have anything to do with the game… but even if I were to ignore all the reasons why they could prefer me over him, I can come up with at least a few why they wouldn’t want to pair with him.

  For example, him talking to no end about the game and arguing about every single detail to achieve maximum ‘efficiency’, or because of how annoying and childish he can get. Today’s meeting is just yet another example of this.

  “You won’t leave me alone, will you…?” Ricard asks me with a fading voice.

  I shake my head. Haha, there’s no way I’m going through that again. Not when I have other options.

  I’ll save the… pleasure for the actual competition.

  Meanwhile, the two ladies argue in the background. They glare at each other, fire coming out of their eyes.

  “I know you played with my brother the past week and also not long ago. You wouldn’t mind giving this opportunity to me, right?”

  “You can see him every day. I should be the one to join him this time at least.”

  They don’t want to let go of this chance.

  I can understand why Clara is doing this. I’ve been spoiling her since long ago, and she’s a bit too childish for her own good. But Laura… why you too?

  In the end, I end up intervening between the two, but since they don’t want to give up even then, they end up deciding to rely on the infallible tactic of ‘rock, paper, scissors’. Which Clara wins, by the way.

  The other option was for me to choose between them. Yeah, no thanks… I’ll pass on that. I don’t want to have anything to do with that. Regardless of who I choose, I’ll be in trouble.

  “Yaay, hehehe! I’ll play with you, Andreu. Let’s quickly go back home and make plans on how to defeat them!”

  Contrary to my sister’s happy behavior, Laura glances at me with a sullen look on her face.

  “We’ll have to wait until another chance presents itself… Fufufu.” She winks at me.

  It isn’t like I had any preference either way… As long as I don’t have to pair with Ricard, I’m fine…

  My brain suddenly comes to a halt. Wait a moment! Isn’t Clara’s faction the Abyss!? I’ll have to work with those things!? Aaaaaaagh, shit! I should have chosen Laura instead of letting luck choose…!

  But then I would have had to face them in battle… I’m not sure which one is worse…

  “Then, Laura will play with me. Since we’ve decided on the teams, we can start training. How about tomorrow? The sooner the better…” Says Ricard. He then starts to chuckle before standing up, his arms wide open. “The League of Evil will reunite once more and inflict fear upon the world! Fuhahaha!”

  The few people remaining in the café turn to look at Ricard once more after his shout. This time, though, he doesn’t care about their stares.

  “Bal–”

  “Noooooooo!”

  As quickly as he stood up, Ricard sits down and covers his red face.