Return of the Runebound Professor

Chapter 906: Isabel & Friends

Isabel wasn’t looking for anyone in particular during the banquet.

She didn’t see the point of it. It would accomplish nothing that time wouldn’t. Even if she somehow managed to stumble into half of her friends, it wasn’t like they could leave the tournament at this stage. They’d all get teleported back to their rooms for the duration of the tournament. If even one of them was missing, they’d have no choice but to keep at it.

There was no way they’d be leaving Aqua Terra with even so much as one person missing. Isabel had no doubt that everyone else had managed to make it here. They were all in the tournament, in some round or another. Some of them were in the higher brackets, of course. But they were here.

And if they were all here, then searching now would accomplish nothing but burning energy. The best way to find everyone — that she and Todd were quite certain all the others had realized as well — was to perform well enough and get far enough in their respective tournament brackets.

This banquet was doubtlessly just the first of the social events that the tournament would have. Pretty much every single competitor had made it this far. But in a few rounds, the same wouldn’t be true. And that would be when they had a reasonable chance of actually finding each other.

The challenge was making it that far.

It was possible. Isabel was certain of that. They just had to be smart about things. And that meant taking precautions prior to the fights they entered. It meant accounting for the fact that they might not be the strongest people in their group. It meant assuming that every opponent they went up against was probably stronger than they were. And it meant leaving absolutely no room for anyone to gain the upper hand on them.

Fortunately, she and Todd had experience with having to deal with more dangerous opponents. But wasn’t Arbalest anymore. Things had unfolded differently there. She could still remember the violent knot that had twisted her stomach the first time she’d gone to the Linwick Estate with Noah.

When she’d seen Dayton’s estate.

It had felt like her gut was going to screw itself into a ball. The knowledge of being so close to one of the bastards that had killed her parents and being entirely unable to anything about it but stare and dream of power… that sensation had never left her.

That wouldn’t happen again.

She wasn’t nearly as weak as she had been. And, more importantly, she wasn’t nearly as stupid. There would be no more posturing. No trying to make sure her enemy knew who it was that had killed them. This wasn’t personal. There wouldn’t be any emotions involved at all.

All that mattered was victory.

So, while Isabel wasn’t looking for anyone in particular, she was listening for any information that she could find about her opponents. She’d expected it to be a bit difficult. After all, there were a lot of people in the tournament. A lot of them.

It turned out that her fears had been greatly exaggerated. That was the funny thing about having a banquet where everyone knew that they were surrounded by the very people whose attention they were trying to get.

Everyone bragged. Even though concealing their abilities would have been the smartest move for later fights, this whole tournament was equal parts a skill and popularity contest. It didn’t matter if you didn’t get as far as you wanted if someone picked you up earlier.

And nobody seemed to boast more about their abilities than the ones in the lowest bracket. The Rank 4s had the most to prove, after all. They were the weakest mages here. That meant they had to posture the most to try and wrest attention away from the far more interesting Rank 5 and 6s, much less the 7s.

It was actually a pretty clever strategy. For anyone hoping to get recruited, bragging and trying to get attention now was actually their best bet. It was incredibly unlikely that some Faction Head would give much of a shit at all about a Rank 4. They’d be looking for more powerful mages.

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That meant the Rank 4s were aiming for the weakest of the strong. The people who would be more willing to take a risk on a mage that might end up not having nearly as much potential as they seemed. That made a pretty strong argument for trying to get picked up now, rather than trying to perform well enough to get the attention of someone more powerful by making it later in the tournament.

All that worked out quite well for Isabel. She had absolutely no plans of sharing the slightest amount of information about her own abilities. Unlike the rest of the people here, it wasn’t like she wanted to get recruited. This was just an obstacle in her way. The circumstances were really quite beneficial. She’d already started to put together general profiles for the most dangerous of her opponents.

Between what people claimed about themselves and what others said in idle discussion about the matches they’d been in, it started to paint a picture for her. It wasn’t a perfect one. She knew that people were going to be even more prone to lying and exaggeration now than they would be in normal situations. But once this banquet ended and she got a chance to exchange information with Todd, they’d be even clearer on what the other people in their bracket were capable of.

Unfortunately… the information wouldn’t be exhaustive. Isabel was fairly certain there were a few others who had been trying the same strategy. Not everyone was dense enough to go telling everyone the full extent of their abilities in attempt to get recognition.

There would inevitably be some Rank 4s hoping to somehow get the attention of someone really strong. Even though the chances were astronomically low, the Rank 4s that made it to the very top of their bracket probably had a small possibility to get picked up by one of the more powerful factions.

And anyone shooting for that level of recognition wouldn’t be trying to show off too much now. They’d be concealing their strength in the hope that it would give them even the smallest advantage over their real competitors. But even they couldn’t hide forever. People took notice of the strong. Even if they were holding back, they still had to win their rounds. And people spoke. Secrets came out.

Isabel had already identified a few of them. She wasn’t sure exactly how powerful they were, but just knowing who to keep an eye on would help if she happened to run into them.

She was also vividly aware that she wasn’t the only one doing this. There were several other masked mages that she’d caught slipping through the crowds at similar intervals to her. They were definitely searching for information. Some had even headed in her direction a few times, but she’d managed to lose them whenever they tried.

There was nothing good that would come from talking with them. It was best to avoid them. But they were nothing if not persistent. She’d spotted them enough times that it was almost starting to feel like they were following her.

They weren’t, of course. That would have been ridiculous. There were multiple other Rank 4s that were worth investigating. Spending all their time on her was pointless. It probably just felt that way because they were all employing similar strategies.

Even still, Isabel kept moving.

There was no need to press her luck.

***

Todd repressed the urge to sigh.

He’d been tracking Isabel from the moment the masquerade had started, using the heavily Imbued ring that he’d made her. She was currently deep into the crowd, so far into the massive hall that trying to find her would have probably taken an hour.

It also would have been entirely pointless. There was no need for them to try and look for information in the same area. He was really only keeping tabs on her to see how things were going on her end. One never knew what would happen in places like this. And if a fight broke out, he wanted to make sure he could get to her quickly.

His ring didn’t give him too much information. It just told him her general location and gave him a general stream of information about the domains around her. As it turned out, Aqua Terra’s interference with the senses didn’t do nearly as well against Imbued objects.

He was more than able to determine who Isabel was next to by the unique signatures of their magic.

And as far as Todd could tell, Isabel had been getting tracked by the tournament organizers for at least half an hour. He didn’t recognize the signatures of the mages following her, and they were far too powerful to be other Rank 4s. Nobody else would have had a reason to pay her any attention.

Isabel didn’t even seem to notice. But that was just how she was. She probably thought they were other competitors, not having even processed for a moment that her performance thus far would be worth trying to recruit.

Todd’s lip twitched in amusement as he felt Isabel effortlessly throw off one of the mages trailing her and dart in the other direction.

She was running rings around Rank 6 mages without even being aware of it. This was almost certainly going to end up drawing more attention her way. The other recruiters were going to notice that a mere Rank 4 was somehow avoiding people far more powerful than her.

But it would take them time to do that. For now, she’d be fine.

Todd rose from the table he’d momentarily occupied to turn back to the party. He couldn’t spend too much time worrying about Isabel. He had to keep an ear out for the rumors as well.

And when the recruiters finally did manage to track Isabel down… Todd had a few tricks that he’d spent the last few months creating to make sure that they’d find nothing at all.