"When you think about it. It makes perfect sense for him to be able to. Of all high-class people, he's at the peak. Apart from the governors' or the king's children." Oliver chimed in. His nerdy voice explained his thought process. There were a few nods of agreement amongst some.
"Even if he did beat he-". Nate started, but was cut off as an over-the-top yawn sounded out. A man, Jasper's age, smacked his mouth loudly.
He had on a leather jacket and had slicked black hair. His nose was big, and his sunglasses sat atop his head. "Are you done arguing with the guy? I need some damn sleep. I'm tryna do well at this Weekly Challenge tomorrow. Remember what happened last week?" He snarked.
Nate froze up. He and Trey looked a little ashamed for a moment. "Whatever, Nicolas. Everybody be up early and ready for the weekly challenge," Nate squeezed out.
"Who the hell said you can tell me what to do? I thought we decided you and Trey can't lead anymore?" The leather-wearing guy barked.
"It was a mistake, that shouldn't mean we can't ever lead again!" Trey reasoned.
"You've been on our ass about leading this whole time!" Nicolas said loudly. He wasn't done yet. "You've been leading us so far, and look at where our place is. You wanted to act all quiet when he brought up our rank, when it's your fault. You might have fooled some other people in the group that one thousand seven hundred something is actually 'not that bad'. But I have higher hopes, so you'd better stop acting like you lead a damn thing 'round here." Nicolas finished.
Glances were being exchanged by some of the roommates. "The only reason we try to lead is because nobody else can in the group. You and Pike wanna pull your lone wolf stuff, Oliver's no leader, and Hitch is a dumbass." Trey explained.
"Hey!" Hitch piped.
"You didn't mention Cory," Nicolas said.
Trey gestured to the guy whose bed was next to Jasper's. Jasper hadn't met him yet, but he seemed like a pretty average dude. "Cory's too nice. He doesn't have the ability to do some of the things that need to be done as a leader," He said. Cory furrowed his eyebrows and moved to speak.
Nicholas spoke before him. "Do things like being a reason the guy who slept in that bed died count as things that need to be done? You knew sending him into that was dangerous." Nicholas shouted. Cory sat back, allowing Nicholas to tear into Trey and Nate.
At this point, they'd lost steam and sat on their own beds. Jasper looked down at his bed. Someone used to sleep in it and had died in the line of duty as a spirit tamer. It sounded like these guys were a reason it happened. He was happy to see that the group was ashamed of their place on the leaderboards.
They knew they could do better. Slowly, the tension died out of the room. Nicholas seemed to be tucking himself into bed. Jasper just had a curious question. "Do you go to sleep with the stuff in your hair?" He asked Nicholas.
"Yeah, I have to put less on in the morning," He answered matter-of-factly.
Jasper nodded. "Makes sense to me." Jasper lay down in his bed and thought of how a person used to lie there as well. It was a while before he drifted into sleep.
The morning came quickly after a series of confusing dreams. Jasper woke to a couple of people shuffling around the room. He sat up and saw Pike and Nicholas pulling things from their chests. They stuffed things into their backpacks and strapped combat gear to their bodies. Pike wore a dark leather jerkin and had dark camo cargo pants.
He pushed the hair out of his face as he glanced at Jasper. "I'm interested in seeing if you're skilled. If so, we have a chance at competing at a higher level. Here." Pike tossed an energy bar to Jasper. "This'll get you started." He said.
Jasper snagged the bar out of the air. "I think you'll see." He smirked. He quickly rolled out of bed and began prepping his bag. He imagined the Weekly Challenge took place in Dome, so he packed everything he'd need for a few days in the 'wild'.
He reached under his bed and pulled his sword and spear out from under his bed and began sharpening and cleaning them. Soon enough, the whole room was buzzing with the boys getting ready to leave. Jasper guessed it to be about 6:30 in the morning.
While he was waiting for everyone, Cory approached him. "We never got to officially meet. I was training when you got here yesterday. For having a necrotic affinity, you seem pretty decent. I look forward to working with you." He extended his hand with a smile.
Jasper took it and shook it despite the odd statement. "Thank you." He said as the last person tightened their backpack.
"We ready?" Nate said to no one in particular. There were no objections, so he walked out of the room. The rest of the group followed. There were a few people walking through the hall who were doing the same thing as they were. Going to the Weekly Challenge.
Half an hour later, Jasper stood in line with his group mates. This Weekly Challenge was distributed through packets of paper that held information. A huge line of members with foldable tables in front of them appeared before Dome's gate. Huge stacked piles of packets covered the tables and were being rapidly handed out to each tamer.
Those tamers then were being ushered to stand in a crowd before the gate. After a few minutes, Jasper and the group joined the crowd. More and more people were recognizing Jasper now.
The news that the Lord's youngest son had cycled around the clan by now. It was beginning to reach a level of curiosity that people were straight-up coming up to Jasper and talking to him about himself.
He was beginning to get frustrated, but a voice came over the loudspeaker. "The Weekly Challenge begins now and lasts until Monday at 12 am." A man's voice said. It stopped just as quickly as it began.
The gates opened, and the tamers started pushing forward. "They're introducing this challenge differently," Oliver commented.
"Weird, huh?" Cory replied. The crowd began pushing forward until they were at a fast walk. Jasper made sure not to let himself get pushed around too much. Soon, the traffic broke and the walls widened. In front of Jasper was a rich spirit environment that pulsed with energy.
People jogged in groups deeper and deeper into Dome. His group soon broke into a light jog. They jogged along the left wall for 10 minutes and came to a stop. They all pulled their packets out and began scanning through their contents.
Jasper quickly read through the first paragraph before sighing and wiping his forehead. It was much more complex than he anticipated. The packet gave the outlines for the challenge as well as specific rules and fighting expectations. Jasper read through it all, but some parts stuck out about the point system and the way to win.
There were three ways to score points. They could turn in spirit cores, alive and captured spirits, or show Merchant a spirit tamed during the challenge's duration. Turning in a spirit core gave 1, 3, 5, or 10 points depending on the spirit's tier. Turning in a captured spirit gave 3, 9, 15, or 30, and a tamed spirit gave 5, 15, 25, or 50.
Sometimes it was easy to forget that taming was a critical skill. Taming was rewarded heavily. The next part of the point system was where it got interesting. They called it set scoring. The reward for scoring is given in sets. Depending on the cores gathered, the points will vary with the affinities of the cores.
Each 'set' that gets sold to the merchant can only have one of each main element. For example, if Jasper had 2 Pygmy fire cores, 1 Pygmy water core, and 1 Pygmy earth core, he'd have in total, two sets. One set would have 1 fire, 1 earth, and 1 water core, and the other would have 1 fire core. What makes this more complex is the point compounding that happens as more elements are sold in a set.
The first set would have 3 points because each core is 1 point, but then the set bonus gets applied. The set bonus is a multiplier that's added when the sets are sold. Because there are three different elements in the set, the multiplier is 3. Take the 3 from the cores, and multiply them by the set bonus (3), making the first set be valued at 9 points.
The second set would have 1 point because one fire pygmy core is worth 1 point alone in a set, and with only one affinity, the set bonus is 1. The total of the four cores is 10.
Jasper ran through one final example in his head to make sure he understood what the hell was happening. He imagined he had tamed a Pygmy fire spirit, had two Pygmy water spirit cores, and two Pygmy air cores.
The first set would be the fire spirit taming, a water core, and an air core. 5+1+1=7. Then the set bonus, which is 3 because there are three elements in this set, is applied. 21.
The second set has a water and an air core. 1+1=2. Multiply the set bonus of two, because this set only has two different elements. 4. 4+21=25 Jasper nodded to himself as he began to understand it. This game rewarded spreading your eggs amongst baskets.
Staying in one area and only finding one element will severely limit the number of points that can be gathered. The multiplying numbers were just too good. Jasper's head started to race into the future. He thought about how they could maybe tame multiple affinities and make sure they get in the same set to maximize points.
Taming should be a primary goal for any tamer. Jasper tucked the packet into an easily accessible compartment in his bag and looked up at his group. He'd read it pretty fast, and they were still scanning through the last pages.
He looked around and could see groups running into the distance. The intensity of the tamers around them was starting to increase. The challenge was beginning.