Badge in Azure

Currency was the last thing to be circulated within Saleen’s city. Although banks had already been set up, most transactions still utilized the Qin currency instead.

Saleen had ensured that the opening of the fighting arena had been given a lot of publicity and the price for each ticket was set at twenty-five bronze coins.

Although the price was a bit high, it was still within the residents’ price range. The poorest of them all only needed one bronze coin to buy themself half a loaf of black bread and a bowl of corn paste to make up one meal. The price of goods in Qin were already very low. Such black bread was made from ingredients that could also be used to feed livestock.

The meal of an average resident would typically cost around ten bronze coins.

Twenty-five bronze coins could pay for an adult’s food for an entire day. To the poor, it was unrealistic to spend a day’s worth of food money to watch a match. Saleen’s fighting arena issued tickets though. There were magic numbers on the tickets that one could use for betting. One paid twenty-five bronze coins not just for entry, but also for a chance to bet.

For one ticket, one could watch fifteen matches. If one could guess all the matches correctly, he would earn one-hundred gold coins. Similarly, guessing fourteen matches correctly would win you ten gold coins. Guessing thirteen matches correctly would win you one gold coin.

One gold coin was equivalent to one-thousand bronze coins. When seen in this light, the price of the ticket would seem insignificant if one managed to guess correctly once. Even if one only managed to guess correctly thirteen matches, he would still earn forty matches worth of tickets.

It was extremely difficult to even guess thirteen matches correctly, but only the mages knew this. An average person would only think about the huge difference between one-hundred gold coins and twenty-five bronze coins.

This huge difference was four-thousand times in fact. Having the opportunity to earn a profit of four-thousand times could easily confuse an average person.

The ticket for the opening match of the fighting arena only cost one bronze coin. As long as one managed to guess the top three winners correctly, he would be able to win one silver coin. The Lord had said that this was so that everyone would understand the rules and the way to bet. Once the fighting arena was fully operational, the Lord would provide all the necessary information on the sixteen competitors in the final round so that everyone would be able to make an informed choice.

These sixteen competitors would be made up of the victors of the weekly matches held at the small fighting arena. The small fighting arena accepted bets as well, but the prizes were halved.

The opening match would be a preliminary round and would be held at the big fighting arena instead of the small one. The match would be hosted by the Lord himself.

All the tickets had been sold out, but the returns were even smaller than the amount of money poured into publicity. Fifty-thousand bronze coins were equivalent to fifty gold coins. Saleen was basically using money to exchange for the audience’s applause and enthusiasm.

By now, the noble families also felt that the fighting arena would be profitable. Saleen had recently split the profits from mining and magic nuclei between them so the they did not try to gain any benefits from this.

It was soon July and Saleen’s fighting arena would commence its first match on the first of July.

The fighting arena that could seat up to fifty-thousand people was named ‘The Metatrin Central Arena’. There were twenty-four passageways in the fighting arena that led to the center which was an empty space that measured six-hundred yards by six-hundred yards. In the center of the empty space was a rock surface. Surrounding it was uneven ground, sandy ground, and a few pits that filled with water.

The surrounding stands were designed by Eleanor in a stepped fashion and it looked very grand. The exterior of the oval-shaped fighting arena was thirty yards high and the arena looked like a small city that had been sealed off. Hundreds of metal pillars were bent in a strange fashion. They formed complicated shapes that extended towards the middle of the arena.

Above the stands was colored glass placed on top of metal structures, forming a semi-closed ceiling. The audience would still be able to continue enjoying the match even if there was a storm.

There was an elevated platform on the north of the arena. The platform was designed according to Cloudflow’s style so it looked quaint and elegant. On both sides of the platform were seats that were semi-closed. These seats belonged to the noble families. That way, they would be separated from the residents and were nearer to the match.

The residents would never face the problem of not being able to watch the match clearly due to distance. Projection magic arrays had been designed on the semi-closed ceiling so that the match would be magnified and projected in the air. Eleanor also designed magic arrays that could amplify sound so that every member of the audience could clearly hear the exciting sounds arising from the fight.

After Saleen saw Eleanor’s design, he immediately felt that the price he set for each ticket was too low. One could admire the outstanding work of mages for only twenty-five bronze coins. Aside from the issue of profit, this also concerned the value of mages.

Only the opening match was symbolically priced at one bronze coin per ticket. Eleanor also suggested that the tickets should be priced differently according to the location of the seats. The tickets for noble families were priced at twenty-five gold coins while the seats with the best location to view the magic projection were priced at one silver coin. The price of twenty-five bronze coins was purely targeted at commoners.

The noble families would make bets amongst themselves. The twenty-five gold coins were peanuts to them.

No one knew where Eleanor’s innovative ideas came from. With Narnia, a very knowledgeable mage assisting her, the construction of the fighting arena was very smooth. By the time Saleen came to take a look, the fighting arena was already a bustling area in the north of the city.

The north of the city contained many noble families, their bodyguards, and a few Professionals that were trying to gain the favor of the noble families. The mercenaries mainly settled down in the east of the city as there were more shops and the mercenaries were in higher demand by the merchants there.

The north of the city also had many craftsmen. There were a number of shops that sold equipment. They were unlike the east of the city that mostly exported its items.

Overall, no one in the north of the city could be considered poor. The craftsmen earned at least one-hundred gold coins every year.

Even if Saleen charged each ticket at one gold coin a peice, the people in the north of the city would not hesitate to buy them. Saleen aimed to make this a long-term business, so he had to find a way to target the masses.

Saleen was invited up onto the elevated platform. There were eighteen seats on the platform and each seat could hold two people. These seats were filled by twelve Earls, four Dukes, Saleen, and Daniel.

Saleen and Daniel were present that day, but might not have too much time to watch the fights in the future.

Polo was a popular sport in Qin and there were huge arenas for that too. Those arenas were not as grand and could only seat around one-thousand to two-thousand people. An arena with fifty-thousand people was going to be deafening. If not for the fact that the noble families’ seats had been specially designed by the mages, no-one would be able to socialize with each other.

There were a few magic arrays on Saleen’s table and the one in the center was a sound transmission magic array. The greater the range in which the magic arrays would be used, the more magic nuclei would be used up. None of these magic arrays were offensive in nature. They were all low-level magic that was of support nature, their effective range was within the entire arena.

The number of magic nuclei that would be used up by these magic arrays was negligible to Saleen. Since these spells were all low-level, Saleen would not need to change the magic nuclei for two or three months if he used middle-grade ones.

Sika was not present today so Eleanor sat beside Saleen. Much of the arena was designed by her, so it was most appropriate for her to advise Saleen how to utilize it.

Daniel, who had been overseeing Metatrin City’s daily matters, was seated beside Nicholas. Daniel and Saleen sat in the center of the noble families’ seats. There was another row of seats that was curved in shape behind them and Saleen’s bodyguards sat there. Instead of sitting, Nailisi stood behind Saleen. Beside her were three demons who would be at the service of Saleen and Eleanor.

The four Dukes were seated close together, but the Earls on both sides were slightly further apart. Nevertheless, the entire platform was designed so that it was still convenient for them to talk to one another.

Saleen began to converse with those around him since it was not time yet.

Eleanor was very thorough in explaining the arena to Saleen, including the small shops in the arena that were selling food and drinks. The arena also had two-hundred toilets and more than one-thousand lookout posts.

Saleen’s position on the elevated platform was in the center of the control magic. Below the platform was the magic alchemy room that controled the entire arena. Tens of magic apprentices were hard at work there.

Saleen listened intently. He realized that there no discrepancies in all that Eleanor had explained. In the process of designing the arena, she even planned for the evacuation of fifty-thousand people in the event of a fire.

At two pm in the afternoon, a call of enthusiasm and vigor rang throughout the entire arena.

“Residents of Metatrin City, listen up, listen up. The very first match of the Metatrin fighting competition is about to begin. Let us now hear from the Lord of Metatrin City, Your Highness, Saleen!”

The entire arena became silent. Commoners were often silent when facing noble families out of a combination of fear and respect. In this case, it was especially so since the person speaking was the Lord of Metatrin City.

Saleen was already well-prepared. He turned on the sound transmission magic array and began the first speech he would give in a public setting in his life.

“My citizens…,” Saleen’s opening was crafted by Eleanor. He paused for a while before continuing, “Greetings to all of you. I, Saleen Metatrin, the King of this city and country, have started this fighting competition for only one reason. I need more talented people.”

The arena was eerily quiet. The entire seating area has been divided up into twenty-four sections. Once the grand magic array that controled the area below the platform opened up, no one would be able to hear each other.

“The Holy See has been launching attack after attack. Until now, there were still hundreds of warriors receiving treatment in the hospital. They may live, but they may also die from the damage caused by the Holy See’s expedition. Metatrin City will never give in. We will find more warriors and mages to fight against their God’s arrogance, bias, cruelty, and absurdity. This is why I need all of you! Right now, I am telling all of you that all of Luolan is close to falling, but Metatrin City will always stand tall. We will never give in we will take the fight all the way to the Glorious Plains.”

Saleen had yet to finish his speech before a group of people began to cheer from an unknown section.

“Long live Metatrin!”

“Never give in!”

The cheers and shouts were so loud that they drowned out Saleen’s sound transmission magic array.