[center][h2][color=d7d7d7]Roland[/color][/h2] Level 7 Roland (54/70) holding 1 level up Location: Eseka Word Count: Less than 750 [/center] Seeing the 'guardians' at the entrance to Eseka as he got in reminded Roland of a much less extreme version of what he was used to, something he has been trying to get used to. Much like before, as it seemed some of the seekers were noticed as 'fighters' in this city by some of its citizens, Roland decided to go and grab some information to learn how this city worked and how they'd go about finding the Guardian. Being inside the city itself, things were easier to find here. Much like he thought, fighting was the way to go up in the social standing here. Although HOW people went up the standing was a bit more nuanced than he thought it'd be. While winning a tournament was the best way to go up the tiers, as long as you made the top 24 of a tournament you'd have some upward mobility with top 8 being a bigger jump after that, and winning being a huge bump. Then there were tournaments sponsored by the four kings of the city, those being Bison, Rugal, Shao Khan, and Heihachi. Some had slightly different rules than the standard tournament, with Shao Khan's being the most popular, but the lowest fighter participation tournament type. Speaking of fighting and tournaments, it seems the matches would end when someone was in a critical state instead of being fully defeated. However there were the occasional deaths, with the winner owning the losers spirit. In the case of any tournament run by Shao Khan though, all matches were supposed to be to the death with massive penalties for showing mercy. Although his tournaments gave massive rewards to compensate for such a risk. Although one couldn't make a living in this city as a fighter alone unless they constantly placed well enough to be in the top tier of the city and could run their own dojo and many of the lower tiered fighters had to work day jobs from what Roland could see. Even so, the amenities here were better than what midgar had for the lower tiers, but worse than the tip top of midgar. Things were a lore more... close together in the class divide which made sense since there was always upward motion available. When looking at the dojos, he saw some names that seemed to be big such as Zangief, Leos, Ermac, Annie, girl of the stars, and a few others. While not directly owning a dojo, Zengief and Ken seemingly co owning a dojo alongside a few others named the World Warriors with other dojos having names such as NMO, Guilty Gear, Shaolin, and the like. All together this place gave Roland the feeling that this place was run by the Middle, a bunch of martial artists beating people up, something he was all too familiar dealing with. But some fighters also specialize in weaponry, which was something Roland was hoping he'd see as he wasn't an unarmed fighter like some of the others. Granted a hat that turned into a buzzsaw that you threw or a mop were kind of impractical. After gathering his info, Roland made his way back to the seekers who hadn't split up to explore the town yet and informed them on all of this. [color=d7d7d7]"Seems to be a varied mix of fighters. From creatures to ninjas to buff men to idols. Honestly that last one confuses me unless they have K corp like healing facilities here. All fighting styles seem to be allowed, just be wary of any tournaments sponsored by Shao Khan unless your really confident as only fighters confident enough to risk their lives for glory are going to be there."[/color]