673 Opening Match of the Fighting Arena Part 2 (1/2)

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.