No longer waking up to bright sunlight dancing on his face, Zalanir got taken out of his sweet dream — he was having the tennis match of his life — by a big ruckus right outside of his shack. This was annoying.
He had actually woken up earlier already, when Ulken accidentally stepped on his right hand. The sun wasn’t up yet, according to Ulken at that time, and Zalanir, in his half sleep and half awake state, decided not to poke his nose into his shackmate’s actions. However, he still managed to get a piece of important info, which was that the pit only opened up at noon, so morning was actually free time for all the fighters. There was no strict routine they had to adhere to.
Zalanir wanted to oversleep the whole morning. It had been a while since he got one. That was why it was frustrating when he was forced to wake up a second time.
Stepping outside to see what the hell was going on, the first sight was Ulken wrestling with a bigger guy, who, for some reason, wore only a piece of underwear down there, leaving every other part of his body naked. Ulken was losing, but it wasn’t like he was dominated. He still landed a fist or a kick here and there.
There were three groups present. The first one was the five men standing behind Ulken’s opponent — one shorty, two about the same height as Zalanir, and two who beat him by more than a head. Zalanir’s eyes were on the tallest man, because he had another arm on the back, which was currently feeding his own mouth some red fruits.
[Human — Level ?]
This was ridiculous. How the hell was a man with a third arm still classified as human? It had to be a prop. There was no other way.
The second group included all the bystanders, who were just there to probably enjoy the occasion. Zalanir counted at least thirty people here. Some of them formed small groups, while there were also individuals who stood alone at their spots. Not to mention those hiding inside their shacks, as Zalanir could see some of the curtains were half lifted.
As for the final group, if one was to count a person as a group, but his presence was enormous that Zalanir felt like it was justified to call so, it was the barbarian who was chilling on a table not far away from the ruckus. He was obviously observing the action unfold, but didn’t seem like he would make any move soon.
Back to the main actors, Ulken managed to hold out well thanks to his impeccable dodging. But stamina wasn’t on his side. His movement became slower as time passed by, while his attack didn’t do much to his bulky opponent. In a short burst of motion, Ulken failed to wrestle his arm out and was slammed on the ground, then ended with his left arm being broken by the naked man. A cry shredded the air and silenced all the murmurs from the crowd.
“Alright. Enough! Everyone go back.” The barbarian finally stepped onto the main area.
Zalanir ran toward Ulken and helped lift him up when everyone started to scatter away. Apparently, only him doing so, but he only noticed it when Ulken’s other arm was already on his shoulder.
“This will net you trouble,” Ulken whispered.
“Yeah. Starting to get the feel. You can tell me about it when we get back to our shack.”
***
“Who’s that?” A red-haired woman slowed down.
“Dunno. First time seeing him here. Must be new,” said the man who walked beside her. He had a funny green hat with three feathers planted on the top.
“Well, either he is stupid or confident enough to help an Invincible Gang’s target.”
“That is such a dumb name every time I hear it.”
“He is doing well with what he has.”
“Let’s go. I have a feeling it might be one of us tonight.”
***
“Who’s he?” asked a short man with a red nose.
“Just a flea. Level 5? No need to pay him any heed,” said another man who was chewing nuts.
“Put him on the list, still,” ordered the man with three arms.
“Unfortunately, Vitius had called the day already. I saw the green runt just a moment ago. That little rat couldn’t keep getting away with our stuff,” Red Nose grumbled.
“Let’s head back,” the naked man, who had just given Ulken a beating, said.
***
“How’s your arm?” Zalanir asked after putting Ulken down on his mat.
“Will be fine. Just need a bit of rest.” The man took off his shirt and slowly moved his broken arm up and down. “Thank you. But if I were you, I would stop doing similar things. That action invites trouble.”
“Who are they?”
“A bunch of fighters grouped up into a so-called Invincible Gang. They go around and pick fights with whoever dares to oppose them.”
“What’s the owner’s opinion? And everyone?”
“They did nothing, because why should they? Animosity creates a better fight, which makes them more money. As for everyone, also nothing. For those who are capable, they are free from harassment anyway. And those who are picked upon are just weak and unable to do anything. At least for the moment, anyway.”
“That’s … bad, but also understandable. So either you become strong enough, or resign and accept the bully?”
“Basically, yeah.”
“But what about those who were the victims at first, but then became strong enough to take them on? I would think they will be the one doing something? What about other gangs or forces? It’s hard to believe if all of them are on good terms with others.”
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“A sharp mind, aren’t you? There were those who managed to rise to prominence, and whenever that happened, the gang did receive a lesson. But they are still here after all these times. What was the last time that happened? Maybe one year ago with Cunha? He did give them a beatdown that pleased everyone,” Ulken recalled.
“What happened to this Cunha guy? He should be able to rein them in if he had given them a beatdown before, no?”
“He left shortly after that. To where? I don’t know, but he isn’t here in Bodylovo anymore.” Ulken seemed emotional when talking about this.
“How did he leave this place, then? I heard from the barbarian yesterday that there are certain conditions.”
“You need to reach at least level 35, then come and deal with Harkon himself. The conditions vary, with paying a large sum of money or doing a quest for him appearing to be the two most popular options. But you have to become strong and rich to be able to talk about conditions with him in the first place. Whatever it is, I doubt it would be cheap or easy.”
Hmm, at least he knew his goal then. From Ulken’s talk, looked like this fighting pit didn’t oppose fighters leaving for good.
“Sorry, I have kept you long enough. Please rest. I think I will go out for a bit.”
The initial plan of sleeping in had already gone down the drain after the incident, and especially after the brief conversation with Ulken. There was a bully group in town. He had to become competent enough to defend himself.
When the barbarian brought him here yesterday, the sun was already set, so he took the time now to memorize the position so that he wouldn’t get lost later. His shack was near the end of a long line of identical ones, though he supposed due to the passage of time that now each had a distinct look. There was no shack number. It must’ve been a nightmare to find a specific shack when this place had just been built. The one he and Ulken stayed at wasn’t that easy to differentiate itself, but there was a dark brown splotch right outside of it that helped.
Getting out of the resident area, the first thing in his eyes was a huge structure built in a ring shape with hugging stands on all sides. In contrast to the wild atmosphere yesterday, this fighting area now was just too quiet. A group was fixing and cleaning stuff here and there, likely in preparation for this day’s fighting session.
From the outside, it looked like a mini, cruder version of the Colosseum that he often saw in the news or movies, though he hadn’t had the chance to visit it in person. He once had a tournament in Rome, but never found the time to drop by. Well, not like he would be able to anytime soon.
In the last vertex of a triangle — along with the resting area and the fighting ring — lay the training and eating area. For some reason, these areas had signs with their names written, so it was rather convenient for him not having to guess. Seeing the name “eating area” somehow evoked the hunger inside himself, which he hadn’t felt at all since the last meal he had taken at noon yesterday while traveling with the boss woman. Weird. It should’ve been rioting by now. Oh, talking about the evil, there it was. It was baffling that the moment he thought about his stomach was the time it went rioting.
The inside of the eating area was designed in an L-shape, with two stalls sticking to the walls and a separated area marked “off limits” on the door. The kitchen?
Oh, free food? After seeing three fighters just went in and took the food without paying anything, he marched to one stall and took a black dumpling. Well, not like he had a choice. All of them were these round balls. There were about ten fighters here, and they all ate the same thing.
You have eaten [Schallin Rice Ball]
+1 Endurance for one hour
Oh? Eating gave a temporary stat boost? Why hadn’t he noticed this effect before?
Pulling out the stat sheet, he found the temporary stat depicted in the parentheses next to its original number. However, his stats seemed higher than usual, unless …
Name: Zalanir Forthern
Level: 5
Race: [D] Human - Origin: ?
Health Points (HP): 155/155
Mana Points (MP): 140/140
Stamina: 125/125 (135/135)
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 9
Endurance: 9 (10)
Constitution: 7
Intelligence: 10
Mystique: 12
Awareness: 10
Spirit: 9
Free Points: 1
Coins: 0
The 1 Free Point told him that the stats gained from leveling up to 5 were retroactively, which was a nice thing to have. He had thought that only after reaching level 6 that he needed to start allocating points, but now, since his Constitution was a bit low, he gave it the +1 floating point. Would need to remember doing this stuff now whenever he gained a level.
Back to the food, it actually tasted very bad. Only the outer skin had a light sweetness to it, whereas the rest was bland. Chewing it was just for the sake of chewing and making his belly full. That was why he only took two of them before heading off toward the training area. At last, he could try his new skill.
Ten wooden training dummies were placed in a crescent shape in a half open area. Not many fighters were here, as at the moment, only three were present. Two of them were hitting the dummies with their fists and axes, whereas the third one was meditating in a corner.
Taking a deep breath, Zalanir focused on a small spot on the ground while simultaneously visualizing a transparent hand grabbing it. That was his interpretation after having the knowledge of the skill poured into his mind when picking the skill yesterday.
He succeeded on the fourth try after a weird feeling of holding onto something in his right palm. It was like that transparent hand he had formed earlier had merged into his actual hand, thus having the bolt ready to be released at any time. With a flick of the hand, a brown concrete bolt left his hand, flew straight and … poof! It vanished into nothingness after flying past the dummy.
Not bad for a first try. Only missing a couple of centimeters to the right. Zalanir nodded to himself while trying to refocus on the next throw.
After three times going through the process, he started to get the hang of it. It was now down to three tries per bolt that he could manifest and shoot. However, it doubled to six tries when he attempted to pick a spot in the air instead of the ground. The bolt, though, changed into a blurry instead of concrete shape, and seemed to fly faster after he released it from his hand.
Squinting his eyes, he stared at the dummy. This time, he only needed three tries to create what he perceived was a wooden bolt. Honestly, except for a slightly lighter color, it wasn’t different from the one originating from the ground.
He did go up near the dummy to guarantee a hit from these bolts, but no matter what form the bolts took, they all left no mark. Either the dummy was just too sturdy for them to penetrate, or his attacks were too weak. Maybe a combination of both.
After about 25ish times, the process entered a bizarre state where he suddenly succeeded on every first attempt, but the bolts he created became way more fragile than all the previous ones. They traveled less than half the distance and fizzled out right after.
He repeated the process several times but still couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Why did the attack become that way?
After five attempts later, he gave up and left the training area. He would ask Ulken later for advice, but now, the noise from the fighting ring told him that it was time for some actions. Real actions.
