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“Combatants, enter the arena!”

Jake began walking forward, bow in hand and ready to go. He quickly made it up to a still-lowering second meshed gate, his opponent directly ahead of him.

“Go Jake!” he heard yelled from the stands as he saw Owen there.

The arena was entirely circular and pretty small, only about thirty meters across, the ground covered in sand. Jake knew that as one moved up the ranks, arenas got bigger and grander, but for a starter arena, this was honestly pretty good. The stands all around were just benches, but there were surprisingly many in the audience. Though, Jake quickly came to realize they weren’t humans. They were instead small green creatures.

Jake stared at his opponent at the other end of the arena as he cursed internally. Really?

[Goblin]

The goblin looked exactly as he would have expected. It was not even a meter tall and carried with it a wooden club that it held over its shoulder, trying to look intimidating. This was Jake’s first time encountering a goblin that truly personified a starter mob, and he honestly had no idea what to expect from the fight.

He knew goblins came in many different forms. They were an enlightened race as they had professions and classes like humans and elves but rarely reached high levels. If a goblin reached D-grade, chances are it wouldn’t be a goblin anymore but, at the very least, some kind of hobgoblin. Jake even heard that goblins sometimes evolved into orcs and ogres or other such races.

As for the audience? Yeah, it consisted of ninety-five percent goblins who were all cheering and hollering loudly at their fighter. The crowd definitely wasn’t on Jake’s side.

Right as the mesh was about to fully lowered, the announcer spoke one more time:

“Let the battle begin!”

Without hesitation, the goblin charged toward him, having no doubt realized he would have a better chance in a melee. Jake had a bow, and the faster the goblin got close, the fewer shots he could get off. Additionally, Jake only had a knife for melee combat, which would make it very difficult to block a club.

The goblin knew all this and quickly ran across the arena, closing in at an impressive speed. The sand barely seemed to slow him down as he sneered at Jake, soon getting within only a few meters with Jake yet to nock a single arrow. The goblin prepared to swing its club the moment he entered striking distance, with Jake still yet to respond.

“Oh no! The goblin is simply too fast for the human to respond in time and draw his bow! How will he-“

Jake kicked the goblin.

His small green opponent tumbled to the ground, losing grip of his club. The little guy tried to get back up and find the club but stumbled again. After a dozen seconds, Jake just sighed as the goblin had managed to stand back up, even if he looked wobbly on his feet, barely able to hold onto the club.

“If you try to hit me again, I will kick you harder than last time.”

The goblin stared at him for a second.

“I give up!”

Silence persisted for a good three seconds as the announcer yelled loudly.

“A perfect victory for the archer… no, the martial artist! A glorious display of misdirection to bring a bow and confuse his foe! Truly brilliant!”

Jake tried to ignore the announcer guy as he walked back the way he came. He raised his hand and waved as the goblin bowed while Jake made his exit to the excited yells of Owen. Reaching the tunnel, he checked his menu and saw it had been updated.

Current rank: New Blood (1/5)

Colosseum Points: 2

Lives remaining: 10

Alright, one victory down… if you can even call that a victory.

Yeah, his first fight was a bit disappointing. Luckily, he hadn’t had to actually kill his opponent to win. The rules of the Colosseum were rather simple in regard to obtaining victories. One could win in one of three ways: kill your opponent, knock them out, or have them surrender. Apparently, in higher ranks, the rules could change, forcing some matches to be death matches, with others even having referees.

Winning a match would give you one point toward promotion. Getting five points – at least for now – allowed you to do a promotion match and reach the next rank. If you lost a match and survived, you would lose a point, and if you went too much in the negative, you risked getting demoted to a lower rank. All in all, a simple system that made it quite easy to see that Jake just had to keep winning matches.

Anyway, getting out of the tunnel leading to the arena, Jake went straight to the Battlemaster, who congratulated him and told him to take a rest before coming back for another fight. Before Jake could protest, he heard running from behind as Owen arrived. The Battlemaster threw Jake a look, making him back off and sit on a bench not far away as Owen ran over.

“That was awesome!” the young man said excitedly and slightly out of breath as he stared at Jake with starry eyes. “I didn’t know you were a martial artist! Those are super rare.”

“I’m not,” Jake shrugged. “I just didn’t want to use a weapon… it felt like that would have been overkill.”

“You don’t need to be shy,” Owen smiled. “That kick was clearly practiced. You hit him right on the chin, too, and the timing… definitely not something you just did on a whim.”

But… it was, Jake said internally, knowing he wouldn’t get anything out of saying it out loud.’

Owen talked for a bit more before Jake decided sitting there was too boring.

“Anyway, I think I am going for another match,” Jake said as he stood up.

“Already? Well, I guess you don’t really need any rest…”

“Nope,” Jake said as he walked up to the Battlemaster. “Let me fight again.”

The Battlemaster looked at Jake. “Hmph. Don’t get overconfident just because you won one fight against a goblin, New Blood. Plus, I heard you revealed to everyone your special kicking technique, so expect your next opponent to know about it.”

Jake really wanted to point out how he literally just kicked the goblin normally but nodded solemnly. “I will keep that in mind. So will you let me fight?”

“Alright, just don’t embarrass me for giving you permission,” the Battlemaster scoffed as he pointed at the tunnel for him to enter once the timer above it was done. Which would be about half an hour, it seemed. This time was given for a few things, including studying your opponent using stuff from some of the many information brokers around, but naturally, Jake didn’t feel like he needed or wanted that. At least not yet.

How no one pointed out that there were hundreds of tunnels leading out of the training area was really fucking weird, but not anything worth commenting about. Also, who the hell was in charge of all those timers? How did they even know how long something would take? Of course, he knew it was all just system-fuckery, but he still kind of wanted to know if the system would at least try and offer up a feasible explanation.

After the timer was done, he began walking down the tunnel. He soon found himself in a nearly identical arena, ready for his next match. Everything proceeded as before, as it was even the same announcer who went wild and introduced them both as Jake reached the second meshed gate. At the other end, he saw his next opponent.

It was an elven woman wearing an overly elegant dress that Jake suspected was against regulation. She held a simple wand in her gloved hands, looking incredibly full of herself - something her words that sadly interrupted the announcer also made extra clear.

“You are but a brute whose only skill is thoughtless kicks! I have been training under my revered master for years, and your meager martial arts will prove no challenge!”

Not a martial artist.

The moment the mesh was down, the woman walked slightly forward as she held out her wand. “Behold! The power of true magic!”

Jake began walking into the arena at a casual pace as he saw mana slowly begin to gather, glad that even if he had been pushed to G-grade, he could still easily feel it. Then again, if he couldn’t feel it, other G-grade humans also wouldn’t be able to, which would make any and all casters utterly fucked in the Challenge Dungeon.

Anyway, Jake kept watching as a fireball about the size of a basketball condensed over the next dozen or so seconds, as the elven woman looked incredibly strained. She kept her eyes trained on Jake, who kept walking, and as he passed a bit over the halfway point, she yelled again.

“Try to dodge this!”

He did.

The fireball flew straight for him, and Jake pretty casually side-stepped it as she stared wide-eyed as the fireball hit the sand and left a nice black burn mark. It didn’t even explode.

“Not yet!” she screamed with determination as more fire mana began to gather. Jake sighed a bit as he kept walking until he got within three meters of the elf, and she looked right at him again with a triumphant smile.

“Hah! At this distance, you cannot possibly dodge in time!”

He could.

This fireball flew straight by him as he dodged and kept flying before it, already half-fizzled out, hit the back wall of the arena behind Jake. Now, standing within a couple of meters of the elf, she looked at him with wide eyes.

“If… if you let me win, I am sure my master will-“

Jake walked one step closer, slightly raising his leg.

“Please don’t kick me.”

Jake looked at her and raised his eyebrow as she looked about to cry.

“I give up!” she yelled loudly as she stumbled back and fell down on the sand. Before Jake could even do or say anything, she began full-on ugly crying.

Jake stared for a moment before quickly scurrying out of the arena again, sighing mentally on the way.

Get me out of this…

He nearly felt bad about that last fight; the lady clearly had no damn fighting experience.

Making his way back to the Battlemaster, he was once more told not to get cocky. Alas, at least the guy wasn’t a complete idiot as the middle-aged man allowed Jake to fight again immediately, and on the way back to the arena, he only said a quick hi to Owen, who had also decided to do some matches himself.

Entering the arena for the third time that day, he had another quick victory, all the build-up taking far longer than the fight itself.

As for how he won?

One kick.

The fourth and fifth fight was the same, both of them going down with single kicks. All three of his last fights had been humans, and all had gone down the same way. Honestly, it was amazing how good a quick kick was at convincing someone that continuing fighting was probably a bad idea. His fifth opponent did look like he wanted to quit before the fight even started but still allowed Jake to get in a good kick before he surrendered.

This finally allowed him to make actual progress. That’s right, it was time for a promotion match.

Alas, this promotion match proved to be quite a lot more challenging than the fights prior. In fact, it took twice as much effort than any of those prior:

Two kicks.

When he got down from his grand promotion match, the Battlemaster had a smile on his lips and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Good job, New Blood… or should I call you, Initiate Fighter. Who knows, if you keep this up, we might one day make a proper combatant out of you!”

Owen, who somehow seemed to always be around, also quickly came over, looking a bit worse for wear. He had bandages wrapped around his right upper arm, and his forearms were also wrapped in some green half-seethrough gauze to treat what looked like burns.

“You managed to get promoted already!” Owen said with a smile. “I only won three matches myself, but I am getting the hang of it!”

Jake just smiled in return, not wanting to ask how the hell the guy managed to get himself injured against the kind of foes one could meet in these first five matches. They were all either people too weak to put up fights or didn’t have an iota of fighting experience. Even the guy Jake met for his promotion match barely knew how to raise his arm to block with a buckler. Which was how he managed to handle two kicks, by the way.

“You aren’t even injured,” Owen whistled. “Damn, you really are a pro martial artist.”

“Not a martial artist,” Jake corrected him.

Oh, right, sure,” Owen grinned, giving a wink. “I understand perfectly.”

“I don’t think you do,” Jake sighed as he looked toward the Battlemaster, who was talking to some other young chump. “Oh well, I guess I can go for one more match.”

“What are you talking about?” Owen asked, confused. “The Colloseum is closing in half an hour. No way you got time for one more fight.”

“Closing?” Jake questioned. It closed? Jake wasn’t used to things closing anymore.

“Yeah, it closes every night at ten and reopens the next morning at six, with matches starting at eight,” Owen explained. “Getting here early means you can often get in a morning fight.”

Jake slowly nodded. Damn, it sounded like the Colosseum did really close, and looking around the large training area filled with target dummies and different kinds of equipment, he did notice the place was emptying out.

Then what the hell am I supposed to do? Jake wondered.

“Do you already have a room booked, by the way? I heard that as an Initiate Fighter, you can get a small room to yourself,” Owen asked after seeing Jake just standing there in thought.

“Hm?” Jake humphed. “No room booked, no. But I guess we can go check that out.

“Nice,” Owen ever-cheerfully smiled as he showed Jake the way.

Jake shrugged and followed. While walking, he stretched his arms a bit as he yawned, stopping mid-yawn.

I’m tired?

Next, something else struck him as his stomach rumbled slightly. And hungry…

Plus, his mouth did feel a bit dry…

Jake had forgotten a lot of human things that had apparently returned, and suddenly the breaks made a lot more sense. He needed to eat, drink, and sleep. While he was still a superhuman by all reasonable standards, making such aspects of life less of a problem for him than many others, he was not immune to these woes.

Oh, and then there was one final big challenge to his continued desire to fight endlessly. Without potions and a shitty meditation skill, Jake found himself struggling in the resource department.

Health Points (HP): 169/170

Mana Points (MP): 162/170

Stamina: 32/160

He had not strained himself at any point throughout the day, yet his stamina was low. Simply living and walking around drained stamina, but usually, Jake could easily regenerate that by quickly meditating or consuming a potion. Even without these, he could easily go for months or years without running out of stamina from just existing.

When it came to sleep, as a C-grade, Jake never had to sleep. Sleep could still be done, mind you, as it was by far the best method to regenerate mental energy. So good that some beings who were born without having ever needed to sleep – and thus lacked the natural ability to – learned to sleep just for this regenerative ability.

To need sleep again was kind of a bummer, but it wasn’t that bad. In fact, Jake was sure there could be a lot of benefits to reconnecting with how he was in his early days. He could work on the very basics without high stats or any skills…

Especially the not-having-skills-part was significant because it allowed Jake to develop and try some things he couldn’t before. To potentially even understand some of the skills, he did have better than ever, as he could learn aspects of them without the influence exerted from possessing the skill and the accompanying system assistance.

Yeah… on second thought, maybe this downtime between fights did have some benefits. Jake definitely had things to do or look into when not in the arena. There were even a few plans popping up in his mind. But first thing’s first:

It was sleepy time.