CHAPTER 62: FIRST TIME FIGHTING, KIND OF NERVOUS (1)

Caw.

"See you later! Lazy human!"

"See you later! Gluttonous raven!"

Ash waved goodbye to Keen as he went out for his night hunt.

With the diseases and Ash’s blessing constantly absorbing mana from the surroundings and giving him power, Keen also didn’t need to sleep anymore.

Although he still did it from time to time because he said he liked the feeling of sleeping.

Especially these couple of days, as he slept on the nest he created above the Verdant Litany’s base.

But he was diligent enough to hunt day and night, defeating both the daytime and nocturnal predators in terms of diligence.

All for the sake of a big, strong body.

Ash himself didn’t waste his time as he followed after the grey leash members that had picked him up.

They were the last batch of people that came into Ash’s clinic to get their gifts, and Eben told them to take Ash straight to the underground fighting arena.

As a newcomer, his fights were early in the night.

While the famous fighters fight later, closer to midnight, where the arena would be packed full with people from all kinds of backgrounds.

This was Ash’s first time exploring the city at night. Well, actually, his first time exploring the city properly at all.

His first day was spent dealing with Strong Arm and creating the clinic after all.

The night scene of the slums wasn’t as surprising as Ash had thought.

It was just like nighttime in the city.

The city lights lit up the streets, people walked here and there with their phones to their faces.

There really wasn’t much difference between what he saw right now and what he remembered back then.

The only difference was that there were many more street stalls and diners instead of restaurants and food trucks.

And of course, there were barely any vehicles in the slums other than the ones in the main road that stretched from one end of the slums to the other.

The crossroad that connected the north, south, west, and east parts of the slums.

Beside that main road, the other roads were so narrow that they only fit 2 or 3 motorcycles running side by side.

So most of the people in the slums walked to get to where they needed to be.

Just like Ash and the Grey Leash members.

In a surprisingly quick 15 minute walk, the group finally reached a certain area that Ash was really unfamiliar with.

Who could blame him, though? He has been a proper student when he lived in the city.

If he only knew the name of such a place before, now he understood why it had such a name.

In the street in front of him, there were surprisingly very scarce street lights despite the length of the street.

There were only a couple of them within a 100-meter radius.

However, that didn’t mean the street was dark and empty.

In fact, it was the complete opposite.

Just like the market early in the morning, where all the vegetables and meat were still fresh, the streets were packed full of people.

There were no raw vegetables or meat in sight, but the people there were surely eager to find their choice of goods.

Dampened music seeped out from a place plastered with neon lights on its sign.

Young men and women dressed up nicely stood in front of the nice building that looked like it didn’t belong in the slums.

While a full blown, unobstructed, max volume speaker blasting music on the other side of the road, coming from a street stall that had its tables and chairs set up on the side of the road.

Old men with their best clothes, mostly a white tank top soaked with sweat, chugging beers with their right hand and a cigarette on their left.

Ash and the group went deeper though.

From the main street where all the diners and clubs were lined up, there was a smaller street where many people seemed to go in and out of them.

And the sight once they turned would definitely be a shock to Ash’s brain if not for the fact that the diseases had filled it up first.

All kinds of women.

All the shapes and sizes that Ash had ever known existed in the world could be found there.

Heck, he could even see some buildings with half naked men standing in front of the door instead of women.

The promoters of the places there rushed in when they saw newcomers entering the street.

Ash was already thinking of the awkward situations he had to survive while being pestered by the salesmen, but it looked like it was unnecessary.

With a single raised hand from the Grey Leash members, the dozens of salesmen instantly understood that it wasn’t time for them to play.

After that quick interaction, the group walked through the place unhindered, without any mammaries, be it female’s or male’s being forcefully shoved into their faces.

The group took one final turn and walked into a surprisingly crowded diner located on a dead end.

The Grey Leash members and the bartender nodded to each other before the Grey Leash members took Ash to a door that said employee only.

Inside the room, the Grey Leash members pushed a body-sized mirror, which turned out to be a door, revealing an elevator with a luxurious wooden interior.

Something that Ash had only seen once inside the Church of the Awakened, back when he did his awakening ceremony.

Despite looking like a vintage elevator, the thing worked just as fine as any other new ones, bringing Ash and the group deep into the ground in just a few seconds.

When Ash heard the word underground fighting ring, he expected nothing less than a metal cage hidden beneath some old wine cellar.

Where the audience sat on stone chairs, screaming and throwing stuff at themselves or the fighter whenever they didn’t like what they saw.

However, what Ash didn’t expect was that when the elevator door opened, it revealed a bright, luscious lobby hidden behind an automatic glass door.

The security standing behind the door nodded his head towards the Grey Leash members as they walked straight to the receptionist, who waited for them with a smile plastered on her face.

"I’ve been informed about Grey Leash’s new champion. Welcome, sir."