CHAPTER 63: FIRST TIME FIGHTING, KIND OF NERVOUS (2)

"I wish you the best of luck, sir Dust."

After registering his name, affiliation, and his awakened ability, Ash was led to another elevator that took them deeper under the ground.

When they arrived on the floor and the door opened, a surprisingly cozy waiting room welcomed them.

The whole floor was layered with a carpet. The lighting came from a small eclectic chandelier that emitted a soft yellow glow.

Not too bright that it hurts the eyes, but bright enough to be able to see everything properly.

There was even a training room complete with a shower there.

Ash’s debut fight would be at 2100 on the dot, which was about half an hour away.

The receptionist had given him a basic overview of his opponent, but he had a more trusted and thorough informant around him.

"Can you guys tell me what you know about this guy?" He asked the five Grey Leash members accompanying him.

The gang members who were part of one of the three main gangs in the slums.

The people who were up to date with almost everything going on inside the slums.

- - -

Looking at the piece of paper in my hands, I couldn’t help but tear it into pieces.

I just couldn’t stand it.

How the hell was this fair!?

The face plastered on the top corner of the paper wasn’t anyone I knew.

No one from the qualifiers round was chosen as my first opponent in the official match...

Those months of training and constant fighting we did were worth nothing.

Those guys... Those people whom I know have been there since the beginning.

Scrapping their knees and bleeding their noses just for a chance to fight in the official match... None of them were here...

It wasn’t any different here than in the city.

They were all corrupt bastards who relied on nepotism to gain a name for themselves.

Taking away others’ chances for themselves.

Others, who actually bet their lives on this to continue living. To improve their lives. Mend their mistakes. For a better future that wasn’t bleak.

All of their efforts meant nothing as this one bastard suddenly popped up out of nowhere.

I have never heard his name or seen his face in the qualifiers match.

He just popped up here, having his debut match without doing anything.

I tried to regain my breath.

But the torn pieces of paper scattered on the ground scorned me.

The unknown face mocked me.

Telling me that I was just a useless nobody everyone would soon forget.

Just like those people... Who weren’t as lucky as me...

Mana surged from my chest. Manifesting on my finger as a few sparks of fire manifested and burnt through the pieces of paper.

Leaving the carpet beneath unharmed other than a few charred spots.

My hands clenched. Everything seemed to become clearer as blood rushed to my head.

"Don’t worry... Brothers and sisters... I will stomp this weakling. I will teach him that we, even without anyone backing us, are stronger than they are.

Dogs who can only get their bone scraps handed to them by those people with power..."

- - -

"In short, this guy, Ben, an ex government city guard, a high tier 2 awakened mage with a mastery of 3 elements and the ability to do chantless casting for weaker spells, won the qualifiers, and this is his debut fight in the official fighting ring?"

"You are correct, boss!" One of the Grey Leash members confirmed Ash’s summary.

"Is there anything special about him that I needed to worry about?" Ash turned to look at the basic summary info the receptionist had given him.

He got a few special treatments as the Grey Leash’s champion. One of them was having a more detailed overview of his opponent’s abilities.

The 3 elements the Grey Leash members mentioned were wind, fire, and lightning.

But it didn’t say how high Ben’s proficiency was with those elements.

Something that left a lot of room for Ash to make proper preparation beforehand.

Fortunately, the Grey Leash members came in clutch.

"It’s the wind and fire combo!"

"It’s the lightning spells!"

They all said at the same time, splitting the 5 people into 2 and 3 people respectively.

They all looked at each other with their eyebrows raised. Words threatening to spill out of their mouth if not for the fact that Ash quickly nodded his head.

"I see, he is an accomplished mage to be able to make people take note of more than just one element in his repertoire. I will have to be careful then."

With his answer, the war of words and the insults that always accompanied them were cancelled as the Grey Leash members nodded their heads to each other, agreeing to what Ash had said.

’Boss is really a wise person...’ They all thought simultaneously in their heads.

Ash saw the Grey Leash members’ eyes shine, and a sigh left his mouth.

’I don’t know what they were thinking about, but I bet it would be uncomfortable as hell if they said it out loud...’

The 30 minutes went by fairly quickly with Ash trying to come up with strategies to deal with this Ben guy, who was supposedly someone he couldn’t underestimate.

Those 30 minutes were spent productively as Ash had decided on a few strategies to make sure he could deal with the guy properly.

As a knock echoed from the waiting room door, Ash and the Grey Leash members stood up as they prepared themselves for Ash’s debut match in the underground fighting ring.

A staff member led Ash into the arena while the Grey Leash members split off, going on their own as they already knew where they needed to go to watch the match.

One person was allowed to accompany Ash as his coach, but none of the members dared to point themselves as Ash’s instructor, and they all unanimously agreed to just watch from the spectator’s seat.

There were hardly any rules in the underground fighting arena.

You must fight alone. With the exception of people with a unique awakened ability to tame creatures or summon creatures.

All skills were allowed as long as they were cast when the fight started.

And you can bring your own personal weapons and armor.

A rule which Ash took advantage of to wear his cape to prevent people from looking too meticulously at his titanroot vines covered body.

He might be able to bend the rules a little and bring one of the viney brothers or even all of them as tamed pets if he wanted, but Ash didn’t want to get the problem of being suspected as an awakener with multiple awakened abilities.

He had written his ability as a unique type, a type that was outside of the elemental and mental category.

A unique ability that enabled him to summon plant parts from his body.

Definitely a rare one, but new, unseen, unique abilities showed up every minute in the world, and no one would raise any questions about his ’awakened’ ability despite them never hearing anything like that before in their lives.

After another couple of minutes of waiting for his name to be called, Ash finally heard the announcer’s call,

"Please welcome, Grey Leash’s new champion, Dust!"

Ash walked through the corridor that led to the arena and finally arrived.

Bright, almost blinding light assaulted his eyes as a spotlight was directed towards him.

But his eyes adapted quickly to the sudden change, and he was finally able to see the arena properly.

To his surprise, the arena wasn’t anything like the conventional fighting arenas he had seen in the city before.

There wasn’t any padded flooring made to reduce impact on the fighters. No large hexagonal cage surrounded him.

And there were also no magical devices that could be seen all around the arena.

But the arena itself wasn’t anything unfamiliar, though.

Ash had seen this type of arena before in one of the books he read for his history class.

A type of building that was used by the people of ancient times.

A time when electricity hadn’t even been invented yet.

The underground fighting arena turned out to be a colosseum.

A traditional looking one with loose sand and dirt beneath his feet and a circular stone wall surrounding him.

Above those walls were the spectators of the fight, sitting comfortably on the stone chairs that had been padded with modern materials.

Other than the sitting area and 4 sided large monitors somehow hovering above the arena, it would be exactly the same as the colosseum Ash had seen in his history books.

There were quite a number of people sitting all around the arena.

And Ash could even see the Grey Leash members, more than a dozen of them, waving their hands as they saw Ash enter the arena.

But other than them, the rest of the people, about dozens of them, almost a hundred, stayed silent.

They only took a good look at Ash for a couple of seconds before turning their heads to the other corridor in the complete opposite direction of Ash.

And they didn’t have to wait long before they got what they were looking for.

The announcer called for Ben’s name, calling him to enter the arena.

Before he even set foot on the dirt ground, the dozens of people screamed, setting up a festive welcome for the mage.

And when Ben finally came out of the corridor, the screams turned up a notch and they drowned all other sounds in the surroundings.

Ben smiled as he waved his hand to all sides of the arena, looking at the people who had welcomed him with enthusiasm.

Then he turned to Ash.

His smile vanished as his eyes stared holes at Ash’s face.

Ash raised his eyebrows, and a questioning look appeared on his face as he was taken aback by the sudden change.

He was learning from Ben on how to become a better performer, but the latter suddenly stared at him as if he had a blood debt with Ash.

"Is there something wrong with my fac-"

Ash’s question was cut off as Ben loudly spat to the ground.

"Shut up. You don’t deserve to be here."

Ash’s hands started twitching.

’I guess making an arrogant public image might boost the viewers’ enthusiasm... I will respect that...’

Seeing the two fighters itching for the fight, the announcer started the countdown.

"10!

9!

...

6!

...

3!"

Before the countdown hit zero, Ben grinned at Ash.

"And yes, there’s something wrong with your face! It should be here instead."

He said, pointing at the bottom of his shoe.

And the countdown finally ended.

"1!

FIGHT!"