Agnes sat on her bed as she tried to wash away the experience in that room but remember word for word the instructions the aged human had given. Many had lost their rationality and immediately tried to attack the man but alas it was simply a projection.

Agnes thought it was a record at first but there was no way a recording could adapt to the situation in the room as fast... unless this had happened before? 'No way! There would definitely be some changes'. The anger in her heart was burning and it was taking all she had to quench it. Actually, it was less anger at the man and more thirst for blood... yes, that delicious....

'NO!' she yelled inwardly, frightened at her thoughts. Her eyes widened. 'Am I going insane? Why would I want blood?'. Agnes didn't know a lot about demons. Nobody talked about demons. She resolved to look through her mind throughly after and filed the old man who gave the intro speech under her rather empty list of dangerous people. Her experience in that room was an intro into the world under the colosseum and it was not pretty.

A rattling sound broke the silence in the room and Agnes looked up to see Aileen entering the room. Aileen took a glance and her but this time said nothing. She walked to her bed and sat down.

Agnes stood up and walked to her, giving the older girl a start. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out and she became even more depressed.

Aileen was bewildered, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing”, Agnes replied expecting no sound to come out as she shook her head too. Her eyes widened and she clutched her throat trying out different sound then began to jump around startling Aileen.

Her voice was back! 'How?' she wondered. It wasn't there a second ago.

“Are you ok?” Aileen finally asked and Agnes stilled then looked up to stare at her then she pointed at Aileen’s dark blue hair.

“Why does your hair have a long gray part?” She asked softly.

At that Aileen gave a bitter smile and dropped to Agnes’ eye level, “How old are you?”

Agnes thought for a moment, “Seven”

Aileen softly patted her head and whispered, “So small. You must have suffered”.

Agnes stiffened at that sentence.

“I’m not going ask”, Aileen smiled, “So many stories here. I don’t know nor do I need to know all. Just know that you are not the only one”

Agnes seemed to tremble and soon enough tears began to gather at her eyes.

Aileen opened her arms and welcomed the crying little girl while trying to soothe her, “I won’t say it’s okay but just know that I am friend to all who need one”, she whispered softly.

After bawling for a few minutes, Agnes got hold of herself. She however was very surprised at the fact that she cried and ended up staring at Aileen, wondering.

As though knowing her thoughts, Aileen grinned, “That happens when you bottle everything up”

Agnes immediately turned her gaze away, seemingly embarrassed.

“Well, like I said before, I am Aileen. You?”

“Agnes”, she replied softly.

“Well, this”, She said picking a strand of gray from her hair, “Signifies that I am not a pure breed”.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Pure breed…” Agnes repeated barely audibly.

“Well think of it this way. How do I look to you?”

“A very weird elf”

“Exactly”, Aileen chuckled and her voice although not very noticeable took on a dangerous note, “My father is a dwarf”

Agnes apparently did not notice the difference and was mumbling to herself after nodding to what the older girl had said.

“Well, while I am not stout”, Aileen continued, “my elven diamond is barely noticeable but my ears are proudly elven. If you see anyone with a gray lock of hair, they are not pure breeds”

“Oh” Agnes nodded vehemently as she understood more.

“You?” Aileen then asked.

“Hmm?”

“What are you?”

Agnes cocked her head to the side, seeming confused at the question.

“You are not human nor elf. You don’t have a diamond and if you cover your ears you look human however your hair is completely blonde”

“I------”

“You couldn’t have dyed it or cut off the gray strand. That is impossible”, Aileen cut her off as she rambled her thoughts.

Agnes seemed to now understand what Aileen was asking, “I have always been like this”

“Oh… are you human? Just asking to be sure”

Agnes shook her head in response.

“Right…” she tapped her chin in thought then she furrowed her brows and looked Agnes up and down, accessing her, “Oh well. Any other questions you would like to ask?”

Agnes thought silently for a bit then asked, “What exactly is this place?”

“The colosseum,” Aileen said dryly.

‘I already knew that’, Agnes thought but didn’t say that, “Are you always like this?”

“Like what?” Aileen replied innocently but Agnes just blankly stared at her. She seemed to guiltily scratch her head, “I haven’t had a roommate in a year. That’s all”.

“I see”, Agnes nodded half believing. There seemed to be something more.

“Is that all?”

“No. What do we do here?”

Aileen narrowed her eyes and her happy go lucky mood disappeared in an instant, “Survive”, immediately after she was back to her earlier mood.

Agnes was a bit surprised at this but didn’t say anything and just nodded to that, "The intro..."

"Hmm?" Aileen questioned not understanding.

"In the lecture hall", Agnes elaborated

"Oh, old man Greyson. He's dead, don't bother yourself about him" Aileen scoffed

Agnes widened her eyes surprised but Aileen just smirked, "It's a recording. Sure it's tweaked here and there but it works. You were frightened of him, right? Even though he stood there and did nothing"

Agnes stilled before nodding her head, "It has always been a recording?"

Aileen stood up, making a little twirl, "No, I met him when I first came here". She looked Agnes in the eyes and a smile similar to old man Greyson's appeared on her lips, "I killed him too"

Agnes flinched and the bloodlust leaking from Aileen. Almost as soon as she felt it, it disappeared startling the six year old child.

The room was silent before Agnes found her voice again, "How old are you?"

"22. came here when I was 10", Aileen answered with a sweet smile and sat on the floor meeting Agnes' eyes

"That's.... long...” Agnes could help but say.

“Well yea", Aileen chuckled. She didn't seem to think much of it, "Have you checked if you are a mana user"

“No, not yet”

“I see, then unlike what you’d think, that old man’s instructions are quite helpful to begin with. The refining technique you got is horrendous but beggars can't be choosers right? You are already past five years old so your mana channel should not hurt you when awakening it”, at that she paused for a bit and continued, “If you can that is”.

She then stood up from the floor and dusted her trousers, “Go for it”.

Agnes nodded a bit and moved to her bed ready to embark on a journey that would decide her future.

“Ah, wait!” Aileen suddenly shouted.

“What?”

“Soot”, she pointed to the ceiling above Agnes that was black in color and muttered something, the blackness slowly disappeared, “Sorry, it’s a prank for new inmates. Seems my friends sneaked in, can’t believe I just noticed” she continued, scratching her head quite embarrassed.

It was impossible to believe that Aileen just noticed the obvious soot and Agnes ended up burst into laughter at the bad lie. She was laughing for the first time in a long while. After calming down, she muttered an inaudible thanks to Aileen for making her feel relaxed.

Aileen obviously didn't hear her and was quietly sharpening her wooden spear.

'Isn't she a mana user? Why use a spear?' Agnes wondered but didn't ask.

She began to reminisce on what the old man from the projection had said, word for word.

She closed her eyes and tried to search for the energy force in the air. Something that stood out. She felt it almost immediately causing her to ponder why she never noticed it was there.

She called for it and it entered her body but left as fast as it entered. She tried again this time refining it immediately. The refining 'technique was a book that told you how to 'weave' energy force. Then she noticed something odd. The energy force entering her body was purple instead of blue. Startled at this discovery, she immediately stopped refining.

She looked up to see Aileen looking at her. The older immediately gave a fake cough and turned away. Agnes considered telling her about her energy force but changed her mind. She decided to just go for it.  Her father was a demon, something was bound to be different. Soon enough her Ki paths were up and running, it was red just like she was told. It seemed energy force being purple or blue made no difference to Ki formation.

Agnes didn't think she'd have a mana channel as her mother was an elf but she checks anyways as she was curious. Looking into her mind all she saw was darkness.

She sighed inwardly about to withdraw then saw a flicker of light. She immediately focused and saw a black pulsating lump of flesh. Another oddity. The flesh wasn't red as it should be.

Her inner flesh was red so this definitely wasn't usual. After pondering for a while with no answer, she filed it under gifts from Demon daddy and moved on.

The mana channel acted like they said it would, given her a bone splitting headache and pains in her whole body as large amount of energy force entered her body to be converted. Soon enough, the rush calmed down and her mana well was a quarter full.

Aileen suddenly broke into a smile and gave an audible sigh of relief as she felt the movement of energy force towards her roommate, “She can use Ki and mana. She’ll be okay”, she mumbled to herself as she finally lay down to stare at the ceiling.

This wasn’t just the attachment to a new roommate after not having one for a year. Agnes was her 45th roommate and Aileen had been at the colosseum for 12 years. Roommates hardly ever get changed. Except if they were dead and needed to be replaced.