Hours later and on the opposite side of the city, a different sort of legend was again arising.

The coffee-seeker emerged for the second time in the early hours of the morning, sighted initially near Pertinax Protectives once more. He hesitated at the junction of D-five's Victory Avenue, seeming to be sniffing the air. His head turned northwards, and he let out a yearning groan.

An ill omen accosted the coffee-seeker soon after. A great raven—or perhaps a crow, as there were not many nearby who were knowledgeable or interested enough regarding the types of birds to identify it with certainty, and there were none of those watching at this moment—swooped down upon the giant of a man, flapping its wings in his face. It was impossible to know whether the bird had lost its way or had mistaken his beard for its nest, but one thing was certain.

The coffee-seeker gave a cry of deep sorrow and fled southwards at an inconsistent pace, his eyes alternately squinting and remaining closed. Shortly thereafter, a joyous reunion occurred.

"Coffee-seeker!" bellowed Furia Vedrix. She and her fellow gladiators, Plautia Cornuta and Arquillia Tullas, had again commenced their morning circuit around the city. They'd found Victory and frustration in equal parts the previous day, but they persevered through the latter as they always did.

Perhaps recalling the previous day's challenge by her friend or, as it was privately considered by Faenia Tranio, a greengrocer who was driving out to meet one of her suppliers at his farm outside the city and witnessed the confrontation, perhaps having been irritated by the inconsiderate manner in which the young gladiator charged towards him with fists raised before he'd accepted her implied invitation to fight, the coffee-seeker dodged quickly to his right and began traveling towards D-four at a slightly swifter pace.

Plautia Cornuta, emboldened by her friend's wild rush, called out her own challenge as she raced after him, both of her friends following behind. She accused him of all manner of cowardice and Victory-fearing, but alas, her shit-talking skills were found wanting by this colossal man. He ignored her shouted insults and taunts entirely, seeming to not even have heard them.

Instead, his head held high as he snuffled at the air, he immediately turned northwards when next he was able. He'd clearly scented his own Victory, but it was not to be at this moment.

No, this was a street which was blocked entirely by cars that had gathered round for the early morning sale that was run by Sisenna Albatius Virilis at his butcher shop for one day every two weeks to attract business. The shouts of "meat" and "cut" seemed to profoundly disturb the coffee-seeker, and he immediately veered back onto his previous course, which set him onto a direct path towards D-four.

The trio of gladiators did not surrender their pursuit of Victory, but they were wary of drawing too near the strange man while he moved away from them. The confusing, nonsensical movements his powerful legs continued to undertake bewitched their minds the longer they watched him weave back and forth across the street.

At last, the coffee-seeker reached D-four's Victory Avenue. Those who saw him stumble onto the wide road recalled the precise manner in which he'd tripped over a canis that had run between his legs. He'd sprawled out face-first on the hard surface of the road, with a number of close-by witnesses wincing at the sound. He'd lain there for a time, unmoving, and three gladiators had approached with caution.

Arquillia Tullas was the foremost among them this time. She'd met with her lover Furia Vedrix the previous day, and she'd grown suspicious at the constant mentions of the coffee-seeker, fearing that perhaps her longtime friend and beloved had grown obsessed. She prodded at him with her foot, wondering whether there was some way in which she could recapture Furia Vedrix's attention.

The coffee-seeker's response to the stimulus stunned nearly everyone. He began to roll down the avenue, rotating his body at a truly impressive rate in order to travel as fast as a slow-moving car.

The gladiators and many of the onlookers stared in shock.

One person, however, did more than stare. Placus Quinctius Perennis, a boy of eight years who had been brought out by his father to help carry back some of the early morning purchases from this week's early morning sale at the shop of Sisenna Albatius Virilis, had an entirely different reaction in this early morning haven of meats.

Placus Quinctius Perennis wasn't interested in any of the meat-hawking going on. He caught sight of the odd man rolling away down the street and saw in him a person who looked like they might be having quite a lot of fun. He wasn't about to start rolling after him—at least, not under his father's strict, watchful eye—but perhaps he would recount the event to his friends and classmates at his neighborhood's teaching house.

The coffee-seeker rolled northwards along Victory Avenue for a surprising distance before he encountered the first true challenge to his new method of travel.

A car driven by Caerellia Festa, who had decided to practice her driving at an entirely separate and quieter time of day in an attempt to avoid another collision-related incident as had unfortunately happened the day prior, was speeding in a generally southwards direction through the city at that moment. The vehicle rounded a corner onto Victory Avenue and immediately drove over a man laying on the ground.

Caerellia Festa stomped on the decelerator, her eyes widening in shock and dismay. She reluctantly turned around to look, fearing that this occasion would have a more serious result than when she'd struck a gladiator the previous day. When asked later, she would report that, to her astonishment, the man she'd just driven over in her car had seemed entirely unfazed and had been rolling on the ground in a generally northwards direction.

Plautia Cornuta and her friends ran up to her shortly thereafter, having needed some time to return to their senses. "Have you seen the coffee-seeker?" she demanded.

"You again?" said Furia Vedrix with a grimace.

Caerellia Festa flushed with embarrassment at having once more met the same gladiator whom she'd driven into so soon after driving over another person.

"The coffee-seeker!" Plautia Cornuta said again, feeling a certain urgency to the situation.

"Er, if you mean…" Caerellia Festa blinked. "I don't believe what I saw, but if you're talking about the man rolling about on the street, I just drove over him. He kept going that way without even slowing down," she finished, pointing behind her with her thumb.

"Drivers," Furia Vedrix said with the clear intent to mean the word as a pejorative.

The trio sprinted past the humiliated Caerellia Festa, who decided to return to her home for the remainder of the day and reconsider her plan to try gaining new stats by training herself in a manner that she believed nobody else did—namely practicing her driving in the streets of the city rather than on the lower track during the time made available for such things.

By the time that these four women parted ways, however, the coffee-seeker was already long gone from their location. By sheer coincidence he'd hit a bump in the road and had his course adjusted to roll along a street that led him to D-three, arriving again in the same garden he'd trampled through a day ago. After falling off a small ledge, he staggered to his feet once more, as was noted by several of the old women—former gladiators one and all, as many older citizens tended to be—who had cultivated the foliage. They immediately began chasing after him, each wielding various implements of gardening and very annoyed with how their hard work had been destroyed.

The coffee-seeker stopped at a particular point, his head swiveling to face a northeasterly direction. He leapt mightily, the action creating a large crater in the ground as he bounded into the air to such a height that he vanished from view.

Whether due to his disorientation or some cunning plan is unknown, but the large, bearded man descended from the sky in nearly the same place some time later, his graceless landing destroying several bushes that had taken years to grow to their considerable size.

Unfortunately for the minders of those bushes, they'd thought his jump had been meant for escape and had run off in the direction he'd been facing. As such, they were not present to witness the continued destruction as he staggered and stumbled through an entire row of hedges, laying waste to a section of a maze that they'd begun to grow the year prior.

The coffee-seeker's rampage continued northwards until he once again reached The Arena. His progress had been swifter on this day, and it was still very early in the morning. It's assumed from descriptions of his actions that his next decision was made from fatigue, but he failed to reply in a manner that would provide any insight into his unique way of thinking.

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Upon reaching the most revered location in The Empire, he trudged over to a bench and laid down on it. He slept peacefully on this bench for some time before someone was foolish enough to rouse him once more.

"Hey. What happened, you get tired?" called a young man who was just arriving for some early sparring. He poked the odd man who seemed to be asleep at the entrance to the holy ground of all gladiators.

It was then that the young man realized his mistake. This wasn't any random young man. No, this was Cossus Allectius Arrianus, who had, just a day earlier, been shaken upside down and then hurled into the air by the same barefoot man who was now grumbling at being awakened from a nap.

The young gladiator was torn between his choices. He had, at that moment, a strong desire to take revenge upon the older man who had embarrassed him so thoroughly in front of the target of his adoration during their previous encounter. Simultaneously, however, he was cognizant of the fact that the older fighters tended to be the ones with the most powerful stats since they'd been training the entire time The System had existed. This barefoot man was clearly not a local, but he must have formidable stats in order to have performed such a feat of strength with such ease.

To the benefit and great relief of Cossus Allectius Arrianus, the decision was taken from him.

"Coffee-seeker, we meet again," said one of those very same older gladiators as she walked up towards the D-three entrance to The Arena. Laberia Salonina greeted the man who was rubbing his eyes with the casualness of a friend, which stunned young Cossus Allectius Arrianus; Discutrix Gladiorum was known to respect only the strongest, maintaining her distance from those she deemed to not be sufficiently dedicated or worthy enough of her time.

In truth, however, Laberia Salonina had simply seen too many of her old friends die or become crippled in pursuit of greater and greater gains from The System and had hardened her heart to those who seemed unlikely to survive the lifestyle of a gladiator. When the random and trite methods of training that the younger gladiators undertook failed—as they always would, since each one believed that surely none before them would have stood in a single place practicing with their weapon of choice for hours on end to gain unique stats and class skills, and following this they tended to imagine that the best way to gain stats was to train until one was half-dead from exhaustion—the most dedicated among them turned predictably to that which remained outside of random happenstance: the strange, monstrous creatures which would appear in fog and thunder outside the city.

Aspiring stat-seekers would follow the winding, jagged canyon north of Onyxfell, known as The Challenge of Sateus for the strength of the creatures which would attack any who entered, and they would venture deeper and deeper on each visit until they were eventually laid low or fled in fear. The legend varied by the teller on what one would find if they managed to reach the end of the rocky trail that had become so perilous on the day The System had arrived, but it was undeniable that stats, useful classes, and even powerful armaments were gained by those brave enough to venture within and lucky enough to return.

So it was now that Discutrix Gladiorum greeted the coffee-seeker, having judged his character and strength to be of sufficient quality. "I've practiced your technique," she continued. "I'm still distant from your level of mastery, but…"

To the shock of Cossus Allectius Arrianus, Discutrix Gladiorum began moving in a baffling manner, her steps growing illusory and unpredictable. She seemed to stagger and totter from side to side as she moved about the pathway leading to The Arena.

The coffee-seeker grunted and pushed himself to his feet. He gave Laberia Salonina a slow nod before he departed from the premises of The Arena and began to make for D-four.

Amazingly, and also quite luckily for D-three after the near-death experience had by Gaius Manlius Octobrianus the morning prior, nothing further encountered the coffee-seeker to impede or alter his course before he reached D-four. Laberia Salonina opted to proceed with her planned training for the morning, and Cossus Allectius Arrianus thought better of antagonizing someone who had been recognized by one of the strongest, most well-known active gladiators.

A small part of D-four, however, was not so fortunate. After the previous morning's rampage, the entire north side of the district was on high alert for the coffee-seeker. Canus Caerellius Crispian in particular had requested the assistance of all his gladiator acquaintances, and they milled about the street in front of his armor shop in a large group. Clodia Tiberina was similarly furious at the partial destruction of her tailoring shop, and she'd made her own preparations to reclaim Victory for herself. She waited inside her shop at that time, her plans obvious to everyone and anyone who knew her.

The coffee-seeker remained ignorant of these matters. He appeared to the assembled gladiators in the distance and let loose his challenge. "COFFEEEEEEE!" he shouted in a disturbing, wobbling tone that caused some of the less experienced gladiators to tremble. He came closer, and many of those gathered on the street before him reached for their weapons reflexively. They didn't know what this man was capable of, but his bloodshot eyes indicated to them that he was like a ferocious wild beast at that moment, acting purely on instinct.

"That's him!" cried Canus Caerellius Crispian.

"Coffee," called the coffee-seeker as though in response. He stumbled closer. "Coffee coffee. Coffeecoffee coffeeee coffee coffeeeeeeeeee coffffeee coffee. Coffee." These were the words that he spoke.

"Careful lads, he's casting some sort of spell!" shouted Appius Barrius Torquatus, a somewhat experienced young gladiator from D-three.

"Don't fucking lad me, Appius," said Bruccia Torquatus, his older sister, who was also a gladiator.

"COOOFFFFFFFEEEeeEEeEeeeeeEE!" the coffee-seeker moaned, his voice alternating between two discordant tones.

"I don't like the look of this," said Memmia Fima, a gladiator-turned-driver from D-four. "Look how he moves! It's not human!"

Indeed, as the gladiators focused on the coffee-seeker's legs and feet, they took note of the strange manner in which he moved, his legs seeming to blur too fast to be seen at times while simultaneously remaining entirely stationary as he was clearly moving forward. It was the same beguiling footwork that Laberia Salonina had taken note of the previous day and would use later this day in her coming fight to confuse and bewilder her long-time rival, Nonus Livius Hesychius, more commonly known as Rex Hastarum, delivering her a too-easy Victory by platform-out. Those who would witness the fight in The Arena became shocked by her movements, thinking she'd discovered a new skill or stat, which she would calmly declare was known as "Coffee-Seeker's Step" in her brief post-match speech which thanked the coffee-seeker for his teachings.

None of the gladiators here at this time approached the level or skill of Discutrix Gladiorum however. While they stood entranced, considering how it was even possible to move in such a manner, the coffee-seeker had closed the distance.

Canus Caerellius Crispian himself made the first strike. Letting fly a wild "FUCK YOU, COFFEE-SEEKER!" from his lips as he raised a gladius that he wished he could have forged himself, he rushed the large man.

It must be said at this point that such fights are not strictly against the law in The Empire. Outright murder was punishable by death, but righteous vengeance was left to Sateus to judge.

Such was the case on this day when Sateus proclaimed judgment. Canus Caerellius Crispian swung his gladius up at the man's head, and it bounced off with such force that it numbed his arm and caused him to drop the blade onto the street.

The coffee-seeker was unharmed, but this was when the true misfortune began. The too-large man took a deep breath. "TIME FOR BED, PUMPKIN!" he shouted at a volume that caused the ears of those nearest to ring.

Then he began to sing at an equally loud volume in a voice that was clearly not meant for singing. "TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR, HOW I WONDER WHAT YOU ARE. UP ABOVE…THE WORLD…"

The coffee-seeker lapsed into a silence for a blessed moment, his eyes firmly closed. He swayed on his feet.

Those surrounding him, who had clamped their hands to their ears and squeezed their eyes shut while grimacing, opened their eyes a tiny bit.

The coffee-seeker squinted. "AS YOUR BRIGHT AND TINY SPARK," he began again.

"Oh fuck, make it stop!" wailed Bruccia Torquatus, her mind in shambles under the relentless, unblockable assault.

"Fuck you, Crispian!" cried her brother, Appius Barrius Torquatus. "Never buying from you ag—"

"LIGHTS THE TRAVELER IN THE DARK," the coffee-seeker continued, eliciting more cries for mercy.

"Coffee?" called Clodia Tiberina, who'd been watching from the door to her shop, leaning against its frame.

The coffee-seeker's sightless eyes gained focus, and his head jerked towards her.

"Coffee," the old woman said, pointing towards D-five.

"COFFEEEEE!" shouted the coffee-seeker with obvious joy. He threw his arms in the air and ran off in the direction she'd pointed.

Clodia Tiberina walked onto the street, receiving thanks and accolades from those assembled. She didn't look pleased however, and she glared balefully down at Canus Caerellius Crispian, who was shorter than her. "You said my shop was destroyed by thieves," she growled.

"Didn't you see him?!" demanded Canus Caerellius Crispian. "He's clearly—"

"He just wanted some fucking coffee," said Clodia Tiberina. She'd seen all manner of people in her life, as one tended to do when they lived in a large city, and she recognized immediately that the coffee-seeker was a man who wasn't right in his head. Such a person was unlikely to manage the sort of violence he was accused of unless provoked, assuming he'd been the one to destroy her shop at all. No, the far more likely explanation was that this was all the fault of the prickly armor shop owner she'd always disliked.

The old tailor cracked her knuckles. It'd been some time since she'd stood Victorious in The Arena, but she'd once been known as Pugnus Lapidis, and skills like hers weren't the sort to degrade due to age. No, she still sparred with her cute grandchildren on the occasions they came by to pay their respects.

"Time to stop fucking blaming Scorpio and take some responsibility."

"Fuck him up, Pugnus!" shouted someone the building next to hers.

While a certain type of vengeance was being wrought behind him, the coffee-seeker continued onwards towards D-five. He soon caught the scent of coffee and was once again soothed by the certainty that his craving would be sated.