The old man looked at Ezhno surprised that this youth was impervious of the strong people of this world. He then said to Ezhno, "You honestly have never heard of an Enhancer before? Are you some country bumpkin, born in a stable? Raised in a small village or something?"

Ezhno looked at Gramps with a look of surprise and shock on his face and said to Gramps, "How did you know? Are you also from Forest Shadow Village? How do you know I was born in a stable? Do you happen to know me and my parents?"

Gramps looked at Ezhno with a guilty embarrassed look on his face, and coughed while attempting to laugh and said, "Boy I was just trying to make a light joke about it, I am sorry I did not know of you, or your background."

Ezhno stared and then started laughing, "It's ok Gramps, everyone makes fun of me so it's nothing new. But I am sorry, I really do not know what an Enhancer is or what is so special about Enhancements. I only came to the fighting pits to see what the fuss was all about while I ate my meal, since I was in town getting some supplies and provisions."

The old man felt bad at this point. Ezhno brought back good memories of the time spent with his grandson, he wanted to apologize, so he called the vendor back over and bought him another mutton casing and bread. He said to Ezhno, "Treat this as my apology for my rude joke to you."

At this point Ezhno knew what the old man was like and was not overly polite. He gladly took it from the old man and said, "It seriously was not a big deal Gramps, but I will gladly accept this. These things are too damn delicious to pass up!" They both looked at each other and playfully started laughing.

Gramps got out of his seat and went over to the betting booth. Once his bet was placed, he sat back down next to Ezhno who was enjoying his food like a greedy pig.

"You truly do not know what enhancement or enhancers are?" Gramps could not believe there were people out there who have never heard of this before. So he had to ask again

"Gramps, if I honestly knew what they were, would we seriously be having this discussion right now?"

The old man nodded his head. While staring at the center of the arena, the old man started his explanation.

"Well, Enhancers are people who have eaten meat of a wild beast. Those that eat the beast meat have miraculous things happen that enhance the body's potential. It allows one to become stronger. They can lift heavier things, that normally would take a few people to accomplish. One will run faster, and go longer distances without being short of breath. Your reaction time improves, You will be able to see things come at you and move as if it was natural. Those with enhancements are known to display jumping and blocking abilities that are abnormal. The body will heal faster, if you were to normally take a week to recover, it may only take one a couple days to feel like your old self again."

At the same time Ezhno was hearing the old man's explanation, his eyes were wide open and his body instantly froze stiff, as if he had seen a ghost. His mutton casing and bread fell from his hands straight onto the dirt ground below. It was the answer to nearly every question he had been pondering about regarding the changes to his body. His brain felt overloaded trying to process the abundance of news flooding his head. It was as if a small dim ball of light in his head was circling around and the info was the fuel, instantly igniting the ball of light making it explode to every inch of his brain.

The old man looked at Ezhno, he was surprised at how Ezhno was reacting. He then said, "Boy, are you ok? Did you get a bad mutton casing? Panicked that the food might have been poisoned, he put his hand on Ezhno's shoulder and started shaking him at the same time saying "Hey Ezhno are you alright, what's wrong with you?"

Finally snapping out of his information overload he then looked at the old man and said, "Sorry Gramps the information was just hard to believe, so I was just shocked into silliness I suppose." With his hand on the back of his head he gave the old man a silly grin while giving a half hearten laugh.

"Boy you scared me, I thought you were poisoned there for a moment." Gramps said, with panic still resonating in his voice.

"I'm really ok Gramps," as he reached down to pick up his delicious meal.

The old man slapped it back down and scolded Ezhno, "That is just dirty! When you are around me, you don't do stuff like that! I will just get you a new one."

"It is ok, don't waste the coins," Ezhno replied.

Gramps angrily looked at Ezhno and said, "The vile stuff people step in is all over the place. Don't argue with me and just take a new one."

Ezhno shook his head up and down, inside he was sad knowing delicious food was going to lay wasted on the ground.

After ordering another casing Gramps said to him, "If the info is too shocking and hard to believe, I can just leave it at that. We can just enjoy the rest of the fights."

Ezhno really did not want the old man to stop his explanation, "No, no, it really is fine. I am truly fascinated with these Enhancers now. You have broadened my horizons and I really want to expand this small world of mine."

Stolen novel; please report.

Ezhno knew he must get every bit of information from this old man. If he could better understand what was going on with himself, he would be able to defend himself from those who wished to do him harm. The dim road to his survival and a better future was now growing brighter each second. The path to revenge had finally opened up. He was still unsure about the thoughts of killing anyone. His resolve was not quit there, but in the past year these thoughts were always swirling around in his head. Those who wish for nothing more than misfortune, why should he care about them? 'Treat them like human beings, Ha! They are nothing more than wild beast in my eyes.' He thought to himself. He was getting sick of bowing down to all those that only wished for him dead in a ditch somewhere.

With no one to mentor him or show him the way, and being mistreated day in and day out, the once kind and gentle child that never wished ill on anyone, made his outlook on the world different now. Ezhno now knew happiness is but a dream and loneliness is his future. He knew that he needed to change in order to survive, if that meant taking out those before they took care of him, then it needed to be done. The future scared him, he only wanted a happy life and loved ones to share his ups and downs with.

Ezhno needed to know more, if he did not want to be scared of the future, and this may be his only chance. He now understood one thing, he was an enhancer, but was confused because he had never consumed beast meat before. He thought to himself, 'If beast meat is the only way to become an enhancer, then how the hell did I become one?'

Ezhno now needed to understand how it came to be and if he could grow from it. He knew he needed to ask as many questions as possible before the door to his future was shut.

He asked the old man, "Is there any other way besides beast meat to become an enhancer? If all you had to do was eat beast meat why isn't everyone an enhancer? After eating these delicious mutton casings that could possibly be meat from a wild beast, why isn't my body full of enhancements? Ezhno stared at the old man with child like curiosity, his face was beaming bright with twinkling big eyes. To the old man, this face was something he was all too familiar with. It was the same one he would get from his grandson when he would visit, awaiting for the gifts he knew he would receive.

The old man's heart melted instantly, thoughts of his grandson once again filled his mind. After the moment passed, he reached over and ruffled the hair on Ezhno's head and gave a hearty laugh while explaining further. "Boy, there is no other way I know of, besides eating the beast meat. However, only certain beasts will allow one to enhance the body. These beasts are often hard to find, and are extremely dangerous. Currently they have what is known as the Great Beast Hunt. Many gather in the capital in hopes to be picked in the many expeditions to hunt these special beast. Those that make the most contributions in the hunt will receive a share of the gains."

Ezhno did not know what to say at this point, this was all new to him, and his curiosity was in over drive. He had a million questions and yearned to know more, so he asked, "Why are they so hard to hunt? Wild beast are everywhere. The larger the groups, the easier it is to hunt them down, right? What is the point in gathering and hoping to get picked? Couldn't they just gather in their own parties and hunt on their own? Why is it that those that ate beast meat before did not get enhancements to their bodies, but that man did? Why...."

At this point the old man's head was spinning with the questions rapidly firing at him. He attempted to break Ezhno's rapid firing of questions, "Slow down, slow down! This old man can't keep up when your mouth is moving a mile a minute."

Ezhno obediently shut his mouth and stared at the old man as if he were the king himself. The old man laughed and said, "That in itself is the problem."

Ezhno was confused. He did not understand Gramps' answer, so asked. "What do you mean? What was the problem?"

He expected Ezhno to once again bombard him with a massive amount of questions, but was quite surprised by how he obediently slowed down and waited for the answer.

"The problem was the amount of people hunting these beast. Many years ago, when the first person discovered the changes to his body, he decided to let the world know about it. After the news spread, the entire continent was in a frenzy. They went on a killing spree and slaughtered every wild beast that came across their paths. After the great culling, the beast that many depend on for their livelihoods were so sparse that many people of Petros were dying off and the economy of many kingdoms were almost in ruins."

Seeing that Ezhno was desperate to hear more, he continued, "After all that happened, everyone eventually came to know that not all beast allowed one to enhance their bodies. They discovered around 1 in every 100,000 to 250,000 beasts killed at the time would produce the special meat that gave one the ability to enhance the body. After the great culling all the kingdoms put aside their differences and got together to research the phenomena. They could not allow the entire continent to turn to ruins. Massive amounts of messengers were dispatched to every corner of Petros. The pieces were starting to go into place and many discoveries were made. It was discovered that only certain beasts had the special meat. Even so, those beast still were not a guarantee. It was said that they had the best odds of being the right one. They also found that those beast with the special meat were extremely dangerous, one hunting party had 1000 people circling one of these beast. Only 3 people survived, but eventually they also succumbed to death from the wounds that were inflicted on them. Before they died they told the tale of the beast that moved and killed in ways that should have been impossible to do."

Ezhno stopped the old man for a moment, he did not understand if the beast were that dangerous, how did they end up killing them? He asked Gramps, "So how did those who became enhancers end up with the meat? If the beast is able to wipe out an entire party of 1000 people, how could anyone get their hands on it?"

The old man paused for a moment, then replied, "Those that end up victorious were mainly from large prominent and wealthy families, many of those large families breed and trained as fighters, eventually they become leading or main figures in their kingdom's military."

Gramps gave a long winded sigh, and said to Ezhno, "When I joined the military, I also had dreams of becoming an enhancer, I hoped that being in the military would give me a good chance at a spot in a hunting party. Sadly I was not up to the standards and the many years I tried and ended up in failure. Sadly in this day and age, being an enhancer is a game only the rich and powerful can play and the foolish pawns lucky enough to be chosen."