“Told you,” Loboden said to an approaching orc. “Who was it that said he wouldn’t make it past the fifth round?”

“Soak it up while you can,” Master Orc, otherwise known as Gardrek, grunted as he took his seat. “He’ll never beat my record, so what’s there to see?”

“How confident of that are you, my old friend?” Loboden asked, a knowing glint in his eyes. “Willing to bet Coin?”

Gardrek eyed Loboden intensely, shaking his head. “You’re not one to gamble against, chiik. Never known you to lose, chiik-chiik.”

“Just watch him. He just took out the naga warrior without blinking twice, leveled, and immediately started the next round.” Loboden opened his mouth to receive a few more grapes from one of the faceless amorphias. “Even you complimented his determination in the first stage. The first, old friend, and he made it through all of them. Not to mention, he made it through all of them in record time.”

“You like the boy,” Gardrek stated, sighing and watching as Gaian One dismantled the foe of the fifth round. “What do you want then?”

“If he beats your record, you teach him another skill,” Loboden proposed.

The orc looked at him long and hard. “If he fails?”

“Name your price,” Loboden instantly said, grinning. “Will it make you feel better if I invest too?”

“Yes,” Gardrek said, nodding. “If you invest, he’ll at least make a return. You’ve got that much going for you, at least.”

“Hey, I’m a good investor. What can I say? If you got it, you got it.” He pointed at himself with a smug look, pointing towards Gardrek. “If you don’t got it, cling to people that do.” He pointed at himself again. “Invest in the boy with me. You give him another skill, and I’ll teach him something too.”

“What will you teach him?” The orc began picking his teeth with a small dagger, flicking away stubborn strings of sinew as he got them free. “I’m sure you have something in mind. You never do things without a plan. I’d be willing to wager you’re the reason this beginner tutorial package even made its way to the new world.”

Loboden didn’t justify Gardrek’s accusation and instead pointed at Gaian One as he cut down another foe. “That’s his sixth, a Vaulken, too. Seventh round is a—oh!”

“Wow, he’s a fast learner,” Gardrek muttered as Gaian One’s [Double Slash] transitioned into a pseudo [Triple Slash] to instantly take out the seventh round foe, a centaur warrior. “He doesn’t slow down and strikes down his foes without hesitation.”

“His [Mental Fortitude] is likely at the highest degree,” Loboden said, activating the next round. He held up the status upgrade. “I’m also already offering this in lieu of the default reward.”

“Chiik-chiik, are you mad?” Gardrek grunted, slamming the knife into the back of Loboden’s chair. “Why, chiik, so much for this boy, chiik-chiik?”

“Because, old friend.” Loboden winked at the upset orc. “Trust me on this one. You won’t regret it.”

“You’ll make sure we don’t, I’m sure. Chiik, so manipulative, old friend.” Gardrek drew his knife free and continued picking at his teeth. “When did you become like this? Chiik, fighting is for the likes of us brutes, not schemes.”

“And that’s why I’m stronger than you and always will be.”

“Chiik, fair.”

“There he goes. Already on the ninth, and it’s taken him half as long as you, Gardrek.”

“I’m in,” the orc chieftain grunted. “If he slays the tenth, chiik.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Loboden said, smacking his lips as the juicy flavor of another grape exploded across his tongue. For the first time since Gaian One started, Loboden sat up. The servants to either side adjusted his seat to accommodate him, but he shooed them away. “Come on, newbie, let’s see what you can do.”

*

When the gates open to the next fight, I still haven’t caught my breath. Fatigue weighs my body down, and I start to wonder if I’ll be able to make it to the end. If I can get that upgrade to the status, I’ll be well off, but it’s not worth trading my life for.

Pushing away the unproductive thoughts, I grip my greatsword in both hands. I hear the clinking of heavy shackles long before I see my opponent. When it comes into view, I take a deep breath and prepare myself.

The creature is ginormous, standing at least four feet taller than I do. Each of its limbs is as thick as me. A single eye takes up a large space in the center of its face, a cyclops. Its nostrils flare as that single eye regards me, the chains shrieking from the casual strength of its body.

And this is only the eighth fight.

I can’t imagine what the next two will look like, if I even survive this.

My heart races in my chest as the cyclops stomps forward at the behest of a four-man squad of devilish servants. Even the servants look worried for their health. Which, I don’t blame them. The cyclops looks like it could accidentally step on them and leave them little more than a goopy devil splatter.

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They retreat once the cyclops has been led to the center of the arena. Once the gate shuts behind their retreating figures, the shackles weighing down the cyclops dissipate into thin air, freeing it.

For all its bulk, the cyclops moves way faster than I thought it was capable of. [Harden] on my chest saves my life but sends me flying back, tumbling head over heels. With sheer might of will, I stab my greatsword down and into the ground, stopping my ragdoll flight.

I don’t even have time to think for a single second, as the cyclops sets the ground to shaking as it charges towards me.

I wrench my greatsword free of the ground and slip close into the cyclops’s guard. A [Slash] cuts shallowly into the side of its calf before I slip away to the side, ducking under a retaliatory side swipe.

It doesn’t even seem to notice what I’ve done to it.

A few steps orient towards the cyclops’s back. It’s far slower as it tries to orient towards me, but before it can, I stab into its back. Its movement makes me miss my mark and instead hit tight, muscular flesh.

I don’t overcommit to the failed attack and slip my blade free, taking several steps back as it roars and throws a backhanded swipe at where I just stood. This fight needs to end before it goes on too long, or I’ll lose to the cyclops's incredibly powerful body.

That pulsing sensation invigorates my limbs, fueling a renewed assault. Whenever it tries to turn towards me, I maintain my position behind it and let my determination chip away at its exposed back.

If this thing wore armor, which its massive frame could easily support, I don’t think I’d have a chance of winning.

But to my luck, it does not.

The routine of attack, reposition, and continue attacking ends when the cyclops charges away towards one of the downed corpses. With its might, it lifts the dead boar and chomps down viciously. I watch as the blood and viscera slurry drips down its chin, then drips to the ground. Quickly, the area beneath its feet is a mess of puddles and bestial organs.

I put the image out of my mind and take a step forward, stopping just as fast. I can’t help but feel a tinge of concern for my future as the wounds littering the cyclops knit together into thick scar tissue. And as it continues to devour the rest of the giant boar, even those scars fade away.

“What?” I mutter, intrigued.

Hastily, I shoot my gaze up to Loboden and see Master Orc sitting beside him. They’re staring at me intensely, as if evaluating each of my movements and my demeanor. I put them out of my mind and refocus on the cyclops gorging itself. I’m not going to back down from something I started, nor would I expect helpful handicaps inside the Towers of Abundance.

This is my fight, and I won’t lose.

So now that I’m aware of its ability to heal itself after gorging on corpses, I need to revisit my previous strategy.

Clearly, I will not win a war of attrition. The thing heals through drastic injuries as if they are mosquito bites, and there’s plenty of fresh corpses for it to gorge on.

With a new strategy coming to mind, I rush forward. The cyclops’s single eye locks onto me, watching as I come, but he does not move to stop me. It chomps, chews, and slurps on the giant boar, its stomach swelling as I make my way forward.

As I did before in the previous round to take out the centaur, I bring forward the invigoration power from deep within. Once I draw on it, the pulse synchronizes with my body and extends through my sword.

Then I let loose. [Slash], [Slash]. My blade cuts deep into the cyclops’s heel, cutting through muscled flesh, tendon, and bone alike, severing the foot entirely. The cyclops roars through a full mouth of pig entrails and falls forward onto a knee, one hand propping itself up.

The feast slows but doesn’t stop. And with wide eyes, I watch the severed pieces of both ankle and foot grow up and reach towards one another. Shaking my head, I focus on my task, drawing up the power to repeat the double [Slash] attack on the other side.

Roaring, the cyclops drops to both knees, each foot slowly drawing closer and knitting together with the severed leg. I briefly appreciate its tenacity and unwillingness to die before walking around to the other side.

Still, its jaw crunches on bone and meat alike. If the cyclops hadn’t gone for the large boar and instead chose the strange snake creature, I wouldn’t have had so much time to attack it as it gorged itself.

Why it still chows down, despite its life nearing its end, I don’t understand. But it does, and I take what I can get. Maybe this is the reason the cyclops is only a stage eight fight instead of the final one, but I don’t contemplate these matters further.

My greatsword comes down on the back of its neck once, but my hands ache from the sturdy resistance. A basic attack won’t be enough to penetrate its neck. Unfortunately, I have no more of that energy inside me left to bring forward, so again, I change my plan.

I wait for that energy to return, blocking out the sounds of feasting until it stops. The feet are only partially reattached, but now the cyclops can move. It attempts to smack me, but I’m prepared. I continue resting as it notices my inaction and looks between me and the closest corpse, the centaur.

As I expected, it drags itself towards the centaur and ignores me. I let it get to the centaur corpse, and it drags itself into a sitting position, raises the centaur to its mouth, gives me a look of concern, then starts eating.

Now that I watch from afar, the cyclops’s whole body locks up, aside from its jaw. Its hands only have enough range of motion to shovel more of the centaur into its mouth. Now, as it gorges on the second large corpse, the meaty flesh, bones, and tendrils reconnect the severed feet to the ankle.

But it’s still stuck. Now, I feel what I’ve been waiting for. The small pool of energy that imbibes my body with a strange, foreign power returns to me, intuitively telling me I have enough to use [Slash] twice or [Harden] three times.

Neither skill is what I’m using to win this fight. Rather, I make my way behind the cyclops and switch my grip on my greatsword. Energy pulses through me and into my blade in a rhythm. Once I get the rhythm down, I stab forward.

My blade slips through the compact flesh of the cyclops and out the front of its chest. It grunts quietly before careening forward, ripping my greatsword from my hand. Seeing how it doesn’t move after several long moments, I step onto its back and wrench my sword free.

Then a rush fills my body, rejuvenating it and returning it to almost brand new.

“Rest in peace,” I mutter, stepping off the cyclops’s back and pulling out my Existential Identification Card. “Let’s see what’s changed.”