Mars shrugged, taking a step towards the pearl.

“ Can't get any worse than a one on one fight to the death, now can it Nowi?" He said to the floating spider.

Nowi chirped vibrantly, as if it was the most idiodic thing he could have said, the spider began to sling her web all around him forming a luminescent web of protection, finally satisfied with her work she skittered through the air and nestled in between his horns.

”Thank you Nowi, if only your webs could really protect me, I wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.” Mars reached up and gently tickled her beneath her pincers.

Standing in front of the pearl, he looked to Morgan the man stood there with his hands clasped, wearing a violet cowl, the man must have been mid to late forties with a salt and pepper five o’clock shadow and deep set eyes.

“Place your hand on the pearl, we don't have all day.” Morgan pressed him to continue.

Reaching his hand forward, the pearl began to shimmer sending a dull beam of light to the hovering moon above. Once the light touched the surface of the moon it broke apart into tiny particles of light, which simulated a holographic status window.

“Hmm, below average stats for one of the Ogre race, which seems to be caused by your non-combative class, what a peculiar combination."

"You seem to have a spatial-storage familiar as well?"

"As far as skills go you are pretty useless, one's cool down is far to long and the other is simply a crafting skill.. It also seems you cannot learn any weapon skill books due to your bound weapon”

Morgan was in deep thought, talking to himself.

“You are a rather curious case, but I believe I have figured out the best approach”

He floated upwards tapping a few books here and there as he did so they began to glow an follow him around the room, after several minutes he found his way back to the ground.

“Mars I believe your name is, here are a few skill books that may be of use to you.” He said as the books floated towards Mars.

“Why would you give me these, are they not expensive?”

Mars couldn't grasp why he would give him skill books, since he was going to be a slave of the arena…

“What if I die, in a fight?” he asked Morgan to which he responded.

“Even in your death, you will be worth more coin to the lanista then a few skill books. If you were to die tomorrow then you would become one of my experiments” Morgan smiled with a grin that shook Mars to his core.

Skill Aquired: Shoot boxing; Grants the user knowledge of hand to hand combat. (Passive) Skill Aquired: Grappling; Grants the user knowledge of ground combat. (Passive) Skill Aquired: Spectral throw; Autonomously returns the weapon if thrown. (Passive)

“You have the skills necessary for the ludus, Not being proficient with any weapons you will more than likely end up becoming a Cestus, a gladiator without weapons” Morgan said with a cool grin.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Snapping his fingers a loin cloth, leather boots and some kind of black skirt made from scales, appeared from what Mars would assume a Spatial storage device of some sorts.

”These will be your daily training equipment, change into them while I summon the guard.” He said as he walked out of the room.

As he left the room, all of the skill books flew to the top of the room and slowly floated in a circular motion.

“It looks like he does care about the cost of those books eh Nowi…”

She jumped from his head and skittering through the air towards the nearest floating book, she chirped a few times then shot a web towards the book trying to pull it to Mars - He laughed at the spectacle, as he changed into the training outfit.

“One day your webs will work, until then come back to me” He called to her as the doors to the room opened up showing Morgan and the Oaf of a guard walking towards him.

“Look at you, now you look like a gladiator, tomorrow you train like one.” Morgan said aloud

“We will see how he does against trained warriors, not some molestor. Lets go” chimed the guard.

Following the guard back to his cell, he looked over his new skills and was quite happy with them.

“Now at least I can defend myself, instead of just bashing things together like some kind of brute” he said to Nowi

She made a ball out of her web and started to mimic Mars bashing stuff.

“Chirp chirp” She said, as she spun down to his shoulder and nuzzled into his neck.

“Get in, we begin at first light. So get some early shut eye.”

The guard said slamming the door before he walked way.

Mars however, was not tired at all and decided to practice some of his shoot boxing, at first he started slow with a few punches and kicks towards his shadow.

He began adding in head movement, slipping left and right comboing the slips with elbows and knees, he began to work up quite the sweat.

All the while Nowi had spun a web like dummy in the shape of a human hitting it with her palps, soft tapping noises could be heard as she struck the web.

“Look at you go Nowi, crush that web.” He laughed at his familiar, without her he would probably go insane in here.

He cleaned off the sweat from his body with the rag that would be his blanket, sat down and took out his Dice..

“Lets see here it was called Spectral throw? I wonder how it would work with my Dice?”

Mars pulled out his Dice and tossed them as he did they bounced on the floor a few times.

Success: Roll 4, DEX up Times 4 (3 Minutes) Failure: Roll 3, DEX down Times 3 (3 Minutes) Success: Roll 5, Dex up times 5 (3 Minuts)

As the notifications popped up, the Dice shot back towards him hovering around his body - Nowi shot her web and sucked them back into her spatial domain.

“oh wow that is handy, now I won't have to go searching for my dice every time I throw them..” He said to the little blue spider.

Mars decided it was time to get some sleep so that he would be ready for whatever hellish training the Doctore had planned for him - he pulled Nowi into a hug and fell asleep with her.