The man in the tattered robe walked past Alnea and the girls, exuding confidence in himself. It was as if the man did not even think of the possibility of Alnea ditching him, and just running away. Recalling the man’s declaration of some challenge though, and the need to give a stern warning to the other Wanderers, they decided to follow the man for the moment. Especially when they noticed that the man was not walking in the direction of the Blood Hall, but to somewhere deeper in the city.

Alnea had already guessed what that place might be, but he did not voice out his thoughts. He remembered what his master had said. Speak less, observe more. Besides, the mental patient was kind enough to give them a free tour of the city. Spoiling everyone’s mood just to show off his observation and deductive skills would be too selfish of him. So, he observed the city instead.

Even though everything in the city was covered in a coat of blood, there was a strange charm to it. Especially when he was not surrounded by blood red walls. The city… It was so uniform and well planned, that it looked like a work of art in itself. The spacious roads, the tall buildings, and the sizzling heat, intense enough to bring hallucinations to normal humans, gave the city its unique flavour. Even the occasional smaller buildings—probably housing the better rooms or the mansion that the guard had talked about earlier— fit in perfectly with aesthetics of the city. The only thing that looked inconsistent with the rest of the city were the Wanderers, roaming its streets with hungry eyes.

No, they were not roaming. They were following him and the girls, marking them as their prey. At first, only those who had seen the show between him and the man leading the way were following them. But as time passed, and as they passed more, and more streets on their way, the number of people following behind them kept increasing. And they were not very subtle with their emotions, or thoughts.

“Newbies? When did they arrive?”

“Just a few hours ago… were accompanied by a guard…”

“…clueless…”

“…was waiting for them at their door, but Brandall…”

“…Lucky Brandall…”

“…Blood Challenge…”

“…does he know them?”

“…what kind of grudge…”

“…How bad do you think…”

“…There are the girls too…”

“…Has someone made a move?”

“…Let’s observe first. They are too young. What if they truly are…”

“…think too much. How strong can some kids be? In my…”

“…which clan…”

“Who knows? Maybe…”

“…I think…”

“…just enjoy the show…”

…Wanderers who did not even dare to get close to each other, dared to discuss about which of them would be the next one to get Goddess Ilea’s favour? Alnea shook his head in disappointment. Were these people truly Wanderers? With such weak Hearts, how had they not been devoured in their Wanderings yet?

Forget it, Alnea thought. What did other people’s lives have to do with him? As long as they did not provoke him, he would not bother with them. And if they dared to provoke him…

After around an hour of walking, the man finally stopped in front of a strange building, that was shining in all its majesty. Literally. Even under the light of Enn, the shining red light emanating from the giant building was unmistakable. As was the stench of blood. Of all the places they had been to in the city, the building in front of them had the strongest stench of blood.

Yet, even that was not the strangest part of the building. Unlike the other buildings that Alnea had seen until then, instead of being shaped like a box, the building in front of them had a circular perimeter. In a certain sense, from how the building was built at the junction of all the surrounding streets, its shape did make a little sense. Its size though… it was larger than even the Blood Hall, and not just by a small margin.

However, such a large building had only around half a dozen windows every floor or so. And even those windows did not look like they opened to proper rooms… Coming down from the windows, Alnea searched for the building’s entrance, and found around six to seven of them. And these were all just on the side of the building that was visible to him. Coupled with how weird those entrances were…

Ornamented with all sorts of weird figures, the blood red doors all had a large arch, reaching around three to four metres in height. Strangely enough though, the entrances all had some weird symbols engraved on their arches. And three of those symbols matched with the symbols on his Blood Card, the ones that identified him as someone from the Sixth Blood Hall of the Northern District.

“Blood Arena?”

“…It surely does look like an Arena. And from how the entrances are marked… We will know soon enough.”

“…Are you scared yet, kid?” the man said, turning back to flash his grin at Alnea, trying to make himself look scary. Unfortunately for him, Alnea had seen things much scarier than what the man could ever imagine. And at the moment, he had other pressing issues.

“Can we get this over quickly? I am hungry.”

“…We will see how long you can hold on to your mask of fake confidence,” the man said with a snort, and turned around, walking towards the building. More specifically, to the doors standing under the arch marked with the symbol of the Sixth Blood Hall. There were already a few people there though, queueing up and waiting for their turn.

It did not matter whether the Wanderers were in a good shape, or were all bruised and tattered up. All of them were obediently waiting for their turn. Even the mental patient who had been acting crazy for a while. One by one, everyone walked up to the guards standing next to the arch, and spoke a few words to them, before pressing their Blood Cards against the black box—around as long as a metre, with a quarter of its length in its width and breadth— standing next to the doors. A black box…

Though the box next to the arch was much larger than the box guarding his room, and was standing alone rather than being stuck on to the doors, Alnea could tell from the first glance itself that the two boxes had quite a lot in common. The weird air—fluctuations of Mysteries, apparently— was hard to miss. As was the need for people to scan their Blood Cards on the black box before passing through the doors. Thankfully, the process of swiping the Blood Cards was not long.

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“Fight or spectate?” one of the guards asked the mental patient.

“Fight.”

“Free battle or a challenge?”

“A challenge,” the mental patient said, before pointing at Alnea. “He is my opponent.”

“A new face?” the guard said, looking at Alnea with raised brows. “Do you agree to the challenge?”

Before Alnea could say anything, the mental patient stepped in, and said, “It does not matter whether he agrees or not. This is a Blood Challenge.”

The guard paused, and looked at Alnea with pity, shaking his head with a sigh. “Forget it,” he said, and turned back towards the mental patient. “You know the rules.”

“I know,” the mental patient said, gritting in his teeth, as if he was the one who was being forced to fight. Was there something really wrong with his head?

The mental patient, oblivious of Alnea’s thoughts, took out his Blood Card, and placed it on top of the black box, before saying, “I am using my right to initiate a Blood Challenge.”

A red light flashed on the box, as if accepting the mental patient’s command, and changed the symbols in the last row of the man’s Blood Card. Retrieving his Blood Card with a grieving expression on his face, the man turned towards Alnea with a glare, and said, “You cannot run away now, kid.”

Instead of saying anything, Alnea looked at the mental patient with pity, and shook his head. His actions though, only caused to the man become even more enraged. Fortunately for the man, he still had enough sense to not break the rules of the city. Especially when they were in front of the city’s guards.

“…I will meet you in the arena, kid,” the man said with a snort, and walked through the door.

Looking at the disappearing back of the mental patient, Alnea shook his head, and walked towards the black box.

“What do I need to do?”

“…Some has issued a Blood Challenge against you. There is nothing you need to do. Just place your Blood Card on the scanner, and you will be done.”

“Okay,” Alnea said, nodding at the guard, and placed his Blood Card on the black box. Moments later, a red light erupted from the box, changing the symbols denoting how many Blood Coins he had.

“…How many Blood Coins were deducted from my Blood Card?”

“…You do not know about Blood Challenge?”

“Do you even know anything about Blood Arenas?”

“No…”

“How irresponsible can the seniors from your clan be?”

“…They have been a little busy recently,” Alnea said, using his Aspect to hide his embarrassment from the guards. “And they told me that it would be better for me to explore the rules of the city on my own.”

The guards glanced at each other, and shook their heads. For some reason, they looked a little more exhausted than before. And a little disappointed too. There was nothing that Alnea could do about them though. Smiling helplessly, he pocketed his Blood Card back into his robe, and—

“If you do not mind me asking, can you tell me how old you are?”

Alnea paused, and looked at the guard on the left in confusion. Asking for his age…

“Fourteen,” Alnea said, answering almost subconsciously. “I am a little over fourteen years old.”

“Fourteen,” the guards mumbled in unison, glancing at each other once again. This time, more in shock than in disappointment. And the way they looked at each other… For a moment, Alnea felt as if they too had something to help them talk without making any sounds.

“…Forget it,” the guard on the right said. “Since your seniors did not tell you about the city, then let us help you a little.”

“There is no need. I—

“It is alright,” the guard on the left said. “These useless Wanderers, who are too afraid to make any progress, and too ashamed to return back to their clans, are like a leech to the city, harming innocent Wanderers like you, trying to drag you down and share their misery…”

“We have all been where you are right now. And after what you are going to experience next… Even if the Arena will ensure your life, it is only right for us to tell you about the hidden dangers of the city.”

“If nothing else, then we should at least let you understand the rules of the Blood Arena, lest you fall into a trap once again. We just hope that you will not give up, and become like these scums.”

“Don’t worry,” Alnea said, nodding to the guards. They did not seem like bad people. At least not on the surface. “These scums will not be able to stop me from going to the core city.”

“…You are very ambitious, little friend,” the guards said, laughing in unison. “But it is for the best. You are going to need your optimism in a while.”

“…As you should have guessed already, there is only one Blood Arena for the entire Northern District. Similarly, the Southern, Western, and Eastern Districts also have only one Blood Arena each. In addition, there is another Blood Arena at the centre of the city. But only those who meet certain conditions are allowed to venture into the Central Blood Arena. Since you want to enter the core city though, I thought you should at least know what goal you have to reach.”

“…Coming back to Blood Arenas, if you want to just watch others fight, then you will have to pay a fee of one Blood Coin. But if you are going to fight, be it in a free battle, or a challenge, the Arena will deduct ten Blood Coins from you. Only if you win the fight will those Blood Coins be returned to you, or else, the Arena will keep those Blood Coins as the fee for using the Arena. As for your rank in the Blood Arena… it will be decided by how many Arena points you have.

“The more the Arena points you have, the better your rank would be in the Blood Arena. And the only way to earn Arena points is to win a fight. From as little as one Arena point, depending on who you fought with, and the difference between your ranks and strength, you can be rewarded with up to a thousand Arena points in just a single battle. But at the same time, if you lose, you can also end up losing up to a thousand Arena points in just a single battle. So, always be careful when you fight in the Arena.”

“About the two types of fights that Raes just mentioned, free battle, as its name suggest, is the type of fight where your opponents are selected randomly. But they are mostly in the range of your own level. That is until you become one of the top thousand fighters in the Arena. Once you break through to the top thousand ranks of the Blood Arena, your opponents will be matched according to your rank, and not your level.

“Of course, fighting opponents above your level is also a way to temper, and improve yourself. And many Wanderers might use it as a chance to hone their fighting skills. So, for the fights between those in the top thousand rank, the Arena lifts the restriction of not killing your opponents. Although it will still stop the fight once the outcome is decided, but fights are always prone to accidents. It will be best if you must make sure to not break through to the top thousand rank until you have reached the Peak Stage of the False Rank.”

“Still, free battles, in a sense, are fair battles, where the Arena arranges for opponents similar to you in either level, or your rank. Challenges though… When you are challenging someone in the Blood Arena, you are basically designating your opponent yourself. It does not matter what the level, or rank of your opponent is. As long as they are in the same district, you can challenge them to a fight.

“You can even bet a certain amount of Blood Coins on the fight. Rather, this is the easiest, and the fastest way to earn Blood Coins. And the way that the older Wanderers earn their Blood Coins. They use the pretext of earning some easy Blood Coins to trick newcomers into a challenge. And it is not that the newcomers do not know the risk. But the allure of Blood Coins, and their baseless self confidence often leads them into the pits of despair.”

“Yet, earning Blood Coins through challenges in Blood Arena depends on the condition that you can convince your opponents to fight. If you cannot convince your opponents to agree to your challenge, then there is nothing you can do except look for another opponent. Similarly, other Wanderers also cannot drag you to the Arena unless you agree to their challenge.”

“However, there is an exception to this rule,” the guard on right said, turning solemn in a fraction of a moment. Even the other guard matched the expression on the face of his colleague, looking at him in all solemnity. “Blood Challenge… It is the most sacred of the challenges. As long as you wish to stay in the Lost City, you can never refuse a Blood Challenge.”