His eyes opened to see a bright white stone ceiling. It was unfamiliar, and not at all what he was expecting. Turning his head to the side, he took in his surroundings. He lay on a soft and comfortable bed, one of several dozens that were placed against the walls of a large white hall. Chandeliers with light crystals affixed into them hung off the roof, enveloping the hall in a warm glow. Most of the beds had a person on it, several of whose clothing was bloody and torn. Yet none of them showed any signs of injures on their skin.

Lane recalled the state he had been in before he lost consciousness. Twisting his head to inspect his own body, he let out a breath when there were no injuries. He was still in the same clothing, drenched with sweat, dirt, and even some blood. But his arm looked fine and his spine wasn't hurting anymore. And it was comfortable enough in the bed for him to consider just going to sleep again, but he had to find out where he was and how he got here.

Sitting up in the bed, he glanced about the hall for someone who wasn't an unconscious patient. At the far end of the room, he spotted a short figure in a white robe leaning over a bed. They had their back against him, so he couldn't see what they were doing. He rose from the bed and started walking towards the other end of the room. However, he stopped when he saw the face of the person in one of the beds close his.

It was Rachel. Her clothes had a large tear at the side, but the skin beneath looked unharmed and her complexion was better than before. Her brother lay in the bed next to her. Like Lane, his clothes were also very dirty with traces of blood on them, but there were no outwards signs of injury on him.

Lane considered waking them up to talk to them. They had fought together and it would be a lie to say that he didn't feel an ounce of camaraderie with them after that. But he decided against it. They looked fine, but he didn't know the extent of their conditions. It was best to let them be for now. In the end, they were still Summoned. He didn't know them well enough to trust them more than most others here.

Except for that man that left them behind after the ambush. That was one person you couldn't trust.

Passing by their beds, Lane moved further down the hall and approached the robed figure that stood beside a bed close by the entrance. Long golden-blond hair fell down their back and flowed as they turned around to look as he neared.

It was a woman that looked to be in her late twenties, with bright blue eyes and a small face. "You're awake." She said, with a warm but tired smile.

"Yes," Lane examined her appearance and glanced at the person on the bed behind her. Unlike most of the other patients here, there were injuries on their body. "Where are we?" He asked, turning back to her.

"This is the Colosseum's infirmary." She said. "You and the others were brought here by the uninjured in your batch after you were ambushed by kobolds."

Colosseum? And batch? Did she mean the group of Summoned that entered the testing area with him? Did those that survived the ambush without injury help him, the twins, and the other injured Summoned after they lost consciousness? He recognized a few of the people in the beds as those who had entered the Testing Area of the Gods with him, but most were unfamiliar faces. Perhaps they were from other 'batches'.

"Your batch fared better than the others. Because of the number of heavily injured this time, the opening of the Colosseum was postponed to tomorrow morning. You should head to the dormitories. There's food and there's water there. It's good to rest some more before the Colosseum opens." The woman continued.

"What's the colosseum?"

She looked at him for a few seconds. "You're...not aware of the contents of the second test yet?"

Lane shook his head. "No. Is there something wrong with that?"

Sometimes, if you were ignorant, the best way to hide it was to act like it was completely natural. The best way to hide your secrets was to pretend like they weren't a secret to start with. While he hadn't done the best job of not arousing suspicion up till now and he wasn't the best liar, it didn't hurt to try.

The woman laughed. "No, it's just that most don't come here without any preparation. Some even train for years. I'm sure that almost everyone would bring enough guns and explosives to blow away the whole Royal Capital if they could." She smiled at him. "It's unusual to see someone who doesn't even know what the Colosseum is. Be careful in there."

"Ehm, thanks." He didn't let it show that he didn't know what a gun was, or how ridiculous the idea of blowing up the entire Royal Capital was to him.

She turned back to the person in the bed. "I still have a few more patients to heal so I need to get back to it. When you leave, the dormitory is the large building opposite of the infirmary. I pray to Phula that we don't have to meet much here in the coming future."

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"Ah..." She needed to heal more people. Was she responsible for his healed condition? And all of the other healed injuries in the room? He didn't know how severe his injuries had been, but she might have saved his life. "Are you...Also a Summoned?"

Her hands glowed a bright golden glow as she held them over her patient's injuries. "Right, you wouldn't know." She let out a light chuckle as she glanced Lane. "Yes, I'm also a Summoned. My name is Claire Bright. And just for your information, there aren't many Natives that could hold a candle to me when it comes to healing."

He caught himself extending his hand before stiffly pulling it back. Her hands were still busy with healing. "...I'm Lane Davenrish. Thank you for helping me."

"Nice to meet you, Lane, and you're very welcome. I wish you the best of luck in the coming test." Claire said. "Now, you really should get going before all the food is eaten."

"Yes, I will. Once again, thank you." Lane turned to leave. When he was exiting, he heard a voice call out from behind him.

"A tip from someone experienced. It's not much, but when the time comes — make sure to choose people you can trust."

Lane spun around to see Claire focusing on her patient. Gazing at her for a few seconds, he eventually turned around and left the hall behind. From there he walked through the corridors of the infirmary. It was only one floor, but it took him a couple of minutes to find the exit.

It was almost night out. The first thing he saw when he left the building was the dormitory she'd mentioned. It was a large wooden building with several smaller buildings connected to it. Between the infirmary—which was a medium-sized building out of stone—and the dormitory was a large courtyard with a fountain in the middle.

To Lane's left was a large road that led into the forest. At the start of that road stood several groups of horse-less wagons, some of which showed signs of battle. They had made it through the forest.

To his right stood a huge oval-shaped building made out of coarse white stone. Its walls were covered with archways that were over a hundred feet high. It was the largest structure he'd ever seen. Maybe there were other buildings like it in Lomore, the duchies' largest city, or in the Royal Capital — but it was an impressive sight nonetheless. The three structures stood with the courtyard between them in a massive clearing in an even larger forest.

The sight left Lane standing for a minute. The feeling of hunger that had gone unnoticed up till now reminded him of his current mission and he started crossing the courtyard. There were a few other people out who were sitting around the fountain. Perhaps they were waiting for people that were still in the infirmary. He passed them by without giving them much care. When he entered the dormitory, stairs were leading to the second floor straight ahead of him. Next to the stairs were hallways that connected to the smaller buildings.

In a chair in front of the stairs sat a woman with dark blonde hair and glasses. Her legs were crossed as her attention was focused on a book in her lap. She glanced up at Lane for a second before turning back to her book. Her hand pointed to one of the hallways, and then to a sign on the wall next to her. 'Food in the cafeteria. There are empty rooms on floor 4.' The 4 on the sign was barely legible, having been sloppily burned into the sign over other numbers.

She didn't look like the kind who appreciated being bothered so he kept quiet, walking down the hallway she had pointed him towards. He arrived in what looked like a cafeteria, and like the sign had said there was food there. There were many tables in the cafeteria with different people at them. One of the tables had several boxes on it, most of which were empty by now. The ones that weren't empty had fruits, bread, and other foodstuffs in them. He didn't waste much time there. He grabbed some food and water, had his meal at one of the tables, and then left for the fourth floor. The woman in the chair was pointing at the sign, glaring at another person who had recently entered the dormitory. Lane noticed a new line had been burned onto the sign.

'DON'T ASK ME QUESTIONS'

He silently passed by and climbed the stairs. He made the right choice to keep quiet. That other person had been sweating buckets from just her glare.

When he reached the fourth floor he was uncertain which rooms were still empty. The floor consisted of a long hallway with over a dozen doors on each side. There was no indicator as to which of the rooms were already occupied. To avoid entering the wrong room and annoy those inside, he walked down the hallway and stopped in front of the door that was the furthest away from the stairs. At the very least, it was more likely to be empty than the ones closer to the stairs. He was about to open the door when he hesitated. Turning towards the door that was the next furthest away from the stairs, he opened it instead. You had to take into account people who thought like him too.

When he opened the door, it was indeed empty. He was, however, surprised to see that there were four beds in the room. There were several floors with these rooms on them. How many Summoned were there here? The Summoned had their summoning ceremony once a year and in five different locations, one of those being the Duchy of Coldoan. That much he knew. The batches that Claire mentioned were likely the groups from these different locations. In his 'batch,' there were slightly more than a hundred Summoned who entered the second testing area. Assuming that figure was the same for the other batches, then this dormitory had to have room for at least 500 people.

And close to half might not survive the whole ceremony. These trials certainly were ruthless.

Taking off his haggard shirt, Lane lay down on of the beds. While he felt sweaty and dirty all over his body, he didn't know if there were somewhere to clean himself up here. There probably was, but better to look for it later. Despite having been unconscious in the infirmary for some time, he still felt a sense of fatigue throughout his body and only wanted to rest now. As this 'opening of the Colosseum' had been postponed to the afternoon, it seemed like he would have enough time to handle these things in the morning.