"Young healthy 10-year-old kid, I can do 50 Bronze no more no less. I have a lot of mouths to feed already, and I'm running out of time so hurry up and decide!"The merchant shouts angrily
"Y-yes sir we agree! As long as we get the money you can do whatever you want with him!" As the father kneels and quickly agrees
"Hmph!" The merchant throws the coins onto the ground and drags the knocked out kid with him as the father quickly picks up the coins in glee. It's the same thing every day; a low-income family is not able to afford taking care of their child anymore, so they sell off their children cheaply to quickly get some money. With fewer mouths to feed they have more to keep on living their miserable lives.
The merchant throws the boy into the back of the caravan together with all the other slaves as his assistant looks on happily.
"Last one of the day?" The assistant happily asks "Yeah, the kid was 50 bronze" The merchant replies as he checks the other kids. "Man the price for these kids are getting lower and lower!" The assistant looks at the remaining silver they still had. "The world has gone to hell for these types of people, of course, it's gonna go down, anyways enough talk let's get a move on before that old arena master cuts our pay." The merchant locks the doors to the caravan, and they start moving.
The young boy opens his eyes and looks around, his vision is a bit blurry, and there's a constant ringing in his head. 'Just what happened?! Didn't father say he wanted to have a chat with me? Where in the world am I?
All he could hear is the vibrations of the wooden floor his on, sounds of horses and light breathing of people around him, as he sniffed the air, he could smell the foul odor from other people. The boy focuses as hard as he can and sees about ten kids around the same age as him lying on the floor sleeping. But as soon as he could make sense of this, a sudden impact hits his head as though a hammer slammed into him and knocked him out.
"Ahh!" The boy screams as he opens his eyes again, but instead of a dark room, it was a bright white room, but for some odd reason he couldn't smell anything. "Argh don't scream anymore! Is this how you greet someone?!" The boy quickly turns around to find the source of the voice. An old man stands there rubbing his ear; the old man looked wise and heavenly wearing white robes as he holds a fan yet the actions his doing is not something a heavenly old man would do. "Who are you?! Where am I? Where are my parents?!" The boy rapidly shouts questions. "One at a time you stinking brat! Don't you respect your elders huh?!" The old man shouts back in anger. "Alright, I'll answer some of your questions! I am the esteemed Janko the wise! You must know me right!?" Janko says as he proudly lifts up his chest in pride.
"N-no I don't think I have..." The boy says timidly. "HUH?! What?! Have you been living under a rock?! How have you not known of me, Janko?! I should be in books herald as a man with immense knowledge and a hero how can you not know me!?" Janko shouts in anger at the ignorant boy. "But I don't know of any person called Janko in legends, The only legends I know are about King Orland slaying a Dragon, Archer Heron Shooting down a phoenix and Master Gerald cutting the earth in half creating the split in the world!" The boy said honestly.
"What?! Who?! This is impossible! Did that mean my plan failed?!" Janko started thinking as sweat started running down his face. "U-um Janko sir are you ok?" the boy asks looking worried for Janko. "I am fine most definitely fine! Hmph if I am not remembered by history then it can't be helped... Well, what about you boy? What is your name?" Janko asks while stroking beard "Eh? W-well my name is Charles Puckers, son of Greg Puckers and May Puckers. I work on a farm!" Charles answered, his quite proud of working on a farm. "Charles? Good name! Though you might want to remove your family name with your situation now." Janko looks at Charles with pity
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"Remove my family name? But that would mean cutting ties with my family I can't do that!" Charles exclaims. "You're still filial to parents that have sold your for money?!" Janko says in shock "Sold me? they wouldn't do that!" Charles shouts in denial. "You seem to not know what has happened to you." Janko deduces. "Yeah, like where am I?! And why am I here with you?! I'm supposed to be working on the farm right now!" Charles starts looking around in a hurry as he starts realizing the situation. "Sigh alright, right now we are in your mind. Right now I'm a spirit sharing your body with you." Janko explains patiently.
"This is my mind? Spirit? Sharing?! How does that work?!" Charles starts getting confused "Calm down! Me being in your mind is my fault due to my plans failing but do not worry my presence will not harm you!" Janko reassures Charles. "...Alright, I'll trust you, I don't know whats going on anyways.." Charles gives up and accepts his predicament. "Mhm good, it's time you return to your body then!" As Janko says, this Charles suddenly feels sleepy and closes his eyes.
Charles opens his eyes and sees a dark damp room, the room had only one torch making at least somewhat lit. The smell in the room was awful with the scent of piss and shit from the corner of the room behind a wall. "Where am I?" Charles asks himself "Oh so your finally awake kid welcome to hell the name's Robert pleasure to meet ya." A skinny middle-aged man greets Charles. "M-my name is Charles, what do you mean by hell? D-did I die?!" Charles replies scared by Robert's words. "Ah, it would best for the both of us if you don't shout. We don't want the guards to come over and give us some "love" now would we?" Roberts warns Charles. "Y-yes sorry, sir," Charles says timidly. "Alright I'll explain some stuff to you, I don't wanna see such a young kid perish an idiotic death. Right now yer in Roaring Silk City's arena home to a few hundred arena fighters who fight to the death every damn day." Robert says nonchalantly
"Arena? Fight to the death? I'm just a farm boy how can I fight?" Charles is shocked by the revelation. "You were probably sold off to the arena boy, pretty much all the kids are the same here." Robert explains "Sold? That means sir Janko was right.." Charles sadly realizes. "Who?' Robert asks. "O-oh it's nothing! I was thinking about my farm's dog!" Charles quickly came up with an explanation "Hmph well that dog ain't gonna last too long if they would even sell their son. I'm taking a nap, enjoy your time in hell kid." Robert lays down facing the wall and sleeps.
"Kid your really got guts to call me a dog!" a familiar voice exclaims. "E-eh?! Sir Janko?! Please quiet down you will wake sir Robert up!" Charles quickly said "Hmph you do not need to worry about that kid. Only you can hear me, I'm in your head after all." Janko explained. "Ah, that makes sense I guess. Sir Janko what do I do now? I am stuck here now..." Charles asks with a disheartened voice. "Well it seems you are in a bad situation, but it isn't the worst! All you have to do is just survive!" Janko reassures Charles. "Survive? How could it be that easy? I will have to fight life and death battles with people!" Charles asks
"At least you have a fighting chance! From my experience there are people sold to the mines, those people don't even have a chance to change their fate! In any case, surviving will be an easy task with Janko the Wise here! I shall teach you how to fight!" Janko proudly says. "Teach me? You can do that sir Janko?!" Charles asks "Relax Charles, with me here I won't let you die so easily! I need you alive anyways, alright let us get started!"
"Yes sir Janko, but how will you teach me?" Charles gets pumped for the training. "I shall implant a skill I know into you, I haven't tested it myself but it should work on you! Be proud of yourself kid you'll be the first one to test this out!" Janko explains casually "Eh? Never tested?! Sir Janko I don't think this is a good id-" but before Charles could finish his sentence, he felt an intense burst of pain in his head causing him to faint.
"It can only be used on a clean slate so do your best to hang on Charles!"