Following pure instinct, Stanis's hand slid towards his sword's handle. He squinted his eyes and then slightly relaxed them once he saw that none of the humans seemed to have much interest in him. Not that his tensed hand left the handle though.

Beside him were the trio, just as on edge as he was.

The arena they were in was massive. Stanis could see hundreds of other humans within his sight with a space of a few metres between each person/group. Out of these distant crowds, he could see two such people making their way towards him.

One of them was a dainty boy with lightly coloured hair. He had no weapons visible on him but Stanis was wiser than he was months ago. In fact, perhaps it wasn't his wisdom that warned him but rather his intuition; there weren't mana fluctuations coming off the boy but Stanis could still, somehow, sense that he was hiding boundless power inside.

The other one was a broad-shouldered woman with a sword around her waist. She was about two heads taller than the boy and had a crooked nose, most likely broken from fighting. She wore clothes which loosely fit her but her clear-cut figure underneath told Stanis that she was quite the strength demon.

Overall, from what he could see, Stanis doubted he could beat the two. This wasn't him humbling himself or such but rather because the aura they gave off was just naturally domineering. Not that this caused him to take his hand away from his sword though.

The two of them came into striking distance and stopped, the boy staring impassively while the woman smiled. Not that it was pleasant smile though: she had a scar across her cheek that went through her lips, giving her quite the crooked smile.

"Welcome to Ofu!" said the woman, her voice sunshine grating against stone. "I'm Mieraka and this is Ru," she said while pointing at the boy, who gave a faint smile in response.

"I'm sure you've got plenty of questions but wait till we're finished before asking. Too much of a bother repeating myself," she said.

"So, you're all currently tyro Mosytes. Mosyte is your rank whereas tyro is your standing within Mosytes. Think of it like novice Mosyte. Hey, that's a pretty good analogy. Why didn't I think of it earlier?" she asked gleefully.

Ru sighed in response. His lips twitched and his forehead creased as if he was thinking upon a difficult matter. He seemed to come to an answer a second later as he looked at Mieraka.

"You've repeated that 21 times today. Please don't," he pleaded.

She gave him a glare in return, eventually turning her attention back to Stanis and the trio.

"So tyro is like novice. Medial is the next one as it is like intermediate. Adroite is the last one and it is like adept. So an adroite Mosyte is someone who is at the peak of Mosyte, close to breaking into the next rank.

Following Mosyte is Laeon, and following that is Fa'bel. So the strongest people in the universe are adroite Fa'bels. You got all of that?" she asked.

All 4 members of her audience nodded. Basically said, it looked like the ranking system contained 9 different ranks, all with different names instead of numbers.

"Going from tyro to adroite is easy, all you have to do is power up. However, the leaps between the ranks all require special processes," she said, adding, "although you won't have to worry about that for some time."

"Anyway, that's enough about that" she said. "I'm sure the other big question you have is why your attributes got lowered? That's because you've gone past the limit of the system on Earth, meaning you've been transferred to the universal one that everyone is under. Whatever stat numbers you had before, if you had those in this system, then you would be powerhouses in your own respect. Here's a little tip that I don't tell anyone else since they aren't cute enough,"

Stanis flushed. He hadn't been called cute before.

"For the love of Ciae, can you stop crapping," Ru interrupted, "You've called every single person you've seen today cute. Why was I put with you out of all people?"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Stanis felt the colour die out of cheeks at this. A simple trick, and he had fallen for it. Before Mieraka could even glare at Ru, Pete rather loudly coughed. Just as all the attention turned to him, he gave Mieraka quite the provocative wink.

Now paler than before, Mieraka's scowl turned into a smile that shone on everyone but Pete. "So, you're going to have to wait here until the 1000th person from Earth reaches tyro Mosyte. We'll get going now," she said, almost scurrying away as she pushed Ru to walk away faster.

"Hmph. Not my fault she's blind," added Pete while she was still in earshot.

Stanis turned towards the trio and felt himself empathising with Ru despite having only met him a minute ago. "What are we gonna do?"

"Your call," replied Skint, simultaneously scratching his head.

Stanis looked around and pondered for a moment before coming to a decision. "Let's just sit down then. Sounds like things are only going to happen once the 1000th person arrives, so I'm guessing this is some kind of lavish waiting room."

Pete grunted in agreement and the four of them sat onto the sandy ground, opening packs and feasting on the scarce resources they had.

The four of them were severely drunk hours later and like this, several days passed. They checked the arena out on the second day, only to realise they weren't allowed out. Other than food and drinks, toilets and showers, the Hu offered nothing else. At first, they had thought it would be fine as they had plenty of company around them, but reality proved otherwise.

All the groups in the arena were cold and focused on other matters, all just sitting around and focusing inwards. Stanis hadn't understood the reason why until he had circulated his mana. The arena was rich in mana!

The trio had ways of circulating mana but it was all brutish compared to his, so Stanis quickly taught the trio, before going into inner meditation himself.

It was two weeks later that the 1000th person arrived in the arena. In this time, Pete and Skint had managed to befriend a few others but not to a deep extent or such. Because they were surrounded by people with raging auras, and because the arena was simply a goldmine for mana circulation, most people simply spent the days sitting stationary.

Bear joined Stanis on his secluded training, and it proved in their stats as they had more to show than either Pete or Skint did.

It was as Stanis was sitting down with his eyes closed, focused on his circulation when a booming voice filled the arena.

"Hello all, I am Ciae, leader of the Hu."

The words caught Stanis's attention and he turned around to face an old man on the other side of the arena, coming down the colosseum seats. He had a thick, white beard which swayed from side to side as he walked. He had a bald, shiny head and wrinkles over his face, in case his beard wasn't enough for anyone to figure out that he was old. But despite his old age, Ciae walked with a back as straight as a spear, his aura domineering and sharp. He was to the humans like Stanis had been to the frogs. He was the strongest being Stanis had seen his entire life

"I'm sure all of you know by now that it was us who first set up the trials on your planet," he said. His voice was loud but not sharp in the least, instead dulled around the edges with a hint of exhaustion on top.

"I am pleased that so many of you are at this rank already. I have much to say but at the same time, little to say. I think all of you now understand that the universe revolves around strength," he paused.

"All of you are weak." he said. He had stated it bluntly but as Stanis looked around, he could see that no one disagreed with Ciae. How could they? The aura coming off Ciae was simply a mountain compared to the pebbles they were.

"But," he continued. "I can see the lust for power in your eyes," he said while looking around. "And that is good because that is the only thing that will make you strong."

"Anyhow, you have done well to make it this far so quick, far faster than the rest still on Earth. And that deserves a reward. Sadly, all we know is how quickly you made it here and not how strong you are. On the other hand, I know giving you gifts based on your haste and not your strength directly contradicts what I said seconds ago, as well as the rules of the universe."

Stanis could hear the weariness in Ciae's voice grow now. It was still strong and stable, but the hiding exhaustion had now become visible.

"We don't have time to host a tournament. None at all. So, in order to determine what rewards you get, you will now be given a medallion with your place on how fast you made it here. Number 1-10 will get the best rewards. Then 11-100, 101-500 and finally 501-1000. Fight whoever you want and take their medallion. The only rule I have is that you do not kill anybody. And I hope you keep true to that rule," he said, all the weariness out of his body gone in that one sentence.

What followed Ciae's announcement was several people coming out of the colosseum's gates, carrying medallions to hand over. Minutes later, the mood had taken a dive into freezing water as people stood with blades out, a bright, shiny number above everyone's heads.

Stanis had number 317, Pete 318, Skint 319 and Bear 320. It went without saying that Stanis was looking around for the 1 digit numbers in the air as he was certain of not only his ability to get in the top 10 but also the ability of the trio to follow him. Maybe not into the top 10 but at least far higher than what they were at now.

Ciae looked down at the crowd below him. "Begin,"...