Chapter Eleven

Encounter

Struggles of a Level One Arc

I Ryun-Hae and his two brothers sat next to me. We were seated towards the edge of the crowd—the entire place was filled with roaring audiences. A large caged area surrounded by ascending seats could be seen there. It was shaped like a mediocre-sized colloseum.

The three of them explained to me how the betting system here worked. Basically— Instead of poker chips, each of us would receive a phone-like device. It would be easier to tally up and count the bets this way. There were these sort of Top-Up machines where we could add more money to our device.

There were many things to bet on, as there were many events here in The Pit. First, there was a normal one-versus-one for people to fight illegally captured monsters. Then there were the classic one-versus-ones where people fought each other. And lastly, there was a free for all type battle. For that, anyone who wants to join can register as long as it was prior to the match. The fight will last for ten minutes, or until there’s only last man standing, kind of thing.

“Oh, and I forgot to mention,” Ryun-Hae turned to me, “These are all fights to the death.”

Okay, now they were killing people? Why not I guess, anything goes here anyway—besides it’s not like anyone would talk about this to the authorities, not that they’ll listen. The underground of Han-Zhong was a terrifying place, they can know what you do or what you said—and if they see as in-the-way then they won’t hesitate to put you down.

I look at the device in my hand, it was basically a phone, but the screen only showed options that correlated with betting. They used three forms of currency down here, but the patient zero of them all were Japanese Yen, not a surprise really. It wasn’t uncommon for people to use Korean Won or Chinese Yuan in Han-Zhong, it is a diverse city after all.

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen!” The announcer said, “You now have only five minutes left, so place your bets quick!”

The first match was a Human versus Monster fight. The on-screen display showed the statistics of the first fighter and their opponent. Obviously, their actually name and face wouldn’t be shown—rather an alias of your choosing and a mask that was mandatory, if you didn’t bring a mask however they supplied you with a black face mask that didn’t look bad either.

Name: Carnage

Male

Level: 34

Rank: 2-Star

That was the first fighter that was going into the arena, or pit, for better wording. And Mr. Carnage was going against a Bullfrog. Generally, Bullfrogs are considered to be on the higher 2-Star category. So seeing one captured and expected to die in someone’s hands was both amazing and a typical Rich Person move. Come to think of it, capturing monsters without a permit was illegal in most countries. If you tally up the bribery and manpower needed to tow that thing all the way to the outskirts of town—then the host or hosts of this joint would have been above filthy rich.

Bullfrogs, in this context, were not like your typical American Bullfrog, no bigger than your average house pet. No, these Bullfrogs were the one’s you’d find spawning in marshland dungeons. They were generally two meters in height and three meters in length. Again—they were ordinarily considered to be higher 2-Star ranked, some probably had the strength as a 3-Star. Their looks were about the same as an American Bullfrog, minus the two bull’s horns found growing out of their temples.

“So, Sir Kurai,” Heo-Im asked, “Who are you going to bet on?”

“Well, judging by looks alone is hard.” I answered, “But since I know their level, it’ll be much easier to judge.”

For this, I think I’m going to go for Carnage, in the photo they provided, he seemed to look pretty confident in his abilities, despite the lack of muscles. He had red hot eyes, so he was probably a fire main mage.

In this world, your eye color determined what your specialty magic would be. Of course, you could learn all types of magic, but your eye color determined what you would learn the fastest. An example would be Kazuya and this Carnage guy with their red eyes was potent in fire magic, Jeslyn with her green eyes was potent in healing magic, or Kenji with his blue eyes potent with his water and ice. However, these didn’t come out too often, only gifted people were born with this trait. Unlike me and most of the population who had normal dark brown eyes.

“Is that so Sir Kurai?” Jin-Ho butted into our conversation, “Then in that case I too will bet for Carnage!”

“Huh?” Heo-Im gasped “M-me two!”

“Me three!” Ryun-Hae also chimed in.

I was actually beginning to like the three of them, they were playful, unlike their first impression. Under those fake piercings and ripped clothing were just three brothers trying their best to get by, even if they threatened people. It feels nostalgic actually… Like my own family during dinners. Yui would always take dad’s share of the meat, and mom would be in the kitchen laughing…

“Sir Kurai?” Heo-Im tapped my shoulder.

“Huh?” I snap back into reality

“The bets are closing” he points at the timer.

“Oh right, of course.” I recollect my thoughts and enter a small amount of my money first. “five thousand credits seem like a good starter.”

A few more moments pass and the announcer gives some final words.

“And that’s it, folks! The bets are in!” He pointed his hand at the giant screen behind him. “And the majority of bets go to...” He paused for dramatic effect, “The Bullfrog!”

Interesting actually, I didn’t think that we would be in the minority of votes, did people just have little faith in the humans? Well, I can’t really say anything since this was my first time watching something like this. And the only knowledge I had was the knowledge that they taught us in school.

**

“FIGHT!”

And they were off.

The Bullfrog had a surprisingly hefty entrance compared to Carnage. Carnage entered the arena with a black hoodie and a mask that had a teeth pattern on it. He wore jeans that looked hard to move in, but that didn’t look like it would hinder his movements. He wore fingerless gloves that allowed for a comfortable grip on the short-sword behind his waist. Dressed pretty casually I thought, but a short-sword against a Bullfrog? No wonder people went against the grain and voted for the Bullfrog.

The Bullfrog's thick and poisonous skin made close-ranged combat a bad tactic. You’d also have to be careful of their tongue. The American Bullfrog’s tongue would generally be about a third of its size—the same, however, cannot be said for dungeon ones. instead of a third, it’s actually three times its size.

The tongue could travel its full length in about a second’s worth of time, scarily fast for something that long. Their tongues also produced saliva, although not acid, but very sticky. If that frog manages to even graze Carnage, then he’s as good as frog food. It’ll be interesting to see how he’ll fight against his opposite.

Carnage stood still, unmoving—waiting for the right moment to attack. Even from afar, the camera still captured his unnerving sweat drop down his temple--in stunning 4K!

Each jump would make all the pebbles jump as well, and on the third jump—it finally noticed its prey. Its dead black eyes stared Carnage down, and in the next second, its feral instincts kicked in, shooting the pink slimy tongue out at Carnage.

Woah, He’s fast! I thought I almost didn’t see him.

Suddenly he was running circles around the frog, with his short-sword in a back-handed grip. The frog shot out its tongue several other times, and by the third shot, it looked like he finally got down its pattern.

Jump, wait, tongue—a simple pattern, for a dumb-minded frog.

The next tongue that shot out, Carnage was able to juke it and slice it clean off. The meter chunk that was cut bounced on the ground as the Bullfrog squealed in pain. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Carnage activated a pre-chanted spell, he was able to time his jump with a boost of flame—allowing him to reach a height that no normal human could reach on their own.

For the three people watching next to me, it must have been too fast for their eyes. But for me, I was able to see each and every move in detail with my Photographic Memory. In midair, I saw his blade light up and eventually dressed in thick blue flames.

He could cast Wielder spells as well? This dude’s not bad.

Carnage closed their distance in a blink of an eye, with flaming short-sword in hand—he sliced the right side of the Bullfrog’s head. And landed on the ground faster than the Bullfrog fell dead. The moment he sheathed his sword back in its scabbard, everywhere it touched went up its blue hot flames that charred all of its brains and guts. The Bullfrog slumped its body sideways indicating its death.

The crowd cheered and roared upon that feat—well at least the minority that made bets on his victory did, the majority was booing. A funny thought that was, sadly this was the reality. Carnage left the arena in a coolheaded fashion, only making my respect for him rose.

“That was amazing! Right Sir Kurai?” Heo-Im turned to me for my approval, it seems that they were now comfortable conversing with me.

“Yeah, that was amazing” I playfully answered back. Still ignoring the fact that they were calling me Sir.

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**

We then had a small break in between the changing of events. As the night went on, it only seemed to get more and more crowded, and it didn’t look like it stopped either. I look down at the phone they gave us. And surprisingly I have been right on the dot for every bet so far. Well, considering it’s always a fifty-fifty chance it was to be expected.

“Wow following Sir Kurai’s intuition is the best!” Ryun-Hae said

“Yeah! He always makes the right decision, haha!” Jin-Ho chimed in.

We stood in line by a refreshments stand, yes, apparently they had food and drink stands down here. Well, opportunity persists, where there’s people, there’s business after all. Couldn’t blame them.

“Hey, Sir Kurai, you shouldn’t stand here. Let me buy you the drinks and you can just sit down with Heo-Im” Ryun-Hae, said.

I didn’t mind waiting in line, but if they insisted, then by all means—sitting down was okay too.

“Alright then, if you insist.” I walked out of line “Don’t forget, I want orange juice, okay?”

“Of course Sir Kurai!”

As I walk back to our seats, I began to trust these guys more and more now. The way they acted around me, each of their personalities—probably calling them my friends right now, wouldn’t be so bad. And without them, I wouldn’t have earned all this money. The night was still young, and there were still a lot more events that I also wanted to see.

I arrive back at our seats and saw Heo-Im patiently waiting for us. Our regular phones had no network being so far from the main city, so I was interested to see how Heo-Im kept himself busy.

“Hey, watcha’ doin’?” I sat back down next to him. It seemed to startle him a bit, but he got his composure back. There was no need to be formal, he was around my age after all.

“Oh, just, keeping myself busy…” he was a bit nervous, I could tell from his speech.

He had a deck of cards in his hand which he twirled and did flourishes with. I remember seeing something like this in the past, but never really got to it. It was impressive to see in person, the way his hands moved and cut the deck made it look super easy to do. But in reality, it must have taken hours of practice to get it to even look remotely good. He was talented in that feat I should say, and I was genuinely interested to learn that for some reason.

“Hey,” I complimented him “that looks cool, where’d you learn that?”

“Oh, it’s nothing really, I just learned it off of the internet.”

“I see,” I nodded while still mesmerized at the fluid motions the cards made. “Can you teach me?”

“Oh? You’re interested in learning Cardistry, Sir Kurai?”

The way he phrased that sounded genuine in its own way, if I had to guess—none of his brothers had the same interest as he did. I think he felt happier knowing that someone else found interest in his own hobbies.

“Yeah, it looks cool.”

He took out another box of cards from his pocket and handed them over to me. For some reason, they didn’t feel like the cheap playing cards I would normally find being sold in convenience stores. The touch and feel of it made it seem like it wasn’t even paper. Slippery—Where I almost dropped these cards on the dirty floor upon receiving them.

“Please try to not drop these cards, Sir Kurai” He gave a concerned look, I knew how he felt. Something this posh seemed to be a rare occurrence for the likes of us poor people Dropping these will definitely ruin them, so I tried my best.

With these fragile cards in hand, he began to show me a really simple “One-Handed Cut” as he called it. It was simply taking a part of the deck with my thumb and pivoting it off my index finger outwards, then bringing it back under the larger part of the deck.

“This is called a Scissor Cut, Sir Kurai.”

Okay, this was embarrassing, he kept showing me the same move over and over again while I still failed to extend my fingers far enough to fully split the deck. What the hell? This is impossible! I thought to myself. It should be simple right? Just move the thumb outwards making a semi-open palm. Going at it too hard might drop the cards, but going at it too light would also drop the cards. I need to find a sweet spot.

“So… If I just…” I successfully did a Scissor Cut! “Yes!”

“That was amazing Sir Kurai! It looks like your first step to learning Cardsitry is complete!”

Requirement for Passive Skill: Advanced Body Control, reached.

Advanced Body Control successfully learned.

Wait, what the hell was this? How did I…? So was that a requirement? Learning Cardistry? It made no sense whatsoever, but I think I accidentally learned a new skill. I wanted to read about it in the Skills menu, but I couldn’t just open it here could I? Yeah, better make some excuse to get out.

“Umm, hey I think I’m gonna head for the bathroom real quick.”

“Ah, okay then!”

I left the cards on my seat as I left for the bathroom.

It was crowded in there, and it reeked like piss. I didn’t want to be in here longer than necessary. I went in an empty stall whispered display, and reading through the skill I basically summarized this.

I was able to create intricate movements as if I could picture them in my head. Meaning, in order to do a backflip, for example, I didn’t need to practice flailing my body and cause serious injuries—I could just do it. Anything my brain could imagine my body doing, I could do. Another overpowered skill if you ask me. This new powers stuff was really starting to grow on me

As I exit the bathroom, I could finally let in a breath of relief. I didn’t breathe for the entirety I was in there. And I went back to the seats only to find the three of them already there and waiting for me.

“Here’s your drink, Sir Kurai!” Ryun-Handed me a full cup of iced orange juice. “Extra refreshing just for you!”

“Thanks” as I took a sip, it was sweet, I liked it.

We then continued to wait a bit longer for the matches to resume.

**

“What do you think of that last one, Sir Kurai?” Heo-Im asked me again.

The last fight was not a bad one, I was able to dish out the right fighter once again. As of right now, I had invested all my money into this account, and used them in all in’s more than once already. You can probably bet how confident, or should I rather say—lucky, I have been. Overjoyed, filled with adrenaline. Or maybe it was just the sugar rush from the orange juice.

“It was alright, I liked the previous match better though.” I said confidently and comfortably.

“Hahah! Yes, me as well!” We all laughed after that.

“Oh, Sir Kurai, let me get another cup for you.”

“Ah, only if you want to Ryun-Hae! Thanks!”

With that, the next battle was about to ensue. Like the battle just now, it was a person versus person battle, and we’d be betting on the victor. The two contestants were Carnage, the same person from before, and a new contender… Shine…

“So who will win, Sir Kurai?” Jin-Ho turned to me for advice.

Judging by the newcomer’s stats I can say that they are an oddity—a strange one indeed. Shine, and interesting name to state itself. It’s written in English letters which mean shine, like sunshine or something that involves light. But read in Japanese, it means just one word.

Death

A smart play on words if I do say so myself, but that meant nothing if you had skills that weren’t worth mentioning. For all I know, this guy could just be playing it cool. Before I say anything more, let’s take a look at their stats.

Name: Carnage

Male

Level: 34

Rank: 2-Star

Name: Shine

Female

Level: 5

Rank: 1-Star

Enough could be said for Carnage, I’ve seen his skills, and he has proven himself to be high—possibly higher—in the 2-Star ranking. The way he moves, his reflexes, all showed signs of dignity and a cool composure. Even if he had a fight with Kenji, he’d probably push himself to the limit before giving out. To put it simply, he was a prime example of a low ranking but powerful mage, he was a force to be reckoned with.

If I fought with Carnage, I would win—only because of the sheer difference in our power. Speed, technique, and probably strength-wise? I was clearly outmatched. But Shine? Apparently, she was the polar opposite.

Was she truly all talk and no bite? These stats seem to be horrible—no one in their right mind would vote for her, and why would they? Seriously, why did they even let this girl in? Level five and rank 1-Star—that’s no better than any of the good for nothing classmates that were helpless to do anything.

She wasn’t in the first event so I don’t know her abilities. I thought, Could you just do that even? Skip the first event and go straight for another? What do these fighters gain by fighting anyway?

“They get a cut of all the money Sir Kurai.” Jin-Ho enlightened me.

Huh, that’s a pretty good deal actually, and all you would need to do is win, right? How do people sign up for this thing? I asked these questions to Jin-Ho

“There is a registration booth right over there. And you can choose what events to participate in, Sir Kurai.” JIn-Ho pointed his finger. “But it’s too late to register for this event, if someone were to register, they’d have to be in the next event.”

The free for all. Where anything goes…

But those bets were for later thinking—right now I had to focus on who to bet, time was running out. So let’s balance my options. I could go for Carnage which is a safe bet to go for, having seen his skills, I must say they’re pretty decent. Or I could go for a wild card and bet for Shine. I remember reading about it in a book about gladiators where they only pinned the equals together to get a satisfying going-all-out.

Actually, I think I’m not gonna bet on this one. Too many variables to account fo,r and not enough information to determine a definite solution.

“Oh, is that so?” Jin-Ho said, “Then I’ll be independent for once and bet for Carnage!”

“yeah!” Heo-Im riled up, “Me too!”

They both seemed enthusiastic, which was the important part. Just as the match was about to begin Ryun-Hae came back with my drink. I sipped it, and it tasted just as before—delicious! I never knew things sold underground could taste so sweet!

“And it looks like the majority bet goes to…” The announcer paused to wait for the tally. “Carnage!”

The audience had the same idea, safe betting. But the number looked to be a bit off by several margins. I know the announcer kept it formal, but it seemed a little underwhelming to say majority when 99% of people decided to bet on Carnage. I reckon Carnage has his confidence level up now.

And with that, the match finally started.

Carnage enters the ring all cool and composed, wearing the same attire he had on before. Black hoodie with a black facemask, and gloves to protect and tighten his grip on the short-sword.

Shine also entered cool and composed, a cloak covered her entire body, not a single amount of skin was showing—a blank white mask was covering her entire face. I don’t even know how she’ll see through that. No weapons were visible either, was she fighting barehanded?

“And begin!”

Carnage took a ready stance, body shifted lower as he gripped the sheathed blade. He was a wait-and-see type of mage, and as the name implies, he preferred to know what his opponent might do, and counter from there.

Shine, however, stood still unmoving, like a mannequin up for display. No tricks, no plans, no nothing. That’s how the battle went on the next something seconds. Roars in the crowd started booing at the fighters. Things like “Come on! Fight!” and “What are you doing Carnage!? Beat her already!” were being thrown left and right.

Meanwhile, I sat there leaned forward, thinking. For some reason, a bad chill ran down my spine, the more I look at her empty mask, the worse the feeling became. I was on the edge of my seat—it felt odd, and I don’t see anyone else feeling the same thing I was feeling. A strange occurrence this was.

“This is so boring, don’t you think so, Sir Kur-” Heo-Im paused to look at my hands.

“Woah! Sir Kurai! How did you learn how to do that?”

“Huh?” I look down to my hands to see them flourishing cards just like Heo-Im was.

“Oh… umm, felt natural I guess?”

“As expected of you Sir Kurai! I always thought you were a quick learner.”

“haha, yeah…”

In reality, I had no idea I was doing this. It seems as though my hands moved on their own while my conscious self was focused on the battle. I decided to pocket the cards and just sit tight. I look back up and see some development finally going on.

Carnage decided that he had enough of this waiting and decided to strike first. He probably concluded that the enemy would have no melee weapon to fight with--so the optimal plan for him to do was charge head-on with short-sword in hand. He traversed probably ten meters in clad-fast speed, closing their distance immediately. He aimed for the neck up, but Shine didn’t seem to move at all.

Just when the blade got close to her mask, and I mean like—three centimeters close--something happened o Carnage. I almost fell off the edge of my seat, Carnage, his hands, I could see it from the big screen—they came to an abrupt stop. The cheering and roaring also came to a stop when they saw Carnage suddenly flail his body backwards.

He knelt before her with trembling arms tightly gripping the blade. His cool façade went completely white, pupils turned into small red dots and the sweat-drenched head. His hood fell as he faced his head upwards.

“Hey! What’s going on?!”

“Woah! COOL!”

The crowd had murmurs and roars here and there, but all came to another stopping silence when they all saw what happened to Carnage next.

With him kneeling before Shine, he grabbed the blade once more, this time with both hands. Anyone with eyes could see how much the tip vibrated. He was tense, and the blade was pointed to his neck.

Without no warning or indicator, Carnage slowly drove the blade clean through his neck, with it coming out of the other side. He did it all in silence, no struggle, no fight. Committing suicide before his enemy, right in front of a live audience.

“W-what the fuck!?”

“Holy shit!”

“YEAH!”

The crowd was full of sick freaks who somehow found this entertaining, while the announcer just yelled and cheered for the victor.

“And the winner is Shine!”

With no words to say, she walked back the way she came, her steps were so minuscule it looked like she floated her way back.