The father and son duo exited the building and Jacob started following his father without asking any questions.

A short distance away, they saw a person shouting and waving around a stack of papers he held in his hands. There was also a small crowd gathered around him.

"Newspaper, newspaper. Three silver coins a set. Newspaper, newspaper. The headline of the month, The third draw this year. Newspaper, newspaper. Know about the world in three silver coins only. Newspaper, newspaper."

Jacob was attracted by the contents of what the hawker was shouting around. At the same time, a question popped up in his mind.

"Father. Isn't paper rare and expensive? Why is he selling it so openly?"

"It is expensive, yes. But not that rare for some people. For example, the news companies get a lot of paper from the clans due to their usefulness. How about we buy one?"

Jacob became excited at that and immediately nodded. He was not much informed about the outside world. His only source of knowledge for many years was his mother and little friends. And the things they had told him were negligible.

He did not know about the other kingdoms. Sadly, he did not even know about the name of the kingdom he was residing in. He came under the guardianship of his father recently.

The elder became happy at his excitement and bought a set of newspapers for three silver coins. The seller thanked them and started shouting again.

"Hold it close to yourself for now. Don't read it. Read it tomorrow when we set out for home." The elder handed the newspapers to young Jacob and ordered him not to read them right now.

Jacob nodded in understanding and held it in his hands. He did not dare look at its contents. Although curiosity was eating him alive from the inside, Jacob was aware of his nature. He was a curious child. His thirst for knowledge was extreme.

He knew that if he even glanced at the contents of the newspaper, a new door would open up in his mind and questions would start appearing at a scary rate.

Many times, he had thought about his curious nature, whether it is a curse or a blessing. But every single time, he came upon the same conclusion. It was a great blessing.

With increased knowledge, he would be able to lead a better life. He would become more careful and would be able to utilize his time much more beneficially.

So without any further ado, he nodded and started following his father. After a few minutes of walking, Jacob remembered the words of the young man they met in the first room of the beast zoo.

He was talking about some coliseum. Jacob was curious about that new term but forgot to ask the elder due to excitement.

"Father. What is a coliseum? That person in the first room of the zoo was talking about sending the beasts there."

"We are going to visit it next. You will know what it is when you see it."

Jacob became silent at that. After about fifteen minutes, they arrived in front of a massive structure. As soon as Jacob came in front of it and thought about its dimensions, he became stunned.

This was the biggest building he had ever seen in his life. It was massive. Jacob was sure that it was taller than the outer city walls of Agoross. He was not that sure about the inner walls.

He quickly caught up with his father who was walking towards the entrance of that building.

In front of a large entrance, there were two guards standing. The doors were wide open but they were standing in such a way that they would not let anyone pass.

There was also a fat man sitting near the entrance. He had a small wooden counter in front of him. He was very fat. Jacob had not seen a person this fat in his life. This was his first time.

He did not even know that a person could get this fat in his life. He thought it impossible previously but his view was shattered right now.

In the past two days, Jacob's worldview expanded exponentially. He found it ridiculous that he had many first times in the past two days. He had seen many things that he could not imagine in those past days. He now realized how much lacking in the knowledge he was before he visited this city with his father.

He was like a frog in a well, taking the space in the well as its entire world and the exposed sky outside as its entire sky. His demeanour also changed a bit subtly in the past two days.

He was not aware of that. It was the change in his thought process. He had become a bit more mature.

Right then, Jacob came upon the thought that he was still a frog in a well. But he quickly set it aside. He found it a bit ridiculous right now. How bigger can the buildings get? I think this is the limit. This one in front of me is massive enough. No idea how much money and time was spent building it.

This was what Jacob thought as he followed his father towards the fat man. But still, he was a bit expectant about his adventures in the future. His thoughts were just his assumptions, proven wrong in the presence of absolute facts, just like his thoughts about the physique of a person.

The fat man had drooping eyelids and his head was bobbing up and down as if he was forcing himself to stay awake. He was about to fall asleep many times but forced his head up to make himself awake. The elder walked in front of him and stopped. He did not do anything.

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The fatty did not become aware of someone standing in front of him for a few seconds. Then suddenly, with a start, he looked up and met the elder's eyes. He almost fell off his chair there and then.

"Ah. Dear sir, you almost scared me to death. You should have called me out seeing the special state I was in."

The elder simply shrugged at that and did not reply.

"Well, forget about it. How may I help you? We still have tickets available for the matches in the next two days. Moreover, there are a few deluxe tickets remaining for a guaranteed front spot if you are interested." Seeing that the elder did not reply, the fatty continued and carried out a mini sales speech.

"Can we enter the arena right now?"

"Now? But for what? There is no match happening right now? It is empty."

"It is for my son here. I want to show him the arena where matches take place." The elder gestured towards Jacob as he said that.

"Oh. Right. In that case, give me five bronze coins each. It may be empty right now but I cannot let you enter for free after all. The head will have my skin if I do that." The fatty noticed the little figure standing near the elder and said.

"But, we have not cleaned the arena right now. And there is still dried blood on the walls and the ground. Are you sure that this little guy can manage to see the dried blood?" He pointed towards a small board hanging on the wall near him.

"Caution: Blood and Gore"

Those simple words were written on the board but they conveyed the meaning correctly that this place was not for the faint-hearted people.

"Don't worry about it. He is a brave boy." The elder replied while praising Jacob.

"In that case, be my guest. Since there is no match happening right now, you can also directly enter the arena. The guards will not stop you." The fatty gave them a slight nod and replied. At that, the elder took out ten bronze coins and handed them to him.

"Can I ask? Why are you so fa...t" A tiny hesitant voice came from the little figure standing in front of the fatty.

Jacob asked a question impulsively. He was thinking about the extremely fat figure of the fatty in front of him since the time they arrived in front of him.

He was also thinking that whether he could move with all that weight or not. Whether he would be able to get up from the chair without any help or not.

So, he blurted out his question without any thought about its implications. It was later during his question that he realized the rudeness of his question and hesitated to finish the last word that was "fat" but decided to utter it at last since the cat was already out of the bag.

"Rude, Jacob. It is bad asking people about their physique. It is another thing if they tell you at their own behest. Otherwise, it is rude. Apologize."

Before the fatty could respond, the elder beat him to it and scolded Jacob lightly. Even when he was scolding Jacob, he still had his carefree smile.

"I am sorry, mister. I hope you won't mind." Jacob had an embarrassed expression on his face. He was scratching the back of his head with an embarrassed smile. He also thought that he would get an angry reply ever after his apology.

Their entry into the large building could even get barred due to his impulsiveness. The fat man seemed like a grumpy person looking at his face and figure.

"Haha. Don't worry about that. You are a good child. And I don't mind such questions. If we have a body, we must own it. This is what real men must do instead of taking offence. I am fat, sure. I also accept that all I do is sit here all day and eat." The fatty paused at that. He then made a longing expression and continued,

"But still, I should not have gotten this fat with just eating and sitting around only. There is something wrong with my body. Even apothecaries say that. I have been overweight since childhood. Oh, how it would feel being slim and smart."

The fatty laughed after seeing Jacob's embarrassment. He praised him slightly and patiently explained his body's condition without taking any offence. He also expressed his longing about being slim.

Jacob became relieved after hearing him. Fortunately, he did not mind. He is such a nice person. I thought he must be a grumpy person since he is so fat. But I was wrong. Truly, I must not ever judge people by their appearance.

Jacob decided to never judge people based on their appearance ever again. There would be a great chance that he would be wrong in his judgement.

After that, he entered the building with his father. The guards standing in front of the wide-open doors made way for them. They entered into a passage.

The passage had doors from both sides. But the elder did not enter any side door and kept walking straight. Jacob kept following him wordlessly.

They soon came in front of closed large doors. Two guards were standing in front of it. As soon as they neared it, one of the guards opened the large doors slightly and motioned them to enter.

They obliged and passed through the small gap between the two doors. Just as they were passing through, one of the guards said,

"Knock at it when you are done. We will open it."

The elder nodded his head and passed through. The gap behind them closed after that.

In front of Jacob was a large circular space. It was the arena. Surrounding it were walls behind which raised seats were built. And those seats raised higher the further the distance became from the walls of the arena.

Jacob looked around him with an awed expression. Now that he was inside, he could see how massive the structure was. He could also see dried blood on the ground and the surrounding walls.

From the conversation of his father with that nice fatty outside coupled with the dried blood he could see right now and the way this massive structure was built, Jacob had a slight inkling of what this place was.

"This is coliseum, my son. A place of entertainment and punishment, a place of happiness and sadness, a place of bravery and fear and the last but not least, a place where fortunes are made and fortunes are lost." The elder paused after saying it as if giving time to Jacob to digest his profound words.

Jacob became much more awed after hearing his father. He was already amazed at it but his amazement increased due to the way in which his father described it. It was a profound mysterious place according to his father's words.

How can it be a place for so many contradictory things. This question was burning with great intensity in his mind but he did not voice it.

He knew that his father would continue with his words and give him a satisfactory explanation just like he always did. He looked toward his father with an excited expression.

Looking at Jacob's mood, the elder's smile widened and he continued.

"This place has a seating capacity of almost ninety thousand people. People come here for entertainment. In this arena we are standing right now, live battles are fought with a great audience. As for the participants, it may be beasts fighting with each other, people fighting with beasts or people fighting with people."

"We can understand why beasts are made to fight with each other. But why people are made to fight them or fight with each there, there are some reasons for that.

First, criminals with death penalties are being held in the rooms of the coliseum. They are made to fight with the beasts in life and death battles. They are also made to fight with each other until of them die." The elder gave a few seconds pause between his explanations for Jacob to properly understand his content.

"Second, there is a quota for the victories for those death penalty criminals that have been forgiven by the people they have wronged. Even then, they have to win twenty life and death in order to become free. As for those criminals that have not been forgiven, they have to keep winning in order to live. They have no such luxury."

"Third, in addition to those criminals, other people are also allowed to fight the beasts under controlled conditions. It means that they will be rescued in case they don't manage to defeat the beast.

People are also allowed to fight life and death battles with them if they say so. It is up to them. But all of them have to pay a fee in order to fight. Sometimes, there is a reward set for defeating a beast, so many people come to try their luck."

"Fourth, people are not allowed to fight with the criminals. But they are allowed to fight with each other. They may also register for life and death battles.

People fight with each other due to many reasons. It may be personal feuds or just a friendly match. It may involve bets or family honour. For example, the fights between the clan heirs are very famous. Or the spars between high-level cultivators.

When high-level cultivators are involved, it becomes so crowded that all the seats become filled. People come from great distances to watch such fights. So, it has a good business."

"Fifth, sometimes, different kinds of tournaments are held in it. The rewards are also very generous. So, many people participate in such tournaments. The hub dub is great during those tournaments just like those famous fights."

"Sixth, the audience is getting entertained in all of the above scenarios. This is a place where they can let loose. They are here to get entertained and to take a rest from the hectic life of the city.

Moreover, people also bet with each other that who will be the winner and who will be the loser. The bets may be individual or collective."

Jacob was almost jumping as the elder ended his speech. This was much more than Jacob could ever expect. This massive place was host to many great events.

He could imagine a brave warrior stepping upon the corpse of a great beast he had just defeated under the loud applause of tens of thousands of people. How glorious would that moment be?

Jacob wanted to start jumping at that thought. This was how excited he was. At that thought, he remembered that he had such jumping fun once two years ago.

It was with his little friends in the Rokas clan manor. They had become excited after learning about the greatness of cultivation from his mother. It was only two years ago but Jacob thought that it was like a lifetime ago.

At that, Jacob became a bit sad. His mother was alive back then. He was very happy with her. After her death, his life changed but he was still happy. He had his father now.