Mr. Jones waddled his way down one of the hallways of the first floor. He walked at a leisurely pace, taking his time as he looked around for someone.

His mind wandered back to the gauntlet that would start in a couple of days. With the way it worked, Owen Walters would be fighting in consecutive matches first with the inmates of floor two, then floor three, and so on.

The gauntlet wouldn't stop until floor five had been reached. Jones still couldn't believe that Owen Walters was confident he would be able to win. With insider knowledge, Jones knew that over two hundred and fifty inmates had signed up to fight against him. And if he lost even one match, he would automatically lose.

Jones found it to be almost comical. In his mind, Owen Walters was an egotistical idiot.

And as with all competitive things, there were also those who had betted on the outcome of the gauntlet. The staff on the lower floors would place bets on how many fights Owen could last, and the number of inmates he would defeat.

Jones had decided to place a bet himself. He had bet that Owen wouldn’t even make it past the first fight.

He knew that no one betted that Owen would lose from the very beginning. People knew that he was quite strong after all.

So Jones hatched out a plan. With him, he carried a canister of four high grade intermediate aether pills. They were extremely expensive, and were something that Jones had managed to buy using most of his savings.

But they would be well worth it if they ended up helping him win his bet.

He wanted to see this egotistical fool suffer. And when he did, Jones would be there, laughing at his misfortune.

After a few minutes of wandering through the halls, he eventually found who he was looking for. Owen Walters was sitting down at a table in the cafeteria. He seemed to be eating his food leisurely, without a care in the world.

Jones coughed as he approached. Owen turned his head and looked up at him. "Ah, it’s you."

Jones cleared his throat and said, "Your gauntlet is in a few days, are you prepared?"

Owen without even answering, turned back around and continued eating his food. Jones grit his teeth in anger, but he remained silent. He reached down into his pocket, and pulled out the canister of aether pills. He dropped it onto the table, and pushed it towards Owen.

"What's this?"

"These are high grade aether pills. I noticed that you are only at the novice rank. One of these should greatly enhance your power, and help you in the gauntlet."

Owen raised an eyebrow at him. "Why are you helping me?"

"Well, as the floor one overseer, I want to see you do well. That's all."

It was a lie. It was true that the pills were high grade, but they weren't meant for someone at the novice rank. Only those from the intermediate rank and above could safely take them. If someone in the novice rank took one, it would cripple them, or worse, kill them.

Jones pat the canister with his hand. "Go ahead, take one."

Owen stared at it for a moment, before looking back at Jones and smiling.

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"Wow overseer. I didn’t know that you had such great expectations of me. Don’t worry, I won’t betray them."

Owen grabbed the whole canister off the table, and pocketed it.

"Ah-!" Jones shouted. "I didn’t mean for you to take it all! You'll only need one!"

Owen looked at him in confusion. "But sir, you said that these will help me. So shouldn’t I take more?"

Jones fumbled for words as he tried to think of an excuse. "I-I... No, I-"

"Ah, I see now. I get it." Owen cut him off.

"Huh? You do?"

Owen nodded his head, and continued. "You think you’ll get in trouble if the other overseers find out that you're helping me right? You're worried that they'll get mad at you, and you don't want them to know that you're helping me. Is that right?"

"I guess so?"

"Well don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. I won’t tell anyone. This will be our little secret." Owen grinned. He stood up from the table, and gave Jones a pat on the shoulder. "Thanks for the help. You’re my number one supporter!"

He then walked off, leaving Jones behind.

"Wait!" Jones shouted after him. "Remember to take one on the day of the gauntlet!"

But Owen didn’t seem to hear him, as he continued to walk away.

Jones sighed, "Damn it. But at least that idiot bit my bait."

He turned around and started to make his way back to his office. He couldn’t wait to see Owen Walters fail.

"I need to take out more loans..."

***

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Yeah, it's true."

Owen, Grace and Will were in one of the training rooms on the first floor. Owen had taken out and shown them the canister of aether pills that the overseer had given him.

Grace put a hand on her hip, and shook her head. "I can’t believe he just gave you these. Does he want to kill you or something?"

"That's what I thought," Owen said as he placed the canister back into his pocket.

"But then, what are you going to do?" Grace asked. "Are you going to take them?"

Owen smirked. "Of course. But not right now while I’m still at the novice rank. I'll save them for when I hit intermediate."

"I see."

"Alright, enough of this talk. Let's get back to training."

They went back to training, with Grace teaching Will per Owen's request. While they did that, Owen sat off to the side, trying to come up with ideas on how to use his insignia. He needed to think of something soon.

As time passed by, Owen decided to take one of the lower grade pills Sonya had given him. He sat cross-legged on the ground, and popped the pill into his mouth.

He expected to feel some sort of burning sensation like he had yesterday, but instead there was nothing. He didn’t feel anything at all.

He clenched his fist and threw out a punch. No, there was definitely something there. He could feel his body become stronger, and his movements became quicker and more precise.

But why? Why was it different from before? Owen put his hand on his chin. He thought about it, and looked at the box of pills in his hand. He pulled out another one, and hoped that this wouldn’t be a repeat of yesterday.

He swallowed the second pill and waited. This time, he felt a light burning sensation, but it wasn’t as bad as the day before. It was far more manageable.

"Owen."

Owen turned his head and saw Grace staring down at him.

"Did I just see you pop another pill?"

"Yeah, I did."

"But why aren’t you feeling any pain?"

Owen shook his head. "I don’t know. It was so much worse last night. I guess my body just adapted to it."

"That's strange. Whenever I take an aether pill, it feels the same every time."

Owen scratched his chin. "Maybe it has something to do with my insignia?"

"Maybe, who knows."

Owen stood up from the ground and said, "Grace, help me try something."

Owen undid the top half of his jumpsuit, and took his shirt off. Grace blushed slightly as she watched him do this, but she quickly turned her head away.

"Uhm...so what are you trying to do?" she asked.

"I want you to whip me twice using your chains."

"Excuse me?"

Owen turned around and walked over towards the wall. He placed his hands on it, and bent over slightly.

"I need to confirm something. I don't care if it hurts, just go all out."

"Are you sure? I might end up hurting you really bad."

"It doesn't matter," Owen replied. "Do it."

Grace hesitated, but eventually complied. She told Will too stand-off to the side, and keep out of the way. The mark on her cheek glowed, and a chain formed in her hand.

She raised the chain, and brought it down onto Owen's back. The sound of metal striking skin rang throughout the room. Owen flinched, but otherwise did not move. A nasty red mark had formed where the chain struck him.

"Alright," Owen said. "Now another one with the same amount of strength."

"I’ll try."

Grace swung the chain down once more. This time, Owen didn't even flinch. Another mark formed on his back, overlapping the first one.

Owen pushed himself off the wall, and stood up straight. He turned around to face Grace.

"So? What are you trying to prove?" Grace asked.

Owen rubbed his chin, and looked down at the floor. "I think... I think that my body can adapt to pain."

"Huh?"

"Or maybe to damage, I don’t really know," Owen continued. "That second time you whipped me, it was a tiny bit less painful than the first time."

Grace put a hand on her hip. "But why?"

"I don’t know," Owen said as he picked up his shirt from the ground. "It's probably related to my insignia. Maybe my body is adapting to fight off the damage that I'm taking…"

He trailed off, his words fading into silence. His mind raced as he tried to connect the dots. It seemed like the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.

A smile formed on his face, "This is good."

Grace looked at him in confusion. "What's good? Did you figure something out?"

"Yeah, I did," Owen said. "Think about it this way. Anything that aids me in 'fighting' will become easier to use, like the aether pill. And anything that hinders me in 'fighting' will become less effective, like damage or pain."

A dastardly grin formed on his face, as he looked at Grace.

"Grace, by the end of the week, I’m going to become immune to all damage and pain."