“Welcome back, how was she?” As I opened the door my mother greeted me.
“Same as always. Where’s dad?” I walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge.
“He’s working in the garage, go help him if you have time.” Mom said, as she joined me in the kitchen and continued working on dinner.
“Sure..” I grabbed two glass bottles from the fridge and walked towards the garage. I entered and saw dad measuring something on the workbench.
“Yo, need any help?” I handed him one of the beers and opened my own.
“Thanks, you sure can. We’re finally ready to start the real work.” He took a sip from his drink and pointed behind him.
I followed his finger and spotted a big yellow machine standing in the back yard. “You actually rented a digger? What happened to saving money?”
“If you want to use a shovel, be my guest. I’m not digging out the whole thing by hand. Besides, it was gathering dust at work, so I pulled some strings and got it real cheap.” We finished drinking and walked to the back.
I walked up to the digger and got in. “How’d you use this thing?” I found the ignition and started it up.
“Don’t know, there’s a manual somewhere there.” I looked around me and quickly spotted the manual at my feet. I opened it up and spent a few minutes learning the controls.
“I think I got it, let’s get to it.” I drove the digger closer to the house and dad marked the area that needed to be dug.
Every time I dug out one scoop of dirt, the wheelbarrow we had filled up. Dad would then take it to the front and dump it on the lawn. We continued digging for a while until eventually mom called us in for dinner.
“Let’s call it a day, can you take the tools to the garage?” Dad took out a piece of tarp and covered the hole we’d just dug.
I picked up the tools that were lying about and walked towards the garage. I was about to open the door when something caught my eye.
The glass panel in the door had some sort of text on it.
‘Did dad write something on the door?’ I put a finger against the glass and tried to wipe it off.
When I touched the window some more text suddenly appeared at the top.
‘What the… I need a light.’ I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight. I pointed it at the door and could now clearly read what the text said.
The top half only had a small box with ‘Name:’ in front of it. In the box was just the letter ‘M’. The bottom half of the window had letters in a keyboard layout. When I wiped the glass I must have hit the ‘M’.
I touched the first box and another appeared, this one read ‘Confirm’. Not sure of what was going on, I pressed it. When I did the text suddenly disappeared and my flashlight went out.
“I have to do the introductions? What?!” I couldn’t help but yell in response to Adon’s sudden proclamation.
When I got back to my cave after defeating the lizardmen, Adon summoned me. I appeared on the edge of The Pit, right where I’d seen him the first time, and he suddenly told me that I’d have to do the introductions.
“Well, it doesn’t really need to be you specifically, I just can’t do it, I’ll get told off again.” Adon replied as he waved his right hand. A door appeared, and he stepped through it.
“Besides, it isn’t as exciting to do as I’d thought. It bores after the first time, so do it for me. Good luck!” He closed the door and vanished. I sighed and sat down on the edge of the pit.
‘Well, not like it’s that bad.’ I looked at the pit and discovered a few differences from when I entered it.
The floor and walls were still made of white marble, but this time the walls were covered in weapons. Just from looking at them I could tell that most of them were ‘common’ or even ‘trash’ tier. There were all kinds of weapons, from well-known weapons, like swords and spears, to more obscure and impractical ones, like morning stars.
Besides this, the pit was bigger. Its diameter had doubled, and in the centre stood a small well.
I studied the pit a bit longer, but eventually changed my focus to the air around me. I hadn’t been able to notice this when I was in the pit, but I could now clearly sense the mana in the air. The density of it was far greater than anywhere in the arena I’d been.
I’d found a few spots in the forest and caves where mana density was higher, but they all came nowhere near this place.
‘At least I won’t go hungry.’ When I experimented with my ‘mana absorption’ trait before, I figured out that I could absorb mana instead of eating. Down in the arena, it was way more practical to just hunt and eat something, but with the density here I didn’t need to worry about food.
Since I didn’t have anything to do I decided to put my thoughts into practice and absorb some of the mana.
<Trait ‘Mana absorption’ has increased to level 2>
When I did a new message suddenly appeared. I didn’t know why it happened now; when I had used it lots before. But, looking at the description of the trait, I wasn’t complaining.
Mana absorption II
Effect: I, absorb the mana in the air around you. II, absorbing mana increases your stats
I continued absorbing mana and focused on it as it entered my body. I could feel the mana circulating through my body, warming it from the inside. It felt like I’d just entered a warm bath and all tension and stress escaped from my muscles.
“Aah…” As my muscles relaxed, I could help but let out a sound.
Just as I was about to absorb more mana light flashed in the pit.
I returned my focus to it and could see hundreds of people lying on the ground. One by one, they opened their eyes and moved.
Most stood up and walked about, whilst some just sat on the ground, dazed.
I observed them for a few minutes. Adon seemed to have followed my advice; People, who seemed to know each other, started to group up.
Scanning the crowd, my eyes eventually settled on a small group, probably a family. The boy held several tools whilst the woman, probably the mother, was holding a spatula. That wasn’t what drew my attention though. Whilst basically everyone in the pit was scared or confused, this family seemed overjoyed. They had smiles on their faces and were happily talking to the small girl they were sitting around.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, so I eventually lost interest.
‘Right, introductions…’ I remembered my task and stood up. ‘How are they supposed to hear me though?’
I sifted through my skills and eventually settled on ‘Voice’. From experiments, I managed to figure out that, even when I used it actively, it would only work and drain mana when I put actual intent behind my words. Even if I said something like ‘freeze’, it wouldn’t do anything if I didn’t actually want something to freeze. If I didn’t it was just a loud voice.
I activated my ‘Voice’ trait and faced the pit.
“Right! Attention everyone!” My voice reverberated through the pit and everyone turned to look at me. “Umm…” I hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to continue.
I fell silent for a moment but eventually found the right words. “I’m sorry to say that all of you have been chosen as challengers of the arena. You are now in the pit. You can consider the pit to be a sort of qualifier; if you can’t survive in here, you definitely won’t survive outside.”
I stopped talking and, as if waiting for it, people started to yell. They were asking about the pit and the arena or were just generally complaining about being here. As I ignored them they slowly started to fall silent.
“On the walls are weapons, I suggest you pick one. Choose one that suits you or that you know how to use. If you are luckily enough to have brought along a weapon, you can use that too.” I continued my monologue as I pointed at the walls.
“If you hadn’t figured it out yet, you are no longer on earth. In this world, the arena, you can use something called ‘status’. You can look at it as something that quantifies your physical abilities and shows you clearly how strong you are.
When I was explaining about the status screen everyone’s eyes went to something in front of them. All their statuses appeared before them and I stopped my explanation there.
After I gave them a few minutes to explore their status, I continued. “This world also contains all kinds of creatures that don’t exist on earth. You might recognize some of them from folklore and other stories, but in general, they are dangerous and when encountering one a fight can be expected.”
As I gave examples of several kinds of monsters, some people started picking out weapons from the walls. I glanced over at them but quickly returned my focus to the crowd.
“Soon, you will be attacked by these monsters. I don’t know what kind will come, but you will have to defend yourself. After each wave of attackers, you will be rewarded with food and water. Aside from this, the people who contributed the most in defeating the monsters will also obtain powerful items and weapons.” I told them about some more things I remembered from my time in the pit and slowly got to the end of my speech.
“I suggest you coope….” I was about to give them some advice when a sharp pain shot through my chest. I felt my mana drain rapidly and I grabbed my chest as I sank to my knees.
After a few seconds, the pain disappeared and I managed to stand back up. ‘Ah, right, I can’t help them.’ Remembering the rules Adon had given, I looked back at the crowd of people. They looked at me with all sorts of expressions; some looked at me with anger, whilst others looked at me fearfully, some people even looked at me like I was some sort of goddess.
“Try to survive, good luck.” I quickly ended my talk, not wanting to accidentally give any more advice and sat down with my legs dangling over the edge.
It’s been a couple of hours since everyone arrived at the pit. Since I couldn’t do anything else I just sat there, absorbing mana and observing what everyone was doing. Some people had tried to talk to me, but I ignored them, there would be a big chance I’d accidentally help them and suffer some kind of punishment.
Most of the people in the pit were now divided into two groups. One of the groups was led by five rough looking people, they claimed the central area around the well and gathered all of the decent weapons.
The other group didn’t have a clear leader. It was made up of multiple families and groups of friends, it was more like an alliance than anything else. They stayed near the wall opposite of me, they couldn’t possibly have gone any further.
Those who hadn’t joined these two groups formed many small groups. The third-largest group was one of just under a hundred people. They had settled right underneath me and were treating me like I was the messenger of God. ‘I mean, I guess I sort of am.’
They still hadn’t been attacked so I was growing bored. I returned to absorbing mana, my stats had already increased by a few points. As I focused on the mana flow through my body I wondered if I could maybe change where it flowed.
I tried imagining changing the direction of the flow like I was digging a new canal. I continued this way for nearly an hour until I eventually gave up and tried something else.
This time I tried to take hold of the stream and slow it down. I did have some success, but as the speed of the flow slowed down, I felt increasingly tired. When it had slowed down to a crawl, I nearly collapsed from exhaustion.
I let go of the mana and, along with the speed of it, I recovered.
For a few more hours I tried all the things I could come up with until eventually, I succeeded. I focused on a small bit of mana and followed it as it flowed through my body. When it reached my abdomen it slowed down slightly for just a moment. Thinking I was onto something, I continued following it until it had returned to that place and quickly grabbed it. Unlike my previous attempts, I managed it and it stayed in place without exhausting me. I moved it around a bit and discovered that the place it was in was a spheroid with two small entrances. When I moved the bit of mana away from those entrances it stopped trying to get away and settled. I let it go and it slowly started to move about that place.
With some sort of success, I focused on that place and grabbed any bit of mana that came through it, storing it there.
When I had gone through all my mana a message popped up.
<Mana core formed>
<Skill ‘Mana control’ learned>
I quickly opened my status to look at it.
Name: Hella
Lvl: 23
Class: Adon's advisor, Challenger
Strength: 82
Endurance: 238
Dexterity: 110(112)
Mental: 365
Titles: First blood, Marksman, One-man army, The first smith, Assassin, General killer, Executioner, High judge, First hunter, The pioneer
Skills: Language translation, Shooting III, Devine message II, Mana control I,
Racial traits: Night vision II, Tough skin II, Mana absorption II, Regeneration II, Voice I, Transformation(Locked)
Mana control
Effect: control mana in- and outside your body. Higher level increases proficiency.
The description was simple. It seemed like a very basic skill that would form the foundation for a lot of different ones.
Using the new skill I took a few strands of mana from my core and moved them about in my body. As I did I could feel energy being restored wherever it went. I eventually led it to my head and something strange happened.
When the strand of mana entered my ears I could suddenly hear lots of voices. It sounded like hundreds of people were yelling in my ear.
I let go of the mana and it returned to my core.
After calming down for a few minutes I figured I should try again; it might be useful after all.
This time I took as little mana as possible and moved it to my ear. When it entered I could once again hear people's voices, but this time it felt bearable. It felt like I was standing on a busy road.
After a few tries, I managed to focus on specific voices, blocking out the rest. When I did I quickly realized that the voices were from the people in the pit.
I looked at the biggest group of people and decided to listen in on the leaders, they had created a small tent using clothes and other bits of cloth, so I couldn’t see what they were doing.
“Brother, give us a turn already, you’ve been at it for ages.” I heard a rough voice speaking to someone. “Luo, give it up, she’s already broken. Brother has been too rough on her, her mind has been completely destroyed.” I could hear silent moans in the background as someone responded to him.
When I realized what they were doing I quickly focused on something else. I wasn’t particularly fond of listing in on those kinds of things.
I looked around the pit and saw a lot of people just lazing around. The tense atmosphere from before had disappeared because the promised attack didn’t come.
Returning to mana absorbing, I let my ear wander. I constantly heard different voices and only occasionally focused on it when I heard words that piqued my interest.
“Oy, You! Let her go!” After a few minutes, I picked up a loud voice. Curious about what was going on, I opened my eyes and looked towards the source.
Near one of the walls, a few hundred metres away, a small fight had broken out.
A thug from the centre group had grabbed a small girl and had planned to take her away. The girl’s family was standing a bit away, looking terrified, they didn’t seem to have any intention of getting in his way.
A boy, about 18 years old, had butted in on the conflict and was now arguing with the thug. He was holding a spear and was quite fit; if he were to fight the thug he might actually be able to win.
Intrigued, I continued listening to them. They continued arguing for a few minutes until, eventually, the thug lost his temper and swung his fist at the boy.
The boy dodged and they started fighting. The boy didn’t hesitate to use his spear and stabbed at the thug. The attack managed to draw blood and the thug quickly fell back. He yelled a few more insults at the boy and quickly retreated.
The girl and her family started thanking the boy while crying until they eventually decided to join the boy’s group.
With the new members, his group was made up of about 50 people. The boy led the new family to his own and they eventually started talking.
I continued listening for a few minutes but eventually started to get bored.
Just as I was about to look for something else to listen to, the topic of work came up. I had to choose someone from the pit to save, so I thought that I had to choose someone with experience in something useful. Taking that into consideration, knowing what work people did interested me a bit.
Listening to the conversation I eventually discovered a middle-aged man; He was quite muscular and seemed like he would be able to fend for himself. More importantly, however, he worked in construction. He was a foreman and had experience with building homes.
‘I need someone to build houses anyway, I’ll go with him.’ I stood up and quickly cycled through my skills in my mind. ‘‘Devine message’ seems perfect for this.’ I focused on the man and used the skill.
“Come here.” I send him a simple and short message. As soon as I did I saw the man jump up, startled.
He looked around him until eventually, his eyes found mine. I send the message again and he started trembling.
The people around him started asking him what happened and he, whilst stuttering, explained.
After a few minutes he, and a few other people, started heading my way. Since there was a group of a hundred people occupying the space beneath where I stood, I moved along the wall to a clear spot.
The small group of people arrived beneath me and I talked to the man. Using the ‘Devine message’ skill I could send him my words and because of my mana-strengthened ear I could hear his response, so there was no problem in communication.
“You, what is your name?” Since I’d already summoned him, I figured greeting him wasn’t necessary and I directly asked his name.
“M…My my n…name is Ryan, Ryan Bull.” He had trouble getting his words out but eventually introduced himself.
I ignored his stuttering and continued. “Ryan, you said you worked in construction? Is this true?”
“Y…Yes, that’s true.” He calmed down slightly and managed to suppress his stutter a bit.
“I see, I suppose I could use your help then.” I fell silent for a moment, thinking about how to get to the main point.
“I can pull you out of this pit; you won’t have to fight any of the monsters and won’t have to worry about your safety.” I let him think about it for a moment and continued. “How about it? Come work for me and I’ll save your life.”
He hesitated for a few minutes until he eventually answered. “I… I know I shouldn’t be asking this, but…” He fell silent again but eventually continued. “Could you possibly save my children instead? I couldn’t possibly abandon them.”
I was a bit surprised by his answer, I expected him to jump at the opportunity to save his life. His loyalty to his family was a good thing though, it meant he wouldn’t easily betray me if I got him to work for me. This was also the reason I asked him to leave the pit instead of just pulling him out, he would be more likely to follow my orders.
Before I could respond, one of the people around him spoke up. It was the boy I had seen before. “Dad, if you can get out of here you should. Don’t worry about us, I’ll protect Anna and mom, this might be the only chance you get.” They started arguing but eventually, Ryan gave in and agreed to leave the pit.
‘Now how do I do this?’ When I thought about pulling Ryan out of the pit a message popped up.
<Would you like to extract ‘Ryan’ from the pit?>
Along with the message came a ‘Yes’ and a ‘No’ button. I pressed ‘Yes’ and a white light started to gather around Ryan. He got completely covered and when the light disappeared, he was gone.
The first wave was about to start.
Just like everyone in the pit, I got the message.
Apart from a few people, everyone in the pit started to panic. They rushed to grab their weapons and formed small defensive formations with their groups. Well, defensive formations was a bit much. They were more like clusters of people with weapons poking out.
When the countdown ended monsters started to appear. Just like with my turn in the pit, only monsters from the forest appeared; a few dozen direbears appeared.
Whilst I could easily take them all on alone, just a month ago I wouldn’t have stood a chance against one without my titles and weapons.
The direbears started attacking and many people started to die. One unlucky group of ten people got attacked by two direbears at the same time and was wiped out in just a few seconds.
I looked at Mike, Ryan’s son, and his group and even though there weren’t many of them, they managed to fight a direbear without casualties.
Someone of the group would get the bear’s attention and, when the bear focused on them, others would attack it. They kept changing who drew the bear’s attention and eventually managed to kill it.
When they did they first hovered around the corpse for a while but eventually started moving. They searched out small groups of people and helped them kill their adversaries. Most of the time the rescued would join them and their group slowly grew.
After about half an hour the last direbear was killed and people started to relax.
A few minutes past and eventually people started to gather the loot from the direbears whilst some even started dismantling them.
Some more time passed and eventually, the reward message appeared. I didn’t focus on the rewards and only looked at the ranking.
<1st, Yeong-Gi>
<2nd, DSX>
<3rd, M>
<4th, White fox>
<5th, Jordan>
I memorized the names and tried to find them among the survivors. I found some people who seemed to have some good items, but I had no way of knowing whether those items were rewards, or if they had looted them from the direbears.
When I was about to go back to absorbing mana to improve my stats, another message appeared.
<You can claim your water and food at the well>
