‘Only twelve, that slime really did some damage.’ I looked at the carnage the slime had left behind and let out a sigh.
Whilst slimes are often portrayed in games and movies as weak, they were anything but that. Since its body was made up of, well.. slime, physical attacks don’t work. Any part of its body you slice of just reattaches itself after a short moment.
When I encountered them in a cave before, it took me over half an hour to figure out how to kill them. And that was a small one, not a huge one like this.
After fighting them a few more times I found a few ways to kill them.
Their body fluids are flammable, so if you have a fire you can easily burn up their body and get to their core.
Another way is to lure or throw them into a body of water. They can’t swim and their body dissolves, again, leaving their core exposed.
If you manage to do either of these it is quite easy to destroy their core and kill them, but if you don’t have fire or water, you have no choice but to keep attacking until you eventually manage to damage their core.
The slime that had appeared in the pit had been twice as large as a person, and the only reason it was defeated was the overwhelming numbers.
Every time the slime attacked, it would stop moving, allowing people to chop away parts of its body and throwing them far away, so they couldn’t reattach quickly.
It had taken them over an hour and nearly ninety per cent of them died, but they managed to destroy its core in the end.
The survivors didn’t let their guard down for a while after the slime died, but when one of them spotted the loot it had dropped, they relaxed.
They divided the spoils and the rankings appeared. It was the exact same as the second wave.
Some people were grieving their fallen friends or family, whilst others sat down on the ground to regain some spent energy.
Mike, who had played an active role in the pit, was one of the people grieving. In the last few minutes of the battle, the slime suddenly spit a ball of acid, taking out half of the leftover people, including Mike’s mother.
He spent several minutes with his mother’s corpse in his arms, but eventually calmed down and gently put her down.
After standing up, he didn’t move for a while but eventually re-joined the others near the well.
His sister had survived along with him, but, although she seemed sad about her mother's death, she didn’t grieve for long.
A few minutes had passed when the final message popped up.
<You have survived the pit and are welcome in the arena>
As the message vanished, so did the well.
In its place a small altar with crystals on it emerged.
The twelve survivors hesitated for a bit, but eventually, they all grabbed a crystal.
When everyone had one, they got surrounded by a light and vanished.
“Well, what’d you think? Was quite fun, wasn’t it?” As I watched them disappear, I heard a voice behind me.
“I don’t think we have the same definition of ‘fun’.” I turned around and responded to Adon.
He was, once again, wearing a ridiculous outfit and had a mischievous smile on his face.
“Way I saw it, you were enjoying the attention. You even put on a show halfway through.” Whilst talking, he stuck his hand into a small pouch on his hip and moved it about for a while.
He eventually took something out and handed it to me. “Here, Your advice made the whole thing quite entertaining, so a reward is in order, isn’t it?”
The thing he gave me was a gem the size of a fist. I observed it for a bit and the gem changed from purple to black and back again.
I studied it to open its description, but nothing happened. No screen popped up, like with any item I’d inspected so far.
“What is it?” Looking at it wouldn’t help, so I asked the one person who could.
“It’s an affinity stone, just absorb it and you’ll see.” He explained how to do it and, using my mana, I absorbed the gem.
A strange feeling washed over me. When I first became able to use magic, I’d felt the same thing.
At the time I’d just filled up my mana core when it happened.
The mana in my core went out of control and started moving sporadically. After a while, the mana started clumping together and compressing.
My core, that had been full, now only contained a small bead of mana the size of a pea.
Apart from this, another change had happened to my core.
There used to be two places in the core that I could use to move mana from it. But now another had appeared.
I decided to test it out.
When I did, the mana I moved through that opening changed from its light blue colour to a bright red.
The mana eventually reached my palm and fire appeared, along with a title.
Prime magician
Description: Be the first of your race to use magic
Effect: Your mana affinity is increased. Your mana sensitivity is increased. Able to grant the ‘Prime apprentice’ title. Item ‘Grimoire of beginnings’ granted.
Because of suddenly being able to use magic, I didn’t pay much attention to it and focused on manipulating the fire in my hands.
Now the same feeling as back then washed over me.
I observed my core and discovered another opening forming in it. When I lead some mana through it, the mana changes to dark-purple.
After circulating it a few times, I move it to my hands and expel it from my palms.
A purple light hovers over my palms and the space inside it wiggles a bit, but nothing else happens.
I study it for a bit longer until I eventually get interrupted by Adon: “Anyway… play with it later, it’s time for you to go. Next time you can bring someone along to do the introductions.”
He waves his hand and the light that had teleported the others away converged around me.
The light disappeared, and I appeared back in my cave.
I looked around and found it just like I left it. Because I left the corpses of the lizardmen in my cave, I’d expected at least one or two monsters to have wandered in. I was gone for a few days after all.
‘What? These are still fresh like I killed them just a few hours ago.’ I inspected one of the corpses and found that they were still in prime condition.
Checking a few more things, I eventually concluded that time hadn’t passed here. Or, at least, less time than in the pit.
I stood up and walked to the entrance of my cave. From there I could see the surroundings, including the thirteen new arrivals.
Ryan, who I had saved from the pit before the first wave, stood out from the other twelve.
Whilst he was wearing a t-shirt and some jeans, the others wore pieces of armour they had gathered in the pit. Also, the weapons they had were clearly superior to what Ryan had.
Ryan was talking with his son, Mike, when I emerged from the cave.
As soon as I did, one of the others spotted me and alarmed the others.
They grabbed their weapons and watched me silently. They seemed hostile, but they probably wouldn’t attack me if I didn’t provoke them.
Thinking that I should do something, I jumped down from my cave and walked to them.
They seemed shocked because of the 20-metre drop and dropped their guard for a moment.
Gathering themselves, they quickly raised their weapons again when I arrived in front of them.
“No need to be so on guard, I’m not gonna eat you.” Because of my relaxed demeanour, they calmed down slightly and eventually, Mike opened his mouth.
“I’m sorry, but…. Where are we?” He sounded anxious, so I didn’t leave him in suspense and answered quickly.
“Well, you’re in the Arena, a world with monsters, magic and, apart from us, no humans.” After thinking about what I said for a few moments, Mike responded: “When you say ‘us’, are you…”
He fell silent, not knowing how to continue, so I quickly answered. “I’m human, or… I was, at least, until a few weeks ago. Some stuff happened, and I think I might be some kind of mixed dragon-human race now, not sure how to explain it. I still consider myself human though.”
After I spoke, nobody responded for at least a minute. When I was about to open my mouth again, someone spoke.: “Then… You’re not the one who pulled us into this world? You’re on our side?”
“Yes, of course. I was pulled here just like you; I was part of the first round of challengers. I’m the only one who survived the pit back then.” Wanting to clear up the misunderstanding, I explained what had happened to me so far.
It took a few minutes, but I eventually convinced them I was on their side.
“Anyhow, the sun is about to set; Let’s go inside.” I led the others to the caves and entered.
I lit the fire whilst everyone stood about awkwardly.
“Sit down anywhere, I’ll get some food.” The fire was now burning away, so I headed to my own cave to grab the lizardmen corpses.
When I returned, everyone was huddled around the fire.
I put the bodies down and got to work on disassembling them; the others observed me intently as I did.
“You seem quite adept at that, where’d you learn it?” One of the survivors, a woman around my age, asked.
“Been here for a month now, had to eat something, didn’t I?”, I responded as I finished disassembling the first corpse.
I stuck the meat on a stick and hung it above the fire.
We sat in silence for a while, the only sound being the occasional sizzling when some fat dripped into the fire.
Taking the opportunity, I observed the others.
Right next to me sat Mike, his father Ryan and his sister Emma.
Mike used a spear and, evidently, was quite good with it too.
Ryan was carrying a club, but, because I saved him before he could do any fighting, I didn’t know how well he could use it.
Emma had a small knife on her hip, but it didn’t look like she knew how to use it; she was only eight after all. Even for an eight-year-old she was weak; she had apparently gotten into an accident when she was four and had been in the hospital since then.
She had fallen into a coma and only when she got transported to the Pit did she wake up.
This explained some of her behaviour so far and why she was so weak.
The three of them were talking quietly and I moved my sight to Yeong-Gi.
He had been ranked first the entire time in the pit and was strong enough to warrant it.
On earth, he had been a hand-to-hand combat instructor in the Korean army and had significant skill with a sword.
The sword on his hip, his bulging muscles and his waist-length hair, made him look like he got pulled straight from a wuxia novel.
Next to Yeong-Gi sat Daan; the boy who’d also been on the rankings.
In the Pit, he had used a giant shield, which covered him completely, and a sword.
Because of its giant size, he managed to attack the opponent whilst staying almost completely hidden behind the shield. This allowed him to fight enemies safely and quickly raise his level.
Opposite the fire from me sat the lady who spoke before, Tia, who was ‘White fox’ according to the system.
She had been born in Scandinavia, explaining her near-white hair, but had moved to Japan when she was ten.
There, she got into martial arts and could now use a quarterstaff like it was an extension of herself.
Next to her sat a group of five high school students, the Moon party.
They had been friends since a young age and, except for one of them, were all quite strong. Especially when they worked together.
To my left sat Mikhail, a tough-looking man who had apparently used a gun in the Pit, and a, particularly well-endowed, woman.
When they arrived in the pit, the man had offered to protect the woman, which he did, in exchange for… certain services. The woman kept her end of the bargain every night, so I remembered seeing them before, especially since they didn’t have a tent to hide their activities.
I finished my observations and returned my focus to the meat hanging above the fire.
‘This is going worse then I expected.’ I thought as I looked around.
I had spent the first few days teaching everyone a few things about living in the arena. This went quite well and, at the very least, they wouldn’t die any time soon.
Everyone was assigned with tasks.
The moon party, minus Hime, who wasn’t good at fighting, was tasked with providing food. They’d go out at dawn and hunt whatever they could find.
Because, even for me, it was dangerous, I told them not to go too deep into the forest and, so far, they hadn’t done so.
When they returned Hime, Emma and Gianna, the woman who’d been protected by Mikhail, would dismantle the spoils and prepare them to be eaten.
Yeong-Gi and Daan spend their time exploring and mapping out the cave-system. Something that I had neglected to do so far. Initially I had assigned Tia to join them, but she refused to help and now mostly did her own thing.
Mikhail also wasn’t of any help. He spent his time lazing about and would occasionally harass the women or start a row with whoever was around.
I’d considered killing him a few times already but, considering we were in the wild with monsters anywhere you went, I didn’t want to throw away any combat potential.
Mike acted like my right hand and did most of the day-to-day planning, like rationing the food and keeping the peace between everyone.
Ryan was supposed to oversee the planning and building of accommodations, but, because there wasn’t anyone to oversee, couldn’t do any of the actual building.
Instead, he worked on making plans for everything that’ll have to be built, so that, when we have more people, the building can start immediately.
Since I didn’t have to spend my day hunting, I had time to do other things.
During the day I’d assist the moon party if food ran low, help Yeong-Gi and Daan when they encountered a strong monster or discuss long term plans with Ryan and Mike.
In the evenings I would oversee everyone’s training; Whilst not everyone had to use it every day, I judged that they should at least have a minimal amount of combat potential.
For the most part, everyone formed pairs and had practise duals, but Emma and Hime learned to use mana after just a few tries, so they mostly spend the training in meditation; absorbing as much mana as possible.
Because they didn’t have the ‘Mana absorption’ trait, it wasn’t as effective as for me. But absorbing and circulating mana still increased their mana capacity.
I considered giving them the ‘Prime apprentice’ title, I could do so after all, but decided to wait until they could at least cast some sort of magic.
Although they were uncooperative during the day, Tia participated in the training quite passionately. She fought with a quarterstaff, but she joined Emma and Hime with their meditation occasionally as well.
If you looked at it from afar, everything was going quite well.
Reality, however, wasn’t quite so peachy; Yeong-Gi and Daan only managed to explore a tiny bit of the cave-system; they constantly met monsters they couldn’t beat alone. The Moon party failed to bring in enough food if I didn’t help them; the food supplies I build up over the first month was slowly dwindling. And everyone’s mood was slowly turning for the worst; fights broke out more often and everyone started slacking on their job.
‘I’ll have to try that; we’ll run out of food in a few days otherwise.’ Coming to a decision, I used my ‘Divine message’ skill to call Mike.
After a few minutes, he entered my cave, slightly out of breath.
“I’m going away for a few days, make sure the place doesn’t fall apart while I’m gone.” As always, I got straight to the point; “Focus exploring on the caves to the east and have the Moon party go further south for food. Also, make a list of people that we need most; Gives us something to focus on next Pit.”
I gathered my things and exited my cave.
“What’s going on, where are you going?” Mike quickly followed me, confused about my sudden departure.
“Not important, I’ll send you a message if I need anything. Where’s your dad by the way?”
We entered the cave that was used for storage and I started looking around.
“He should be in our cave, should I go get him?” As I picked up several things and put them in my ‘Pouch of holding’, Mike answered.
“No need, I’ll send him a message. I’m leaving now, so go do your job.” Having found everything I was looking for, I once again headed into the cave system.
It took a few minutes, but I eventually emerged from a cave on top of the cliff.
I quickly got my bearings and started running, gradually increasing my speed.
Before I entered the arena my stamina and overall fitness had been pretty good, but it had been nowhere near what it is now.
Now, I could run nearly twice my previous top speed without breaking a sweat.
My fitness increased even more if I circulated my mana. The mana would reinforce and rejuvenate my muscles; improving their overall performance.
This was especially true since I formed a mana core, the effect of the mana was way higher.
With my high speed, I quickly came upon the nearby river.
We didn’t have a water source at the caves yet, so I’d given my flask to Mike, it produced infinite water after all.
I filled up a few other flasks in the river and put them back in my bag.
Setting off again, I followed the river upstream.
I wasn’t sure where it was or how long I’d take to find it, so I didn’t have any time to spare.
A few days before the last Pit, I came across signs of it, so I was sure it wasn’t too far.
As I was running, I occasionally came across weak monsters, but I ignored them; defeating them didn’t have much impact on my level anymore and it’d only waste time.
I’d run for a few hours when I finally stopped for some rest.
I drank some water and hunted down a few nearby wolves.
It would taste better, but since I transformed into a half-dragon, my food didn’t need to be cooked anymore. So, to save time, I didn’t.
Having eaten my fill, I started moving again.
It wasn’t until the sun set, that I stopped.
I spotted a particularly large tree and quickly scaled it.
Making myself comfortable on a branch, I looked around.
From where I was sitting, I could see for quite some distance.
I followed the river with my eyes and, nearly over the horizon, I spotted a lake.
‘It might be there, I should be able to reach it tomorrow.’ I thought, as I prepared for the night.
When the first rays of the sun reached me, I opened my eyes.
Since it recovered fatigue almost as well as sleeping, I almost always used mana absorption at night; I would be able to respond to any danger immediately and it would gradually fill up my mana core.
Increasing the amount of mana in my core would increase its capacity and the speed at which the mana recovered, so filling it up certainly wasn’t a bad idea.
I tried using the knowledge of the sage to learn more, but it didn’t have anything useful; As far as I could tell, it only had information on plants and monsters.
When I survived the Pit, I obtained the knowledge of the saint, but I had barely used it since; it only had basic information on the monsters I encountered, like their names and what kind of environment they live in, so it wasn’t of much help.
I dropped to the ground and walked to the river.
After filling my flasks with water and taking a quick dive to wash off the accumulated dirt, I began running towards my destination.
For the first few hours, I continued following the river. When I eventually came across signs of my destination, I stopped.
I roughly knew what direction I had to go, but just to make sure, I climbed a nearby tree.
Having confirmed what way I had to go, I jumped back to the ground and set off.
