Mika’s eyes widened in shock at the level of strength Butcher just showed. While she didn’t know how sturdy her cage was, Mika knew that even if she were to go all out, she wouldn’t be able to shatter it like that. 

‘He’s definitely in the Iron Realm, the second realm of Body Cultivation, or above if he’s that strong.’

Coming to that conclusion, all thoughts of trying to escape left her mind. While she could use her [Blink] spell, she wouldn’t make it very far. With her current Mana Cultivation and proficiency, she can only travel up to 1 meter, which wouldn’t make a difference against someone of Butcher’s strength.

‘It seems I’ll have to endure a bit longer and wait for an opportunity to escape later.’ Mika thought while trying to control her facial expression. She didn’t want Butcher to believe she was anything other than a little kid. That way, he might let his guard down, allowing her to escape.

Butcher’s eyes sharpened, seeing Mika’s shocked and slightly fearful expression. He didn’t know why, but ever since he laid eyes on this girl, he felt there was more to her than meets the eye. 

“What secrets are you hiding, child?” Butcher muttered before disappearing from Mika’s eyes and reappearing beside her. He grasped her shoulder and nodded with a smile, “Mhm! A strong, sturdy physique, not fit for a child, just like I guessed!”

After grasping her shoulder, he examined her arms, legs, abdomen, and back. Sometimes, he’d squeeze her bones until they almost cracked; other times, he smacked her body to tense her muscles.

This made Mika incredibly uncomfortable, but there wasn’t anything she could do to stop him. She wasn’t strong enough for that. 

Her eyes flashed with anger, and she clenched her teeth, but somehow, she managed to suppress her desire to summon her sword and stab this bastard in the eye!

‘Someday, I’ll teach this asshole a lesson for defiling my body like this.’ Mika thought while gritting her teeth. 

Butcher examined her body for several minutes before he stopped, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face. 

Mika’s whole body ached, but luckily for her, Butcher controlled his strength enough so he didn’t injure her. 

Finally, after several minutes of silence, Butcher opened his mouth. 

“How old are you this year, Mika?”

“...........I-I’m almost thre-ahem, ten years old.” 

“Hmmm~ Is that so?” Butcher was skeptical about Mika’s answer but decided not to pursue it any further, “Do you have a last name?”

“......Zoller.” 

Butcher stroked his chin in thought. After a few moments, he said, “Mika Zoller, huh? What a weird name.”

He’d never heard of the Zoller family before, and one couldn’t blame him. There were so many human kingdoms, countries, and empires in the world, each with tens, hundreds, or even thousands of nobles. It was impossible for him to know every single one of them, much less a hidden Dukedom from a country on the other side of the world. 

Thus, the name Zoller didn’t ring any bells. 

“Where’d you come from, Mika? I’m sure you’re not from the Barlton Kingdom.”

“....The jungle.”

‘What a vague answer.’ Butcher thought. He could tell that Mika wasn’t lying, but at the same time, she wasn’t telling the complete truth.

“No, I meant, which country did you come from?”

“....Elysium?” Mika tilted her head, as she wasn’t 100% sure if that was the name. 

“Elysium… Elysium… Ah! That must be a country on the other side of the Ocean!” Butcher’s smile grew because if Mika was from across the ocean, the likelihood of anyone finding her hear was close to zero. 

“Ocean?” Mika asked, her eyes shining with curiosity. However, Butcher ignored her. 

‘I’ve really hit the jackpot! Hahaha!’

“Alright, Mika! I’ve decided! You’ll be my disciple from now on! I’ll teach you everything I know about Body Cultivation, and you’ll help me manage the Black Market here! Now get down and kneel to me, your new Master! Hahaha!” Butcher laughed, extremely pleased that he found himself such an amazing disciple that he could work to the bones, but after a few moments, he noticed something was wrong.

The atmosphere had turned silent, and the temperature had dropped as tensions rose. 

Mika’s patience had run thin.

A deep frown formed on her face, and her eyes narrowed dangerously. She didn’t say anything, but the look she gave Butcher was more than enough for him to understand.

‘Are you worthy?’ 

That’s the kind of gaze Mika gave Butcher.

However, that was just Mika being nice because inwardly, she was thinking, ‘Motherfucker! Who even are you? Did you hear yourself? You? Teach me?! Ptui! What do you know about my Body Cultivation?!’

When it came to Body Cultivation, the last thing she needed was someone to teach her! 

Butcher’s expression morphed into one of anger. A silvery aura oozed out of his body, crashing into Mika. 

“Ugh!”

Mika staggered as she felt pain all over her body but remained standing. Her legs quivered as the pressure was more than her body could handle, but she refused to kneel. 

“Hmph! I said… KNEEL!” 

*Rumble!*

Butcher roared, and his aura skyrocketed, shaking the building. 

“UGH!!”

Mika groaned in pain as she felt her bones creak, but whether it was because of her own willpower or perhaps the System’s intervention, she managed to stay upright. The steel-like muscles in her legs bulged more than she ever thought possible as they kept her standing. 

“I’ll… never… accept… a degenerate… like you… as my… master…!” Mika somehow managed to spit out as blood dribbled down her lip.

She could sense from a kilometer away that this man never intended to teach her shit! He just wanted to change the title of ‘slave’ to ‘disciple’, but in reality, nothing would change. 

Butcher’s anger rose another degree after hearing Mika’s words, so he increased the pressure on Mika, which caused her knees to buckle. 

Sensing that her legs were about to give out, Mika’s expression turned from one of anger to panic. She knew the System would punish her for kneeling. Although she didn’t know what kind of punishment it would be, she didn’t want to find out. Therefore, she immediately assumed the worst!

‘Fuck me!! I refuse to die just because this asshole’s ego is a bit too inflated!!’ 

Suddenly, she heard the System blaring messages in her mind, which caused her face to turn as white as a sheet of paper.

[WARNING!! WARNING! The System will not tolerate the Host’s action! Please stop immediately! If you continue further, the System will have no choice but to inflict retribution on the offenders!]

[WARNING!! WARNING! The System will not tolerate the Host’s action! Please stop immediately! If you continue further, the System will have no choice but to inflict retribution on the offenders!]

[WARNING!! WARNING! The System will not tolerate the Host’s action! Please stop immediately! If you continue further, the System will have no choice but to inflict retribution on the offenders!]

‘Dammit! I know! Can’t you see I’m trying?!’ Mika cursed and gritted her teeth as she used all her strength to keep herself from falling to the floor. 

As a last resort, she looked up at Butcher with her bloodshot eyes and hissed, “I-Is your ego so fragile… that you have to force… children to their knees… in order to feel good… about yourself?”

Butcher didn’t say anything and just stared at Mika with a scowl on his face. However, he could hear a hint of panic in her voice which made him raise an eyebrow. 

Curious about why Mika was so scared, he kept pressuring her. 

Unable to withstand the force on her body, Mika’s knees buckled, and she slowly descended to the ground. 

Just as her knees were about to touch the ground, the surrounding space trembled!

*Rumble!**Rumble!**Rumble!*

Butcher felt a chill run down his spine sensing this, and he unintentionally stopped pressuring Mika. 

“Haaa… Haaa… Haaa…” Mika gasped for air, and although she was exhausted, she used every ounce of power in her body to stand up. 

Butcher stared blankly at Mika, unsure of what just happened. He figured it had something to do with Mika, but that’s it.

‘...Why did I feel like something terrible would happen if I forced Mika to kneel to me? How peculiar yet interesting…’ He wondered.

However, that didn’t make him feel any better. Quite the contrary, he felt worse than he had before. It felt like he had received 1,000,000 Peak-Stage Mana Stones, only for a third party to intervene and snatch them. 

‘No! I refuse to give up so easily! This little girl is a bundle of potential just waiting to be harvested! I won’t let her fall into someone else’s hands!’ With Mika’s young age and strength, she was a talent among talents. If he could command such a person, there would be nothing in this world he couldn’t achieve!

‘If I can’t force her to submit to me, then I’ll make her come to me willingly!’ A ruthless glint shone in Butcher’s eyes. 

Without waiting for Mika to catch her breath, he picked her up like a sack of potatoes and left the building. 

He walked through numerous tunnels and buildings before finally reaching a prison-like area. 

By this point, Mika had already caught her breath and looked around curiously. She took note of every detail around her for her eventual escape. 

However, she noticed a few familiar faces when she appeared in this prison room. 

‘Elves?!’ Her eyes widened, seeing a few pointy-eared people in jail cells, but her attention quickly switched to a familiar-looking tiger, ‘Little Yokutora?! They got you too?!’

She could hardly believe the tiger she fought those nasty monkeys with had gotten caught and was now chained up in a cell! Not only that, but it was bigger and stronger than the last time they met!

‘Did it advance to the Red Core Realm?’

Little Yokutora looked up, feeling a gaze, and made eye contact with Mika. A look of surprise flashed in its eyes as it, too, seemed to recognize Mika. 

Mika lightly nodded as a greeting, and surprisingly, the tiger returned it. 

‘What the hell?!’ Mika was shocked by its intelligence but didn’t have any more time to think about this as Butcher threw her into an empty cell and chained her to the ground.

“You have 12 hours to rest before your first battle in the Colosseum. I look forward to seeing how much money you’ll make me! Hahaha!” Butcher laughed as he closed the cell, “See you tomorrow.” He then walked away, not giving her an explanation.

After he left, Mika sat down to focus on healing. She wasn’t necessarily in bad condition, but she did have many hairline fractures across most of her bones. 

While she was going that, the other people in prison cells began to chat. 

“Sigh… This Kingdom has really gone to shit, huh? Now, they’re capturing children and throwing them in the Battle Colosseum. How despicable.” A man with a hoarse voice spat. 

“Well, she must have some skill if that’s the case. Those black market fuckers aren’t that stupid. Nobody would pay to see a child get executed, after all.”

“It doesn’t matter! A kid is a kid! I may have r*ped and murdered innocent men and women, but I never did anything to a child!”

“...”

“...That’s some fucked up logic, but I agree. Even if a kid were to do something wrong, the blame falls on the parents for not teaching them correctly.”

“Then… don’t you think some people will protest against putting her in the Colosseum?”

“Fuck no! Are you an idiot?! Anybody who pays to see us, slaves, fight to the death is nothing more than vile scum. Those hyenas will pay any amount as long as they’re entertained!”

“Tsk! No wonder the other races look down on us. While they’re busy getting stronger and advancing their society, we’re still stuck, enslaving our own race and having them kill each other for money.”

“Amen, brother!”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

Mika sat there, absorbing all this information. While nobody said anything to her directly, she didn’t mind. In fact, she preferred it this way. She didn’t want to get close to any of these people either. 

‘So, Butcher is going to make me fight for other’s entertainment? Do you really think I’d be scared of that?’ A smile crept up on Mika’s face, ‘If anything, he’s doing me a favor! Hahaha!’ She chuckled.

She can grow strong by going through life-and-death battles, which is exactly what she needs to get out of this place! How could she not find this whole situation amusing?

‘I wonder who my first opponent will be?’

Mika thought as she went back to meditating.