Primordial Sage: Plight of Immortality

The entrance into the slums was reserved for gladiators of the lowest status, so Illyan didn’t encounter anyone he needed to be cautious of. Without any issues, he descended the stairs slowly until he entered one large room filled with people.

There was the sound of them talking, but it was drowned out by the cheers and clashes of steel that Illyan heard from his left side. When he looked in that direction, iron bars were there, and beyond them was a circular area with two men clashing with their swords. The arena was surrounded by high walls, and above were seats filled with an audience cheering enthusiastically.

He could see that most of the audience consisted of higher-status individuals, wearing clothes of much better quality and displaying clear skin without blemishes.

Most of them were from high-class families or wealthy merchants who were simply relieving their stress by enjoying this kind of entertainment. However, through the bars, Illyan noticed that some who were more isolated from the others appeared to be much more important.

Unfortunately, that was all he could see as the viewpoint was quite awkward. So, he found a place to settle down and watched the battle beyond the bars. The people around him seemed to have only one thing on their minds, which was money, and most of them were there just to fill the quota, so he wasn’t interested.

On the other hand, the people fighting in the arena were much more interesting as he realized they were using the [Breathing Technique]. However, from their plain attire, he could guess they hadn’t yet reached Flow Rank.

Only knights were eligible to wear full-body armor, which was too expensive for regular warriors to use.

In the kingdom, the word ‘knight’ had two meanings. One was a warrior who had been knighted by a noble, and the other was a warrior who had reached Flow Rank.

The reason for this was simple: as long as someone became strong enough, they would eventually be knighted. If someone was knighted before reaching Flow Rank, they would receive resources to speed up the process. Ultimately, in this kingdom, the word 'knight' was used interchangeably for both.

And there was no way that knights would fight without their armor, even if it was just a performance. All kinds of accidents could happen during fights with real weapons, and they could easily end up crippled for life or dead.

There was no way that their masters would allow that.

“Hah!” The fight in the arena reached its peak as the warrior with a slim build exhaled loudly, his leg whipping out on the ground with tremendous force which propelled him with high speed at his enemy. His sword flew at the enemy's head with a diagonal slash from bottom trying to end this battle.

The other warrior backed up as he dodged to the side and used his sword to redirect the slash and send a stab at the enemy immediately after.

In this way, they exchanged several blows until one of them made a small mistake which cost him an arm.

Squelch

“Aaargh!” With a scream of agony, he fell on his bottom as he held the bloodied stump.

With a smirk, the victor didn’t pursue the defeated enemy anymore as this wasn't a fight to the death and lifted his sword in a sign of victory.

“Yaaaaay!” The audience started to cheer ferociously when they saw the spilling of blood.

The victor enjoyed his moments of fame before people entered from side doors into the arena with urgency as they took the poor man on a stretcher while another man took his dismembered arm.

Illyan frowned at that. The man would die soon from losing blood if they let him go like this. However, when he saw a certain old man waiting beyond the doors to the arena, he realized what was going on…

‘Perus, huh. So, in the end, it was true all along that all the forces here have connections among themselves. Good for me that I have a disguise…’

Seeing the mayor’s physician being so ready for treatment as if he was used to it, Illyan realized that it would not be easy to find an opportunity to kidnap one of the higher-ups of this event.

Of course, if he found another gladiator who became Flow Master, he would gladly change his target. Unfortunately, they were too rare.

But he couldn’t give up. Or rather, he feared what would happen if he really did so. His paranoia started to deepen as more time passed.

Now that he was aware that 13 years had passed since he got sealed, he was scared that another misfortune would befall him soon after so many years. One could say that all those years could be counted as one big misfortune that ended just recently and now he should have some respite, but that wasn’t enough to calm him down.

Illyan desired power. He needed it.

And for that, he was willing to take some risks. The art of survival was about knowing when to risk your life to save it later on.

Suddenly, a guard came into the room and called out.

“Five of you guys prepare! You will go against another group of five from the opposite side! This is a death match so if you aren’t prepared to die then fuck off!”

With that, several people stood up with crazed looks and started to try to overtake others by pushing them.

In the end, five burly men stood up in front of the guard with confident gazes.

The guard only nodded indifferently and guided them somewhere.

Others seemed to be dejected that they weren’t chosen, but there were some that were sneering.

“The opening performance is always that of skilled soldiers that were there to make a show for people. Their masters would never let them die here. So to appease the audience the second battle is usually the most bloody and there is often no victor ke ke ke…”

The old man, who Illyan saw outside, was mumbling to himself as he laughed loudly with a sneering gaze.

Soon, the iron bars from the side opened as the five men entered the arena. On the opposite side, another five men also came out. Guards also came out as they put weapon racks with various weapons to choose from next to each group.

It seemed that there was another entrance to the underground from the other side. Both of these were then eventually pitted against each other.

There were also normal gates on the left and right side which were used by the previous fighters which probably meant that they were used by warriors of higher status…

The men started to fight as soon as the bars closed. Most didn’t even consider which weapon to choose as they lunged at their enemies with whichever weapon they liked.

This, of course, caused horrible bloodshed as the grounds of the arena were spilled with blood.

The ruffians were extremely ferocious and didn’t waste their time with being careful and so the entire fight was even shorter than the fight of the soldiers. There was even quite confusion where one man confused his ally for the enemy and directly executed him before his head was smashed from behind.

In the end, only two men stood up from the battlefield alive. However, one of them lost his eye and several fingers on his hand. But surprisingly, there was a shit-eating grin on his face as if this kind of injury was just a small sacrifice for the compensation he would get. His face was still twisted in pain though.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please applaud these two heroes for their courageous hearts and endurance which allowed them to come out as victors in this bloody fight and bring home five gold pieces each!” The voice resounded through the arena as someone at the front started to speak with a loud voice.

This prompted the already excited audience to yell even more fiercely as they enjoyed the cruel fight even more than the fight between the skilled warriors.

Soon, people came to take the bodies of the fallen, and the victors were treated on the spot. They were not treated by Perus but by several people who Illyan could see were no masters in what they were doing. It was obvious that the men were just expendables in the eyes of the organizers.

On the other hand, the bodies seemed to get certain attention.

Illyan narrowed his eyes on this, ‘In the end, this entire event is just another way to collect the bodies. What the heck are they doing with so many of them?’

Once the wounded warriors and bodies were cleared out from the arena, the man started talking again.

“This time, we will not send humans against each other as that would be too boring. We prepared something special for you! The weather is getting warmer each day and with it certain hideous creatures are coming out of their caves stealing our cattle, children, and women. Fortunately, our magnificent mayor sent his valiant soldiers to wipe their roots from our forest before they managed to proliferate!”

After saying that, the gates opened and the sound of ferocious growls resounded in the arena. The audience gasped as several small creatures ran towards the center of the arena under threat of torches from the guards.

They were humanoid creatures of short stature with a disproportionate body compared to that of humans. Their arms were as long as their bodies while their heads were in the shape of cones with sharp fangs in their mouths. The skin was gray and harsh as if made out of stone.

‘Goblins…’ Illyan immediately guessed the species of the creatures. They were a literal catastrophe to most villagers. They stole whatever they could and were adept in kidnapping.

Fortunately, they were weak and without any tools they were helpless against the flock of angry villagers.

However, strength was never their advantage. It was their numbers. Their ability to reproduce was something well known even in the Arkravav Empire. Illyan read some records of Arkravavians dumping several goblins in the enemy’s territory only

 for them to reproduce into a big army which drowned the enemy into wit’s end.

The only reason why Vanaras Kingdom was doing so fine until now was thanks to the harsh winters which dampened their reproduction to a certain extent while their natural predators were living in the mountain range so close culling their numbers.

‘I really wonder what those Mountain Trolls truly look like.’ Thought Illyan.

Mountain Trolls also known as Iron Trolls were living deep in the mountains living on their own. Rarely, they would come down to attack humans as they never had food shortages despite their large build and number. That was only thanks to various settlements of goblins hiding in the mountains together with them.

This kind of delicate balance in the ecosystem made most people avoid those mountains in fear of creating disaster. Mayor only rarely sent expeditions when the numbers of either goblins or trolls grew too much and were in need of culling.

Of course, if either creature went down the mountains on their own then the only fate that awaited them was either enslavement or death….

“Aaargh!” The goblins in the arena growled at the guards as they avoided the torches. Soon, they were driven to the center of the arena. Their only equipment was dirty loins and iron knives.

With one quick look, Illyan counted that there were 20 of them. It was a very high number but considering that even normal villagers could kill them if they got the right opportunity it wasn’t so weird.

Loud noise reverberated through the room as guards once again entered.

“Choose 10 among you that are willing to give it a try. The reward is three gold coins for each.” More words weren’t needed as everyone understood.

Even though the reward wasn’t as good as the fight before, most believed that this would be much less dangerous and became enthusiastic.

This time, Illyan also stood up as he came in front of the guards. He didn’t plan to make his move yet but he needed to check out the area before doing anything. And that was impossible while waiting here.

With a quick heartbeat beating in his chest, he followed with other nine men the guard to the different room with the doors leading to the arena…