Chapter 17 - Kastor (4)

As soon as Asil finished his words, the people in the other cells began to laugh and speak loudly.

"Hahaha, have you guys heard that he came here from the east of the Empire to study? Hahahaha..."

"Son, I, your uncle will give you a proper education. So, come see me when you get out of your cell. Hahaha..."

"Son, never mind him. Your uncle here has a lot to tell you and especially show you, so stop by here. Hahahaha..."

"Did you come here from the East? And for education? Hahahaha, that's funny..."

Asil couldn't understand what was going on. When he told them where he grew up and why he came here, everyone in the other cells started laughing strangely.

These waves of laughter continued for a while the old man stopped them, and after they all stopped, the old man spoke to Asil: "Young man, if the elder who brought here for education knew this place, he must be really weird. This is the Kingdom of the Black Dragon, far to the north of the Crimson Lightning Empire, far from where you were born, and also bound to the Crimson Lightning Empire."

Asil was quite surprised when the found out where he was. He knew the Black Dragon Kingdom from what his father described and from the map of the Crimson Lightning Empire. It was actually a kingdom that was subordinate to the Empire but ruled semi-independently and was located extremely far from The Star Plain. It was also an extremely famous place. According to his father, the source of this fame was the mercenaries, the system of slavery, and the brutal lifestyle of the people who lived there.

The old man looked at Asil's expression and continued speaking: "As I understand from your expression, you do not know what it is like around here. So, listen very carefully to what I'm about to tell you. The Black Dragon Kingdom is a semi-independent kingdom where the system of slavery is unshackled. In this kingdom, slaves fight, serve, and are cast aside after being adequately used. The arena you are in is a place where slaves fight and many people enjoy watching these battles. Although there are many places like this in the kingdom, this is the most famous of them all. You will be disgustingly and ruthlessly trained here, and you entertain the audience by going out in bloody fights. If any of the nobles who follow you like you, you will be his slave, and you will serve him from then on."

"Now you're in a place like this. I don't think you're going to be a stranger here since you do not have any profound power. Because there are so many people in this arena whose profound power has been sealed to make the audience see much more raw and ferocious fights. Since you just got here, they would not put you in a fight yet. First, they will strengthen you against the pain for a week or so, and then they will have you fight a wild animal. If you're lucky, the animal you're going to fight is an animal with no profound power like you. If that happens, you have a chance to survive, but if it's an animal with a profound power... You will probably die! If you win a few fights and the audience is happy with you, you will fight against the people. Then you are going to go to different fights and you are going to repeat this cycle. This is what Kastor is like!!"

After the old man's speech, the anxiety in Asil's heart grew greater. Although he had done several fights before, these were either sword drills or fights against weak animals. Since he was the son of the leader of Mirza Clan, he had hardly ever been in any life-threatening danger. So he had almost no experience in life-or-death situations. But from what the old man told him, he had to get into these kinds of fights here!

Asil soon buried his concerns at his heart and asked hopefully: "Senior, so is there a way to get out of here?"

Asil himself knew this question was absurd. After all, if there was a way to get out of here, this old man in front of him, stronger than his own father, would not be here.

But the old man, contrary to Asil's thoughts, approved with a nod and replied: "Yes there is a way out of here. Unlike other arenas, even though it is difficult, Kastor has a path to freedom. But this path has both a good side and a bad side. First, let me tell you what it takes to be free...If you want to be free, you have to go to a hundred fights in Kastor and win them all. It's good to have a path to freedom but it's not easy to win a hundred fights. Because the more matches you win, the stronger your opponents will become, and if you lose one match and you don't die as a result of that defeat, you'll have to win a hundred again."

"There are two other ways to get out of here besides freedom. The first of these, as I said before, is that you are taken by a nobleman. Even though you'll still be a slave, your life will be better than here. The other way out is death, as you can see. There's nothing else I need to tell you right now. My advice to you is to get some rest today. 'Because they are going to start training you tomorrow, and it's not going to be good at all."

After finishing his words, the old man ate half of the bread that Asil had given him. Then he turned around and closed his eyes and never spoke again. When the old man became silent, the people in the other cell began to speak abominably again, and Asil, after he had anxiously eaten his bread, began to sit cross-legged.. He started thinking about things like what was going to happen tomorrow, why skinny guy brought him here, whether the graduation test he was talking about was winning a hundred fights.