Chapter 750: Nevermore: Concepts

Jake barely managed to drag himself out of the arena. Nearly every one of his ribs were broken, and he had enough internal damage to kill most people. If he was not a system-changed creature, he would have been dead already.

After stumbling out of the arena, medical staff came. Sadly for Jake, they only checked if he would live, and while Jake was in a horrid condition, his life was not in danger. Seeing no other real choice, Jake bought a healing potion from one of the staff members for 100 Colosseum Points to try and at least recover a little. Instinctively, he identified it when the medical staff happily sold it.

[Colosseum of Mortals Recovery Potion (Unique)] – a potion from the Colosseum of Mortals. This potion will restore a small amount of health to stabilize the condition of anyone who consumes it while boosting the natural recovery rate of all resources for a day (24 hours). This effect only works out of combat. You can only consume one recovery potion a day.

It was a potion that was clearly made just for this Challenge Dungeon, and with it, he would maybe be able to fight the next day. Hopefully.

After drinking the potion, Jake sat down on a bench and stared into thin air for a while. He hurt all over, had a visible imprint of a palm on his chest, and he felt like shit. Jake had “won” the fight, sure, but it sure as hell didn’t feel like a victory.

If it had been a fight to the death, Jake would likely have lost his first life. Maybe he would have been able to drag out the time for a tie, but as he was currently, he didn’t see any path to victory. Not with the tools he had entered the arena with.

Magic wouldn’t have been an option, either. It was too slow to cast and use. Everything would be telegraphed, and the monk would have easily blocked it.

Despite being called it all the time, Jake was not a martial artist. He was no unarmed fighter. Every single hit from the monk left Jake reeling even when he blocked as the soul-affecting part of his strikes still went through. Meanwhile, Jake did far less damage even with his arcane energy, as, quite frankly, punches and kicks were not a good way to deliver arcane destruction. His entire fighting style was also created with the assumption that his counterattacks would be deadly stabs from katars and not just a damn punch.

This meant Jake had to dodge rather than block nearly all the time. That was his fighting style, but a dodge took way more energy and effort than blocking something. Usually, dodging would then at least allow you to take advantage of an opening as you didn’t use an arm or a leg to block and could strike with it, but what did that help if the attack you could land barely did anything?

No... he would need weapons if he wanted to stand a chance.

Gritting his teeth, Jake just sat there, partly to let the potion do some of its work and partly because he didn’t feel like getting up.

“Hey, Veteran Gladiator,” he heard as he looked up and saw the Battlemaster had walked over. “You look like shit, but I guess you won anyway. Congratulations on that and keeping your streak going. Now, you strike me as rather preoccupied, so I’ll leave you be. Get healed up, yeah? And keep up the good work; I doubt you will meet another monster like that any time soon.”

Jake slowly nodded. “Thanks, I guess...”

The Battlemaster gave him a tap on his shoulder, making Jake wince a bit in pain. He had rolled a lot of punches off his shoulder, and it was still sore as hell, with it feeling like half the muscles within were ravaged. Didn’t help that he had overstrained them with arcane energy, either.

The Battlemaster walked away as Jake stayed sitting, leaning back against the wall as leaning forward sure as hell wasn’t an option with the current state of his ribs.

With a sigh, and to try and distract himself, he decided to check the damn system message he had gotten after the Battlemaster came and talked to him. It didn’t really make him feel better.

Congratulations! You have reached the Veteran Gladiator rank, truly cementing yourself as a regular of the Colosseum of Mortals. As your notoriety and fame grow, so does the strength of your opponents, and you have begun to catch the eye of some of the more powerful entities involved with the Colosseum of Mortals.

As a Veteran Gladiator, you are still limited to one fight a week against another Veteran Gladiator.

All crafters will now have better equipment and items available.

In addition to gladiatorial battles, you can fight against non-Veteran Gladiator opponents in Show Matches once a day. These Show Matches are against a variety of foes and have far looser rules and regulations than regular arena fights. The possible opponents one can face in Show Matches are decided daily. Winning Show Matches reward Colosseum Points based on the opponents fought. Show Matches and battles against other Veteran Gladiators cannot be scheduled on the same day.

The difficulty of all Show Match options has been increased.

For reaching the Veteran Gladiator rank without losing a single time or losing any lives, you are rewarded an extra 5000 Colosseum Points.

For defeating the Benevolent Monk, you are rewarded an extra 10000 Colosseum Points.

Continue to fight, and claim your glory as you prove yourself the strongest mortal! Become the Champion! Or, perhaps, something above even that?

The system even fucking warned me, he scolded himself, shaking his head. He just hadn’t taken it seriously, as all prior warnings hadn’t really led to things actually getting hard.

No... there was no reason to dwell on his own fuck-up. Better to act on it.

A good twenty minutes had passed by now since Jake had fought his battle, and through his sphere, he saw Polly and Owen walking over with hurried steps. Still sitting on the bench, leaning back against the wall behind him, he turned his head and looked toward them.

“Are you okay? It looked rough out there... and you definitely don’t look that good either,” Owen said curtly with some genuine worry as he rushed over.

“I don’t think okay is the right word to use in this case,” Jake shook his head. “Not going to sugarcoat it, I look like shit outwardly, but it’s way fucking worse on the inside.”

“That monk... did not belong at Veteran Gladiator rank,” Owen sighed as he tried to comfort Jake. “In fact, I don’t think he belongs in any of the different Gladiator ranks. He is one of those monstrous people you just hope not to meet as they climb the rank ladder. Same as you.”

“Yeah, I know... I knew before the fight,” Jake admitted. “I fucked up by not preparing properly this time around, even if I had a warning.”

Polly, seeing Jake being down, shifted the topic. “Any... anyway, are you okay otherwise? Have you consumed a recovery potion yet? If not, the medical staff sells them...”

“I have,” Jake smiled. “Thanks for the concern, I should be back in top form within a few days, and hopefully, I will be fit to fight again tomorrow. Though I will ask. Polly... can you figure out if my next opponent is also an anomaly?”

“I already did, and as long as you get your first Veteran Gladiator fight done within the next two weeks, there are no outliers, just regulars,” Polly said instantly.

Jake was about to say something but just sighed. “Thanks again.”

Moving forward, he wanted to at least check if he would face a similar situation. He didn’t know if the system would only warn him the first time he faced an anomaly or if it just sometimes happened randomly, and you had to figure it out yourself. Either way, Jake wanted to know and be ready. In more ways than one.

Checking his Colosseum Points, Jake had gained a lot.

Current objective: Be promoted from Veteran Gladiator to Master Gladiator

Current rank: Veteran Gladiator (0/10)

Colosseum Points: 35340

Lives remaining: 10

And he knew what to do with them too.

“Owen, Polly,” Jake said to the two of them. “You two wanna go shopping tomorrow morning when they open? If I am feeling in shape for it, that is.”

“You’re finally going to get some proper equipment?” Owen asked with interest.

“More than just a pair of boots, at least,” Jake smiled in response. “But that is for tomorrow... for now, I just need to relax.”

The one good thing about Jake’s recklessness was that he had fought first thing in the morning. It wasn’t even noon yet, and he had the entire day ahead of him. It was an entire day to do whatever he wanted, and he knew exactly what to do with this time too:

Be at home laying in his bed.

Because right now, just breathing fucking hurt.