During the dagger training, they all seemed a bit more focused after Sin’s lecture. Being reminded of their losses to the creatures of the Blight had that effect. He was once again matched against Arlo, who was sporting a serious face as well, the wicked grin was now gone. He was not sure which Arlo he preferred. This version might be scarier somehow. But he had to admit, fighting the curly-haired man was a great way to improve his own skill.

Sin also gave him some helpful pointers on his stance from time to time. he managed to activate [Dagger’s Flow] once more, but the skill once again guzzled his Soul Force at insane speeds.

His theory was that he was conjuring too many of the misty blue soul arcs, but he was unable to reduce them at the moment. It did once again become clear that he was the only one that could see the arcs landing on the vital spots.

He was still not really a match for Arlo, but he did feel that he was stumbling a little less already.

His practice with [Dagger’s Flow] during the training also earned him another attribute increase, his interface alerting him to the improvement.

[Congratulations, you have increased your Soul Force by one point.]

It seemed that his combined efforts of training with [Dagger’s Flow] and Soul Heat had resulted in another gain. It always felt really great to get an alert that signaled his improvement. This still only brought his Soul Force to six though.

After the Dagger practice, they resumed with a similar agility training as the day before. He was still pretty sore from the previous day, but he managed to get into the flow of training. Some of the exercises were rather strange, but he could only trust in the expertise of Sin. His trust proved to be correct at the end of his session when he received another Interface alert.

[Congratulations, you have increased your Agility by one point.]

He sat and ate together with some of the other trainees during the break. He learned some important information. Apparently, there would be no classes tomorrow because Sin had to fight in the Lumen Arena.

He asked a broad-shouldered man of around 30 named Hito about Sin’s ranking on the Lumen Ladder since Hito had just told him with enthusiasm that he knew all the names and positions in the top 100. He was curious how strong she was among the people of Lumen.

He learned that she was placed 42th on the Lumen ladder, which he thought was quite impressive. He also took this opportunity to ask Hito about the position of Namir, whose potential position he had been curious about.

Apparently, the stoic man had been doing quite well. Being a newcomer in Lumen, he had apparently won three consecutive matches in the last two months, bringing him all the way to the 72nd spot. Hito openly wondered where Namir would end up eventually since you never quite knew with newcomers. He was told by Hito that Namir would not be fighting tomorrow.

From the group of trainees, he also learned that Anara, who he learned was the number one on the Lumen ladder was also going to be fighting. She was going to be fighting in a defensive match against the number four of the rankings.

Apparently, any person on the ladder would have to fight in an official match every two weeks. If you did not fight you would be automatically demoted multiple places unless you had a good reason not to fight.

For a fighter, the matches would rotate from a defensive match against someone lower on the ladder, to an offensive match against someone above you on the ladder. Of course, Anara would only have defensive matches as the number one on the Ladder.

“Is there any reason to strive for a higher position on the ladder besides the prestige?” Christopher asked Hito. The broad-shouldered man grew increasingly excited to be talking about his favorite subject.

“The Lumen ladder is overseen by Eugenius Swift, the Earl of Lumen. Any person that manages to enter the Lumen ladder will get a monthly stipend depending on their position. This is why the fights are often quite fierce.

The leading nobility of the Fiefdoms of Venaria always wants to attract strong people to their domain. The size of these stipends can both keep and attract strong people to their Fiefdoms. The desire to enter the ladder also creates a culture of people training diligently to get stronger, increasing the odds of cities continued survival.”

He was somewhat surprised that these Ladder matches had such a high political and tactical importance. Clearly, this was serious business. He also noted that this Earl of Lumen had a second name, which was not something he had encountered here before. He made an educated guess that this was somehow only reserved for nobility.

“How much are these monthly stipends that can be earned?” he asked the 30-year-old man.

“It of course depends on your position. But even the 100th spot will allow you to live your life luxuriously in Lumen. The lowest stipend is five gold coins a month, with the number one spot earning a hundred gold coins for their position.”

Christopher was shocked by the amount. With his current living expenses of 12 bronze Venarian coins a day, he would be able to live comfortably for a month with around a single gold coin.

“That much, just for fighting two times a month? How can the Earl even afford to pay all of that gold?”

Hito smiled. “Sure, it is a sizable amount, but who do you think receives all that money for entry tokens. Combined with all the other benefits for the Earl, I wouldn’t be surprised if that cunning old geezer was making a profit on all of this.”

He had to admit that it was an interesting system that they had set up. And apparently, all of these cities in Venaria had a similar ladder system. Tamas had told him that the Ladder in the capital was incomparably stronger.

He really wanted to see a few of the matches so he considered spectating the fights. He now had some money to spent, and this was for a good cause since he was sure to learn something useful.

During the final segment of their training, he still was not able to properly draw the bow, but that was not a surprise since he still needed to increase his strength. He went through the training regimen again until his arms felt like lead, and until he felt pain in muscles that he had not known he possessed. But it clearly had been an effective day, since he had once again increased one of his attributes.

[Congratulations, you have increased your Strength by one point.]

It seemed as if all his gains had come to fruition on the same day. He did not really feel any clear progress in his body, but then again, his relative gains were minuscule.

At the end of the training, Sin gathered them all up. “As some of you already know, I have a defensive match for my position on the Lumen ladder tomorrow, meaning that there is no training that day.”

“I want you all to consider visiting the Arena tomorrow. Now that you have a foundation, you might actually learn something useful from watching the strongest fighters in Lumen battling it out. Please, everyone, take one of these wooden tokens for free entrance into the arena.”

She handed them all a large wooden coin with the emblem of a sword engraved. Some excited chatter burst up at this news. Christopher did not know the cost of entering as a spectator, but he would not say no to a free token.

“That is all, we are done for the day. Training will be back to the regular schedule the day after tomorrow,” Sin did not waste any more time and left the training fields carrying the comically large knapsack behind her back.

They all stayed around a little longer. Excitingly talking plans for the visit to the arena.

“Let’s all watch together.” proposed Bara, the teenage girl that wanted to be a guard. All seemed to agree that it might be more fun to watch the fights as a group so they made plans to meet up at the Arena plaza half an hour before the Arena would open to the public.

Christopher was also excited. He would be able to see many interesting matches. He wanted to see what his instructor Sin could do in a serious fight. He was also curious about Anara, the number one on the Lumen ladder. He had not yet seen any true fight between top professionals. He figured that they must use some kind of Soul Force when they battled.

With training concluded he willed up his attribute screen, curious about his current totals. They still very much looked like a beginner’s status screen, which he of course still was.

Vitality 12 Endurance 13 Strength 10 Agility 13 Soul force 6

He made his way back to the Inn, looking forward to the Arena tomorrow. It should be a fun day!