When Christopher neared the meet-up spot he could see that most of his fellow trainees had already arrived. They looked to be in great spirits, clearly looking forward to the event. He made his way to Hito, who was excitingly talking with some others about their favorite fighters. The broad-shouldered man with so much knowledge of the fighters might be the perfect companion for the Arena

“Christopher, tell me, did you place any bets?” Hito asked as soon as he spotted him, patting him conspiratorial on his back.

“Bets you say? On the fights?”

Hito mischievously smiled “Of course, my friend, no harm in making things a little bit more exciting, don’t you agree?”

“I suppose so” he responded with a thoughtful expression.

He was not that surprised that betting on matches was possible here. What kind of sporting event did not have some wagering involved.

A somewhat deranged grin suddenly formed on Christopher’s face, which even Hito seemed slightly taken aback by.

A thought had suddenly occurred to him. Did he not have a rather unique ability that might prove useful when betting on these matches. He had never considered the potential of using his skill in this way. He might not be able to use it yet, since it interfered with his plans, but he would pay very close attention to the results of the matches today.

“I know that smile, if you want to place a bet, I know a guy that should be somewhere around here.”

Christopher laughed. “No that is alright, I think I will sit this one out. Next time though, I think some gambling is in order.”

“Hah, very good, nothing better to get the blood pumping. It might be for the best as well since technically it is against the laws to make bets anywhere on this plaza. Earl Eugenius Swift does not like betting this close to the Arena. Of course, that just leads to betting becoming more circumspect.”

“Where did you place your bets?”

“You would be best served to place your bets at The Lucky Goddess.” He said, dodging his question. “They might ask a higher premium, but at least everything is above board.”

He would indeed prefer to place his bets legally; Christopher would have to make sure that he remembered the Lucky Goddess for the future.

While they waited for the massive Arena gates to open it was getting busy in the plaza with more people arriving every moment.

More familiar faces kept joining their group. Even Arlo showed up, but he was keeping his distance from the rest, unsociable as ever.

Christopher was now speaking with Hozil, the old man of their group. To his surprise, Hozil had worked as an ambassador for Lumen. Christopher was now interrogating him on the political situation in Venaria. He was glad to pick his mind on this subject since his knowledge in this area was lacking.

Apparently, there was a lot of dissatisfaction among the people for the King’s rule, who was named Karus Soulstorm. The King apparently aggressively courted strong warriors to join him in the capital. This by itself would not be such a strange thing, but according to Hozil, he was also completely derelict in his duty to protect any of the lands outside of Terena, which was the capital of Venaria, and also the King's seat of power.

Nobody could contend with the coin that Karus Soulstorm could offer the strongest fighters. Especially the church had a strong dislike for the King, who they considered more of a detriment than a help in their fight against the Blight. According to Hozil, the Earl of Lumen mostly sided with the Adenium Church, but he could not do so openly since there were many methods of retribution available to the King.

The only reason why large-scale fighting never broke out between the Church and the King was that internal strife would surely signal their loss against the Blight. This pretty much allowed the King to hold the entire country hostage.

According to Hozil, there had been plenty of assassination attempts on the King, all of them a failure. The Church vehemently denied any responsibility for these attempts, but Hozil said that many of the assassins had been identified as devout followers of the Adenium Church.

The Royal guard that the King had assembled was just too powerful to overcome for any assassin. There were rumors that some of the powerful protectors of the King had wicked tastes that needed to be filled, which the King gladly provided for the powerful fighters.

Christopher could only grow frustrated with the political instability among the powers of Venaria. It was another problem to deal with, and the Blight was already more than enough of a headache.

To his surprise, he also learned that Venaria turned out to be just a small kingdom on a large continent. When Hozil described the scale of the world he could not help but feel daunted. It also made him wonder how many of the other summoned were really all that close to Lumen. How many had been summoned to this Kingdom of Venaria?

After a few more minutes of waiting, a thumping sound signaled that the massive gates were slowly sliding open. Opening the gate clearly took quite some power, but somehow two city guards managed to open it on their own.

The people in the plaza made their way to the entrance of the Arena, Christopher and his group included. They had been standing near the gate and therefore managed to get near the front of the line. The atmosphere was exhilarating, the excited chatter of hundreds of people both close and far away reached his ears.

They all had to move their way through a spectator tunnel before they could make it within the Arena. There was a separate gate where people could buy tickets. He noticed that a ticket to enter the Arena went for seven bronze coins, which seemed reasonable enough.

Their group was able to circumvent the long line for tickets, they only needed to hand in their wooden tokens. This allowed them to be one of the first groups to enter the arena. The center of the arena was covered with a layer of sand, resembling that of the amphitheaters of old Earth.

Hito saw him looking at the center of the arena “They call that area the Pit. They say that the sand has absorbed so much Soul Force from the countless battles fought there that it has achieved a life of its own.”

Hozil snorted behind him “Stop saying such things with a straight face”

Christopher laughed. But still, the sandpit almost did seem to radiate some kind of power.

The Pit reminded him of the Adenium Church courtyard, and he was sure that they had copied the environment intentionally. The priests at the Adenium Church had trained in a similar environment. It had been explained to him that there was a friendly competition between the Priests and the City guards, so getting as many of their ranks into the top hundred was a clear goal for both sides. The priests had a clear lead at the moment.

Within the Pit, a group of around six-year-old children demonstrated some offensive moves with a wooden spear. A mean-looking old woman of around fifty was ordering the children around, barking instructions.

There were also children among the spectators streaming into the Arena. He was surprised for a second that they would let children see such a bloody spectacle, but in this world, it probably made sense for children to grow some tolerance to the blood and fighting. He realized that they would also become the next generation tasked with protecting the city.

Surrounding the sands of the Pit, multiple tiers of seats awaited the excited spectators. The Arena really was built in a similar style to that of an Amphitheatre. And now that he was inside, he could clearly tell that the Arena was not a perfect circle but rather an oval shape. There were multiple tiers of seats, and each tier was divided into sections by curved passages and low walls.

On the highest tier, Special viewing platforms could be seen on the northern and southern parts from the entrance, assumingly for the nobility and the powerful. These places clearly provided the best views of the Arena. Below those platforms was the middle tier, which was still pretty luxurious and probably for the wealthy.

In the lowest tier of seats, people would be closely packed together on some simple but sturdy wooden benches. These were the most numerous seats in the Arena by a large margin and these were clearly for the common people.

He and the other’s let Hito take the lead. He gladly gave way to Hito’s knowledge of where they had the best view. Bara, the young woman aspiring to be a guard walked next to him, eyes just as wide as him. Maybe this was her first time as well? The arena was not free, and she was from the poorer district.

Christopher had assumed that they would be seated on the lowest tier with the common ticket holders, but he was wrong. It turned out that there was a special section that was reserved for training groups like theirs.

They were soon all seated on the wooden benches. He was pleased, the seats offered an excellent view of the entire Arena and should allow them to observe the matches with full visibility. Seated to his left was Hito, and seated to his right were Bara and Hozil. He noticed that Arlo was sitting on the bench behind him.

The Arena had completely filled in the last half hour, and the number of people was quite impressive.

He asked Hito “How many seats are there in the Lumen Arena?”

“After the last extension, there is now a capacity of 8,220 seats, almost fifteen percent of Lumen”

Maybe the number was not all that impressive compared to what they had for sporting events on Earth, but these were more people than he had seen in total on this world so far, so he could not help being amazed.

What he really wanted to see was how they incorporated Soul Force in the fighting. He could not wait for the start of the first match.