Mornings at the Collisae weren’t Zahn’s favorite way to get going, but for the first week he was thankful to live through dawn and actually get food. After the meeting with his new boss, the lowbie accepted the pair of quests he was newly eligible for and followed Ethan out of the executive wing back onto the sands. Once he’d joined the group, he’d been handed a simple dagger and told to strike his guide. Failing to stab or slice Ethan and falling flat as his stamina ran out, the single digit immediately became the most popular opponent to practice against.

The next three were a chain, congratulating him on joining the faction of the Gladiators and indicating he hadn’t yet earned a Mark of any kind. He automatically accepted the two quests for advancement, which he inspected after dismissing the kudos.

You have discovered a quest: Fight for Freedom!

As you have signed the Collisae Contract, you may not refuse this quest.

You may compete to free yourself from the Collisae during any Tournament hosted by the current Ringmaster, with the victory prize of freedom. Should you opt to challenge the Ringmaster, they will be set to a level appropriate for your set challenge. Due to the terms of your contract, your set level is to be treated as ‘9’ bringing the Ringmaster’s level adjustment to ‘19’ in order to balance the engagement.

Each day you must report to the arena with your trainer and obey whichever set of instructions compatible with your abilities that are issued to you.

Your pay will be determined by your performance.

Your experience will be determined by your kills, tasks, and duels.

Rewards: Mark of the Champion, Champion’s Purse, Main Gate Key.

You have discovered a quest: Copper to Gold!

As you have signed the Collisae Contract, you may not refuse this quest.

You may compete to raise your ranking within the Collisae during any Tournament hosted by the current Ringmaster, with the victory prize of climbing towards the title of Champion. Should you opt to challenge a valid opponent, your individual scores will be counted against your final results and weighed accordingly.

Each day you must report to the arena with your trainer and obey whichever set of instructions compatible with your abilities that are issued to you.

Your pay will be determined by your ranking within the Collisae.

Your experience will be determined by your victories, and you will lose hard-earned experience for your defeats.

Rewards: Increased ranking, improved accommodations, Fame Points, Blessing(s).

Dismissing the quests as his latest mandatory volunteering, he sighed and stood to see the group he’d finally ditched from their awkward farce of matches approach. The trio grinned and spread out, keeping their weapons in hand as they invited him to join their current matches.

In the morning Zahn had woken with sore arms, legs and back, but woke up instead of respawning all the same. Being shaken awake before sunrise and guided back to the bathroom of his commons, he followed Ethan around the morning routine before they kicked up the coals and he produced more food for breakfast. Devouring his roll and egg, the lowbie ambled after the warrior as they entered the arena once more to find it empty and quiet.

“What’s up?” Scratching at his shirt, the Player was more interested in going back to bed than swordplay at dawn but his guide smiled back.

“Exercises.” With a grin that stretched from ear to ear, he produced a set of leather wraps for the wrist and ankles before strapping them on his victim. Zahn shook the bound limbs and bounced in place, trying to settle them on comfortably. “Don’t worry, as we start adding weights you won’t even notice the bands anymore.”

“Weights?” Looking up from his inspection he found Ethan donning his own set of weighted straps and clipping thick metal rings around the leathers. Looking around the arena again he couldn’t see evidence of anyone else awake at this hour, but the evidently morning person wanted to get started before they could properly see.

“We’ll start slow. Laps at a jog ‘til you can’t, then recovery stretches before we get into the calisthenics. Once you’re limber we go for a run, and then we’ll start in on the training drills.” Zahn blinked as the list grew, trying to mentally get a scope of just what he’d bargained himself into. “I got a good look at your forms yesterday, even with all the falling around. You need to stretch first, and we’ll get going.”

Reluctantly following Ethan’s lead, the lowbie grumbled at his stiff limbs and tried to wiggle himself lower into the exercise. “Why exactly are we starting with this stuff? Aren’t you supposed to be showing me different weapons skills?”

He got a smug grin in reply. “Because you’re fat, bro. Like, you are way out of shape. Did you play football once upon a time or something?” Zahn blinked and looked over and the sudden change in tone and found the smirk return. “I told you, I’ve spent years around Players. The lingo isn’t that hard bro.”

Shaking his head at the antics, Zahn struck back, “No I didn’t play sports, I was busy fighting off the Reichers. You don’t build much of a body playing sniper in the woods, but I sure built up a body count.” Pitching his voice in a glib light cheer, he could hear the other man stop moving. “So no, sorry. I got fat when I put up a desk job instead of killing fucking monsters. I didn’t hit the gym when I could relax behind a screen, is that what you want to hear?” Panting at his own rant, he straightened up to see the blonde man serious and eyeing him like a civilian.

“What’s a Reicher?”

He sneered, spitting to his left before answering. “Dead, if I see ‘em. Took over the states during the Great Revolution, before my dad’s time. We kicked ‘em out of the Eastern Seaboard, and fuck if we won’t retake the land one day.” He leaned back, scowling up at the sky. “This fucking game. We had an offensive lined up, few months out by the expedition boys to retake the other side of the Mississippi. Somehow I don’t think I’ll be free in time to see it.”

Ethan stared a moment longer before a door across the way opened with a bang, startling the lowbie and prompting their morning run. “Come on. We can bitch about past lives later, it’s time to get you in shape before someone demands you duel them.”

Running was far worse than Zahn remembered, what was once as simple as leaning forward to move faster had now become a laborious exercise that even demanded he plan how each leg moved. Staggering between steps and heaving breath, the lowbie gasped his way around a complete lap as Ethan jogged next to him breathing evenly. Each time they made a full circuit he’d be pulled to the ground for sit-ups that ended up as minutes of wheezing life back into himself before actually performing.

Their routine was joined by several nameless evil faces he’d seen in the days before, happy to stab him or laugh at his pain. The various thugs and fighters moved in their own groups with different drills and practices, often mocking their comparatively silly cardio. Even the group of ‘newest’ that had tried their group murder trick made their own appearance, following a certain brutish Burnato around as he led their attack drills against each other. Each time Zahn’s gaze wandered to one or more of his previous tormentors, the far-too-perceptive Ethan either changed their current workout or made it harder, claiming he had too much free time if he could be spying on other teams working out.

Laying on his back and dying for air the fifth time since dawn, Zahn stared up at the clouds as he heard the grunting and clangs of gladiators training around them. “Hey, Ethan.” The insane man was still doing his pushups, grunting with each dip. “If everyone else is training in their teams, does that mean you got stuck on my team?” The fighter coughed mid-push, falling to his elbows as he laughed.

“No, no we’re not a team. We’re not even in the same Ranks dude, I’m level twenty-six.”

Looking over at him as the man hopped back to his palms, Zahn focused his eyes and sent mana back up to his head for the first time since the meeting. He felt the warmth pool under his brow before the Mana Sight activated, and the warrior training him lit up like an ant colony with blue arcs in his body. Nothing he was wearing seemed to have magic of its own, but he had a bright blue Mana Core sitting pretty in his back at the center of the various magical roots. Looking over at the other fighters, Zahn could see even from his back that not many had mana in their bodies at all, and there wasn’t a core in sight. He ambled to his feet to turn on the spot, but froze when he found Two watching from the doorway. The man’s outline was obscured by what looked like a translucent brown blanket, but the sneak in question stood in broad daylight leaning against the wall without a qualm.

“Let’s go,” he felt a heavy tap against his back that half-turned him, and Zahn eyed Ethan’s beckoning wave to continue their absurd jog before looking back at Two. The Rogue blinked as the lowbie’s eyes found him again, and he looked around himself before locking gaze again. Zahn released the tension of holding his Mana Sight at full power, letting the heat trickle down from his skull and left the Ability on a low burn. As the intensity faded, the Rogue rapidly became more obscured until his outline and shadow were completely gone, leaving a brown smear against dark stone. Blinking and shaking his head, the Player looked again to see he couldn’t find the exact spot anymore and started his jog after Ethan. So, it breaks stealth? Was that stealth?

The morning passed and lunch approached, with Ethan leading Zahn back into the commons to produce a flat bread smeared with bean paste and topped in flakes of something red and spicy. As they ate, Zahn reviewed the blinking icon to see he’d skipped two messages at some point during the morning pain fest.

Constitution has reached level 7!

Dexterity has reached level 7!

He smiled at the notices before waving them away, drawing his companion’s attention before explaining them. “Your physical stats are under ten? Dude.” The blonde leaned back, looking him over again. “How are you even alive. Good news is, you’ll level them up plenty quick,” he smirked as he leaned over his lunch again. “With this rate you’ll probably be up to almost normal before next match.”

Zahn tossed a pebble at him, munching on his own wrap. “Yeah, like I’ll pass the mortal threshold before some ass grabs me this afternoon.”

“It’s usually dudes grabbing asses that’s the problem.” Ethan’s joke fell flat, leaving him to cough before continuing. “Well, those aren’t matches. You don’t get a match until the Tournament, whether we have a crowd or not you still face off on the roster.” Zahn stopped chewing as he stared at the other man. “What, did you really think the Ringmaster was going to agree to power-level you? You bargained into a level a month mate, now that’s not bad for someone like me but.” He paused, munching on his wrap again, “but fumone aff low aff you will frobably get de-leffled a bunch fuffore ven.” He swallowed and pounded on his chest. “No offense, but you’re gonna level up like three times before the week’s out just from doing this, so you should probably look forward to getting abused back down to two.”

Zahn stared blankly, trying to think through his wording of the deal. His memory showed the Ringmaster didn’t care about the level terms, but only wanted to guarantee the level he’d have to use to face off for his freedom would be as high as possible. Which makes complete sense if what I said means a month… Looking back at Ethan as he finished his food, the Player sighed and rolled his neck.

“So. This sucks.”

Three weeks passed without deviation from the morning exercises, where Zahn was run through drills and stretches that annoyingly did loosen his legs and stretch out his arms. Each time the sadist disguised as a scout introduced a new performance he was reasonably objected to until the drills wore their way into the normal routine. A wretched thing called ‘dead lifts’ were brought in during the second week, and for the life of him Zahn couldn’t figure out what practical purpose the exercise could possibly serve other than some crude torture method. Trying to keep up with him during truly awful sprinting sessions had his ankles tweaked and aching each time he pivoted directions, and when a dreadful thing dubbed ‘horse stance’ became their new resting position he was ready to quit.

Falling on his ass and griping more than he’d talked about his body at all in recent years, the angry and stubborn low-level slowly began to change his shape. Under Ethan’s tutorial he didn’t allocate the points he got for his levels yet, as he wouldn’t be able to use them again if he didn’t fall ten levels at a time and being de-leveled through twenty lives wasn’t anything Zahn was eager to repeat. Leaving his physical stats low allowed him to raise the scores from training, and the results paid off nearly each day.

At the end of his first week, Zahn found Ethan’s predictions near accurate as he’d grown to level three with less than a hundred points away from four. His physical stats had each grown, the smallest rising faster but each stacking up on their own. With the high-speed takeoffs for the sprints and direction changing, he felt his Agility and Dexterity made the tasks easier each time the scores grew. He was tempted to start dumping some of his level up points into the physical stats to make keeping up easier, but seeing the growth he wasn’t about to waste the free scores yet.

As he struggled against push-ups and weights he felt his Strength and Endurance rise enough to make each day a little easier, driving himself to make one more than the day before. By the end of the second week he was able to count up to the teens on weighted squats and pullups, gasping as the blonde slave driver kept count. With each milestone he passed, Ethan remained at his side shouting ‘encouragement’ and coaching him towards the next goal.

In the afternoons, they joined the other group activities of sparring with simple weapons before moving to more exotic options. By handling and trying to strike with the range of lowest-tier weapons on hand, Zahn was able to pick up a number of weapon skills that he couldn’t find a use for without owning a sword or axe of his own. He still accepted the tutelage, usually to the surprise of whoever was going through the motions of teaching him the weapon skill. After picking up Swords, Axes, Hammers, and Shields without slowing down, he drew the attention of the less heavily armored brutes who passed on Pole Weapons, Throwing Axes, and Clubs. When he continued to demonstrate he wasn’t lying and could learn whatever someone would teach, Two shimmered into view and brought up Thrown Daggers and Covert Weapons with a wire between wooden pegs.

With all the weapon skills on hand at their lowest levels, Zahn was able to handle and wave around the armory but found himself struggling to fight with anything heavier than a few pounds. The weight of the weapons dragged his arms down after even a minute, and the lowbie was getting more and more frustrated seeing the other Gladiators freely wielding their tools of war all day.

After the various weapon combat drills, the pair of fighters retired to their commons and had something for their evening meal, usually stew of some kind. The first few nights Zahn thought they just had to eat up the remaining stew from before, but he caught the blonde making more and accepted he’d be getting used to soup.

It was during these goulash nights that the Player would summon his Grimoire and pull up the Tome pages, making progress by its internal glow and the firelight. The first week went without commentary other than whose turn it was to wash the dishes, which he learned also happened in the bathroom. During the second week as he got into the chapter’s meat on various dimensions he brought up the passage about the Chaos realm and brought Ethan into conversation about it.

“As far as any Local is concerned, it’s the place you don’t want your soul going to. If the good folk go up to the Heavens, then the awful Chaotic folk are doomed to sink into Chaos itself. Everyone knows all the big bads were Chaotic, and killing off a Chaotic Evil will banish their soul to Chaos without fail.” He paused and pointed the stirring spoon at his charge, “And that counts Players too. Don’t go C/E without a solid plan to get back.”

Zahn closed his book with a thud. “There you go again. You even hear yourself? C/E? Who talks like that?” He brushed aside his book, where it floated in the air. “Spill it. You’re not supposed to be here either.”

The blonde kept his eyes on the stew as he prepared it, not rising to the bait. “I honestly don’t think anyone is meant to be here, no, but I made my choices and I abide by them. I chose many things, and ultimately chose to come here to be a Gladiator. Hard to say I’m not supposed to be somewhere I got after working for it, no?”

The lowbie watched his face as he spoke, feeling the certainty fade. That’s right, he did come here on purpose. And he… Zahn felt something weighing against his head like a thick crocheted blanket and shrugged, shaking himself before he felt it dissipate. And he’s still acting like a dude from GameCon. “No, not really. You can work to live in a barn, doesn’t make you a horse.” He sent mana up his skull again, trying to bring out the freaky psychic eye. “Are you really going to make me ask without manners?”

Ethan chuckled as he stirred, “Hard to say without manners, you’ve kind of been a jer-” Looking up at the purple glow he jumped back and threw the wooden spoon. “Jesus fucking Christ! Don’t do that dude!”

Zahn smirked back, releasing the heat as his fever slid down the back of his neck again. “So, you were saying?”

The blonde panted, glaring at the smug prick before looking back at the closed door. Taking deep breaths, he leaned onto his elbows and stared at the stewpot for a long silent minute. Zahn milked the tension as the bubbles audibly broke on their dinner, feeling like he’d finally started to win something and maybe even get another quest to escape.

“Alright,” his voice was soft when he finally spoke. “But anything we say stays between us.” Zahn nodded eagerly without being seen, as Ethan gazed at the coals. Finally making eye contact, he continued in a whisper. “Yeah, I’m a Player too.”