Avan jerked awake from his sleep several times that night, only to have his sudden movements cause him to moan again and again and scold himself for his stupidity.

Even now, after the repeated times, he once again stared at the vaulted cellar ceiling and tensely contorted his face into a grimace as the throbbing pain ripped through his back with every single blow. Cursing inwardly, and the spiteful guard even more so, he carefully pushed himself off his uncomfortable bed and sat down to take a few deep breaths. The snoring of his fellow occupants echoed back and forth between the cold walls like several saws of different sizes in a sawmill.

Shaking his head at all the noise, Avan pushed off and stood up, slightly bent over, and limped deeper into the vault, making every effort to limp extra quietly past the rude brawler.

In the back right part of the cellar was the toilet and a kind of drinking basin in a stone bulge next to it, which Avan hadn't really seen from the front area on the first day. So far, thanks to his sparse food intake and his ability to do without drink and food thanks to his dungeon mana, he hadn't needed a toilet either. Until now, when he urgently had to empty his bladder.

A few minutes and some cursing later, during which Avan had to fight with his dirty linen clothes without moving or straining his back much, he lay down again carefully and with effort on his belly to slumber a little more. It shouldn't take much longer until sunrise anyway...

As soon as he lay down and closed his eyes, at least that's how it seemed to Avan, someone shook him awake vehemently but gently on his right shoulder and he opened his eyes in a panic, still very fresh in his mind what would happen to him if he was late again.

Avan blinked at a worried-looking Nick, who had woken him, and sat up straight with a groan. But... it seems that the wound is already scabbed over! he breathed out in relief as he realized the difference between the previous evening and the pain now.

"Better get up, Avan. We don't want a repeat of yesterday." The older man whispered to him conspiratorially but more than seriously, and then turned to the others in the room to give Avan a brief opportunity to wake up properly and get his bearings.

Ouch, ouch, ouch. He groaned inwardly. Even though the pain and the wound seemed better, it still hurt like hell.

Nick, meanwhile, whispered to Lea, who looked mischievously but sympathetically in his direction from time to time, and winked at him when she noticed his gaze.

"Hello, Avan. Slept in?" She winked at him again and just laughed out loud at his flat expression.

"Yes, of course. What else, Lea!" He spoke back seriously, letting his slightly annoyed tone slip in a bit. "It's been a long time since I've slept so well and for so long. And such a soft bed!" He finished his sentence with a quick glance back at the stone bulge that served as the bed.

As Avan let his gaze wander back to Nick and Lea, he recognized the mischievous glint in her eyes and smirked as he realized she was just trying to cheer him up and distract him.

He nodded gratefully to her as they were distracted by the loud footsteps of hard boots on stone, belonging to the guards who were trudging down the stairs into the vault.

A short hiss and hum later, followed by a glow, the steel door to their vault opened and two guards other than yesterday's entered, finding two rows of slaves already perfectly lined up in front of them.

Without saying anything, the one guard marched past the rows and didn't even take a closer look, almost as if he just wanted to get back to his previous activity and not deal with this. One guard at the front and the other at the back all marched together up the stairs again and in the first one on the far right, through the already open portcullis into the sandy arena, in the middle of which the taskmaster was already waiting.

As yesterday, everyone lined up in a semicircle, and only now did Avan notice the wagon full of training weapons, which consisted mostly of wood and was located diagonally to the right behind Rielta.

"Good, you're learning." Taskmaster Rielta's voice rang across the sandy plaza. "Today we'll warm up again, and then we'll see how well you no-goods can handle weapons in a few training fights!"

Thus began Avan's second day as an arena slave, or gladiator, and the training began, as it had the day before, with various warm-up exercises, endurance runs, and then moved on to the practice fights, in which he once again realized how useless and untalented he was with weapons in his hands.

So the day passed relatively quickly, and even if Avan was pretty much at the end and all his muscles were burning, one thing became apparent very quickly. Most of the other newcomers he had spotted in the meantime were not only panting and on the verge of fainting, but they were also pale, as if they lacked food and drink much more than he did.

Once again, Avan could only be inwardly grateful for his unique position, which not only allowed him to get by with the least amount of food and water intake, but also his much faster health recovery.

Just as he was gasping for air with his hands on his knees, and Rielta called for one of the last breaks of the day, he noticed a small commotion on the right side between one of the other groups of slaves.

One of the apparent leaders of the other group of slaves had stood up in front of one of the new additions, a bedraggled-looking young woman with auburn hair, while a lanky fellow was just picking himself up off the floor and glaring at the woman.

Before Avan could interfere and was about to take a step in that direction, a strong hand grabbed him by his left shoulder and with a powerful grip stopped him from doing something stupid. To his surprise, Lea looked at him seriously with a sad look in her eyes and shook her head slowly. "There's nothing you can do about it. Don't. Either she learns to fight back, or she will break... The rule of the arena, and of every slave. Fight, survive. Nothing else matters. Or you will be used, subjugated, and exploited. And break from it..." She explained to him in a low voice and looked sadly at the scene, which stirred up a deep anger in Avan. Soberly, he knew she was right, but he still didn't like it and it made his fists clench hard and stand there helplessly.

Rielta, the taskmaster, had also seen the commotion out of the corner of his eye, and apart from a nasty look in that direction, he did nothing more.

All cowards... What is going on, no matter where and in which world, everywhere it is the same! he cursed silently to himself.

And so the rest of the day passed, and the groups were led away again at the end. This time, however, they found in their vault a few wooden plates with a porridge in front of them, over which all immediately fell like the starving animals that all became here sooner or later.

Sated and with at least something in his stomach, Avan sat back down in his sleeping niche, feeling even less pain than before, despite the exercises and workouts they had been doing all day. Pursuing the thought, he focused on the strand of Celestial Mana and was surprised to find that it had more than doubled over the course of the night and day. Whether this is related to the use of mana? The more I use, the more... does the dam burst and more mana can flow to me? Hmmm...

"Why do you look so surprised, you worm?" A gruff voice rudely snapped him out of his thoughts and Avan startled, only now aware that he had shown his emotions and surprise clearly on his face for everyone to see. Timo stood in front of him with his arms crossed and his exaggerated muscles glaring at him curiously, just as someone would find an interesting worm as a child, and only curiosity would save him from being crushed.

"Nothing, Timo. Let it go." Shaking his head and trying to ignore the giant, Avan looked around at the others in the room.

The four on the left side of the vault, in the back behind Lea, had sat down on the floor again and were playing a kind of chess with their black and white stones against each other. While Nick was avoiding or seemed to be asleep in an upright position, and Lea was lying on her back with her hands clasped behind her neck, staring at the ceiling, lost in thought.

"Don't distract me, worm! Why so surprised?" Came again the booming voice of Timo, and this time more of the others also looked over and even Lea looked annoyed at the back of the loud man who dared to disturb her peace.

"Nothing, Timo. The herbs just work better than I thought. That's all. Can you please go on now? The others don't seem very pleased about it either, it seems to me..." Avan tried to placate him and bring in the others in the group as reasoning.

The man just stared at him again, gave an annoyed grunt, and stomped off to his own alcove.

Avan just shook his head. What a problematic guy...

Lea gave him another mischievous look and winked, but then looked up at the ceiling again, thinking about her own thoughts. He himself concentrated again on the no longer quite so thin beam of mana, which he had connected to his abdominal area, and once again stared in amazement with his inner eye at how much it had grown in such a short time. "Definitely like a dam..." he mumbled to himself, sure that no one heard him, and overlooked the one open eye of Nick next to him, who was eyeing him.

Avan, oblivious to this, sat with his eyes closed again and simply watched in amazement as the mana flowed into his body and through the veins already infused with mana to his wound.

Fascinated, he could feel how the edges of the scabbed wound were gradually repaired, while dead skin particles were repelled and gradually joined with the scab. He knew, and for some reason felt, how the radiance was growing stronger and stronger, even if it was not visible to his inner eye. It was more a feeling, a kind of knowing that was simply present, than a mere observation.

More than satisfied, Avan looked around the room again with his eyes open, watching the others for a while, while keeping his concentration on his inner self.

Just as he was about to decide to lie down, there came a rattling sound, followed shortly by footsteps descending the stone vaulted staircase.

Two guards came straight down, and at first Avan saw only the boots, then the pants, the breastplate, and finally the face of the front guard, who grinned directly at him devilishly and with what he felt was an uneasy feeling.

Oh fuck... This looks like trouble...

It lit up again on the other guard's right hand, followed by a familiar hum and hiss as the door to the prison vault swung open.

Ignoring the surprised looks of the other slaves, the guard who had already taken care of his whipping yesterday stalked right over to him and stood in front of him with a wickedly promising grin, while the other guard told the others not to interfere.

"Let's go, little rat. You've got a... meeting." The guard in front of Avan explained smugly.

Confused and with a queasy feeling in his stomach, he pushed himself up from his sleeping place and stepped forward to the cell entrance as he was told, while Lea and Nick gave him worried looks but said nothing.

A sudden short cry escaped Avan. The guard behind him had shoved him in the middle of his back with a blunt object, landing directly on the wound and causing him to stagger forward.

Ahhh! FUCK! That bastard! He inwardly cursed the guard in his back and staggered forward, following the other guard as the lock behind him and the spiteful guard fell back into place.

Avan just turned around and was about to curse him loudly when another incredible pain shot through his left arm up into his head and he went down on his knees screaming. The guard behind him grinned maliciously and Avan could see a just-fading glimmer on his right hand while the mana-suppressing bracelet on his left wrist glowed red.

"Fuck!" He groaned between clenched teeth and rose to his feet again, shooting a killing glare at the supposed cause of his new pain.

The latter just laughed and enjoyed his facial expression. "Let's go, rat. Or do you need more?" Came the question with shining eyes, just waiting for Avan to disobey.

Panting, Avan turned back around and, with an angry heat in his chest as his companion, hurried to follow the other guard, who had been watching the spectacle without expression.