After talking to every fisher, it was getting really late.
This event is important, as building trust with them is important to unlock the best farming spot in the entire game.
In about a week or two, they should spot a bunch of invasive and deadly monsters in the water.
But that's for the future. Right now, it's getting pretty late, and I have an important event to attend.
Once I arrived at the gates of Aurum Academy, I saw Cecil standing there.
"Oh, Mr. Alen!" Cecil exclaimed as he saw me approaching him.
"Cecil, how was your training?"
Cecil let out a long sigh escape his mouth. "Really boring, Mr. Alen... training alone is never fun."
"I'm pretty sure that we'll be doing something that'll keep us really entertained," I awkwardly laughed as I began to imagine what teacher Beritan might make us do.
"I hope so!"
"So you two were bored, huh?"
I immediately froze when I heard the voice of that demi-human teacher coming from behind us.
"Then, I hope that you two enjoy what I have in store for both of you."
"Ah..."
...
...
We finally got to our destination.
A... bar in the poor parts of the city?
We all entered the bar—it seemed really average. Lots of people sat at their tables drinking and enjoying a talk with their friends. It clearly wasn't a place for families, given the lack of non-alcoholic drinks on the menu, every customer being a bunch of generic tough guys, and the loud and dangerous atmosphere, as if a fight could break out at any moment.
"This place is..."
"Don't... just... don't say anything right now." I stopped Cecil before he could say the wrong thing.
Slam.
"Open the backdoor, hag! I have some kids that need to learn to be real warriors," Zagressa talked with the old woman behind the counter.
She eyed both of us and smirked.
"Hoho... those two? They won't last a second in there."
I felt a chill run down my spine when the old woman inspected us.
"At least one of them will make it far."
"Should I bet on them?"
"Not a single coin. Even the thought alone is already wasting enough of your resources."
"Here."
The old woman handed our teacher a pass.
"C'mon, you brats," she ordered us.
A tough-looking guy was standing in front of a door, restricting the path to anyone without a pass.
"Move. These two are with me."
Zagressa simply grabbed the man by his shoulder and shoved him away. She opened the door and went through.
We simply just followed her.
We had to descend a set of narrow stairs.
Another door, and behind this one, I could hear loud noises behind it, even louder than the bar above us.
Once our teacher opened the door, I began to suspect what she wanted us to do.
This was an underground fighting arena. Tons of people were here watching fights happen either on precarious-looking rings or inside a circle in the ground probably made with one's foot.
This underground also had a bar of its own, which makes sense as this is the place these people would come to enjoy themselves while drinking, and having to go up those stairs to get a drink would be impractical.
"You two'll enter on fights here. Win as much as you can," Zagressa said, walking past the crowd of people betting on fighters and drinking. "No weapons, no magic, only fists! That's the rule of this place."
Great... my only advantage is now gone.
"Do we get to choose our fights?" Cecil asked.
"No. I'll get you two on fighting different opponents of my choosing."
This is getting worse by the second...
Zagressa suddenly stopped and scanned the place, looking for our opponents.
"Treyaro! Go and fight that guy."
The guy she was pointing to stood in the middle of a ring. There were three guys on the ground with bruises and blood all over their faces, and people surrounding his improvised ring were cheering and despairing over the coins they lost or gained from betting.
"Okay!" Cecil said with a smile.
Cecil clearly was in a place of his liking, a place where he could fight anyone he wanted. He left us to go towards the ring, made his way through the crowd, and presented himself.
Some people laughed at Cecil due to his young looks and his childish smile full of hope.
"While he's fighting that guy, you go and fight that one," she said in a commanding tone.
The guy she was pointing to was leaner than the guy Cecil had to fight with. He was surrounded by a crowd that watched as he took down a guy twice his size.
I could only sigh and accept what I've been ordered to do.
But I wasn't going to be as reckless as Cecil was. Before fighting him, I needed to get as much info on him as I could.
I made my way into the crowd to get a better view of my opponent.
I let out a low whistle as he landed a clean hit to the guy's ribs. "Who's that guy?" I asked in a general direction, hoping to be answered by someone.
"What a—" one man started, but stopped when he saw me. "I was gonna ask if you were new here, but you've clearly never been here before."
The man that talked with me was old and fat. He held his mug full of beer close to him as he also watched the fight.
"That guy's been making a name for himself recently. Everyone calls him Snap," the old man explained. "He has a decent track record, more wins than losses, so you can be comfortably betting on him if you're afraid of losing."
"At this rate, he may even get his own ring!" another man chimed in.
"His own ring?" I asked.
"Listen here, you little brat. Fighters have to earn their place here. You start from the bottom by either stealing someone else's space or planting yourself anywhere you can and defending that space."
"The big ones have a proper ring built for them instead of relying on a circle drawn with their foot."
"I see..."
Zagressa never explained what we have to do. But if I had to guess, we probably need to get our own spaces and defend them.
"He seems fast," I mentioned, hoping to create more casual chat and get more info on Snap.
"For a rookie, he is faster than most."
"If he keeps this pace, he could probably be faster. But I've been told that he lacks a training mindset."
"That's why I'll bet against him if he ever gets into a fight with someone that looks halfway decent."
Okay. So, Snap. From what I've been told, he's fast and overconfident.
And he proved to be exactly like that.
Snap punched his opponent at least three times before the opponent could even react. He also seems to keep pressuring his opponents by relying on his stamina.
"Hmmm..." I hummed.
"Brat... you bet on him?" The old man asked.
"No..."
"Don't tell me you... listen, if you want to make a name for yourself, start with easier targets." He seemed like he understood my intention to start a fight against Snap.
"Sadly, he has to be my opponent," I breathed out with a defeated tone.
"Good luck then."
"Thanks..."
Once I saw his opponent get knocked out, I stepped into the ring.
"Huh? What's this brat doing here? Come back when you have a bit more hair on your chest," Snap said, and a lot of people in the crowd began to laugh.
"If you have another opponent waiting, I'll wait. But I will fight against you."
"I don't even need to rest to know that I can beat you to a pulp," Snap confidently declared. "I won't get any money on bets with this fight."
Snap extended his arm. He approached me with no real fighting spirit behind that raised-up fist.
I guess it's a good sportsmanship gesture to fist bump your opponent before a match.
I was skeptical to fist bump him. But I didn't want to be disrespectful toward my opponent, so I slowly stuck out my fist.
Once our fists bumped, I felt a pain in my stomach.
"Too slow for me!"
Snap had actually punched me in my gut as soon as our fists bumped.
But his attacks didn't stop there. He kicked me on my calf, then he punched me on my face.
"See, you can't match against me!"
With a final punch, I fell to the ground.
"Respect the ranks next time, little shit!" He spat at the ground next to my face.
"Now that the fight is over, wh-"
"I haven't lost yet." I forced myself to stand upright after being caught slightly off guard.
Snap clicked his tongue. "Tch, I hate stubborn shits like you."
He charged. A low kick—fast and brutal—came for my calf.
I quickly stepped back and threw a punch to counterattack him.
But I was quickly met with nothing in front of me; my punch hit nothing more than the air.
I was punched in the jaw from my right side.
My head flew to my left, but I had no time to recover as another punch landed on my gut.