Chapter 127 - The old arena

Words : 1027 Updated : Oct 9th, 2025

Chapter 127: Chapter 127 - The old arena Lovelace and I are walking on the benches of an old arena bigger than Rome’s Colosseum. "King Halinard told me that an old ancestor of yours built this for spectacle and that people used to fight to the death in tournaments here." "Yes, I heard about it. It’s still a practice in other countries. And, obviously, the fighters are slaves, mostly beastkin and fae folk, with the occasional dragonkin." "What a barbaric pastime." "That’s why a king outlawed it four centuries ago. This place has been abandoned ever since. Except for the occasional band of thieves that uses it as a base from time to time." "Like those people behind?" "Yeah." The path to where we’re walking is full of bodies scattered around. Most of them aren’t dead, just too injured to move or to be awake. The team of knights that came with us is taking care of them already. It’s a team very carefully chosen from among those most loyal to the king and whose ideals most match ours, and also with above-average talent for magic. They will be the core of the new unit. And this will be our training ground. Outside the city, abandoned and mostly forgotten. Safe from prying eyes. We came here undercover. The knights came from home wearing plain clothes. Lovelace and I are also wearing commoner’s clothes, wigs, and makeup, but we teleported from home to a forest nearby, where the meeting point was. Then, from the meeting point, we came here in the dead of night and took out the brigand of bandits that had made their nest in this place. The initial idea was to quickly dispose of them to avoid having witnesses. But, as soon as we arrived, we saw that there were families living here. That’s why we avoided causing any fatal injuries to the bandits who tried to assault us. It would have been better if we were able to end it through negotiation, but they weren’t willing to listen to us. Some might have died, but I did my best to avoid it, okay? We will try to understand who those families are and why they were living with the bandits before deciding what to do with them. I won’t resort to murdering everyone just because of the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If there were only bandits, it would’ve been easier. In any case, the sun is starting to rise on the horizon, which gives us a good view of the arena. It seems big enough for the training of a small army. I’ve read in some book that a king held a mock battle between two armies, with around two hundred men fighting on each side. And I see that the book wasn’t exaggerating. There would be enough space for four hundred people to do army maneuvers and fight against each other in the central space. Magic training will use more space per person, though. But I still think that we could comfortably handle one hundred soldiers training at any given time. "What do you think, Lovelace? Would the stands... erm... stand all the magic flying around without falling apart?" "There are several layers of magic resistance and barriers in the rocks that were used to build this. It looks like dwarven technique. It’s something a human wouldn’t be able to imitate. Surely not a human that is restricted by the constraints of the system." "Oh, that’s right. I think that it was the goddess herself who oversaw the building of all those arenas around the world. She used, like, a thousand dwarven slaves to build them. Or, at least, that’s what the history books claim." "That explains it. Yeah, I think that even if both of us went all out in here, we would only barely dent it." "It’s no wonder that it looks so pristine after more than a thousand years since construction, of which the last four hundred years it went basically without maintenance." "Indeed. You could add more ten thousand years, and it will still be usable. It should be alright." "That’s good. We would need a sound and mana barrier surrounding the whole complex so nobody hears or feels something amiss." "Oh, that part is simple. I managed to get my hands on some artifacts similar to the ones the church uses for their barriers. I’ve already tested them, and they will be perfect for our needs." "That’s the court wizard Lovelace, after all. Now, where will we house the beastkin?" "Well, there are two options for that." "I’m all ears." "There are the rooms where the slaves who fought in the arena used to live... they are underground, beyond that gate at the end of the arena." "I don’t like putting the beastkin to live in a space that was dedicated to slaves, but let’s examine the place anyway. And what is the other option?" "I agree with your evaluation of the symbology, but it would be the easy way to solve our problems. The second is to have them live in a secluded place that we would need to build and protect and have a teleport gate that leads here." "That one sounds more tempting, but I understand the dangers and costs of it. Let’s see the underground facility, then." We go down from the stands onto the arena proper. The floor of the arena is still smooth and perfect, without a single crack or any plant growing through. Dwarf architecture, huh? It looks literally better than anything we had back on Earth. We reach the gates that probably lead underground. It’s a massive double-door gate that seems to be made of pure bronze. There is no visible handle or keyhole. I wonder how it was open. Just as I am about to ask Lovelace about it, the gate opens. "Huh? How?" "In my times of adventuring, I learned a trick or two about dwarven magical locks." That’s the Court Wizard Lovelace, for you. Impressive as always. Gorgeous as alw... no, now is not the moment for that. Fooooocus!

Chapter 127 - The old arena

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