Preparation

Moving across the district, after walking through due to my amusement. I made my way to sector 3, after stuffing White and myself with food.

White looked extremely satisfied, with her falling asleep right after we finished eating and headed over to the meet-up point. Reaching there, King Darius was already there, sitting and waiting for me.

"You sure took your time huh."

"The food was better than I thought."

With that, we both head to the Inn and checked in. But before we call it a day, King Darius turned and asked me to go to the backyard. There's something he wants to tell me.

When we head to the plain backyard with no one. looking. He suddenly shouted:

"Down."

Immediately I went to push up position without my brain even processing why.

"Up"

I lifted myself when I heard those words.

"Down"

"Up"

This went on until I did, 300 push-ups.

"Now plank, I need to speak with the beast from the mask."

I tossed Ryong in Charm form to the King and l moved to plank position, cursing the old man.

[King Darius's POV]

I left Red there for his last-minute preparation. It's going to be time for the competition in 3 days. However, his training hasn't ended yet because of one important training he needs to learn. I need the assistance of the beast.

"Beast, I need to talk to you about something regarding Red. The traini___"

[It's alright. I got thy intention. Thou used the Cup method to train him right?]

"The Cup method?"

[A Cup was made from scratch to hold water and to prevent it from leaking. Firstly thou would need to mould the Cup to have a shape, then next thou would need to heat up and strengthen the Cup to have its hardness so that it won't collapse. But there's another area that people often forget which is to check if that Cup is complete or not. If a cup is not complete, no matter how much water thou pour in it, it will always leak out at the end.]

"HAHAHAH, an interesting analogy."

[Thou already strengthened and hardened the Cup. Now it's the checking if it's complete portion right.]

"Exactly, the boy might have grown stronger, but there are still stuff he didn't learn yet. Especially vision and experience fighting humans."

[I know thou have been scheming something. How long do we have, until thy entertainment.]

"3 days."

[Do-able.]

"I'll meet you two in Sector 8, at 1300 hrs."

[See thou there.]

I turned back to Red who was still doing his plank and said to him.

"Hey, I'm going to the castle to meet up with my family."

"Urggh, hUhh? Then I would be here alone?"

"Nope. Your friend here is with you." As I said that, I passed the Charm back to him.

"Now listen to him, he will be the one giving you training now."

"How___"

Before he whines another word, I left the area and said, "See you in 3 days kiddos." and left for the castle.

[Red's POV]

Puzzled by what the King was saying, I tried to get up to get more information when Ryong interrupted.

[Alright time to learn something important. So continue to stay in thy plank position.]

I listened to instructions and stayed still.

[Now I want thou to focus on that tree.]

The Inn had a backyard for personal space. In it, there was 1 tree, a pond with fish and some decorations. It was like a mini garden.

I focused on the tree while holding my core.

[Tell me how many decorations are there in this area.]

"Huh? How would I know, you only told me to focus on that tree." I replied.

Suddenly the weight on my body increases.

[I need thou to pay attention. This is for thy to grow.]

"Sonova Bi___"

[Focus on the stone there.]

I struggle to look and focus on the stone.

[How many tree branches are there in the tree?]

"...3..."

[Wrong it's 5. I'm increasing the weight]

My entire back feels as if something was lying on me. I struggle to keep myself conscious. As I try to shift to push up position.

[We will be doing this until you can answer them properly. So pay attention.]

"How...huff..huff....is this helpfully to me...?"

[I will explain after thou complete this training.]

With that, this went on for 2 days. In those two days, surprisingly I found myself more observant compared to before.

[Go on. Take a walk around the town.]

With my body sluggish from the torture that was Ryong. I dragged my body across the streets surprised to see that I was able to keep aware of my entire surrounding.

From the worker at the corner, tripping and dropping food on her customer to people selling foods and drinks at a vendor. I could "see" them. all at the same time, aware of my surrounding at all times as well.

"Thanks for the training, I know why that was important now."

From there it was break time for me until tomorrow. Apparently, tomorrow is the day I would meet the King again. I ate a hearty meal for dinner in the Royal Inn and went ahead and sleep early.

Before I fell asleep, I asked Ryong.

"How long more till we go home?"

[Soon.]

With that answer, I went ahead and fell asleep.

The next day came, and I was rushed to head to sector 8 by Ryong.

"Why would I meet the King at sector 8, there's nothing here that would be interesting."

[Stop complaining and go.]

As I rushed to sector 8, I reached the area where the Colosseum was held. The Colosseum looked like how the Colosseum on Earth was. Round shaped with spectators all sifted around the circles.

I walked past it when I felt someone's Aura pointed directly at me. I know that prickly feeling anywhere. I head towards the direction where it was emitted and found the King in the corner there.

"So how did training go?"

"Terrible. It was painful but worth it."

I noticed the King was in his formal attire.

"Alright, I need you to put your mask on now. Take this badge and show it to the guards. They will direct you from there."

"What do you mean they will direct me from there?"

"Just go."

"Fine."

I have no idea why, but I realised I do not ask questions whenever that demon asks me to do something. But judging by his attire maybe he wanted me to pass a message as his attendant? I put on the mask and moved towards the guard who was standing beside the Colosseum.

I showed the badge to the guards to verify.

"This...is..?" The guard took the badge. He took the badge and rushed off somewhere. After a while, he came back exhausted and replied.

"Huff....Huff....You may proceed Sir."

Nodding my head with the Mask. I went ahead in where they directed me to a room and told me to wait for my turn.

Wait for my turn? For what? I wondered. In a few minutes later, I was called out and accompanied by a guard to a gate. Still confused by what was happening, I was about to ask some questions when he said.

"Good Luck Sir."

With that, the gate opens, and I'm standing in the centre of the Colosseum by the gate.

Around were thousands of audience shouting and screaming while from ahead, I saw King Darius with a bunch of people sitting together staring in the centre. The King saw me and smile, giving me a thumbs up.

"Oh F*ck this. You and that stupid King did this, didn't you."

[I don't know what are thou talking about.]

In front of me was another person, someone around my age with a rapier as a weapon. A Man, with Brown hair, not particularly taller than me. He was wearing rather light armour and positioned himself against me.

Looks like I was tricked into the arena to fight.