Burden Lifted

Each of the Gladiators that heard what the Regulator announced felt their brains stutter for a brief period. In that short period, every part of their bodies paused trying to process what they had just watched that made them like this.

For quite some time now, they haven't got a surprise winner like this.

Ramero that goes by the nickname Noble Brat has just entered the Gladiator School of Tyranny for a week or so, this is the first time he has done a sparring tournament and matched against one of them that has gone through numerous hardships.

A Gladiator with a wolf-shaped slave mark.

Nobody should be able to win their first match, it's simply impossible until now.

Breaking their expectations of the outcome of the fight, Ramero came out as a winner against Laughing Butcher who is still unconscious on the ground right now. Although they wanted a good show, this is beyond that.

With that Ramero stands unfazed with blood decorating his cheek and arms, looking menacingly.

Most of the blood on him was Laughing Butcher's blood, only a small amount of blood belongs to him. Some parts of his body are bruised, but they shouldn't be that painful seeing that Ramero is standing unfazed.

Silver Fists can't hide his smile, he feels like his help doesn't go to waste.

Defending Ramero when he was jumped by a couple of Gladiators is not a small thing for him, even now he suffered a nasty bruise on his wrist and waist due to brawling with them. Seeing that Ramero has established his reputation here, it seems there's no need for him to do that anymore.

After this sparring tournament, the rough treatment he gets wouldn't be that frequent anymore.

'He hasn't won our respect yet, not until he's done his first performance and won. But at least he now has earned his place in this school after beating Laughing Butcher' Silver Fists thought, he shakes his head while seeing Ramero standing in the arena.

Just as he thought of that, his attention was pulled to a Gladiator leaning on the wall.

Upon looking at the Gladiator that seems excited when he saw Ramero winning against Laughing Butcher, Silver Fists gritted his teeth as his facial expression showed signs of worry, 'Not good...' he thought with a frown.

"Now, who's going to challenge Noble Brat again? Who wanted the honor to beat him up?"

Since this is the first time he has done the sparring tournament, he'll be getting the Greenhorn treatment. Ramero frowned as he thought that he would at least get some rest, 'Although I'm trying to hide it, my right leg is hurting right now. I don't know if I can fight again'

Despite looking fine, Ramero is secretly hurt due to using the Front Kick skill two times.

It's true that he win the clash against Laughing Butcher with his Front Kick skill earlier, but he also suffered horrendous damage to his right leg. Every part of his right leg feels numb, and he's barely standing up right now.

With the adrenaline going down, the pain all over his body also started to feel even worst.

The Regulator looks at the crowd of Gladiators waiting for one to step up, but before anyone of them gladly takes the honor to give the Greenhorn treatment to Ramero, a Gladiator raised his big bastard sword up.

Upon looking at this, the Regulator realized that it was Silver Fists.

"Let me do the honor, I'll fight Noble Brat!" he declared and started making his way to the arena.

Although many of the other Gladiators glared at Silver Fists for taking this chance from them, they can't do anything as it's always first come first served during the sparring tournament. One moment of hesitation made them lose that chance.

Just then Laughing Butcher regains his consciousness and realized what had just happened.

Before he can fully recover the guards already brought him down from the arena as the next fight is about to start, Noble Brat against Silver Fists. But unlike before, the hype has already gone as if the Gladiators know for certain who's going to win.

Standing across the arena, Silver Fists had his big bastard sword on his shoulder.

"Okay, I'll let you have this honor. Gladiators, take your stances!!", the Regulator shouted, there was a secret message in the tone he was using. Silver Fists caught that clearly, everyone knows that Silver Fists helped Ramero more than one time.

The hidden message is that the Regulator basically told Silver Fists to not hold back.

If he held back against Ramero and did not give him the proper Greenhorn treatment then there would be consequences. But even if the Regulator didn't hint that, he would've still used his full force in fighting Ramero right now.

Glancing at a particular Gladiator in the crowd, Silver Fists sighs lightly.

Clang!

With a swift motion of his hand, Silver Fists stabbed his bastard sword into the ground beside him.

Even the heavy clanging sound alone shows that the bastard sword is very heavy, Ramero can even feel a slight tremble in the arena because of that. Gazing at Ramero seriously, Silver Fists crossed his arms in front of him.

"Are you sure you're not using your weapon?" Ramero asked with a weak smile.

At this point his right leg already bends a bit and puts more weight pressure on his left leg, it's clear that he's suffering with that red leg. It was weird that Silver Fists is the one challenging him, but he assumed that he was trying to help again.

Ramero shakes his head, 'He seems cold but he's actually kind, I'm surprised'

Just as he went into his battle stance, the Regulator instantly signaled, "Start!"

Instantly after the signal Ramero focuses on Silver Fists carefully, he wouldn't go down with a fight even if he's currently very hurt right now. 'With that huge of a body, he can't possibly move quicker than me. Let's try and us-'

BAM!

Before Ramero can even react, his body is bent backward as a punch lands on his abdomen.

Despite knowing that Silver Fists is here probably to help him out as the other Gladiators would definitely hurt him more, Ramero didn't expect the punch to be this heavy. It feels like being hit by a car, blood instantly gushed out of his mouth.

Under that kind of strength, Ramero's vision instantly blurred as he got sent crashing away.

Silver Fists' punch was so powerful that he was sent flying away and crashes onto the training ground's wall, the impact forced more blood out of his mouth before he slides down to the ground with his consciousness fading quickly.

On the side of his body, a slave mark can be seen, hidden by his arm.

Due to the punching motion, the slave mark was exposed and it was Tiger-shaped. If Ramero had seen this he would've vomited blood, Silver Fists actually has a Tiger-shaped slave mark which shows that he's one of the strongest here.

Briefly, Ramero heard Silver Fists announced as the winner before everything turned blurry and then dark.

A moment later.

"Hahh!!" Ramero jolted his eyes awake as he regain consciousness, he looks around and finds himself still on the training ground but leaning against the wall. The sparring tournament is still going, but he sighs when he realized that his part is already over.

Realizing that, he leans his head against the wall to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

But soon a smile crept onto his face, and the heavy burden on his back slowly got lifted as he managed to win his match. Not only does Leandra is safe, rows of messages from the system appeared which makes his smile grows even wider.

[500 Exp has been rewarded to the host for beating a normal warrior!]

[Congratulation on completing the Side Quest - Slave Priest! The host has obtained 2,500 Exp and 2,500 Points!]

[Congratulation on beating completing the Vengeance Quest! The host has obtained 1,000 Exp and 1,000 Points!]

[Remaining debt: 41,890]

[Level up!]

'Hmm...? I also got exp from beating Laughing Butcher?' Ramero thought in surprise, he thought that the only source of gaining exp would be through quests. But it seems beating other Gladiators also rewarded him with Exp.

It's a good thing for him as he now knows there's another way to level up quicker.

Aside from the fact that he completed the side quest and vengeance quest that requires him to win the fight against Laughing Butcher, he also got an added 500 Exp. Now he reaches level 8, and his stats look like this.

[Status Window]

Name: Ramero Nil Elsher

Race: Human

Level: 8 (2,332/2,844 Exp)

Rank: Infant

Bloodline: Warrior's Descent

Active Skill(s): Front Kick

Passive Skill(s): -

Strength: 38 -> 44

Dexterity: 9 -> 11

Constitution: 20 -> 34

Willpower: 10

Attributable Stat Points: 6

Loan Debt: 42,890 Points

Points: 0

6 Attributatble stats that he got from leveling up 2 times hasn't been used yet, but still, he plans to finish the main quest to get even stronger. Although he won against Laughing Butcher, he was saved by the Front Kick skill.

On top of that, he won also because his enemy was caught off guard by his surprising strength

If it weren't for that then Ramero wouldn't be able to beat Laughing Butcher, but that doesn't mean his victory was not hard-earned. All of that happened thanks to him winning the mental war, Laughing Butcher got angry easily.

Because of that, he paid dearly for it. An angry person becomes short-minded after all.

While leaning on the wall he watches the other Gladiators fight their match one by one, and he finds that many of them are fierce fighters, stronger than Laughing Butcher. At the very least half of the Gladiators looked to be stronger than Laughing Butcher.

Ramero was also surprised to watch Silver Fists fight, he was against someone on par with him.

The Gladiator facing Silver Fists is a middle-aged man called Angry Bison almost as big as Silver Fists, his muscles are bulging and his weapon of choice is a hammer that matches the size of Silver Fists' big bastard sword.

Each of their strikes is filled with power, the force reverberated to the entire training ground.

It was so strong that even Ramero can feel the force reaching him, the thought of being hit by one of the strikes slap his mind, showing that he was still nothing but an underdog here. 'These Gladiators are nuts!' Ramero thought in surprise.

Someone like them would easily be called superhuman back in his home world.

But this kind of strength is common here, cracking the walls with a punch is a normal occurrence. Ramero doesn't know whether it's normal for this Gladiator or for this world in general, he still hasn't seen the outside world.

Knowing that magic exists, these Gladiators should be average or a little bit above average.

From Ramero's perspective, how can a strong punch that can crack the wall go against a fireball that is akin to a missile in his home world? Not only that but the incident not too long ago when the school building shakes a bit is still etched in his mind.

It's clear that it came from the Mage Gladiator, and Ramero is terrified to know their strengths.

'Quick question, will I be able to beat Mages in the future if I keep getting stronger through the quests?' Ramero asked the system, wanting to ease his curiosity. From the name Indomitable Spartan System, he guessed that it would revolve around physical strength.

But if that's the case then he can't imagine his strength reaching that of a Mage.

[Spartan's way of fighting is the strongest, strong mental fortitude and hard work beats everything]

Upon reading the system's answer, Ramero shrugs his shoulders, 'I take that as a no. More than that, I still don't know if I can be a Mage too. I hope I don't though, it wouldn't be as cool as beating mages with a punch'

After a fierce fight, Silver Fists won by knocking his opponent out with a hit to the side of the head.

Silver Fists used the tip of the hilt of his bastard sword to hit the charging Angry Bison, the hit was so hard that his body went stiff for a brief moment before he falls down unconscious. With that, Silver Fists won barely injured from the fight.

It seems their strength is on par, but their skills are far apart.

When the night is nearing it was time for the last match and the Gladiators seemed to be excited about the last match, the Regulator then called out two Gladiators to the arena, "Champion of Tyranny and the Nightmare! Get on the arena!"

Ramero looks around trying to find the two Gladiators that are called out.

But soon his eyes landed on a fierce Gladiator with two glistening swords in his hands, it was the fierce Gladiator that looked the most nonchalant Ramero saw earlier. 'I knew it, he must be really strong' Ramero thought.

As the fierce Gladiator walked towards the arena, something weird happened.

'W-Wait... why is he glancing at me?'