Getting Ready for the First Performance

Ramero finds no challenge in fighting someone like Needle Mantis.

With his current stats he definitely already surpassed the physical abilities of his body back in his home world, the only thing this current body of his lacks is the reflex, level of body coordination, and probably shooting skills.

Even though he inherits those skills in his mind, his body still can't adjust without proper training.

But since he now knows how effective clearing the main quest can be, he doesn't focus on training the other skills and solely focuses on raising his sword mastery. It's the next main quest that he needed to finish aside from beating the strongest Gladiator.

Although he's strong right now, he doesn't know how he compares against Champion of Tyranny.

'I'm very strong right now thanks to the Constitution of Sparta, but I don't think my level of strength can match with Champion of Tyranny just yet' Ramero thought as he glanced to the side where Champion of Tyranny is training.

Most of the time, Champion of Tyranny is sparring against the Nightmare.

Aside from that he also trains his dual-wielding ability with a heavy steel dummy that can sustain his attack, but even then the steel dummy has many dents here and there which shows the power of each strike he does.

Clang!

Clang!

Ramero heard the clashing sound and can't help but shakes his head.

In order to complete the Proof of Strength main quest he needs to beat Champion of Tyranny, and by the looks of it, he's still far from enough. Even the second-rank Gladiator, the Nightmare is probably still way stronger than him.

But he doesn't feel dejected, he has the system, and winning is only a matter of time.

Today Laughing Butcher told him to work on combination slashes, he showed Ramero the combination that he would work on today. Calming his breathing with a sword in front of him, Laughing Butcher moved decisively.

With immense precision, he gripped the hilt of the sword and swing horizontally.

Ramero saw the sword slice through the air powerfully before Laughing Butcher's body followed the movement of the sword and does another horizontal slash from the other direction, the attack combination ended with an oblique heavy slash from above the head.

Overall, the combination relies on the wielder to be precise in footwork and arm rotation.

"Keep working on that until you're able to do it without thinking of doing it, let the body move for you. If you're able to do that, you can finally call yourself an amateur swordsman" Laughing Butcher said after showing the move.

Upon hearing this, Ramero nodded his head gratefully, "Thank you for showing me"

Although Laughing Butcher's movement is quite swift and hard to see for amateur eyes, Ramero finds that he can somewhat remember every small movement of Laughing Butcher's body. It's like his eyes can record the movement.

Laughing Butcher expected him to ask him to do the combination one more time.

But surprisingly Ramero only thanked him and went to his section in the training ground, then he instantly grabbed his sword and takes his stance. 'Hmm... did he really get it?' Laughing Butcher thought curiously.

For once he watches from the side as Ramero tries to do the combination of attacks.

Ramero closes his eyes and replays the movement one more time in his head, the moment he opens his eyes he began to do that movement. Harnessing every bit of his strength, he swung the sword horizontally.

Swoosh!

The whistling sound of wind being pierced can be heard when he did that.

'Good posture and strength, but the hard part are to fight the force you use to swing back the sword in the opposite direction' Laughing Butcher thought as he squinted his eyes, he wanted to see whether Ramero really remembered from just one look.

Under Laughing Butcher's eyes, the muscles on Ramero's arm bulged.

Gritting his teeth strongly as he fought back the swinging momentum, Ramero twist his wrists and swung in the opposite direction. It was almost identical to how Laughing Butcher showed him, showing that he really paid attention.

As for the last part, it's easier to do than the second swing.

Ramero follows the trajectory and brings the sword up above his head, he then pushes the hilt of the sword down with all his might to do an oblique heavy slash from above just like Laughing Butcher showed him.

Swoosh!

Splash!

The sword made contact with the ground, sand flew everywhere due to the power from that slash.

Panting lightly Ramero finished the entire combination in one go, even Laughing Butcher was quite surprised. Ramero's movement was too smooth for an amateur, most people that have never used a sword will find it hard to adjust the weight of the sword to their advantage.

But Ramero doesn't have that kind of mistake, it's like he was a natural-born fighter.

'It takes a lot from me to do that combination, I need to keep on doing it until I'm able to do it effortlessly' Ramero thought with a nod, but a smile crept to his face when he saw a message from the system.

[Sword Mastery has been increased by 3%]

From doing that alone he gained 3%, upping his sword mastery to 27%.

Ramero is glad that he got help from Laughing Butcher or else he would not know how to properly improve his swordsmanship. But doing it once is not enough, he decided to spend his training session repeating that combination.

Nearing the end of the training session, Ramero decided to go to Silver Fists.

Silver Fists spend most of his time training using his big bastard sword, he rarely does any physical exercises aside from that. It's weird that he can have such a big and muscular body with only sword training which just doesn't make sense.

"Do you have a moment?" Ramero asked when he saw Silver Fists putting down his bastard sword.

Upon hearing this Silver Fists nodded his head and went to the side.

Without even Ramero telling him what he wanted to say, Silver Fists already know what he was going to ask. Since the performance is nearing, Ramero probably wanted to know how the performance will work as it involves his life and death.

"I assume you want to know about the performance?" Silver Fists asked.

As it's exactly why he wanted to talk with Silver Fists, Ramero nodded his head. Even though he knows that a Gladiator will be sent to the colosseum to fight, he doesn't know exactly how it will go and who will he fight.

On top of that, he can feel that there's an odd vibe surrounding the Gladiators.

Most of the Gladiators have these aloof personalities that only show themselves when they were training. But right now, the other Gladiators are really focusing on training, Ramero doesn't even hear one of them converse with the other.

It doesn't take a genius to tell that they are thinking about the next performance.

Silver Fists nodded his head before he explained, "Gladiator School of Tyranny would perform in Deathbound Colosseum, there the top ten ranks would be given an individual match while the rest would be put in something called Pit of Malice. It's basically a two-match ten versus ten, we would fight against Gladiator School of Clarity"

"Words of advice, don't hesitate in killing the enemies and be entertaining. If you're hurt, don't stop fighting and try to survive until the time limit before you are judged. Based on your performance, you might just be spared and survive" he added.

Upon hearing this Ramero nodded his head, he listen from start to end attentively.

Ramero can't help but shakes his head, this kind of era is brutal and people wanted to see Gladiators kill each other for entertainment. 'I would do anything to survive, even if that means I need to kill my enemies in an entertaining way'

"Thanks, it meant a lot" Ramero thanked genuinely.

If it weren't for Silver Fists then he might not be here, he'll probably be crippled already.

Just then Silver Fists glanced at him, noticing something before he asked, "You okay? You don't look and act normally today. I heard the guard captain talking about you, did you get to any qualms with him?"

"Nope, I'm quite fine" Ramero lied, he doesn't want any rumor spreading around.

But the fact that Silver Fists heard Captain Baldates talking about him greatly interests Ramero, "What did you hear the guard captain say? Is there anything in particular that he said he wanted to do to me?" he asked.

Rubbing his chin for a moment, Silver Fists shakes his head, "He just cursed you a lot"

After briefly talking the training session finally come to an end, they were given another food before they were brought back to their own cells. Ramero is now sitting in his cell while looking outside, 'It's still quiet, Captain Baldates must be able to get rid of the body without anyone knowing'

Inside his equipment cabinet now has one shield, one sword, and two short swords.

Compared to the other Gladiators these sets of weapons are nothing to them, but Ramero was not going to fight others for more since he could just take the others' weapons during the fight. One of the Gladiators would probably die, and he can grab their weapons.

While he was resting for a moment before doing his physical training, his mind wanders elsewhere.

Despite his decision being solid that he wanted to be left alone and live a new life without any hint of connection with the previous owner of the body, Ramero can't help but remember Lucas shouting at him last night.

Even from remembering that his body feels like being electrocuted, uneasy and desperate.

But deep down Ramero knows that the feeling of uneasiness and desperation doesn't come from him, it comes from the body he currently resides in. No matter if the soul of the body has been replaced with his, Lucas is this body's brother.

It's natural for it to feel like this when Ramero refused Lucas' plead for help.

Ramero needs a good ten minutes to let the feeling pass before he can finally get back to his exercises once again, the performance is near and he needed to increase his stats in order to survive his first performance.

For some reason, he can feel that his first performance would be bloodied.

In the middle of the night when he was about to end his training, he heard footsteps approaching the hallway leading to his cell. While trying to catch his breath, he trained his eyes forward to see who was coming hurriedly.

Not long after, he saw that it was Leandra who hurriedly came to his cell.

"Leandra...? What are you doing here?" Ramero asked in confusion, he was even more confused when he saw that there was no guard accompanying her. Instantly he knows that Leandra sneaks here, "Don't do anything stupid, you'll get in trouble if the guards find out" he added.

While stealing a glance at the end of the hallway, Leandra shifted her eyes back to Ramero.

Grabbing a hold of the iron bars with her hands, there's a concerned look on her face, "Are you hurt? I heard you challenged Needle Mantis, he's known for inflicting small wounds on the opponents that challenged him"

Upon hearing this, Ramero smiled lightly before waving his hand.

"Don't worry about me, you don't need to check on me every time I got into a fight" Ramero replied with a wry smile, it looked like compassion in Leandra's eyes but truly he just doesn't want Leandra to get into trouble when he already saved her from one big trouble.

It would be a waste if she ended up punished, he doesn't want that.

Leandra turns her head away for a moment, trying to hide her blush before she looks back once again. She was about to say something but Ramero beat her to it, "How did you manage to get here, anyway...?" he asked with a frown.

Security is pretty tight, the only time the guards are not here is last night when he got attacked.

"I asked my friends to distract the guards for a moment, and you don't need to worry because my friends are really good at being distracting. But that is not important, I'm here to also tell you that during the day of your performance, you must try and find a way to meet me. I'll be waiting for you in the training ground, it's important so don't forget" Lendra said before she quickly waved her hand and leave.

Ramero doesn't know what's so important, but he decided to just trust her.

'Maybe she wanted to tell me about something, let's just see what she has to say that day'