The upper tiers of seats had a worse view of the sands than the level where the gladiators were seated, but it allowed more people to see you. If your goal was to be watched instead of watching, it was perfect.

  “How stand the men, Haliard?” Aric asked as he sat down. The swing of his robes as he moved revealed a thick book chained to his waist. The cover was etched with magical runes, drawing Mike’s eyes. He glanced at Eric and saw that he had a similar book, though it was much thinner. Mike chalked that up to his youth, but it was still enough that he wanted access.

  “Their morale is up, Master. Young Master’s Eric’s success at his coming-of-age ritual has renewed their spirits, and Mike is fitting in well.”

  “His name is Mike?” Eric stared at Mike like he was an interesting bug that still had to get smashed. Mike glanced up at him before quickly looking back down at the hem of his robe. He didn’t reply.

  “How are his language skills coming along? Can he do basic communications?” The older Blurington had a conniving smile on his face.

  Mike looked at Haliard, unsure if that counted as being addressed. The older man didn’t acknowledge Mike but instead answered the questions.

  “Yes, actually. Mike knows a spell that increases his faculty with languages.”

  That didn’t cover the full story, but it was basically true. Haliard told Mike not to volunteer information he didn’t have to and seemed to be sticking to that himself.

  “That is good to hear. Mike, is that your name?”

  “Michael Wilson, master, but I prefer that people call me Mike.”

  “Good! Well done, well done. I saw that you had some form of spell, were you a mage in your former world?”

  Once again Mike glanced at Haliard for guidance, but the other man was carved from stone. His eyes were planted between the feet of Eric, not moving.

  “Master, I was an… apprentice?” Mike hesitated on the word, acting like he was trying to come up with it. He leaned on his Fellowship score hard as he tried to come up with a good enough story to not get him into too much trouble. “I had spell for self-defense and one for… learning?”

  Lead, convince, coerce, and manipulate others… Mike was scrambling but Eric interrupted him by clapping twice.

  “Excellent! Someone with a touch of skill who can be trained. Most excellent. Aric, you may have done better than we thought.”

  “Thank you, father.” Aric’s voice was cold. Mike could tell that he was already judged by the younger wizard.

  “Haliard, you shall continue the training. Physical conditioning and weapons skills. After dinner, my son will take him and tutor him in wizardry.”

  “But father, he is…”

  “But nothing!” Eric shouted, drawing attention from across the arena. He continued, quieter. “You must build a relationship with him. His strength is your strength, and the power you nurture in him will reflect your own. Besides, building a relationship with your first summon is important. It teaches you as you teach them.”

  “Easy for you to say, you summoned the crystal. I have… him.”

  Mike heard the disdain in the voice and almost said something snarky back, but he managed to hold it in. Staying quiet cost him dignity but being loud could cost his life.

  “Haliard, do you think he can cut it?” Eric ignored his son’s whining.

  “Yes, master.” Haliard’s voice had changed, but not in a way Mike could understand. “He has… determination.”

  “Good, that is good. You will work your wonders with him, and my son will begin to learn how to teach.”

  “Father, no! I have better—” Aric’s voice cut off as his father cast a spell. Flashing his eyes up for a flash, Mike saw that the younger wizard was rolling his eyes as his mouth moved silently.

  “It is decided,” Eric said once the spell took effect. “Haliard, thank you for your excellent judgment. Please return to the men and await the end of the match. I must speak to my son.”

  “Yes master.” Mike started to move but realized that Haliard hadn’t yet. He froze, remembering a bit of Aaron’s lecture.

  “You are both dismissed.” There was a note of amusement in Eric’s voice. “And see that he gets some etiquette training as well.”

  Haliard turned without another word. Mike moved behind him, trying to read the set of his shoulders. Something was different about the man. He was tighter, his hands clenched in fists.

  “Is something wrong?” Mike asked as they headed down the stairs.

  “Not here.” Haliard’s usually jovial tone was absent from the clipped words. Mike’s nerves grew worse as they approached the men. More people had filed in, wizards and their servants alike.

  There were no other gladiators anywhere in the arena, just the ones Mike had come in with. The only other slaves he saw were the body servants of the wizards, standing behind each of them with their heads down.

  “Is it weird that our wizards don’t have servants with them?”

  “Not. Here.”

  That was enough for Mike to quiet down as they reached the row of seats before them. He wasn’t the only one to notice something off about Haliard. Karl looked at him for a moment before sending a questioning glance at Mike. Or at least Mike assumed it was a question, as the man’s inhuman face was not one he could easily read. Mike gave a noncommittal shrug.

  There was an awkward silence for most of a minute as they waited. Haliard was silent, tense beside Mike. He didn’t know what to say or do, so he just waited for a sign. Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait too long before a wizard moved into the center of the arena floor.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, today we have a match!” Her amplified voice echoed in the arena, bouncing back from the round stone walls. She paused, as if expecting a reaction from the crowd, but was met only by silence as the echoes died.

  “Today, House Blurington is having their right to extract from their newly appeared extra-dimensional structure by House Carrovingian. The victor of this fight will have this the right to exploit this brand-new resource!”

  Again, a pause for cheers, again, silence. Mike felt embarrassed for the woman standing in the center of the sand. He could see she was a little upset at the lack of reaction but continued on.

  “Fighting for House Blurington, the Starlapped Crystal known as Sum!”

  At her call, the doors below the gladiators opened and Sum emerged, floating gently above the sands. The gladiators started applauding, with Mike joining in once he realized what was happening. That put a smile on the face of the wizard in the center of the sand as she turned to the other door.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Fighting for House Carrovingian, the Doom Vine known as… Doom Vine!”

  Mike leaned forward, excited to see what a Doom Vine was. The fact that so many of the people he saw on this day looked just like basic, everyday humans from his old world had been a letdown.

  “Carrovingian had to throw out most of their influence to get this match,” Julian said as the door creaked open. “They really don’t have the depth and support to clear out the place. Doom Vine is their only fighter; they would have to contract some other house to help them.”

  “So, there is some politics behind this,” Aaron started, but went quiet when something emerged through the other doorway. More applause, this time from a group of wizards across the arena from the gladiators. Mike had to assume those were Carrovingians.

  It was a plant, which Mike assumed from the name. A vine twenty feet long, but one that twisted and moved like an animal. The dozens of leafy tendrils growing off the waist thick central vine moved it along like legs. Mike thought it was moving like a centipede until the first eight feet of it reared up as it came to a stop opposite Sum.

  The tendrils on the rest of the body kept it off the sand while the central vine wiggled aloft, changing Mike mental image from a centipede to a many-legged centaur. It had to twine itself around to fit in the arena. There was nothing like a head that Mike could make out, but it stopped and waited opposite Sum. Haliard had said this was a sentient being, so there had to be something like a brain in there somewhere.

  “At the count of ten, begin the battle.” The wizard in the arena floated upward, out of the way between the two combatants. The tendrils of the Doom Vine were all moving, making it look antsy across the stoic, unmoving Sum. Or at least, that was what Mike thought.

  “Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven…” As the countdown reached zero, Doom Vine sprang into action. It launched itself forward, wrapping Sum in a dozen tendrils. More of them rained blows on the crystal, the dull thuds the only sound in the arena.

  Sum didn’t move, allowing himself to be enveloped by the plant monster. He didn’t have limbs to twist and grab, no weapons to strike with. Mike remembered that Identify had said Sum was a Psychic Berserker, and he was fascinated to find out what that meant for the fight before them.

  There were no changes for over a minute. The smacks of the woody, leafy vines into the solid gemstone didn’t waver. Mike turned to ask Aaron what was going on when he noticed something happening.

  The sand was moving.

  During the day’s training, Sum had been in a cloud of sand. Now, that training was paying off as grains rose from the floor and started to take shape. It was hard for Mike to make out at first, but the solid shapes soon revealed themselves as foot long arcs of sand appeared, hovering in the air.

  Six of them formed with more growing before they snapped into motion. Each one launched themselves at a vine wrapped around Sum, hitting them close at the base. Some of them embedded themselves in the woody flesh of the Doom Vine without cutting clean through, but enough did that the entangling vines started to fall from around Sum.

  The Doom Vine responded by unwrapping and moving backward. There was a new awkwardness in its movement as the limbs it had previously used to move itself were left severed on the floor. It had enough that Sum hadn’t crippled it, but there was a limp in its movement now.

  More blades of sand rose, flying towards the vine. The twisting vine was able to dodge some of them due to its flexibility, but the speed and the number of the blades were soon able to get an advantage. Leaves flew as more limbs were trimmed from the trunk of the vine.

  The movement of the vine drew it close to where the gladiators were seated, and they all leaned over the edge to watch. The plant beast reared back to smack at a blade of sand, breaking it back into a cloud of grains, but another sliced along its back, sending leaves upward. One of them landed on the wall separating the arena from the seats. Mike leaned over and snatched it up.

  The leaf was dark green, with stiff veins. Stiff spikes on the outside gave it a lack of symmetry Mike appreciated from an aesthetic angle even as he knew their worth as a weapon. He poked one of them and drew blood.

  If Sum was made of flesh and bone, these would saw right through him in an instant, Mike thought as he turned the leaf over in his hands. A thick, viscous green fluid leaked from the severed stem. With a mental command, Mike released Identify into it. He was surprised as two screens popped up, not just one.

  Doom Vine Leaf

  Alchemical Ingredient

  The leaf of a Doom Vine. The potent life energy stored within this leaf allows it to add health restoration effects to potions.

  Mike closed that screen, excited to see the one behind it. The slight pain Identify had caused led him to believe it was good news.

  New Quest!

  A Mage can extend their powers to internalize the power of alchemical ingredients. Absorb fifteen alchemical ingredients

  Reward: A new Skill

  0/15

  Without even a moment’s hesitation, Mike folded the leaf up and shoved it into his mouth. Something told him doing so was the best way to learn alchemy. It was bitter, and the spikes sliced up his mouth enough that the damage appeared as an orange blob on the health display in the corner of his vision. At his first swallow, his throat was cut hard enough that he could taste blood.

  As he chewed and swallowed it piece by piece, he felt a tingling in his mouth and throat as an icon appeared next to his health indicator. The taste was awful enough that he almost gagged several times, but he forced it down. The tingling grew stronger as Mike swallowed the last bit, the pain in his mouth and throat faded. As he watched, the orange portion indicating his damaged mouth and throat vanished, turning a healthy green.

  Mike focused on the icon, confident what it was.

  Health Restoration:

  Minor natural regeneration increase for the duration of this effect. This does not stack with further Health Restoration effects.

  Duration: Five out of nine seconds remaining

  Mike checked the quest indicator, seeing it had counted eating the leaf as “internalizing” the alchemical ingredient. Mike hoped that he wouldn’t have to eat everything he found from here on out. He knew that ancient alchemists loved using mercury in their immortality potions for emperors, and he didn’t want to have to drink any of that.

  As he turned his attention away from the display and back to the world around him, Mike noticed all the other gladiators were staring at him. He realized how it must have looked to the outside world and gave a sheepish smile.

  “Sorry, I, uh…” Mike trailed off for a moment, trying to come up with a thing to say. “My… thing told me I should do that to help me out.”

  “I’m just glad you’re rooming with Haliard and not me,” Julian said with a huge smile.

  “What?”

  “Doom Vine leaves are venomous and—” Karl said but was interrupted.

  “Poisonous.” Haliard’s voice was cold, but he still looked at Mike with concern. Karl shrugged and continued.

  “You won’t die from it, but you’ll spend the whole night on the toilet wishing you could.”

  Mike turned back to the fight, hoping that he would get a new Skill notification called something like Minor Poison Resistance, but nothing popped up. He focused on the fight, seeing that Sum had fifteen blades of sand in the air, and one massive sandstone block the size of Mike’s head. The blades were darting in, keeping the Doom Vine on the back foot while he slammed the stone into the central stalk of the plant monster over and over again.

  Thirty seconds after Mike turned back to the fight, it was over. The wizard hovering over the battle gestured and walls of force appeared between the contenders. Sum hadn’t moved from his place by the door at any point during the battle. The Doom Vine had leapt about the pit, leaving behind strands of vines and piles of leaves. The bright green sap blood stained the sands.

  “Victory to House Blurington!” With another gesture, the doors opened. The gladiators cheered as Sum floated back into the locker room, while the Doom Vine limped its way back into its own. The ease of movement it had before was gone now, with almost half the tendril limbs now strewn about the arena floor.

  “Excellent fight.” Mike snapped his head around to see Eric and Aric standing beside Haliard. The gladiators snapped to their feet. Other wizards filed past them, but the head of House Blurington and his son turned towards them. Eric gestured Mike to come to him, so he stepped up beside Haliard.

  “You see how well Sum fights, Aric? He was my first summon, and together we brought this family greatness.” Eric pointed at Mike as he spoke to his son. “Haliard says yours has potential. You must learn to nurture him.”

  Mike ignored the younger man’s look of disdain, focusing on the thick magic book at his father’s belt.

  “Tomorrow, you start training him. Learn to work with him.” He dropped his hand and moved to turn away but stopped. With a look back at Haliard, he spoke again. “Haliard will do his part. He always has.”

  “I am always proud to serve House Blurington, Master.” Haliard pressed his hands together and gave a small bow at the compliment.

  “Then return to quarters and rest up for tomorrow. You all are dismissed.” Both father and son turned away but had to wait to leave as wizards passed them. Mike saw an opportunity and took it. Leaning forward, he darted his hand out, touching the book Eric wore. Identify flashed outward.

  Pain like nothing he had felt before crashed into Mike’s head. It was a split second only before the balm of unconsciousness took him.