Breakfast was rice porridge topped with salted fish and pickled vegetables. Cubes of watermelon were available as a treat. Hector found himself competing with Sam to eat as much of the fruit as possible. Their rivalry fell apart when the servant refilled the bowl they were taking from.

"I can't eat that much," Sam muttered, low enough that Master Percival wouldn't hear.

Lunch was bread with honey and oil for dipping. It was then that Hector realized they were following a standard soldier meal plan. He hadn't even realized that the fifth household followed such a thing, but seeing it served to gladiators opened his eyes. Breakfast and lunch were kept light and healthy to avoid lethargy, whereas dinner was filling to fuel recovery overnight.

Several more people arrived that day. The beds were nearly full. A man by the name of Carob claimed the bed beside his. The poor kid was criminally naive. He told his entire life story to the air while Hector did his best to signal disinterest. At some point, however, Hector realized that he could use this dumb kid.

The first fights were going to be weaponless combat with their ability to use domain, aura, and externality were suppressed. What did he want people to think about his combat capabilities? Claiming to be weaker than he was wouldn't work for more than one or two matches. If their final number was twenty, as seemed likely, then he would need to fight nineteen people hand-to-hand.

He needed something that would trick people into wasting their efforts going after a weakness that didn't exist. To that end, he interrupted the story of Carob and began relating the narrative he'd developed for himself. Born on Union Central, became a Xian under a teacher who didn't know more than the basics himself because he didn't want to be an Alfar. Took a long time for him to get strong enough to go into the dungeons and make money for body enhancement resources. Had a bad injury to his right arm from a monster that still troubled him.

The really annoying and wonderful thing about Carob was that the guy didn't have a volume knob. He spoke loudly. He also repeated things to show he was listening. So Hector saw the neighbors perk up at the revelation of his injury. He pretended not to see that and made frantic gestures. "Hey, not so loud, Carob."

"Oh, sorry, everyone always says I am too loud!"

He'd get Jasmine to spread the same rumor about his right arm. Wait… no. He would have her spread a rumor that it was his left arm was injured by the monster. The discrepancy would get people wondering which arm it really was, at which point they'd already bought into the story of the injury.

At dinner, Hector received an identical plate to the previous day. Egg, sardines, liver, and a pickled beet. He started with the egg this time to get the worst part of it out of the way. Then he forced down the liver, swallowed tiny slivers of beet, and ate the sardines. The main dishes were shrimp spring rolls and cubes of salt cured seal blubber.

Hector ate a lot and made sure to finish his wine.

That evening, he concentrated on enhancing the bones of his right hand. There were a lot of them, so he did less than half before calling it quits. He waited in the washroom for a few minutes and was rewarded by seeing Jasmine arrive.

"I figured out the secret I want you to leak. Tell Evan I have bad eyes."

Hector didn't understand that, but he didn't actually care about her success, so he didn't ask for clarification. "Sure. What I want you to tell Evan is that I have an injury in my left arm from a monster attack in a dungeon. It didn't heal right."

"Oh, yeah. That's a good one. Almost as good as mine."

That did pique his curiosity. "Why do you want people to think you have bad eyes?"

"Well, it's true."

"Jasmine, I'm not sure if you properly understand misinformation."

"My eyes are bad, so I developed a really good mental sense."

Hector nodded. "So you don't have any of the usual weaknesses of poor eyesight."

"Not in a fight. They will see me squinting a lot if they pay attention, though."

That was a lot better than he'd originally thought. The two of them parted with plans to begin spreading the rumor in the next week. Hector encouraged her not to rush out and talk to Evan immediately as that would be too suspicious.

Another day passed and their numbers rose to twenty. Their dinner that day came with some resources, though not of the sort Hector hoped for. The plate arrived before each of them with the usual meal items of egg, liver, beet, and sardines. There were also a total of three goblets placed before each of them. The first Hector knew contained uncut spirits from the harsh odor assaulting his senses. The second held lime water. And the third regular water. Completing the resources was a smaller version of the powder pill he'd taken twice on Union Central.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He was sitting beside Jasmine, so got to hear her whispered reaction. "What the hell is this? Are they trying to kill us? Uncut spirits? Lime water? I'm pretty sure they put ashes in that roll."

He didn't respond as Master Percival was looking their way. "Everyone, today you receive the first of your resources. Do not dare turn up your nose at what you have been granted. These are effective even if you find them unpalatable. The six weeks of training begins tomorrow."

Hector wasted no time dunking the powder pill in his water goblet and then swallowing it. Because of its reduced size compared to the giant ones sold by Master Sirius, the thing only clogged his throat for about a minute before it was through his gullet. Then he moved on to the lime water, which had been conveniently diluted already. Hector alternated that and normal water until it was gone. Then he ate everything on his plate while his water was refilled.

Finally, he claimed some of the meat skewers. Between bites of meat, Hector sipped at the uncut spirits. It was rough stuff. He didn't think he could manage it if he hadn't become so used to drinking horrible wine over the past several months.

Back in his bunk, Hector managed to complete his right hand and the left as well. Then he drifted off to sleep in a stupor, imagining what it would be like to punch his fellow gladiators using bones harder than steel. About half of the fighters had body enhancement that lagged behind level four. The next largest cohort of his peers was around Hector's current level of enhancement. There was just one other person following the cold forged method.

That esteemed individual was named Micah. Hector had not a single doubt in his mind that Micah would win every match of the hand-to-hand. The man was large, aggressive, and far along in his body enhancement. Bones, tendons, circulation, and respiration were all to the peak of level five. Hector could tell that Micah was currently working on his digestion by the way he constantly ran cosmic energy through his gut and bowels. After that would come muscles, and Hector couldn't wait to see how Micah handled that conundrum.

Enhancing the muscles one at a time as in the cold forged method introduced severe imbalances. It wouldn't be so severe as what Volithur experienced, since he had jumped from level zero to level three, which was a huge jump in power in opposing muscle groups. Hector would just have to worry about some muscles doubling in strength. Probably less than that, actually, because the resources he consumed would be steadily boosting his entire body.

In fact, he woke up the next morning with his reserves entirely empty. The System would have politely rounded up to one percent, but Hector knew the truth. To kick-start his recovery, Hector went to the latrines behind the washroom at an early hour and cultivated chaos while no one was around. Then, when others started moving, he returned to his bunk to cultivate with aura instead.

Breakfast was the rice porridge as usual, only now they received a second goblet with green juice. It had been sweetened with sugar and vinegar. If the intent of the kitchen staff had been to make the bitter concoction more palatable, they failed mightily. It just gave the drink a medicinal air that no one cared for.

They were led outside to do stretching and calisthenics in a gravel courtyard for several hours. It wasn't the training Hector expected to receive, but it was a lot better than being constantly locked in the barracks. He enjoyed the physical activity even if it wasn't really a workout for him.

Along with the bread at lunch came a small bowl of seasoned bone broth with bits of onion and garlic floating in it. Though far from gourmet cuisine, it was the best tasting resource Hector had been offered since he arrived on Tian. He slurped it down in less than a minute.

That afternoon they were told to pair up for self-directed combat training. Basically they were permitted to do light sparring with a single partner. Jasmine claimed him and the two of them began going through some simple attack-react drills that the woman remembered from her other life. She commented that she knew more about spear fighting than unarmed combat, but felt confident she could surprise a lot of the men with how competent she was.

Hector wasn't sure how deep their alliance went. They were talking, so he talked, but he was uncertain if she would keep any revealed information to herself. So he played it up like he was acting out a televised story with Rodrick and Zelda and the rest. "I'm not much good at hand-to-hand if I'm being honest. I expect to lose half my matches. I should do better when we're allowed domains. Those are what I used on the monsters in the dungeon. Though I don't know how the lords will react if I make someone's head explode."

Jasmine's eyes widened. "Damn, Hector. You're a killer."

"Aren't we all?"

She stepped past him and executed a textbook perfect hip toss, sending him to his back. Jasmine put her knee on his belly and punched the ground beside his head. "I guess we are."

Hector put one hand under her shin and bridged his hips aggressively as he pushed with inhuman strength, sending Jasmine sailing through the air. She did not weigh nearly enough to pin an enhanced Xian. Before he could do more than sit up, Jasmine was clinging to his back, arm around his exposed neck. She brought her face close enough to his ear that her breath tickled as she whispered. "Better tap out, buddy."

Instead of surrendering, Hector turned and wedged his chin into the choke. Then he seized a wrist with both of his hands and pulled the offending arm away from his neck. Jasmine grunted. "You've got vise grips for hands, Hector." He spun around to face Jasmine and she scissored her legs to sweep him onto his back. As she rode up into mount, Jasmine drove her knee into his crotch.

That caused him to protect himself, leaving his head wide open for Jasmine to smack him across the face. She followed up that gentle attack by smothering him with her ample chest. "Don't fight it, buddy. This is how all men secretly want their lives to end."

He tried to bridge her off like he had the last time, but her weight wasn't loaded over his hips and she was wedging her heels into the back of his lats to lock their forms together. So Hector opened his mouth and bit down on the exposed cleaveage.

Jasmine popped off of him in an instant. "Now that was dirty."

"Seems like dirty is your style."

The wicked grin she flashed him made Hector feel a great deal of concern. "You're rapidly becoming my favorite person here, Hector."

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing, Jasmine."

"It's very much a mixed bag."

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