He wanted to ask for a piece of meat from Rolf but decided that he should wait. The wolf meat may be for the lord, but considering how much of it there was, Jacob was sure he could grab a piece for himself when it is finished.
There were a few things on his mind, but he put those thoughts to the side for now and focused on heading to the guard's barracks. Which was not difficult to find, as it was the large wooden building he could see as soon as he left the kitchen. It's also the place where he could hear the faint cheering coming from. A few maids were also bringing plates of meat to the building.
From the time of day, Jacob thought it to either be early in the afternoon or in the middle of it. The sun was still pretty high in the sky.
Walking around the wooden building, Jacob was greeted with men of various sizes forming a square ring. All of them had bare upper bodies, showcasing their muscles off but what caught his eye were the two guards in the square duking it out with each other.
He could only see a small glimpse at what was happening, but he heard the clear sound of fist on face.
All of the guards here paid little attention to the maids coming and going into the building, instead their attention was on the two men fighting.
Jacob walked over to get a better look, and oh boy was he surprised. Face's bloody, bodies bruised but the two men who looked exhausted continued to fight as if their life depended on it.
The average built man with thick black hair was huffing and puffing trying to catch his breath while keeping a distance. His opponent was mostly the same, except from the sway of his body one could tell he was still bursting with energy. His panting was just an excuse to catch the black-haired man off guard.
Slowly he eased in closing the distance before he threw a quick jab with his left. It connected right on the black-haired man's nose while a cracking sound echoed out. Blood started to gush from the man's nose as his head tilted back from the impact.
"Yeah!"
"Get him, Terry, he's been talking all that horseshit about you all week long show him what you're made of!"
As Jacob watched the black-haired man stagger backward from the impact, cheers erupted from the spectators.
The man named Terry saw this as his chance, seeing his opponent stagger. His right hooked around like lightning creating a blur for others to see. In his eyes, he could see the end of this and a smile crept up on his face.
Was it luck or skill? One could argue it was pure luck because the black-haired man ducked down dodging the right hook by a hair's breadth. Terry was wide open and his hairy chin in full view.
"Argh!"
The man shouted as he put a bunch of power behind his uppercut. It was the last of his strength, the little that he's been holding onto. Heck, he even rose into the air a little due to him using his legs for that extra oomph.
Terry must have been seeing stars after that one. His entire body went backward as he fell towards the dirt-filled ground hard. The only sound that came from him was a groan, but even that was barely audible.
"Fuck yeah! Finish him off Tom, show the little turd not to steal your bread again."
More cheering erupted as the guards started shouting out various comments, but the black-haired man, Tom, ignored them all. Wiping the blood off his face with the back of his hand, he turned his head to the left and spit out blood. Jacob was sure he saw a tooth land on the ground along with it.
Tom walked up to Terry and kicked him lightly in the side before reaching out his hand. Terry, who was just coming back to his senses grabbed Tom's outstretched hand allowing himself to be pulled up.
Grinning widely, Tom hooked his arm around Terry's neck.
"You cleaning the shitters tonight boy!"
Hearing those words, Terry's expression turned dark.
Put thirty plus men into one house, things would get wild really quickly. Add in a lot of protein along with beer, and one bathroom with three toilets…
Let's just say things were not pretty.
The two of them walked out of the square that the other guards made, with a few guards giving the two encouraging words.
Jacob felt that although they were fighting, it wasn't anything serious for them. They all felt close to each other, like brothers.
One man with a long black tied beard stood in the middle of the square after Tom and Terry left.
"Alright, who wants to go next? I know a bunch of ya, have boiling emotions raging inside ya from all week. That guy kicked ya in ya sleep? Well, call his ass out and beat him to a pulp, or get ya ass handed to ya. Hell, the others might not laugh at ya, but I sure will!"
Looking around, he could see the other guards whispering to each other while eyeing some people.
"What is this for?"
Jacob asked as he looked up towards the bald man with a large cut going across his chest.
The man looked down at him and was surprised by his appearance at first, but then seemed to recall something.
"The Beatdown! It's like a tradition of ours we have every Friday. If you have a problem with someone, you call them out and no one leaves until one of you is knocked unconscious."
"Aren't you afraid one of you will die?"
Jacob questioned the man as he turned to look at the bloody Tom and Terry.
They were injuring themselves if something were to happen and they were needed how could they even manage to defend themselves? He thought it was stupid of them to do this, but he would not voice his opinion.
"Nah, docs right over there. Heal you right up and you'll be itching to go again. How about it, want to join in? You don't look like much, but we'll put you up against one of our newest recruits."
Turning his head he pointed at a man wearing a black leather jacket along with a black hat. He had his arms crossed as he laid down on the deck under the shade. Frankly, he looked unreliable and not someone Jacob pictured for a doctor.
As for the man's offer, inside his head, Jacob knew what a recruit was. They were low-level cannon fodder, but if trained properly they could become well-known commanders. In terms of levels, they were only level two with the average person's stats.
For him who had twice the agility of one, and five more strength it couldn't be that hard to knock one of them down.
Jacob nodded his head in agreement.
What was the worst that could happen?