"Awaken."

Magnus woke up, feeling well rested. Casting a quick glance at the two girls who were sound asleep, he didn't want to wake them. Still on the ground, he began planning for the future.

'The main goal doesn't change. Get out of the kraken and build an army once outside. A base should be decently easy to make in comparison to an army, so that's not that worrying.'

'I also need to defect from Azel, because I can't go around building an army under everyone's watch.'

He glanced at Ela, thinking to himself. 'I could bring a war band together and get her the position of the chieftain. And since she is my subordinate the tribe would count as my army. Right system?'

[Yes.]

'Good. Not a bad plan at all. Only thing left is what do I do with Charlotte. I don't have those kinds of feelings for her.'

He scrutinised Charlotte, before making up his mind. 'Bah, I'll just take her with me as a servant or something... AH!'

'If I ever become a king after conquering some country or something, I would start drowning in paperwork. Yeah, I can just make her do all that stuff for me while I beat up people in wars. And nobody can complain if she gets a huge wage since she followed me around since forever.'

He smiled smugly, 'Solid plan, solid plan.'

Next, he routinely checked the skill shop, only to see that the prices of the two mana skills had gone down massively.

'They started at 20 and 10 respectively for mana control and mana affinity, but now they have decreased to 15 and 4! If I had to guess, this place is rich in mana so it's similar to how other knights awaken their mana pools. Though it's definitely much denser mana concentration than the awakening rooms they use. '

Interested in this place after that figuring that out, he slowly got up from the ground and began wandering the arena.

' However, I'm absolutely not entering the fighting ring, somethings gonna happen, I feel it.'

During his exploration, he realized something unsettling - what he'd thought were bits of arena debris were actually corpses, piled up and rotting in the shadows

Gazing at the pile of bodies, an odd thought struck him.

'I remember when just looking at a dead body made my stomach churn. I've come quiet far to think about looting, hah.'

He shook his head, getting rid of the strange thought as he began to rummage through the corpses. Rusted weapons and armors, broken potion bottles, and all sorts of other useless equipment were dug up.

' As long as I don't touch the runes, everything is fine.'

Keeping track of time using the countdown to his death was his next brilliant idea. 'Though it is a bit creepy.'

Over the course of the next 2 hours, he sifted through roughly a quarter of the bodies. What annoyed him though was that the only thing he found after all that scavenging was a gold ring.

'Say system, is it a magical ring or something so it's unharmed by the passage of time?'

[Pffft. Gold doesn't rust.]

The reply told him everything. He put the ring in one of his pockets before

Looking at the still unsearched area of the arena, he sighed before heading back to the girls. By now, both had woken up and had been looking at him like a maniac.

A whisper came from behind him.

"Awaken."

He slowly turned around.

Nothing.

Clack. Clack. Clackclackclack.....

In his vision, the first skeleton stood up, followed by another. More and more of them stood upright, each and every single one of them looking at Magnus. Blue fire burned in their eye sockets, while a horrible aura of rot started to encompass the entire arena.

What drew Magnus's attention more than the skeletons, however, was the swirling shadows in the center of the fighting stage. A humanoid figure without any features manifested, cloaked in darkness.

"AWAAAAKEEEEEEEN!" It roared, the shock wave sending dust and debris flying. Feeling the rusted weapons impact his body, Magnus felt no pain as he gazed the creature in the arena.

Strangely enough, he did not know the language it spoke, yet he could still understand it.

'... As if it's speaking directly to my soul. Whatever the fuck did I Awaken, damn it!'

The countless skeletons weren't blown back by the shockwave, instead, they began to clap, the cacophony of bones hitting against each other drowning out all other sounds.

Glancing at both of the girls, they thankfully weren't blown away or hurt. However, Ela's less than friendly expression, and a Charlotte who hid behind her, caused him a headache.

'What got into me even, when I said I wouldn't touch this place!?' His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden yelling from the spectators.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

'The boneheds can speak!?'

"Gentleman and Gentle women! Dragons and Demons! God's and Devils! A new challenger rises to battle!" The shadow continued, another round of roaring and applause following.

He pointed his finger at Magnus, "Speak, what is thy name, o' challenger!"

He didn't want to reply, yet his mouth opened on its own. "Magnus!"

'What the fuck is going on!? How can it make me say my name!?'

"A fitting name, challenger! Now come, step into the arena, don't keep us waiting!"

Once more his body moved on its own, running directly to the edge of the fighting ring, before jumping down.

Thud.

Landing on the ground, he looked up to meet the gaze of the shadow creature.

[Don't even think about it, that thing is far above your pay grade.]

'If even the system is warning.... What the hell is that?' furrowing his brows, he gazed upon the shadow.

"Magnus, it is a great pleasure to host a battle after so long." the shadow spoke, gesturing at Magnus, "Tell us, dear challenger, why do you fight?"

It continued, "Some fight for fame, some for fortune, and some for power. Speak, why do you fight?"

This time, his body was not controlled, as if giving him the right to pick his own answer. As he was about to reply with 'power', the system window popped up.

[Survival. Do not say anything else, lest you regret it.]

'Survival?' he was questioning the system, but deciding to put his trust in it he replied.

"Survival."

A silence fell over the arena, before the skeleton army rose from their seats. As he got ready to defend himself, the skeletons began shouting.

"BOOO! Weakling!"

"Pathetic, kill him!"

"Get him off of there!"

He even caught glimpses of them flipping him off and doing other vulgar gestures. Deciding not to do anything rash again, he stood there in a daze.

"SILENCEEEE!"

Another thunderous shout came from the shadow, quelling the rowdy crowd of spectators. Silence fell once more over the entire arena, and it turned back to look at him.

"Well... Disappointing but okay. Come to the center to begin."