Healing Dungeon

Avan looked around and let his gaze wander over and through the room. He could make out a total of nine people who were more or less visible in the dark space of the setting sun. Lea, the muscular woman who had stumped the loud guy at the beginning of Avan's arrival, looked at him from top to bottom, calculating and like a piece of merchandise, not quite sure whether to buy it or not.

"Well, welcome, rookie!" The woman welcomed Avan and playfully slapped him on the left shoulder with her fist, which brought a short groan from him, which was well noticed by the gladiator with a laugh in her eyes.

With a mocking turn, imitating a thespian, she swung around and made an inviting gesture with her right palm into the vault. "And here, rookie, we have the oh-so-glorious slave gladiators of Haipu!" She intoned like an announcer on a stage and grinned mockingly. "But we're not the only poor sods. But we are YOUR poor sacks, especially for your whole next life! And as a newcomer, you better listen to every single one of us here, otherwise you'll be very quick.... fresh meat for the other hyenas of the arena." She finished her presentation and strolled back to her stone area, on which she let herself fall with a short sideways jump and stared at the ceiling.

Perplexed and still not knowing what was required of him, Avan continued to stand at the entrance like a lost fawn, scratching nervously at the side of the top of his head. A glance around the room brought only cold shoulders and after the first few glances, most of the people had returned to their own activities. Two couples were playing a game with black and white simple painted stones on the left side, sitting on the floor with their legs crossed, which occupied all the places on the left side of this stone cell. On the right side, occupying the rearmost place, a scowling Timo rumbled at him, while two dark-burned slaves lay in the stone niches in in front of him, also staring at the ceiling. Apparently, staring at the ceiling is such a freetime hobby here... Avan stated inwardly with dry humor, while his gaze wandered to the only free niche, directly to the right behind the older man who had previously interfered so appeasingly.

Nick seemed to see his wandering gaze, and opened one of his closed eyes and winked at him with a grin.

Sighing and not yet knowing how to interpret the people here, Avan strolled over to his new sleeping place, wearing nothing more than his linen undershirt and linen pants, which were soaked with dirt from the weeks of travel, and his body smelled of sweat. His greasy and with sand and dirt interspersed long hair was fortunately still attached to a ponytail on his head, what Avan the greasy hair at least something was spared. The last time was in Morocco on the study trip back then... two days of unwashed long hair, with sand crunching in it, greasy... And now, on the other hand, for weeks... And back then I already thought that would have felt disgusting! It shook him with all the dirt on his body and in his hair. Avan had always been a pretty clean person on Earth, at least in his own opinion, and had always taken care of his appearance, no matter how much he had sometimes let himself go and lazed around.

Sighing, he sat down on his stone bed, which had in fact simply been carved out of the natural subterranean stone, and took a closer look at the barred windows to the outside, which were at head height, at least when standing. The only thing he could see from his position was the gigantic colloseum and what was probably the sandy floor of the arena.

He leaned backwards against the damp and cold stone and closed his eyes with sudden weariness, even though he made every effort not to let his caution rest among these strange fellow occupants.

He let his thoughts rest for a few seconds and thought once again of Yue, the old lady who had shared the prison wagon with him, and everything that had finally led him here. I wonder how Elisa is doing right now...? How she reacted to all the chaos and annihilation, not to mention the death of her grandfather? If only I could be there for her right now.. . Avan's thoughts flowed as he began to enjoy the soothing coolness in his back.

The only thing I can do now... is not to die. So that I can see Elisa again, and so that I can bring Yue back to life. No matter how, even if I don't know how, or when. But what if I die? That surely can't end well for the souls bound to me... He continued to brood inwardly until his thoughts turned to the here and now and he thought about what he could do. Nothing... Be attentive, listen, watch, learn. Survive. And learn my dungeon skills.

With his last thought, Avan slipped into a half meditation posture, but in such a way that untrained eyes would still only find him leaning against the cave wall, eyes closed and relaxed. It tried again to turn its gaze inward, but could feel nothing but the yawning void, and again focused on the tiny micro-fine thread of celestial mana to strengthen it and will it to draw in more mana. So there he sat, in a new environment, surrounded by unknown but equally dangerous fighters in an unknown city, and in captivity. His only companion besides the emptiness was the panting, the breathing, and the constant scraping of stone on stone as the four players played their two games in silent unison, accompanied only now and then by soft murmurs. I wonder if these are the only slaves, or gladiators? And if there are more such vaults filled with prisoners, it is the same there... civilized, and quiet? He asked himself after a few minutes, while pulling and tugging at the tiny thread with all his willpower, but denying his own inner questions. Certainly not... I wonder if it's because of Nick. Somehow he seems... to enjoy respect here. The way the big guy had reacted. And how everyone seems to be so almost respectfully quiet...

After a few hours, his physical tiredness was slowly joined by a mental dullness, after he had continued to pull and fence with his tiny strand of dungeon mana for all that time. Without being able to fight it much, and before he could think clearly if and how stupid it was to fall asleep in a foreign and hostile environment, he had already dozed off.

A painful kick to his right rib sent him groaning away, and Avan shot up into an upright sitting position, cursing as he banged his head with full momentum against the far too low seat.

Amusement and laughter from several directions accompanied his groan and he opened his dirty eyelids only to stare into a sardonic visage of the giant who had kicked him awake and was now grinning at him defiantly.

"Ahh, I'm awake already!" He groaned through clenched teeth, cursing the guy inwardly as he carefully ran his left hand over the painful spot on his head. Avan swung both his legs over the stone edge of his rock-hard bed and took a closer look at the other shapes in a just-rising sun and the few rays of sunlight that penetrated in here.

The two dark-skinned people stood plain and still on the right side, but closer together than to the others. The four others, who had played that strange board game with the little stones the previous evening, grinned at him, and had not much special features except for some scars. To the left, Lea stood grinning at him, also amused, her muscular arms folded under her bandage-wrapped breasts.

In contrast to Nick, who sat to the left of Avan in his alcove and looked reproachfully at Timo, but then just sighed and let his gaze wander to the steel door between the enchanted bars, from whose staircase behind it two guards in chain armor and drawn curved swords were just descending the stairs.

"Wake up, you lazy pieces!" One of them shouted to the prisoners, who had obviously been awake for a long time, and struck the steel bars several times with the back of his curved sword, sending a hissing and loud ringing through the vault and giving Avan a slight headache. Asshole... Probably enchanted with more than just resistance to breaking out. Some kind of alarm maybe...

All of them, except for Avan, briskly lined up to the left and right of the vault and looked at each other. Avan stumbled forward to do the same, well aware that this was probably required, but came to a stop just as the same guard who had struck the enchanted steel bars with his sword came to a halt in front of him, grinning maliciously. "Disobedience, right on the first day! Well, look at that. Someone wants to stand out to the disciplinarian today!" Proclaimed the guard with evil glittering eyes, enjoying his power to the fullest. "Let's see what he will do with the newcomer. March!" He shouted into the room in a commanding manner, and the two rows of inmates, led by the other guard, marched through the cell door. As Avan was about to step through the door behind Nick, the other guard whispered to him loud enough for everyone to hear. "Welcome to the abyss, useless scum."

So both rows and a grim-faced Avan followed by the gloating guard at the end ran up the stairs and at the first intersection to the right and through an open gate onto the sand of the arena, which was already being heated mercilessly by the morning sun.

Finally, Avan could see the full extent of the round arena and was amazed when he saw the almost one hundred meter diameter sandy area in front of him, and the other more than one hundred slaves and gladiators, who arrived almost at the same time from similar entrances on the floor of the dusty arena.

Avan, in the spirit of this and careful not to be late again, followed his fellow inmates and lined up at the edge of the arena in the shadow of the fifteen meter high wall of the arena.

All the gladiators and slaves of the arena, among whom he could also see a few badly battered and scarred beastmen, the first ever in the city, stood in a huge semicircle with their backs against the wall, watching a single topless man who, with a rolled-up whip at his side, stared hard and earnestly at all those present, only to be harassed by the spiteful guard of just now, at least judging from his facial expression.

Avan swallowed, knowing what the guard would report, and could only hope. The guard grunted once and scowled at the guard, who just grinned and glanced sideways at Avan, probably satisfied with whatever he had accomplished, and stalked out the exit through which Avan had just stepped onto the sand of the arena.

"Listen up, especially for the new ones among you!" The man now shouted to the assembled crowd, earning a few more looks, which seemed to come from other new slaves or convicts as well. "You will obey without protest! What I say will be obeyed! You will address me as Master! You will speak only when I allow you to! You will get up in time for the first rays of the sun every morning! And who does not follow one of the points mentioned, gets to feel my whip!" The bald man shouted to the crowd, while his gaze roamed over all the gathered people and only stayed on Avan for half a heartbeat.

Without much theatrics and without making a show of it, the man unrolled his whip and cracked it once with a loud bang on the sand of the arena.

"And because one of our newest additions has directly managed to get up late, at least according to one of the guards, let that be a lesson to each of you rookies!" He declared, still loudly to the crowd, and then pointed the whip at Avan. "Step forward, and take your punishment!" He finished his sentence, but threw a nasty and quick sideways glance in the direction of the gate, through whose tunnel the spiteful guard had disappeared shortly before.

Avan stepped forward, as he was ordered, and swallowed once, until he was standing in front of the man with the whip.

"Next time, you'll know directly how it goes and who you should be most wary of." The man told him in a low tone of voice, looking Avan straight in the eyes as the large scar on the man's face glowed red in the sun from his right forehead across his eyes to his lips.

"Turn around, slave! Look at your brothers and sisters of the arena!" The man ordered mercilessly and in a strong voice, while Avan turned around, trembling slightly, and looked at the partly sympathetic but also sneering faces that were now watching him.

Before Avan could even take a deep breath, and before he had prepared himself, a short thunder cracked through between the arena walls and a sharp pain exploded on his back, from his left shoulder down to the right side of his hip. The skin burst open and Avan's blood rushed through his ears, his brain momentarily not quite comprehending what was happening until all the synapses and nerves reacted and his brain became overloaded with pain receptors. He sank down onto one knee with a yelp, and his back pushed through with a hollow back, as if instinctively trying to avoid the whip lash forward that had already occurred, or the pain burning like lava.

Groaning and staring at the ground, not daring to touch the open wound on his back with his dirty hands, Avan caught himself with both hands on the sand.

He hadn't heard the footsteps behind him until the man stood next to him and pulled him to his feet a little more gently than he had expected. "Even if it's not conducive to the first day, that should have shown you who has power here and who you should really be careful of." He whispered in his ear, clearly meaning to be wary of the guards, and then turned to the others. "A single lash of the whip! Because it's the first day, and a newbie. Don't let it happen again! And don't think you're exempt from any training just because you've taken a few lashes!"

Avan, after a gentle push and shove between his shoulder blades, limped back to the front of his seat, right next to the pityingly looking Nick, who just nodded at him and then looked forward again.

And that's how the first day went for Avan, followed by a series of training exercises like running circles on the edge of the arena, push-ups, punches and kicks against bronze-covered training dummies, and all that over the course of the whole day, while his back burned and the little trickle of mana couldn't even begin to help him. The whip wound tore open over and over again, the dirt and dust of the arena blew into the wound with every little breeze, and it burned the entire day.

At the end of the day, when he was standing back in line with the other prisoners, panting and with trembling joints, the whip-wielding disciplinarian nodded to him once, and after a "See you tomorrow, slave gladiators!" everyone marched back to the gates from which each group had stepped.

One by one, the heavy portcullis were raised by invisible mechanisms and two guards came out, this time different ones, marching again one in front and one behind the two rows of slaves, weapons drawn again.

When all were back in the cell, the rear guard suddenly threw something past Avan and Nick found the bundle with a nod without comment, at the time of the throw already turned as if he had expected it.

Avan, tired and with a throbbing wound on his back, limped quietly to his alcove without giving it a second thought and sat down with a groan while he steadied his breathing and supported himself with his hands on his knees.

Suddenly he saw the bare and wrinkled feet on the left in his field of vision, and looked up exhausted, directly into Nick's face, which looked at him sympathetically.

"Here, turn around... Let me help you." The not-so-strong-looking older man grabbed him by the left shoulder and spun him around with a stronger grip than Avan would have suspected. "Usually, but not always, the whipped slaves are given a bundle of medicine to clean the wound." He explained as he unrolled the bundle in the corner of Avan's eye and sat down next to Avan on the stone bed. The bundle had been wrapped in simple linen, but it looked surprisingly clean.

Inside were two different piles of green leaves and a leather tube as big as Avan's clenched fist. Nick unwrapped everything with practiced hands, and while he rubbed the one herb between his fingers in a rolling motion with his right hand, he opened the small leather tube with his left.

"Grit your teeth, don't talk. Or you'll bite your tongue off..." Nick implored Avan, turning to the wound on his back. The second time of the day, Avan couldn't prepare himself as a burning pain was suddenly smeared over and throughout his wound. Even though it was done in quick movements, Avan couldn't suppress a groan this time either, even though it wasn't so bad that it would have made him scream.

Avan noticed in pain how the old man smeared the just ground herbs along and into the wound, and it was suddenly over and a dull numbness set in, which almost made Avan's eyes water with joy, so much he was happy about the numb coolness where the throbbing wound had been before.

This was followed by a sudden wetness as the contents of the hose, an odorous liquid of water and herbal decoction, ran down his back and the piece of cloth ran the length of the wound, at which Avan let out another short hiss between his clenched teeth.

Thanks to the numbness, however, for which he was infinitely grateful, the cleaning of the dirt-soaked wound was tolerable enough, and a short time later Nick threw a bloody and dirty piece of canvas on the floor, but immediately turned back to Avan's back.

Another short twitch went over Avan's back, and the old man this time gently stroked the other crushed herbs on his back, which surprisingly smelled like a sweet mint.

Seemingly satisfied with his work, his first aider tapped him gently on the left shoulder and hoisted himself back up to shuffle over to his own sleeping alcove.

"You really should sleep on your stomach tonight..." He heard from Nick still loud enough as he dropped onto his own bed, weary and groaning, but more tired than Afvan had thought he would be, and immediately feeling bad but also grateful.

"Thank you, Nick... My name is Avan, by the way... I owe you one..." Nodded Avan to the old man, who looked at him tiredly, and then lay down.

"Tomorrow, after training, we'll ask Rielta, the one with the whip, for a short shower for you.... You stink!" The old man chuckled, and turned his back to the room.

Ashamed, but happy to have made it through the day, Avan lay down on his stomach, and fell into meditation, working on his dungeon some more until sleep overtook him. Not much later, and with too much physical exhaustion and a healing wound on his back, Avan soon drifted off into the realm of dreams.