Chapter 531 522: Eye of the Gladiator King

"Hey, are we there yet!?" Gladiator Kade-4 shadow-boxed to keep warm in their quick trudge through the terrain. He yelled over the white sand blizzard that he'd never experienced in his life.

The woman ahead didn't slow. Snow crunched under her boots, each step crisp and dry. "Your itch to duel will run dry soon enough."

"I've heard that thousands of times now." Kade-4 had begged for permission to come out here into this restricted area.

It's been over 4 standard years since Elcra was discovered to have evolved into a Legendary Worldcore.

His liege and master was one of the many who came to make a home for themselves. The moment his liege heard about this era-changing event for the Hex Region, he packed up and gathered whoever trusted him enough to claim a piece of this pie for themselves.

Despite being a mighty Emperor, his liege was a self-made man without any backing or ancestry. It was impressive enough that he reached that rank on a resource-dry Epic Worldcore. The original owners of their Worldcore already changed hands a few hundred times.

However, they long had access to Eidolon thanks to that and his liege managed to attach himself to various missions across their Sector in his younger days.

He'd barely managed to claim a piece of home on an abandoned Rare Worldcore with his subjects. Namely, descendants of friends and old party members. Developing for merely 8 decades before hearing news about this amazing piece of land.

Within eight decades, their pioneer generation of merely 400 people had increased to about 6,000 people, including immigrants and new subjects that came to his liege for protection. They had a concern about genetic diversity with their slow growth and intake of people, but their young civilization of eight decades wouldn't have to worry about that for a few more generations.

Coming from the same world as his liege, but from a much dirtier bloodline. Gladiator Kade-4 was the fourth in line from his ancestry of slave duelists. He had never been a slave but the blood of gladiators ran deep. His grandfather Kade-2 managed to win his way to freedom so Kade-4 was glad he was born in a good generation.

The original owners of his homeworld brought the custom of arenas and gladiators with them. However, they also brought in technology from across the Sector.

Customary basic equipment for gladiators were jet propelled gauntlets, shin guards and the like. Electric blades, hammers and flails were most common amongst weaponry.

However, due to the ancient owners' sick habits, the gladiators they forced to fight for their entertainment didn't wear body armour and tended to be half-naked.

After tens of thousands of years of development, it was already a custom, and Kade-4 was born and built for it so it didn't feel out of place to wear leather or fur skirt-like pants without a shirt or any upper clothing much less armour.

The great-grandfather that he'd never seen was a fist-fighter. So he was too.

However, as they usually dealt with electrically charged weapons most Gladiators had incredibly high base electrical resistance. As the fourth in line with the second and third both being accomplished gladiators, Kade-4 reaped the benefits and had the highest base electrical resistance. He hadn't had any offspring as he'd not reached his potential to begin thinking about passing on his skills.

This electrical resistance of his was worthless here. It was so damn cold!

Both his original Worldcore and his liege's Rare Worldcore were warm, tropical planets. What is this white sand they call…snow?

Looking at the female guide wearing a thick fur coat didn't get him jealous. Even women gladiators wore a top and most of his liege's women loved to wear all sorts of useless pieces of fabric anyway. Not to mention, this lady was a native, not one of his compatriots so he didn't really care what comforts she was wrapped up in.

However, to see even his temporary superior and fellow servant to Emperor Galvar Rex in fabric that he thought was useless all this time was slowly getting on his nerves.

This stick of a man was an Electrical Mechanic Striker, Julian Victor. Unlike a gladiator descended from a lowly slave like him, he can be said to be far higher on the social hierarchy. Coming from the same homeworld, the two of them knew each other for almost 200 years.

Julian was Kade-4's childhood friend. Kade still remembered the day he punched that arrogant kid's face in after that kid popped the only toy ball he had. Thinking of that, he would probably spend his 200th birthday on this weird Worldcore.

Out of the 6000 people, few didn't follow. What were they supposed to do but follow the only Emperor that could protect them? Go out into the vast universe and make a name for themselves?

They had a higher chance of dying before they reached the Sector Station than overcoming the odds and evolving into an Emperor.

What they found out was that they amounted to nothing here.

They arrived a little under 3 standard years ago and only managed to get a small piece of land south of where he was now.

One of the few Emperors Kade had ever seen became one of many…many more.

Where do these Emperors pop out from!?

Kade always believed his liege to be one of the strongest people he'd seen amongst other Emperors. However, this mighty liege of his was barely holding fort in a domain dozens of times smaller than their Rare Worldcore.

No one complained but they must have felt aggrieved. Coming out here to be suppressed like this.

However, the ambient mana and energies of this Worldcore had quickly wiped off any dissatisfaction. Training here was much more efficient than on a poor planet.

The lands were so fertile that a seed could reach fruiting in a week!

They didn't have to rely on any trades to feed themselves and achieving self-sufficiency here had been incredibly easy compared to their pioneering days on a resource-poor world.

Within just their small territory, their mana absorption and generation of wealth had already exceeded their entire Rare Worldcore's territory by a few times. Who wouldn't want to stay here?

Even Kade's pockets had grown deeper in just a few short months since they'd finished building their mana extraction and compression facility.

The situation was chaotic but Emperor Galvar Rex was more cautious and aware than most Emperors that dived into expanding their territory. He was experienced with pioneering and knew his limits better than the rest of these greedy Emperors that got themselves killed.

Emperor Galvar Rex silenced his people's greed to expand and extract more mana from a larger range and kept their territory smaller than a King would usually be entitled to. Under his rule, their growth was stable and relatively free from trouble.

He ignored the other Emperors' mocking with a hearty laugh of his own.

Past Kade would've been ashamed to follow such a person's commands but current Kade can only admire the man's foresight and self-awareness. After all, those Emperors who mocked Galvar were already buried underneath the lands he walked on.

He'd grown numb to news of Emperors dying every week a year ago.

A Legendary Worldcore was much too crazy for a Grandmaster like him to comprehend.

With their territory defence stabilised, they were finally allowed to go out and explore. As a loyal servant he was allowed a bit more freedom outside of direct missions and orders.

This journey was one of his selfish requests.

Emperor Galvar Rex had been approached by many people. Subjects of dead Emperors were part of that group. Merchants were one of many.

For economy, convenience and knowledge of the new lands, the Thunder Fossil Empire was building a trade partnership with a native merchant group. This merchant group was surprisingly a Micro Merchant Group that originated from Elcra, despite it being completely unknown to them.

The only other Elcra native Micro Merchant Group was Z&Z Company but they had deep ties with the native Empire of Ebbing Waves.

This unknown merchant group, Harvest Proliferation, had an unbelievable record. While the reason is not public information, their infinitesimal small scale but incredibly large transaction record pointed to a Higher Being or a large community of high-level and rich Emperors behind this merchant group.

How else could a newly founded merchant group already own a Worldcore with an enormous number of robotic agriculture machinery of the highest quality on the market running things?

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Unexpectedly, Harvest Proliferation were the one that reached out to them.

This woman was the representative sent by the rich merchant group. As part of their deepening cooperation, the Thunder Fossil Empire were finally allowed to see one of the higher ups of the Harvest Proliferation after numerous attempts to ask to speak to a personage of power.

Kade volunteered the moment he heard where they were meeting.

This region was already classified as one of the most dangerous zones in the Thunder Fossil Empire's vicinity. Merely a few thousand leagues away. The Thunder Fossil Empire had used this to protect one direction of their new territory, hoping no one would cross over.

Unexpectedly, Harvest Proliferation invited them into these highly dangerous regions. Galvar Rex was in a tough spot since he couldn't exactly say no if he wanted to build a deeper relationship with Harvest Proliferation. But a cautious man like him dreaded sending anyone from his small community into a zone he wasn't willing to enter himself so he was more than happy to have a volunteer.

As for the reason this region was dangerous, it wasn't because of a threat to their life. In fact, the area wasn't known to create new graveyards or missing person notices.

Rumours were that amazing duelists were living in this region.

This highly dangerous region was presumably owned by a person and not the wilds. Shocking, the cold was already eating into Kade's energy. Yet that wasn't the reason this place was restricted by the Thunder Fossil Empire or many other emerging kingdoms and empires.

The reason this place was restricted was that the ambient mana was so high, mana density readers broke. No commercial mana density readers worked as of yet. It was also worthless to conquer at the moment because mana absorption and purification equipment and facilities were tested to melt or break in some odd arcane toxicity trait.

The only source of reference for the danger of this Arcane Toxic region was other mages who said that mana was so dense here, even Grand Arch Mages, Emperors would have their mental faculties significantly affected, much less cheaply produced mana density readers.

Harvest Proliferation provided them 2 bracelets to enter this region that protected them against the mana.

Without these bracelets, Emperor Galvar Rex would've never agreed to send a pair of promising young men here.

Duelists seem to be the native equivalent of gladiators. Kade had to come now that he was not urgently needed for everyday defence against monsters and other kingdoms and empires.

He was not arrogant enough to think he could beat the owner of this place. One that lives here while other Emperors shy away but anyone strong enough to own a piece of fiefdom in a place like this must have their subjects. He would be fine to challenge anyone, even a mighty King.

Sparing with his superior and father, Gladiator King Kade-3 got boring years ago.

"If you have meditation or any mental concentration skills, use them. We're about to enter their territory." Their guide, Sophia seemed to be her name, finally gave him good news.

They were finally here!

The two-week journey had been tough with so many roaming monsters that were stronger than everything he was used to. More importantly, the beasts he fought in the arena were nothing like a cunning wild monsters.

It was taxing in ways he wasn't used to.

Julian nudged him to stop his shadow boxing.

'This guy…' He shook his head at his friend who couldn't keep his eyes off their guide.

Sophia was more than capable of defending herself. He saw her as a proper warrior. She fought in a way shockingly similar to Julian.

Julian electrically controlled pieces of metal and shot them as projectiles as his basic method of offence. He was also good in close combat, as with anyone from the same origin worldcore.

This lady was something known as a metal mage and had similar offensive methods, minus the electric or what the natives call Lightning magic though very different in various ways of application.

The natives here were hardcore. They run elements inside their very bodies to enhance themselves.

Even though he was shocked by electricity during his childhood so that he didn't get hurt easily by charged weapons in the arena, it still hurt him.

These crazy natives were running fire, electricity, earth and even pure metal in their veins!

How does that even strengthen them when it was supposed to damage them?

He would never understand their methods in a short time. Perhaps over time, their Empire would slowly incorporate and birth these people. Their education would have to evolve and adapt as fast as they could to stand ahead of other Empires.

More importantly, Sophia was capable even in close combat. Her reliance on ranged combat couldn't hide her proficiency from his eyes.

He could tell why his old friend was attracted to her. But for him, she was a little too scrawny and on the small side. More importantly, he wanted a girl who could speak his language since he was a poor linguist and couldn't get the hang of Gia.

Julian recently completed his evolution, hasty of him but he claimed to have developed his core sufficiently. He might have been pressured into it since they urgently needed stronger defenders.

"Ah, careful. The range increased again." Sophia warned them from in front.

Unsure what she meant and too late to slow down, Julian and Kade-4 continued walking forward and suddenly got rooted to the ground.

'!! I--caann't mooove..' Kade-4 was in the midst of thinking when he realised even his thoughts were slowed to a snail's pace. That thought also came late to echo in his head.

He knew the bracelet Sophia handed to them was pulsing more mana but in his slowed mind, that protection was coming in extremely slowly.

Kade-4 never found himself smart or a fast thinker. Today he learned how excruciating it was to think slowly. No wonder Julian never stopped making fun of his slow mind.

There was also a pleasant sound being dragged out to a nauseating tune but he couldn't care less about it for now.

When the bracelet finally shone with a greater expenditure of energy, the two of them took a deep breathe but Julian fell to his knees.

He was far more sensitive to mana than Kade.

"C-couldn't we have a bracelet like yours--" Julian complained like a wimp.

Kade was ready to tell him a thing or two about picking women up in private later but also noticed that Sophia didn't get rooted to the spot like they were.

"Hmm? I don't have one on."

Though surprised, Kade helped Julian up without rebutting. This was after all, a fertile Worldcore. Their natives were sure to be familiar with high mana densities to begin with. Sophia already proved that she was not some weak female merchant.

The two of them got their bearings and began to look around this highly restricted area with curious eyes as they continued to follow behind Sophia.

There was no snow here, but it was just as cold. At least he didn't have to trudge his feet through that weird cold sand. While it was freezing, his body could still take it for a few days before it started becoming concerning to his health.

The sound he heard in his slowed version turned out to be music that was extremely pleasant even to someone who didn't understand it. He was familiar with the sounds, it was probably a piano player. It seemed that the instrument was so common throughout the Region even this world had it in some form.

'Finally, some people!' Kade saw a stretch of ploughed earth and found a couple of farmers working in the muddy fields.

Being a league away didn't stop his excitement, he gotta ask them if there were any duelists to challenge!

He got to develop his Core as a Gladiator, while this place might not have an arena, the building was symbolic. With Julian, Sophia and possibly some of this place's subjects as an audience that would be enough. If the duelist was good enough and he could overcome them, he might have a Core Development for more Potential!

The Empire of Ebbing Waves supposedly didn't even teach its subjects about Core Development, how backwards!

"H," Kade cleared his throat and swapped to Gia before he was misunderstood, "Heeey!!" He ran to them at top speed but slowed down so that he didn't frighten the pair of farmers by appearing right in front of them all of a sudden.

That happens more frequently than one would expect. Luckily, he was around farmers and the like back in the small Thunder Fossil Empire so he got a hold of his excitement quickly.

Slowing to a stop and catching his breath by exhaling the cold out of his lungs, he took a better look and was mildly surprised.

A normal pair of humans for sure, but they were quite big even for farmers and physically active humans. Were natives naturally this size?

Not just the male, but the female farmer was slightly taller than he was though both were leaner than he was.

From the speed they were manually seeding one by one, they didn't appear to be any more evolved than a Journeyman.

"Hello, I'm a visitor. I apologise if I frightened you but do you happen to know if any duelists are free to accept a challenge? I think they are also known as warriors, swordsmen or martial artists on this Worldcore." He presented the line that he rehearsed over and over again without missing a beat, suddenly fearing that they didn't understand Gia he looked back to find Sophia as a translator.

Yet his overexcitement only allowed his mind to realise that this male farmer was blind to begin with so he shouldn't have frightened them with his running speed.

Now that he noticed he was talking to a handicapped man, he finally calmed down.

'Something's weird…' Kade started to notice the details and oddity.

These farmers were knee deep in mud. They put their hands deep into the muddy earth just moments ago before taking notice of him and standing up.

Yet their clothes were so clean…the 'rough' linen clothing was of immensely high quality too. Higher quality than the sandbags his father used as punching bags.

While looking normal, he suddenly got a little dizzy as he looked at the woman's face. He shook it off as his attention turned to the blind farmer.

Lean and both of them were too fair-skinned. This Worldcore had plenty of daylight. The pair was too fair skinned, pretty much alabaster white.

The woman held a pair of sticks and deftly used them to grab seeds from a pouch to plant them in the earth.

The man had large weird bracelets…rings around his arms. Like someone forged a cuboid stick and wrapped it into a circle. Each one as thick as his large fingers and he had ten on each arm.

Unwieldy for farm work or any movement at all. However, as they rested on top of each other Kade couldn't help but imagine them to look just like his gauntlets.

He awakened his Physique early on which was very helpful for his rise to the top before he moved with his Emperor.

Eye of the Gladiator King.

Feeling the oddities of this pair, he secretly activated it. The best part about his Physique was that activating it shows no outward appearance. No glowing eyes and whatnot.

'Holy--mother of…' Kade made an internal prayer to the God of Gladiator Achyron to apologise for his next curse.

While there were a few Gods that are considered Gladiators, he personally believed in Acheron as the one true Gladiator.

'The farmers here are neatherfaeing incredible!' He screamed, flashed banged by his Physique harder than his dad stripping in front of him.