Having nothing better to do, Teras started taking walks around searching for a safe place to stay in town, the heavy rain washed him from all the mud he had on him
While walking around he noticed some signs
'I can read the signs so that must be good but some words are oversimplified versions of words I already know! Weird' Teras thought as he kept on looking around the town
It didn't take very long for Teras to find a pub that was open, he was dripping from head to toes
The pub owner immediately stopped Teras from walking in
"You will make this place a mess, stay here! I will bring you some of my son's old clothing!" The owner said as he went behind the bar, he quickly returned with a pair of dry and nice clothes and a towel "Run into the bathroom dry yourself and change to these!" She said with a smile
Teras took the clothes and ran to the bathroom avoiding to yet, his new clothes suited him well, it was a simple brown shirt and a nice pair of pants of the same color in a lighter shade
After getting dressed he went to the bar and thanked the owner
"It's nothing kid, I saw you in the arena where you yelled at Tokkou. I'm not sure why but just so you know Tokkou is a good guy, he would never try to purposefully hurt you" The owner said as she was cleaning some glasses
She had a big frame and a buffy at that, she had her hair hidden by a piece of cloth so Teras didn't know how it looked and her eyes were brown
"Is there a place I can stay until the rain stops?" Teras asked
"Well you are lucky, my hub has five rooms currently unoccupied so pick one, just because you look like a sorry little animal I won't charge!" The owner said as she laughed
Teras got a bit embarrassed so he slammed the coins Tokkou gave him as payment
"That's too much, I only need one silver" The owner said as she took one coin
Teras took the remaining coins leaving only one behind and walked up the stairs of the pub to find a room
"You forgot one coin" The owner said
"It's for the clothes, and the hospitality!" Teras said with a smile before entering the closest to the stairs room
Without thinking anything else, Teras got into the warm covers of the bed and slept
...
'What time is it?' He mumbled as he saw birds sing in a full-of-sunlight day
He stretched and walked down to the bar to see the owner in a good mood
"Good morning!" Teras said as he yawned
"Morning?" Hahaha! You slept for two days!" The owner said as he started laughing
Teras started to sprinting out of the house "Thank you for letting me sleep!" He yelled to the owner before he left
'I have to find Tokkou, he told me to search for him two days before so he must think I left... I just have to the arena, they probably know where he is!' Teras thought as hope started to bloom in him
...
"Tokkou? He is doing a tour of the prisons to the school kids, I assume you gave him the sword so what's your deal now?" A guard asked, this day it was just him
"He told me to find him so he could show me something"
"Something?" The guard said suspicious of what Teras said
"I don't know either, he told me "I will show you what humans are capable of" or something to that extent" Teras explained
"Well he is doing a tour so it wouldn't hurt if you find him there, just don't get too close to the cells" The guard said before doing something amazing
With a movement of his hands, the rocky steps that led to the arena started to fall slowly revealing a passage that went under the arena
Teras was amazed at what he saw
"Just go straight, there is no way you will get lost" The guard said as he stepped aside so Teras could pass
Teras thanked him and quickly went down the stairs. The atmosphere down there was more gloomy and it was way colder than it was outside, the air was also thicker, but what amazed Teras the most is when he reached the hallway
The one that had many cells to its right and left, all of them with at least one person inside of them
Teras tried not to make a sound and simply walk the hallway that often turned into a right turn or a left like a maze but since it was an one-way maze he couldn't get lost
"What are you doing here alone?" A woman asked from inside her cell
Teras turned around to see Clair, the girl that beheaded that man in their fight two days ago
"I'm looking for Tokkou" Teras said unbothered
He felt a sense of secureness since Clair was behind bars
"This trash? I thought you came to praise me, haha!" Clair said as she giggled a bit, Clair had curly black hair and dark brown eyes, Teras could tell for the first time after seeing her up close
"Why do you say that? About Tokkou I mean!" Teras asked
"Why? You look young, have you heard about the inhuman revolution?"
Teras nodded no
"Not surprising, the Royal Capital hid it like any event! Many demons, beastmen, even dwarfs gathered at the capital to protest about their right to be treated like any human, the right to become someone relevant to society and have access to the Royal Capital, it was peaceful protest, until the "Grand" Jack appeared, the protest turned chaotic, I was among the crowd trying to keep everything in control, you see back then I also worked under him. Oh what a fool I was, but as he says criminals can't change so I guess I'm still a fool" Clair said as she laughed
"Why would Tokkou not want equality?" Teras asked confused
"Why else? He is the king's dog, one order for him and he becomes bound, after he came many people were killed by guards and him, truly a "hero" don't you think kid?" Clair said sarcastically
After hearing that Teras was conflicted, he knew Tokkou is a nice person but his actions were troubling, failing to value a human's life and also hearing that about the incident some years ago
"You are behind bars so you must be worst, am I wrong?" Teras asked before staring at Clair's eyes
"I guess I am, so why do you look at my arms so much?" Clair asked confused as she saw Teras looking at her
"You were supposed to go against Potinko, right? Wouldn't that be unfair though? You are way stronger than him?" Teras asked her
"Hmm... How would you know that? Do you happen to be the one that killed him? There are rumors going around that he got killed by someone other than Tokkou while he tried to escape" Clair asked as she smiled at Teras
The taken back expression Teras had confirmed this rumor to Clair
"Strange, you seem rather ordinary to have killed him, even if I caused him so much wounds he still shouldn't have lost to someone like you" Clair said as she glared at Teras
"Wait, you said he escaped! But how did he do it? This place is way too secure" Teras asked puzzled from the amount of security
"He was working on a way out for long now, he was considered the weakest of us so think. If he was able to escape do you think I couldn't?" Clair asked as she smiled again
Teras's serious expression made her stop smiling
"Of course you can't, if you could why am I talking to you?"
Clair laughed at Teras's comment, she then got up and got close to the bars and pushed her face in between the bars
"When I get out, you are the first one that I'm going to kill" Clair said with bloodlust in her eyes
A strange aura also appeared around her so Teras decided to leave and find Tokkou
Which he did, the problem is that Tokkou was talking to kids, educating them about the world
"Look at him! He is from the Diamond kingdom, the first one in the prison. So kids! Do you know your geography? I want someone to tell me all the kingdoms, let me see those hands!" Tokkou said with enthusiasm as he looked around
"Everyone knows there are four kingdoms the Heart, Clover, Diamond, and Spade each kingdom is special in their way! For example in the Spade Kingdom it's usually very hot and mostly demons inhabit it! Also in the middle of the world lays the land that all kingdoms share, the land is called the Midland or mostly known as The Royal Capital! In this area you can find the High or Grand King and Grand Queen!"
Teras now knew what Tokkou meant back in the forest but still had no clue where he was from
"Great! Now tell me about the cards! I have been talking about them and what cards every prisoner uses but I'm not exactly sure that everyone knows them!" Tokkou said once again
"The cards are the source of power in this world, there are special schools that teach you how to use the power of cards properly, a person can use up to 3 different powers of cards but he can only possess one and if he possesses one card he can't use any other power again, but in exchange, the power that the card gives to the possessor is increased heavily, so if you mister Tokkou fought with another person that simply borrows the power of the Jack they would lose!"
Teras nodded in approval of the kids knowledge
"That's common knowledge! I want you to tell me what the cards do" Tokkou insisted
"The 2nd is super strength
3rd gives you super speed
4th is weapon mastery basically you can use the swords and spears like a master
5th is electricity mastery
6th is fire mastery
7th is water mastery
8th is earth mastery
9th is air mastery
10th teleportation power
Now for the special cards! We have the Ace, that allows you to control darkness!
The Jack is the card you posses gives the user the power of telekinesis
The Queen can manipulate light
Finally The King can shoot out lasers and increases mana pool by a lot and then there is the Joker which nobody really knows what he does, there are limited people that have seen Joker and survived after all he was a maniac, killing people, causing chaos, destroying kingdoms, he could do everything and no one could stop him, except the game master, of course!" The kid explained in detail
After hearing all that from afar Teras revealed himself
"When did you get here?" Tokkou asked confused
'Why couldn't I sense his mana?' Tokkou wondered but didn't question Teras himself
"I asked for the guards to see you, about what you asked me, I overslept, sorry..." Teras said as he bowed
"Overslept one day?" Tokkou said, it was clear he didn't believe Teras
"Why would I lie about that?" Teras told him
"Mr. Tokkou is he one of the annoying fans you told us before?" A kid asked Tokkou while the other kids started to laugh
"Don't mock him kids, it's not nice... So let me say this in simple terms, I gave you the chance of a life time and you slept on me, are you going to do something to prove you are worth my time?" Tokkou asked as he glared into Teras's eyes
"As I said before, I know little about this world so I let it up to you to challenge me" Teras said as he stared back at Tokkou
"Interesting" Tokkou said with a smile, he then turned to the kids "Hey kiddos you all know what mana is, right?" He asked the kids
The all answered in union with a loud "YES"
"Is it hard to learn how to use it?" He asked the kids once again
They answered the same thing
"You heard them, I assume you posses no mana so if learn how to control mana in a week I will grant you the gift to be trained under me, all expenses are on me so just come and find me in my mansion!" Tokkou told Teras with a smug smile on his face
Teras nodded and walked past them to the exit at the end of this big hallway underground