Michael didn't say anything but he was indeed surprised. He heard Tiberius talk about Doctorus when he asked him about the slave rebellion. The man trained some of the best gladiators in the Southern Continent including Titus and Optimus. It was a pity to find this man dead. Michael planned to recruit him and make him train his own personal army of gladiators.
"Come on wake up old man!" Tiberius shook Doctorus's body frantically.
"Do something!"
"He's dead Tiberius, someone stabbed him in the back" Michael pointed out the stab wound in the back.
"We might catch whoever did this when we meet the other gladiators. Let's hope they're alive" Tiberius just realized that whoever killed Doctorus might have gone to kill the rest of them. Still, Tiberius couldn't believe a single man could have killed Doctorus. As far as he knew, it would take ten gladiators to even wound Doctorus let alone kill him.
In anger and shock, Tiberius failed to see the simple yet most correct conclusion. The drone hovering above them flew further into the tunnel, searching for the gladiators while Tiberius stood up carrying Doctorus's body in his arms.
"I'll not leave him in this stinking hell"
"We'll give him a proper burial," Michael said before following the drone's path. Finding Doctorus dead made Michael speed up things. He drove the drone as fast as the drone could fly. It was obvious to Michael that someone among the gladiators was a traitor.
"Lord Lucifer" as they were walking, Heinberg called Michael.
"Speak"
"Isn't it dangerous for us to walk into a place that's filled with explosives? Whoever killed him might have booby-trapped it to explode"
Tiberius was too drowned in anger and grief to listen to Heinberg. He just walked behind them carrying Doctorus's body. All of his moments with Doctorus flashed across his eyes.
"He was dead for at least three hours. That's plenty of time to set off the explosives if he wanted to. And if I'm right, he won't be there with the gladiators"
"Why do you say that?" Tiberius asked. Speaking of the killer brought Tiberius back from his flashbacks. He wanted to rip the throat off of the one who killed Doctorus. Tiberius promised himself and Doctorus that he would avenge him.
"He was stabbed in the back which means Doctorus trusted this person to turn his back and drop his guard. The traitor stabbed him in the back, killed him, and it's highly unlikely that he returned to the gladiators. If he had, they would have definitely asked where Doctorus is and come searching for him-" Michael abruptly stopped talking when he found the gladiators. They were gathered at a spacious hall where he could see several pillars going into the ceiling.
"Six gladiators ahead" Michael fastened his steps. Eventually, after walking for fifteen minutes, they saw the tunnel open up to a spacious hall. Several torches were lit around the hall to reveal the long pillars as well as a few sacks.
"Someone's coming"
"Who else would be coming other than Doctorus?"
"What was he doing out there?"
"Give the man a break, this is our last day"
"What's that sound?"
The gladiators began to murmur hearing the footsteps. Despite the drone flying above them and its very silent, the gladiators still heard the faint humming sound it produced. Only because the drone was flying from one dark spot to another managed to evade their eyes.
"Guys" the gladiators looked closer at the tunnel to see the orb of light. Soon, they became agitated seeing Michael walking out of the darkness. His full armor and the skull freaked them out. Yet, they were quick enough to draw their swords out.
"Stand down!" Tiberius' shout reverberated the hall.
"I heard that voice before"
"It's Tiberius"
The six remaining gladiators saw Tiberius walk out of the darkness. For a moment, the gladiators couldn't recognize Tiberius. It was because Tiberius wore a new plate armor with his long hair tied into a ponytail. Michael asked Heinberg to buy ready-made armor from a forge in Crilta for Tiberius. It was a temporary measure until he returned to Elon, made Jack his blacksmith, and crafted custom-made armor for all of his subordinates.
"Tiberius!" All the gladiators' faces lit up seeing Tiberius but within a snap of time, their smiles disappeared from their faces.
"Who did this?" Tiberius was not in the mood for a happy reunion. His eyes were blood red. He was basically shivering in anger. Michael and Heinberg could feel the killing intent radiating from Tiberius.
Michael stared at the gladiators one by one. There were six gladiators in front of them. All of them were between six feet and six feet five inches tall with muscular bodies. The commonality between all of them was the burn marks and the scars on their bodies.
"what...Doctorus" the gladiators mumbled in shock. Their weapons were raised halfway looking at Tiberius.
"Deal with them, I'll take care of the explosives" Michael saw the white clay attached to each pillar. Sensing the heat coming from the clay through his eyes of darkness, he recognized them as the explosives set by Mark.
"Is Mark here?" While walking towards the first pillar a couple of meters in front of Michael, he asked the gladiators.
The gladiators couldn't care less about the explosives after seeing Doctorus's body. They all knelt beside his body overwhelmed with grief.
"Where is he?" Tiberius put Doctorus's body on the ground, looking around for Mark yet he couldn't see him.
"He was with Doctorus, do you think....?" one of the gladiators asked Tiberius. They knew Tiberius well enough to know that Tiberius wouldn't harm his mentor. Hence, they never doubted Tiberius of killing Doctorus but Mark was another story. Despite Mark's effort to get onto Doctorus's side replacing Tiberius, most of the gladiators didn't trust him as they trusted Tiberius. Of course many disliked Tiberius due to his quick temper, arguments he had with Doctorus, and cold demeanor, yet they didn't make Tiberius any less trustworthy.
"He was stabbed in the back"
"Mark wanted to see the sunrise one last time. We don't know why but after a few minutes he left, Doctorus went looking for him" Tiberius's killing intent skyrocketed hearing the gladiators. It became more and more evident that Doctorus was killed by Mark. He only didn't know why Mark killed him.
"We need to find that son of a bitch" Tiberius took his gaze away from Doctorus's face to Michael who was staring at the clay mold sticking on a pillar.
"I'll rip that bastard to shreds"
"He's mine"
"Fuck blowing up the arena, we need to kill that snake"
'The gladiators were riled up. They passed the grieving stage to reach the stage where they felt nothing but the pure rage of a gladiator.
"I have an idea who knows where he is," Michael said.
The white clay sticking on the pillar before him seemed nothing special in the naked eyes. At first, Michael thought he would want to ask the System's help to diffuse but he was wrong. The white clay was a chemical compound which meant it related to alchemy. Combined with his knowledge of alchemy and inventor traits, he began to sense how the explosives were made of and how to diffuse them.
With eyes of darkness's help, he could see the inside of the clay. Unlike most of the bombs on earth, there were neither wires nor circuits in the clay. Inside the white clay was a word separated through the center by a liquid. Either side of the liquid was filled with chemical compounds that would create a reaction when coming to contact with each other. The liquid was the substance that prevented the compounds from getting mixed. The white clay covering the orb absorbed this liquid little by little, hence working as a timer.
"System, i need a syringe filled with coconut oil"
[50 badass points. Do you wish to buy it?]
"Yes"
The liquid just needed to be nonreactive to either of the substances in the orb. Compared to the liquid already inside the orb, coconut oil was a much better option.
In a flash, two syringes appeared in Michael's hand. One was filled with coconut oil whereas the other was empty. Michael gently sent the needle of the syringe filled with coconut oil into the line where the liquid was. He pressed the syringe head as the liquid line began to get filled with oil. After refilling the liquid line, Michael sent the needle of the empty syringe through the clay towards one of the substances before gently squeezing the substance into the empty syringe.
It took Michael a couple of seconds to completely remove the substance from the orb. After he took out the chemical compound, there was no substance for the other one to react with. Thus, the explosive was reduced to nothing but slightly hot clay.
"You're coming with me" Michael pulled out the clay from the pillar before storing it in his space ring. He wanted to study the explosive further to make some changes to it so he could use them in the future instead of buying explosives from the system as he did.
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I split the chapters into two to make them interesting and less draggy. Also, the southern continent arc is coming to end with a bang!!