Angor slumped on the desk and watched the blue sky through the window.
The warm sunlight depicted a rim of golden silhouette around his body. The calm and cozy air made him sleepy.
He missed this feeling. Ever since he came to the Redbud, he never truly relaxed. For one, his mood was not calm, and secondly, the ship swayed too much on the sea. He always felt like walking on cotton.
But the back of the cloud whale was steady as the solid earth.
It comforted Angor. Without anything to do, Angor slowly fell asleep under the gentle touch of the sunlight and the fresh smell of grass.
A small cobblestone created a fine curve in the air, flew through the window and landed on the desk.
It was not loud, but still disturbed Angor’s sleep.
Angor opened his sleepy eyes and spaced out, until another stone came in, bounced on the desk and stopped near Angor’s hand.
Angor finally cleared his mind and picked up the stone in puzzlement.
Someone was pulling a prank?
Angor reached outside the window and looked.
The green grass shifted under the gentle breeze. The cloud whale had been flying steadily, while clouds occasionally came around and hid some of the animals in the distance.
Angor looked left and right, without finding anything.
As he scratched his head, a lazy, raucous female voice reached his ears.
“Hey kid, looking for me?”
…
It was a woman wearing a brown leather coat and silver scale shoulder armor over her well-developed figure.
She was standing in the tent across to Angor. Because of the misty clouds, Angor did not notice her at first.
Through the window, Angor could see the woman leaning against a desk while holding her chin in boredom just like himself. She was inspecting Angor with curiosity. Her other hand was flipping another stone, proving that she was the one throwing stones earlier.
Angor could not see her body entirely, but judging from her long, wavy brown hair and her fine curves on the upper body, the woman must be tall and slim.
Her face looked mature and elegant. She was holding her chin with one side exposed to Angor, indolently sexy.
Even Angor, who barely had any ideas about women, could not hold back his interested gaze.
Accompanied by the gentle breeze, Angor and Nausica began their first conversation.
Nausica, the lady opposite to Angor, was a talkative one who could easily lead a conversation. Even if Angor started a topic, she could slowly but surely take over the initiative by using expressions, body languages, asking derivative questions and using good wordings.
Angor felt comfortable when talking to her. Even when what he wanted to talk about was led astray, it still felt fun.
The woman was a natural leader.
“You came out of the Death Match in Nine Chambers?” Nausica flipped her forehead hair in a charming manner and looked at Angor with her green eyes.
“Death Match in… Nine Chambers?” Angor mumbled.
“Guessed as much. You don’t have any smell of blood on you. Lucky little guy,” said Nausica as she took out a long, black gold smoking pipe out of somewhere and inhaled. The occasional smoke rings mixed with the cloud mist on the grassland, cloaking her inside a constant haze.
The Death Match in Nine Chambers was how Brute Cavern chose their talents. They put talents into nine different stone chambers to join death fights. The winners came out glorious, while the losers met their doom. There were safe zones in the chambers, but with a time limit. The fights in the chambers followed ten rules. Talents must use or bypass the rules to survive, while utilizing all kinds of methods, be they crafty tricks or raw strength.
Angor finally understood why he smelled thick blood near the square stone house. That was a chamber for the death matches between talents! And the sole survivor in the chamber would be admitted into Brute Cavern.
According to Nausica, there had been winners who triumphed by using their intelligence, by alienating other participants, or by playing dead on the ground.
“There were only two who won because of their strength,” said Nausica. She released another smoke ring before saying, “One, Balba the Barbarian, from chamber four.”
“And the other one?” Angor asked.
Nausica looked at Angor and expressed a charming smile. “The other one? It was me.”
Angor’s eyes went wide. This charmingly beautiful woman won her way using her strength?
Angor could not see any bloody violence on her, only peace and indolence.
This woman was someone who slaughtered a whole chamber of people and survived?
“Cruel? Not really. This… is the world,” said Nausica. She smiled mildly, “You would do anything to live on.”
“Survival of the fittest,” Angor muttered slowly.
Nausica gave Angor an approving look, “An incisive conclusion. Although it doesn’t really fit your age.”
Angor curled his lips. She was right, but she had no idea what Angor could learn from the rich knowledge base from Earth.
“Okay, I talked to you just because I was getting bored here. Let’s call it,” said Nausica. She reached for the white curtain and pulled it down to block the window before saying, “One last word of advice. You didn’t go through the death matches, and someone will be mad about it.”
Nausica pointed to several small tents in the distance. “See those? They are winners from the nine chambers.”
They were far, so Angor could not make out many details, but he was sure the curtains of the tents were pulled down as he looked. Which meant those people had been watching him.
It reminded him of that cold, terrifying sense on his back when Flora led him around the place. So those people must be the reason for it.
“Those who survived from the chambers more or less felt superior about themselves. In this world, unfairness means conflict. You know what I mean, kid?”
Inequality was worse than poverty… Angor knew it. But… he came on to the cloud whale just today! Those death matches ended a long time ago!
“Don’t worry though. The wizard just now did not put a restriction spell outside your tent. You can leave whenever you want. We… are limited within our tents. We can’t get out. That will also be their reason to get mad at you.”
…
Angor had fun talking to Nausica, but he always stayed cautious. As she said, those who came out of the death chambers could not be too friendly to anyone.
Still, he kept Nausica’s last warning in mind. Not because he trusted Nausica. It was because he did not trust anyone.
The clouds cleared, revealing the curtain of the night under the pleasant moonlight.
Angor had his dinner. As he considered whether he should go show up in front of his teacher by himself, Flora floated into the tent.
“Good evening, Angor.”
“Good evening to you as well, Lady Flora.”
Flora did not mind Angor’s different way of addressing her. Like Easley, she did not have a family name, albeit it was for a different reason. She was raised by Sunders since young. She tried to surname herself with her teacher’s family name, but Sunders refused.
“Teacher has done his experiment. It’s time for you to meet him.”