Martial Arts Worlds

Within the barracks, inside 1-Star quarters, unconscious men lay on the hard, cold ground with blood dripping from their noses.

It was very loud only a moment ago, but now it was as quiet as a graveyard.

"That's all?" Julian cracked his knuckles while surrounded by the unconscious men. "Somehow, I expected more of a challenge."

"…" Kiernan stood with his back against the wall, looking at the notifications in front of his vision.

[LEVEL UP!]

[Level 6 → 7]

[XP: 60/8000]

'8000, that's gonna take a while.' Kiernan said with a frown. 'I now have 10 stat points. After I assign them, I hope I can make that push to the Martial Champion realm.'

Quick footsteps came from outside, and Otto, the owner of these barracks, came with a couple of guards after hearing screaming and commotion.

"What the hell happened here?!" Otto looked at the injured men with a shocked look and then looked at the two young men.

It was obvious that these two young men knocked all of them cold!

It was surprising since a couple of them had already experienced the fighting pit several times before. They had survived death there, but now here, they were knocked out cold by two young men!

"Yo, master." Julian laughed at Otto. "Is this enough to become 2-Star slaves? Or should we keep beating up these fools?"

"…" Otto narrowed his eyes. "Open the door."

The guard unlocked and opened the door.

"Very well, follow me." Otto walked up the stairs.

Julian and Kiernan exchanged glances before following after them. They didn't move that far away from 1-Star quarters, but soon arrived at a hallway with about a dozen locked doors lining the walls.

The guard opened an empty room and then pushed the two young men.

After locking the door, Otto said, "Very well. This is 2-Star quarters. You're now 2-Star slaves; congratulations."

Julian looked around the small room and saw two raised stone "beds" right by the walls. They didn't have mattresses, only the cold hard surface.

When Kiernan looked around the hallway, he saw other slaves lying on the same cold stone bed.

"I guess they said that only 3-Star slaves and above receive proper beds." Julian took one of the stone beds and lay down.

"Well, at least we don't have to sleep on the hard ground with maggots crawling all over us." Kiernan took the other bed and lay down.

"Your training will start tomorrow, slaves," Otto said with a scoff. "Your first match hasn't been decided yet. But rest assured, it will be a brutal one."

They then left the dirty quarters that were barely better than a prison cell.

"1-Star slaves were around Low Stage Martial Champion," Julian said. "I guess we can assume 2-Star slaves to be High Stage Martial Champions. That might prove to be problematic."

"…" Kiernan opened his interface system and wondered where to assign those ten measly points.

While ten points weren't that much, if he assigned all of them in one stat, it would make a huge difference.

'Should I just put all of them into strength?' Kiernan wondered to himself. 'With greater strength, I might injure myself more since I don't have proper body conditioning.'

However, he then looked at his tattoo and had a quite crazy idea.

'Three techniques. I can use them in my fight to end the match quickly. If I increase my strength, those techniques will also become stronger. It could work.

'Even if I won't be able to defeat my opponent with those three techniques, they will still be greatly hurt.'

Kiernan's lip twitched into a smile, and then he assigned his stat points.

[Strength: 44 → 54]

"Ah!" Kiernan let out a sudden moan and felt like his muscles turned harder with power pumping into every part of his body.

It felt like the explosive power wanted to get released. He felt like punching a wall, but he feared that his punch might actually go through!

'This is strength!' Kiernan's eyes widened. 'I'll now have to choose three techniques that perfectly utilize my new strength!'

He looked to his right and saw that Julian was sleeping on the stone bed. It was as if he had not a care in the world.

'He is sleeping. I should start testing some of my techniques. I know that I can't use my True Iron Style techniques, but I can try out some of my other moves.'

…

The following morning, the 2-Star slaves gathered in the training yard, overseen by the balcony, where Otto and a couple of his guests were watching.

"As you can see, my slaves are thirsty for battles," Otto said. "Are there really no spots for us in the fighting pit?"

"It's really hard, y'know," a larger man said. "The crowd has become very demanding. They aren't just satisfied with anyone anymore, and Loid's barracks have quite an impressive lineup of 2-Star slaves."

"Loid, hmph!" Otto leaned on the balcony's railing and laughed. "All his slaves are sissies with pretty faces and no real bravery."

"You say that, but his slaves have a good track record," a beautiful, blond-haired woman said while fanning her face. "You have a couple of 3-Star slaves, don't you? Can we see them?"

"…" Otto looked uglier for a moment. "They haven't healed from their previous injuries, sadly."

A month ago, three of his 3-Star slaves died, and only two survived, barely, with heavy injuries. It would take a few more months before they were able to fight again.

Unfortunately for their barracks, they didn't have even one 4-Star slave among them. It was rare to have one either way, but once during the peak of his fame, his barracks had three 4-Star slaves!

One of them ended up becoming a 5-Star slave and fought for his freedom in the ultimate showdown. However, he lost the fight, and after that it was just downhill for his barracks.

'Right, them!' Otto looked towards the two young men, who were sparring together.

'Mael owed me a favor. I told him to bring me two good slaves, and I believed in his judgment because of his special eyes. He brought me these two, and they immediately defeated everyone in 1-Star quarters.

'They might be able to light a fire in the crowd's hearts.'

"What about them?" Otto pointed at them and said. "My newest slaves. Believe it or not, they were 1-Star slaves for about ten minutes before they decided to fight every 1-Star slave and managed to leave all of them bruised and unconscious. I decided to promote them!"

"Hmm?" The large man said. "Low Stage Martial Champion and High Stage Martial Fighter? Is that a joke? How are they 2-Star slaves?"

"Ignore their ranks!" Otto said. "They're special, and I don't think the fighting pits have seen someone as young as them fight too many times, right?"

"Hmm…"