The man nodded and lifted up the velvet rope and gestured for Max to walk past.

Max went forward towards two large wooden doors. The floor trembled and vibrated more and more the closer he got to the entrance.

He got to the door.

This was it.

He pushed it open and stepped into a massive underground arena.

Bright white spotlights shone down on a fighting ring in the center of the large room, surrounded by seats of onlookers.

“Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!”

The crowd around him chanted.

In the ring was a burly man fighting a saber-toothed tiger, but it wasn’t a normal saber-tooth, as this creature could blow fire out of its mouth.

The tiger shot out a blast of fire. It was like a hose of flames.

The attack would have been enough to roast the opposing fighter alive if he got hit by it.

Luckily for the man, he leapt over the flames and kicked the tiger in the ribs.

The tiger slumped to the floor and the man started punching it back and forth.

Max was trying to determine what the man’s trait was and at first he couldn’t tell. Then he saw the silver glint in his arms and fists as he pounded the lion.

Holy smokes! That man could transform parts of himself into powerful metal!

POW!

The metal man’s fist broke through the flesh of the fire-breathing tiger and it yelped on the floor in defeat.

It eventually turned silver, disintegrating down to its monster core.

It was a gold color. A C-rank monster core!

Max looked on with wonder. How much would such a core improve his mana affinity?

The metal man picked it up triumphantly and raised his fists to the audience.

The crowd cheered with applause.

Max glanced around, feeling newly motivated.

It looked like he’d found a new place to properly train.

37

A new monster was brought out for the metal man to fight. It was floating spirit that looked kind of like an oversized seahorse and it was able to shoot ice shards at the man.

Max looked on with awe.

What floor did that creature come from?

Max thought about the situation further. There must be a whole business of tower climbers who capture monsters on other floors and bring them down to the tower-zone for training and entertainment purposes.

I guess this was just another way the tower-zone made up for all the things it lacked compared to the outer-rim.

The crowd cheered as the next battle round began.

Max looked around for the three students who he had followed, but he couldn’t see where they had gone.

It didn’t matter though. His next step would be to ask someone about signing up to fight.

Max approached a woman polishing glasses behind a bar.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Do you know how someone signs up to fight in the arena?”