"Where are we going now, Jiu?"
"No, no, Qin An's Wu, we'll take you to a good place."
Lars chuckled, and even Geoff managed a strange smile that, to me, was indescribably lewd.
Could it be *that* kind of place? My heart pounded, a mix of nervousness and anticipation—was my 20-plus years of virgin life finally coming to an end?
"Where exactly are we going?"
Doug walked ahead with his head held high and chest puffed out. I quietly asked Geoff beside me.
"North District."
"Where in the North District?"
Could it be the legendary Red Light District? My eyes lit up.
"Training Ground," Geoff said concisely.
Me: "..."
Cough cough, where did you all think I was going? Why are you looking at me with that kind of gaze? I'm not that casual. Actually, I already knew they were taking me to the Training Ground. I was just testing everyone's lewdness index...
...
Before even entering the North District, I could already feel the fervent aura filling the air above, as if hundreds of thousands of troops were drilling inside. The entire air vibrated with this fervent shouting and the clash of Weapons.
Barbarians with thick arms and strong legs, Paladins with solid muscles, tall and slender Amazons, and some seemingly frail Rogue Mercenaries. The men were bare-chested, each one powerful and strong. Most of the women wore only tight clothing, their figures either hot or petite, each with their own charm, making people (just you, actually) nosebleed from looking. Unfortunately, in a world like the Dark Continent where survival is uncertain, survival is the fundamental goal. The attractiveness of beautiful women was much smaller compared to the original world. Just seeing those big men training diligently, ignoring the beautiful women who passed by, and those women in tight clothing also didn't seem to value their own beauty highly. Here, strong women were far more proud and eye-catching than beautiful women.
Doug told me that the Residential District in the North District had a large number of Training Grounds, and these Training Grounds were also divided into four major areas.
For example, the area I am currently in, the south side of the North District, is the Training Ground for Melee Adventurers and most powerful Mercenaries. Some people who are about to undergo Job Advancement also occasionally come here to train.
The west side of the North District is a training place for people. Most people who dream of becoming strong, or orphans who have lost their families and are forced to join training, will come there at a very young age to receive the most brutal training. In the end, the most powerful and those with Aptitude are listed as Reserve Adventurers. The weak ones have an obligation to join the Rogue Encampment and become Soldiers.
As for the mid-level trainees, they are unable to undergo Job Advancement to become Adventurers, but they are much stronger than Soldiers. So they choose to become free Mercenaries. After that, they can continue to choose whether to join other Parties and train together, or venture out alone. However, no matter how they choose, there is only one ultimate goal: to hope they can become stronger. Then, if they are lucky, they might be chosen by powerful Adventurers, sign a Contract, and become their exclusive Mercenaries. You see, having a powerful Adventurer by your side is far safer than fighting with a Mercenary Team, and Leveling Up is also faster. Where do the countless Corpses and Bones in the Den of Evil come from? Most are accumulated from the corpses and bones of those Mercenaries who weren't hired by Adventurers and had to choose to venture out alone or Party up together!
The northernmost side of the North District is the Training Ground for Magic Classes. It's not as noisy there as it is here. Although Mages also need to train their bodies, their most important course is continuous practice of Meditation. Most of the trainees there are Commoners. People trained within Great Families have good Meditation Rooms and Class Change teachers at home and don't need to go there at all.
The east side of the North District is where some Ranged Classes practice. Most courses are Archery and Spear Throwing practice. Of course, there are also some Wizards practicing Spell Accuracy there.
I was currently wearing a Mage's Cloak, wrapping my entire body, so you couldn't tell the quality of the Equipment on me. And after a month of Training, the Killing Intent unintentionally revealed in my eyes and brows made me finally have a trace of the Aura that an Adventurer should have. Plus, being with Doug, who was somewhat famous in the Rogue Encampment (I think it wasn't because of his Strength, but that loud voice), no one treated me as a newbie anymore. At least not like before I went out for Training, where they even revealed a trace of contempt in their indifference.
I looked around, unable to take it all in. It was usually easy to tell the Class of these Adventurers from their clothing and Aura, but once they took off their upper clothing and were bare-chested, Barbarians were still easy to tell, after all, their tall build was there, making it hard not to distinguish them. It was just Druids and Paladins that were harder to distinguish. Although I knew Druids symbolized natural peace and Paladins represented justice and rules, I still had no way to judge their Class from the Aura they revealed. Sigh, such a newbie.
After observing for a while, I couldn't help but ask.
"What should Druids train in?"
Doug turned his head and looked at me with an "Are you a newbie?" Gaze.
"You Druids are relatively strange. You can both train your physique here and go north to Meditate and practice Mental Strength. Haven't you trained here before? Could it be you went out for a month and burned out your brain, not even knowing this?"
"Haha, how could that be?" I chuckled sheepishly. I really can't control this mouth of mine; I want to ask about everything I see. Even though I myself am a Druid, I'm asking others about Druid Matters. Isn't this just inviting suspicion?
"For the past month or so, do you all often come here to train?"
"Yeah."
Doug nodded. "Although such Training is already not very useful for us Adventurers, to prevent our Bones from rusting when we go out, we still have to come often to warm up our bodies. Besides..."
Damn, Big Mouth Doug actually started leaving people in suspense! This world is too crazy...
Not long after, Doug and Geoff led me to our destination—a large Outdoor Arena. It was surrounded by people. Some were shouting loudly, cheering for the people on stage, while others sat around in twos and threes placing bets on the outcome. The noisy atmosphere, the vulgar curses, the dark and true side of humanity, was fully revealed here.
"This is our Rogue Encampment's proud Combat Arena. Those who can step onto the Arena are true warriors."
Seeing that there was nothing left to keep me in suspense, Doug immediately started explaining to me incessantly.
I looked at the Arena above, at the two Barbarians fighting tooth and nail.
"Aren't you afraid of something unexpected happening in such intense combat?"
"Absolutely not."
Doug shook his head. "Generally speaking, the situation where the strong challenge the weak won't occur, nor will the weak overestimate themselves and challenge the strong. The Strength of both sides in the battle is similar, and the method for determining victory and defeat is the Half-Health Judgment System."
"Half-Health Judgment System?"
"Yeah, it means the person whose Life first drops to half loses."
Oh, like this, for two people with similar Strength, there is indeed no danger.
"This Arena is a good thing. Even if you can't go up and experience the passionate combat, just watching the matches between Experts can also yield significant gains."
Doug looked at the two Barbarians tightly entangled on the Arena with shining eyes.
To be honest, I hadn't seen the combat style of Barbarians yet. Although I had seen Doug and Geoff's combat before, the targets were all Fallen. When dealing with these little things, what style is needed?
The two Barbarians on the stage at this time were clearly both above Level 12. It's just that the combat styles of the two were very different. One specialized in Combat Skills, while the other mainly put their Skill Points into the Warcry Skill Tree.
Both had learned Double Swing. The two Weapons in their hands swung like terrifying rolling steel wheels. The slightly taller Barbarian, who specialized in the Combat Skill tree, clearly had the advantage in Melee. Every now and then, a Bash knocked the other several meters away, winning bursts of cheers. While the shorter Barbarian, his Bash could only make his opponent retreat a few steps.
Barbarians proficient in Melee Skills were indeed a bit fiercer in the early stages. Swinging two axes, plus High-Level Bash, that was truly terrifying.
But this doesn't mean that Barbarians proficient in Warcries were completely defenseless. The "Howl" learned in the first stage of the Barbarian Warcry Skill Tree, although it couldn't make his opponent flee in fear, could make the opponent fall into a brief Confusion. Their Accuracy dropped quite a bit. A Barbarian's Attack Rating was already not high, so after being startled like this, his Attack Rating was imaginable. However, the duration of the Confusion was not long.
While the shorter Barbarian had already cast "Shout," learned in the second stage, on himself, making his own Defense superior to the opponent's.
After the first stage Skill "Howl," it was immediately followed by "Taunt"—which could greatly reduce the opponent's Judgment.
So now the two were fighting back and forth, victory and defeat were only a hair's breadth apart.
(end of chapter)