The armored guard dragged Lainus through the marketplace's maze of people and stalls without slowing.

  Lainus's head scraped against the ground multiple times, striking hard rocks and uneven cobblestones. Pain flared with each sudden impact on his head, but he kept silent, gritting his teeth as he struggled to raise his head just enough to avoid the worst of it.

  Lainus's eyes kept darting around, scouting the area, searching for any opening to escape. But the guard's iron grip didn't loosen a bit.

  'Asshole! Just loosen your hand for one second!' he cursed internally.

  As the guard continued hauling him, Lainus looked around him. It was his first time seeing the city up close; he wasn't looking at it from the cage between iron bars anymore. Though he couldn't truly enjoy the view while being violently dragged across the rough cobblestones, he managed to catch glimpses of it.

  As he was moved deeper into the marketplace, Lainus caught sight of things he couldn't explain. Artifacts suspended in midair above workshop tables, defying gravity without any visible mechanism. Strange relics surrounded by shimmering distortions in the air itself. Armors crafted from materials he'd never seen, some pieces that looked almost organic, others glowing faintly as if powered by internal energy. Weapons whose designs made no practical sense, yet their edges gleamed sharp enough to cut through sight itself.

  As they crossed a wider street, two city guards noticed them. Their eyes sharpened, hands moving instinctively toward their weapons.

  For a moment, Lainus thought they might intervene.

  Then their gazes dropped to his neck.

  To the collar.

  Their expressions shifted. Recognition. Understanding.

  He was a slave.

  Their hands relaxed. They turned away without a word, as if they'd seen nothing at all.

  'Of course. Child abuse in broad daylight, and everyone just looks away as if nothing happened...'

  He felt a bitter, familiar feeling rise in his chest.

  'Now that I think about it, what did I expect? It's not much different from Earth, after all. The only difference is that here, they don't bother pretending to care.'

  The guard continued dragging him forward.

  After several minutes of rough handling, they reached a large building near the edge of the marketplace district.

  It was large, three stories tall, made of solid stone, with iron-reinforced doors and barred windows on the lower levels. A sign hung above the entrance, carved wood painted in faded gold — Lainus couldn't read it because he didn't know how to read these strange letters, nor did the old body's host seem to have any knowledge of learning them.

  The guard pushed through the entrance without knocking.

  Inside, the building was surprisingly well-maintained. Polished wooden floors. Furniture that looked expensive. Paintings on the walls, landscapes, portraits of wealthy-looking people, scenes of conquest and glory.

  And slaves.

  Dozens of them.

  Some carried trays of food and drink. Others scrubbed floors or polished furniture. A few stood perfectly still against the walls, waiting to be called upon. All of them wore collars. All of them moved with practiced efficiency, as if they were born for this purpose — who knew exactly what would happen if they didn't.

  Seeing all this, Lainus remained indifferent.

  'Huh... This is most likely where they sell trained slaves or the ones from the cages to the wealthy buyers. This business seems quite lucrative. Not bad.'

  His eyes continued scanning the room, noting the efficiency, the wealth on display, the practiced movements of every slave.

  'They're professional. Organized. This isn't some back-alley operation, this is a legitimate enterprise.'

  A cold, calculating thought crossed his mind.

  'I should pay attention. Learn how this business works. If I ever get free, I'll need wealth to survive in this world. And clearly... there's high demand for this business in this city.'

  Lainus had always thought three steps ahead of the present moment — weighing every possibility he could think of in any situation he was put in, predicting outcomes, and taking the path that would serve him best.

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  His foresight had no moral judgment. No disgust at any idea.

  Just pure pragmatism.

  For him, knowledge was survival. Even if it came from the people who enslaved him.

  He'd never understood people who refused to learn from their enemies ways. To survive, you needed to absorb everything. The cruelty of your enemies, the generosity of your allies, the mistakes of the foolish. These were all raw materials. Anyone could build strength from them, if they were willing.

  The guard didn't pause. He dragged Lainus through the main hall, past several closed doors, and out through a rear exit that led to an open courtyard.

  The courtyard was large, maybe fifty meters across, enclosed by thick, high stone walls. The ground was solid, stained dark in places that looked suspiciously like old blood. Weapon racks lined the walls, filled with practice swords, spears, staffs, and other implements Lainus didn't recognize.

  In the middle of the courtyard stood a group of youngsters, along with a few who looked like adults, iron collars locked around their necks, practicing repeated stances with wooden weapons in hand.

  In front of them stood a woman, tall and muscular. Her arms were thick with corded muscle, her shoulders broad, her stance solid and grounded. She wore a simple sleeveless tunic and loose pants that revealed countless scars etched across her skin. Her hair was tied back in a severe braid, her face hard and weathered like stone, her eyes sharp and assessing. She was most likely the instructor, training those weak slaves to use weapons.

  She glanced at the guard approaching with cold, assessing eyes.

  The guard stopped a few feet from her and, without warning, threw Lainus forward.

  Lainus hit the ground hard, palms scraping against solid ground, the impact jarring through his already exhausted body.

  The muscular woman didn't move to help him. She simply stared down at him, her expression unreadable.

  "A new awakened slave?" Her voice was rough.

  "Yes," the guard replied. "Master says you should train him as much as you can before the tournament."

  "As much as I can? There are only two weeks left, and you want me to train a scrawny slave to fight in a competitive tournament?" the muscular woman replied in a mocking, harsh tone. "He'll die from the first strike and bring nothing but shame to my name!"

  "Miss Nina, please don't worry about such things. Master has promised that as long as you can get any of them into the top ten, he will reward you handsomely, enough that you'll never have to worry about your future career." the guard replied respectfully.

  Nina crossed her arms.

  "Vek's got a sense of humor, I'll give him that." her lips curled into something that might have been a smile. Or a sneer. It was hard to tell.

  The armored guard didn't reply. He turned back and left without another word.

  Nina's eyes dropped to the slave before her, narrowing slightly. It was a fragile, smelly, black-haired boy with dark, pitless eyes. His bones could be seen through his skin. His ragged clothes were dirty and mostly torn. His skin was badly scratched from the violent hauling. He barely holding himself upright.

  Lainus pushed himself up slowly, his arms shaking under his own weight. His body, especially the skin on his back, was badly hurt.

  It took several attempts before he could push himself fully upright, and even then he swayed slightly before steadying himself. His dark eyes rose to meet hers.

  It lasted only a moment before he let them fall again.

  "U-Uhm... W-Where am I?" Lainus forced the words out, his voice trembling.

  His throat no longer burned with that searing heat, he could speak again. He quickly adopted a frightened tone, letting his body tremble as he looked up at her with wide, uncertain eyes.

  Nina took a deep breath, as if clearing her head, and replied in a flat, matter-of-fact tone.

  "You're currently in the White Harbor Mercantile training grounds. You're going to compete in a tournament for young awakened mystics held by the city lord in two weeks. I'll be the one instructing you within that time. My job is to make sure you somehow manage to survive your opponents. And not embarrass me in the process."

  Annoyance flashed in her eyes, but she answered regardless. Training slaves was her responsibility, and that included explaining the basics — no matter how tedious.

  "S-So... I-I will be training here with weapons to fight...?" Lainus replied in a fragile, trembling voice, his eyes not daring to meet the muscular woman's gaze directly.

  "Yes, that's the case for most trainees here. But you've just awakened, you don't even have a Spiritual Ability yet. Before any of this matters, you need one. Abilities are what truly separate a mystic from mortals."

  She opened her palm. fingers relaxed, as if she were catching something falling from the sky.

  A strange yet familiar energy began to radiate from her hand. It felt like the essence his Essence Stone had absorbed during his awakening — similar, yet fundamentally different. His essence had been pale white, faint and unsteady, flickering like a dying candle flame. In contrast, Nina's essence was deep blue, dense and fluid, moving like slow currents beneath the ocean's surface.

  The essence flowed outward, circling around her hand before forming in Nina's palm, coalescing rapidly from the moving energy.

  A small sphere materialized in seconds — barely larger than a marble. Its shell was smoky white shot through with veins of deep purple, mostly transparent. Within it floated the shape of a very small, green-furred wolf curled in slumber, wisps of shadow trailing from its form. One golden eye half-open, fixed on distant horizons.

  At the wolf's heart was a pinprick of void-like darkness. The shadows close to Nina's hand seemed to lean toward it, drawn by an invisible pull.

  The formation took only a blink of an eye.

  Lainus stared at it, his mind racing.

  'A Spiritual Orb. The crystallized form of an ability before it becomes a Spiritual Ability. I've heard rumors talking about these, they're valuable. Very valuable.'

  Nina extended her hand toward him.

  "Here. This is a Spiritual Orb. Absorb it into your spiritual core to be able to use its spiritual ability." her tone carried the flatness of someone who had explained this many times and expected to explain it several more before the day was through. "Train with the ability it gives you. Once you've managed to use it consistently, I'll give you another."

  Lainus reached out with trembling hands, he was still playing the frightened slave role, and carefully took the orb from her palm.

  It was cool to the touch. Smooth. And the moment his fingers closed around it, he felt the faint pulse of essence within it.

  He analyzed the orb for a few seconds then looked up at Nina, his expression uncertain.

  "U-Umm... H-How do I... absorb it?"

  Nina sighed, clearly annoyed at having to explain the basics.

  "Press it against your chest. Your spiritual core will do the rest. Just don't resist the process; it'll feel strange at first, but you will get used to it."