Sorcerer’s Handbook

Chapter 17

Ashe's first impression of the Deathmatch Society was that it was dimly lit.

Unlike the brightly lit prison elsewhere, there was very little lighting in the Deathmatch Society. Aside from the wrestling stage illuminated by fluorescent lights at the center, the spectator stands around were almost completely dark, as if the audience was submerged in darkness, with only the two fighters left struggling on the stage.

This was the place Ashe saw the most number of inmates. Along the way here with Langna, they had only met a few sporadic inmates. When they passed the library and the gym, Ashe caught sight of a dozen or so inmates. However, upon entering the Deathmatch Society, despite the lack of bright lights, just from the whispers he could hear with his ears and the vague shadows in the darkness, Ashe could tell there were almost a hundred people here!

"Langna, you came?"

"A new guy? Oh, the leader of the Four Pillars. Impressive, young man, to even get in touch with the Four Pillars."

"The gourmand Langna is here!"

"Langna, is that your boyfriend? You changed your taste!" A burly man teased with a snicker.

"Desmond, if you say nonsense like this again to ruin the relationship between me and my boyfriend, do you believe I will bite you to death!?" Langna angrily retorted, though he didn't sound truly angry, but rather somewhat shy.

However, the laughter around them quieted down. The burly man named Desmond hurriedly put his palms together and apologized, "Haha, Langna, I didn't mean that. By the way, why not introduce the new guy?"

Langna humphed, seeming to have decided not to pursue the matter further, so Desmond finally let out a sigh of relief and hurriedly shrank back into the crowd.

Seeing this, Ashe silently distanced himself a little from Langna.

He had already sensed that if he randomly picked out a bald man who looked "weak and easy to bully", that person could very likely be the notorious killer in this prison.

"Ashe Heath, just came in a couple days ago. He wants to participate in a deathmatch, so I brought him to take a look," Langna said with a laugh. "Who's fighting now?"

"‘Diamond’ Taig and ‘Blind Beast’ Ruduo."

"Ruduo, how could he... Oh, Taig is an old-timer after all, how could he not let go of even that bit of Contribution? Didn't you guys challenge Ruduo?"

"Of course we wouldn't let go of this fat meat! But Ruduo hasn't seen Taig in a deathmatch before, and felt Taig would be easier to bully. Moreover, Taig's stakes were high, so..."

Ashe walked up to the front of the spectator stands, watching the one-sided thrashing below on the stage – the elderly white-haired old man was brawling bare-handed against the muscular, green-skinned beastman.

Yes, it was completely one-sided. Even though both sides were attacking unguardedly, the white-haired old man didn't even flinch despite being punched by the huge, pot-sized fists of the beastman. His skin didn't even show a red mark, as if the beastman was only using a baby's strength to pound his chest.

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On the other hand, every punch from the white-haired old man was as heavy as a thousand pounds, producing the sound of shattering rocks when landing on the beastman, making one's scalp tingle just from hearing it.

When Ashe arrived, the beastman was already beaten brutally, without a single unharmed spot on his body. He had lost several teeth, and his eyes were swollen like slits.

With a heavy blow, the beastman was sent flying several meters, smacking loudly against the wall and leaving a trail of blood as he slid down the wall, unable to get up.

However, the white-haired old man glanced up and rushed forward to continue raining down punches on the beastman.

He was like a bath attendant scrubbing old mud, pounding away chunks of the beastman's flesh and blood with each fist.

Ashe couldn't bear to watch: "Isn't the win already determined? Why hasn't it ended?"

"Win determined? Not yet." Someone beside laughed and said, "Try reaching your hand out."

Ashe did as suggested and reached out his hand, only to feel an invisible wall of air. Ripples spread out upon contact with the intangible barrier, revealing the force fields suspended in the air that completely isolated the lower stage and the surrounding spectator stands.

"Only when one side dies or is completely knocked out will the isolation barrier dissipate. Then the medical staff will appear from that door and drag the corpse to the infirmary for treatment."

The person pointed to a very inconspicuous door inside the stage: "As long as the barrier remains, you absolutely can't let your guard down and must keep overwhelming and crushing your opponent."

"Also, there is no surrender in the deathmatch. The loser only has two possibilities: death, or losing consciousness."

"Don't know how many arrogant fools who looked down on their opponents, thought this was just a friendly match, stopped mid-fight, and then got killed in reverse by the opponent, losing huge amounts of Contribution and rising to the top of the Judgment sequence in one go... Though that's the purpose of the Deathmatch Society: transferring Contribution that doesn't belong to you to those more deserving."

Boom!

Hearing this muffled punch, Ashe felt like even the hot pot base of the beastman had been punched out. He couldn't help but ask, "Can he really be saved?"

"He hasn't lost consciousness yet. But even if he can be saved, it'd be no different from death. Look above."

Ashe lifted his head, only then realizing the glowing area on the ceiling was actually a display screen, showing:

"Taig Noris bets 35 Contribution"

"VS"

"Ruduo Ya Attacks bets 5 Contribution"

Ashe exclaimed in surprise, "The stakes are unequal! Why is Taig betting so much?"

"As long as both parties agree, unequal stakes can still be set." The person slowly said, "And it's rare for deathmatches to have equal stakes."

"According to the rules, every time you participate in a deathmatch, you have to bet more Contribution than the previous match. Taig has fought 34 previous deathmatches, so he has to bet 35 Contribution this time."

"Then is this Ruduo's 5th match?"

"No, it's his 10th. Every inmate starts with 50 Contribution points. With the rule of raising the bet by 1 Contribution per match, he bet a total of 45 Contribution in the first 9 matches, leaving only 5 for the 10th match."

The person beside coldly laughed and said, "So if Ruduo loses this match, he will have zero Contribution left and can no longer earn Contribution through deathmatches. Unless he can pull out gold coins from his own stomach, he will forever be first on the Judgment sequence."

Ashe nodded in understanding, and suddenly realized, "That means he lost all 9 previous matches!?"

"That's why he's called ‘Blind Beast’ Ruduo. He always chooses opponents he can't beat."

Boom!

With a explosive bang, the beastman's head seemed about to burst. At the same time, the screen on the ceiling dinged, displaying the words "Winner Determined".

The barrier around the stage vanished instantly, and the door below opened with three people in crow masks and black robes entering the stage. Without even a stretcher, they directly dragged the beastman corpse away.

"The old man is just too nasty, tricking the beastman out of his Contribution."

"How is that trickery? I knew from the start the old man wouldn't be easy to deal with. Ruduo isn't just poor in judging opponents, his brain isn't good either. Just use your toenails to think - which elderly, women, or children could possibly be nice people here?"

"How many has this been for the old man?"

"From the day I came in, the old man has taken out at least five."

"Old man, you already have so much Contribution. Next time leave these opportunities to us youngsters. That beast was really something too. Since it's just giving away Contribution, it'd have been better to give it to me."

Amidst the noisy, bustling crowd in the darkness, the white-haired old man used a towel to wipe the blood from his fists. He suddenly coughed heavily twice, coughing out several mouthfuls of bloody phlegm, and cried out in terror, "That beastman's fists were quite powerful. I think I'm injured internally..."

"Who would believe you!"

The crowd roared in unison. It seemed they had witnessed people falling for this scam before being tricked by the old man's repeated pig-eating-tiger acts.

"He is strong on this stage."

Ashe turned to the right and saw the Swordswoman had appeared again.

Moreover, unlike the others, the lack of light didn't affect her at all. She seemed able to glow on her own to dispel the darkness, sitting conspicuously on the railing.

Even more oddly, she had changed into a different outfit that looked like a tight training swordplay uniform with her red hair tied up, becoming a gallant female swordsman.

Ashe blurted out without thinking, "Why is he so strong?"

"Because only offensive rights are enabled on this stage, but arcane energy output is still restricted."

The person beside and the Swordswoman spoke in unison.

The Swordswoman glanced at Ashe covering his mouth and continued, "There are many types of mages - crafters, warriors, scholars, healers... But most mages can only control magic spirits through arcane energy. As long as their arcane energy output is restricted, mages are no different from ordinary people."

"But a small number of mages still possess strength superior to mortals even without magic spirits - those are the martial mages."

"In general, any mage involved in physical cultivation can be called a martial mage, such as swordsmages, fistmages, gunmages, spearmages, axemages... With the right weapons, they can also fight multitudes. But compared to physique, they only have a technical advantage and their physical fitness is not much better than ordinary people."

"However, one type of martial mage strengthens their body, even modifying their flesh and blood structure with magic spirits, wielding themselves as weapons to obtain nearly crushing power. For this type of martial mage, even without magic spirits, the enhancements remain, and being in a prison that restricts magic spirits allows their advantage to be maximized!"

"These martial mages are called - Masochist mages."

"Their flesh and blood has been tormented until the body is no longer just flesh and blood."

Ashe looked over and saw the white-haired old man brushing his fingers against the railing as he left the stage, actually scraping off flakes from the railing!

'Diamond' Taig...so that's what it meant!

"Now that you're here, hurry up and start fighting." The Swordswoman said, "Just don't fight that old man. Oh right, your first match should be against a bare-handed opponent, and you should be bare-handed too."

"Why?"

"Because your body is too weak. If you directly use a real sword, you'd probably be crippled after a few swings. And if the opponent only uses fists, you at least have a chance to spar for a few rounds, buying time for combat experience transfer." The Swordswoman said with arms crossed, "What I fear most is you getting your sword seized by the opponent and then decapitated in one move - to avoid such eye-poking scenes, go bare-handed for the first match."

"I'm not expecting you to know how to fight, but you should at least know how to get beat up, right?"

Ashe readily accepted the Swordswoman's advice and asked the person who had been chatting with him, "I'd like to participate in a deathmatch, preferably against a bare-handed opponent. Do you have any recommendations?"

"Bare-handed combat? You've asked the right person, brother. I specialize in bare-handed combat. How about a match against me? I guarantee I won't bully you."

"Sure, sure! But since this is my first deathmatch, I can only bet 1 Contribution point. Even if you want to trick me, you wouldn't earn much." Ashe joked.

"Don't worry, brother. I won't only not earn your Contribution, I'll even give you Contribution. I'm very weak, after all--"

At this moment, the lights in the Deathmatch Society suddenly turned on fully, the darkness on the spectator stands swallowed up by the glare, brightly lit.

Only now did Ashe realize the "kind stranger" who had been chatting with him was actually a familiar face he had met not long ago.

"After all, even you wanted to give my face a punch."

Igor looked at Ashe and smiled, "We meet again, Ashe with the cute fists."