Winning Streak

Harrot trained until noon before lying down to rest. He worked extremely hard to improve his strength. Heaven knew what Scarface would arrange for him to fight next; the stronger he was, the safer he would be. After resting for a while, he planned to find someone to spar with and gain experience.

After resting for half an hour, Harrot was full of energy again. His semi-digitized body was truly terrifying. The only problem was that he felt a little hungry. Gladiators only got two meals a day, and he still was not used to it.

Stone, who had been brimming with fighting spirit since early that morning, saw that Harrot had finished his basic training and was nearly done resting. He quickly walked over to Harrot.

After thinking it over before going to sleep last night, he felt that although Harrot was far stronger than him, he did not have absolutely no chance of winning. He wanted to challenge Harrot again today.

Stone said nervously, "Harrot, I didn't use all my strength yesterday. Please give me another chance to challenge you!"

He was worried that Harrot would not want to fight a defeated opponent like him again, so he was somewhat nervous.

Harrot had been wanting to spar with other gladiators to earn some experience and level up, so he replied, "Sure. I was just looking for someone to spar with."

When Stone heard that Harrot had agreed, he cried out happily, "Alright, I'll wait for you. This time, I'll use a shorter two-handed sword. Don't underestimate me. Yesterday, I was too arrogant and deliberately competed with you in strength. This time, I'm going to show you what I can really do!"

"Fine. Then I'll give it my all too!" Harrot prepared to spend all his attribute points, skill points, and Weapon Proficiency. His Agility had now reached 9, Weapon Mastery had risen to Lv. 3, and his two-handed weapon proficiency had reached 95 points.

Every time Weapon Proficiency passed 60 points, the free points required to increase it rose by 1. From 1 to 60 required 1 point, from 60 to 120 required 2 points, and so on.

Although he had defeated Stone yesterday, that was only because Stone had insisted on competing with him in strength. Stone's actual strength was definitely not weak. After being utterly crushed by The Bald Man last night, Harrot naturally would not underestimate his opponent.

The two stepped onto the arena, and a crowd of gladiators immediately gathered around to watch. They laughed and teased Stone. "What, you're here to get beaten up again? You still not convinced after losing yesterday?"

"Exactly. Harrot, don't go easy on him. Teach this kid a proper lesson! He got lucky and beat me a few times before, then strutted around for an entire month!"

Stone did not want to pay attention to the teasing from below the stage. Holding a five-foot greatsword, he bounced from side to side, seemingly planning to use an agile fighting style against Harrot.

Harrot, meanwhile, stood in place and swung his greatsword. After last night's combat training and the points he had added during the day, his two-handed weapon proficiency had risen from 37 to 95. His strength had increased so much that he was still somewhat unaccustomed to it.

Stone felt that he was probably no match for Harrot, so he did not stand on ceremony. He shouted, "Take this!" and attacked first.

This time, Stone did not foolishly attack with all his strength. Instead, he bent low and thrust his sword toward Harrot's lower abdomen. Although greatswords were better suited for slashing, they could still be used for thrusting, just with poorer results.

Stone was a gladiator with considerable strength and decent speed. If that sudden thrust had been aimed at yesterday's Harrot, he would probably have been hit and lost health.

However, after yesterday's intense training, Harrot had gained much more combat experience and reacted quickly. Combined with his nearly 100 points of two-handed weapon proficiency, which greatly increased the speed at which he wielded his greatsword, he narrowly knocked the thrust aside before launching a fierce counterattack.

Stone immediately retreated after his attack failed. This time, his footing was steady. After barely blocking several of Harrot's attacks, he rolled away and easily escaped Harrot's merciless barrage of slashes.

His build and strength were both inferior to Harrot's, so fighting head-on put him at a severe disadvantage. He wanted to harass Harrot by constantly attacking and swiftly evading, wearing down Harrot's focus before finding an opportunity to land a heavy blow.

After several exchanges, the situation was essentially Stone striking once and retreating, while Harrot failed to catch him.

After missing repeatedly, Harrot grew somewhat impatient. The speed and force of his greatsword swings had improved greatly, but his attacks were always seen through in advance, so missing was inevitable.

There was nothing he could do about it. The gap in combat experience between them was too great. However, Stone also had no good way to deal with Harrot.

His Agility was comparable to Harrot's, so he could not toy with Harrot as he had hoped. All his attacks were neutralized, and he was pushing himself to the limit just to evade Harrot's counterattacks.

The spectators below were all seasoned veteran gladiators, and they could see the situation clearly. They discussed the match among themselves.

"Stone has found a way to deal with Harrot. It's really hard to say who'll win this time!"

"Harrot is still too young. He needs a few more years of training before he can truly bring out his strength!"

"You've got it wrong. Stone may look like he has a slight advantage, but while his attack speed is good, his strength is too low. Harrot can take several hits, but if Stone makes one mistake and gets hit, he'll lose immediately!"

Hark could not help voicing his own opinion. His judgment was indeed seasoned.

It was like a duel between a charging assassin and a heavily armored warrior. One danced around and around without dealing any meaningful damage, while the other only needed to land a single skill to end the match.

Harrot did not want to drag the fight out for too long. He wanted to challenge more people today, so he decided to use the advice The Bald Man had given him yesterday to end the battle.

The Bald Man had taught Harrot two approaches to combat. One was to rely on his superior physical abilities and steadily overpower his opponent in a straightforward fight.

The other was to use his powerful physique and health regeneration to trade injuries for injuries and defeat his opponent.

"Stone, don't blame me for being ruthless. I urgently need experience to level up. Sorry!"

Harrot deliberately exposed an opening. After pretending to miss several swings, he began charging recklessly.

Stone saw this and thought Harrot had grown impatient and started making mistakes. He immediately prepared to counterattack.

This is a good opportunity. His footing is becoming unsteady. If I dodge one more attack, my chance will come! Stone thought excitedly.

Following the script, Harrot mindlessly charged at Stone and wildly swung his greatsword without a care. Following the script as well, Stone kept moving nimbly and rolling away from the attacks.

Harrot lost his balance, while Stone quickly got to his feet and raised his weapon to attack him.

"Harrot is getting impatient! At a time like this, he should be deciding the winner by wearing his opponent down. How can he be so reckless?"

"Stone's chance has come! Harrot doesn't have time to defend himself!"

Seeing this, most of the gladiators below believed Stone had completed a comeback, while only a few elite gladiators like Hark knew it would not be so simple.

Sorry, Harrot. Although you're stronger than me, I'm the one who wins this match! Stone felt heroic and triumphant as he swung his sword with all his strength at Harrot's completely unguarded side.

"What!" "My God, is he even human?!"

A scene that stunned all the gladiators unfolded. Harrot took that vicious blow without falling. Instead, he let out a roar, turned around, and struck Stone's shoulder with a single sword blow, sending him flying.

Stone screamed as he fell to the ground. Harrot's attack was powerful and heavy; even with a wooden sword, it was still incredibly damaging. That arm would not heal for at least a week.

Poor Stone had run into Harrot, who was practically cheating. Harrot had lost a full 12 health from that strike.

That was with Harrot's strong muscles cushioning the blow and his '+10 Golden Bell Shield' reducing the damage. On any other gladiator, it would have dealt at least 20+ damage. An ordinary person would have died on the spot.

For a normal person, 20+ health was half their life. Without a semi-digitized body, who could rapidly calm down and counterattack after losing half their life?

"Harrot!" "Harrot!"

The gladiators below saw Harrot win with that spectacular reversal and shouted his name in unison.

Harrot stood on the arena with both arms raised, accepting the glory that belonged to him. For the first time, he experienced what it felt like to be looked upon with envy and admiration.

Experience +19. That was a little higher than yesterday. It seemed Stone was in better condition today than yesterday. Harrot, the merciless experience harvester, thought to himself.

One Stone had fallen, but there were still over a dozen other gladiators he could farm for experience. Harrot stood on the arena and shouted, "I haven't had enough yet. Who else is willing to spar with me?"

The gladiators' enthusiasm had been stirred, and after watching Stone fight Harrot, they realized that Harrot was not as monstrously strong as The Bald Man.

At the very least, Harrot had weaknesses. Many outstanding gladiators stepped forward to challenge him.

In their eyes, although Harrot was strong, even Stone, who did not specialize in speed, had been able to outpace him. If they replaced Stone, they might have a chance to seize on Harrot's weakness and accomplish the feat of defeating a stronger opponent.

Gladiators had no freedom and no property. Honor was what they valued most. Faced with a difficult challenge that could earn them honor if they defeated Harrot, most were willing to give it a try.

Over the course of the afternoon, Harrot defeated more than a dozen gladiators one after another, gaining over 200 experience in total and reaching Level 3. Unfortunately, the elite gladiators were all recovering from injuries and did not come out to train. Defeating them would probably have given him more experience, though with his current strength, he might not necessarily have been able to beat them.

In the gladiatorial match where Harrot had been beaten to death shortly after transmigrating, his opponent had been a Forest Troll.

To kill that monster, The Bald Man had sent out a large number of elites. Several elite gladiators had suffered serious injuries, more than half of the advanced gladiators had died in battle, and the remaining few were bedridden and unable to get up.

The gladiators now in the Training Ground were all advanced gladiators whom The Bald Man had kept from the battle as a precaution. They were also all the advanced gladiators the Gladiatorial Arena had left.

Harrot's fights with these gladiators were unexpectedly easy. Although they were all fast, their damage was too low. Every attack only dealt -1 or -2 damage to Harrot.

This was somewhat beyond Harrot's expectations, but it also made sense. Stone had as much as 17 Strength, yet even a full-force two-handed heavy sword slash had only dealt 12 damage.

The dozen or so agile gladiators now only had a little over 10 Strength, used one-handed weapons, and, fearing Harrot's counterattacks, only dared to attack with eighty percent of their power, holding back the remaining twenty percent so they could withdraw their weapons. Naturally, they could not deal high damage to Harrot.