Dragon Slaying Sword Qi

After Harrot burst out and beat the "Hyena" to death, he finally let out a breath. At once, he felt awful all over. He had felt nothing while he had been concentrating every ounce of his focus on attacking.

Now that he had returned to normal, his vision darkened, waves of pain wracked his body, and he could not even remain standing. He collapsed onto the ground.

His health in the system panel had fallen to single digits. Although he had not suffered much retaliation from the magical beast while beating it down...

The violent exertion had torn open his wounds again, and the heavy bleeding had still cost him quite a bit of health.

His physical strength and mental energy had also been severely depleted. Even his vision was blurry, and his head felt heavy as he desperately wanted to sleep.

Harrot understood that this was the aftereffect of massive blood loss combined with Physical Burst.

He had beaten a magical beast weighing over three hundred jin into a pile of flesh with his bare hands. Even someone pumped full of stimulants might not have been able to fight that fiercely.

The moment the match ended, The Bald Man rushed in with several doctors to stop Harrot's bleeding and bandage him. He shouted nervously:

"Hang in there, brother! You'll be fine! The troll couldn't kill you, so you'll definitely pull through this too!"

The Bald Man turned and warned the doctors:

"Be gentle! Don't fucking think you can cut corners just because he's a slave. If you screw this up, I'll kill you!"

Looking at Harrot's grave injuries, guilt and sorrow surged up from The Bald Man's heart. If it had not been for him, Harrot would not have offended Scarface so viciously and been assigned such a nearly certain death match.

Though Harrot was in terrible condition, he remained fairly clear-headed. Looking at the anxious, flustered The Bald Man, he replied, "I'm fine. I won't die. I'll be better after some rest."

Hearing Harrot's answer reassured The Bald Man somewhat. He personally carried Harrot to the gladiators' treatment area and had the doctors treat him immediately.

Harrot was not concerned about the treatment. With the system, he would recover almost completely after sleeping for two or three days.

Lying on the hospital bed, Harrot suddenly realized that this was the first time he had slept in a bed since coming to this world. It felt incredibly comfortable, and he drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up, it was already the next day. Harrot was still lying in the hospital bed, covered in bandages from head to toe like a mummy.

Harrot first opened his attribute panel to check it. He had risen to Level 6, and his health had become 2550. His maximum health had decreased by two points.

Massive blood loss, severe injuries: -2

This was the system's explanation. It made sense. His body was only partially datafied; it still possessed a human physiological structure.

At the time, the muscles and skin all over his body had been cut and torn apart. He had lost nearly half his blood. Surviving had already been a miracle.

An ordinary person would have been sent off for cremation long ago. Losing two points of maximum health was perfectly normal.

Harrot began to feel fortunate. Thankfully, that magical beast's magic had been countered by him, and it had been a stupid creature with little intelligence. That was the only reason he had managed to turn defeat into victory and survive by sheer luck.

Who knew what freakish magical beast Scarface would arrange for him to fight next? What if the next one simply hit him with a Fire Blast and blew him into pieces?

The system might be miraculous, but it was not invincible. Harrot did not think he could still undergo "revival from near death" after being blown to bits.

I have to think of something! Harrot lay in bed and began to ponder.

Harrot was actually overthinking it. How could a magical beast like the "Hyena," capable of casting intermediate magic, be something Scarface could casually buy?

This "Hyena" had only been captured and sold to the Gladiatorial Arena through a lucky coincidence. Under normal circumstances, the Gladiatorial Arena would never receive such a magical beast, nor did it have enough money to purchase them frequently.

Only weak magical beasts capable of casting low-level magic were captured and sold in large numbers. Terrifying magical beasts like the "Hyena," capable of using intermediate magic, were creatures no one wanted to provoke.

Even nobles who had awakened their bloodlines would only set out to subjugate such magical beasts if they threatened the safety of their territories.

Every magical beast's magic was unknown. Who knew whether one might run into a freak by bad luck and be killed instantly?

For example, the "Leopard" magical beast that had destroyed Harrot's village would have wiped out even an elite Knight Order sent to subjugate it.

Capturing one alive was far more difficult than killing one. More importantly, a magical beast's offspring did not inherit its mutations, and the creatures themselves were extremely violent and difficult to tame.

The main value of magical beasts lay in their flesh and blood. When prepared into dishes with medicinal herbs, they could greatly aid nobles in awakening and strengthening their bloodlines. A living magical beast was not worth much more than a dead one.

Unaware of all this, Harrot racked his brains and came up with a solution: pretend to be injured!

Given the injuries he had sustained this time, no one would suspect a thing if he spent one or two months recovering in peace.

Scarface could only arrange Man-Beast Combat within reasonable limits. Sending an injured man to fight a magical beast in the Gladiatorial Arena would absolutely violate its rules.

As for one or two months later? Harrot did not think Scarface would live that long.

Thinking of this, Harrot hurriedly stopped removing his bandages and continued lying in bed while pretending to be severely injured.

When The Bald Man learned that Harrot was awake, he came to visit. The moment he entered, he happily shouted, "I knew you wouldn't die! You're one tough bastard!"

Harrot chatted idly with The Bald Man. When The Bald Man asked about his injuries, Harrot signaled that he wanted to speak privately.

The Bald Man did not waste words. With a wave of his hand, he sent everyone else in the room away. Harrot's room was a private one specially arranged by The Bald Man.

As long as it did not involve Man-Beast Combat, The Bald Man was the local tyrant of the Gladiatorial Arena, with considerable authority.

"My injuries are mostly healed. I just want to pretend I'm still hurt so I can avoid fighting magical beasts again. Boss, you have to help me!"

Harrot did not hide anything and told The Bald Man directly. First, he trusted The Bald Man. Second, there was no way to conceal it anyway; the doctors would know everything as soon as they examined him.

This was not the first time The Bald Man had witnessed Harrot's absurd recovery ability. After being surprised for a moment, he accepted it.

The Bald Man nodded and agreed. "Alright, that's a good idea. That bastard Scarface is deliberately targeting you. There's no need to face it head-on."

"Count will come to inspect the Gladiatorial Arena next week. I'll definitely persuade him!"

The Bald Man agreed to let Harrot feign injury, but told him it did not matter if he removed the bandages. The gladiators were under his authority; whether Harrot was healed or not was his decision. There was no need to put on any disguise.

From then on, Harrot spent his days reading and his nights training. Training outside during the day would expose the state of his injuries.

Although The Bald Man said it did not matter, Harrot still thought it was better to keep a low profile.

Harrot also learned more about the nobles' Heroic Bloodline.

Legend had it that Heroic Bloodlines were rewards bestowed by the great sun upon the ancestors of nobles after they had accomplished great deeds.

Nobles could not only possess powerful strength themselves, but could also share that strength with others, usually the Knights who belonged to them.

Those who received shared power were not as strong as nobles who had awakened their bloodlines, but they still experienced enormous improvement.

People called this the Glory of the Knight. Nobles and Knights together formed humanity's group of extraordinary powers.

As for Harrot's own growth in strength, after the battle with the "Hyena," he reached Level 6 with the experience he had already accumulated. He added his attribute points to agility, raising it to 12, while Weapon Mastery rose to Lv. 4.

When Harrot's reading progress in the Sword Fighting Manual reached 99%, he got stuck again. After several rounds of practical combat training with The Bald Man, he finally gained a complete understanding and finished reading the Sword Fighting Manual.

Weapon Mastery rose to Lv. 5, and he also mastered another skill: Dragon Slaying Sword Qi.