The battle remai a stalemate for several minutes until a groan echoed from the fallen mace wielder. "Urghh," he grunted, clutg his head as he struggled to rise.

  Realizing the fight would soon bee a three-versus-one, Mikael made a risky decision. Abandoning defense, he trated all his efforts on taking down the spearman as quickly as possible.

  Dodging a sword strike, Mikael closed in on the spearman. However, he couldn’t fully evade the spear, which pierced his side, drawing blood. Mikael grunted in pain but didn’t falter. Exploiting the opening, he decapitated the spearman with a precise ssh, his bde finding the gap in the man’s neck armor.

  Thud

  The spearman’s body colpsed, and both the swordsman and the mace wielder froze in shock.

  Mikael didn’t give them time to recover. Capitalizing on their distra, he sshed at the swordsman’s right arm. Though the armor prevehe limb from being severed, Mikael’s strike was deep enough to force the swordsman to drop his on in pain.

  The mace wielder, enraged by the se, charged at Mikael with a furious roar. Anticipating the attack, Mikael waited until the st moment before creating another aura thread, eg it to the mace wielder’s attag arm.

  Using the thread, Mikael redirected the mace’s trajectory, causing it to sm into the swordsman’s chest instead.

  g

  The force of the impact dehe swordsman’s armor a him flying several meters before he colpsed, motionless.

  Horrified, the mace wielder’s rage boiled over. "I’m gonna kill you! I’m gonna kill you!" he screamed, his attacks being wild and predictable. Mikael easily exploited this, tripping him and sending him tumbling to the ground.

  As the mace wielder fell, Mikael guided his flying sword to hover just below the man’s head. The moment the mace wielder’s helmet struck the bde, it pierced through the slit in his visor, killing him instantly.

  "Ahh… Ahh… Ahh…"

  Mikael breathed heavily, not from exhaustion but from the sheer iy of the battle. He grimaced as he clutched his bleeding side and sat on the ground to recover.

  After a few minutes without any new enemies appearing, he thought ‘Maybe that guy isn’t dead yet?’ His gaze fell oionless swordsman.

  To firm, Mikael approached and delivered a final strike. As the kill was firmed, all three bodies glowed with a blue light before disiing into small cubes.

  Moments ter, Mikael felt a surge of energy c through him. The pleasaion pletely healed his wounds, replenishing his aura aurning him to peak dition.

  He barely had time to savor the relief before his surroundings ged once again.

  {Wave 2 charged. Enemy: 1 Elite D- Rank Monster.}

  Mikael g the s before taking in his surroundings. He now stood in peared to be a massive coliseum filled with ahusiastic crowd cheering with excitement.

  “Ladies alemen, today we have a magnifit fight in the coliseum!” an announcer’s voied over the din.

  “To my right stands a young warrior, ready to prove his worth as a gdiator! Let’s hear it for him!”

  The crowd erupted in cheers so thunderous that it felt as if the ground itself was trembling.

  Mikael kept a ral expression, but inwardly he marveled at the realism of the virtual reality.

  As the cheers settled, the announcer’s voice echoed again, hyping the crowd further. “This brave warrior will face a formidable enemy!” He dramatically poiate that was beginning to open.

  From the gate emerged a t figure—half man, half beast. The creature stood three meters tall, ly in a loincloth, its muscles bulging with raw power. Its bull-like head gave it an even more menag appearance, and it dragged a massive battle axe behind it, the bde screeg against the ground.

  The announcer let the crowd take in the sight before shouting, “Behold, the Minotaur!”

  The audience roared louder thaheir cheers reverberating through the coliseum.

  Mikael ighe noise, fog entirely on his enemy, who was now sloroag him.

  When the Minotaur was only a few meters away, it stopped and roared, “ROOOAAAARRRR!”

  Mikael seized the opportunity. While the Minotaur postured, he created five aura threads—one from each finger. Four of the threads were sent out to bind the Minotaur, while the fifth ected to the sword that y harmlessly on the ground.

  The Minotaur noticed the binding aed its immerength, snapping the threads with ease. It gred at Mikael with enraged eyes.

  Unfazed, Mikael recreated the threads, this time eling a great amount of aura into them at the pce of just creating them. As the threads ed around the Minotaur once more, it struggled but found itself uo break free immediately.

  Muscles bulging, the Minotaur summoned even more strength. Mikael felt the strain through the threads, his fingers ag as they heir limit. Knowing he couldn’t hold the beast for long, he dashed forward, sword in hand.

  The Minotaur attempted a clumsy punch, its movement hindered by the threads, and Mikael dodged easily. He retaliated with a powerful ssh to its extended arm, leaving a deep gash. The beast roared in pain, but Mikael remained posed, knowing the injury was far from suffit.

  Fueled by ahe Minotaur found a surge of strength and began to thrash violently against the threads. The forapped the bindings, and Mikael was suddenly yanked forward, flying directly toward the Minotaur.

  Seeing the "helpless" human rushing toward it, the Minotaur prepared a devastating headbutt.

  Mikael stayed calm, dissolving the threads that were binding the Minotaur and creating a stronger ohat tched onto the Minotaur’s arm. Using the hread, he propelled himself sideways, narrowly avoiding the attad nding behind the beast.

  As he desded, Mikael unleashed a full-power ssh behind the Minotaur’s knee. Simultaneously, the sword he had left on the ground shot forward, aiming for the Minotaur’s eye.

  Squish.

  Both attaded. The Minotaur lost an eye, and its knee was badly injured, severely limiting its mobility.

  The crowd screamed even louder seeing the blood flow.

  The enraged beast let out a guttural cry of pain, yanking the embedded sword from its eye. With a furious roar, it hurled the on back at Mikael.

  The bde hurtled through the air with incredible force, leaving Mikael almost no time to react. He barely mao raise his arm and summon an aura cloak, its iy far higher than usual.

  Although the sword pierced through the aura cloak, its power was signifitly diminished. However, it remairong enough to stab into Mikael’s arm and hurl him across the coliseum.

  BAM!

  His body smmed into the coliseum wall, the impact leaving him dazed and bloodied.

  "Oof, that must hurt! Will our brave warrior be able to rise, or will the feroinotaur cim victory?"

  Mikael coughed violently, his chest vulsing from the effort, before spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground. The sight firmed what the pain c through his body already told him—he was badly injured.

  Still, he raised his head to see the Minotaur limping toward him. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to stand. He took a moment to assess his dition: ‘I'm in a terrible state. My whole body aches from the impact, but that’s not the worst of it. Both my arms are broken, and the sword is still lodged in one of them…’

  Drawing an aura thread from his shoulder, he ed it around the sword’s handle and ya free in one swift motion.

  "Arghhh!" A pained scream tore from his throat as he did so. Without hesitation, he ected the sword to his hands with ahread. It was the only way he could fight with his unusable arms.

  He had no time for further preparation as the Minotaur closed in, swinging its enormous axe. Mikael rolled on the ground just in time to avoid the deadly blow.

  Thud.

  The ground shook violently from the impact. Mikael quickly created ahread, eg it to the sed sword that had been knocked away during the earlier csh. With both swords now tethered to him, a small smirk spread across his face.

  "Now you're screwed!"

  Squelch.

  Guided by his aura threads that were being trolled by his fingers, the swords flew behind the Minotaur and severed its tendons. With a loud crash, the beast fell forward, immobilized.

  "The Minotaur is down! Could this be the turning point for our young gdiator?" the announcer shouted.

  Pain radiated through Mikael's body, but he pushed it aside, fog entirely on ending the fight. The Minotaur thrashed its massive arms wildly, trying to rise but failing. Keeping a safe distance, Mikael directed his swords to pierce the beast's neck from behind.

  The first strike wasn’t enough to kill it, but after several more, the Minotaur finally disied into glowing blue cubes.

  "The wihe young gdiator!"

  Hearing his words the crowd began to loudly cheer for Mikael.

  Mikael ighe announcer’s procmation and the crowd rea and colpsed onto his back, too injured and exhausted to remain standing. As his body hit the ground, a painful grunt escaped his lips—the impaly intensified the agony of his injuries.

  He y there, trying to catch his breath a as much as possible. Soon, however, the now-familiar healing energy surged through his body, ing him in a soothiion. Mikael groaned in relief as the pain faded away, his energy fully replenished.

  Just as he began to rex, the grouh him shifted, repced by soft grass. He heard voices:

  "Human!"

  "Eat food!"

  "Food appeared before us—a good day!"

  Mikael opened his eyes to see a new se.

  {Wave 3 charged. Enemy: 1 D- Rank Monster, 2 E+ Monsters, and 13 E- Rank Monsters.}

  He let out a tired sigh, murmuring, "Seriously? 't you let me rest?"

  Suddenly, his surroundings froze, and a notification appeared before him:

  {Rest time granted. Speak when ready to resume. Time left: 28 minutes 32 seds.}

  {28 minutes 31 seds.}

  Realizing that the timer was still running even while he rested, Mikael forced himself to stand. Though the credits for this session weren’t hard earned by him, his personal rule o waste money remained firm.

  That mi had kept him alive during his younger years, when every he earned had to be stretched to secure enough food to survive. Even now, with greater wealth, the habit persisted—every resource had to be used to its fullest potential.

  " you extend my virtual training time by 4 more hours?"

  {Transa avaible for 200 credits. firm the transa: Yes/No?}

  "Yes."

  {Transa pleted. Time remaining: 4 hours 27 minutes 58 seds.}

  Mikael nodded as the firmation message appeared. He took a moment to observe his surroundings—a vast, beautiful, yet eerily empty pin seemingly frozen in time.

  Not far from him was a group of 13 small, green, goblin-like creatures with ferocious expressions frozen on their faces. They were likely the E-rank monsters. At the back of the group stood a single goblin a mage’s robe, holding a staff. It appeared to be a goblin mage, likely the D-rank monster of the wave.

  Fnking the mage were two goblins that towered over the others by at least two heads. Their bulky frames and muscur build suggested they were hobgoblins, probably the E+ rank monsters.

  Mikael couldn’t help but find the se strangely captivating in a haunting way. The goblins, frozen mid-charge with their vicious expressions, looked almost like a macabre painting.

  After a brief pause, he broke the stillness: "Resume the time!"

  As soon as the words left his mouth, Mikael found himself ba the ground, lying on the grass. "Huh?" he muttered in surprise. But he quickly pushed himself up, realizing the danger, and put some distaween himself and the charging goblins.

  "Food!" roared the goblin.

  Meanwhile, the goblin shaman at the back was juring a fireball.

  Mikael, now fully healed, wielded his two swords and swiftly decapitated two nearby goblins before the rest could attack. Just as he was about to press forward, he jumped back—a fireball exploded on the ground where he had stood a sed ago.

  The mage sent wind sshes his way, but Mikael dodged by croug, then leaping into the air to avoid the swing of a goblin’s sword. In mid-air, he ected the sword in his left hand to an aura thread a it flying towards a nearby goblin, pierg its head and killing it instantly.