“What are you called, boy? I am the marquess Everlilly. You may address me as mistress or your grace.”

  “I go by Shade, but my name Is Shane Richards.”

  “We are going to put you through a series of slave trials, first up will be a newly ascended tier 1 Gladiator. I want you to do your best to kill him. He will try not

  to kill you but new tier ones have issues controlling their conceptual stats, you cannot access your interface when enslaved with that type of collar. Do you

  know your stat range?”

  Shade sighed internally, this was gonna suck. He kind of hoped the guy was a dick. “All 10’s”

  The Marquess paused and glanced at the truth stone still in his hand. “On second thought, just do your best to incapacitate your opponent. You may be

  capable of killing him, I believe he only has one stat over 10.”

  “Aye.” The previously cheeky blonde popped up, “It’s Constitution.”

  The Marquess sighed as they walked through the opulent gardens, towards more of a compound than a building. Shade kept his eyes on the middle distance.

  And soon they entered a training facility. Gladiators with varying spiritual weights worked in pairs and alone. Or trained on almost modern workout equipment.

  One man, the heaviest feeling of all, did burpees on what Shade suddenly knew was a variable Gravity array. On his gut instinct, he imagined walking over to

  the array studying each sigil and rune and falling immediately back into step. The runes and sigils burned themselves into his mind. He’d observe them the

  next time he could rest and meditate.

  “Wait here.” The Marquess said before heading over to an older scarred and muscular man, he easily felt as heavy as Ballatro. After an exchange of words he

  couldn’t perceive from here, the Marquess made a gesture and Lady Shahahnitra headed over to where the Marquess disappeared behind a curtain that

  showed a flash of stairs, followed by her bodyguard maid.

  The large man stopped the gear he was cataloging and strode over to where Shade stood. A sleek and more streamlined collar hung around his wrist. his

  hand blurred, the large man's hand clamped over top of Shades forehead and scalp like a vise, and in a practiced manner with his other hand, he unclasped

  the bulky collar shade wore. His head was completely locked down by the man's massive strength. Shade took that moment to slip into Time perception. The

  man now moved at a casual speed, as he dropped the bulky collar he popped his arm down so the new collar slid down into his hand and in a nimbleness

  alien to a form so imposing, popped the collar open with two fingers even now it rose towards Shade’s throat. However it did give Shade enough time to do 3

  things with his talent. First he envisioned pulling two pemmican bars out of his storage, eating them, and metabolizing them to increase his calorie pool. Two

  he envisioned reading all of the alerts he could feel queued up after being blocked by the collar. And 3 he envisioned doing an entire batter of stretches and

  warm up exercises. By the time the collar snapped around his throat he felt full, he felt warmed up for a fight, and he had more things to look over when he

  again had time to himself. Shade purposely did not make eye contact so as not to alert the man that he could perceive or react at these speeds.

  Once the man froze indicating that he’d dropped down to normal speeds Shade dropped his time perception.

  “Good, no struggle. I won't have to make an example before your match. This new collar works differently than the old one, you can’t access your stat sheet,

  but anyone with clearance can view your stats and Skills even if you are a Null. We can even Assign stats and experience. Lets see here. Hmm… 10 in all

  stats, 3 skills from skill Gems. Deception, mana sight, mana manipulation, meditation, mana body manipulation. These are some strange skills for a level 1

  who is 21. No life skills; cooking, cleaning? Nothing. it's like you are a child but you only have support and utility, and metaphysical skills. But they are all

  maxed out for your tier.”

  Shade raised the truth stone. “I have no memories from before I woke up. But I do have cultural, personal and combat knowledge.”

  The man looked at the stone. “Well either way. You are going into the ring, let's see what you can do. This isn’t to the death. But ill be able to stop it incase

  things go too far.”

  Shade headed over to the weapons rack, and grabbed a Cestus and a long dagger. The dagger was wooden, but the cestus was a light metal. Across the

  knuckles and reinforced leather for the palm with a studded knuckle and backfist, he tucked the truth stone into a fold in his toga that wouldn’t likely be hit or

  move too much while he was fighting.

  Shade switched into spatial perception and he felt someone entering the training area behind him. He was a tall statuesque blonde with a lantern jaw and

  piercing blue eyes. He had shoulder length hair. He only wore a loincloth and he carried a blunted metal longsword. Shade recalled that this guy had

  superhuman endurance, so he'd try for a submission or a joint lock.

  “Hello, I'm Benton. I'll be testing you today. Please give it your all. I won't be holding back.”

  Shade made eye contact and nodded in acknowledgment. At Least the guy wasn’t a dick. Though that might have made it easier. The large man indicated a

  large copper ring in the dirt. Shade and Benton headed over and got into position. In a private box above the Marquis sat in a box with the lady, but Ballarto

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  and the guard maid were also standing to watching.

  Shade attempted something new, he applied time to just his eyes, physically not his perception stat. That's when he felt the time aspect mesh with the mana in

  nodes he'd built in his eyes. Nodes was what he was calling the mini mana cores he'd built throughout his body. That's when he also noticed the dark blue

  haze around Benton. It was a blurry jumble of translucent energy.

  The large man who Shade heard Benton address as Eridris got a nod from each of the combatants. Eridris's dark cloud aura was stable and sturdy, but

  Benton's writhed. Suddenly first the translucent aura lanced out into a ghost image of Benton going in for a testing thrust, and what could have only been a

  quarter second later, his main body followed the motion exactly. Shade lightly batted the weapon aside with the cestus on his left hand and threw a swipe at

  Benton’s chest. Which caused first his shadow, then him to leap back, Shade just caught where the shadow landed and threw his knife. Just as Bentons

  supporting leg landed and began to accept his weight the dagger struck his kneecap, which halted the smoothe series of motions that were necessary to land

  keeping one's balance. This caused Benton to throw his arms wide instinctively to catch his balance, but since Shade dashed in right behind his dagger.

  Benton was out of position and found the other man inside his guard before he had reset. He attempted a forehand swipe with his sword, however Shade’s

  outer forearm struck his wrist halting the momentum, and then that same arm snaked up and over and then under his extended arm. He locked his fingers

  together and bent backwards. With a sound like breaking a green sapling the arm inverted and the Sword fell to the floor. But Shade followed up still by now

  winding his left arm up over and then under bentons neck and chin to grab his shoulder forcing his head to the right. Shade reached the extent of bentons

  neck rotation and promptly reached up to grip the back of his head, but he paused and made eye contact with Eridris. Soon after Eridris called the match, he'd

  seen that Shade was in a position to snap the other man’s neck, but he respected the rules of the bout.

  After a nod, Shade released the other man, who fell to his back side holding his hyperextended arm. He hoped there were healers or healing potions. Just

  then Eridris pulled a bottle from seemingly nowhere and thrust it into the crook Bentons non non-damaged arm. Benton looked surprised and directly looked to

  Eridris in his confusion.

  “Normally we only heal winners. But this was an unofficial bout against an unknown opponent. We can't have our newest Tier 1 out of commissio9n when we

  still have a bout in two days.”

  Eridris turned from Benton to Shade. “As for you. That was excellent. I'm guessing that somehow you have learned to augment with your affinities. Because

  I can see that you are lv1 tier 0. And though you have 10’s across the board, what I just saw only comes with experience. I can see that you have blacklisted

  affinities.”

  Shade raised his hand and Eridris snorted but nodded for him to speak. “ What are blacklisted affinities?”

  Eridris looked surprised at first. “Right.. No memories… I’ll keep it Brief. The demon Arthurion bored into this space to create his own universe and sought to

  capture as many souls as he could in a ritual to empower himself under the guise of a game. When the 7 gods banded together and rebelled. they managed to

  seal him away to protect the people of this realm. The Deceiver had those same affinities, and they were deemed cursed. No one with those affinities would be

  granted access to the great system by the church.”

  His words were cut off when the Marquess approached, Ballatro at her side. “Splendid showing, she beamed.”

  Ballataro watched Shade with some caution like he was a dangerous beast despite being strong enough to strike Shade into oblivion. “You could have killed

  those slavers at any point… why stay?”

  At his words the cheerful air dampened, and 3 sets of eyes that could snuff him out like a candle flame all locked onto him waiting for a response. Shade put

  up one finger in a hold gesture and Fished the truth stone from a fold in his now dusty toga. He held it up before saying. “Yes, I knew I could escape at any

  time, the reason I didn't was because I had no knowledge of my surroundings. It was a free ride into civilization, and free food even if it was just trail rations. It

  all fell apart when you showed up, and now I'm here.”

  Throughout the explanation the stone stayed dull. He found that if he went into extra detail about his plans it would still show as true, and it obfuscated his true

  intent of getting close to the so-called gods which was still on track. Eridris and the Marquess both visibly relaxed, Ballatro seemed like a professional skeptic.

  But his killing intent lessened and he nodded without a word as to whether he bought it or not.

  “All right. He passed the combat test. Now we just got to try him on house work and then nightly pleasure.”

  The marquess tittered and suddenly lady Shahahnitra was there glued to Shade’s bare arm. Eridris reached out and took Shade’s cestus with a speed and

  casualty that was astounding since it was buckled in place, but it was removed without damaging either him or it.

  “I'll volunteer for the pleasure test.” the blonde woman said. Shade was aware of the warm cleavage against his arm, but more telling and disheartening was

  the look of joy and adoration that Crossed Bentons face that morphed into sullen dejection, that she didn't even acknowledge him. He was smitten, and now

  the only seemingly friendly person he'd seen so far would be against him in whatever passed as Slave quarters. Frankly he hoped it was individual cells rather

  than a communal bunkhouse. Shade was disgusted at this society.

  Shade was taken to a room where his toga was stripped, he was cleaned via spell again. But this time Ballataro handed him a Cerulean gem. This gem

  contains the Scrub spell. You may have a non ascended mana pool but even Nulls can use crystals to earn skills and spells. You still cannot advance beyond

  level 9. But even with a nulls mana at 10 across the board you should be able to make use of the scrub spell on yourself and your clothing at the end of the

  day. however that is last and only if you have the mana. If you neglect your duties to save mana for yourself you will be punished. Despite the harsh warning

  Shade was elated. This spell in his arsenal ment that he could use caloric completion to clean things and it would be written off as him using the spell, aside

  from his mana not decreasing. He’d just have to mix it up. Ballatro led him to a bustling kitchen where cooks and maids and scullery attendants. Bustled

  around. A stern woman in a maids uniform with crimson hair and glasses, seemed to teleport around the kitchen space attending to issues and watching

  everything. She felt nearly as heavy as Ballatro, so rather than teleporting she was just moving with bursts of perception defying speed.

  “I have brought the newest teste, for chore assessment. He passed the combat test flawlessly against Benton, the newest Tier 1 at lv 1 tier 0.”

  Several minor accidents occurred at this announcement. The head maid paused and her eyes narrowed behind her glasses. An attractive blonde woman

  stood ashen faced, a broken dish that she'd dropped lay at her feet. Shade could certainly see the resemblance. This was likely Benton’s mother.

  “He lives.“ Shade said in a low but assured voice.

  Relief began to show on her face and then the head maid was there to deliver a backhand to her almost faster than Shade could perceive, but he saw the blue

  blur of her aura snap towards his head. instinctively his head snapped to the side only barely dodging the blow aimed at his face. The woman crumpled to the

  ground. And the entire kitchen froze. The head maid’s head turned in a slow jerky manor to glare at Shade. He got the impression of a throbbing Forehead

  vein.

  “We do not allow servants to speak unless spoken to in this Kitchen...” The head maid gritted out between clenched teeth. “BREAKING THE RULES

  DESERVES PUNISHMENT!!”

  The last part came out muffled as Ballatro had removed Shade from the kitchen.

  “Ah, I don't think that housework is going to be one of Your strengths.” Ballatro said as he stood with Shade in a hall outside of the kitchen. Suddenly the door

  burst open and the head Maid burst through a set of double doors a few feet down the hall with a rolling pin in hand. Shade could swear she had glowing red

  pupils that left trails in the air like a holiday firework.

  “Minerva! Get a hold on yourself.” Ballatro barked. She took one more step forward, and

  There was a flare of mana under the collar of her uniform. She dropped like a puppet with her strings cut.

  “Tsch… fool.” muttered Ballatro.

  Shade sensed several heavy auras close in and then 4 guards and Eridris appeared in the hall, weapons bared. Eridris took in the scene with confusion.

  Before Eridris could ask, Ballatro clinically and professionally explained exactly what happened. At which point the guards all relaxed and Eridris burst into

  Boisterous laughter.

  “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That's rich, that's just great!” he had tears in his eyes and he was pounding on the backs of the four guards intermittently

  “Take Him to the baths and have him bathed and oiled. I’ll deal with Minerva, and let Lady Shahahnitra know that we are ahead of schedule.”

  Eridris walked forward and clapped Shade on the shoulder. “C’mon, your gonna need all your energy for that one she's insatiable.”