City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

Worst of the two was the second look, as they’d invariably drop their eyes down to gawk at my practically naked body. I hurried through the corridors, until we finally reached the stairwell that Yen assured me led to the arena. I practically fled down the stairs, spotting Augustus waiting in the middle of the sandy arena floor while examining a wooden gladius.

“Dude, seriously?” I said as I walked through a preparation room, then emerged into the arena through a metal gate. “You could have warned me that the damn corridors were full of people; they’ve all now seen me in my tighty-whiteys!”

“Are you ashamed of your body, Lord Jax?” Augustus asked me, frowning. “I’m surprised, from the number of scars you bear, that anything so minor should bother you.”

“I… well, no, I’m not ashamed, not at all. It’s just that where I come from, you kinda keep it covered a bit more, you know? And my scars are... oh fuck it, this’ll take a while to explain. Maybe later, okay?” I said awkwardly.

“Very well. So, my lord…”

“Just Jax, please, and tell the others. Unless there’s a reason like a formal order or outsiders being present, just call me Jax. No need for more.”

“Very well; thank you for that. So, Jax… you want to learn to be a Legionnaire. I can’t teach you all of it in a day, much less in ten years, but I can teach you a little. I have to ask, though: do you really think you need a bodyguard here?” he asked, and I sighed.

“Bane! Do me a favor, and fuck off and relax, will you?” I called without even looking. A second later, I heard him muttering as he left the arena. “Sorry about that,” I said. “He’s protective of me…”

“As he should be. We can talk as we warm up, then we will do some basic forms to prepare, and we can have a quick fight to see where we need to concentrate. Sound good?” He pointed out the areas we’d be using for each stage, and I nodded. “Excellent. First of all, we will do a light jog around the arena, then one lap at full sprint, then a lap at a jog. We will do this thirty times, followed by a hundred pushups, sit ups, and jumps.”

“Burpees…” I muttered. “Even in a fucking different reality, those bastards follow me.”

“And your gear is here,” Augustus added, smiling and pointing to a backpack resting on the sand by a heavy spear.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“A weighted backpack. It will aid your training.”

“Why’s there only one?”

“Because I don’t need to prove myself to myself.” He smiled. “The first time you fail, we will add an additional weight to your wrists. The next time, it’ll be to your ankles, then your backpack, waist, and thighs. Last of all, if you stop without permission, you get the pilum.”

“What the hell, dude?” I gasped, and he chuckled.

“It will make sense later, but this is the quickest way to make you stronger that I know of.”

“And the pilum?” I asked.

“Here,” he said, sweeping an iron javelin up from its resting place against a cross bar in the arena cage and throwing it to me. “Hold it above your head, and we will do a few laps, as an example.”

With that, he set off at a ‘light jog,’ and I had to run to catch up. He nodded approvingly to me and jogged silently as I kept up with him.

The first minute was all right, but after that, the pilum began to dip; not intentionally, but the longer I held it aloft, the more my arms drained of blood, and the harder my heart had to pump to keep them up. At the end of the third lap, we stopped, and I dropped the pilum to rest against the wall. I let my arms sag, feeling relived. Considering a lap of the arena was less than a minute, it seemed ridiculous, but still…

“Now, strap on the backpack, and we can get started,” Augustus said, pointing to it. I walked over and picked it up, grunting with the effort. The fucker was heavier than it looked, and as I swung it onto my back, pulling the straps tight to keep it from chafing, I just fucking knew it was going to suck.

We set off at a fairly fast jog as soon as it was in place, and for the next hour and a half, we ran, talking constantly as he asked me inane questions. I started to explain about the scars, telling him stories about the various fights I remembered. He laughed at the right times and told me about some of his own fights, and the time passed fairly quickly. When we finally came to a halt, he told me we were ready to ‘start’.

I groaned, hating the way all trainers did that: kicked your ass and then said it’d only just begun. Thanks to the boost I’d gained since coming to the UnderVerse, the first sets weren’t as hard as they would have been on a normal, earth human. My boosted Strength, Endurance and Agility helped massively, until he told me to keep up, and we set off running, not jogging.

We did a full lap of the arena. Its deep sand flooring was a pain, as it was far harder to run on sand than solid ground, and at the end of each lap, he demanded ten pushups, then the burpees, and we were off again…

We kept it up for another hour solid, by which point I was trailing him massively and staggering as I tried to keep up, and he finally called a break.

“Well, your fitness is poor, but your heart is strong. I can work with that. A lesser man would have given up before now,” he said heartily, gesturing to the pair of wooden gladii. I grabbed one, huffing as I tried to get my breathing back under control.

“First, you