Raising an eye, Edward quizzically looked at Jake. After a couple of minutes of staring, he sighed, before asking "Why... the question?" jake averted his gaze, shuffling back and forth, until he told Edward about what had happened to him at the ruin. He told him about meeting the beasts near his lake, as well as fighting with the mutated Feldor-Metalree fusion. He told him how he felt that time, hope vanishing from within him.
"I don't want to be weak again..."
Gazing his head upon the skies, old man Edward kept quiet. Jake, realising that he had not spoken anything since then, lifted his head, before gazing at Edward again. He waited for his answer, for deep in his heart, he felt that Edward had the answer to his problems.
And his hopes were not dashed at all.
After the brief moment of contemplation, Edward turned to Jake, where he put on his 'explaination' face "There are many ways to resolve your issues, such as implanting memories in your head, or throwing you into a ruin, forcing you into a dream arena etc. But the most effective, and rewarding, in tour case would be to go to an arena near here, and combat other... people." Here he paused, letting Jake have it all sink in. Old man Edward continued on "From what I can ruminate on, your issue stems form the fact that your combat capabilities are subpar."
Jake lifts his hand and opens his mouth to correct him, but Edward shushed him with his looks, before progressing on with his answer "I know that you have extensive combat experience with me, but this narrows your combat experience to mostly humans, not humanoids. The difference, as you have clearly seen from your fight at the ruin, is that humanoids, while looking very similar to humans generally, tend to have other appendages and techniques inbtbeir arsenal, making fights against them very unpredictable. Fighting in arenas would help you compensate this weakness of yours, added that they are of... 'legal'... establishments of course. These locations tend to be very regulated, as they are heavily monitored, for the sake of complying with the law. Despite so, accidental deaths do occur, so you have to still be careful against whom your fighting, for.diffeeent species and sequences have varying strengths."
After listening to his monologue, Jake grew hesitant once the concept of death came up. Looking at his wayward apprentice and 'son', he sighed again for the umpteenth time, before including a footnote:
"You get paid handsomely~"
Dust flies into the air, as a rambunctious young man dashes home. Shaking his head with light chuckle, old man Edward heads back home, but not before gazing at the sky, ruminating again.
After a quick shower and change of clothes, stuffing a long hoagie (that's what Edward calls them) filled with turchicken meatballs, he grabbed the taxi, whose driver happened to be the same robot. Upon seeing Jake, it nearly took out itself out by dbappign its neck, before Jake dissauded it by quickly explaining where it was going.
Sighing in its robotic voice (Jake swore he felt relief coming from it, which should not be possible, right?), it cranked the gear shift, before speeding (in a relatively slower speed, in order to not have to clean up any more vomit spills), they reached their destination.
Nestled in the Southern district of Primarion, opposite of the Adventurer shops, were dojos of all sorts and sizes, some directly affiliated with their respective dojos. Named like 'Wandering Dragon Arena' or 'Nether Combat Hall' were dotted across every couple of meters, with some being clearly branched off.
But the biggest one of them all spanned an area almost comparable to a medium sized martial dojo. Loud cheers could be clearly heard from its closed doors, heckles and all. Bloodied bodies can be seen rolled out on stretchers, some with limbs kept side by side for reattachment surgeries.
Despite the ghastly scene, it only encouraged the people entering the fighting arena more bloodlust clearly emanating from them. Every single being entering the arena were burly, even the females. Swarthy, muscular men and women entered, hoping to etch their names in glory and wealth, bringing homournto themselves and their descendants.
Feeling the rugged atmosphere, Jake's bloodlust also grew, getting all jittery and whatnot. He looked up, trying to find its name, which apparently did not take long. Welded at the top of the arena, in dark red colour, was its name:
Bloodfall Arena