The next day, Vayu slipped out again. It was early morning, the streets were still quiet and only a few people were visible, not everyone was a fighting maniac most lived peacefully by doing other works, as the shapeshifter's lived in a world which was a strange mixture of primitive life and technology. As on one side wooden carts creaked on old stone roads, while on the other side tiny farming drones floated lazily, releasing soft puffs of mist to water crops. Some machines moved like insects trimming weeds with glowing blades. Inside the city, holographic signboards flickered above stalls made of bamboo. Automatic cleaning discs rolled across the streets, sweeping dust while chickens pecked curiously at them. In corners, discarded communication tablets blinked with weak signals. Every so often, Vayu passed some carts which hovered a few inches above the ground. But the most shocking were the giant battleships towering above the forest line, he saw massive silhouettes resting in designated docking pits—colossal spaceships. Every step he took showed him something new, he was excited but suddenly a gust of wind came and his cloak blew back revealing his face, as if someone had sent that gust on purpose. Vayu quickly pulled his cloak over his head and pulled it closer, hiding his face. Although Vayu could say he was from a noble family but he didn't want to attract attention until it was necessary and if he mess with a wrong person, not just his identity will be revealed, he could die too. The wind was cold, Vayu quickened his pace kept moving towards the direction of the battle arena.
When he reached the Battle Arena. His eyes opened wide from surprise as he had never seen something so magnificent. From afar, he had only seen the glowing outline of its walls, but as he approached, its true size revealed itself—the arena was monstrous, ancient, overwhelming. The entire structure was a colossal ring carved into the earth, in its center lay six enormous battlegrounds, meaning six duels could be fought at the same time. Each battleground was massive on its own—with one kilometer width and one and a half kilometers length— it was made from purple stones, in these stones after every two tiles one blue colored stone was embedded, the same he had seen when they were captured in the cage, these blue stones were called mana stones, there work was to keep the foundation strong and worked as a barrier as well, as for the size of the ground, it was built that way because shapeshifters fought with such ferocity and were many times stronger than humans.
Around the battlegrounds the Inner Circle itself was covering a diameter of eight-kilometers. Beyond that was the Outer Circle, a twelve-kilometer ring, it could contain a large number of spectators and it was not just people it could hold, stalls, betting tables, training pits, healing stations and even weapon shops were there. The arena itself rose two kilometers high, even though it already looked impossibly large, Vayu knew from the fox-man's memories that during major events, even this massive arena would overflow, because the number of shapeshifters were large and every city had a battle arena of their own varying in sizes, some were smaller while some were way more bigger than this one depending on the size of the city .
Although this was Vayu's first visit but from fox man's memories he knew that newcomers had to register, as a large amount of new contenders came, it was a normal thing. He went inside, his expression normal, he looked left and right and found a empty registration desk, he put on a smile and he approached the registration desk. A girl sat there, her delicate antlers curling slightly from her head. Her skin was soft brown with white spots, like a young deer. Instead of looking strange, the markings made her seem beautiful and gentle. She lifted her bright green eyes toward him and said in a sweet voice.
"Yes?"
"I want to register," Vayu said.
"That will be one silver coin."
He put his hand in his pocket and fished out one siler coin, put it on table and pushed it towards her. When she asked for his name, he answered without hesitation, "Vyomkesh" as this was the name he had chosen as his alias in the battle ground.
She nodded and quickly wrote it down and began explaining the rules:
"You may fight anytime in Arena Number One. After winning ten consecutive battles, you can move to Arena Number Two. You need one hundred wins to reach Arena Number Three. Two hundred for Arena Number Four and Four hundred for Arena Number Five. And five hundred wins to qualify for the Sixth Arena"
The numbers were terrifying, unimaginable for Vayu who was a normal human. But not for the shapeshifters as their lifespans were much larger, lasting thousands of years. Their bodies healed quickly, they had innate talent for battling, he was sure some old monsters had meet the qualification or already reached the sixth arena long ago and his guess was correct although most people had not seen it but the personal guard for the maharaja of wolf clan had to first reach the sixth arena only then they could apply to join them . Vayu had no intention of fighting today. After taking his token—marked with the number 1 he slipped out of the arena immediately. He didn't stay to watch the ongoing battles, because he was far too weak to battle someone.
First, he needed to grow stronger and he needed to understand the blue screen—the thing that called itself the Status Window.
====================== DEVOURER SYSTEM ======================
Name: Vayu
Age: 22
Race: Human (Partial Shapeshifter)
Rank: F Rank (Player)
Class: Devourer
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STATUS
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Health : 500
Mana : 3
Strength : 30
Agility : 20
Intelligence : 13
Luck : 20 (-30) [Cursed]
EXP(Lvl:1) : 0 / 1000
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SKILLS
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[Devourer] (Lv. 1)
Effect : Whatever you eat, you can use 10% of its power.
(Kitsune)
[Enticer] (Lv. 1)
Effect : You can control someone weaker than you.
[Overdrive] (Lv. 3)
Effect : Your stats are boosted for some amount of time.
[Memory Devourer] (Lv. 1)
Effect : You can devour a small portion of someone's memory.
The victim forgets the devoured memory permanently.
=============================================================
Vayu looked at the word "Kitsune" once again and spoke it out loud. The moment the word left his lips, his body shifted—bones tightening and his senses sharpening, a faint warmth spreading through his limbs. But it wasn't just his appearance that changed. His status window flickered, lines of text rearranging themselves as new information appeared, he had not paid attention to them last time as he was too busy devouring the fox man memories.
Ten percent of the fox-man's stats had merged with his own. His stats rose sharply, but what truly stunned him were the two new skills added to his list. Kitsune were known to be naturally gifted in enchantment and trickery—especially the female ones, who were far more powerful than male foxes. And now, Vayu possessed the basic skills used by kitsune.
[Charm] – A passive skill that subtly increased the attraction felt by the opposite gender.
[Illusion] – The ability to make others see things that weren't really there.
The look of excitement and caution appeared in his eyes. These abilities were simple but they could change everything. Vayu quietly went back to the lab, crawled through the same opening and settled down inside . Folding his legs beneath him, he closed his eyes and took a slow breath. He needed to think, What should he do next?, How should he use these powers? and what path should he take from here?
The questions pressed down on him as he planned his next move.