My feet hurt; we had left the inn this morning at first light.  It took us about half an hour to leave Sapphire City.  So far, we’d been traveling for about four or five hours on the southern road from Sapphire City.  Apparently, Lord Studer had an estate not far from the city, but it had been a long time since I had walked this much.  We had just passed another estate that didn’t belong to Lord Studer when I felt another wave of pain in my feet.  I looked at the river to my left that the road followed and wondered aloud “Why don’t we just take a boat upstream to wherever we’re going?”

The guard that was assigned to watch me, a short demon race fellow with a knife on his belt, chuckled at my question before responding, “Here on the continent it is illegal for civilian vessels to travel upstream, if you wish to travel on one of the rivers you must go downstream.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“So that nothing can hinder or stop the mobilization of the Royal Navy docked at Diamond City” He answered as if the reasoning should be obvious.

Diamond City. I’d read about that city as well; it too was one of the Four Jewels of the Demon Continent.  Supposedly it was the largest city in the Demon Continent, as well as the seat of power for the Demon Lord who ruled over the continent.  It was located in the center of the Demon Continent with three rivers flowing out of it.  Each of the rivers that flowed from Diamond City led to one of the other Jewels of the Demon Continent.

However, I didn’t understand why the mobilization of the navy was so important, so I asked.  “I thought the Demon Continent had a truce with pretty much every nation in the world, why do you need to keep the rivers clear for the navy?”

He looked at me and sighed, “It must be nice to live on the mainland.” He took a deep breath before continuing “You are right, we are at peace with the other races, however, it is not the other nations we are worried about.  Instead, our navy exists to respond to monster attacks from The Frontier.” 

A chill went up my spine after he said those words as I instinctively looked toward the west.  The Frontier, the only place in the world that remained largely unexplored, and for good reason.  The Frontier was the homeland of monsters.  Massive creatures that could bend nature to their will through the use of their own special type of cores, Beast Cores.

Magic Cores act as a type of storage container that allows people to draw forth mana from the core and use the mana as spells.  Beast Cores allowed monsters to perform magic through a similar process with one key difference.  Magic Cores only allow a mage to use their own mana, whereas Beast Cores enable a monster to draw on mana from nature to use in their magic.

As far as the races knew there were five types of monsters.  Lesser, major, elder, ancient, and Legendary.  In order to take down even a lesser monster you would typically need a full squad of four or five silver stage mages, and as far as I could remember, there has never been a report of anyone slaying a Legendary monster.

In fact, there has only been reported sightings of two Legendary monsters.  The first is the Storm God, a massive fish that has been spotted on several occasions casually swimming around in The Reef.  The Reef is a massive storm system that is said to cover the entire boarder of The Frontier.  It never moves and never subsides, and it is believed to be the main reason why monsters don’t roam freely outside of The Frontier.  The reason why we call it The Reef is because of how easily the Storm God appear to move within it, as if it were a regular fish swimming in a pond.

The second of the Legendary monsters is the elusive World Turtle.  Supposedly, the World Turtle is a creature so large that its shell is able to be mistaken as an island.  It apparently lives in the ocean in between The Frontier and the rest of the world.  Too many accounts of it have been reported by fisherman, shipwreck survivors, and even some notable figures throughout history, for it to be counted as a mere myth.  However, anytime a nation’s navy has set out to find the World Turtle, they’ve come back empty handed having been unable to even lay eyes on the monster.

“Do monster often attack the Demon Continent?” I asked.

The guard shook his head “Most monsters can’t make it through The Reef, and from what we can tell, they tend to avoid approaching it.  However, the occasional ancient monster will be able to make its way through and will end up attacking us.”

I nodded, even in Reis there’ve been powerful monsters that have appeared throughout history.  “So, when a monster appears your navy mobilizes using the rivers to get to its location and defeat it.” I stated.

The guard shook his head again “No, if the navy were to fight against ancient monsters, then we would not have a navy for long.”

I was confused, “Then how do you kill the ancient monsters?” I asked.

The guard looked at me as if he were talking to a toddler, “Each of the Four Jewels is ruled by a Demon General.  Should an ancient monster attack, the Generals hold off the monster until the navy arrives.  The Royal Navy has two jobs, the first is to protect the citizens from collateral damage from caused by the ancient monster attacking.  The second job is the quick transportation of the Demon Lord to the ancient monster’s location.”  He paused to look at me and make sure I was still following along, I nodded so that he might continue.

He resumed speaking, “In the Demon Continent, everything about you, from your position in society, to your rank in the military, is determined by either strength, or service.  People who retire from the military, like Lord Studer, are often given some land and property to take care of as a reward for their service.  Lord Studer is an example of someone who has gained their position through service.”

“Every single demon who lives on the continent is expected to serve in the military of the Demon Continent.  Their rank in the military is determined by their personal strength.  Unlike the races of your continent, personal connections get you nowhere in the Demon Continent.  Strength is everything here, and the strongest person is the Demon Lord.”

He had a look of pride on his face as looked toward the horizon and continued, “The Demon Generals protect the cities until the Demon Lord arrives, then the Generals act as support for the Demon Lord while they slay the monster.”

He looked me in my eyes as if to drive in his next point, “The Demon Lord’s primary purpose is to kill any who would threaten the people of the Demon Continent.  Back in your home you might have been someone important, but here, without any strength, you are nothing more than an insect.”  When he finished talking, he turned back to face down the road.

 As for myself, I was lost in thought trying to imagine what kind of unholy creature the Demon Lord must be to face down and slay ancient monsters mostly by themselves.  I shuddered at the thought of ever having to face the Demon Lord myself.  While I was lost in thought we arrived at Lord Studer’s Estate.

Lord Studer stepped out of the carriage that he had been riding comfortably in while we had been travelling.  He walked up to me and made a grand gesture over his estate as he said, “Welcome to your new home slave.”  

The estate itself seemed to be on a relatively large patch of land.  It also seemed to be divided in two by the river that flowed through the continent.  On one side was what appeared to be Lord Studer’s house.  A large three-story building made of stone with large marble columns lining the property.  In the center there seemed to be a decent sized courtyard although it was hard to tell from where we were standing.

On the other side of the river there was what appeared to be housing for either servants or slaves, they were made of wood and to me, it appeared as if I was looking at a small town.  Past the housing was a massive plot of farmland, and if I squinted my eyes, I could see shapes scattered throughout that I assumed were people tending to the crops.

All in all, it seemed to me to be a rather modest estate for a lord, but judging by the look in Lord Studer’s eyes, he was quite proud of it.  “It looks amazing.” I said to Lord Studer.  His eyes gleamed at the praise, “I’m glad that former royalty can find my home pleasing.” He said with a large smile on his face.  It would seem my comment had put him in a good mood. 

“Now, let me show you where you’ll be staying.” He said as he started off down a path that led towards the main house.  Looking forward to potentially getting off my feet, I quickly choose to follow him.  As we made our way towards the main house, I noticed that there were some buildings off to the side of it that were initially hidden from my view.  They appeared to barrack of some sort as a few of the guards that had been with us on the road stopped following us and turned instead towards these buildings.  I also noticed a building that looked different from the others located right next to the main building.  There appeared to be something large lying next to it, but I couldn’t see what it was before the path we were on turned and the object fell out of view.

I turned back to face in front of me and saw for the first time a large ring of sand with a few small shacks lined up outside it.  As we approached the ring a large man stepped out of one of the shacks and made his way towards us.  When he got a bit closer, I took note of his features.

He was a member of the demon race, a rather large one at that.  He seemed to be a few inches taller than me.  A black mustache rested on his face with its ends pointed up towards his shoulder length black hair that was styled into a ponytail.  As he got closer, I noticed that he had scars across his arms as well as one that went across his face lengthwise under his eyes.  Speaking of his eyes they were a dark green color that contrasted with his hair and skin.

We ended up meeting the large demon just outside of the ring.  When we did both he and Lord Studer stopped walking and he dipped his head respectfully to Lord Studer.  Lord Studer smiled as he greeted the man “Griff, I assume there was no problems with the estate in my absence.” Lord Studer said.

“None at all, my lord.” The man called Griff responded.

“Great,” Lord Studer said before he gestured towards me, “I’ve purchased a new slave.” He spoke.  “I would like for you to get him into fighting shape.”

Griff turned and spent a few seconds looking me over.  “What stage is he?” Griff asked.

“White.” Lord Studer answered back.  Griff let out a small whistle.

“He’s fat for a white stage.” Griff said with a doubtful tone to his voice.

“That’s what I’ll need you to take care of” Lord Studer responded.  Griff nodded as he continued to look me over.  “How long do you think you’ll need?” Lord Studer asked.

Griff stopped looking me over and looked at Lord Studer as he responded, “Four months, three if I can use the doctor.”

Lord Studer nodded as he heard Griff’s statement.  “The doctor is yours to use,” Lord Studer said, “I want him to be eligible for next years tournament, so train him well.”

“Of course, my lord” Griff responded as Lord Studer threw him the stone that controlled my collar.  Lord Studer then turned and made his way down the path leading back towards his house.  As he walked away Griff turned to look at me.

“What is your name?” he asked.  “Gale” I responded.

“Very well Gale, lets get started.” He stated as he grabbed me and pulled me into the ring of sand.

“Wait” I said.  “Don’t you think I should rest for a bit from the trip?” I asked.

“I only have three months to whip you back into shape,” he said with a slight smile on his face, “and you’ll want every second of training you can get if you want to survive in the arena.”