“Pain shapes the body.
But solitude forges the soul.”

Finde soon discovered that the place called the Arena had little of an arena in it.
No stands, no spectators—only sand, stone, and exhaustion.

The low buildings surrounding the training ground were dormitories, kitchens, showers, the infirmary, and storerooms.
A small village of former warriors—bodies broken, minds scarred—now serving as cooks, medics, or instructors.
The Arena was a community of survivors, shattered souls who had stopped fighting on Gommhon, but not against themselves.

The first thing Oku ordered Finde to do upon arrival was to visit the infirmary.
The doctor was a short creature, no taller than a meter and thirty, covered in thick, sand-colored fur.
He had round black eyes, a long nose, and small hands with six fingers.

“You can call me Doctor” he said, motioning Finde to sit.

Beside him was a small metallic box filled with lights and knobs. He took a shining cylinder from it and brought it close to Finde’s face.
“It’ll sting a bit, but the wound will close instantly. No stitches, no infection”.

“The only part I understood was — it’ll hurt”. Finde swallowed.

The doctor chuckled.

“Only a little. Depends on how good you are at not screaming. Some cry like piglets; some feel nothing. But I’ve never treated a recruit before training even started”.

A white beam shot from the cylinder and slid across the scar.
The pain was sharp and searing, like a blade cutting through the soul.
Then the wound sealed, leaving only a faint tingling.

“Perfect!” the doctor exclaimed. “Fit for duty. You’ll have barely a mark left”.

He handed Finde a slip of paper covered in strange symbols.
“Give this to Oku. Tell him you’re ready”.

Time didn’t flow in the Arena.
Or maybe it did—but no one noticed.

Days blurred into one another—training, bruises, sand.
Weeks turned into months, and Finde no longer knew how long it had been since he’d arrived on Castor.
Sometimes, in rare moments of silence, he thought of his father.

The Arena reminded him of the orphanage Jeremi used to visit—lost children, forgotten by the world.
Outcasts. Alone. Broken.
And now, he was one of them.

There were thirty-two recruits in total, youths from every corner of the universe.
One day, Finde asked Oku how they ended up there.

The instructor didn’t even look up.
“Singularities appear everywhere. When we purge them, we find young ones born with a natural link to the Ori. That’s how you become a Castorian recruit”.

Ori.

The word stuck in his mind, but its meaning didn’t.
He had tried asking more, but Oku was not a man of explanations.
On his best days, he was merely gruff.
On his worst, he seemed to despise everything that breathed.

Finde was the weakest of them all.
Slower, smaller, less skilled.
Especially compared to Gozen — the prodigy of the Arena.

Tall, lean, reddish hair tied back with a leather cord, and dark-green eyes as sharp as glass.
He won every duel, every race, every trial.
And he had chosen Finde as his favorite target.

He called him miserable white, mocking his origin.
Being born on a "white planet" was the same as being a failure.

“Betting half a Rhun on you is like betting on snot from a sneeze”, he once laughed with the others.

Finde learned that Rhun was the local currency—and that half a Rhun didn’t even exist.
Translation: he was worth less than nothing.

Yet those insults only fueled him.
Every taunt became fire in his chest.

His father used to say:
No one can tell you what you can or can’t do. Only you decide that.

Eight months later, Finde was no longer the same boy.
The adaptation had been hell—thick air, crushing gravity, endless drills—but his body had hardened.

He had chosen a twin-bladed sword as his weapon—light, swift, perfectly suited to him.
And above all, because the sword master was Oku himself.
Learning from him meant three times the bruises of anyone else… but also the best lessons the Arena had to offer.

The doctor always had a line of recruits waiting outside his door, eager to have their wounds sealed.

The days began at dawn, under Galeo’s first light.
Weapon drills, then hand-to-hand combat.
Lunch, a brief rest, then strength and agility training until dusk.
After dinner, saunas and steam baths.
If Oku was in a foul mood, a third session followed—well into the night.

One afternoon, Finde noticed a boy he’d never seen before.
He wasn’t a recruit.
Finde had glimpsed him several times, standing quietly in the shade of the barracks, watching them train.
This time, Finde decided to approach.

The stranger had light-brown hair cut to his jaw, gray-blue eyes behind thin glasses, and a frail frame that looked almost sickly.
Yet his gaze… held the universe itself.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Spenser”.

“I’m Finde. I’ve seen you around. Don’t you train?”

Spenser smiled softly, with a quiet melancholy.
“Oh, no. I’m not a warrior. Tell me, Finde—why are you here?”

The question caught him off guard.
“I broke a promise to my father. I’ve got nothing left. I’m here to… make it right, I guess. What about you?”

“I want to know everything”, Spenser said seriously. “To solve every mystery in the universe. My dream is to become the greatest scientist who ever lived”.

Finde blinked in disbelief.
A scientist? On Castor?
This planet was made of swords, not books.

He was about to ask why, but Spenser spoke first.
“And you, Finde? What’s your dream?”

He hesitated.
He had always thought of revenge—of killing the Gozhul.
But that wasn’t a dream.
That was a wound.

“I don’t know”, he admitted. “I’ll have to think about It”.

Spenser smiled.

“Good. The worth of a man is measured by the dreams he dares to keep”.

He glanced at the device on his wrist—much like Gladyo’s—then looked back up.
“I have to go. It was a pleasure, Finde. Don’t give up”.

He touched his wristband—and vanished into thin air.

That night, Finde asked the other recruits if anyone knew who Spenser was.
No one did.

When he asked Oku, the instructor merely grunted:
“He’s Alset’s protégé”.

And as always, no explanation followed.
Because Oku… never explained anything.

Oku is about to receive a visit from someone very important, and then... a Tournament among the recruits is about to begin! Don’t miss the next Episode!

[Next: Episode 7 – The Tournament]