Eden lies on the broken wooden floor, knocked out cold. Blood coats his entire body, both from the ogre and from himself. The ogre, who once towered over the fighters, now has fallen, dead and mutilated. It is debatable whether the corpse could even be called a corpse, as most of its body was split apart by Eden. It was more of a pile of organs and blood than a true corpse. The old men, fighting with Eden, stand still for a while, only panting and wiping their brows. But they are not the only ones not moving much, as the rest of the crowd joins them in this act, as all of them are surprised by this sudden victory.

  “Did they really win?” A wood spirit whispers to those around them.

  “I have never seen such a performance occur here.” Another wood spirit remarks; its phantom eyes widened past their sockets.

  “It would seem that some of these slaves have some amount of skill.” A much higher up and bigger wood spirit says, which is met by the gaze of a few other wood spirits, who look almost astonished about what the wood spirit said. But the wood spirits seem to be unable to say anything about the spirit’s opinion. But something all the spirits share is surprise of the group's victory. Well, all but one, who was standing right above the formerly mentioned wood spirit.

  Clap, Clap “It would seem my investment was worthwhile. You should have voted with me, and won ALL OF THIS MONEY!!” Plantus calls out, as he shows how he just won about 100,000 gold from the betting on this match, being one of the few spirits who bet on the humans winning. A few spirits mumble, assumably insults, at Plantus, but none of them have the courage to say those words to his face. While the spirits were talking amongst themselves, the men on the battle floor have snapped back into reality, and they all start cheering for themselves, along with the Old Man going to grab Eden. Though it is only a light cheer; too much was lost in this battle to call it a true victory. Tanker had died, no fault of his own, but due to simply not having a good shield.

  This is not a day one could call a total victory, or at the very least Eden would have never wanted to declare today as such. But today is still a good day in my eyes. Compared to what could have happened, this was one of the best outcomes we could hope for. Old Man concludes as he walks over to Eden, who lays in a bloody pile of miscellaneous body parts and organs. Old Man then goes down and grabs Eden out of the blood pile

  “You should not have fought like that Eden.” Old Man says once Eden was in his hands. Old Man then walks over to the others, who have ended their short-lived celebration.

  “Alright. I have grabbed Eden, who by the looks of it will live, albeit take quite a while to heal. But I must insist that we get him some help.” Old Man calmly says, as the king who cause it all starts to speak.

  “I am rather surprised to declare that the foolish humans have won the trial, and are to be sentenced innocent! The rewards shall be presented and chosen once all participants are alive and functional. Now drag that group out, individually!” Cosmos yells out, leaving the wood spirits even more stunned than before that slaves are getting rewards. But no spirit was quite as stunned as Plantus, which was stunned for a far different reason.

  Wait. He wants them out individually? But, the last time he ordered that- no, there is no time to ponder on misfortunes. I cannot allow history to repeat, or else I will lose all of my investments. Plantus thinks with high greed, as he quickly floats down to the arena where Cosmos has sent his guards to. As Plantus reaches the arena, the guards are about to reach the group and grab them. But Plantus holds out his hand to stop him.

  “Guards Stop! Eden is far too injured to move on his own!” Plantus yells to the Guards, who are surprised at Plantus’s boldness.

  “Are you testing the patience of the king once more! Enough of your damned tricks of interference! Move or I will force you to!” One of the guards barks at Plantus, who does not budge.

  “Try it.” Is all Plantus says in response. A moment of silence falls once more over the area, but is interrupted by laughter, a king’s laughter.

  “Hehehehehe.” Cosmos laughs, having his giant hand on his face, where he then whips his head up.

  “Hahahahaha.” Cosmos goes, laughing quite a bit louder. But then his massive arms are strengthened out.

  “HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Cosmos roars with a loud wave of laughter. He laughs for a solid minute, as everyone just looks at him, most being scared at the normally angry king laugh. But once he finally ends his laughter, he looks down at Plantus, who is standing as strong as ever, and he goes down to the arena, but by floating, but by using his legs to jump all the way there.

  Now looking at Cosmos, he is much more humanoid compared to all other wood spirits. Though one thing a wood spirit was more similar to a human compared to Cosmos was size, as Cosmos easily reached 35 ft (10.67 m), and a shoulder-length to match. His body was also much more defined, as opposed to the much more soul looking form of the other spirits. Regardless, Cosmos is a king for a reason, as he emanates a powerful wave of green energy, making the humans kneel without being able to fight back. But Plantus still faces him had on.

  “You have quite a lot of guts Plantus, you know that? I always respected that quality from you, but I think you took it a bit too far this time. But you know what, I am feeling a little generous right now, so how about this: You give up your winnings, and I will raise the status of all the humans here, your pitiful champion most of all, so they gain the rights to go to a doctor. How about it?” Cosmos says, smiling creepily.

  I know you Plantus. You care for money above all else, but it would seem you see something in these humans that I do not. So lets see which you care for more; these humans, or your money. If this goes anything like last time, I am betting on money. Cosmos happily concludes, looking at Plantus who finally has some amount of an expression on his face, one of a pressured fool.

  Shit! I never would have guessed he would give me such a choice. But, are these humans really worth all this gold? I mean, I barely know any of them, and I only want Eden alive to make me money. But will he ever make me 100,000 gold? Plantus ponders, conflicted on if he should help Eden, but then he looks at the man himself. He sees his bloody body, but behind that blood is a man full of life, dreams, ambitions, and most important of all, potential. The potential to bring about change. Plantus turns away from Eden, and faces Cosmos.

  You better work even harder than ever before, Eden. Plantus thinks, as he hands over the winning ticket of 100,000. Cosmos, looking a bit surprised, takes the ticket and declares a never heard of event to the wood spirits.

  “I declare that these humans shall have their status raised! The current knocked out one will be raised from a 5th class citizen to a 3rd class, while the others shall go from 5th class to 4th class! All who have objections, I do not care!” Cosmos yells out, shocking the already shocked spirits even more than ever before.

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  “I thank you, king Cosmos.” Plantus says, though only out of required respect towards the king.

  “Plantus, I must ask of you to meet me later on, once you get your group all healed up.” Cosmos says, as he then walks over, placing his hand on Plantus to move him over, and talks to the guards.

  “Get these people the transport orb, do not bother with getting a pilot, Plantus knows how to operate the orb just fine.” Cosmos tells the guards.

  “Yes your highness!” The guards call out, as they quickly float off to the waiting area of the humans. They quickly float down and cast some kind of spell, creating a large group of vines. These vines then start to form into a large sphere, where after but a few seconds only a single hole exists for a vine doorway.

  “Come on now.” Plantus tells the group, who follow Plantus to the orb. They quickly move up the stairs and enter the vine orb. It is rather large orb, roughly 20 ft (6.1 m) in diameter. Though the plant made orb is large, there is not much in the orb, pardon an out of place wooden helm that has some sort of enchantment on it, showing a map of the surrounding area. Other than that, there is only dark green vines, with a few leaves here and there on the vines. Plantus walks up to the helm and points to a spot on the map. Suddenly the helm starts to turn, and the group feels their bodies rise, as the orb started to fly up and go to where Plantus had pointed, a hospital. The travel i not that long, but long enough to give the team time to talk and decompress.

  “Yee haw we did it! I’d thought we were dead there once, once Tanker died.” Cowboy says, starting cheerfully but losing all its energy once it dawns on him that Tanker is dead. They all start to look down, sad about the death of Tanker; not well known to them, but he was an ally in their harshest battle. But without Eden to raise their morale, someone has to take up the role, which sadly Old Man does.

  “Hey, all of you, while our friend Tanker may have died, this day was still a success like no other. Never in the tens of trials I have participated in have there only been one confirmed causality, and in none of them have I ever had such a powerful foe as an armoured ogre. All in all, this day should be a day to cerebrate, not to mourn, like we have done after every trial.” The Old Man tries, and to be honest kind of fails, to motivate the men out of their sadness. While his words may be true, who ever claimed that people like honesty? Luckily, before the Old Man can fail any harder at being a poor man’s Eden instead of being an asshole like normal, They suddenly land on the ground and the group goes outside the orb. Once they leave the orb, they see an open area, with a few beds and wood spirits healing some animals, such as horses and cows. To the left of that area is a much smaller sectioned off area labelled “lesser beings” with a few badly wounded humans being healed by very young wood spirits. Some are missing limbs, or chucks of their body, bleeding all over the hay they were laid upon. There is also a third section on the right, labelled “priority recovery”, which is mostly empty, pardon a few wood spirits healing their own. The area is of much higher quality, looking like a standard early 2000s hospital set up, though without the walls.

  It was rather fortunate that Eden became a 3rd class, the minimum requirements to enter the good part of the hospital. Plantus thinks, as he picks up Eden and brings him up to the good part of the bed.

  “Sir Plantus, will Eden be okay?” Soldier politely asks Plantus.

  “Physically yes, Soldier, but I worry about his mental state. I mean, you saw him, he basically went insane after Tanker died. That is actually why I wanted him here, as he will heal in about a few weeks regardless. But the mind, I am unsure if he will recover anytime soon.” Plantus informs Soldier and the rest of them, who look both relieved and somewhat worried. But they have no time to think that, as Eden is carried over to the “nicer” side of the hospital, where Plantus goes over to 3 healers to heal Eden. Anyone can tell the wood spirits have no desire to ever heal him, but they have to heal Eden by law, so when Plantus brings the healers Eden’s body. The healers lay him on the bed, and begin to heal the man. The healing itself was rather quick, as most of the deep wounds were healed by the axe, and he is out more from overuse of his skills than from the injuries itself. His wounds quickly close, and his blood is recovered, but once this half minute process is done.

  “Your friend here will be fine, honestly he did not require any healing in the first place. Take the beast back to where you got it from.” The wood spirit healer tells Plantus as they begin to float away, but Plantus is quick to interrupt.

  “Wait, There is still something I have to ask of you. Might you beagle to heal his mentality as well. That needs more healing them his physical body in my opinion.” Plantus asks, where the healers start to chuckle a little.

  “Sorry Plantus, but the laws only tell me to heal the body for those of this man’s status. Therapy is only for 1st class citizens.” One of the healers tells Plantus.

  Fuck. I forgot about that. Never learned much of the dinner details of the limitations of what the lower class citizens can do. I should read more on that latter. But what can I do now? Plantus ponders, but then he comes up with an idea. I have already invested this much, what is a few more thousands of gold? Plantus concludes, as he pulls out the bag of 2,000 gold that was leftover.

  “I will pay you to deal with it. Please.” Plantus asks the healers, almost begging. One of the healers begrudgingly stays back, as the other two leave.

  “I will do it. Hold on a minute.” The healer tells Plantus, as he begins to cast a spell on Eden, much like the healing magic. However, once the green light hits Eden, the magical power suddenly breaks. The healer looks astonished at this.

  “Healer sir, What happened?” Soldier asks the healer, who looks a little angry at the human trying to talk to him. But the wood spirit still answers.

  “There appears to be some kind of mental blocker already on him, something similar to a mind control effect. Any mental healing effects get disrupted by this blocker. The best I can do is mess with the blocker to suppress memories.” The Healer informs the group.

  “Suppress the boy’s memories you say. That would fix a lot of problems.” Old Man calls out.

  “ But I’d reckon Eden wouldn’t want that, partner.” Cowboy tells Old Man in response.

  “I would agree, Cowboy. Healer, could you only suppress parts of his memory, From the range of right after Tanker died to his passing out, along with a slight suppression on the bloody body of Tanker.” Plantus asks the healer.

  “If you paid me anything less than this 2,000 gold then I would not have done all of this.” The healer says, begrudgingly going to cast a different spell, using Eden’s current mental limitations to limit this, oddly specific and short memories.

  “God this is going to be a lot of mana.” The healer says as he is casting the spell. A blood-red aura surrounds Eden, as the green mana from the spirit starts to mix with it. The green is quickly and easily overpowered by the red aura, but the red energy is affected enough to start to swirl a little right on Eden’s forehead. The wood spirit shrinks a little, and the spirit falls down quite a bit, almost touching the ground. But after about a minute, the spell had been completed, and Eden has had these painful memories suppressed, not completely forgotten, but just about.

  “Their I did it. Are you happy now?” The healer quips as they move away, unable to float they they have to glide off the station to another person who needed healing.

  ‘Thank you.” Plantus says to the healer, who most likely did not hear his words. Afterwards, Plantus takes the group back to the vine orb to go back to their “home”.

  “So what do we do now?” Toxin quietly asks the old men, as he goes to sit in a corner of the vine orb, roughly at a 40-degree angle.

  “Well how about we all party like horses running out on the desert plains, and I ain't going to hold back on the drinking.” Cowboy recommends to the group, which they all agree to, though it is debatable if they all understood whatever the hell Cowboy is on about. After they agree to the party, the vine orb lands, and as the door opens they see they are right in front of the house of Eden and the Old Man. The group walk outside the orb, and right when they reached the embedded home, and Old Man puts him down on the ground, Eden wakes up.

  “Ahhh, why am I on dirt? I did not think I hit the ground hard enough to break through the floor.” Eden asks himself, getting up to see the stone house and the cotton fields.

  I am at the fields? Did they take me after the fight, wait, the fight! Did we win-no, of course we did, I would be dead if we lost. I guess my final strike had killed that ugly beast. It thought the neck wound was not big enough to kill, but I guess it worked out. Eden concludes about the factually ugly creature he had slain, as he starts to get up. But as he is about to fully get up, he hears the cheer of the old men, his comrades.

  “Sir, you won the fight, sir.” Soldier informs Eden.

  “Partner, that was the best dang fighting I have ever done seen with an axe. Good on yah!” Cowboy congratulates Eden.

  “Personally I have seen better, but good job nonetheless.” The Old Man tells Eden.

  “Good job, Eden.” Toxin quietly says.

  “No, I do not deserve to be praised for the victory alone. Without all of you, we would have had no chance of seeing victory.” Eden tells all of them, who feel kind of bad right now. But the old men still look rather thankful for Eden’s kind words, and not being full of himself, unlike a certain martial artist walking into his house.

  “Eden, sir, we are planning to throw a party, sir! May we proceed with this sir!?” Soldier asks Eden.

  “I am in agreement, as we should throw a party of some kind, to celebrate coming back alive.” Eden says, as he goes to the house, following Old Man. The rest of the old men follow along.

  “Everyone, come on to the kitchen.” Old Man tells the group who were already following him, but I guess it was nice to tell him where they were going. He brings them to the kitchen, the only room that can house 5 people. Old Man had already gone in a bit before the others reached him, so when they enter the kitchen, Old Man is grabbing the jug of lemonade.

  “Want some lemonade guys?” The Old Man asks the gang.

  “I would quite enjoy some.” Eden lies, knowing how sour the lemonade always is from the Old Man. But when the Old Man hands them all their glass, and he takes a sip, it is sweet as honey as they all cheer. Cheering a cheer of victory.