Beatitudes

The Arena.

The Arena had four entrances facing the north, west, south and east, the sight after every entrance was almost the same thing so the three randomly chose an entrance and got in through the West gate. The sight that appeared before their eyes was a hall with so many people within, it felt like a futuristic mall instead of a place where people came to do battle, all the people were all students of the academy from the batches that entered before them, some of them were huddled around a large display board watching the board as it displayed various informations on an evenly divided table, they stared like they were deciding on something, some of them would point at one of the squares and something like a projection would come and display more information, at other sides there were rows upon rows of glowing platforms that some people would occasionally step on and disappear from, like teleportation. Other places had multiple screens showing battles between people, different battles was relayed on different screens as the people watching it had varying expressions of various degrees, the rest of the place had evenly spaced bigger platforms, one had a group of people appearing like ghosts on as they got down, the odd thing of the group of people was that there were two people who looked to have injuries which couldn't be called neither light nor heavy, they looked like they went through a big fight as they supported each other down the platform with faint smiles on their faces, "looks like the battle ended on a happy note", Jaden turned his head as he heard a mumble close by him, looking to right side he noticed the person that mumbled absentmindedly with a nonchalant look on his face, not recognizing who he was he turned his head away as he looked around again but then Jaden noticed he didn't really have any knowledge about this place and he didn't know where was where, so he turned back to the person who was mumbling previously, had his head to another direction with a carefree expression plastered on his face, "Uhm excuse me..." he called out to the person with a light tap on his shoulder, Ayo and Bloat who were still staring elsewhere turned their heads on hearing his voice and they saw the guy turning his head as he asked, "You were talking to me?", Jaden put a faint smile to appear more sincere as he replied "Yeah I was... well you you see, I'm Jaden and these are my friends, we're the new batch of students of the academy... ", " ...I could tell" the guy stated as he just kept staring wondering what Jaden was after, ".. Since we're new, we're not familiar with the sights here so although we're here, we're not sure where to go or what to do, you mind guiding us around a bit". After hearing what Jaden had to say the guy looked at Jaden for a second more before he nodded " I guess I do have free time with nothing to do as well, might as well be an arena guide for a day, although I doubt there are many things for you to do since you're so new here".Hearing his consent the other two looked to him and waited to hear what he had to say.

Although the academy had a tremendous amount of prestige, they tended to keep most information about the school within it, you would wonder how they were able to convince the masses that the academy was the best spot for their younger ones, well a recent statistics of the academy stated that during the time period of sixteen somewhat years from the establishment and beginning of the school till the present date, the graduates of the academy throughout it's little years in existence had always been of at least the sixth level of the unlocking phase, yes they used the product of their training as proof, the cultivation phases Jaden knew where the unlocking phase and the saintly transformation phase, information about other phases were kept as confidentials, the unlocking phase was the first phase of the cultivation pathway, it had ten levels with each increase in level granting more power than before, reaching the sixth phase was possible for all those with at least a four circle talent, but reaching it in six years alone was impossible unless you had a seven circle talent and that was if you added perseverance and luck to the mix, hence when the results of the academy had always been one to astonish the masses, the people of Earth basically almost deified the academy, which only encouraged them to be more mysterious. So basically, knowledge of the internal structure of the academy was kept under wraps by those who had passed through it and those passing through, only images of a few significant places of the academy were circulated and the Arena was one of them,serving to only increase their curiosity towards it.

"Ok so.. as you know it this the arena, which has four gates through which you could get in, this is the West gate... ", hearing things they already knew Bloat was almost about to speak up and urge him on to the rest of the description when Ayo jabbed him on the sides, shooting a glare at him he kept as he understood his actions, turning back the guy had already moved on, "the arena has two hundred and fifty two battle grounds, with one and twenty eight on the upper floor and a hundred and twenty four on the ground floor and then the Pantheon grounds that is off bounds for battle, that display screen you see over there shows the entire number of battle grounds on the west side both those in usage and those that aren't, the ones glowing with a green light shows the grounds in use and the dull ones shows those not in use, you guys are new and I can't see any flexi bands on you either so I'm guessing you not been given those yet, those ask me about them, just wait till when you're given... Alright where was I, so the flexi bands I mentioned are connected to you and your consciousness so if you want specific information on a particular battleground in use, you can basically just indicate towards the one you're interested in and the names and a few other information on the fighters and the privacy level of the battle would appear in front of you with the details. The privacy level indicates whether or not the battle is open to the public eye, private battles have only the combatants and perhaps those they give special permission to come in along with them while the public battles has no restrictions on who can view it except there's a limit to the space allocated for spectators, no more than a hundred people are allowed as spectators, hence those that ended up not being able to enter the battlegrounds through those glowing platforms have no other choice than to view the battle on those screens over there if still interested, those bigger platforms serve as the exit platforms for the combatants and their spectators, varying levels of injuries are permitted based on the type of battle, but absolutely no killing is allowed, a referee is present in every battleground in use to precede over the match. You can also apply for a battle on a battleground through the display board there, Also-"

While the guy was giving information on the arena and Bloat was just about to nod off to sleep, a loud shout was heard and the four of them were alerted as they turned their heads to the place where they entered from, a group of people were walking in with all attention on two of them in front in particular.

"At this point the guy who was broken off from his explanations had a smile break out on his face as he said, "Well Well, looks like the battle will go on after all, this is going to be interesting".

Confused at first till they heard what the guy said, the trios eyes lit up as Bloat was heard mumbling excitedly,

"Awesome...".