The Colosseum was massive, and if Lane were to explore it without any directions it'd take hours. He'd left the lobby behind, climbing the stairs to the other floors and moving through the corridors to the different areas. Luckily for him, there were enough signs to avoid wandering around aimlessly.

The corridors themselves were made out of polished stone, giving the Colosseum the feel of a castle. or perhaps a temple — considering it was built by the gods.

Currently following the directions of signs leading to one of the training halls, Lane found several smaller on the way. Often completely devoid of people, many of the rooms were filled with weights, wooden practice dolls, or other training equipment. He didn't bother entering any of them, but made sure to remember their location. If what Lela said was true and you grew faster while in the Testing Area of the Gods, then it might be a good idea to make use of those rooms later. He could try out his new weapon with the practice dolls, but he was curious about the training halls and wanted to find those first.

Walking through the Colosseum's corridors he saw more rooms, even passing by a small arena before he eventually reached a large hall with many people in it. A sign above the entrance said 'Training hall 2'. The hall was shaped like a large oval with a domed ceiling, with a track going around the room. At one end of the room stood several archery targets and at the opposite end where several lines of practice dolls and targets for melee weapons. In the middle of the hall were marked circles that looked to be for dueling. There was also an area where thin wooden pillars rose a few feet off the ground with more dolls interspaced between them. Losing your balance on them would hurt.

Some people were already training at the archery range or the other areas, but there was also a large group of people who had gathered close to the middle of the training hall. Approaching them, Lane saw a person with a large broadsword in their hand standing in front of the group. It was one of the men in uniform who'd stood behind General Lichter earlier; the one who had saluted and run off right before the gates opened. He had blond hair and a face like a stone — in more ways than one. A dark blue cape with golden inlays hung over his broad shoulders and his uniform was a slightly lighter blue with golden buttons and bright white pants. The man was in the middle of performing a series of quick thrusts and slashes with his sword which almost seemed to glow a faint blue as it cut the air. Dodging those attacks didn't seem plausible.

Lane and the others watched with amazement as the man finished his moves and stood straight, peering over the group. "As you see, strength isn't everything. Speed and control are vital, and to not allow your opponent freedom of movement." His gaze then moved to Lane who had arrived at the back of the large group, and the halberd which peaked out above the crowd.

"I am teaching the basics of the sword. Unless that weapon is only for show, you don't need to be here." The man's voice rang out over the crowd, and people's heads turned in Lane's direction. "Brigadier General Quentrell will be teaching the basics of the spear and other polearms in training hall three tomorrow morning. I recommend that you participate in that. Until then, you can train against the practice targets, but you're welcome to stay and watch if you want." The man said and immediately turned his attention back to the group before him, resuming where he left off.

Caught off guard, Lane looked at his halberd and the man's sword. It might not be a bad idea to learn about weapons other than what he would use. But he'd much rather try out his weapon right now.

He turned around and left the group, walking over to the area with the practice dolls. Stopping in front of a wooden doll with a wooden shield and sword, he brandished his halberd for the first time. Gripping the lower end of the shaft with his right hand and putting his left hand higher up, he performed a few thrusts in the air. Changing his grip, he tried to quickly switch from a thrust to a swing and from a swing to a thrust.

It was slow.

He'd expected more. The weapon was like a natural part of his hands, but it didn't move as he wanted. The grip was good but the movements were...not awkward, but not right.

How he should move, that he knew. He didn't know why, but it was just there in his mind. But he couldn't implement it well.

When he swung the axehead, it was shaky. When he thrust the tip, it was unbalanced. He wanted to use more speed and strength than he could, and when he tried a complicated move he felt how strained his unused muscles became.

When he'd been a child, his father had owned a lute. Lane had played it a lot when he was young but eventually, they were forced to sell it. He hadn't touched a lute again for years. Then a traveling bard stayed at the inn he worked at a year back and he got to try their lute. His muscle memory had been still there, but the lute was a different size and his hands had grown larger so he kept making mistakes. It took him a while to grow used to the difference.

It was similar now. Like he hadn't used the halberd for a while and had to grow used to all the differences first. Practise was the only answer to that.

He stopped attacking thin air and turned to the doll. The halberd held between him and his target, acting as an inviolable wall. Anything that wanted to reach him would first have to breach this wall, and he knew that wasn't happening. A half-step and a thrust at the doll's shield, followed by a strike towards the neck with the axehead. Then a quick step back as the halberd returned to its original position — pointing at the enemy. It might look fine from an outside perspective, but he felt how poor of an attack it was. Was this how it had been when he'd fought the hobgoblin? Had he been this slow? He could think of dozens of ways to counter such an attack. If he could execute them, that was.

He repeated the attack with different patterns, starting to imagine the opponent's weapon when it attacked him. The image of the hobgoblin superimposed onto the doll in his mind's eye, its heavy axe flying at him. Using the pike to deflect the axe upwards, he cut at the hobgoblins head.

It was still off — but he continued.

The hobgoblin swung at him from above. He simply side-stepped swung at its exposed neck.

If his foe used its weapon to press down on the halberds long shaft in an attempt to disarm him, he simply used the hook to cut its hamstring while taking a step back to disengage. He kept thinking of ways it could attack him and acted accordingly. Whichever move his enemy took, there was a way for him to counteract it. A mix of elation and disappointment washed over him. He might be disappointed by his body's performance, but his sense of battle made up for it. Just like in the battle yesterday.

Like in a trance he kept fighting his imaginary opponent over and over, recalling more and more motions as time passed. Sweat covered his body, his arms trembling from the exertion. He'd lost all sense of time when a voice sounded out from the side.

"Wow, you're good. How long have you been training?"

"Since I was young." Lane said as he performed a thrust that turned into an upwards swing at the doll's arm.

"You've been training with an antique weapon since you were a kid? what kind of family did you grow up in?"

Lane froze with the halberd held in front of him. "What?." He turned around and saw Chris standing there with a sword and a shield in his hands.

Chris shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not judging. Our grandpa made us do something similar. Although you're a lot better at it than me and my sister."

Lane stared at the red-haired teenager. What was he talking about? He thought back and realized what he'd answered to Chris' question. Why did he tell him that he'd been training since he was young?

...Had he?

That's right. You don't become good at something from out of nowhere. He learned this somewhere. He was sure. Vague memories of endless hours spent practicing. Of the sweat and blood spilled—

—Spilled blood? What was he thinking? He'd never touched a halberd before today, much less fought and drawn blood with it.

But for a moment, he thought that he had.

What's happening to me?

"Are you okay?" Chris asked.

"Huh? Oh, right...I'm fine." Lane said dazedly.

Chris gave him an uncertain look but gave a slight nod. "Okay, if you say so. I just wanted to thank you for yesterday. I was completely out after that monster knocked me away, but Rachel told me you killed it by yourself. We would've been dead if it wasn't for you, so if you need any help, don't hesitate to ask us. Anything's fine if it's in our power."

Lane looked at Chris with surprise. He and his sister really were different from what he expected of Summoned. Most Summoned weren't the types to care about favors and things like that. He had saved their lives, but he didn't think they would bring it up themselves. However, he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"You're welcome. And I'll keep that in mind." He answered, and glanced around the training hall. "Where's your sister?"

"She's not here." Chris held up his sword. "I'm here because of the sword instructor. My sister had a lot of mana, so she bought a spell wand and went to training hall three instead. That's where the magic instructor is supposed to be."

Magic instructor? It might be Lela's mom, considering she's supposed to be a mage.

"Where'd you learn this? I haven't heard anything about it." Lane said.

Chris grinned. "We asked the person in the magic shop how you were supposed to learn magic."

Obviously, Lane chose the wrong informant. And wasted half a point. Although it was a tasty meal. "Is there a limit on who can learn magic?"

"If you want to be able to use magic right away you need to use a spell wand, and apparently you need a mana stat around 2.5 or higher to even get those to work." Chris shook his head. "You're supposed to be able to learn magic by yourself, but it's hard if you don't have much mana. Grandpa told us there wasn't much point to it unless you get a class where it's needed."

This meant that—with his low mana stat—there wasn't much chance of him learning magic any time soon.

Lane glanced at Chris. He was also sweaty, and while not as dirty and torn as his clothes, the clothes Chris wore were quite ragged as well. It gave an odd sense of incongruity when every other person you saw looked like they came right from the battlefield.

Chris followed his gaze onto his clothes. "I know I don't look that good, but I don't think you're one to judge." He pointed at Lane's torn shirt, which revealed parts of his side. "Unless you're telling me it's supposed to look like that?"

"It was whole when I got it, so I doubt it," Lane shook his head. "And I was only thinking about your sister. Last time I saw her—I don't even know if that was yesterday or the day before—there was a large cut across her side and blood everywhere. I can't imagine her clothes are in good condition.

"According to the priest we asked, it was yesterday." Chris laughed. "And yeah, you should have seen my sister earlier. She was screaming at me to give her my shirt. Her clothes are too small for me, so I don't know if she was expecting me to go around with a bare chest or not."

"You can buy clothes at one of the shops."

"I know. But we can't afford it right now. Rachel paid five points just for her wand, and I paid four points for my stuff." Chris nodded towards his sword and shield. "We'll have to wait until we can start earning some points to get some new clothes."

"What are you going to do about food? We only get one free meal a day, you know." Lane said.

"I know, but I still have one point left to use, so we'll have to make do with that."

"One point isn't going to last you long. It costs half a point per meal."

"Wait, seriously?" Chris's expression fell. "How is it that expensive?! It was much cheaper in the previous years."

Lane shrugged his shoulders. "That's what you get when there are only a couple of stores selling food."

"Jesus, monopolies really are everywhere. Rachel is not going to like this..." Chris mumbled and looked back at Lane. "How about you?"

"I have enough to eat two meals a day until the duels start." He said.

"Good for you. Don't let my sister catch you when you're buying food, though. I can't guarantee she won't start begging you for some." Chris shook his head as he started walking towards one of the practice dolls, muttering something under his breath. He then gave a short wave at Lane. "I'm going to train some more, so I'll see you later. Remember to ask us if you need anything."

With that, Chris left, leaving Lane alone.

He wasn't aware of how long he'd been at it before Chris talked to him, but if he were to guess, he'd been practicing with the halberd for a couple of hours at least. There weren't any windows in the training hall. Instead, it was lit up by crystal lights placed around the walls, so there was no way for him to know what time it was. Since he began in the afternoon, there should still be some time before night, so he went over the edge wall and sat down to rest. After regaining some energy he could train some more before returning to the dorms.