The town seemed more dim and the hobgoblins less enthused with life following the addition of the Arena to the Noob Zone. Mike woke everyone up at the crack of dawn, after running even earlier than normal with his elite force, and put the entire valley through some basic physical exercises. Jumping, pushups, situps, jogging, and even some light sparring were his methods of choice. The new daily regimen added structure to the hobgoblins' lives which in turn provided an increased measure of safety that only preparedness can bring. It also helped them have productive days, and Mike was pleased with how construction of The Pit was coming along.

The Pit was his idea for increasing both his Dodge and Hardened Skin skills, and unsurprisingly, all centered around a pit. It was nearly 10 feet deep and 20 feet in diameter. Rather than being a sphere, it was a 15 sided polygon, each side around 2 feet across and reinforced with alternating layers of branches and clay. The idea was to stand in the center of The Pit and throw the broken axes at a nearby wall. Because even the broken axes retained their tendency to rebound and also because rebounds occurred over 90% of the time when an ax was thrown, despite Mike’s growing disparity between Dexterity and his other attributes, the ax would then come screaming back at him. At the very least, he hoped this method would allow him to dodge more axes, but hopefully by throwing enough of them, he would be hit too.

The smiths had created over 30 broken ax heads, which after modifying the initial product, likely wouldn’t result in him losing an arm… although metal on the end of a stick could still take out an eye or hit his head. He had decided to call the blunt instruments studs. He hoped the danger was great enough that the System would recognize it as an actual dodge or hit towards his skills.

On the 5th day after the Arena, Mike was finally able to test out his creation. Dropping into the enclosure, he unloaded the studs on the ground and immediately threw one at the wall in front of him. The distance to the wall was so close that Damage Premonition already warned him he would be hit in the stomach before his throw was completed, meaning that he was able to easily step to the side of the rebounding stud.

He wasn’t expecting the stud to rebound a second time, the odd number of sides meant that no side was directly opposite another, and he hoped that this would result in the studs falling awkwardly to the ground. His Dexterity nullified the surprise though, and he easily avoided it again as it flew over his left shoulder, before it finally came to rest not far from yet a third section of the wall.

Retrieving the tool, he set himself up in the middle, but this time threw an ax from both hands at two different walls. He was able to dodge the first, but the second hit on his upper shoulder, which broke his concentration and caused him to be hit in the back by the first ax returning to his position for the second time. Three throws and three dodges, those were pretty good odds.

After a bit of testing, he was able to keep at least one stud flying around the pit at all times. He staggered his throws and as each hand came down, he pulled another stud from the spatial storage bag that he centered on his waist like a fanny pack. The oddly angled projectiles meant that he was constantly rotating from one wall to the next.

Eventually, all of the studs had managed to bounce out of The Pit, and he decided to call it on this particular training method for the day. As he pulled up his Character Sheet, he was surprised to see that he had managed to get 641 Dodges and 523 hits towards his skills in just under two hours of time–much better progress than any other method had ever yielded for him. The rebounding studs had less mass than a rebounding ax, causing him to take less damage each time he was hit, which meant that he had been able to keep going without breaks for much longer, his body still healthy and whole compared to the wretched state that chopping trees had once inflicted on him.

Walking back to camp, his thoughts of adding an angled roof to the enclosure were interrupted as a shining light erupted from two nearby hobgoblins, causing those in their vicinity to look away. When the light died, the hobgoblins were nowhere to be seen, and everyone knew they had witnessed the camp's first encounter with the Arena.

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By the time Bart had arrived back at the town, the adventurers from the other zones had already arrived, straining the limits of what the town could reasonably support. The new arrivals were easy to pick out from previous residents, most of them turning their heads in every direction as they strained to figure out where exactly the System had deposited them.

Seizing an opportunity, Bart immediately went to the System hub and cashed in half of his gold for a large supply of basic adventure needs. Health potions, poison curing herbs, light armor, and small weaponry. The high grade armor and dagger he kept for himself, looking the part of a successful adventurer was the best advertisement around. In the absence of his well stocked store, some adventurers had established competing markets. Though they didn’t have as high of a shop license, they had much more selection than he could afford… at least before his most recent quest.

Taking his newly purchased goods and donning his new armor, he set up a stall among the remains of his demolished store. While the System hadn’t provided any new buildings for the new strain of adventurers, it had cleared out area around the edges of the entire town, removing the large copse of trees that had once led to the back of his store.

Before too long, the first customers came by, and by nightfall, he had already sold all of his potions and most of his weaponry, turning an easy profit that would help him expand the next day.

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It wasn’t until day three that someone decided to try out the Arena for the first time. Taking advantage of his much more mobile setup, he moved his stall within the grounds. The first party fared well, fighting first a few rabid squirrels, followed in turn by large rabbits, demonic chickens, and finally a small pack of wolves. The wolves proved a match for the group, who decided to call it a day.

The arena was the general shape of a football stadium, the small rectangle in the middle only being 30 yards to a side. Stands lined each edge, and while a party was fighting, a forcefield appeared around the circumference, manifesting itself as a large hare attempted to flee the battle, and not disappearing until the party decided to end their fights in the arena.

By the time the party was fighting the demonic chickens, light betting had broken out among the gathered crowd. Seizing an opportunity, Bart allowed others to place bets against the house, setting up a small board that detailed the odds for all who were interested.

As the party left the arena, they stopped at Bart’s stall, purchasing a few small healing potions and one greater healing potion to get their party back to full health. Their winnings in the arena easily outweighed what they paid for the potions, and both parties walked away happy.

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Bart lived at the Arena over the following days, barely sleeping between matches as he watched his wealth grow at an astounding rate. Alcohol flowed freely through the crowd, who became more and more loose with their bets, even as they chanted adventurers further and further through the Arena’s gambit.

It was the 4th match in when a few hobgoblins spawned. All the new adventurers in the town had been told of Mike and his valley, and while a few foolish individuals still sought to find the valley and take him out, the majority opinion was that the stronghold was likely too hard for them to take without an all out war, which the town wasn’t ready for.

The imbibed crowd sobered instantly at the sight of the small humanoids. The current fighting party was made of exclusively transferred adventurers, who were used to hobgoblins in their previous zone. The small green humanoids only enhanced this opinion as their slight frames quivered in front of the large crowd.

Embellishing her movements, the lead adventurer approached the beast and swung her sword to finish off the match quickly. Faster than she was accustomed to, the small hobgoblin pulled a small dagger from his loincloth and plunged it into the woman’s stomach, causing her to double over. It was a cheap trick, and it caused the remaining adventurers to leap forward, all bravado gone as they easily massacred the two small creatures with their superior numbers.

Bart cursed under his breath as he paid out to those who had bet the adventurers would be wounded during the fourth match, “Even when Mike isn’t here, his minions are messing up my life.”

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After only a few minutes, the light returned and two mangled bodies along with it. What had once been a common occurrence only a few short weeks earlier felt like a tragedy. No hobgoblins had been lost since the attack on the town. The bodies seemed to reinforce the gloom that had pervaded the camp since the announcement of the Arena, and Mike couldn’t stomach his failure in that moment.

Leaving the valley at top speed, he pushed the limits of his endurance as he ran, through the evening and into the night. The miles disappeared to his loping gait, and before sunrise, he was able to see a large shining wall in front of him. As he approached, he realized it was well over 100 meters tall and extended as far as he could see in either direction. He had found the boundary of the Noob Zone. A foreboding energy radiated from the wall, and he instinctively knew that there was no way he would survive passing through the barrier.

The abrupt change to his current pace caused the exhaustion from the hours of running to catch up to him, and he found himself lying on the ground, staring up at the stars above. Somehow, despite all of the changes that had occurred, the same constellations that he had enjoyed when he first found his valley were still hanging above him, providing a sense of normalcy that he had never felt since the System had battered humanities ideas about what existed in the wider universe.

With time, his thoughts circled back to the death of the hobgoblins and he was able to once again come to terms with the fact that he couldn’t save everyone. There would be casualties, and the best he could was minimize those.

There was only one logical thing left to do at the moment, help raise the morale of the valley. A bison roast and a large batch of acorn biscuits would surely do the trick.