Jake walked with steady steps out of the large arena, which was quite frankly a mess by now. Gudrun’s formation had screwed it up a lot, and Jake’s subsequent barrage of exploding arcane arrows certainly hadn’t helped. Javelins were also lying haphazardly everywhere, and he did not envy whatever clean-up crew was in charge of putting the arena back to how it was.

As he walked out, the announcer naturally also did his thing.

“We have a winner! No, not just a winner, but a new Champion! What are the true limits of the Doombringer? Despite all of the Valkyrie’s preparations and plans, she could not have predicted the Doombringer would bring out a bow and wield it with such overwhelming power!”

Jake still found the commentary horrible, even after he at least wasn’t called the Purple Doom Poker or whatever bloody name the announcer decided on.

When it came to Gudrun’s body, two people from the Colosseum had already walked out to retrieve it. Jake had given her a final look before he walked down toward the small tunnel leading down to the training area once again. While Jake was not that damaged, he still wasn’t in the greatest of shapes, and not just because of what Gudrun had done to him.

Jake was, for all intents and purposes, too powerful for his own body. The power of his arcane energies was more than he could handle, even if he controlled it as best he could. This was one of the downsides of training his archery with his C-grade body in mind. With Arcane Supremacy, he was confident in handling it when he infused his body with a rush of arcane energy with every shot, but without it, he would leave minor damage every time.

Didn’t help that Gudrun had fried him with that weird golden lightning a few times, either. She had definitely been a worthy fight before one would get promoted to the “final” rank of the Colosseum. If one had any major flaws, it would be game over. Without having his archery, Jake would have likely lost, as he honestly still wasn’t sure how he would have overcome that sand mound with only his katars.

Of course, he would only lose a life and could try the fight again, this time knowing what she had in mind. At least, he assumed that is how it worked. He didn’t fully know, as he hadn’t died yet, after all.

“Go rest, Champion Doombringer. Walk away today, a victor of the Arena of Mortals. A fighter who has reached the apex. Of course, should you return to climb the Gauntlet of the Grand Champion, we would all be more than pleased!”

And there it was.

Jake had kind of beaten the Colosseum of Mortals now, but there was still one final optional challenge to go. Opening the system message he had just gotten confirmed he had indeed completed it.

Congratulations! You are now a Champion of the Colosseum of Mortals, standing with the other Champions as a titan at the apex.

The main objective of the Challenge Dungeon has now been completed. You are free to leave the Colosseum of Mortals for a final evaluation unless you want to attempt the bonus objective. Nevermore Attendee shall get a bonus for every unspent life remaining. This bonus will be forfeited should the Nevermore Atendee attempt the bonus objective.

So, are you truly satisfied to be one of eight Champions? Or do you wish to truly prove yourself the true apex of the Colosseum? To stand where barely anyone else has ever stood?

To become the Grand Champion.

As a Champion, you are allowed to challenge other Champions. Be warned that should you challenge any Champions, you are required to challenge all of them, and there can, at maximum, be one month between each challenge issued.

For becoming the Champion without losing a single time or losing any lives, you are rewarded an extra 500,000 Colosseum Points. Final rewards upon Challenge Dungeon completion have increased.

Bonus objective gained: Defeat the other Champions to become the Grand Champion.

Current rank: Champion (0/7)

Colosseum Points: 1,883,010

Lives remaining: 10

Reading the message, Jake could only nod. While he couldn’t say everything was as expected, he wasn’t entirely taken by surprise. There were a few things that sprung to mind, though. One was naturally his massive amount of Colosseum Points. Getting half a million points for becoming a Champion was already massive, but the points he had gotten during the Paragon rank were nothing to scoff at either.

The first victory had awarded him 15,000 points, the second 20,000, third 25,000, and so on and so forth, with the final one rewarding a whopping 60,000. The Show Matches had kept giving 30,000 for every victory throughout the Paragon rank, but this still meant Jake had gained 375,000 and 300,000 points, respectively, from these two.

When it came to spending points, he had used a bit over a thousand, pretty much all of it on those recovery potions.

The second thing with the system message that stood out was what was missing. First of all, there were no mentions of Show Matches anywhere, making him wonder if those were unavailable now, and secondly, there was nothing about only being able to challenge other Champions once a week, just that if he did decide to go for the Grand Champion rank, he had to challenge at least one every month.

Also, the bonus objective revealed to him there were seven other Champions besides himself. So, seven more fights to go…

Jake did wonder if there was more after Grand Champion or if the Challenge Dungeon would just end. Alas, he still had those seven to beat before he had a chance to find out, and as he was way too curious about who exactly he would be fighting, he went straight to the Battlemaster, even if his body was hurting pretty badly.

Yeah, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion he would give it a shot. Sure, he would apparently lose some bonuses if he lost any lives, but Jake didn’t really care much about that.

The Battlemaster was already waiting for Jake at his usual spot, standing with his arms crossed.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the newest Champion of the Colosseum of Mortals,” the Battlemaster said with a genuine smile. “I will admit I was a little surprised when you pulled out that bow of yours. Gudrun sure was, too. Say, do you also know how to summon a horde of monsters, or maybe you can transform into some powerful beast? At this point, I pretty much expect you to have more hidden cards up your sleeve.”

“No, but I can create a clone of myself made up entirely of energy from an ancient curse stolen from a forgotten land of vampires, the clone itself being based on a simulation of myself from a fake universe,” Jake answered casually.

“Ah, yeah, I figured,” the Battlemaster smiled, shaking his head. “Anyway, congratulations are in order. You’ve beaten the Colosseum of Mortals… unless you want to keep going?”

“Enlighten me what that would involve,” Jake smiled in return. Usually, the guy had some information the system message didn’t, so it was definitely worth asking.

“It’s called the Gauntlet of the Grand Champion, and it’s quite the ordeal to undertake… in fact, only a single person in this generation has completed it,” the Battlemaster answered. “But don’t think about that too much quite yet. You don’t even know who you’ll have to fight yet if you do decide to attempt the Gauntlet!”

“Fair enough,” Jake shrugged, now definitely sure there was at least one final boss of sorts if he became a Grand Champion. “So… who will I be fighting if I decide to go for it?”

“That one is easy to answer; it isn’t like the Champions aren’t famous, to begin with. It’s honestly weird you don’t already know,” the Battlemaster said as he nevertheless produced a list of names.

Jake wanted to curse the man, as he fully agreed it was incredibly stupid that he somehow couldn’t figure out who the Champions were. It was only due to pure dungeon-fuckery, and before getting promoted, he only knew of Owen’s dad.

Taking the list of names from the Battlemaster, Jake quickly skimmed over the titles of the seven other Champions.

· Lightning Monarch

· Warmaster

· Phoenix Queen

· Lord of the Hunt

· Archmage

· Mistress of Shadows

· Necromancer

So, one by one, starting with the Lord of the Hunt, because who the hell was that asshole to take a title Jake actually liked? His initial assessment was that this was some kind of archer like him, but he would naturally do some research to figure out if that was the case. Anyway, moving on from this Lord of the Hunt, Jake actually started at the top.

Lighting Monarch was Owen’s dad, Jake was pretty sure. A lightning swordsman.

Warmaster was probably some kind of warrior.

Phoenix Queen was interesting. Maybe a beastkin of some kind? It couldn’t be a beast.

Archmage was truly a name full of mystery, and after much deliberation, Jake guessed it was a mage of some kind.

Mistress of Shadows was probably that Dark Elf Jake had seen a good while ago. He had faintly felt a familiar aura from her back then, but he would have to confirm if she was Umbra, as he suspected.

Necromancer was also a super boring name, but it did kind of excite him. He had never really fought a necromancer, had he? How would a level 0 necromancer even work? Could he summon weak-ass skeletons or something? Definitely something to check out.

After he had read the list, Jake decided to keep trying to get some more information out of the Battlemaster. “I see there is quite the mix of Champions… how come none of them have tried this Grand Champion Gauntlet?”

“Think about it for a second. All seven current Champions are incredibly powerful in their own right, but they are not equally powerful in every field. The Mistress of Shadows, as an example, is a rogue using shadow magic – hence the name – and against any of the mages, she will have a clear advantage. However, against any of the warriors or the hunter, she will find herself struggling. And before you ask, the reason the rogue doesn’t just kill the mages and stop is that if one begins the challenge to become Grand Champion, they are required to challenge allof the other champions, with at most a month between each challenge,” the Battlemaster explained.

Jake already knew the last part from the system message he had gotten earlier, but it explained well why someone like the Mistress of Shadows had just beaten the mages and then stopped. Well, if she had done that, then one of the others, likely a warrior, would have taken her down in turn, with a mage then killing the warrior. No, anyone who wanted to become Grand Champion had to be so overwhelmingly powerful that they were able to beat even people he or she was terrible against.

“To clarify, does that mean if I want to try this Gauntlet, I could technically challenge a Champion every single day and be done in a week?” Jake questioned further.

“Technically speaking, you could, but do note the wording. You can challenge another Champion at any time, but that does not mean they will fight immediately. Every time you issue a challenge, the other Champion is more or less forced to accept, but the fight just has to be scheduled within thirty days of the issue being challenged, the exact time at the sole discretion of the challenged party,” the Battlemaster continued explaining. “So, if all of the other Champions decide they want as much preparation time as possible, the Gauntlet of the Grand Champion can take up to seven months.”

“That… sucks,” Jake muttered.

“I doubt it would take that long. All the time before a fight is for the other Champions to prepare, and more often than not, they don’t make more preparations than are needed. Moreover, you can also use this time to prepare against them, so if they feel like the time serves you better than them, they may want to schedule the fight as soon as possible to catch you off guard,” the Battlemaster pointed out. “In your case specifically, as you have just become a Champion, they will likely accept the fight pretty fast to not give you much time to prepare either. However, should you wait too long to begin the Gauntlet for too long, they will likely want more time, as they assume you spent this waiting period preparing.”

“Are there any of the other Champions who are considering trying the Gauntlet?”

“Wouldn’t tell you even if I knew, but I can disclose that all of the current Champions have made plans to face each other. Not necessarily because they want to try and become a Grand Champion, but in case one of the others gives it a shot,” the man shook his head. “Anyway, what will it be? Based on how many questions you are asking, I get the feeling you are keen on attempting the Gauntlet?”

“Can’t say I ain’t,” Jake grinned.

“I kind of figured,” the Battlemaster also smiled. “Do note that you can begin the Gauntlet at any time by challenging any of the other Champions, so if you want to make some preparations and go heal up, you have plenty of time to do that.”

Jake nodded. “Yeah, I definitely need a good rest before I go fighting any Champions.”

“Definitely recommended. Now, one final warning. Should you begin the Gauntlet, be aware that you only have one shot. Should you ever lose to any of the other Champions, you cannot retry after making more preparations, and you will lose your Champion rank for at least five years. After that, you can reattempt the Gauntlet, but the next lockout will be even longer.”

“Can’t say I am surprised that’s a rule,” Jake shrugged, assuming it didn’t really impact him much due to his multiple lives. If he did lose, he doubted it would count as a loss in the storyline of the Colosseum. Well, alright, it could impact him if he tried to game the system. “I assume that rule is there, so you can’t just surrender any time you think you will lose and then re-challenge again when you feel like you have properly prepared?”

“Something like that,” the Battlemaster semi-confirmed. “Now, you don’t look too good, so go rest up already and come back here once you are back in top form. Well, unless you really want to rush into a fight immediately. I am sure that should you challenge another Champion now, they would accept in a heartbeat and whoop your injured ass with ease.”

“Or I could cause a massive upset,” Jake grinned. “But, yeah, I should head off. Ah, but one last thing… can I still do Show Matches?”

“Nope,” the Battlemaster shook his head. “And you won’t earn any Colosseum Points from beating the other Champions either, but only get a reward once you either complete or give up on the Gauntlet. The more you beat, the more points you will get.”

“I see, I see,” Jake nodded. That was good to know. “Well then, I’ll be off. So you in a few days once my insides don’t hurt anymore.”

“Fighting with hurting insides does tend to be ill-advised,” the man said. “And, once again… congratulations, Champion.”

Jake smiled as he walked away and back toward his house, where he had already pre-arranged to meet up with Owen and Polly. Now, he just had to actually make it back there… because the second he got close to the exit of the Colosseum, he saw the area swarmed with people, and from a distance, he heard the chants of the crowd… the horrific chants.

“Doomfoot! Doomfoot! Doomfoot!”

Perhaps the true challenge of the Colosseum was not the fighters along the way… but the psychological damage caused by the announcer and audience.

Just focus on the seven people who checked you out on your way out of the Colosseum, Jake…

By now, he truly regretted not just buying a damn cloak as he walked out of the only exit that wasn’t a massive detour, bracing himself to face the crowd.