Chapter 50 That was his first impression of Edith

"You memorized it?" The boy in Xia Zhi's team couldn't help but repeat, "You memorized this kind of ancient magic array with no rules?"

Or a whole book?

"My situation is special. I can spend a lot of time in the internal library, so it's not surprising that I can memorize it." Although Edith said it lightly, Amy, who simply flipped through the book, was also present.

Xia Zhi quietly approached the other person: "So how thick is the book?"

Even the noisy Amy fell silent: "Less than two hundred pages, recording about eighty or so magic arrays."

It is equivalent to simply memorizing more than eighty irregular patterns in your brain.

The best tailor in the royal capital can only remember forty patterns!

Edith must have gone about three times, which is thirty hours. Minus the loss, on average she had to memorize three sheets in one hour.

......It took him the same hour, but he didn't memorize a single one.

Xia Zhi saw through his autism and feared that he would get more information that would undermine his self-confidence, so she silently stepped back three meters - then approached Edith with a burning gaze.

"Do you think this was originally a Colosseum?" She glanced around the playground, which was only the size of their four classrooms, and frowned slightly. "It's a bit small."

"Um."

Edith once again scanned her surroundings.

The whole space is not small, with a river, an altar, a Colosseum, and a church-like building. With the river and these buildings as the center, there are more than a dozen houses radiating out, arranged in a staggered manner, and it is obvious that they were built under unified leadership.

Rather than a residential area, this place is more like an entertainment room that meets entertainment needs.

Not far away, there is a house that is obviously taller than the other houses. It should be a circus or a theater. A few more exquisite houses have patterns of horses or beds carved on their doors. They should be hotels. The rest of the houses are mostly dilapidated and should be prepared for the "servants" who provide services here.

This has the flavor of ancient relics.

"There are probably not many residents living in this cave, and even fewer who have the power to command others. Also, it is very difficult to dig out a space so deep underground without supporting pillars that will not collapse. Taking all factors into consideration, the Colosseum was built to this size." Edith walked inside and knocked on the bulging door on the side. A cage made of bones instantly rushed out from there, scaring everyone so much that they took two steps back.

The cage finally stopped in the middle of the venue. The cage door made a loud, teeth-grinding noise, and then shook violently, as if something was trying to come out.

Edith didn't feel anything, so she touched it and found that the door, which was supposed to open automatically, was stuck halfway. After she opened it, it naturally stopped making any noise.

"You seem very familiar with these." Tuttle came forward, bent down and touched the bones in the cage, closed his eyes and judged the animal it belonged to.

Beast fighting performances were very popular in the early years. At first, people just watched wild beasts fighting each other. Later, some venues secretly introduced the scenes of humans and animals killing each other for gimmicks and money-making, and going to the Colosseum to watch the performances became a trend.

The palace originally turned a blind eye to it, until some venues became so profitable that they were unwilling to spend even the money to buy slaves, and would directly kidnap lone children on the streets. The people were outraged, so they ordered the closure of most of the arenas, leaving only the one with the Campbell surname.

The epidemic and the order to close the building happened five or six years ago. They were all under ten years old at the time. Even Xia Zhi, who was in the third grade, was only eleven, a long way from the minimum age of 15 required to watch performances at the Colosseum. No one had ever witnessed the interior of the building with their own eyes.

But Edith looked familiar.

"I've been there once or twice." Edith was vague. After all, her original body was in such poor condition that it was normal for her to have worked anywhere. "I don't know much, but it's not a big problem to use it for exploration."

She lowered her head to check the cage on the ground, not noticing that the looks of the people around her changed instantly.

Especially Lynch.

The audience of the Colosseum is only familiar with the stands, so who on earth would be familiar with the transportation channel below?

......

Six years ago, the Colosseum had not yet been closed down, and Edith was 21 years old, which was within the permitted age for attending performances.

And 21 was exactly the age when Edith was the poorest.

Her mother had just passed away, and she felt that she had no talent for business, so she sold the family property to others at 20% of the market price.

At that time, Mary was not as well-off as she is now. She was expelled from the fencing school for helping Edith and her daughter who were bullied at the time. She lost her job and all her little savings were used to buy and maintain her sword. In addition, she had high standards. After seeing Edith's talent, she looked down on other students and was unwilling to recruit students privately and collect tuition fees. She fell into a vicious cycle of only losing money.

Edith used most of her money to build relationships to help herself enter the Pharmacy Guild, part of it to support Mary, and the rest was only enough to cover daily expenses. It was impossible for her to buy more advanced materials for research.

But she needs results. Now she can still strive for advancement while she is still young. In two years, if she has no background and no achievements, she might be kicked out of the association.

She needs an investor who is not very smart but has a lot of money.

Edith quickly found her target: the youngest son of a baron in the royal capital. The baron title could not be passed down to descendants, so she could only work hard to study business. Although the title was a bit low, her family's property was more than that of an ordinary earl.

However, due to the lack of education and contact with the upper class, the baron's two sons became unlearned playboys, knowing nothing about studying, business, and martial arts, and were proficient in eating, drinking, playing, and gambling. However, they were unwilling to lose their titles and had the beautiful idea of ​​making great achievements and restoring the glory of their ancestors.

Abbreviation: daydream.

He is simply the best person for Edith to cheat her out of money.

For such smart people, recommending yourself will only cause disgust. The best way is to appear in front of the other party many times, talk about your own opinions, and lure the other party to make requests actively.

From then on, Edith began to hang out in various entertainment venues.

In the casino, he discussed the future development of the potion in front of the other party, and in the theater, he whispered that his weekly profit should be comparable to the profit of a mature potion industry in an hour. Finally, he sighed slightly in the Colosseum and said in front of the baron's youngest son who had just lost money that his potion research had reached the final stage, and he was just one step away from investing in the market and making a lot of gold coins.

The other party successfully took the bait.

The two of them happily moved to the VIP room of the Colosseum to discuss in detail, and when they came out, the contract had been signed.

Edith touched her chest, looked at the long string of zeros on the paper, and finally felt relieved.

Both of them were very satisfied. The Baron's youngest son even directly proposed to take her to see something different to express his sincerity. Although Edith was puzzled, she had not received the money after all, so she smiled and followed the other party.

They came to the basement level of the Colosseum.

Edith had never been to such a place before, or rather, if it weren't for blocking this investor, she wouldn't even come to the open Colosseum.

For some reason, the smell of blood underground was stronger than that on the ground. The red light was dim, illuminating the entire world with only red and black.

Edith felt a sense of blockage, as if something was stuck to her feet. She lowered her head and saw only darkness, unable to tell what was on it.

"This is what this place is like!" The youngest son of the baron laughed. He shouted at the top of his lungs, barely covering the overwhelming cheers and screams in the background, "This is what we call the original flavor!"

Edith paused, she slowly raised her head, looked behind her over the other's fat arms, and not far away, a black monster was roaring and pouncing towards the person on the ground.

The man who was being hunted was tied to a special chain with nowhere to escape. He was now struggling to stand up and picking up a stone nearby to smash his tied feet.

He was surrounded by bloodstained chains, many of which were tied with bits of human limbs, sticking to the ground.

He was the only one left alive in this battle.

Edith suddenly couldn't suppress the churning in her stomach. She squatted down and retched as the voices of "Stand Up" became louder and louder behind her. The youngest son of the baron laughed wildly again, walked up, and patted Edith on the back, "It's the same every time you come here for the first time!"

What disgusted Edith was not the blood and corpses here, but the face of the only living person she glimpsed.

That's obviously still a child.

He was no more than thirteen or fourteen years old, struggling in the flesh paste that could not be seen in any specific shape. Knowing that he could not break the chain, he could only grit his teeth and attack his own legs which were more easily damaged.

She had heard a little about the strange hobbies of the nobles in the royal capital, but she had never expected that the "slaves" they purchased would include children. She had never expected that such a performance would not be a fatal blow, but a long and endless torture of despair.

The cheers behind her grew louder and louder, and even the youngest son of the baron, who had been trying to comfort her, could not resist the temptation and turned around to watch the show. Finally, with an explosive scream, curses and cheers rang out together.

Edith briefly suffered from deafness.

She barely raised her head. The boy managed to drag his shattered feet out of the area where he was tied and hid in a place where the monster could not reach him. The bell outside the venue rang at this time, announcing the end of the performance. The host stood above the stands and shouted passionately: "The third game on Sunday, the final result - one person successfully survived!"

The sounds from the stage continued to come, whether it was cheering or crying, all merged into simple and meaningless shouts, words lost their function of communication, and at this moment, the audience was no different from the Warcraft on the stage.

"Damn it, I've been betting for three months that someone will survive, and I didn't win once. Why did it have to be today!" The baron's youngest son cursed, and his good mood just built up disappeared completely. He spat at the side, twisted his body and went to the stands.

"If you're not feeling well, go back first." He was in a hurry to place a bet and didn't bother to entertain Edith. He said this without even turning back.

Edith didn't want to stay any longer, so she said goodbye hurriedly and turned to leave.

As she approached the gate, she suddenly stopped and turned to look at the boy lying on the edge.

During the intermission, the audience drank tea despite the smell of blood, while the wizard at work waved his wand numbly. A high-intensity water column flowed out from the tip of the wand, washing away all the unknown attachments on the ground, flowing along the water to the grooves on both sides, and finally leading to an unknown underground location.

The boy was also washed up by the water, but because he was clinging to the edge of the groove, he didn't go down, and was half hanging on the edge of the underground hole. Edith frowned, but finally couldn't bear it, turned around and asked:

"What will happen to those who survive?"

"Someone will clean him up with the other filth later," the attendant said attentively. Those who could enter the underground venue were all VIPs who had spent a lot of money, so he dared not neglect them. "He will become the dinner of a certain monster along with the minced meat just now."

After all, only in this way can the audience who bet on his death and lost money in the end be satisfied.

Those who win money are happy, those who lose money vent their anger, and the boss saves some money on World of Warcraft’s food expenses. No one will express dissatisfaction with this result.

Except Edith

"Then ask your manager for me how much it would cost to buy him?"

......

Something cold touched his lips. Shelly didn't know what it was, but the touch of water made him swallow subconsciously.

He lost too much blood and needed to drink a lot of water.

That stuff seemed to be more than just ordinary water. Shelly could clearly feel his body repairing itself, and the pain returned to his torso.

This is good, as long as you can feel the pain, you can live.

Although becoming food for the Warcraft was an established fact, his desire to survive still made him constantly seek measures to save himself.

While I am in good health now, I will close my eyes and pretend to be dead to save my energy, and then find time to run away...

"Don't pretend to be asleep when you're awake."

A voice that had never been heard before came from the side. Shelly subconsciously tensed his body, but still secretly opened his eyes a little and looked in the direction where the voice came from.

"Isn't it possible that the person I bought is a dead person?"

The person who made the sound had his back to him, and seemed quite impatient, tapping his feet on the ground. The familiar and disgusting voice of the manager came, flattering: "How could it be, but this one is indeed half dead... Or let him feed the monsters, and you come with me to the warehouse in the back to pick another one?"

What?

Shelly opened his eyes suddenly and spoke subconsciously: "I didn't--"

"...Yo, you're still alive."

The person finally turned around after hearing the voice. The glaring sunlight shone from behind her, and her face was backlit, so no details could be seen clearly.

After being sold underground for so long, he finally saw the sunlight again.

Precisely because he couldn't see clearly, Shelly's first impression of Edith was only the hand that reached out to her. The nails were trimmed very short and covered with scars and calluses, and there was no jewelry, rings, or gloves to decorate her.

It was completely different from the exquisite hands hidden under the gloves of the nobles. It was a hand that was actually working. Just seeing it could make people feel the power of conviction.

He grabbed it with the last bit of his strength.

"——Huh." Shelly woke up suddenly and found that he had fallen asleep in the laboratory.

Memories had been entangled with dreams recently, making it difficult for him to distinguish between reality and hallucinations at times.

The table was littered with densely written drafts. The ink-stained feather pen had fallen from his hand at some point, leaving a furry black spot on the notebook.

He lowered his head quietly, wiped the ink stains from his fingertips bit by bit, and observed his hands in the light.

It was a pair of pale hands covered with burns and knife wounds.

,,,,,, but it is still not enough.

Why?

Why is it that even though I have tried my best and done everything myself, the wounds on my hands are still so much less than you did back then?

......

"——Huh." Edith stood in front of the cage, recalling the time when she bought Shelly, and touched her chest with lingering fear.

He had no money in his pocket at the time, so he simply put the money for his redemption into the account of the baron's youngest son and took it together with his usual expenses.

Fortunately, no one was discovered.