“The boy actually won?” The crowd says in shock, having expected Eden to fall and die with relative ease. This can hardly be considered their fault, with the severely lacking power of most humans that normally enter the arena, along with Eden’s deceptive build. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for that one wood spirit’s wallet, Eden had won the match, and some time for a true plan, along with an idea for what may happen.

  Okay, though I do not know how much time, I know this must have bought me at least a few minutes just from walking alone. But I cannot waste this precious time, I need to come up with something! I have to at least make sure I am not overlooking my options. Eden decides, as he pulls up his inventory, scanning for anything he may have forgotten about.

  Let me see here. The hoe is not going to help, but maybe I could use my knife in a dual wielding way? No not that, or this item. Wait, how did I forget about you? Eden wonders, as he looks at his highest grade item, forgotten by the man for its lack of purpose; Pandora’s bag.

  This may be a game changer, but it goes both ways. Based on the description of the item I could assume that it has some sort of luck manipulation effect, which is based upon what I pull from this glorified loot box. I should probably wait to use this till I meet back up with the team. Eden concludes, seeing some guards flying over Eden. After a few moments, the wood spirits go to grab Eden and bring him back to the stands.

  “Come with us!” The spirits order, to which Eden complies and goes with the spirits. They start to hover to Eden, covering both his sides and back to make sure he follows. Eden then proceeds to walk off the arena and to where the stairs are for the waiting area. However, what is waiting for him on the steps is none other than the wood spirit supporting Eden, along with the old men who Eden is working with. The wood spirit holds out his phantom hand, making a sort of swirl in his palm from the green plasma that makes up his body. The guards and Eden alike are confused and stop dead in their tracks.

  “Stop, guards, he comes with me.” The wood spirit says to the wood spirit guards, but they seem unyielding in bringing Eden to the stands. They look at the wood spirit with a deadly stare, and the green aura around the guards tenses around themselves, increasing their size and spectral muscle tone. The old men, besides the Old Man, recoil from this, but the Old Man and the wood spirit stand strong, not moving back by an inch. Seeing this, the guards then go to talk to the wood spirits

  “And these demands are from whose orders? Would you be so willing as to enlighten me as to who can override the will of our glorious king.” One of the guards cockily asks, expecting the wood spirit to have no rebuttal. But it would seem they were wrong as he pulls out an ancient looking scroll from the void that is the inventory. He then unravels it and begins to read a section of it to the guards, showing them the wording in case they do not believe him.

  “Article 12, section 4, under the regulation on actions during duels, competitions, or trials, (Heavy emphasis on the word trials) section on sponsorship during duels, competitions, or trials. If one were to sponsor someone under the definition stated in section 3 of Article 12, said sponsor would have the right to take, supply, and in any way support the person they are sponsoring for upwards of 30 minutes. Time starts counting once the sponsored people of said duel, competition, or trial have gone to the private location provided by the manager or overseer of said duel, competition, or trial. This would also include bringing but not supplying or supporting any allies with said sponsored person, only applied during intermissions during said duel, competition, or trial, defined in section 2 of Article 12.” The wood spirit reads, and then rolls up the scroll and starts to talk once more.

  “Correct me if I am wrong here, fine sirs, but according to the laws of our great king Cosmos, I am legally allowed to take these fine people to our designated location and my actions under the rules of your king. Now will you hand over Eden or will you stand against the “wise” words of our king?” The wood spirit remarks, leaving the guards with no argument and having to begrudgingly hand over Eden to the wood spirit.

  “Fine, you are free to go with the man, but remember you only get 30 minutes! Not a second longer will you be freed from your judgement of the heinous crimes you all committed!” The guards angrily inform Eden, pushing him to the wood spirit. Eden joins up with his team, and the plant spirit that bailed them out.

  “Good job out there, Eden. You clearly have some skill in there, and I hope it is enough to help all of us survive this death game.” Tanker says, patting Eden on the back.

  “Yes, yes, Eden you accomplished a fine feat. But we must advance on with our plans to handle the next encounter, which will far out scale the danger of this one.” Old Man claims. He then turns his head to the wood spirit. “Thank you for trying to redeem yourself, and helping us get some kind of chance wood spirit. Though I am sure there is an alternative motive, I care not as currently it is a key factor for victory.” Old Man softly informs the wood spirit, who is unsure if he should be scared he was figured out, or happy that his supposed cash cow is still alive. But the spirit does not bother to dwell on the topic.

  “Okay, you guys have a good amount of time to work with, but that does not mean it should be wasted on idle talk. All of you, follow me.” The wood spirit tells the group. They all seem to agree with the spirit, and begin to follow wherever he is going. They walk through a door in the staircase leading to the waiting area, and enter another part of the tent, though not much is actually there. There are only a few wood spirits and what looks to be a restaurant, surprising having no wood to be found anywhere around. Though it seems no one likes the restaurant as no one is eating there. There is basically nothing in the area however, but after a couple of minutes of walking around the barren space, they go through a small hole fastened as a door. Once the flimsy door was opened, the group enter into a smaller tent hastily attached to the large tent. The small tent, contrary to the much larger one with the arenas, has straight up dirt rather than the flooring as opposed to the wood and grass in the large tent. Furthermore, this tent clearly has not been taken care of that well, with it being a mostly empty room, around the size of your average living room, with nothing more than a table and a large, advantage looking, machine. The machine appears to be some kind of online shopping device, and the money once held by the wood spirit is laying right next to the machine. They all move into the room, with Eden and the men sitting on the floor, with the wood spirit floating around the 6 men crew.

  “Okay, is now a good time to ask what we are going to do? I mean I have a better idea of what to expect, but still not all that much.” Eden asks the group, wanting to make a plan.

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  “Here is the idea, Eden. Thanks to the exhibition match we now know what kind of trial this is, a cage fight, which means we are going to be fighting some monsters. Though do not panic, thanks to the gold I sponsored to get in this predicament, we can use said gold to give items and buy skill books for Eden.” The wood spirit informs the group, and then leads them to the machine where they buy these items and skill books. But before they reach the machine, the Old man interrupts.

  “May we wait a minute? While I know better than anyone how pressed for time we may be, it would be rather helpful for us to think before we purchase anything. We have a limited budget after all, and I would rather not blow it on hasty purchases.” The Old man asks the others, to which they quickly agree.

  “Okay, so what did you have in mind, Old man? I heavily doubt you know much about what we may face, so would it not be better to check out the shop and see what could be helpful first?” Eden innocently questions the Old man, who seems to already have prepared a counter.

  “On the contrary actually Eden. I have quite a good vision on what we may face.” The Old man tells Eden and the group, and then continues with all due haste. “Given you have shown that at least one of us, and with my reputation two of us, can easily beat small creatures, this makes it unlikely that Cosmos would send out a swarm type fight. If there is anything consistent about the bastard king is that he hates easy fights. Also, due to our inherent skill and equipment sets, we are a very limited but “powerful” force with our firearms and bows. I can conclude from this that Cosmos would also not send out a squad of mid-sized creatures that we could easily rip through with our sheer firepower. This leaves only a boss fight type battle, one likely of an endurance test. He is going to send out either a high health or high speed target, either of which would counter our functionally single shot restriction for a third of the team.” The Old man concludes, which is met with the silence agreement of the crew and the reply of the wood spirit.

  “Quite sound logic you got there, Old man, but I would have to ask how we use this information? Given you are right, and that we can only really give Eden equipment and skills, I am sorry to say I lack faith in you guys being able to win an endurance test against a boss monster. This would be because all of you pardon Eden will be unable to receive any armaments to protect yourselves. Furthermore, only you, Eden, and the tank are the only ones that I have trust in the ability to fight without falling in one blow. No offence to the rest of you, but you look very frail.” The wood spirit asks and informs the group.

  “Well with this information, we can now try to figure out what kind of equipment that should be purchased for Eden’s use. Speaking of the man, Eden, do you have any ideas on what may be helpful?” Old Man turns to ask Eden who with a nervous face pulls out Pandora's bag.

  “Well, I have this item that may be useful. Though I am unsure if it should be used.” Eden says as he shows the group the bag, which is currently emanating a dark ominous glow. However once the group examines what the item does through its description, their eyes widen.

  “How are you getting all these grand items Eden!? Were you truly speaking the truth about only reaching floor 2? This item far exceeds anything one could find on that floor.” Old Man yells out in shock, but quickly regains composure unlike the others who are still shocked speechless. “But I believe this could be of use, even though it is quite the gamble. But life is nothing but gambling, and paying it safe will end in our doom, so I say we use it.” Old Man proclaims.

  “Hold on now. This seems far too risky. We do not even know how it modifies nor grabs an item. We have no clue the power of what we draw will be either. What if we draw some crappy H grade item and the bag gives us even worse luck then we already have?” Tanker calls out.

  “I agree.” Toxin quietly says.

  “However, my fellow men, we need to take every chance we can get, and this bag here is the holy grail of chances. To be honest, I am doubtful we can truly win without major casualties, but this bag may solve our predicament. Imagine drawing a bundle of high quality arrows or bullets, a fancy shield, or even some kind of magic item.” Old Man goes on about.

  “Do you have no sense of caution? Yes this battle is a gamble, but that does not mean we should leave it to a glorified dice roll!” Tanker yells out to Old Man.

  “And have you no care for life? Your proposal will lead to many of us dying, and this bag is our best shot at winning.” Old Man mocks back.

  “Stop y’all! Now I might reckon that this little fight of yours will turn into a duel at high noon if y’all don’t calm down.” Cowboy says, getting in between the two men to break up the fight.

  “Sir Eden, what do you think, Sir!?” Soldier yells out to Eden.

  “What do I think? I agree with Old Man that we should open it. Though it is risky like Tanker has been saying, I do not believe we can all come out alive without a risky play.” Eden says, which leads to Tanker backing down, and everyone in agreement that they should open the bag.

  “Well Eden, will you do the honours?" The wood spirit says, who quickly grabbed the bag from the old man and floated over to Eden. Eden then takes the bag and opens it up. A beam of darkness shoots up to the ceiling, creating a thick smog that blinds everyone present. It only clears after about a minute, and some pops out of the bag. This item: a shining green rock.

  Lesser Wood Spirit Stone- (D+) 7 lb (3.18 kg)

  Item Type- magic item

  Requirements- of human or half human race

  (A glowing stone poorly made by a blacksmith and mage to give someone the unique power of a wood spirit, the only kind compatible with humans. If you have yourself and a consenting wood spirit that you know the name of touching the stone, you can gain some magical power from said wood spirit. You will gain the title "Friend of the Wood Spirits" and this stone will be unable to be used for the next 48 hours.)

  A wood spirit related item? Seems pretty lucky given where I am. Eden thinks, though the wood spirit and Old Man have a much more bright outlook towards the item.

  “YES!” The wood spirit yells out, drawing the gaze of everyone there. “Sorry, it is just that we could not have drawn a much better item.” the wood spirit says, to which Old Man clarifies.

  “I quite agree, especially so since we have this.” Old Man says, pulling out the spirit axe Eden had left, which luckily Old Man grabbed. The wood spirit stares out in astonishment at the mere existence of the axe, much less than that it lies in the possession of a human.

  Turns to face Eden “Eden, Could you hold out your hand? The hand holding the stone I mean. The wood spirit asks Eden, who trusts the wood spirit and complies.

  So, I guess I am getting the title buff then. Would be the first I have, or at least to my knowledge. Though what was the panic about the axe about? Even if it is a nice axe, it is still the same axe at the end of the day. Eden wonders, as he opens his hand to the glowing rock, which shines brighter and brighter as the wood spirit walks up to it.

  “Before we go through this whole process, I would like to know how exactly this may help us?” Eden asks the crowd, though really it was for the wood spirit and Old Man.

  “This rock is one made from humans who contract with wood spirits in order to gain some more power relating to us. In other words, to gain magic and the ability to wield certain spirit weapons, much like the axe.” The wood spirit goes on about.

  “We are rather lucky to have pulled such an item. I was originally hoping for only the spirit axe to be partially unsealed by our spirit friend here. But thanks to this rock you can use a fully unsealed spirit axe without limit.” The Old man informs Eden, before getting out of his way for Eden and the wood spirit to do the ritual. Both of them place their palms on the glowing green rock, and the wood spirit begins to talk.

  “I am Plantus, a well respected wood spirit, and I decree that Eden shall be accepted as an ally to wood spirit kind!” The wood spirit yells out. Once the wood spirit Plantus does this, suddenly green mist much like what makes up a wood spirit is formed from the rock at rapid pace. This mist then swirls around the two, creating an orb of mist that blocks out insight to what is within to all not inside the orb. Eden’s body then starts to glow green, but this green glow is much softer compared to the other ones that once surrounded Eden. Memories of his time in this place all come to him clear as day. Though this is all interrupted by Eden obtaining a system notification, and the mist swirling around him vanishes right after.

  Notice! You have gained the title “Friend of the Wood Spirits”

  Title: Friend of the Wood Spirits- (E-)

  (You have been recognized as a friend of a wood spirit, and you will be liked by them a little more. All wood spirits will have a slightly more positive opinion of you, and you gain +10% life damage resistance. Furthermore, you will gain the mana stat if you do not have it.)

  Notice! You have gained the mana stat

  Mana: H-