'How can this happen?' He was shocked to notice his muscles and organs getting some benefits and underwent some transformation. Even his meridians, nodes, and even dantian started to show signs of gaining more resilience and being strengthened as well.
'Is this world's spiritual energy much purer than what I experienced in other realms?'
He couldn't find another explanation. Yet he couldn't confirm his theory as the amount of energy he gathered during the past three days was really small.
During these days the same guard appeared every day and tried to torture him every time before John interfered.
When John asked him the other day about his strange silence Arthur had to lie and give a silly excuse about his special endurance. He said his high endurance helped him to instigate his energy without showing the same fierce reaction like before.
And John remained silent and never asked him about it again. And Arthur didn't know if he believed him or not.
After all, the two were separated with thick walls and he couldn't see what Arthur was doing.
Arthur knew John didn't care about what Arthur was doing. As long as he was training and getting stronger then John would be settled. What John cared about was only getting out of here, and Arthur perfectly understood that.
"This food is getting me killed sooner than that bug," Arthur complained each time he started to eat this rotten bread. As for drinking, he had only these fallen drops of water to quench his thirst from time to time.
He totally missed the meat he was so proficient at making. He was prepared now to pay anything just to get a piece of that meat once again.
"Just get used to it and you'll survive," John laughed as usual, "I've been here longer than your age kid and I've only eaten this rotten bread since I stepped in here."
"But this is a torture in itself," Arthur complained.
"Just suck it," John laughed, "after all you need energy to maintain your body strength. Just fail to do so and we both will slam into the wall and even doing so won't get us out."
"…"
Arthur returned to the training with disturbed mind. The old memories of his delicious meat were something so hard to get rid off, especially when he was eating such dirty food.
He unconsciously checked the finger his storage ring used to occupy and tried to enter his garden world every time he thought about his meat, but he had none of the two.
'Sigh, it seemed I lost everything dear to me while coming here,' he inwardly resigned to the sense of losing his precious belongings and only had this short he was wearing on his body.
Arthur kept training in his own way while John refrained from bugging him except every night. John seemed to be a talkative type, with good nature and a sense of humor.
"Y'know I'm still amazed how you came here without knowing a thing about this world," he said in a big laugh and Arthur only smiled and said nothing in return.
Arthur just asked him about this world; what was it exactly? The main forces here and the way this world operated.
"But it's a good way to spend time here while lecturing you," John said, "after all I was seriously thinking of killing myself if no one appeared here and accompanied me."
"And here I am," Arthur laughed, "I bet you preferred a girl."
"Hell yeah," John couldn't help but laugh, "at least her laughs will be sexier than yours."
"You seem to dream about having a huge harem," Arthur jokes.
"I once had," and John agreed, "but I lost everything after losing that stupid war."
"You are a pacifist?" Arthur couldn't help but ask.
"Nah, I just missed those sweet ladies and their lewd laughs."
Arthur laughed with him before asking, "What happened to you? You talk like being a lord or some sort of a monarch."
"Indeed I was," John admitted, "but considering the endless size of this world, the place I ruled can be best described as a rat hole."
"Oh, your lands were this small?"
"They were vast, but the world is million folds wider," John sighed, "it's not a rare occasion for a monarch like me to lose his lands for a stronger monarch. In fact not a month passes by without hearing a word or two about these accidents."
"This world… is so messy."
"Indeed it is," John agreed, "this world is a world based on strength. Only your power can help you survive. And the bitter fact is that no matter how strong you are, there is still someone stronger and eventually he will come for your lands."
"That means… even the rulers of this place aren't excluded from such fate, right?"
"No, this is another thing," John sighed, "those damn lucky bastards were born inside one of the sacred kingdoms."
"Sacred kingdoms?" Arthur recalled this was the title he heard about this place before being sent to this piece of hell.
"In this world there are skies you can never touch, which are called the royals. Under them are the unshakable mountains, which are the sacred kingdoms like the one we are in. At last there are those ants scattered on the ground, like my kingdom and million others. Those are the weeds these beasts feed on."
"So… you were conquered by this sacred kingdom?"
"I lost a war against them," he helplessly said, "in fact when the news reached my court about their planned invasion, everyone advised me to run away, but I didn't."
"Such a brave man you are," Arthur commended in honesty.
"It has nothing to do with that, in fact it's a foolish act of me," John said in a bitter tone, "it's just that I'm a very hot man who can't run away from a fight if being challenged. I care so much about my image, and see where that foolishness led me to."
"It's brave to fight them old man," Arthur wasn't convinced with his excuse, "anyone else would gather all his wealth and leave his people behind."
"And what's the result? I got captured and treated like a worthless dog! My people were enslaved for resisting this sacred kingdom and my girls were taken off me by force."
"You didn't have a chance at all to win?" Arthur asked in doubt.
"I won them a couple of times," John proudly said, before bitterly adding, "yet in the end they summoned their strong backup, a brother sacred kingdom from far away. I couldn't fight on two fronts and win."
"It's really a cheap move," Arthur said, trying to console him, "but in the end war is all about being cunning and merciless."
"I learnt that lesson in quite the hard way," John sighed, "the real regret is I lost my family heritage. My family ruled over these lands for centuries but it all ended up in the hands of such a fool son."
Arthur felt the bitterness in his tone and didn't know what to say. "You were facing an unbeatable opponent," he said.
"I should have agreed on the many offers of alliances that came flying to my palace before the start of the war. But I was so stubborn and refused to give away parts of my lands and wealth. In the end… I lost everything, and my freedom on top of that."
"Don't worry too much about that," Arthur firmly said, "we'll get out of here soon."
"Yeah, tell me about it," John returned to his cheerful self like flipping a switch as he laughed on his words, "tell me again how many days you said it remains?"
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