The Devil Reincarnated Me As A Fox!

The Kingdom

After a very long ride, and no more encounters with orcs, we arrived in the royal capital. Me and Erica left the merchant quickly so that he wouldn't discover the now completely gray monster core and figure out I'm not human. we were now walking through the common folk part of the capital.

"So, Erica, what can you tell me about this kingdom?"

"Well, this is the Lairo kingdom, its known for having a very small monster population, and is extremely cruel towards all species except humans, elves, and dwarves. Which, by the way, is the reason I ended up as a slave for the hero. The king is a tyrant that rules with fear, the entire royal family is rotten to the core. I heard the prince once raped a housewife and then killed her and her entire family, even the kids."

"If this place is so horrible why don't people go elsewhere?"

"It's because they're terrified."

"Of what?"

"The king and the neighboring kingdom. A few decades ago, when the king was still a prince, he noticed there were too many people leaving Lairo, so he instated a law saying that you are not allowed to leave Lairo without paying one large gold coin."

"Is a large gold coin hard to get?"

"Very. A commoner would have to work day and night for his entire life just to make one large gold coin."

"And what about the neighboring kingdom? What's so bad about it?"

"That's the kingdom of Clove. It's a very nice place, however there are a few problems. Its monster population is extremely high, and the people that are born there are said to be natural soldiers, making it tough for someone to move there."

"I see. I take it the nobles here are also corrupt?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Damn, that pisses me off so badly. What's the quickest way to make money here?"

"The arena. But I highly suggest you try something else, most people who go into the arena, never come out, and even if they do come out, they're usually missing a limb."

"Why?"

"Well, usually they do one on one matches, but its never easy. Most of the time you'll end up fighting a monster they captured, or sometimes they'll put about twenty people in and make it a last man standing death match. But, if you win, depending on the difficulty, they'll give you a lot of money. Your guaranteed at least one silver."

"What if I fight an orc in the arena?"

If you win, you'll be given a silver, if you die, they'll feed your corpse to the orc.

"That's kinda f*cked up.... let's go there."

"Alright, but I'm not fighting."

Erica led me to the arena, which was basically a football stadium but instead of playing a friendly game, your fighting to the death. We went up to the front counter and I registered as a fighter, while bought a ticket for the rows of seats, so she could watch my fight. After I registered two heavily armored men with swords brought me to this really dark room and made me put on clothes meant for fighting in the arena. I was now wearing leather pants and chain mail, and going completely shirtless except for leather armor shoulder pads. They gave me a choice of which weapon to use and I picked a long silver spear. They then walked me to this small room with steel bars, on the other side of the steel bars was the stadium.

"This place is huge."

There was someone out there fighting right now. Two men with swords and a woman with a bow in the back. They were fighting two orcs. The orcs easily disarmed them and then comped on their bodies. A man standing in the seats then shot the orcs with blow darts and they passed out cold. A few guys then came out and put the orcs on this small platform with wheels and put them back inside the cage. The crowd was cheering like crazy. Then the announcer started talking.

"Our next fight is a man that has traveled from far away! He will be fighting three armored lions! Let the fight, begin!"

The steel bars in front of me suddenly started to sink into the ground, letting me walk onto the field. Then the cage across from my opened and three lions came out, all of the armored to the teeth.

"Will lions even give me EXP? Do they count as monsters?"

The three lions came running towards me, roaring loudly. Frankly it wasn't scary at all. I chucked the spear and thanks to the marksmanship skill it went right into the mouth of one of the lions, making them into a lion on a stick. The crowd cheered.

"IT SEEMS THE CHALLENGER HAS THROWN HIS WEAPON! HE IS NOW DEFENSELESS, WHAT WILL HE DO NOW?"

The two lions came running at me, leaping the moment they got close. That was a bad idea.

"[TAIL STRIKE]"

Two of my tails shot forward, instantly ripping through the armor of the lions, going straight through they're stomachs, killing them. I definitely got EXP, but very little.

"AND THE WINNER IS, THE CHALLENGER! TELL US CHALLENGER, WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

I thought for a moment. I'd rather not let so many people know my real name. Ah, I know!

"My name... IS CRIMSON!"