As I walk up to the seven other fighters, I can clearly see they're split into two groups.
One group of four, off to my right, is dressed in high-class gear, similar to what I'd expect an Elite to wear. The first to turn their head is a slim, womanly figure in armor that seems to be made of stone. She has sharp eyes, dark brown hair, and holds a spear, but shows me an interested smirk as I approach and speaks up.
"Finally, some fresh meat that looks worth keeping around. They call me the Stone Maiden; I'm the opener for the legacy fighters. But outside the ring, you can call me Sia."
She steps forward to give me a handshake.
Before I put out my hand, I decide to take off my concealment ring to show my fighting gear and other buffs.
We shake hands and make eye contact while I take a look at her status to find she has an advanced earth magic skill and is level 512. The buff below her status shows "Rock Prison," but there isn't any extra information I can take away at a glance.
I'm about to introduce myself, but a man in dark black clothing approaches from behind. He has two blood-bonded swords on his sides that both have high strength and speed buffs surpassing 100%.
He looks me up and down, then nods.
Sia speaks up for him before releasing our handshake and pointing a thumb backward.
"That's Ace, the Swordsman of the Legacy Fighters."
I quickly scan him to find he has one legendary-grade skill; extreme speed. He's level 531 and has a ranked-up buff called "Divine Speed."
A tall and heavy-set man comes over with a legendary-grade body-hardening skill next to greet me with a jolly smile. I see his level 548 status flash in front of my eyes along with a ranked-up buff labeled "Iron Body."
He gives me a tight handshake, but I return the favor. He squeezes harder like he's trying to test me, but I don't give in until he lets out a laugh and releases his grip.
"Ha! You're the real deal. They call me The Shield. I'm a Legacy Fighter as well. But, you can call me Max if that's easier for you! I'm not trying to hide from anyone."
I nod slowly, a bit taken aback by their friendly gestures while scanning the rest of the contestants around me. The three others that stand alone, closer to the man in the white suit, are all below level 450, and don't immediately come up to me, and none have elemental or legendary skills, so I can only assume they're newer here or not top-ranked fighters like the ones that greeted me.
However, there's a young man with a shaved head in an orange robe who stands still behind all the other legacy fighters.
He doesn't wear any magical gear and has no skills or buffs at all.
Even so, his level is higher than anyone else's here. It clocks in at 694.
I try to do a full scan to see what kind of base level mana control he lets out while in a resting state, but to my surprise, there isn't even a single MP of excess mana leaving his body.
He doesn't raise an eyebrow or care to walk forward and greet me at all. This is the response I was looking forward to when meeting fighters of this caliber. Max catches me looking at him and puts a hand up, motioning not to get involved.
"That's Monk. We don't know much about him, but he's been here the longest out of any of us. He's the strongest too, so let's just leave it at that..."
I sit in an awkward moment of silence as all the top fight members here just openly told me their names, so I reply with mine.
"Well, thanks for the warm welcome. My fighter name is The Flame Emperor. For now, that's all I have to share."
I turn back to the man who checked me in at the registration desk.
Although I appreciate the introductions, people don't just become ranked-up battle-seasoned fighters by smiling and playing nice.
I need to sit back and observe more about this place to understand what's really going on.
The man in the white suit finally speaks up and leads all of us behind the registration desk and down a flight of stairs to the training room beneath the stage. He goes over all the basic fight details and instructions that were outlined for us earlier.
We're stood in a large, wide-open white-walled mana-shielded room with a staircase that leads back up to the surface behind us, and a small isolated circle on the other end of the room that transports contestants into the ring.
In between, there are punching bags along the walls, special black squares just like on the surface to test powers, and even weapons and shields available for fighters to use in the arena as they please.
It's all C-Rank gear and below, but it still looks like it would be useful for the average fighter during normal daytime fights.
As we all get situated, a crowd of bidders and audience members enters above us, and a moving picture of the stadium and empty fight ring is shown on a projector against one of the side walls for us to see.
I hear Mr. Wright's voice echo through the training room once the seats fill up about halfway.
"Alright, the first event is going to begin shortly! Everybody line up, I'll assign your fighting order for the night along with setting up safety precautions."
Everyone does as he says and gets in line as he takes out a small device to scan each member's wristband. My eyes wander as I see gold and platinum bands in front of me get scanned in by Mr. Wright's device. He speaks again while scanning my band.
"You all know how it works. If your HP goes under 10% you'll be automatically teleported to our medical team to receive a full heal from one of our two healers on standby. Lost blood, missing limbs, whatever the injury may be, given enough time you'll be healed back to 100% before the next fight day comes around."
As he scans my bracelet a small green plus sign with 100% appears next to it. Beneath this, the "Fight 008" shows up in thin black text as well. He continues.
"We have 8 fights tonight, and I've staggered the Legacy fighters in with the newbies as usual. Stone Maiden, you're up first for fight number 1, so finish your warmups and get ready to board the platform. Let's put on a great show tonight and make some money!"
Sia, the Stone Maiden, walks over to the platform with the same grin across her face that she greeted me with and begins twirling her spear around.
"Ready when you are! I don't need a warm up."
As the people outside pile in more and more, the same announcer's voice from mid-day fights speaks up in a loud and excited tone.
"How are you all doing tonight? Let's make some noise! Our opening event is about to begin!"