Aatrox saw one of James" friends come towards him and started watching the boy. Probably 1.85 meters (6 feet), his hair shaved military style, a very tight social blue s.h.i.+rt, which highlighted his well-toned muscles. By his size, Aatrox a.s.sumed he practiced while focusing on strength.
"h.e.l.lo fellow cultivator, my name is Benjamin. I accept your offer for an exchange of notes. I don"t know this place very well, where do you suggest we have our exchange?" Aatrox asked after seeing the number of sculptures around the area. In their exchange, something could probably get broken.
Listening to his question, James and his friends raised their eyebrows and seemed to understand something. "My name is Dylan, from what I can tell, you"ve never been to an event like this before, right?"
Watching Aatrox wave in agreement, Dylan continued. "In these events, organizers always prepare an arena for cultivators to exchange notes, or have a fight for any reason. Even life-and-death duels have happened there."
Aatrox listening to this became interested, as he could watch the matches in this arena to more or less understand the strength of the cultivators of this world. Aatrox started talking to everyone as they headed towards the arena. He discovered that the "leader" of the group was James, in addition to being one of the strongest cultivators of the younger generation in the state. The kid with the military haircut, Dylan, wasn"t from that town. His parents and James" parents were friends, so consequently, the two ended up becoming friends from an early age, always training together. Last but not least was Jude, a tall boy, probably 2 meters in height (6.5 feet). He was a little quieter than both of them, but he also talked, apparently, he was more strategic, and always arranging the square gla.s.ses on his face.
Along the way, Aatrox discovered that the basketball team that James had talked about at school was made with Dylan, Jude and another friend, who was cultivating behind closed doors. They played with the rules of street basketball, 4v4. To have a fair game, the two teams would need to be cultivators, there were very few in each state, and that the eight players of the game could not have a cultivation level very different from each other, so a team would not win by only depending on a player who had a high cultivation.
"We have a match against another team tomorrow, as many cultivators have gathered for this event today, but our fourth player couldn"t make it, you to play for him, Ben?
"It might be fun, I"ll do it." Aatrox answered.
"But before that, I have to see if you have the strength necessary for that, in our little exchange of notes." Dylan said in a playful tone. He liked the personality of this friend of James", he didn"t talk about much and was not arrogant. If he were really strong like James said, he"d be a great guy to play with.
When they entered a hall, near the main hall, where the people gathered, Aatrox saw that many people were gathered in something like a grandstand of Greek theaters. The arena downstairs while the crowd was up.
Jude told them that the arena would probably be busy by the time they arrived and that they would probably have to wait in a queue to use, as cultivators from all over the country could not let the opportunity pa.s.s to exchange notes with other cultivators during the Annual Meeting.
Aatrox looked into the arena and there were two men fighting. They were in their 30s, but their fight was very ugly. They had very poor techniques, crooked punches, and many openings, Aatrox felt that such a fight was not worth watching.
When he turned to see the boys" reaction, they all had the same expression of disinterest on their faces. Aatrox was relieved to see that at least the level of cultivation in the world was not so low, otherwise, he would die of boredom.
Jude had gone to put their names in line while the three of them were talking about random things without paying attention to what was happening in the arena.
As they were talking, the other cultivators began to notice their presence around the arena and began to whisper among themselves.
"Dude, look there." A short guy said pointing in the direction of the three teenagers talking. "James and Dylan are talking to someone else who"s not in their little group. I wonder what"s going on."
The chubby guy that the little guy was talking to was curious and looked to know what was going on. Seeing that they were really talking to someone who was not part of their group, he had his eyes open in amazement. "Something"s wrong, they never pay attention to anyone who"s not part of their group... or who"s not strong enough..." The chubby man said to himself, but since the other surroundings were also cultivators, they heard a lot and had their curiosity aroused.
"If he is strong enough to be with them, perhaps the most powerful group of the younger generation will change." A random cultivator said.
"Powerful cultivators don"t grow on trees, they"re near the arena, this cultivator probably p.i.s.sed off one of them and now they"re going to teach him a lesson." Another random cultivator said.
"That makes sense, they"re all Baron level in their respective cla.s.ses. If this skinny guy with hair that looks like a woman"s is also a Baron, I"ll stop cultivating." Said a cultivator with a muscular body.
"Hahahaha, I want to see how this weak body of his is gonna look after someone in James" group kicks his a.s.s." Somebody did.
"I bet this weak guy won"t last even five minutes." A man said, starting a wave of betting.
None of this was past the ears of Aatrox and the boys he was talking to, but to them, it was just a bunch of unimportant mobs talking. Their turn in line to use the arena was coming and they would finally see what each other"s strength was like.
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