After his first fight went well, Oregon solidified himself as a Blessed in the eyes of the common Stonemen and impressed Terresa.
'You've proven yourself to be formidable amongst these Stonemen, but I'll let you in on a little secret: the real battles are not even those inside the arena, but the hidden underground arena.'
Terresa acknowledged his tactics and let him in on a secret that seemed only the Blessed knew.
'Even better than the arena fights? And here I thought it couldn't get better,' he thought excitedly.
'Show me where the entrance to the underground arena!'
He could have sworn he heard a chuckle from the spirit, but decided to ignore it.
Terresa spoke, 'In due time little one. You aren't the only special mineral I have to offer, you know. I've even been so lucky as to add alien minerals from comets travelling through space!'
The more she said, the more intense his desire to not only witness, but participate in battles amongst those of the underground arena.
'I won't have it any other way! I need to see some serious fighting, or I might as well stick with these common Stonemen for the next hundred years!'
Terresa was about to refuse, but she noticed a shine in his Soul Stone.
After nurturing thousands of Stonemen for who knew how long, she had overseen many Immortal level breakthroughs.
With the resolve to challenge the cream of the crop, Oregon was pushing himself to another level just to prove his point.
The soul stone stone brightly underneath his stone skin and made it transform into an even denser and more concentrated form.
'Yet another rare mineral! This Soul Stone is even stranger than I had imagined,' Upon seeing the new stone that bore an even darker shade, Terresa was in awe.
'I'm getting stronger,' Oregon too could not believe what he was becoming, 'This power is mine. And I'll be getting stronger with it.'
His new composition defied gravity while he thought, new abilities waiting to be explored.
He had unfortunately caused a disturbance as other Stonemen were shouting things like, "He has received a gift from the Great Mother," and, "An Immortal has graced Stonehaven!"
It was as if Oregon could not hear anything as he immersed himself in the new stone. Oregon spoke to Terresa after a while as he floated above a crowd of Stonement, 'l must be nearing the peak of the Stonemen. Is this enough to gain admission to the underground arena?'
'You sure lucked out getting such a treasure,' Terresa still considered the Soul Stone to be her greatest achievement, 'I'll send someone to allow you to view a match of the underground arena. You'll have to impress me even more for more rewards.'
Realizing that she would not bend her rules, Oregon settled with her reward.
Very quickly, a flying Stoneman came out from a hole in the wall he made before it closed behind him like nothing happened.
The Stoneman was not too visibly attractive, but a dense quartz covered his arms making them out to be the source of his power.
"Greetings, fellow Blessed," he spoke with a scruffy voice, "You can call me Charge. I'll be showing you to the underground arena that only the strongest of Terresa's children take part in."
"Oregon," the newly Immortal Stoneman responded, "You wouldn't happen to know a dumber, more loudmouthed quartz Stonemen, would you?"
Charge looked around seeing the silent common Stonemen and noticed a knocked out quartz Stoneman in the nearest ring.
"Ah, yes. We were born from the same mineral deposit. I happened to take the majority of it, so he was born with the leftovers."
Oregon had gleaned the similarities between Charge and the quartz Stoneman's composition so he naturally assumed that there was a connection.
"So it's like that! Ha! Well I hope you aren't too against the idea of me clobbering him."
"If he was strong enough to defeat you, he would be in your position not the other way around."
"Yeah, he just had to come after me despite being knocked out of the ring."
Charge looked at Oregon confusedly, "There aren't any rules in battle. You continue striking until one of you drops and doesn't get up."
Oregon finally understood, 'It seems he wasn't just trying to piss me off then.'
"Come now. Terresa has prepared a special fight just for you to see."
Charge led Oregon back to the wall and it opened to accommodate both Stonemen before closing behind them.
The mental map Oregon had was being updated to show an even larger area beneath Stonehaven.
They sank for several minutes before the floor opened up to reveal the underground arena.
"It's huge," Oregon could not help but shout.
"You'll see why in a moment. The match is about to begin."
Charge led him to the seats so they could watch a battle between the most powerful Stonemen.
After seeing the two competitors, Oregon instantly analyzed them
One of the Stonemen was about two times larger than Oregon and consisted of glimmering diamond through and through.
The other was even larger at over five times Oregon's size and was made of obsidian.
Oregon could not wait to see how each of them fought.
The referee of the underground arena raised their hand high before swinging it down, "Fight!"
Instantly, the obsidian Stoneman literally erupted, spraying a wave of magma at the diamond Stoneman.
It seemed they did not want to get any of the magma on themselves for reasons currently unknown.
Still, the diamond Stoneman leapt out of the way to escape the magma.
While they did so, the obsidian Stoneman grew in size until he towered over the diamond Stoneman.
The magma not only served as an attack, but also rapidly cooled and added to the bulk of the obsidian.
He stomped over about to trample over his opponent.
The diamond Stoneman was not a pushover however.
He straightened his back at the sight of the towering opponent and raised his hand.
His fingers were straightened to a point and his wrist thickened until it looked abnormal.
A keener eye would see that the action made his arm resemble a drill.
It not only looked that way, but when the giant obsidian Stoneman got close enough, the "drill" began rotating at fast speed.
Due to the size difference, the diamond Stoneman picked a leg and went for it.
The obsidian Stoneman tried his best to stomp his foe, but he soon realized his mistake.
The diamond drill easily bore through the left leg causing cracks to spread around the circular opening.
This forced the obsidian Stoneman to lose his balance and collapse to the floor.
The diamond Stoneman considered this his moment of victory as he ran to continue drilling.
It was not going to be that simple however.
Magma leaked from the wound on his leg in an attempt to restore it, but that was not all the obsidian Stoneman had in store.
Magma burst forth from his back like an erupting volcano making sure that his attack would not miss.
The diamond Stoneman feared what would happen were he to be covered in the molten rock.
His body would not be able to rotate and he would be forced into a fist fight.
With the difference in size, he would be hard pressed to overcome the obsidian Stoneman.
Oregon watched the fight without blinking.
He was inspired by the ways that the Stonemen chose to fight and was determined to find his own path.
But deep inside, he was not convinced this was the peak of what Terresa described.
"This is wrong," he said quietly.
Charge barely heard him with the commotion going on, "What did you say?"
Oregon got up to his surprise and he almost shouted, "What are you doing? Sit down and enjoy the battle."
"This isn't a battle... It's a disgrace!"
Nobody paid attention to his words as the battle was reaching it's peak.
They were too focused to notice Oregon flying over the battleground.
Charge did not want the attention on him so he reluctantly stayed seated.
'Is this all part of your plan, Terresa,' he could only hope he did not incur her ire after seeing Oregon watching the match from above.