While Illyan was thinking about this, time passed as the three people waited in the room.

The room was quiet, and they could not hear anything from the outside. While Illyan had great patience and the old man seemed indifferent, the third guy wasn’t that good at controlling himself.

He was fidgeting the entire time, and his body was tense.

Just as he wanted to stand up, guards opened doors and guided new people into the room.

Same as them, they were winners of their fight.

They were made to wait here as the event continued.

Just like Illyan's group, there were three of them. But contrary to Illyan’s group made out of strangers, they seemed to know each other quite well.

While Illyan wasn’t interested in them, he still made sure to remember each of them.

One was skinny with a goatee that had the clothes on his shoulder crimson, showing that he got slashed there. On the other hand, the second one was the sturdy man who had lost his right eye. He had a few other superficial wounds but nothing important to note. The last one had a crooked nose which was definitely not natural, and his left hand was missing three fingers.

All of them were injured, yet they still decided to risk even more for money. Illyan felt a seed of disdain for them until he quickly extinguished it.

‘Who am I to judge them? Am I also not going here to risk my life?’ Illyan realized that he was not much different from them.

Yeah, he wasn’t after money since it had limited use for someone like him who could live an ascetic life if he wanted, but for the people who grew up on the streets, this kind of opportunity was life-changing no matter the risk.

Actually, the thing he planned out to do was much more difficult. Not to mention the consequences if they recognize him.

However, Illyan didn’t plan to passively grow how he planned out in the beginning, as he feared that another Fate Trial would strike him down anytime soon.

He didn’t choose to meditate this time and chose to listen to the trio that went into one corner with physicians who treated them.

“Damn that hurts…” The one with the goatee complained. The one-eyed man rolled his eye at him.

“You have the lightest injury. Moreover, your injury isn’t permanent unlike us. Right, Joe?”

The third man grunted with acknowledgment as one physician straightened his nose into its original place.

“I know, but you know that I am no good when it comes to fighting while injured. Why did you agree to have that second round? We have no chance against the troll!”

The man seemed upset as he stared at them.

“I only agreed because we will fight in the second round of the troll’s fights. While we recuperate, the troll will be weakened. There is no way the organizers wouldn’t use all three fights with the troll as a grand finale and will use it three times in succession, giving it no time to recuperate. Which means that the second round will have an advantage over the first one.”

“Ohh, as expected of big bro. But then, wouldn’t the ones in the third round have an even greater advantage?”

“Heh, of course, but since they didn’t give us the offer, it means they planned something for it already, so what does it matter?”

Illyan listened to them and then he realized that they too would be participating in the second fight with the troll.

That made Illyan narrow his eyes.

Just then, the old man who was sitting close to him started to mutter to himself while giggling.

“Hehe~ Those stupid chicks are going to be slaughtered the moment they enter the arena. Just like livestock, they got wool around their eyes to not see the first batch getting torn apart. Only on the third fight, several knights would ‘win’ against the beast, showing their might.. Shame that there would be no third round…”

Illyan turned his head at the old man. He didn’t know if the man talked to people in the room or was just murmuring to himself, but the things he said made an impact on him. The old man was leaning on the wall while flopping around his legs as if he was enjoying himself without any worry. He quickly shed his eyes away, fearing that he would be discovered again, and thought to himself.

‘I see… So I was right. We are here just to lose lives. And we got into this room to not see or hear what would happen to the first batch to not change our minds…

Time passed and several other groups entered.

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In the end, there were 18 people in the room waiting for their time to shine once again.

Just as the last group entered, Illyan felt it. An extremely minuscule tremor. Then another. Tremor after tremor. Silence.

Groooaaar

A normal person wouldn’t catch it since the room was quite isolated. No, rather, the room served exactly for this.

To isolate the sounds of this disaster of nature.

Thud

The only thing he could hear and feel were the tremors and occasional roars of the beast, but that was all.

However, that was enough for him to realize how the fight was going on.

The roars were full of excitement, and the tremors were stable. The troll was a starving hunter, and now it finally got its prey in front of its eyes.

The one-eyed man thought he was smart, but in fact, he was just a laughable pawn in the eyes of the organizers. The troll would get only stronger after the first fight thanks to its stamina returning after filling its stomach with human meat.

‘Or will it?’ However, Illyan didn’t think that the organizers would allow that. Firstly, it would make the giant uncontrollable.

And secondly…

‘Once the bodies fall dead on the ground, they belong to Corpse Thieves…’

A normal person would feel despair, but Illyan was excited.

He was looking for a good opportunity. Now that he knew that the old man beside him planned to do something, he got the feeling that he could exploit that.

If he also destroyed the chains that were restraining the troll…

Illyan’s eyes shone with golden streaks.

Today’s divination, which was also the first one with the phalanges made out of the shaman’s hand, was favorable, showing the word ‘Prospect’. Usually, he wouldn’t blindly believe it, but since the last time he didn’t heed the warnings of the divination, he decided to not make the same mistake.

If the divination was right, then it was great, but even if it was sham, then it was no problem since as long as he was not exposed he could try again how many times he wanted…

……..

After several minutes of waiting, the disturbance disappeared. No more roars or tremors of the ground.

Illyan immediately realized that the fight had ended.

He turned his eyes to the door awaiting the guards. However, when he saw from the corner the old man also looking at the doors, he turned his head away.

‘Did the man also notice? But how is that possible?’ It may sound arrogant, but if there was one thing that Illyan was confident in except his gift, then it would be definitely his acute five senses.

After suffering through so much, his body was equally tempered, his eyes, inner ears, inner nose, tongue, and skin included.

From what Illyan knew, there was no one who could replicate this kind of tempering in the north if they lacked his gift.

He wasn’t so naive to think that there would be no other way to train them, but it was still discouraging and at the same time alarming that such an expert showed up in the first town Illyan ever entered.

‘What kind of dangers do other bigger cities in the south have? I made the right choice settling down here for a bit before continuing traveling.’ Illyan wiped the cold sweat that was forming on his forehead while still maintaining his expressionless face on the surface.

He just hoped this powerhouse didn’t realize anything about him yet.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t tempt fate…’

Just as he thought that, the doors opened with the guards coming in. People waiting in the room stood up, either with nervosity or expectation, as they stared at the incoming guards.

The guard also didn’t disappoint as he stared at everyone with a serious expression as his somber voice resounded.

“It is time!”

…….

All of the winners from previous fights who agreed to participate in the second round went out of the room and prepared themselves to enter the arena.

“Choose the weapon now. You will not have much time once you are in the arena.” Guards grinned devilishly as they stared mockingly at them.

Some of them got angry while others got visibly nervous, even having second thoughts about all this.

After all, some of them were just tempted by temporary greed, but now when they got in front of the gates to hell again, they felt their throats getting dry while their backs were wet from cold sweat…

Unfortunately, it was too late to back off now.

Illyan quickly went to the rack as he wanted to get weapons of his choice.

This time, he didn’t go for the spear.

Funnily enough, this time there were many more people going for the spear when they realized its advantages. The rough guy was one of them. When he saw Illyan and the other guy fighting from a safe distance, he realized that fighting with a sword without skill was almost suicide.

What he didn’t know was that Illyan didn’t choose the spear this time because he was pretty sure a normal spear would be useless against a troll's thick skin.

Since he knew he wouldn’t get any more chances, he decided to take more weapons this time.

And what different

weapons to take than the ones he was already used to?

He took one one-handed axe that resembled the ones he used back then and the same short sword that the old man used and put them behind his belt.

Albeit the weapons were similar to the battle axe and jagged blade he lost, they were still different weapons. Especially the short sword.

Swords were hailed as the weapons of knights and royalty in the south. Illyan would lie if he said he wasn’t interested in them.

What was important, however, was the fact that swords seemed to be weapons with a good affinity for [The Way of the Body].

The technique’s purpose was to heighten the user’s precision to such heights that they could fight with any weapon without touching it ever before.

And the sword seemed to be a weapon that emphasized precision, so Illyan decided to take it.

Of course, he wouldn’t use it against the troll. After storing the two weapons away, he turned his head to the two-handed weapons. There were many options for him to choose from, but he didn’t hesitate as he reached out and took the weapon of his choice.

“Hmm?” Several people glanced at him with strange eyes as they saw the weapon in his hands.

Technically speaking, people took light and speed-oriented weapons since they were aware that one slap from the troll would turn them into mincemeat.

But Illyan chose the opposite.

He chose a war hammer.

A one-and-a-half-meter-long weapon with a blunt hammer on one side and a long pike on the other side. The thing itself was quite heavy, as normal people would have trouble swinging it, but Illyan didn’t have such a problem.

With his strength, he could use this weapon in each hand without a problem.

It didn’t take long before everyone finally made their decision as they stared at the gates while clenching their weapons.

“Alright, since everyone already took their weapons, we will start.” The guard, whose duty was to guard the gate, nodded as he opened the gate.

Illyan expected his ears to be affected by the cheers from the audience, but this time the sounds were much tamer than before. It almost sounded artificial to Illyan.

‘Did they get scared off by the troll? Or…’

As Illyan thought so, he, together with others, took their steps towards the arena beyond the gates…