"Now you have two options. Take the money and go home or…” The guard who welcomed them back behind the gate grinned as he saw the satisfied men.

“Or you can go for round two. If you win the second round, then you can get twice the prizes!” The guard said with a tempting voice as the men's eyes turned greedy for a moment.

‘I see. So that’s how they save some of their money.’ Illyan nodded to himself in realization.

He could see that each fight caused many casualties, which was beneficial to Corpse Thieves, but there had to be a winner from time to time, or people would refuse to risk their lives here for a non-existent victory.

However, if one won, they would subsequently be tempted for the second round to fight again. If they lost in their second round, then the prize of the first round would stay in the arena.

For all he knew, maybe some lucky guys who won but were actually weak would find themselves dead not in the arena but in some abandoned alley because the gang would not be happy to lose so much money to a nobody.

When he saw the greed in the eyes of his ‘comrades,’ he shook his head.

In the end, though, fear won out in two of them and they flat out refused.

“No thanks. This is enough for me to buy that medicine…” The spearman said with a soft voice. Hiding behind his cape, nobody could see his face, but his petite body made Illyan suspicious.

However, just as the spearman noticed his gaze and turned his head at him, Illyan turned his head to the second guy who spoke out.

“Y-yeah… I almost died already. I won’t tempt fate anymore,” the other one said with a shaky voice.

“Hmph. Cowards. What about you guys?” The guard snorted in contempt as if he was the one risking his life before turning to the other three winners.

Illyan, the old man, and the rough man.

While Illyan and the old man acted quite nonchalantly when it came to money, the last guy was different. His eyes showed endless desire when the guard talked about money.

“Yes. I will take the leap of faith,” and soon, he reaffirmed that he would go for the second round.

The guard smiled amiably as if he saw a good customer.

“That’s the spirit!” In truth, he was probably glad that he managed to persuade another victim. Maybe he got some bonuses for each man that he managed to tempt…

“I will stay too…” Illyan said with a deeper voice than usual. He didn’t have a way to change his voice but could, to a certain extent, do it naturally. He learned to imitate certain types of animals back then to bait and hunt them, so changing his voice was nothing new.

The guard nodded in satisfaction.

When he finally turned towards the last fighter who was also the ‘champion’ of this fight, the old man just shrugged with a small curve on his face; “Why not? More money for me~”

The guard’s eyes turned a little complicated for a second before becoming firm.

He waved his hand, sending other guards to guide the victors out of the arena with their rewards. The winners had a happy expression, not knowing that some of them could meet some mishap on their way home…

Then he turned towards the three with a fawning expression.

“This time’s fight with goblins was the most legendary fight I saw! As you surely know, this arena is conducted with a high-risk, high-reward mindset. Because of that, there were not many instances where heroes such as you managed to destroy goblins’ groups so easily,” the guard started to praise them as he mentioned the arena’s policy.

When someone mentioned how they conducted fights here to someone for the first time, they would always think that it was a scam. And they weren’t wrong. The arena really didn’t like giving money to some random riffraffs without any skill.

Even the arenas in the capital weren’t so bloody. It was quite the opposite, actually. In the capital, they would never invite random citizens to fight. They would always use their knights or use slaves to create real gladiators who would devote their lives to the arena. However, because of that, each fighter was much rarer and thus indispensable for the arena and couldn’t be sacrificed at will.

So, while most fights were on a much higher level there, rarely they ended up in the death of someone.

On the other hand, only some fights didn’t end up in bloodshed in Winterfrost Town’s arena, and those were always the ones that didn’t bring that much attention to the audience.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Only when the fights were cruel with many deaths was there a high possibility of some drunk noble donating tens of gold pieces because of his merriness. The poorer audience also had a tendency to buy stuff to either throw at the losers’ bodies or eat during such fights.

All in all, over 80% of income always came during these kinds of fights.

And because of that, they couldn’t just pretend that it wasn’t like that and instead made it its selling point.

Each winner got such a high reward that even the audience was green with envy. They also used a lot of animals and monsters as they didn’t need to pay for their victory.

The only shady thing they did was to the winners after the event…

But only few knew about it.

“Yes, we know that. Why are you getting at?” The rough guy asked with an annoyed expression. He knew that this place was dangerous since he almost died several times during this fight.

The guard gave the rough guy a side-glance full of disdain for a second before changing his expression and continuing.

“Yes, where have I been? If you want to fight the second round, wouldn’t you like to gain even more? If you make more accomplishments, you could receive a favor from some higher ups…”

The guard said with a tempting tone. However, when he saw that nobody spoke or showed any kind of reaction, he could only reveal his intention.

“This time, we finally captured another troll after the last mishap-”

He couldn’t finish himself as the rough guy interrupted him.

“What?! A fucking troll? Are you fucking kidding me? Just one swing can pummel all three of us into a pulp of blood! Fuck this!” He showed fear when he talked about those monsters as he knew their horror. Those things were called stupid and clumsy, but nobody was so keen on mentioning how they could lift twice their own weight and could even regrow their limbs which made them almost unkillable by normal means…

“Hehe, last time someone rigged the fight, and it caused quite a commotion, so this time we made sure that the security is much stricter! Not to mention, the troll will be chained down, and we didn’t let it eat ever since it was captured. The goal is to make it lie down for ten seconds, nothing difficult for heroes like you…”

The guard continuously babbled on, which made the rough man hesitate. On the other hand, the old man and Illyan didn’t seem to have any different reaction on the outside.

However, Illyan was sneering down inside.

‘Wouldn’t starving it to a half-death state make it even more dangerous?’

He was aware that once an animal was at the brink of death, it was most dangerous.

Weakened? Maybe. But it didn’t change anything for them.

But he didn’t have much concern. Instead, he pondered how to use the troll to complete his operation.

Now that he was aware of the man beside Caleb, who was definitely one of the stronger Corpse Thieves, there was no way he could just continue with his plan.

He didn’t know how strong the man was, and that was the problem. Before, he could deduce through Terren’s explanation that he could with high probability win against Flow Master, but this man was a complete mystery to him.

‘Korin talked about the Magisters, but who knows if he was telling the truth.’ The man was laying a trap for him, so lying to him about such classified information wouldn’t be strange.

Even if he didn’t, he still knew the minimum.

“Goddammit, tell us the price!” The rough man seemed defeated as his desire for money won over him. When the guard heard that, he smirked.

“Ten times the first price. Quite good, right?”

“What?!” Rough man was flabbergasted, while the old man also raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Illyan was surprised too. However, the surprise soon turned into contemplation. If he was going to continue with his plan, then that money was fated to be forfeited.

However, if he proceeded with his plan and succeeded, then the reward would be probably several times the few measly gold coins.

‘Depends on the situation. If there is an opportunity, I will take it.” Deciding this, he agreed as he looked at the old man, who just laughed as he nodded to the guard's words.

‘Speaking of the opportunity…’

This made the guard extremely happy since he managed to persuade at least three of them.

“When will we enter the arena?” Old man asked.

“Since sirs fought for so long, you must be tired. The troll’s fight would take place three times today, so I would recommend you taking the second fight. Before that, we will guide you to the resting room for our treasured warriors with free treatment.”

After that, the guard explained things to them as he guided them to an isolated room completely different from the one the rest of the people were waiting in.

Though Illyan didn’t miss the fact what the guard was trying to do.

‘Throwing normal people against the Mountain Troll in the second round is just plain murder.’ He read about the

trolls in the institute.

They reached a height of five meters, and their weight could even reach several tons. They had very long arms and big hands which allowed them to catch their prey or wield big rocks or trees as weapons.

And against the popular beliefs of people they were quite nimble too.

Or at least the Mountain Trolls were since they were living in the mountains. Their arms were especially useful during climbing.

Not to mention, their regeneration was commendable. If the records were right then the adult troll’s regeneration was not only at par with his own but more likely surpassing it.

With their thick skin, it was almost impossible for normal people to fight against them. Illyan wasn’t sure he would win either. That’s why whenever there was an expedition they would surround the troll with several knights while using military ballistae from behind.

That made Illyan wonder how they subdued it. Just then, his thoughts came to that man in the audience.

‘Was he really that strong?’ But then, he shook his head.

If that man was so strong then they would catch the troll much sooner after last time. It took time and probably an opportunity too.

That made Illyan sigh in relief since if the man could not only slay but also catch alive the troll which Illyan didn’t have confidence in slaying then this entire plan was utter failure.

But now, the opposite was true. If the troll got out of the chains… Wouldn’t that make chaos big enough for him to slip away with Coleb?

New and better plan was forming in his head as he considered all variables.

There were two big variables in his mind. One was the Corpse Thief with unknown power and the second…

Illyan glanced at the old man who was just now refusing the treatment from the doctors.

If before he considered him quite mysterious then now he felt the headache. He was pretty sure that the man was strong.

While the man was trying to act weak Illyan was already suspicious and was observing him so he didn’t miss that he was moving too smoothly for a normal person. His footwork was impeccable even when he was downplaying himself.

At least Illyan wouldn’t be able to do that.

Now the question was… What was his motive?