"Everyone split up and surround it! Now is not the time to give up! If we defeat it, we can get out of here!"
Haley shouted, his voice strained as he tried to rally the group.
"I know! It uses mana, so it's incredibly tough. What's the strategy?" Goblin Muscular, the one who had scolded Hector during the first challenge, asked anxiously.
This moment was critical for both sides.
A single mistake could lead to death. They needed to cooperate to bring down the wolf beast if they hoped to survive.
"Yeah, what do we do?" someone nearby added, eyes filled with hope as they looked at Haley.
Haley's face showed hesitation, and he paused before speaking.
"I-I think we should aim for its weak spot while keeping up the pressure."
"W-Wait! It's about to fire the thundering ball!" another man cried out, his voice shaking with fear.
"Everyone, move!"
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sound of electricity sizzled through the arena, sharp and violent.
They turned their horrified gazes toward the thundering sphere. Despair overtook them—none of them believed they could survive such an attack.
It was enormous—five meters wide and blindingly bright.
"Fuck! This is what a Novice-level beast can do?!" Haley clenched his teeth as he watched in disbelief.
All of them stood frozen like livestock awaiting slaughter.
And then, something unexpected happened.
One second.
Two seconds.
…
Eight seconds.
"Huh? What's going on?"
"That thundering ball... It's shrinking," said a young man hidden beneath a pile of corpses near the wall.
"You're right!"
"What the hell?!"
"God must be on our side! The wolf beast is dying!" another goblin shouted.
"It's like its electric core just shut down."
Bam!
The wolf beast collapsed, its terrifying aura fading into nothing, like a lion breathing its last.
For them, it was a blessing.
Why it happened—no one cared.
"Haizz..." Haley let out a breath of relief, the pressure in his chest finally lifting.
Then suddenly, another noise rang across the arena, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Look at that!" a man cried out, pointing a trembling finger at the top of the wall where the king sat.
Everyone turned upward, faces twisted in disbelief.
The king had been stabbed—a sword pierced through his left chest.
He looked awful—skin ghostly pale, the arrogance drained from his face. His golden cane fell from his hand, clattering onto the stone.
Clang!
The king tilted his head weakly, trying to see the figure behind him.
"I-It's you!" he gasped, voice laced with pain and shock.
"How?" he wheezed.
"Ah..." The man behind him slowly pulled the bloodied sword out through the king's back and then delivered a brutal kick to his head.
Bam!
"Why?" the man sneered, his eyes narrowing with contempt. "Because you're nothing but a weakling hiding behind a mana weapon. Without it, you're just a sly, pathetic pig!"
His gaze shifted toward the king's golden cane.
"Every time you used mana, I noticed the sweat on your brow. It was clear you were depending on something else," he said with a cold smirk.
"I suppose you're just an ordinary human, like the rest of us."
"And besides, your mana feels... completely different from anyone I've seen before. So, it only proves you're relying on a treasure to wield it!"
Then, he stared at the king for a moment before delivering a vicious kick to the king's abdomen, sending him tumbling off the throne and rolling across the arena wall like a ragged, broken doll.
Bam!
Now, he lay awkwardly in a corner of the arena after the fall.
Watching the king's miserable state, the young man smiled quietly.
"Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"
…
…
Below the arena, everyone was stunned by the sight of the man believed to be the strongest in the arena lying in such a pitiful condition.
They felt grateful to the young man—whatever he was. But not everyone shared that sentiment.
"Fuck! Why does it always have to be him?" Haley growled, grinding his teeth as he kicked the corpse beside him, cursing fiercely.
Meanwhile, in another corner, a young man slowly crawled out from a pile of bodies and carefully stood up.
"I knew you could pull it off!" Hector curled his lips slightly, his eyes fixed on the young man, Kevin, who had just knocked the king down.
"I think... everything will be over soon." Hector sighed softly, scratching his chin as memories flickered in his mind.
…
"Okay, so the king's weakness is that he's just a normal human," Hector said.
Instead of the surprise Hector expected, Kevin merely nodded.
"Hmm, I knew that already. Anything else?" He looked at Hector with bored eyes, clearly uninterested unless Hector offered something useful.
Luckily, Hector still had more to say.
"His golden cane! It's a mana weapon. It releases mana after absorbing enough from the surrounding air, but it takes time depending on how much mana it's lost."
Kevin nodded at that and deepened his thought for a few seconds.
"Hmm...You're right! That explains why his mana became unstable when the lion beast went out of control."
Then he glanced back at the king before turning to Hector.
"The deal is set. What do you want?"
Hector nodded without hesitation; they both understood the deal was about more than just rewards—it was about trust.
It was a test.
"I want one of your rewards," Hector said.
Kevin immediately refused.
"No. Choose one of the others."
Hector scratched his head, realizing he hadn't been clear.
"Ah, I mean I want the king's golden cane. You use a sword, right?"
After a few seconds of thought, Kevin nodded quietly.
"Alright, I'm gonna give it to you."
Hector's assumption was correct. The golden cane was valuable to some, but to Kevin, it wasn't that important.
The most precious items were magical artifacts, imbued with countless powers defying logic.
A good example was Kevin's right eye. Made from a mix of metal and gold, it was a magical item granting third-person vision.
But all who used it had to sacrifice their eyesight. It was cruel and painful.If Hector were in Kevin's place, he'd never accept that.
Besides the pain of losing his own sight, he had to endure seeing the world like an old cartoon from the 1900s—just like Hector's Old World.
Moreover, this eye consumed a lot of mana. If his mana was low, he could only see within a five-meter radius.
Wait—how did Kevin have mana if he hadn't completed the first challenge yet?
Not yet. His attack on the king's back... how could he move that fast from the arena floor to the throne in seconds?
Maybe it was another item. Anyway, he was a member of the Wolfe Clan.
Maybe.
***
Announcement from author: Hello, my reader, anyone reading my work, please, let's do it on Royal Road