Chapter 104 - First Arena Fight

Waking up from his very uncomfortable night, Rynold looked around.

He was still in the same dark, depressing room as the night before. Rynold could've sworn that the desk back in his workshop provided some more comfort when he passed out on it.

Truthfully, Rynold didn't even need to sleep. He was just so bored that the best thing to do was to rest. But, even then, it proved to be quite the challenge because no part of the room was comfortable enough.

The hard floor was tough on the back as Rynold got back up and stretched.

'Shit, what time is it?' Rynold tried to check on how long he had slept. Too bad, though, there wasn't a way to do that. There was no clock or anything that he could have checked. For all he knows, he might've slept over 8 hours or maybe just 30 minutes.

Realizing that there was actually a way to tell, Rynold slammed his fist towards the concrete wall.

It was clear that he had grown frustrated from spending time here and doing absolutely nothing. He'd much rather be stuck in a loop of failures making something in his workshop.

Suddenly, the door opened behind him.

Two guards with covered faces were standing at the doorway. Rynold couldn't tell what either of the guards was thinking.

Unfortunately, there wasn't time for Rynold to do guesswork.

The two guards readied the spears in their hands and pointed the tips at them. It was as if the guards themselves were instructed to treat Rynold as any of those monsters that were in the other cages.

Rynold thought it was weird that the guards were holding their weapons like that. He was unarmed. There was literally nothing he could have done that would harm the guards in any sort of way.

"You," one of the guards spoke as if giving orders, "Time for you to get your ass beaten. Let's go."

Seeing as how these guards were in charge of bringing him to whatever fight they referred to, Rynold pretended to be scared and hesitant.

It was important to feign fright for now. Rynold knew how important it was to not show off too much of his skill, especially in front of non-magic users.

Rynold slowly walked out of the cage.

It seems that no matter how much Rynold acts as weak and unarmed, the guards were constantly careful. Never letting their guard down for a single second.

With their hands on their spears and poking Rynold to go the right way, they soon reached an open space that was way too bright, causing Rynold's eyes to readjust.

Walking forward while being pushed by the guards that dragged him there, Rynold found himself inside the arena itself.

The sound of a metal gate that was reminiscent of a portcullis was being lowered behind Rynold. He turned around, looking at the door literally closing behind him.

Then, Rynold saw the smiles on the guards' faces. It was as if they knew what horrors Rynold would have to face in this colosseum fight.

The arena itself was slightly larger than an actual baseball field. There weren't any places for Rynold to go to aside from the metal gate that had just closed.

Looking around, Rynold noticed that there weren't many people in the stands. If he had time to count, the people that were watching reached a little over a hundred.

'Is that it? All of this for just a few people?' Rynold continued to check on the stands that were above ten-meter tall walls. 'Whoever built the colosseum sure didn't want the contestants to ever get out into the stands.'

Rynold's gaze moved to a small platform just in the middle of the stands. On it was two extravagant-looking chairs that nobody was sitting on.

'So, that's where the royal couple sits, huh? And they didn't even bother showing up. How great.'

Opposite the gate where Rynold came in, the sound of metal moving was heard. In it, the silhouette of a monster twice the size of Rynold was moving.

Knowing full well that his opponent was getting to the stage, Rynold casually walked to the side. He grabbed a longsword that was in one of the stands, which a previous gladiator must've left behind.

He held the weapon with both his hands. There was nice heft to the weapon, and, upon looking it closely, Rynold saw that there were dents and scratches in the metal blade.

'Whoever left this must've been a seasoned warrior or something. Well, don't mind if I do, I guess.'

The weapon wasn't near any quality of the ones that he had made, but, for the current situation, it would get the job done with no problems.

Rynold faced his opponent as the silhouette of it was moving from side to side. Whatever the creature was, Rynold could tell that the guards had a hard time wrangling it to the arena.

The creature soon showed its face in the arena. From Rynold's point of view, it was clear that the guards had a genuinely hard time getting it in there. Well, regardless, Rynold's lips formed a light smirk as he looked at the monster he was facing.

'Scan.'

===

[Berserk-Type Ghoul Lvl 23]

The pinnacle of the Ghoul evolution, the Berserk-Type Ghoul balances speed, defense, and strength to the utmost degree. Such power all in one creature makes it the epitome of the Ghouls.

===

Rynold raised an eyebrow, but his smirk turned into a full-on smile. It wasn't arrogant for him to say, but Rynold knew that this ghoul before him had no chance of winning.

Looking at the Berserk-Type Ghoul, Rynold could tell that something was wrong with it.

Reading the description that [Scan] provided, it wasn't an overestimate to say that the ghoul could tear through the guards without even breaking a sweat. So, why was it like this?

The Berserk-Type Ghoul Rynold was facing didn't seem to have any sort of strength in its movements. Sure, it tried to swipe at the guards while they were trying to get it into the arena. But, why did it still seem so... weak?

With that, Rynold decided to take a closer look at it.

Longsword in hand, Rynold ran up to the Berserk-type Ghoul with full speed, just stopping a few inches away from the creature's attack range. From there, Rynold baited the creature forward.

Just like that, a fight ensued.

The Berserk-type Ghoul started attacking in a pattern that Rynold couldn't read. For some reason, the attacks were wild and unpredictable, making it fit the ghoul's name accurately.

However, even though the creature was fighting with both its arms swinging wildly at him, Rynold could still easily dodge them. The Berserk-Type Ghoul's attacks were so underwhelming that Rynold didn't have to exert that much effort into dodging it.

'Why the hell is it so slow?' Rynold thought as he dodged another attack that was coming his way. 'There's no way that the epitome of the Ghouls is something this weak.'

After a few more attacks, Rynold soon realized that there was something that was inhibiting the creature. What surprised him was how long it took for him to figure it out.

No matter which way one would look at the Berserk-type Ghoul, it was obviously injured. Rynold was shortsighted to understand that a monster had independent injuries on it too. Whoever managed to catch a ghoul of this size with its full strength is someone Rynold didn't want to mess with.

Regardless, Rynold decided that it was time to finish it.

It was quite pathetic for him to see a creature suffering in pain and managed to leave it injured for who knows how long. What's more, Rynold was pissed at the fact that whoever did do this was sick in the head. Fighting injured monsters for entertainment? There was just something fundamentally wrong about that.

Dodging another attack, Rynold started to circulate the Mana from his Mana Core. Without the longsword he held in his hands right now, Rynold would probably have a hard time beating the ghoul if he wanted to keep his skills a secret.

Luckily, though, Mana Infusion was subtle enough for people not to notice.

The longsword started to glow in a dim light that only Rynold could notice. With Mana augmenting the longsword itself, Rynold had the power to slice a stone slab in half.

With that, Rynold directed his sword at the creature before him and swung.

In one swift motion, the Berserk-type Ghoul was cleanly cut and struck down to its knees. As the ghoul slowly turned into dust, Rynold's longsword crumbled as well from the sheer force of Mana Infusion.

Standing before the disappearing corpse that is the Berserk-type Ghoul, Rynold paid his respects to the creature for putting up a good fight, and, now, it could finally rest. It was silly to think that before knowing that the gods existed, Rynold was sacrilegious to a fault.

As Rynold turned around after giving his piece, he was suddenly caught off-guard as he was struck by a dart in the neck.

Just like that, Rynold passed out.