“That was daylight robbery. That stupid, fucking three feathers head.” Zalanir cursed all the way from Kael’s mansion back to the fighting pit.

  Zalanir’s whole net worth was measly … one silver coin, which he got from Kael in the first meeting. And he had just lost 3x of that for some basic information that he was sure he would get for free from visiting any library. That was equal to three pieces of common gear that he now wouldn’t have.

  Ulken was nowhere to be found. His shackmate had been coming back late and then leaving early in the morning for several days now. Not that Zalanir cared too much. Everyone had their own life, so unless Ulken shared anything himself or asked Zalanir for help, he wouldn’t poke into it.

  But it was a shame that the man wasn’t present. He would have liked to ask him about the grade and evolution stuff, just to make sure that it was indeed rudimentary information. He would still need to find a place where he could potentially learn everything he needed to know. Now that the business with Kael and the siblings was over, especially with Kael likely not coming back here, he doubted that he could continue acting as Shinnya’s servant to get out to the settlement.

  Shinnya once said that if he needed to get out himself, he would need to reach twenty-five wins to get a permission, which his record was currently at around sixteen or seventeen. Not too far away, but it was a one-off. Not ideal.

  The other way was to pay for his freedom at level 35, which again, wasn’t out of hand since he was at 23 already. However, the problem lay in the 200 coins, or 20 silver coins that he needed to pay to the pit’s owner. Now that he thought about it, how could he even earn coins here inside the pit? They paid him nothing for all the battles he participated in.

  He needed to get a job. Might be a shitty job at first, but he needed to test the water to gauge the normal pay rate here. Currently, he had no use for money, as food, shelter, and training were all provided by the pit for free. Thinking about it, this was kind of his first job in this world. It was just one that didn’t leave him with any spare money, but at least he wasn’t being left out starving on the street.

  Not that he required that much food to function properly. As he continued leveling up, the notion of three meals per day was no longer necessary. Now he ate only before and after the training, and even those were cut down to at maximum two rice balls per feed. He could even reduce it to one if he wanted, but cutting the intake too quickly might be an issue. That lesson had taught him well back in his competitive days, after all.

  Perhaps he could become a cook? That cook. What was her name again?

  He opened the Notification tab and scrolled up until he found what he was looking for.

  You have eaten [Schallin Rice Ball]

  +1 Endurance for one hour

  That was right. Schallin was the name of the cook. He had learned that from other fighters who seemed to have a thing or two for her. Apparently, she was also one of the fighters in the arena, not a professional or full-time chef by any means. Guessed that was why the food sucked. If only he could have sweet and sour pork ribs, or a steamed seafood pot, he would be willing to empty his pocket.

  The idea of becoming a cook showed up in his mind again. If he found the ingredients, he could show these inhabitants how much they had been missing out. Those rice balls sucked.

  But no. His skill sucked in this particular aspect. It was serviceable for himself, but he had no confidence in serving any of his dishes to anyone. No, he would need to find a real job to make money.

  Maybe he could be a hunter. With the presence of beasts and monsters, hunters had to be a popular job here. He doubted everyone had the power or levels to protect themselves from all the dangers, so there had to be someone taking that up. But that would be a guard, not a hunter, though. Yeah, becoming a guard was okay, but not amazing. All the restrictions and codes of conduct that one was bound to oblige weren’t great. Nah, he wasn’t a 9-to-5 kind of guy. It was miserable the last time he tried, so there was no way he would swim there again.

  Or he would become a mercenary. If not for the outright scam from Djaxinz, he would have gotten three silver coins and a hauberk just for aiding Kael with his raid. An on-demand job like that would be similar to his tennis teaching and music composing gigs that he had been doing. There was no reason not to continue doing the same here.

  The scene of the bookmakers swarming the stands prior to any fights in the arena struck his mind. It was a random thought at first, but then it stuck and captured his full attention. What if he just bet on myself? Losing to a beast meant he would be dead anyway, so why not just bet everything on his victory?

  Sensing as if he had found a loophole for easy money, Zalanir went to sleep with a big grin.

  ***

  That grin turned into wrinkles the next day when he got into the pit. He wasn’t picked for a fight today, but he still made way into the pit to check out the betting activity. He was in shambles after talking to the bookmaker though, because the odds of betting on the fighters were … abysmal. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one thinking of betting against the monsters, which steered the odds to a ratio of 130:1 or something. Only some dreamers would bet on the monster at these odds, likely hoping for a chance to win the jackpot.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Though his hope of making money through this path wasn’t completely lost yet. There was still the fighter on fighter battle, where the odds were more even. The issue was that this battle wasn’t common or guaranteed for each day, coupled with the fact that he couldn’t tell who was going to win, made it such a big gamble. He wasn’t against gambling, but he had never bet without some sort of sound argument. Anyone doing that, if not for the thrill or fun aspects but as a serious attempt to make money, was downright stupid.

  He stayed for two battles, but got bored and left for the training area. Needed to keep himself sharp in case of another mission. The raid on the anthill might be a one-off, but who could say there wasn’t a second Kael showing up out of nowhere?

  “Oh look! The digger is at it again. Trying desperately to stay relevant. Poor guy! Can’t even take a day off.”

  Zalanir was on the way back from the training area when a group of four men stood in his way. He had planned to ignore them at first, like he had always done, but turned around when it was clear that this group wouldn’t let him pass.

  “What do you want?”

  “Stay away from Shinnya. A useless gold digger like you needs to fuck off. What did you do yesterday, letting her carry all the crates and being gassed out like that?”

  “What are you talking about? Wasn’t Djaxinz with her?”

  “He carried some too. Don’t tell me that you think just because he was with her meant you could play around? Piss off, you stupid lackey,” said a guy who rocked a killer mohawk.

  “At least I’m with her, unlike you, who just stay there barking like a dog. We had a great time together yesterday.” At this point, Zalanir would gladly play along.

  “What did you say? Get this fucker!”

  The man shouted and took out a knife. The other three also formed a square, putting Zalanir in the middle. The light was barely visible, so the hope of someone interfering, if they even did it at all, was not in Zalanir’s favor. Unless …

  “Hey Shinnya. You look gorgeous today.”

  Zalanir waved in the direction of the Mohawk, but ignored him entirely. That did the trick perfectly, because all four of them turned around in the most predictable way. Zalanir slipped through and broke the encirclement with ease, then sprinted to his best effort. He was exhausted after the training, so no chance he would even be able to fight back. Only a dumbass would stay and act tough with an empty tank.

  The group was paralyzed for a moment before starting chasing after him while giving him some of the best praise he could have hoped for. He filtered them out, though. Hearing too many of them might do a bit of unnecessary lifting to his cockiness.

  He diverted from the original path and ran toward the arena. The fighting there should’ve been over by now. Some bumps here and there earned him a few grudges, but he succeeded in melting into the crowds who were taking their way out of the pit.

  What a bunch of crazy simps!

  Zalanir had to take a detour by going back to the training area again, and sneaking his way to the shack after confirming that he had lost them.

  Teasing them was good to spice things up after continuous grinding, but this was the first time they had resorted to violence, so he needed to rethink the strategy.

  The first thing would be stopping exhausting himself completely in the training, so that he could at least defend himself. He doubted he could get away with using the same trick just now. What if instead of four, they brought the whole legion? Just imagining the scene caused a stroke in his head.

  Maybe they would let him be after several days if he stayed away from Shinnya? Not like he had anything more to do with her. On the other hand, Djaxinz would be a different story. The guy seemed to be knowledgeable and was strong enough to even take on a C-grade while he wasn’t even at evolution just yet. If what he said was true — Zalanir couldn’t think of a reason for the guy to lie to him — his feat of killing the ant queen would be a big deal. Based on his observations in the arena thus far, that would put Djaxinz into the strongest tier of all the fighters in this fighting pit. Maintaining a good rapport with him would be one of Zalanir’s priorities.

  But at the same time, that would defeat his purpose of staying clear of Shinnya. She appeared to be clingy to her brother, after all. He would need to walk a fine line here to balance things out the way he desired.

  Or a simpler solution, just became strong enough to take on the whole simp legion by himself. No, not to that extent. He just needed to be able to defend himself until he could buy his freedom out and leave this fighting pit for good. Yeah, that would be the best course of action. Focusing on his own power would be the best long-term investment.

  His thoughts were interrupted by the return of Ulken. It was a surprise to see the man back this soon into the night.

  “You are early today.”

  “I have to.” The man shot Zalanir a glare, then shook his head. “A bunch of people are asking about you. Did you do something?”

  After hearing the story, Ulken let out a weary smile.

  “Why would you even do that? Not only did you get dragged into the issue with the Invincible Gang for helping me, now you even go and make enemies with another group. You should take better care of yourself.”

  “The Invincible Gang? They didn’t do anything to me, though. What issue are you talking about?”

  “They have a list of targets whom they will deal with. Just because they haven’t touched you yet doesn’t mean they won’t.”

  “Well, I’m nobody, so maybe it would take a while to go down that list of theirs,” Zalanir shrugged.

  “It’s good being a carefree young man, isn’t it?”

  Zalanir spent the next morning hustling in the training area as usual. He did hold back a little, mixing in some time for meditation as well, though no trouble for him from either group that Ulken warned. When he was almost done with the morning session, one of the bookmakers paid him a visit.

  This had become a common occurrence now. The rhythm of a fight every two or three days was actually not bad to his liking. It helped him stay sharp and kinda acted as a benchmark for him to gauge his improvement. Hitting the training dummies could only do so much, after all. Not to mention the level. This was his only source of experience for now.

  “Be prepared. You are in the eighth match of the day, against another fighter.”

  Oh! Here it came.