"I… surrender."

Only two words were muttered, and the next moment, a mana barrier covered her whole body and took her flying out of the arena, probably to get healed.

"And our winner is the silver knight, Fafnir!"

A lot of people cheered for him. Those who didn't likely were betting on his loss, but the majority weren't stupid enough to start betting on the second stage.

Fafnir stood alone, surrounded by lava and looking at the centipede he hated the most.

"Don't look at me like that. It was your choice, wasn't it? You should be proud of yourself." Greed scratched his head: "You don't look like an extremist slave now. Mercy is something good, you know."

'Says a literal sin.'

"Hey! I'm not a bad person. They called me a sinner because of my bloodline the same as when your master was once accused of being a robber because he was black. Just pure racism!"

Before Fafnir could respond, a crack appeared in one of the walls, revealing a small room that was illuminated by a small lantern.

Without needing anyone to tell him, Fafnir knew that he was meant to be there.

After entering through the crack, which closed immediately, he just found a chair and a plate with two fruits that looked like blue bananas.

'I guess they'll open a path through the other side to let me go to the next section.'

Fafnir sat and ate the offered bananas, which tasted like a mix of lemon and pineapple.

While resting, he could only think about his past decision.

'No, I should stop overthinking. My master wouldn't kill her anyway.'

But then, there was the problem of the previous stage.

Fafnir singlehandedly killed more competitors than the combination of the kill count of everyone else.

Now that he spared one person, it looked like… hypocrisy.

'I can't change the past, anyway.'

"Who said you can't?" Greed suddenly appeared in the room, his gaze falling on the second banana: "Your old self could have changed the past. I'm not a professional, but I heard that the Time Aspect is able to interfere with… time."

"I heard that a specific person was able to go back to the past after dying! Looks magical, doesn't it?"

Fafnir rolled his eyes to the back of his head and ignored Greed.

CRACK!

After only a minute, a crack appeared in front of him, leading to the next section of the arena, which looked… completely normal.

'Is it a neutral zone?'

Fafnir stood up and stepped forward. The moment his legs landed on the floor—

"...!"

A heavy pressure pressed on Fafnir's whole body, almost forcing him to his knees.

'What the…?'

Fafnir enhanced his body and forced himself to stand straight. His body, his armor, and even his sword—they all became much heavier!

'Gravity!'

Fafnir understood immediately what the problem was. This zone had heavy gravity!

The audience had already known this from the last battle.

"Hehe, are we about to see another turtle fight?"

"The silver knight is still standing!"

"Oh, right. The previous ones just fell immediately. That's impressive."

"How heavy is the gravity there?"

"Probably enough to make their hair strands heavier than a boulder."

Fafnir ignored them and immediately thought about something that could help him.

'The Shadow Aspect is a good counter.'

Fafnir's body turned inky-black as he enhanced it with shadow, feeling himself becoming lighter.

One of the properties of the Shadow Aspect was becoming lighter, which meant resisting the force of gravity.

And as expected, Fafnir quickly became able to move more freely and even jump.

'Now, I can finally fight my opponent.' Fafnir smirked and looked at his opponent.

His opponent was already pinned to the floor, bleeding from every single hole in his body.

"..."

He… he was unconscious.

Completely unconscious!

"This should have been a hell for a mage like him…"

"Life is truly unfair and unpredictable. He couldn't even stand for a second."

"Yeah…"

"PATHETIC!

Apparently, that man was the definition of a glass cannon.

He was good at dodging and fighting, but his endurance and physical strength were basically nonexistent.

'I should be grateful that my stats are balanced. My master… thank you!'

The most speechless person was the narrator, who couldn't mutter a word since the beginning.

After a long moment, he finally broke the silence: "I… I think the gravity was too much for him…"

"I don't know what to say."

The narrator turned his head toward the duchess. Anas met his gaze and shook his head.

Sighing deeply, the narrator announced without a hint of happiness in his voice: "Disqualified. The winner is Fafnir. Congrats."

"Wait, what?!"

"How is this possible?!"

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"The mage wasn't ready! That's unfair!"

The audience roared furiously. Even those who supported Fafnir were complaining, as they were striving to see him fighting.

After all, the purpose of this competition was seeing blood!

The narrator sighed: "Want a fight? Jump here and show that you can take Fafnir down under the pressure of gravity! I don't think the Duchess will stop you."

"That's outright ridiculous!"

"Why don't you do it yourself?"

"I'm not the one complaining! Focus on the other fights and shut up!"

Fafnir ignored the fight and went toward the crack that opened for him. But as he passed behind the unconscious man, he couldn't help but think about the man's misfortune.

'Am I luckier than him? No, that's supposed to be impossible.'

Fafnir rejected the idea and went into the wall, finding more blue bananas.

But he had to admit… It was strange.

'My luck is tied to my master… right?'

In the past, there was a time in which he was killed by lightning. It was his first and only death until now.

And that lightning strike was meant for Dante! Even the thug was killed after getting a portion of Dante's misfortune.

And now, Fafnir lived for months without Dante and faced no problems at all.

'Didn't my master fuse with that parasite? He should be a big pillar of misfortune by now. How am I not affected?'

He could only think about three possibilities.

'Maybe his misfortune isn't tied to me anymore.'

Just like how Dante couldn't even use Shadow Swap anymore, maybe the misfortune itself was separated due to being in two different realms.

'Maybe he doesn't have that much misfortune.'

Dante was likely in a dangerous territory or in prison. There was a possibility that he used his misfortune continuously rather than keeping it stored.

'Maybe… I'm thinking too much about it.'

If Fafnir and Dante learned anything about luck, it'd be that it was inconsistent.

Was it extremely rare to have a pillar of misfortune and never face a true misfortune for months?

Yes.

Was the chance zero?

Absolutely not!

'Unless being stuck with Greed is the real misfortune, I can't think about any other reason.'

"Well, there is another possibility." Greed yawned: "Maybe you being here is his misfortune."

"..."

Fafnir faced his statement with silence.

Greed chuckled: "Who knows, but maybe something bad will happen from you being here. Maybe he needs you the most now. If you die, you'll just return to him."

"But who am I to speak about misfortune?"

"It's just… a possibility."