Chapter 7 - Wager

"Defender status as dungeon master," the human answers after seeing a question on his retina.

The dungeon master hearing that human words loud and clear, his pale face change into a confused expression. He understands that he can't afford to lose in this world-will gamble, because only one person that could come out alive from this white place. However, his opponent took an outrageous gamble, even for him. As its name implied — world-will gamble — the challenger needs to bet something equal or worth more than what he wants from him.

He doubts a human who recently comes to this world has any possession which worth more than his status as a dungeon master.

Considering this fact, the dungeon master let out a smile. He doesn't know how his opponent has knowledge about world-will gamble. However, it seems the humans don't understand the risk of this game after all. If the stakes any lower than the value of his status, that human' life will immediately forfeit.

Usually, the challenger will try to take as most as possible from the defender — they will gamble all their possessions. After all, if they lose in this place, they can't get out alive — nothing in their possession worth anything for them when they lost.

Even so, they still consider what they can take from the defender because it's impossible to take something more valuable than what they bet.

After finished organize his thought, he can calm his mind. Soon, another holographic question appears on their eyes.

[Challenger, tell me what your stake]

Silence descended upon them for a moment, until finally, his opponent open his mouth while he still silent while listening.

"All my knowledge," fervent words come from that human mouth.

His expression changes into a wide smile after hearing those words — knowing that no knowledge in this world has the same worth as his status. There is nothing to compare — a dungeon master status will change that human talent into cream on the crop while there is no knowledge will have any significant impact on him.

His heartbeat becomes calmer after thinking about this fact. However, the next holographic sentence on his eyes makes his jaw drop.

[Challenger stakes accepted]

"What the f...?"

***

Elias's looking at the holographic sentence with a curled smile on his face. He already expects that world-will will accept his stake, but imagining and experiencing give different feelings — it's more exhilarating than his thought.

After all, his knowledge can change his opponent future drastically. The dungeon master can become the winner in their twisted game and stand on the top of the world with knowledge of future events.

His knowledge has more value than status as a dungeon master.

Although he understands how much its worth, he hadn't many options to take. He didn't have other things that have equal worth as dungeon master status on his possession. Also, It was implausible to win a direct fight against the dungeon master which level is above him.

If he wants to survive, he needs to reduce advantage the dungeon master has — something that the dungeon master won't see it coming from a newcomer in this world.

His answer from this predicament is a gamble — World-will gamble.

World-will gamble is a wager with the highest stakes in this world. Only two persons can enter on each gamble with world-will as their overseer — and only one person can come out alive. As an overseer, world-will gives the fairest judgment about the stake. However, this place only accepts high stakes gamble — if the challenger makes low stakes gamble, it'll immediately kill the challenger.

That what forced him to go big — big enough which can change the entire history from his previous life.

However, the gamble itself is very troublesome to set-up. The challenger needs to put their blood in five corners and create a perfect pentagonal shape. Besides that, the challenger and defender need to stand inside that pentagonal shape while sacrificing a drop of blood from the defender.

Even the preparation itself is a gamble on his side. Those two requirements are very hard to prepare while he needs to make sure that the dungeon master won't notice what he did.

In his current level, he needs to mislead the dungeon master to assume he desperate and charge without a solid plan while preparing his set-up.

For first requirements — putting his blood in five corners of a pentagon shape. He needs to do it subtly, once the dungeon master smells what he does, everything will fall apart. He put his blood in the hilt of his weapons, he knows that goblin weapons won't last long against a proper weapon, but that's fine, he never intended to win against the dungeon master with those — he only use those to creates pentagonal shape. So, he pretends to throw his weapon hilts after it's broken while in fact, he prepared his set-up.

Nevertheless, creating the pentagonal blood wasn't enough, he also needs another thing — his enemy bloods — while it didn't need any subtlety, it still a hard thing to do — injuring someone with a cross-level difference. Fortunately, he did it in the last moment even though he got many deep wounds to got that drop.

He let out a sigh, he already go this far after relying on his experience. However, he can only depend on his luck for the next step. After his stake got accepted by the world-will, another holographic sentence will appear which will decide his future — what game they'll do. In this step, there is nothing he can do to influence the chosen game.

In his previous life, people rarely did this gamble because of this step. The world-will will choose a random game for their gamble — there is no pattern in this step — everything depends on luck.

In this place, even the strongest dragon can lose just because the world-will chose chess as its game.

In this place, even the smartest human can lose just because the world-will chose arm-wrestle as its game.

This place is a land of opportunity but also a pit of hell.

He understands this place is dangerous, but his chance here is better than directly fighting with a dungeon master who has a higher level than him.

He only wishes that world-will won't choose a game that requires great intelligence.

However, it's not just him who has that wish — even the dungeon master has the same hope. After all, he's not a smart type.

They close their eyes, somehow praying even though they know that world-will can't hear them until finally, they heard a ding sound in their mind.

*Ding*

They open their eyes and see another holographic sentence. Both of them let out a wide smile when they saw this sentence as though their prayer got fulfilled.

[Game: Equivalent Fight]