Primordial Sage: Plight of Immortality

Since that day, Illyan decided that it was time to implement his plan and started to prepare.

He took out the skeletons of the children and took them to his lab. There, he ground them to powder and mixed them with other herbs to create fertilizers for his herbs in the garden, as he saw it as wasteful to just get rid of them.

Then, he cleaned up the messed-up room so that he could use it later on.

While he called it a plan, he still didn’t know almost anything about his ‘enemies’ or how to achieve his goal, so he chose to prepare as much as possible before doing anything.

The first thing Illyan wanted to do was to make poison. Using poison could be crucial to him if the opponents were stronger than him.

He also used a solution to properly cleanse the remaining bones of the shaman’s left hand that he sliced off, only leaving behind the pristine bones. He took its phalanges and carved on them the shamanistic symbols with care.

He recreated the phalanges into dice runes for his divination to make sure his mission was safe. He wouldn’t fully believe it but as a reference, it was something indispensable. Last time he didn’t heed its results, he turned into an ice sculpture…

The last thing Illyan considered doing was to create some amulets.

For that, he would need a lot of time and wood. Fortunately, the wood from the wine racks was from old oak, which was quite good for amulets.

That took him almost a week for each piece. It was much faster than before thanks to his better perception of spiritual energy. Fortunately, he still didn’t work as a physician and didn’t accept any patients during that time and could finish it without being interrupted. Others in the institution also didn’t find it suspicious as they knew he was renovating the house.

They just didn’t expect him to be so quick with it, as he did most of the things himself in a few hours, letting it be as simple as it could be. As long as his house was functional and clean, he didn’t care about anything else.

After finishing all of this, he was almost prepared.

Next, he started walking in the town trying to collect information about the gang.

He couldn’t just beat one of them up and get the answer out of him, since it would startle the snake. Or rather, startle the ‘viper’.

Looking around the streets with people going erratically doing their own business, he saw once in a while a small group from the gang. However, they were the bottom-feeders and could not bring much value. So he just listened to their conversation before looking for another group.

Because of such a non-aggressive approach, it took a long time before he found out what he wanted to know.

“Did you hear it? There was one chick in the slums that fell into debt after borrowing from big bro Garret… She is supposedly a great beauty, hehe.”

“Ohh?! Do you think we could ask for a share?!”

“Why do you think I mentioned it?”

“Really?! That's great! I was starving for some new flesh. I am tired of the whores in the brothel already. Let’s meet big bro tonight!”

After hours of listening, he heard another disgusting conversation. Illyan just shook his head as he decided that listening to this was unnecessary and wanted to retreat…

“Nah, he can’t right now. This week is his turn to be in service in the arena. He is preparing for that. In truth, the girl would be used there as a maid for the esteemed guest. If we are lucky, we can get the leftovers later on.”

However, just as he planned to leave, he heard something interesting from one of the gangsters’ mouths.

‘Arena? Interesting.’ And so, he decided to continue to listen.

“Aw~? You put my expectations so high and then say this?! Fuck you, Fahren!”

The other gangster, who was already salivating at the thought of a new girl in his arms, got angry when he found out that the girl could very well end up in higher-ups' arms. And those bastards didn’t like sharing at all.

“Haha, don’t be like that! There will be more girls there, even if they are not as beautiful as this one. Not to mention, that this time the event should be much more interesting than normal.”

The first gangster smiled with a sly expression as he didn’t continue talking. This made the other one agitated as he asked what he talked about.

“Hehe, look at you looking so anxious. But it’s true that this time it would be much more fun to watch. After all, they managed once again to catch a troll! The last one died over a year ago, making the arena make much less profit than before…”

With this, the two gangsters started to discuss with excitement how many people would be needed to subdue such a monster…

Meanwhile, Illyan, who listened to them, was satisfied that he finally got some useful information.

After listening for a little longer and making sure that they wouldn’t talk about anything else that he was interested in, he retreated.

After returning home, he was content. The event in the arena seemed to be important, so important people of the gang would definitely show up and amongst them would definitely be one of the gang leader’s sons.

Illyan was confident in it, as he found out during the few days he was looking for the information that all of his three sons were high-ranking people in his gang. He also gave all of them his beloved technique that made him the man he was now. It was obvious that despite his cold heart he still loved his blood.

But that gave Illyan an opportunity to steal the technique. While Illyan already had the basic technique, the gang leader mastered it to the point where he managed to create a sub-technique which Illyan desired.

His heart, now susceptible to greed, couldn't abandon the thought of such a lucrative treasure that could not only make him stronger but also possibly speed up his progress of creating Flow as it would give him additional points that were missing in the basic technique.

As such, he decided that he would visit the arena in a few days when the troll was supposed to show up.

If there would be only his sons in the arena, he decided to act. However, if the boss showed up as well, he would wait and look for an opportunity to strike. He wasn’t confident in beating the boss who was known throughout the town and would be rather cautious than end up dead.

However, he couldn’t just enter it as he was.

Illyan looked at his attire. The black robe that became his favorite was loosely hanging on his body.

‘Fortunately, I already bought some clothes that I haven't used yet for a long time.’

Illyan decided to take some inconspicuous attire later on to not bring any attention.

But that wasn’t enough. Illyan didn’t want to expose himself during the event, as it would bring him unimaginable problems. Moreover, living here in peace would be impossible for him anymore.

And so, he prepared several strategies to change his visage.

The first one was to shave his head bald. Nobody would connect a physician with long and lush hair with someone bald. He could also make the hair grow back to original in a few seconds, so it was an immaculate tactic.

He also experimented a little with the Firestorm Herb during his free time and learned how to make one session with less than a quarter of the original dosage. It was very crude and the loss of efficiency was insane, but he didn’t care about that.

What Illyan wanted to achieve was to reduce his physique to a certain extent while still being in his peak state.

Normally, the technique would suck out all of his muscles into mysterious energy that would nourish his blood but with his new dose, it would take much less.

However, that was enough to change his physique to a certain extent, which would once again make him less recognizable.

And the last one… was probably the most brutal. There were not many people who would be willing to do that… But Illyan was an exception.

……

In the next four days, a sense of unrest spread in the town as the date of the underground arena event was coming closer. The peak of all this stir was the day when the arena opened its doors for the people.

Normal civilians didn’t know what was happening and decided to go home sooner lest they would be caught in some crossfire while criminals started to get excited as they entered deeper into slums.

There, some disputes broke out but the perpetrators were soon subdued by the people of the Venomous Viper Gang.

Meanwhile, there was one man walking amongst the other bottom feeders of the society hidden beneath his crappy robe. It was obvious that his clothes were randomly sewed low-quality fabric.

He was walking with his head down as if fearing making eye contact with others. There were some troublemakers who wanted to pick on him but whenever he lifted his head a little to make the so-called eye contact they would scramble back in fear.

And so, no one was bothering him as they waited in front of one inconspicuous house sandwiched between other shabby houses in the slums.

From the side of this house was the entrance to the underground arena which was literally underneath the town.

Most of the guests were already inside waiting for the show or trying to strike some business.

Unfortunately for others, they were nothing but underprivileged wretches that did not have the right to enter the arena as guests. The only way for those like them was to become part of the arena show.

And that of course meant becoming a gladiator that would fight for the entertainment of the real guests. This often ended up in the death of many.

But still, like moths flying towards the fire, new ones always showed up to fill

up the arena next time.

The reason for that was the monetary reward that the victors took away. Not only that but they could also impress someone watching, getting the opportunity to turn over their fate of being bottom-feeder.

“He he, this time I will make it big this time…”

“Don’t lie, Old man… I bet you always survived only because you cowered in the corner while others shed the blood!”

“Hmm… I don’t think it is impossible to win against a knight if we surround him and attack at the same time...”

Illyan, who was leaning on the side of the house, was listening to all the murmurs of the people as he waited.

He realized that this underground arena was something completely normal in the eyes of the folk here. Or at least, for those who lived dishonest lives. Normal people didn’t seem to realize that there was an underground event happening.

However, from what Illyan read about the Vanaras Kingdom’s history, it seemed that slavery and gladiatorship were normalized since its inception almost a thousand years ago. This small town was too poor so they didn’t even have a proper colosseum like in the cities in the south, but they had different advantages which the gangs chose to exploit.

Those were the trolls which were easy to find if you veer off to the east of the town.

However, because of that, they could only organize this kind of event two to three times a year. Both trolls and the people were resources that couldn’t be easily squandered.

Trolls were hard to catch while it took time for a new generation of slum inhabitants to grow. That’s why a lot of the fights ended up without deaths.

The knights were especially precious to throw away their lives in such meaningless matters.

Of course, incidents happened. Particularly, when it came to fights with monsters…

“Hey guys! Line up and be obedient! The entrance fee is one silver so don’t even think about sneaking up on me!” Several people with tattoos of vipers on their arms came out with proper weapons like swords and spears while guarding the entrance.

“What?! One silver?! That’s daylight robbery!” One of the residents of the slums who definitely wasn't a good guy called out with an angry expression.

“Pay up or fuck off.” The guard said with an indifferent expression.

As such, those who wanted entry could only comply and made a line. Illyan also lined up without any problems as nobody was making problems.

Soon, it was his turn as he gave the guard a fee.

“Alright, you can go-” The guard didn’t seem to be interested in the guy but when he looked underneath his hood he got surprised as he noticed his disfigured face.

The scars looked old as if they healed over years yet the traces of horrible wounds stayed. Because of that, the face was completely unrecognizable as Illyan entered the staircase towards the arena…