Of course, that was if they fought it alone. It would probably drop a bit if there were several adventurers. Even so, the level would still need to be high. At least 200, I’d say. And if we were talking about a bunch of adventurers that weren’t much stronger than Rishia in her non-awakened state, then they’d lose no matter how many of them there were.

Even if the monster were only around level 120, a single adventurer—no, even with three adventurers—knowing whether they could win or not would still be unclear. All said and done, you really couldn’t underestimate differences in levels and basic stats. You might think that level 100 would be similar for a monster and a human, but just looking at Raphtalia and Filo made it clear that wasn’t the case. And if you were faced with three of those monsters, then what? It was the kind of risk you could only find at the no-holds-barred underground coliseum tournaments.

“Bingo! Nobility from some country or another will send in recreationally caught wild monsters for the enjoyment of seeing whether or not they can be defeated.”

The woman went on drinking cheerfully. It was hard to believe she had just been taking part in a drinking contest from the way she was knocking them back now.

“It was only one this time, but the next competition will be team battles. That means there will be three of those things.”

Hearing that made me realize just how scary these rules could be. So it was best not to assume that the opponent would be limited to humans or demi-humans. I would have to let Raphtalia and Filo know about this, too.

She refilled my cup again. I guess she had more to tell me.

“Other than that . . . Depending on the situation, there are times when they will change the terrain to make it more advantageous to the opponent.”

“Meaning?”

“When an opponent that can fly is sent in, sometimes they will prepare an iron cage around the arena so that the fight isn’t too one-sided.”

So the organizers would shift the odds in favor of one side or the other to keep the match interesting.

“That has to suck when that works against you.”

“Also, there is support from spectators. Spectators can pay to provide assistance to the opponent they bet on.”

In other words, spectators could shell out large amounts of money to help shift the outcome of the match in their favor and win big. What a pain in the ass. There was no such thing as foul play here. No fair matches. I guess competitive odds are what you got in exchange for that.

“The next competition is sponsored by the weapons merchant guild, so you can expect expensive weapons to be thrown at the fighters.”