Warriors will die if they charge.

Marcus sat down by a fountain, rubbing his eyes and brows, feeling that the situation was becoming increasingly unpredictable.

Gold, all gold, even the urine from the goddess statue's fountain was gold dust.

Bardin plopped down on the fountain steps. Dwarves have an innate and strong desire for precious metals; there are ten different specialized words for the grades of gold alone in the dwarven language.

He twisted his face, barely suppressing the urge to grab the gold, and rubbed his long black beard: "Tough guy, we might be in trouble. That guy named Emma, ​​he might be... a devil."

"Would the devil take a fancy to a few worthless souls?" Marcus glanced at the stray dogs at the other end of the palace, who were squatting on the ground, excitedly picking out pieces of gold that suited their hands.

The devil is a notorious hunter of souls, a figure in folklore who tempts people to fall. Many people, when being tried in court, will cry out that the devil tempted them.

However, the Mage Association once widely disseminated basic knowledge about demons, stating that your wife's infidelity has nothing to do with demons, and that the people in the countryside who are tempted to commit crimes are most likely demons.

As for how to see the devil, the sorcerer did not go into details, but most ordinary people will never come into contact with these mysterious and evil creatures in their entire lives.

"You can't guess what a devil is thinking." Bardin sighed and shook his head. If the devil hadn't intervened, the three stray dogs would have already been enveloped in the smoke bombs he had thrown.

When he saw Ohar being slapped away by the troll, he sensed something was wrong, but he kept quiet and left the judgment to Marcus.

Pain and betrayal are the best teachers; the captain of the rye beer team needs experience to grow.

The dwarf firmly stated, "We must not take anything, and we must not believe anything the devil says; their mouths are full of lies."

Marcus agreed with this point. He tapped the golden steps lightly with his index finger, pondering what Emery had just said.

The weight of one person, trust and burden, a chance to let go, gold, jewels, potions, tools, artifacts, or even the way to immortality and rule until the end of time...

But in the current palace, everything visible to the naked eye is gold.

Without the magic potions, props, and artifacts he mentioned, was it just a trap to test our psychological expectations, turning us into gambling addicts who wanted to win again after winning one round?

He rubbed his chin, thinking it was very likely.

Let's say you first take the heavy gold and fill a backpack with a maximum weight of one person. When you encounter something of higher value later, you will drop the contents of the backpack, using up one of your chances to let go.

The next time, when something even better came along, greed overcame reason, and the result was that the obsidian collar around his neck melted, and he was forced to wear a silver death mask.

Seeing Marcus deep in thought, Bardeen told a story about a devil in order to make the human boy give up completely.

Long ago, in the prosperous days of the Dwarf Mountain Kingdom, it was extremely difficult to marry a female dwarf. The hard requirement was that one must prepare silver or gold equal to the bride's weight.

A young bearded man named Krako took a fancy to Jenny, a beautiful girl from another clan.

Krakor was a penniless wretch with no skills, making a living by selling worthless trinkets in the mountain fortress. The clan was unwilling to provide any support, so the marriage was clearly hopeless.

One day, Krako came across a tattered book from the human kingdom. It contained a spell to summon the devil, with a condition attached: exchange your most precious possession for your most desired thing.

Krako was consumed by thoughts of Jenny's beautiful braids and round face. Ultimately, love triumphed over reason, and he summoned the devil, offering him the following conditions:

He offered his most precious beard in exchange for gold equal to Jenny's weight.

But the devil retorted, "The dwarf without a beard is a woman."

Krako impatiently swung his shovel: "I know, are you going to do it or not?"

The devil agreed, and Krako received a piece of pure gold weighing over a hundred kilograms. He first spent a lot of money to make a fake beard, and then exchanged some of the gold for silver, using silver weighing twice as much as the bride as a dowry.

Everything went smoothly, and no one knew he had made a deal with the devil.

Until the day of the wedding, he became her—a beardless dwarf, a woman.

On the bed in the bridal chamber, Krako lost his most precious possession: his identity as a man.

"The devil didn't lie; he just didn't tell the whole story," Marcus said.

"That's what makes the devil so terrifying; you can't tell which words are useful."

Marcus nodded, agreeing with Bardeen's point; he certainly didn't want to become a woman for a pile of gold.

"I need to rest for a while, Bardin."

"Hmm." Bardin looked up at the huge golden clock hanging from the ceiling, the minutes had ticked ten times, and at the end of the wide road in the center of the palace was a wooden door that emitted a sudden black light.

You only have one hour to choose.

"Take a ten-minute break, then leave."

Marcus lay down, the dazzling golden light from the ceiling almost blinding him. He stared at the five roulette wheels that had reappeared. His initial all-in move to throw rare-level cards into the Immortal Roulette when he accepted the mission suddenly became unsettling in this strange environment.

The probability of winning is too low. Even if you go all in on the Excellent Roulette, the chance of winning a rare card is only one in ten.

A gambler's life is worthless. If I die in the devil's game because I didn't draw anything, I'll accept it. I can afford to lose.

But Bardin, burdened with a heavy mission, knowing full well that the stray dogs were problematic, still walked into the trap with me.

Marcus hesitated for a moment, but still chose the safest strategy, throwing the rare-level card he had just obtained into the corresponding rare roulette wheel.

Even drawing a stone would be extremely helpful in the current situation. Leaving the Golden Palace first, and returning to the cave with weapons, would give us the upper hand and allow us to smash the stray dog's head into mincemeat.

He watched as the hands on the roulette wheel spun rapidly, seemingly overlapping with the hands of the ceiling clock, and his gaze momentarily became unfocused.

Give me something good, you bitch Delalie.

Congratulations! You have drawn the rare talent "Troll Regeneration (Improved)"

【Troll Regeneration (Improved): Trolls are extremely bizarre and unnatural creatures with highly active flesh and blood tissues. Some rare mutated individuals retain the activity of their body tissues after they are separated from their bodies, consuming energy to replicate and proliferate on their own in a way that I cannot understand.

I have found a feasible approach to transfer the troll's regenerative abilities to the human body.

The activity level of flesh and blood needs to be reduced to improve adaptability; otherwise, the experimental subject will turn into a fleshy ball full of redundant tissue. However, compared to the original troll, it loses the ability to regenerate severed limbs, reducing the effect by 76%. It's a failed project...

—The Lich Master, Connie Alva the Merciless.

Skill Details: Your injury recovery speed is significantly increased.

Marcus smiled with satisfaction. It seems that occasionally playing the role of a "guaranteed winner" isn't a bad choice. This Master Alva is truly a good person.

My left arm, which had been limp just moments before, lifted slightly, and the pain of broken bones transformed into an itchy, tingling sensation.

He rose from the steps where he had been lying and looked toward the exit at the end of the palace.

"Let's go, dwarf brother. If we stay in this beautiful palace any longer, I'm afraid I'll never want to go back to Riverside Town. Our business with that bastard isn't over yet."