“So, who wants to be the first one to fight a challenge room?” I asked our group, when we reached the first floor challenge room.
“I do! I do!” Alice offered.
“Alice, why don’t you let someone else go first?” Christina was trying to hold her back, without directly saying no.
“But I can do it.” Alice insisted.
“Maybe we could use someone else to confirm that nothing abnormal is going on first.” I said, to add an excuse to have someone else go first. I don’t want to stop Alice either, but as Christina was against having her go first, I’ll add this as an option.
“Then should I do it?” Ria asked.
“Madam, Sir. I don’t mind either.” Cardo, our knight escort, offered.
“Brian. Why don’t you just do it?” Lua asked, and everyone turned to look at me.
“Yes. Brian should do it.” Alice instantly agreed.
“It would be interesting to see.” Ria said. “You never actually fight yourself.”
… yeah. There is a reason for that. I’m a summoner/support class, not a frontline fighter. Even if I at one point wanted to be.
“You can do it.” Lua said. “I know you can beat them, even without summoning.”
… That’s not fair. You can’t pressure me like that. Of course I want to try to show off in front of my girlfriend, especially if she asks for it.
“... fine. I can go first.”
Honestly speaking, I wasn’t afraid of dying. I have tons, two and a half tons, of HP. So even if I take some hits, I shouldn’t die. And we are on the first floor. Last time, the opponent was a group of five of the basic skeletons that roam this place, so it should be no problem. Even with my non-existent skills. And if all else fails, I can just rely on Hinotama or something else like that. Even if it hits me, I can tank 500 damage no problem.
“Christina, why don’t you open up Dungeon Master, so you can all watch. You can do it right?” I requested. I think she should be able to do it, as Dungeon Founder can, but there might be a difference in what the skills can do.
“Yes. I shall.”
While Christina was opening her skill, I got out my mithril sword and hyped myself up. Let’s hope this doesn’t backfire completely. For safety reasons, I also got a Hinotama out of my collection and placed it in my pocket, so it would be ready to go.
Honestly, I was a little nervous. I never really thought about fighting solo like this. But at the same time, it is something that I should be able to do, at least on a basic level. My cards have weaknesses and one of them is their speed. Sure there won’t be a problem if I can prepare in peace, but if I have to defend myself without preparations, all I’ll have are my set cards.
… I should remove them before this, actually. Just so they won’t activate. I’ll leave the Nutrient Z and Draining Shield, as they likely won’t activate. Nutrient Z needs an attack that would have a power of over 2000 to activate, while Draining Shield only activates against ranged magic attacks, so neither of them will be in the way when I fight skeletons.
But my Threatening Roar and Sakuretsu Armor would activate, so I removed those two.
(... Laura, you ready to go?) I confirmed. I want all of my power available, that includes Laura hacks.
(Always. Believe in yourself more, Brian. You can do this.) She reassured me.
(... I hope so. Most of my OP skills aren’t really something I can use when I fight alone, without any of my summons. Even Unity won’t help in this fight.)
(You still have telekinesis. That, and your sword, should be plenty against a few skeletons. You might even get your sword technique skill from this, as you are using your sword in an actual fight.)
(... well, let’s hope so. But I’m not expecting that.)
I got into the room and my opponents spawned in. Three skeletons. Two armed with bronze poles, and one with a bronze sword and shield. Not quite as expected, but not too far from it.
The basic skeletons are E-rank monsters. Not too strong, but not goblins by any means. The better armed one was a D-rank skeleton knight. Skeleton knights could range in rank from D-rank all the way to B-rank, depending on their size and equipment, but this one was D-rank, the lowest, so I think I can handle it. It should be weaker than my Familiar Knight who was my teacher just a few days ago.
“Okay. The small ones first.” I muttered to myself. (Laura, let’s use telekinesis to bother the knight.) I gave my idea to her.
(Sure.) She responded.
My telekinesis has been growing in power, and with the practice I’m putting in almost every day with Paulina, I’m getting more proficient with it. Not to mention the level ups.
Compared to when I was just barely able to lift Paulina, now I could do it quite easily, as long as she didn’t resist. So I focused telekinesis on the skeleton knight to keep it from moving, and attacked one of the other skeletons.
I was on the initiative, so I rushed at the skeleton and slashed at it with my sword. The skeleton blocked with its bronze pole, but because of the material difference, my sword cut about halfway through the pole. Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t cut it all the way.
I took a quick jump backwards, so I could avoid the other skeletons' attack. I wish I could hold down two opponents with telekinesis, but that is just a bit too much for now. But I can handle two skeletons. I’m sure of that. If I can’t even do that, then what kind of an adventurer am I?
I threw a stab towards the second skeleton, but honestly, it was nothing but a faint. I wanted it to take up its guard, as it did. I then moved back to the first, and stabbed at it instead. Again, it tried to block with its pole, but as I have learned, you don’t block a stab. Well, you can with a shield, but not with a sword or something like that pole. You have to either avoid it or parry it. With just a slight alteration to my swords directory, I was able to go past the pole and hit the skeleton's core in its chest. Getting stabbed into its weak point, the core, the skeleton took massive damage, and couldn’t stay together, shattering to the ground.
I turned to the second skeleton, who was raising his pole to strike at me. I probably won’t make it in time to block it, so maybe I should just tank the hit. It can’t do that much damage, right?
I focused my efforts into getting a good hold of my sword, and positioning it so that I could strike back as soon as the skeleton hit me.
The pole hit me in my left shoulder. It hurt, but it wasn’t terrible. I could definitely deal with this level of pain. I used my left arm to take a hold of the pole, so the skeleton could no longer move it, and slashed at the skeleton with my sword. My sword sliced it cleanly, and the skeleton fell to pieces.
Then I turned my attention to the skeleton knight which Laura had been keeping still with telekinesis. This thing wasn’t that strong, but a much bigger threat than the two before. But now, with telekinesis again usable, I could just hold it in place and stab it, but I’d rather practice a bit more, so I released the telekinesis hold on it.
The skeleton knight rushed at me with its sword held high. I took a stance and prepared to block the blow, only to realize that the skeleton was going to attack with its shield first. A shield bash. I used telekinesis to hold back the shield, so it wouldn’t hit me, forcing the skeleton to quickly change its plan. But I’m just going to go first, because you didn’t do what I thought you would do. So I slashed with my sword, attacking the open left flank of the skeleton, as its arm was still up high. Left? Would it be left or right in this situation? Well, it is my left, his right.
Unlike with the weaker skeletons, I couldn’t quite cut all the way through this one, but I still slashed off a few of its ribs, getting me a nice hole I could try to access the core from. Then, a quick jump back, so I could avoid the raised sword, which was coming down on me.
With a bit of distance between me and the skeleton again, I took a ready position again. It had been something Familiar Knight had driven into me hard during our practice, so while I didn’t quite automatically return to it, it was quite easy for me to do.
The skeleton knight was also on the defensive, probably because he failed to hit me, but I managed to land a blow. He was holding his sword up, but not straight up like he had previously, and he had his shield forward, really giving him alright cover. Too bad Familiar Knight showed me how to go around a shield. It was quite simple, really. At least for me.
I rushed at the skeleton, holding my sword ready. I was just going to strike his shield. No really. This would cause him to either flinch or try to counter attack. And I could use that moment to do any number of things, though some of them were beyond my current skill level.
I took a hold of the shield with telekinesis and altered its position a bit. This wasn’t strictly necessary, but as I can do it, I did. I moved the shield so that it would be more in the skeleton’s way if he attempted to strike back.
I struck his shield on the right side, pushing it with both the impact and telekinesis further to the left. Then I quickly recovered my sword, so I could strike at the now defenseless flank of the skeleton. Thrusting my sword, I pierced the ribs and reached for the core inside the skeleton, but as the skeleton had used the momentum I’d given him with my both my slash and telekinesis, the skeleton spun around, and I lost the grip on my sword, as it was caught in the skeleton’s rib cage. I instantly jumped back, because now that I had no weapon, I didn’t want to stay too close.
“... all of my swordsmen, and women, will give me flack for this…” I muttered in my failure.
I wasn’t worried. I knew I would win, and the reason for that was simple. I had tried to win, playing this 1 on 1 as if the skeleton could resist telekinesis, only using it for small corrections, like with the shield. But I know it can’t, as I already held it in place earlier.
So I just took a hold of the skeleton again. It struggled a bit, trying to move its arms and legs but it was stuck. I calmly walked to its side, pulled my sword out of its rib cage, raised it up and brought it down. The powerful slash split the skeleton's torso and ended its life.
“... I really will get so much flack for this…” I muttered again, as I picked up the bronze sword which had dropped as my reward. I couldn’t even get anything good. Not that I deserved something good for that show.
Well, I feel like I did alright, all the way until the end there.
“Welcome back, Brian. Are you hurt at all?” Lua asked, when I returned.
“My ego, but I’m fine.” I responded.
“What about your shoulder?” She asked.
“That much is nothing. That hit did all of 14 damage to me.”
“... alright. Well, if you say you are fine…” Lua didn’t argue any further. “Still, I got a bit worried when you lost your sword. How did you hold that skeleton in place like that? You did it at the start as well, didn’t you?”
“It was telekinesis, right?” Paulina asked.
“Yeap. Sure was.” I confirmed. “I really didn’t expect it to fully hold that skeleton in place, but it must have bad magic resistance, as I could hold it almost completely still.”
“What level is your telekinesis anyway?” She asked.
“Level 4.” I answered. “And level 7 mana control.” I added, as mana control matters a lot for telekinesis.
“... wow. I guess that is something I can look forward to.” Paulina muttered. She still lacked her skill for telekinesis, but honestly, I feel like she will get it soon. She just struggles a bit in coating the object part. Well then again, if Laura didn’t help me, I probably would as well.
The next one to try a challenge room, the same one I just cleared, was Alice.
Her opponents were five regular skeletons, with their metal poles. I really don’t know which one is worse for her, five regular skeletons, or the two regular, one knight that I faced. The knight’s shield might have caused an issue for her. … well, probably not, but still.
Alice quite quickly won the fight by darkening the room with Shade and then casting a few Dark Bullets, before finishing the skeletons with Dark Spears. And with the skeletons being lost in the darkness, they really couldn’t do anything.
“... I just got a dagger.” Alice complained a bit, as she brought an iron dagger with her out of the room. Well, at least it isn’t bronze or copper.
Next to try was Paulina. She quickly crushed the two normals, and one knight skeleton. Her spell that made stone spikes rise from the ground which skewered the skeletons. Then she used a targeted stone spear to strike the core of the skeleton knight, the only one to survive the initial hit. Her reward was a dagger like Alice got, but hers was bronze instead of iron.
Agatha also tried, and she destroyed her opponents quite quickly with her battle axe. The one interesting part were the streaks of blue light that her weapon left. They were from a skill she gained during her entire race change/arm regrowing operation. Agatha’s reward was a copper axe. It was a bit small, so I thought it would be useless, but she said that it is a throwing axe, not a battle axe. I didn’t even know the dungeon had throwing axes available as drops, so maybe Tahlia added it from one of my monsters, or the dungeon learned it itself from an adventurer.
Last to have a go at that challenge room was Cardo. He wasn’t the last because the rest of us didn’t want to try, but because the room ended up locking itself after the fifth challenger. Apparently due to some sort of dungeon safety mechanism, which locks the room if too much mana and miasma have been used by it. Oh, and his reward was a bronze shield.
“... maybe we should add a toll to it.” I offered Christina, as we were wondering how to avoid it in the future. “Something like 100 or 200 dungeon points.”
“Can we do that?” She asked.
“Yeah. I think so. I have a card called Toll, so I think we could use that. But we need to get to the core to do the install.”
“I see. Yes. Let us do that. I can deal with calculating what the entrance cost should be at each floor. That will also help with the weapon situation.” Christina agreed to my suggestion.
With that, we headed further into the dungeon. Each floor, Alice, Paulina and Agatha entered the challenge rooms. Lua even tried the floor three challenge room, and made it look like a joke. Her water spell one shot her opponent, a skeletal mammoth. I didn’t realize she was that strong, but I guess she is.
Alice tapped out after the fourth floor, because her mother got a bit … worried. She had been bitten in the leg by a skeletal custer wolf in the room, and she had come back bloodied and limping. Sure she was just fine after Lua healed her, but she was still forced to sit back after that.
But I think she had more than a chance to try the challenge rooms, even if her rewards were between useless and garbage.
“So, who wants to be the first one to fight a challenge room?” I asked our group, when we reached the first floor challenge room.
“I do! I do!” Alice offered.
“Alice, why don’t you let someone else go first?” Christina was trying to hold her back, without directly saying no.
“But I can do it.” Alice insisted.
“Maybe we could use someone else to confirm that nothing abnormal is going on first.” I said, to add an excuse to have someone else go first. I don’t want to stop Alice either, but as Christina was against having her go first, I’ll add this as an option.
“Then should I do it?” Ria asked.
“Madam, Sir. I don’t mind either.” Cardo, our knight escort, offered.
“Brian. Why don’t you just do it?” Lua asked, and everyone turned to look at me.
“Yes. Brian should do it.” Alice instantly agreed.
“It would be interesting to see.” Ria said. “You never actually fight yourself.”
… yeah. There is a reason for that. I’m a summoner/support class, not a frontline fighter. Even if I at one point wanted to be.
“You can do it.” Lua said. “I know you can beat them, even without summoning.”
… That’s not fair. You can’t pressure me like that. Of course I want to try to show off in front of my girlfriend, especially if she asks for it.
“... fine. I can go first.”
Honestly speaking, I wasn’t afraid of dying. I have tons, two and a half tons, of HP. So even if I take some hits, I shouldn’t die. And we are on the first floor. Last time, the opponent was a group of five of the basic skeletons that roam this place, so it should be no problem. Even with my non-existent skills. And if all else fails, I can just rely on Hinotama or something else like that. Even if it hits me, I can tank 500 damage no problem.
“Christina, why don’t you open up Dungeon Master, so you can all watch. You can do it right?” I requested. I think she should be able to do it, as Dungeon Founder can, but there might be a difference in what the skills can do.
“Yes. I shall.”
While Christina was opening her skill, I got out my mithril sword and hyped myself up. Let’s hope this doesn’t backfire completely. For safety reasons, I also got a Hinotama out of my collection and placed it in my pocket, so it would be ready to go.
Honestly, I was a little nervous. I never really thought about fighting solo like this. But at the same time, it is something that I should be able to do, at least on a basic level. My cards have weaknesses and one of them is their speed. Sure there won’t be a problem if I can prepare in peace, but if I have to defend myself without preparations, all I’ll have are my set cards.
… I should remove them before this, actually. Just so they won’t activate. I’ll leave the Nutrient Z and Draining Shield, as they likely won’t activate. Nutrient Z needs an attack that would have a power of over 2000 to activate, while Draining Shield only activates against ranged magic attacks, so neither of them will be in the way when I fight skeletons.
But my Threatening Roar and Sakuretsu Armor would activate, so I removed those two.
(... Laura, you ready to go?) I confirmed. I want all of my power available, that includes Laura hacks.
(Always. Believe in yourself more, Brian. You can do this.) She reassured me.
(... I hope so. Most of my OP skills aren’t really something I can use when I fight alone, without any of my summons. Even Unity won’t help in this fight.)
(You still have telekinesis. That, and your sword, should be plenty against a few skeletons. You might even get your sword technique skill from this, as you are using your sword in an actual fight.)
(... well, let’s hope so. But I’m not expecting that.)
I got into the room and my opponents spawned in. Three skeletons. Two armed with bronze poles, and one with a bronze sword and shield. Not quite as expected, but not too far from it.
The basic skeletons are E-rank monsters. Not too strong, but not goblins by any means. The better armed one was a D-rank skeleton knight. Skeleton knights could range in rank from D-rank all the way to B-rank, depending on their size and equipment, but this one was D-rank, the lowest, so I think I can handle it. It should be weaker than my Familiar Knight who was my teacher just a few days ago.
“Okay. The small ones first.” I muttered to myself. (Laura, let’s use telekinesis to bother the knight.) I gave my idea to her.
(Sure.) She responded.
My telekinesis has been growing in power, and with the practice I’m putting in almost every day with Paulina, I’m getting more proficient with it. Not to mention the level ups.
Compared to when I was just barely able to lift Paulina, now I could do it quite easily, as long as she didn’t resist. So I focused telekinesis on the skeleton knight to keep it from moving, and attacked one of the other skeletons.
I was on the initiative, so I rushed at the skeleton and slashed at it with my sword. The skeleton blocked with its bronze pole, but because of the material difference, my sword cut about halfway through the pole. Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t cut it all the way.
I took a quick jump backwards, so I could avoid the other skeletons' attack. I wish I could hold down two opponents with telekinesis, but that is just a bit too much for now. But I can handle two skeletons. I’m sure of that. If I can’t even do that, then what kind of an adventurer am I?
I threw a stab towards the second skeleton, but honestly, it was nothing but a faint. I wanted it to take up its guard, as it did. I then moved back to the first, and stabbed at it instead. Again, it tried to block with its pole, but as I have learned, you don’t block a stab. Well, you can with a shield, but not with a sword or something like that pole. You have to either avoid it or parry it. With just a slight alteration to my swords directory, I was able to go past the pole and hit the skeleton's core in its chest. Getting stabbed into its weak point, the core, the skeleton took massive damage, and couldn’t stay together, shattering to the ground.
I turned to the second skeleton, who was raising his pole to strike at me. I probably won’t make it in time to block it, so maybe I should just tank the hit. It can’t do that much damage, right?
I focused my efforts into getting a good hold of my sword, and positioning it so that I could strike back as soon as the skeleton hit me.
The pole hit me in my left shoulder. It hurt, but it wasn’t terrible. I could definitely deal with this level of pain. I used my left arm to take a hold of the pole, so the skeleton could no longer move it, and slashed at the skeleton with my sword. My sword sliced it cleanly, and the skeleton fell to pieces.
Then I turned my attention to the skeleton knight which Laura had been keeping still with telekinesis. This thing wasn’t that strong, but a much bigger threat than the two before. But now, with telekinesis again usable, I could just hold it in place and stab it, but I’d rather practice a bit more, so I released the telekinesis hold on it.
The skeleton knight rushed at me with its sword held high. I took a stance and prepared to block the blow, only to realize that the skeleton was going to attack with its shield first. A shield bash. I used telekinesis to hold back the shield, so it wouldn’t hit me, forcing the skeleton to quickly change its plan. But I’m just going to go first, because you didn’t do what I thought you would do. So I slashed with my sword, attacking the open left flank of the skeleton, as its arm was still up high. Left? Would it be left or right in this situation? Well, it is my left, his right.
Unlike with the weaker skeletons, I couldn’t quite cut all the way through this one, but I still slashed off a few of its ribs, getting me a nice hole I could try to access the core from. Then, a quick jump back, so I could avoid the raised sword, which was coming down on me.
With a bit of distance between me and the skeleton again, I took a ready position again. It had been something Familiar Knight had driven into me hard during our practice, so while I didn’t quite automatically return to it, it was quite easy for me to do.
The skeleton knight was also on the defensive, probably because he failed to hit me, but I managed to land a blow. He was holding his sword up, but not straight up like he had previously, and he had his shield forward, really giving him alright cover. Too bad Familiar Knight showed me how to go around a shield. It was quite simple, really. At least for me.
I rushed at the skeleton, holding my sword ready. I was just going to strike his shield. No really. This would cause him to either flinch or try to counter attack. And I could use that moment to do any number of things, though some of them were beyond my current skill level.
I took a hold of the shield with telekinesis and altered its position a bit. This wasn’t strictly necessary, but as I can do it, I did. I moved the shield so that it would be more in the skeleton’s way if he attempted to strike back.
I struck his shield on the right side, pushing it with both the impact and telekinesis further to the left. Then I quickly recovered my sword, so I could strike at the now defenseless flank of the skeleton. Thrusting my sword, I pierced the ribs and reached for the core inside the skeleton, but as the skeleton had used the momentum I’d given him with my both my slash and telekinesis, the skeleton spun around, and I lost the grip on my sword, as it was caught in the skeleton’s rib cage. I instantly jumped back, because now that I had no weapon, I didn’t want to stay too close.
“... all of my swordsmen, and women, will give me flack for this…” I muttered in my failure.
I wasn’t worried. I knew I would win, and the reason for that was simple. I had tried to win, playing this 1 on 1 as if the skeleton could resist telekinesis, only using it for small corrections, like with the shield. But I know it can’t, as I already held it in place earlier.
So I just took a hold of the skeleton again. It struggled a bit, trying to move its arms and legs but it was stuck. I calmly walked to its side, pulled my sword out of its rib cage, raised it up and brought it down. The powerful slash split the skeleton's torso and ended its life.
“... I really will get so much flack for this…” I muttered again, as I picked up the bronze sword which had dropped as my reward. I couldn’t even get anything good. Not that I deserved something good for that show.
Well, I feel like I did alright, all the way until the end there.
“Welcome back, Brian. Are you hurt at all?” Lua asked, when I returned.
“My ego, but I’m fine.” I responded.
“What about your shoulder?” She asked.
“That much is nothing. That hit did all of 14 damage to me.”
“... alright. Well, if you say you are fine…” Lua didn’t argue any further. “Still, I got a bit worried when you lost your sword. How did you hold that skeleton in place like that? You did it at the start as well, didn’t you?”
“It was telekinesis, right?” Paulina asked.
“Yeap. Sure was.” I confirmed. “I really didn’t expect it to fully hold that skeleton in place, but it must have bad magic resistance, as I could hold it almost completely still.”
“What level is your telekinesis anyway?” She asked.
“Level 4.” I answered. “And level 7 mana control.” I added, as mana control matters a lot for telekinesis.
“... wow. I guess that is something I can look forward to.” Paulina muttered. She still lacked her skill for telekinesis, but honestly, I feel like she will get it soon. She just struggles a bit in coating the object part. Well then again, if Laura didn’t help me, I probably would as well.
The next one to try a challenge room, the same one I just cleared, was Alice.
Her opponents were five regular skeletons, with their metal poles. I really don’t know which one is worse for her, five regular skeletons, or the two regular, one knight that I faced. The knight’s shield might have caused an issue for her. … well, probably not, but still.
Alice quite quickly won the fight by darkening the room with Shade and then casting a few Dark Bullets, before finishing the skeletons with Dark Spears. And with the skeletons being lost in the darkness, they really couldn’t do anything.
“... I just got a dagger.” Alice complained a bit, as she brought an iron dagger with her out of the room. Well, at least it isn’t bronze or copper.
Next to try was Paulina. She quickly crushed the two normals, and one knight skeleton. Her spell that made stone spikes rise from the ground which skewered the skeletons. Then she used a targeted stone spear to strike the core of the skeleton knight, the only one to survive the initial hit. Her reward was a dagger like Alice got, but hers was bronze instead of iron.
Agatha also tried, and she destroyed her opponents quite quickly with her battle axe. The one interesting part were the streaks of blue light that her weapon left. They were from a skill she gained during her entire race change/arm regrowing operation. Agatha’s reward was a copper axe. It was a bit small, so I thought it would be useless, but she said that it is a throwing axe, not a battle axe. I didn’t even know the dungeon had throwing axes available as drops, so maybe Tahlia added it from one of my monsters, or the dungeon learned it itself from an adventurer.
Last to have a go at that challenge room was Cardo. He wasn’t the last because the rest of us didn’t want to try, but because the room ended up locking itself after the fifth challenger. Apparently due to some sort of dungeon safety mechanism, which locks the room if too much mana and miasma have been used by it. Oh, and his reward was a bronze shield.
“... maybe we should add a toll to it.” I offered Christina, as we were wondering how to avoid it in the future. “Something like 100 or 200 dungeon points.”
“Can we do that?” She asked.
“Yeah. I think so. I have a card called Toll, so I think we could use that. But we need to get to the core to do the install.”
“I see. Yes. Let us do that. I can deal with calculating what the entrance cost should be at each floor. That will also help with the weapon situation.” Christina agreed to my suggestion.
With that, we headed further into the dungeon. Each floor, Alice, Paulina and Agatha entered the challenge rooms. Lua even tried the floor three challenge room, and made it look like a joke. Her water spell one shot her opponent, a skeletal mammoth. I didn’t realize she was that strong, but I guess she is.
Alice tapped out after the fourth floor, because her mother got a bit … worried. She had been bitten in the leg by a skeletal custer wolf in the room, and she had come back bloodied and limping. Sure she was just fine after Lua healed her, but she was still forced to sit back after that.
But I think she had more than a chance to try the challenge rooms, even if her rewards were between useless and garbage.
