CH.216 Another round at the Challenge Rooms

CH.216 Another round at the Challenge Rooms

“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.

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“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.

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But my Threatening Roar and Sakuretsu Armor would activate, so I removed those two.

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(... 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.)e 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.”

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“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.