Chapter 3

The Tenth Room

The reward for the demon knights’ room was a shimmering golden card levitating off the floor and spinning around a diagonal axis. When I approached, the card changed. It’s sides glowed brightly for a split second before one side of the card showed a picture and the other side had writing on it. I grabbed the card and studied it in interest. To my shock, I was on the card. The picture showed me in all my glory, all of my dungeon gear I’ve collected was present and I thought I looked cool enough. I had a smirk and posed while pointing my Staff of Disintegration threateningly.

  I flipped it around and read the back where detailed information about me was written in droves. It described my height, weight, birth, age, race, physical abilities, equipment, and skills. The information I knew all matched with the card’s, and the card seems to know more about myself than I do. It has a quick summary about humans, it’s closing statement sums up that, in general, humans were the weakest of any race but had the potential to grow stronger than any race. It labeled things with a scale of incompotent, lacking, sufficient, proficient, excelling, and mastery. It also told me my level of talent with a skill or weapon. I frowned when I read all of my physical attributes were lacking. My frown deepened into a full fledged grimace when I checked out the skills section. Most things had that slot blank, but I was surprised to see that I had an incompotent talent level for swordsmanship.

  I always had the thought in the back of my head, but didn’t want to accept it because my parents were sword sages, more skilled with the sword than anyone in the last century. I’ve only ever trained with a sword to try and live up to their memory, but it doesn’t look like that was possible now. Still, I managed to train my swordsmanship to proficient despite my lack of talent.

  I moved past that depressing thought soon after I started reading the section about my equipment. What the fuck is this name? My lightning boots were called Zeus' Jays. Who was Zeus? Why are the boots named after a bird, because you can fly with the lightning? At least the other names weren’t as outlandish, my green monocle was called a Scouter and my cloak was called a Cloak of Protection.

  I didn’t even realize the card was scrollable until I reached the bottom and the scrolling stopped. The final sentence at the bottom said, “If information is suitable, crush Caracter Card.” I didn’t think it would hurt, so I crushed the card, wondering what I could do if the information wasn’t suitable. It shattered into hundreds of hyaline bright blue shards and disappeared. I looked around the room, trying to feel a difference but failing to find anything. In confusion, I tried willing the card to appear again, and it floated in my right hand with no fanfare. Just to be sure, I combed over the details on the back of the card and found the Character Card in the equipment section.

  Character Card- a magical card detailing the specifics of the user’s abilities and personal attributes. Can be used to read the abilities and personal attributes of other beings with success depending on alterity of strength.

  A well of giddiness built up inside my chest. Information was key in battle. If you knew the techniques and abilities of your opponent beforehand, you had a massive advantage. Not to mention, it also gives me vital information about races.

  Elated from the amazing drop, I walked into the next room with energy. My footsteps faltered when I realized this was the tenth room. I turned around and the door shut, as if on cue, in my face. I calmed my anxious heart and turned around to face the challenge. The room was the same bland blue box with white lines in a grid, only huge, probably larger than the entire Royal District. Standing in the middle of the huge room was an extremely handsome man dressed in demonic clothing. They had a square jaw with a good amount of stubble, combed short hair, and green eyes. They wore no armor, only a plain looking red shirt, black pants, and black boots that looked similar to Zeus’ Jays. I couldn’t help but wonder if those were also Jays. Were Jays a demonic shoe type?

  “Welcome to the tenth room! I am Narx, a boss of the dungeon. The dungeon wants me to inform you that I will have access to ten percent of my strength instead of the regular five percent because of your unique fate. I hope that you are prepared.” Narx’s voice was calm and quiet, but I could hear it loud and clear from nearly thirty meters. Narx suddenly spasmed and sprouted large, brown, and leathery dragon wings. The skin on his arms and hands turned to red scales, his nails grew into wicked looking metal claws, a red scaled tail with a flame on its tip grew behind him, and his eyes turned bloodshot.

  My heart tightened in fear and I hurried to make a card of him. I read it in a flash, but my heart sunk further into despair when everything except his race: half fire drake, name: Narx Brieryfang, and status: ninety percent strength sealed, was filled with a question mark. Unfortunately, the Character Card saw a large difference in our strengths. The question was, did the Character card quantify it based off of Narx’s full strength or was he still so much stronger than me with only ten percent?

  I wasn’t given breathing room to guess how fucked I was, Narx dashed toward me the second his transformation finished. He was using some sort of flight as he didn’t touch the ground, only grazed as he rushed me. I aimed my Staff of Disintegration and fired two shots, aiming for where my Scouter showed he would dodge. A cold sweat rolled down my spine when Narx suddenly increased his speed enough to dodge the second beam. He was able to move fast enough that I couldn't react before he dodged even with my Scouter. Before I could fire again, Narx reached my position and drew back his right hand, claws glinting in the unfounded light. I activated Zeus’ Jays to boost me as I jumped backwards and pushed off the wall, over Narx. As I passed over him, to cover my movement, I tried to fire my staff. A small ball of orange energy in a shell of red gathered at the tip of the gemstone, on the head of my staff. The second before the shot launched, Narx jumped up and chomped down on the gemstone, cleanly snapping it off the staff, rendering me utterly flabbergasted. I managed to shoot past him nonetheless and ended up in the middle of the room.

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  I sharpened my mind and forgot about how angry that made me, focusing on what I would use as a weapon after storing the useless stick of wood that my glorious Staff of Disintegration was reduced to. By the time Narx turned around, I realized that I could make a sword out of the electricity from Zeus’ Jays. A cookie cutter sword with a rectangle guard and double edged blade formed out of lightning, floating in my hand more than I held it. It wouldn’t do for blocking, Narx’s attacks would go right through it, however it could be used as a slightly effective attack and I could use it as a pseudo magic sword since I could control the lightning within a three meter radius around me. I thought about using the remains of my staff as the base of the blade, but I didn’t have enough to try anything before Narx was on me again.

  He slashed horizontally and I leaned backwards in response. If I didn’t have my Scouter, his attacks would be too fast for me to even see. I slashed my sword diagonally to the left and Narx dodged to my right, arching his left claw forward as he thrust it at me. I dropped and sweeped Narx off his feet, but he used his tail to keep him up, bouncing off it like a spring and going for a spinning slash at me. I rolled to my left and javelined my sword at him. Narx pushed off the ground in a jumping push up, my sword flew under him, and the fire on his tail stoked, thrusting himself at me and brandishing his claws for an attack. I lifted my left hand and used my Telekinetic glove to swat him to the floor, controlling my sword to circle back and run him through. Narx seemed to grow bloodlusted as his eyes turned full red and his growls grew ferocious. His claws racked the floor, making lined divots as he overpowered my glove and flipped on his back. I gaped in surprise when he opened his jaws wide and swallowed my sword. Narx levitated to his feet and drew his head back, the fat squishing together made his neck look like a frog’s. Faster than a crossbow bolt, Narx’s head shot forward and spewed my sword. The sword flashed centimeters past my tilted left shoulder, slapping my face and hair with a gust of wind. It was so fast that I couldn’t even clearly see the hologram in my Scouter, I merely noticed a blur of red and dodge on a whim.

  Sweat streaked past my temple and budded on my cheek bone. The bead of sweat flew off my face as Narx lunged at me and I jumped to my left. For a scant second, we both stood facing each other, catching out breaths before engaging again. I was growing tired and desperate; I made the rash decision to engage him in close combat, something I only knew in theory, never practiced.

  His left claw jabbed at me and I leaned left while pushing his arm with my right forearm. His right claw lowered, the light reflected in my eyes, blinding me, but I realized the threat and turned left. His claw ripped through air as he raised it, leaving him open. A dagger version of my sword formed in my hands as I thrust my hands towards his chest. But Narx had a third appendage. His constantly writhing tail turned erect in my direction and spit flames like a flame thrower. I abandoned my attack and jumped high. I realized that this was Narx’s tactic when his right hand reached to grab my ankle. I activated Zeus’ Jays and electricity showered from my boots, warding off his hand. Unfortunately, Narx smoothly changed his target, his hand threaded between my legs, intent on splitting me up the middle. My brain was never utilized as well as it was in this fight, keeping me alive on practically instinct alone. I activated Zeus’ left Jay and retracted my leg, spinning me almost horizontal, just enough for Narx’s claws to nick my left boot. My eyes burned with opportunity as I activated Zeus’ right Jay, spinning me about a diagonal axis and landing a force-filled kick on the side of his face. But I wasn’t done there. I spun until my back was to him before I activated both of Zeus’ Jays to push me back and form a lightning sword in my hands. I thrust the sword under my right arm with all of my strength and struck true. It wasn’t solid, so it didn’t pierce him, but it stunned him.

  I completely deactivated Zeus’ Jays and slammed Narx to the floor before reaching into his mouth with my right hand while forcing it open with my Telekinetic glove. I had no idea how I was going to kill him if my most lethal weapon, my lightning, was only enough to temporarily incapacitate him. I resorted to desperately clawing around in his throat. I gripped the only thing I was able, his uvula, with all of my strength and pulled. In response, Narx’s chest bubbled and fire rose from his throat. I continued my straining pull and activated my Spacial Ring, transporting the flames into a pocket dimension. With one last heave, I tore his uvula from his throat and fell back on Narx’s legs. Narx screamed in pain, clutching his mouth as much as he was able with twitching muscles. I took two chest bulging gasps before throwing his uvulia at his face and running at him again, restraining his arms under my knees. Narx was beyond feral at this point and chomped at me with all his effort, launching saliva every which way. I carefully avoided his bone breaking jaws and forced open one of his eyes, shoving my Spacial Ring toward it and releasing the fire. Narx struggled and roared like a dying animal, which he kinda was, trying to throw me like a bull, but I was holding on for dear life. The fire ran out before it killed him, leaving half of his face charred and deformed.

  I had a massive stroke of luck when the body of my staff flew out along with the ending sputters of fire. It was glowing in a bright red sheen and pulsed with power in my hand. With an air of bitter finality, I put it just before his face and willed it to activate. Pure azure flames burst out of the head in a concentrated jet of pure heat, screeching like a blow torch and lasting for nearly half a minute. I panted in horror as my heart punched pure adrenaline through my veins, taking in the smoking pile of ash sitting on Narx’s scarred neck, where his head used to be. I lost all strength in my body. my hands opened loosely, letting my staff clatter powerlessly to the floor. The back of my knees fell from a ninety degree angle to zero as I lost feeling in my legs. My back slouched and I used the last ounce of my strength to lean left and collapse on my back, next to Narx. My breaths were shaky and my body vibrated as I heaved air in in out of my lungs in a frenzy.

  “Holy shit,” I choked, “I did it! I! Fucking! Did it!” My voice resounded in the empty room, echoing back to me seconds later, dripping with elation and relief.