Dragon's Road
Chapter 12
Thy Greatest Enemy
Dungeon: You are the first Player to discover Mirror Castle
Double experience and 2x normal item drop rate for one week.
The first monster killed will drop the best quality item it can drop.
Fame increased by 150 (+150 FAME)
Ryuu expected the castle to be filled with people, but instead he got a dungeon. It was the first time he received the message stating he was the first discoverer, but he had no idea what kind of monsters would be in the castle.
Ryuu half extended Ishibo and picked a room to look. The room was grand but empty, save a single full length mirror. Ryuu took a look at it and his reflection. But when he moved to leave, the reflection stayed put.
Ryuu looked back to it, and was more than a little surprised to see his reflection walk out of the mirror. As it passed through the glass, it darkened, revealing a dark skin, grey gi, wearing monk.
The mirror monk took out a short staff and the staff suddenly got longer.
“Ishibo too?”
Ryuu lengthened his own staff just as his reflection attacked. The strikes were simple but strong, with each block Ryuu felt the impact all the way to his toes. The copy had his strength stats. Ryuu tried attacking only to face his own blocking techniques, the ones he has just used.
“So that’s how you wanna play it?” Ryuu smiled, just because his technique could be copied, doesn’t mean his skill could be copied.
Ryuu put his weight on his staff and it lengthened, pushing him into the air. He moved to strike his reflection’s head with his staff and the copy moved to block, but at the last moment the staff shrunk to get beneath the guard then lengthened to attack the copy’s head beneath the blocking staff.
Although the power was halved by doing so, the attack went through and the copy collapsed. Ryuu continued to attack, his disarm skill didn’t work because the copy’s stats mirrored his own, but even if the copy could use all his skills, it couldn’t beat Ryuu with just that.
After twenty minutes of fighting the copy eventually shattered like broken glass.
You have leveled up!
Ryuu was surprised by the experience, he had been at about 80% towards his next level and now it was at 12%. Double experience was one thing, but this was something else. The only explanation was that he got the experience he would’ve gotten for defeating himself. Players yield far greater experience points when slain compared to monsters or mobs of the same level. This was one reason Player Killers were often very high leveled. If not only the strength and agility but all the stats of his mirror self were the same, that would also explain why it took so long to beat. His health was unreasonably high.
Ryuu looked in front of the mirror again but the reflection was normal,so he searched another room and found another mirror. Again, after looking at it the reflection came to life and attacked him. Ryuu used Aura to strengthen his attacks, and the copy used Aura to defend. Not only was the copy able to use skills Ryuu used, it also was able to mimic skills Ryuu had used against the previous mirror copy. Meaning each copy would be harder to defeat than the last.
“Might as well go all the way.”
Ryuu activated Aurora:Red, the only color he could use of the skill that changed the properties of his Aura to include elemental damage.
The copy’s aura turned red as well.
Ryuu found the fight much like playing Rock-Paper-Scissors against yourself. You tied most of time, won if you thought one step ahead, but if you thought two steps ahead then you overshot the mark and lost.
There were in fact such compatibilities like in Rock-Paper-Scissor in many martial styles. For example, though many practitioners debate such things, it is widely believed that Grappling loses to Kickboxing, Kickboxing loses to Jiu-Jitsu, and Jiu-Jitsu loses to Grappling.
Each style of course has countermeasures against such weaknesses, but the opposing styles also include countermeasures to their countermeasures, and so on.
With each attack the mirror monk was getting closer to Ryuu’s level, but it would never reach it. Even if after each contest the distance between the mirror’s skill and Ryuu’s skill halved, it would never equal or surpass Ryuu.
That being said, it wasn’t easy. Although the Mirror’s martial skills were inferior to Ryuu’s, its ability to use them with Mirror Ishibo and Aura was climbing faster than Ryuu’s own. The game didn’t know the best way to use Ryuu’s techniques but it did know the best way to combine the use of Ryuu’s acquired game skills.
At first the mirror monk didn’t use Ishibo for more than lengthened strikes or jumping into the air, but then it started using it for feints, then flurry attacks, then precision lengthened strikes.
Ryuu had practiced with every type of staff in the worlds but there were no lengthening staffs in the real world. After a while the mirror’s ability to use Ishibo became superior to Ryuu’s own. It used the staff in ways Ryuu had never thought of. The mirror monk didn’t just copy Ryuu’s moves, it combined them in the best way with Ryuu’s game acquired skills to do things Ryuu had never even done before.
Even the mirror’s use of Aurora Aura was better than Ryuu’s. It never used it for full body aura, instead it conserved its Ki and used it only for strikes and blocks. The speed at which it moved the Ki around was faster than Ryuu thought was possible.
Ryuu decided at this point he was going to lose unless he thought outside the box. He could take off his gravity rings but there was a chance that the mirror monk would do so as well, which may end worse than the current situation. He decided he would just have to deliver attack strong enough to cripple the mirror monk, thus making the rest of the fight easier.
Ryuu used Ishibo again to lift himself high into the air, then he turned the staff around, placed against the ceiling, and had it extend once more, accelerating his fall. The mirror monk moved to dodge, but Ryuu adjusted Ishibo against the ceiling to extend, changing his direction mid fall.
Ryuu delivered an accelerated, gravity strengthened axe kick that dropped the mirror to the ground.
Critical Hit!
You have taken 577 damage from Recoil!
Ryuu felt a sharp ache in his foot, gravity powered axe kicks often gave recoil damage, but what he felt was nothing compared to the Mirror monk.
The copy was down but not dead. Its aura had shut off, likely due to a concussion status effect. Ryuu attacked with Ki strikes until the monk shattered. Ryuu’s experience bar went from 12% to 40%. Ryuu was tempted to find another mirror to make the most out of this week of double experience, but decided there was something more important for him to do.
Ryuu left the castle and returned to the lake. He coated Ishibo in dirt and stuck the pole in the lake water. The staff was a weapon but it was also a living tree. It could repair itself with soil and water.
When the staff was back to full durability, Ryuu started practicing with it. His confidence in his own capabilities using the staff and his skills had been shattered by the mirror monk. His entire existence in the game was to prove his style was the best, but if it wasn’t within the game, then he lost his purpose.
Ryuu practiced for forty hours straight, stopping only twice to log out for food and a bathroom break. He switched his mindset to that of a student and used the memory of the mirror monk as a teacher. He didn’t just practice the combinations that the Mirror monk used, he used his own variations, strengthened by his game skills to recreate his fighting style that best used his martial arts.
When he was satisfied he would no longer embarrass himself he returned to the castle to find another room with a mirror.
The mirror monk didn’t waste any time. Before Ryuu had even lengthened Ishibo, the mirror monk had activated its Red Aura. In order to not take extra fire damage Ryuu would have to have Red Aura on as well at least partially for the entire fight.
The copy used Ishibo to pole vault to Ryuu for a Red aura strengthened jump kick. Ryuu already knew that the copy’s weight was as great as his own so blocking it would be foolish, so Ryuu extended the tip of ishibo to the tip of the copy’s ankle, then as the copy’s kick got closer, Ryuu’s Ishibo shortened to remain at the same point on the copy’s foot, as Ryuu used Ishibo to divert the power of the attack to the side, tipping the mirror monk in mid air. Ryuu stepped forward to deal his strongest punch to the head of the flying opponent, the force of the blow so great the copy started spinning in mid air. The entire exchange took place in less than a second. The copy fell to the floor in a heap.
Ryuu’s practice mostly revolved around the precise use of Ishibo. Instead of one speed to extend or retract, precise control of the speed. Ryuu practiced this by having Ishibo touch to tip of a leaf as it was falling to the ground, extending and contracting at the same speed the leaf fell left and right along the wind. This would be difficult enough, but the fact that Ishibo weighed hundreds of kilograms, the weight of a small tree, didn’t help. After so many hours of practice, Ishibo’s ability to extend and retract was as smooth and controlled as Ryuu’s own arms. It had become an extension of his body.
Ryuu dealt the fallen copy a flurry of stabs with the staff. It extended and contracted with each strike, increasing the speed and damage of each attack like a jack hammer striking cement. Striking while changing size greatly decreased Ishibo’s durability so it could not be done for an extended period. Ryuu would have to repair the staff often to use it so.
Ryuu found another room with a mirror, but this one was a bit different, like a funhouse mirror. The reflection was a head taller than Ryuu, though not much skinnier. It stepped out of the mirror and started up a red aura. However it did not draw Ishibo.
This concerned Ryuu more than the others had. Ryuu’s Unarmed Combat skill was far above his Pole arm skill, using his fists dealt more damage than Ishibo did, (for now). If the mirror copy not only had Ryuu’s stats but skills, then this one would be tougher.
The copy leaped forward to deal a Red Aura Strike, Ryuu used Ishibo to accelerate his own dodging ability, striking the ground and having the staff extend to push himself forward. The first attack made Ryuu understand that he was wrong about this copy, it didn’t have the same stats as Ryuu. It was stronger. It was proportionally stronger for the increase in size it had. It was in fact a little faster than Ryuu was.
Ryuu fought back with his fists, using the extending staff to maneuver around the large copy. The movement wasn’t as precise as he would have been with increased stats, but due to his practice he was able to use it to overcome the difference and slowly wear down his copy.
Besides a larger body and higher stats, the copy definitely had a higher health bar than Ryuu. It took two hours of constant fighting to defeat the copy.
You have learned a new skill: Fire Affinity
“What?” Ryuu recognized the skill. When he first learned of magic, he was told that mages who chose the path of the fire mage when converting received the skill, along with the skill Magic mastery. “Show skill Fire Affinity.”
Fire Affinity [1] 0%
The ability to use and withstand fire.
Fire elemental damage increased by 5%
Chance of burning while attacking with fire increased by 2%
Fire resistance increased by 3%
Ryuu considered what was going on. He wasn’t a mage using fire spells, but his Red Aura did have a fire property. Due to the copies continually using Red Aura, Ryuu had to continuously use Red Aura to defend. Even though it wasn’t a magic spell, the act of continually using a fire based skill eventually granted the skill to better use fire. That was simply how the game worked.
Ryuu considered the possibilities. Using Red Aura would increase the Fire affinity skill, which in turn would increased the both the fire damage and Ryuu’s fire resistance. Magic resistance is not something most combat classes can train or generate. And though it wasn’t so much magic resistance as it was fire resistance, it was still something. He could, if he devoted enough time, gain an outstandingly high passive fire resistance due to the skill. Combined with Red Aura which would grant additional fire resistance, and he could go head to head with powerful fire magic unscathed.
More than that, if Ryuu gained more colors, he could gain the affinity skills for other elements. It would take months, if not years of training, but it was possibly if he acquired every element’s color, he could become almost fully immune to elemental magic.
Of course not every magic fell into an elemental category. So it wasn’t a perfect idea, but it was something to work towards when he had the time.
Ryuu sighed. It didn’t really matter at the moment. Other than fire, he still had no idea how to acquire the other colors, so he would have to put a small hold on those plans. Still, it was something to look forward to.
Ryuu noticed a small difference from that point on when he used Aurora:Red. The aura that once flowed around him like his colorless aura usually did flowed more like fire. As the fire affinity skill increased, so would the shape and flow of the aura.
After two months of real world time training in the castle, Ryuu saw something he did not expect.
The doors to the castle opened and a group of six users came in.
One user looked over at Ryuu and said, “Ahh, man. We weren’t the first discoverers!”
The others looked equally disappointed.
Two of the users, knights in expensive, fancy looking armor walked up to Ryuu. One said, “Monk, you should leave, this dungeon is now the property of the Dynamo Guild.”
Ryuu wasn’t entirely sure how to handle this. He didn’t know enough about equipment to be able to tell the users levels, or anything really. His own equipment had long since shattered except for his staff. He walked around with only beginner clothes. (Beginner clothes lost defense when durability dropped, but never completely broke, it was better than walking around shirtless and pant-less)
Ryuu said, “This place is pretty tough, I doubt you boys could handle it.”
The oldest member of the group didn’t looked older than twenty-three. Most of Ryuu’s students at the temple were older than that.
The leader of the party said, “I’m level 256. I can take whatever this dungeon throws. What are the mobs here? Ghost Knights? Living Armor?”
Ryuu smiled and pointed to a room at the far left side. “If you want to see the strength of this dungeon, try out that room.”
The leader glared at Ryuu and said, “And fall into some sort of trap or ambush?!”
Ryuu smiled and started walking towards the room. The men followed.
Since staying at the dungeon, Ryuu had discovered a few things. If the mirror the copies came from was destroyed, the copies would shatter, but no experience was received. The mirror would fix itself after a week or two. If the copy was destroyed and the mirror was left alone, the mirror would be able to produce another copy in two hours, though it was different for specialized mirrors like the ones that made larger copies. The one that made a copy a head taller than Ryuu took two days before it would produce another. Some mirrors were different colors, and the reflected foes that came out shared the color. Those copies shared the original’s stats and skills, but one stat would be much higher. Like Blue mirrors made blue copies that matched Ryuu’s stats and skills, but had higher agility. Red mirror copies had higher strength. The most interesting thing that Ryuu found out, was that if one tried to leave a room before defeating the mirror copy, the door slammed shut on its own. This took Ryuu several weeks to discover, and he only did so by accident. He was not the type to run from a fight.
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Ryuu entered the room. He had only done so once before and barely made it out with his life. This room had three mirrors, a blue one, a red one, and a yellow one. The men didn’t go past the door frame, but Ryuu continued. He stood in front of the mirrors for a second,and walked away.
The leader of the party said, “What is this?”
Ryuu said, “Look for yourself.”
The man entered the room. “What the?”
Ryuu’s copies suddenly left their respective mirrors.
The knight said, “Backup?”
Ryuu shook his head, “Nope, this dungeon’s mobs are those copies. They will now try to kill us all.” Ryuu smiled.
The knight sneered and charged forward, the other five did likewise. This was something Ryuu was curious about, how well would his style do against higher level users with expensive equipment.
It didn’t take long for the results to be evident. All three used Red Aura and were coated in a flaming light. The blue one took out Ishibo and started attacking the two that appeared to be mages in the back of the group. The knights attacked the red one and the two swordsman fought the yellow one.
Ryuu wasn’t entirely sure what stat the yellow one had more of. It might have been stamina but the fight didn’t last long enough for Ryuu to see if the yellow copy had more stamina than he did.
The knights were doing well. They used skills that increased their fighting ability to above the copy’s. It tried to disarm one of them, but their strength was even higher than its own. This didn’t surprise Ryuu. Up until he reached level 104, which wasn’t that long ago, he invested every stat point into Vitality. The stat had reached 300, meaning when he got back to a monk guild, he could learn the skill Monk’s Body, but this meant that his other stats like agility and strength, were lower than they would have been. Ryuu had only recently started increasing his strength and agility stats when leveling up.
However, just because the knights were stronger, did not mean they were winning. The copy used the techniques in Ryuu’s Battle forms skill to divert and block most of the pair’s attacks while fighting back in good form. At the moment the two on one was a standstill, but the copy’s health and stamina were both monstrously high (thanks to Ryuu’s 300 Vitality stat.) The copy had the edge in the long, drawn out battle.
The two swordsmen were doing far worse. They were a fair hand at the blade but their moves were too predictable, and the blue copy’s speed too much for them. The yellow one was chasing one of the mages while the other cast lightning spells at it. Ryuu noticed that the yellow copy was using regular aura instead of aurora aura. This was because although Red Aura had more resistance than regular aura to fire damage, it had less resistance to other elements than regular aura.
The battle was fun to watch. Although the knights were less skilled, they did greater damage with their expensive swords and high level skills. Even with the copy’s high health, it would fall to them before killing them. After that they would help the others with the remaining copies. The outcome of the fight was obvious, until..
The leader of the party was pushed back by the red copy, and back up to the mirrors in the room. Ryuu silently watched as the reflection of the man acted independently of the fight. A moment later, three knights stepped out of the mirrors.
“Oh crap.”
The red and yellow knight moved to attack the pair that were taking on the red monk. Suddenly it went from two on one to two on three. The red knight overpowered the original and with the opening, the blue knight came in from behind and pierced him through in a backstab skill of some sort. The man died instantly.
“Run!”
Ryuu was about to say something, but it was too late. One of the mages ran to the door only to have it close tight on them. The blue knight ran over to Ryuu and swung his sword.
Ryuu dodged at first, but the sword glowed for a moment and changed directions mid-swing. Something impossible for anything but a rapier in the real world. The sword skill cut through Ryuu’s side.
You have been dealt 4322 damage.
Ryuu figured everyone was dead. The only option was to die willingly or break the mirrors. He could defeat his copies given time, but the knight’s copies have skills he was not familiar with, and was a hundred levels higher than himself. He could not beat his copies and the knight’s copies.
Ryuu ran to the mirrors to break them, but his blue copy and the knight’s yellow copy blocked the way. One of the mages had been killed.
Ryuu tried to use Ishibo to pole vault over the pair, but the blue copy used Ishibo to stop him.
Ryuu figured he wouldn’t be able to make it, so he called out, “Break the mirrors!”
One of the swordsmen ran to the mirrors and was able to stab it with his sword. The red copies shattered, but a yellow knight cut off the swordsman’s head from behind.
The other mage who was no longer being chased by the red monk cast Lightning Bolt at one of the mirrors, but it reflected off and struck a wall in the room.
“Crap.”
There was now mirror monks, two mirror knights, one real knight, one swordsman, one mage, and Ryuu. With the exception of the mage, everyone had their hands full fighting a copy.
Ryuu shouted at the mage, “Get up there and smash the mirrors!”
The mage ran up to the mirrors. The knight that Ryuu was fighting tried to block his way, but Ryuu struck him to keep his attention.
The mage struck the mirror with his wooden stave. It shook but didn’t break. He whacked it again and again. EVentually it broke, then with another smash, it shattered. The yellow copies collapsed.
The swordsman who had been fighting a yellow monk ran to the remaining mirror and smashed it.
The doors opened, and the remaining party members collapsed in exhaustion. Ryuu left the room to go back to the lake to repair Ishibo. On his way back he saw the surviving trio walk past him, they didn’t say a word.
Ryuu didn’t see them again after that, nor anyone else for the rest of the time he spent there.
After five real world months of training, Ryuu decided it was time to leave. He needed to go to a monk’s guild and get the Monk’s body skill, among other things.
Before leaving though, there was one room he wanted to try. It was the boss room of the dungeon, a single enormous room with a mirror twice his own height..
Ryuu approached the mirror, his reflection came into focus. It looked at him for a moment before smiling and stepping out of the mirror.
The giant form then did something Ryuu had not expected. Instead of directly attacking him, it took out Isibo, and took a stance. Ryuu recognized the stance, it was one he used before a fight. Ryuu realized what the copy was doing. It was challenging him to a fair battle.
Ryuu stood opposite to him and took his stance. After three seconds, the giant swung Isibo. Ryuu jumped to avoid it, but the power and speed of the swing was so great, that the wind that moved along the length of the staff as it swung threw Ryuu to the side. Without a moment’s pause the giant moved into another attack.
After several exchanges Ryuu came to an unusual conclusion. The giant was having a difficult time.
The precise mastery of using Isibo’s lengthening to push against the ground for quick movements was something the copies never imitated. The precision of even a simple maneuver using Ishibo was like playing darts while skydiving. Using several maneuvers in quick succession was beyond the copies’ ability to replicate. It wasn’t that the computer couldn’t replicate. It was that using such a skill required more processes than were allocated to the copies’s A.I.s. Their copying ability wasn’t infinite afterall.
The reason that the giant was having a problem with Ryuu, despite the giant’s stats being twice that of Ryuu’s was because all of Ryuu’s skills were not much use when fighting someone one half your size.
Had Ryuu been a regular player with an assortment of skills, the giant copy would be able to use the skills with double the power and defeat almost anyone. But Ryuu’s only offensive skills were Ki strike and Combat Forms, and the forms didn’t take into account a battle between someone half your size. Ryuu knew how to exploit this vulnerability of the giant and fought conservatively. The giant’s moves were faster even than Ryuu’s despite the large body, but the size had a major weakness Ryuu had not been expecting to find. Because it was larger, every move was easier to see. This allowed Ryuu to predict the giant’s move in advance, and move accordingly. Were it not for this, even Ishibo’s assistance would not have been enough to defeat the giant.
After five hours, Ryuu dealt the final blow and the giant copy fell.
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
Then something happened that did not occur before with any other fights. The giant mirror shattered. Not just cracked, but fell to pieces, and behind it, was a hidden hallway.
Ryuu smiled, ”Be a shame to turn back now.”
Ryuu followed the hallway to a small room with a treasure chest. At this Ryuu burst out laughing. He had been so focused on training he had not even considered the possibility that there was a treasure chest beyond the bosses room.
Ryuu lifted the lid, thankful it wasn’t locked. Inside was a single book with a golden cover.
Ryuu had no idea what the book was since he didn’t have the identify skill. He would have to go to an Item Identification shop to find out. But regardless of what it was, he was satisfied. He gained much in the castle. It was a perfect training grounds for him. Others likely wouldn’t think so since the mirror copies dropped nothing so training there bore no profit, but for a self sufficient man it was ideal for level and skill training.
Ryuu opened his stat and skill window to see how much he had grown.
Status WindowExit AvatarRyuuAlignmentNeutralTitleUnderdog ChampionLevel184ClassAurora MonkFame1290InfamyNoneHealth16270Ki3760Strength382+20Agility381+20Wisdom20+20Intellect20+20Leadership11+20Luck69+20Vitality300+20Endurance95+20Affinity to Nature77+20Fighting Spirit278+20Perseverance166+20Attack868Defense96Magic Resistances-Gravity24%All stats +20
Increases Defense power of the skill Aura
Aura based skills can be used at Half Ki cost
+50% Attack when fighting unarmed
Enables you to equip specialized items for your class
Enables you to learn all Ki skills to the stage of Master
Skill Window Ki Circulation Intermediate [6] 12%
Move ki throughout the body to increase health.
Health and stamina regeneration increased by 160% during circulation
+10% STR, AGI, and VIT for 1 hour after performing Ki Circulation.
Requires KiKi Strike Intermediate [7] 82%
Moves ki to the extremities and bursting it at the moment of impact.
Attacking with Ki increases attack and adds non-physical Damage.
Cost: 20 KiNatural Ki absorption Intermediate [4] 4%
A skill that takes ki produced by the natural world into the body.
The strength of the ki taken in is determined by Affinity to Nature.
Ki regeneration increased by 140%Unarmed Combat Mastery Intermediate [8] 33%
Increases attack and attack speed when fighting without weapons.
+310% ATK, +106% ATK SPD When fighting unarmed.Disarm [8] 78%
Removes your opponent's weapon and forces them to fight you bare-handed.
Chance to disarm
(24+ (Your STR -Opponent's STR)/10)%Aura Intermediate [7] 44%
Move Ki over the body to increase resistance against non physical damage.
Areas covered in Aura deal greater damage when using Ki Strike at increased Ki cost.
Ki cost: 12 per minute for small area
38 per minute for whole bodyAurora [8] 51%
Use emotion to change the color of your aura to change non physical damage to elemental damage and non physical damage resistance to elemental resistance.
Available Colors:
RedBattle Forms Advanced [4] 20%
Increased damage and attack speed when using moves registered in Battle forms
+90% Attack, +90% Attack SpeedPole Arm Mastery Intermediate [2] 11%
Increased attack and attack speed when fighting with a pole arm.
+160% Attack, +68% Attack speedFire Affinity [7] 81%
The ability to use and withstand fire.
Fire elemental damage increased by 35%
Chance of burning while attacking with fire increased by 14%
Fire resistance increased by 21%
Some of his skills like battle forms increased rapidly but didn’t give much even at higher levels. Other skills like fire affinity and and unarmed combat mastery almost stubbornly refused to increase a single percent an hour, no matter how hard he tried, but the effects gained from increasing the skills were very high.
Ryuu left the castle and walked to the shore of the lake. It was daytime outside, but so was it when the party left a few months prior.
Ryuu jumped into the water for a bit and came back out. To his relief, he wasn’t in front of the shore of Mirror castle. That being said, neither was he in mirror lake. The scenery around him was completely foreign. The body of water was smaller, a tiny lake with few trees around it.
Ryuu sighed, sometimes things are just never simple.