The announcer spun around and waved his arms dramatically in the direction of the dark corner of the ‘ring’ we were in where a light suddenly glowed and revealed something.

“Look here folks!”

A large dirt coloured creature about one and a half times my height sitting was in the middle of the room. It was riddled with all sorts of bumps and sores covered by and covering other warts and such on its leathery skin’s waves of sagging folds. While it did have… loose skin, it was still obviously strong. The thing looked like a toad and had eyes like Abs (which were the eyes of a toad). Attached to it’s impressive arms there were a pair of massive, heavy, bright red , boxing gloves that were currently placed firmly on the ground supporting some of the creatures weight.

After the man seemed satisfied with my looking at the monster he started speaking again, “In one corner of the room we have the great, pustulating, ooz-atious champion, Pineapple! He’s been undefeated for a millennia-” Abs interrupted him.

“Pffft! We allll, know that isn’t true. Remember, what was it…,” he stared off into space for a moment as the announcer flushed and his knuckles turned white from clutching what I thought was the ancient ‘micro-tone’ —a strange name for a thing used to amplify sound—, “two weeks ago? I said hello and Pineapple didn’t like it too much.” Abs made a clicking sound and pointed at the micro-tone man, “Y’know, you guys should invest in some big, fancy belts so I ca—”

“SILENCE!” The man shouted, gripping his hair. The announcer’s breath came in and out in large gusts and there was now a large vein that could be seen on his head. After some time passed with Abs’ laughter, he seemed to regain his composure and started fixing some of the loose strands of hair that were now decorating his head.

Some monsters remember things. I want details.

Letting out one final breath with he continued, “On the other side of the ring,” he smiled with his too white teeth and gestured to me while I frowned, “We have some rando nobody cares about. Do you want to know why we don’t care about him?” The announcer leaned in and craned his ear as if he was listening to an audience answer, “That’s right! He hasn’t won anything. So, who cares about him?”

I frowned more than usual.

What’s the point of the dungeon going through this big speech anyways?

[If weaker dungeons have something in them that is more powerful than it should be for it’s level it has to give some information to the users as a trade off.]

I guess that kind of makes sense.

The announcer smirked, “Since this is an oh, so special occasion seeing that we have a new, contestant,” he turned slightly to glare at Abs who cheerfully waved at him, “I’ll outline the rules for you. If you exit the ring, you will be immediately disqualified and punished.”

What kind of punishment can a dungeon give? it’s already trying to kill me.

“Additionally, until Pineapple discovers that you are his opponent, the arena will stay the same,” the man pulled out a comb and ran it through his hair as he whispered to me, “In case you couldn’t figure out, you’re pathetic if he doesn’t understand your his contestant.” he spoke at his usual loud volume again, “To increase your odds of not being an absolute moron, you are allowed to use boxing gloves stuffed with sand like Pineapple or attach spikes to—oh, what’s this?” He slapped his hands together on his cheeks, “You don’t have any gloves? Well, that’s too bad. Anyways!”, He quickly stepped behind me and tried to remove my bag, which I firmly held onto.

“What are you doing?” I said apprehensively.

“I can’t let you keep that…” he said in a low voice, “unless you wish to face consequences for breaking the rules?” he then asked hopefully. I paused as I listened to him.

He kept mentioning ‘consequences’ and such, but what was there to enforce? I was already entering a fight. Maybe it was the trap of the dungeon? There was no way to be sure.

That is, unless Abs decides to actually give us information.

“Which rules?” I was still skeptical.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I don’t want him to remove my backpack if he doesn’t have to, whatever the monsters want, I don’t want.

“Oh that’s simple really! In appendix 2103.12678-9 in section 83, line 4, it states,” he raised a finger, licked it, flipped a page in the book that he was now holding and pushed the up glasses that had appeared on his face, “Emmm… let’s see, yes! Here it is, ‘all participants of The Ring must use their own body, whatever is sitting in the arena that is doesn’t belong to them, and weapons attached directly to the hands exclusively during the entirety of the fight. These weapons must loop around the fingers, hands, or wrist in at least one full rotation.’” He lowered his glasses and snapped the book shut, “In other words, some sort of boxing glove, hand wraps, or knuckle dusters would do the trick.”, as he spoke, he lifted his chin slipped the pack off of my shoulders and threw it outside of the ring where Drifa ran over to catch it.

Okay, so swords aren’t an option. That’s unfortunate.

I thought about the best way to move forward the announcer continued his speech after clearing his throat.

“Right, where was I?” the announcer didn’t tap his chin long before continuing, “The fight will start in one,” He took a few steps back while flipping another finger up, “two,” He stepped outside of the ring, “threefight!” and then ran away and up some stairs with the shoulder pads in his coat swinging back-and forth valiantly.

A character… for sure.

Re-centring myself, I turned back towards my opponent.

How do I go about this.

I stared at Pineapple and waited for him to do something.

Usually monsters are more aggressive, like the rabbits in the other dungeon.

It just stared back at me.

Is it preparing a skill to attack with?

It turned it’s glassy eyes, towards Abs who was watching in the distance. He seemed to be chuckling.

It’s blind?

It slowly blinked and looked back at me.

“I don’t know anymore,” I sighed under my breath.

May as well do some testing. The announcer said that it needs to figure out that I’m it’s opponent.

I walked around the edges of the creature. No reaction. I slowly moved my hand towards its eye. Nothing. I tried to tap it, but before my finger made contact its head scrunched into it’s body so I didn’t touch it.

I took a few steps back.

It has to have figured out it’s supposed to attack me, right? I mean, it’s acknowledging my presence and reacted to it as well. I’m also the only one in ‘The Ring’.

I watched it for several more seconds.

This is stupid.

I walked closer to it again.

If I can find a way to cut it, that’s be great. I could probably bite it…

I looked at the bumps covering its skin. When Pineapple moved to quick they exploded and or started slowly oozing something.

It’ll probably poison me or something if I do that. But I’d like to use my [Unerring Accuracy] skill. That would make the fight quicker.

I wonder if it’s also acidic? I don’t like the idea of punching something that’s going to eat away at my skin. Then again, I do have the [Iron Fists] trait, so I can’t hurt myself from punching things. I don’t know if the thing itself would have it’s damage muted though…

I looked over to Abs. He just yelled, “Attack!”

Screeeeetch!

The micro-tone was on again.

“Sorry that took a bit folks, but I’m back in my booth, as usual. If you want to find me, just look for the most handsome person in the room. Or, alternatively, look for the big piece of glass poking out of the wall.” the announcer said.

I didn’t care much to find him.

“Ahem, anyways, looks like the loser has done nothing and Pineapple is sitting there, probably looking for the exit.”

I don’t really have anything else to do with myself, so I may as well attack it.

“Hey, guys! Look, it looks like the new guy is going to actually do something aggressive!”

Ignoring him, I stopped right in front of the monster.

I can hit it almost anywhere right now, I should be smart about it.

“Nevermind! He’s still dancing around The Ring.”

He’s getting on my nerves.

Ignoring him, I went to the side of Pineapple and kicked him as close as I could to his flank. It hit this time.

Pineapple’s head turned in my, direction, blinked then stood up so he was towering over me.

“It seems the contestant was able to help Pineapple find his target after what… 5 minuets”, he started laughing on the micro-tone.

Let’s see what this thing does.

Before I could get out another thought, it’s arm whipped in my direction and it’s glove slammed home on my scull making some stars dance in my vision.

"Uhg."

“Ismund!” Drifa yelled from the stands.

I grabbed the throbbing side of my head and looked up at Pineapple. He was jumping back and forth and hitting his gloves together like he was warming up or goading me. I wasn’t sure what, his face was still neutral.

"OooOoo, right where it hurts!” the announcer called out.

I’ll be fine.

Pushing my self up, I re-assessed my situation. It was obviously in the toads’ favor, he had an advantage over me in almost every way. At least physically. I was smarter than it.

I took a step forward. Pineapple took a quick jab at my head. I blocked it with my forearms but I was still flung back into the stretchy chords around the ring anyway. I would probably have a nasty bruise.

This time I didn’t take initiative and just waited to see what it would do. I didn’t have to wait long, it took a step forward, breaking a few of the shiny white half domes covering it’s body, and tried to take a jab me again, same side. I could see it coming ahead of time and ducked.

However, whatever it was that was filling the the toad’s skin landed on me and it burned.

It has to be acid.

I side stepped further away from the chords behind me to get some room.