The armour looked much the same as every other, wielding the pike Frank had seen multiples times.

Frank moved towards it without hesitation. The armour took a defensive stance, and carefully tracked Frank when he went at an angle. It wasn’t fast, but it was mobile enough that Frank had difficulty approaching.

Outside the range of it’s pike, Frank couldn’t move around the armour fast enough to get around its guard. He couldn’t easily get close because of how long the pike was. This left him with only one option. He’d have to take the pike on directly.

It wasn’t the kind of exchange Frank wanted. If he came out ahead, he’d simply have put himself in a situation where each side was even, whereas if he messed up he could die. He didn’t have the option retreat though, based on the situation.

He stepped in, shield out front, and prepared to take the first attack. The armour quickly thrust forward, and Frank moved his shield into place to recieve the attack. At the last moment, the pike twisted slightly, and instead of being knocked aside it skittered against the shield and slipped towards Frank’s torso. Frank reacted the moment the pike’s blade started turning, and safely avoided it with a pivot.

It was an advanced technique, to be able to use the angle of your opponents shield like that. Fortunately the armour was slow. Frank was able to move appropriately and deal with it. He pursed his lips in irritation at it though.

Frank kept trying to approach. This time, he was anticipating the trick the armour had used, and when it tried to change it’s angle Frank simply shifted his shield abruptly, knocking the blow aside cleanly. The moment this happened, the armour took a careful step back, defensively swinging the halberd low at knee height to try and force Frank back. Frank had no choice but to let it maintain distance

Slow enough it didn’t pose a threat, but skillful enough to avoid letting him get close. It quickly became a stalemate. It was smart enough to stay towards the center of the room. Frank changed tactics.

A step forward was met with a thrust, as per normal. Frank took it on his shield, carefully preventing it from slipping towards his body. Instead of attempting to close the distance though, Frank attacked the haft of the pike itself.

The sound of metal clashing echoed out. The armour took the blow to its weapon deliberately, choosing to attack again off of it. The force of Frank’s slash pushed the pike down, but the armour simply allowed its weapon to fall, choosing to strike low for Frank’s front foot.

Frank hopped back, confident that his opponent could not move quick enough to take advantage of such a committed movement. By the time the armour pushed in, Frank had already reset his defensive position. He glanced at the spot he’d struck. It was scratched, but it’d take a lot of blows to defeat.

Frank stepped back in, repeating the exchange. After the second time the armour adapted. It started varying the position of it’s pike to avoid allowing Frank to hit the same spot. At the rate things were going, Frank would be betting his stamina versus the structural strength of the pike.

Not exactly odds he wished to test. He’d made a small gouge over ten engagements, but it could take a long time to actually seriously damage the pike. He considered what he could do while carefully circling his opponent, not allowing it to move him towards a wall.

He considered the behaviour it had exhibited so far. Everything it did was skillful, straightforward, and orthodox. If Frank was a spear expert he could predict what it would do and probably break through that way, but he wasn’t. The only way he was getting through its guard was if he called the next move.

He needed to bait it into doing something predictable. That was dangerous. Any opening he left to make the armour attack would have to be a real opening. It attacked slowly, that was true. Frank was confident he could dodge an attack. Confidence was not surety though. Even athletes trip on the edge of the sidewalk on occasion.

There didn’t seem to be another viable option besides attrition or bait. Both were risky in a way that Frank would rather avoid. He decided to see how the attrition tactic worked out in the short term. He could delay the decision for a bit, until he knew he was getting close to the end of his endurance.

Several dozen exchanges ensued. Frank’s arm was starting to feel the effect of holding his shield out for as long as it did, and taking as many blows as it did. He knew he only had a couple more tries before his decision would be made for him.

He engaged once more, and like clockwork the pike shot out, impacting his shield. Frank slashed out. There were two decent sized gouges he’d made at this point, and his sword impacted the larger, taking a little bit more out. as the damage got bigger, it became easier to hit the same spot.

He retreated out of the way, and then repeated. The crunch of bending metal was heard as the pike hit his shield and crumpled, the haft losing its strength and folding. With its weapon largely disabled, the armour was unable to mount a serious fight.

Frank stepped in, and finally able to attack it directly, systematically crippled it before knocking it over and removing its head.

Decrepit Iron Armour Animated by a Forgery of the Flame of Knowledge (Level 3) defeated. 395 EXP awarded.

The doors opened simultaneously with the armour’s death. Frank looked for loot, and seeing none, immediately turned back and jogged into the entrance room.

Bill was busying himself with spear practice, while Rina rested against a wall. Maria was sleeping. Bill stopped at Frank’s presence.

“Back already? Are you that fast without us?” he asked.

“No. Ran into a roadblock. Dealing with it took too much stamina. I need to rest.” Frank responded.

He walked over to his stuff, which hadn’t been touched, and set up his sleeping bag as a cushion. He sat down on it, and started thinking over the situation.

The second enemy on the second floor had been an existential threat. The ending had been anticlimactic, but he’d been a minute or two away from risking his life in a real sense. This dungeon was not normal. It was more difficult than he had expected.

If he raised his knowledge enough, the system might tell him something was going on. But that’d be a long while to get there. Frank frowned. He didn’t want to risk himself. Not in this way. That fight was a 95% odds of him winning, but take enough nineteen out of twenty bets and you are toast at some point. It was just statistics that one of those situations would catch up with him eventually. He’d avoided having to risk himself at the expense of his stamina, but that’d been a gamble.

The system made dungeons with the intention they would be cleared in groups, but the people with him simply did not have the tools to assist him. He needed help, but he didn’t have time to train it. Not really. They had three days worth of food left. Even if they ate sparingly, they’d have to return to town after four.

Was there any way to do this besides throwing himself into these situations and hoping? He was seven levels ahead of where he was a week into his first time around. But he was only a couple ahead of where Vincent and Garret were at that time. They’d died. His current status wasn’t enough. If he left now, Frank knew he’d probably fail to accomplish anything. But if he died here, he’d also fail to accomplish anything.

Frank knew, objectively, that if he left now he’d have to rely on some sort of lucky occurence to allow him to boost his strength like he was doing right now. He didn’t want to die. Funny how quickly that changed. He still remembered the apathy he’d approached his end just a few days ago. He couldn’t look at the end that way now. The thought of dying now made his stomach turn uneasily and his hands feel weak.

No terror, not like he’d felt when first forced to fight for his survival, but dread. There was a path forward, something that wasn’t just a struggle against inevitable failure. Frank had felt hope, desire, success. Things his fatalistic and detached outlook had traded away to avoid the other side of that coin. Feelings that had returned as well. Sorrow, longing, helplessness.

A part of him desperately wished Garret or Vincent or David or Peter were there right now. He had never had to be a leader. He’d led, of course, but under the direction of someone else, to a purpose someone else had decided. He’d been the trusted subordinate, not the charismatic boss.

Here he had no choice. He had to become someone others could follow. He had to be the strongest. There was no other option that made sense. It made him deeply uneasy that he had such a destiny demanded of him.

Uneasy or not, he still had to do it. He couldn’t walk away from this opportunity to get ahead. The odds favoured it absolutely over walking away and hoping something else came along, even if his lizard brain told him to flee. If he wanted to realize his goals, he’d have to become someone better and more capable than he had been. The challenge felt Sisyphean.

He checked his status. His stamina was about half. He’d need to sit for a while before going back out. He passed the time reminiscing about his past. Something about his demeanour kept the others away. When his stamina creeped above three quarters, he sighed heavily, but immediately got up and started moving. He didn’t give himself the opportunity to hesitate.

He jogged back to where he’d stopped. The pathway still made a cross, it still extending to and up the far wall. This time he stayed on it, suspecting that stepping off had triggered the fight. Nothing molested him as he went through the left exit.

He found himself standing on the path, which extended out over a chasm, without any sign of support, and continued into the distance. He couldn’t see the bottom of the pit beneath him. Nor could he see the other side. Frank started walking down the path. It was wide enough to walk easily and safely, but not wide enough to do any sort of maneuvering.

Several minutes of walking left him standing over a void, nothing visible in any direction except for the path. A short while longer and another enemy appeared.

Dapper Two Piece Suit Animated by a Forgery of the Flame of Agility

Level 1

Frank approached it carefully, shield out. This combat would be quite simple. The rapier wielding suit prepared itself, and when Frank was close lunged low with a speed that was barely within his ability to react to. Frank chose to simply twist his leg to avoid it. He took a grazing slash through his pants for his trouble. A line of red burned on the outside of his calf.

Frank ignored it, stepped forward and simply smashing the suit off the path with his shield. It fell, slowly into the abyss below. Frank kept walking. No system prompt indicating he’d defeated it appeared. Abruptly, the path changed colour to a deep brown. The bottom of the pit became visible below him. He’d traveled far enough to enter a diversion.