Slashing his way to the guardian chamber turned out to be much easier than Dallion expected. The first wave had tried to rush him, charging as a group. Dallion had dispatched them using Janna and Kallan’s method. As it turned out, one didn’t have to know athletics or acrobatics to perform something, just a lot of practice.

Seeing the failure of their fellow Amphibions, the rest of the waves had merged into single giant entities, trying to overpower him using force. The attempt failed even more spectacularly. In those instances Dallion had combined the standard arc slash with his music skills, causing the giant enemies to freeze for a second at a time, while he reduced it in size, then killed it off altogether. The first were so one-sided that Dallion genuinely felt sorry for the creatures to the point he had offered them to surrender yet again. To everyone’s disappointment, none of them did.

After the last wave was done, two of the harpsisword’s strings vibrated.

“I know, not much of a challenge.” Dallion tapped the blade of the weapon with his left hand. “We’re still getting started, though.”

As the guardian chamber loomed before him, Dallion stopped. The thunder leopard was visible before him, still snoozing on the far side, as if nothing had happened. This was extremely suspicious, though. There was no way anything could be still sleeping after the ruckus Dallion had caused before.

“I know you’re awake,” he said loudly.

The guardian didn’t react. Looking at him with his music skills, Dallion could see a blob of pure calm pulsing in the creature’s head.

“I’m fine if you just let me pass. Maybe you’ll settle for a draw?” Dallion offered, while also attempting to make the leopard susceptible to the idea. “Like you, I prefer to save my strength for later.”

No reaction. Sadly, by all accounts, it seemed like a fight was inevitable.

The moment Dallion set foot in the actual chamber, the guardian’s ears perked up.

COMBAT INITIATED

In the blink of the eye, the creature went from snoozing to attacking state, leaping at Dallion, fangs bared. The sensation of calm had disappeared, replaced by a deep desire to battle. It was as if a switch had been flipped.

Back when Dallion was level six, such an attack would have caught him completely by surprise. Now, though, the blink of an eye was enough time for him to see where the creature was going, target its weak spot, then step to the side while simultaneously performing a counterattack; and all that before a single marker had the time to appear.

FATAL STRIKE

Dealt Damage is increased by 500%

With one swing, a third of the Thunder Leopard’s health was gone. The creature recoiled with a roar, retreating back to the opposite side of the chamber.

Dallion felt his pulse rush. It wasn’t out of fear, rather it was the excitement of the encounter. Nil would be disappointed by this. The echo had stressed as often as possible that retaining one’s composure in combat was the one sure path to victory. In his view, losing to emotions was the same as creating opportunities for the enemy. In all likelihood he was right, yet an urge stronger than logic had gripped Dallion right now—the sensation of his own power.

“Let’s go,” he whispered, and dashed forward. This time, he was the attacker.

The harpsisword slashed the air, as Dallion performed a double slash aimed at the guardian’s head. In his mind Dallion could already see the victory.

CRITICAL STRIKE

Dealt Damage is increased by 200%

PAW SEVERED

Enemy will no longer be able to make use of its FRONT RIGHT PAW

Critical? Dallion wondered.

Somehow the guardian had managed to block the attack with its paw, losing it in the process. It was a good tactic, so much so that Dallion was actually impressed. Immediately he pulled back, increasing the distance between the two. If there was one thing that he had learned the hard way, it was that brainless fighting didn’t stand a chance against strong opponents. The local guardian was both skilled and smart enough to think creatively, which meant it wasn’t to be underestimated.

“Good one,” Dallion said with a smile. “I thought I had won there.”

Surprisingly, no anger resonated from the creature. If anything, the guardian was pleased to have this fight. Maybe it too wanted a challenge? There was no telling how long it had spent in the item waiting for something interesting to occur. The sad thing was that once the dagger had become guild property, the only interesting events the guardians within it had to look forward to were the monthly selection trials. Just thinking about it sent shivers down Dallion’s spine. Now he understood why his shield was so reluctant to return to the general’s collection.

“Your turn.” Dallion went into a defensive stance, holding the harpsisword in front of him. It was a battle of wills now.

Defense markers started appearing. The guardian had the intention of charging right at Dallion. A single attack was going to determine the victor.

Dallion focused. In his mind, he could see two ways in which the leopard attacked. In one case it was going to attempt to use its mass to pin him to the ground, in the other it was going to swipe with its left paw. Both seemed equally likely, and both shared the same weakness.

The guardian leapt forward.

If Dallion were to use his music skills, he could end the fight right now. Once the guardian was frozen, all it would take were two good hits for it to be defeated. That would be a cheap victory, though. Instead, Dallion waited.

The creature got closer and closer. Every instant the attack zone marker focused on Dallion more and more until in the end the path of the attack was clear—a paw swipe.

At that moment Dallion made his move. Before the claws could reach him, he moves his left arm beneath his right in such a fashion that the armadil shield would cover his entire right side. Catching on to his plan, the shield extended, completely blocking the attack. Meanwhile, Dallion performed the killing blow, lunging forward.

TERMINAL STRIKE

Dealt Damage is increased by 1000%

The tip of the harpsisword pierced the guardian’s head, causing the beast to burst into a cloud of light sparkles. Once the cloud disappeared, the expected blue rectangle appeared.

DAGGER Level 1 has been cleared!

There was no reward this time—normal, considering Dallion had already cleared this level before. In theory, if he had requested a different dagger, he could have increased his level more, although that too was doubtful. From what he had seen so far in the world, abusive exploits were few and vigorously guarded. If a simple item could act as the equivalent to an awakening shrine, the local nobility or the Order of the Seven Moons would have done something about it.

“Thanks for the duel,” Dallion said to the empty room, then proceeded through the gate to the next level.

One down, two to go. The second level was home to the Scylla guardian. From what Dallion remembered, despite the initial scare, that guardian hadn’t been too difficult to defeat. If anything, getting to it had proved harder. Granted, this time there was no echo to worry about, but even so the numbers of Shardflies and Toothroaches—the creatures of that level—had been impressive. This was one occasion in which music would have to come into play.

The best way to deal with a swarm was to limit its movements, Dallion said to himself, remembering another of Nil’s lessons. There had been a few scrolls on the topic, each focusing on net-like weapons with names that Dallion had difficulty pronouncing. But what a net could do, so could a harpsisword.

Standing at the tunnel opening of the second level, Dallion took a deep breath, then shouted as loud as his lungs would allow. The noise quickly caught the attention of the nearest creatures and went on to disturb those further in.

At this point, there was no need to wait. Dallion gripped his harpsisword and started playing. Chords of weight filled the air. At present they were ineffective, but as creatures started to appear, Dallion readjusted his timing so as to match the vibration in the approaching insects. The process that had been next to impossible weeks ago now seemed childishly easy. It was only designed to work on small creatures, of course. All attempts to use it on guardians had proved to be ineffective. In this case, though, as the waves of shardflies made their approach, their wings got heavy, causing them to drop out of the air and onto the tunnel walls.

The toothroaches fared no differently. Initially, they too rushed forward with the goal of landing as many bites as they could. Yet the closer they got to the source of the sound, the slower they became until—ten feet away—they stopped moving altogether, instead piling up as new waves pushed them forward.

I feel as if I’m fighting with bug spray, Dallion thought. It was by no means a glamorous victory, but one nonetheless.

Once new creatures stopped arriving, Dallion then dashed forward and cleared the piles by slashing through them repetitively with his sword.

There was something very satisfying in the process, almost as if Dallion was sweeping away his enemies out of existence. If only cleaning had been this much fun back on Earth, he would have done it several times per day.

A few minutes later, the cave floor was clean again.

“Anyone else?” Dallion asked, ready to play the harpsisword again if needed. Nothing reacted, but that didn’t make him lower his guard. He had suffered the consequences of overconfidence too many times in the past to take this for granted.

Interestingly enough, in this instance Dallion turned out to be correct. There were no more creature attacks until Dallion reached the second guardian chamber. This time the Scylla wasn’t on the chamber ceiling, nor was it sleeping. Standing patiently in the middle of the hall, in its nymph form, the guardian waited.

“I thought it might be you,” the guardian said upon seeing Dallion. “You’ve changed a lot since last time.”

“Well, I do my best to surprise,” Dallion said cautiously. “You’ve changed as well. You look less… tarry.”

The tar that last time had formed octopus tentacles now had transformed into a set of clothes covering the scylla. Looking at him, Dallion could not help but notice the similarities between this guardian and that of his sword. Many of their features were similar: height, body frame, facial features, even the sapphire eyes.

“I’m not talking to you,” the scylla replied. “I’m talking to her.” The guardian pointed at the harpsisword.

What? Dallion blinked. Talk about an unexpected turn of events. He had often asked himself whether guardians knew one another. Apparently now he had an answer. However, if that was true, it meant that the harpsisword had also been a sphere item at some point. Or was there something else he was missing?

“You two know each other?” Dallion asked, channeling his voice so as to make the other predisposed to sharing information.

“Knew,” the scylla corrected. “Back at the time, she never would have linked to the realm of a simple human, and yet here we are. How things change.”

“Simple? I’m not—”

A series of chords coming from the harpsisword interrupted him. Apparently, the two guardians did know each other and had things to discuss. Dallion tried to follow the music sounds, but this time they weren’t something he could interpret. Whatever was going on, Harp didn’t want him to be involved.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. You could have done much worse.” The Scylla seemed amused. “There may be promise for this one yet. In the end, we all carry our burden. And who knows, maybe this time it’ll finally be over.”

“Over? In what way?”

“Over in the way that you’ll finally clear this prison and set us free.”