Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society - Chapter 32 – Starting From Today, I'm an Official Explorer (2)
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Chapter 32 – Starting From Today, I'm an Official Explorer (2)

I decided to put my trust in Loretta, so I stood in front of the door to the 20th Floor Master and ignored the recommendation to find a party. I put my hand on the door, but soon took it off again. No matter how easy Loretta said the Lizard Knight would be, if I went in blindly, I might face the same situation as I had with the Orc Lord 4 years ago.

Instead, I sent somebody a message. Thankfully, he was in the dungeon.

“Ellos.”

[Oh, Shin. What’s up?]

“I want to ask you about the Lizard Knight.”

[Wow, you’re already on the 20th floor? Amazing. You might really end up meeting us on the 25th floor.]

“Of course I will. More importantly, tell me about Lizard Knight’s fighting style and skills.”

Normally, I learned these things through experiencing them directly. But now, I was in a situation where I had to defeat it on my first try. Since Loretta guaranteed that there would be a hefty reward, I had to defeat it even if I had to break my usual style of doing things.

[You usually don’t ask these things. I wonder what has happened. Well, I’ll tell you anyway. The Lizard Knight appears alone unlike the other Floor Masters, and wears a set of scaled armor made from its own scales. With it, it has a truly formidable defense. It also uses an incredibly swift and powerful spear. If anyone who’s not a tank is hit by it, they will most likely be half killed.]

I murmured, “Hm, fast and powerful…” 

[And if a lot of people jump at it at once, it will suddenly swipe with its tail. This attack has a bigger range that you’d think. Not to mention, it hurts a lot. Watch out for it.]

“Actually, that seems like something I can exploit. What else?”

[Oh, yeah. When it feels like it’s at a disadvantage, it will strike down on the ground with its spear. The ground then rumbles and a huge amount of damage is dealt to all explorers touching the ground. You need to dodge this one for sure.]

“He strikes down on the ground with his spear? So I can just dodge it by jumping?” I asked.

[Yep. But if you do, it will immediately attack you with a spear thrust, so be careful.]

“Alright. What else?”

[After that attack, it uses a skill called Dragon Skin. Its body becomes red and incredibly tough. For the next 5 minutes, no attack will work on it. The worst part is that it continuously strikes down on the ground in that state.]

“That does sound bad. Wait, his armor gets harder too?”

[Yep. That’s what makes it so troublesome. Neither physical nor magical attacks work when it’s in that state. But if you last long enough for Dragon Skin to end, your victory is mostly secured. Because when Dragon Skin runs out, it’s exhausted. All the party members can just throw out their attacks and kill it.]

Out of curiosity, I asked, “How many tries did it take you?”

[…7 tries. For the record, that’s considered outstanding. It’s even considered good if you defeat him in 20 or 30 tries.]

“Haha, thanks. I’ll contact you again once it ends.”

[Ehhhh, you mean you have the confidence to beat him on your first try. Alright, we’ll see.]

I ended my conversation with Ellos and grinned. It took Ellos 7 tries with a party of 10 to defeat the Lizard Knight. He would have never expected that I’d try to defeat the lizard alone.

[Master can do it! Because I’m here!] Peika cheered me on.

“Yeah, I can do it. Because Peika is here.”

I formed a plan based on what Ellos told me. After checking over it multiple times, I nodded and boldly opened the door.

I announced loudly, “Fight me, Lizard Knight!”

“… A human.”

The Lizard Knight was standing alone in the spacious room. It was about seven feet tall, and as Ellos said, on top of its scaled body was a set of full body armor made from its own scales. In its hand was a fifteen foot long spear with a razor sharp head.

The monster growled, “You are challenging me alone? This is a first.”

“Yeah, I am.”

I smiled at it. It was trying to look cool unlike the other Floor Masters, but to me, it was no different.

When I first heard Ellos’s description of it, I became nervous. I had once imagined what would happen when monsters, who were born strong, took the time to train in martial arts. However, that wasn’t the case for the Lizard Knight.

In fact, its performance fell below my expectations. After all, the boss didn't even take on the most basic of stances. It was likely only relying on its natural-born strength to beat explorers into submission. How foolish.

I’ll show you what a true spearman is.

I held my spear up and took my stance.

“Peika, can you go inside?”

[I like the way you asked!]

At the same time Peika nodded while looking pleased, I activated Spirit Aura. Within seconds, she was sucked into my spear, and my Orc Lord’s Glaive began to flicker with sparks. You worked hard too. I’ll let you rest soon.

“You, you’re a spearman. Great.”

“Yes, it’s great. Great indeed.”

I was my father’s one and only disciple. Even with my busy schedule of being a dungeon explorer, as my father’s son, I often had friendly matches with the rising stars in the Korean martial arts community. In fact, on paper, my father ran a dojang, and one of the only times we actually used it was when we held friendly competitions.

I didn’t know anything about the validity of my father's claims as being undefeated or the strongest on Earth.

However, I knew that I had never lost in a formal match.

“Haap!”

“Die!”

When I charged at the Lizard Knight, it opened its vertically slit pupils wide and thrust out with its spear fiercely. However, in my trained eyes, the spear Ellos described as swift was lackluster, almost like the swing of a baby. I easily dodged its attack and stabbed the center of its armor.

“Ugh! For a human, you aren’t so bad!”

“This is the 5th time I’ve heard that since I came to the dungeon, Lizardman!”

Even as I retorted, I continued to attack. As I repeatedly stabbed its armor with my spear, I made sure that the shock from my elemental power damaged it. Once it realized what kind of situation it was in, the Lizard Knight tried to step aside, but I followed its movements tightly and continued to attack.

Although my spear was unable to penetrate its armor, I knew Peika’s lightning was effective. Electric sparks flickered on its armor, slowly breaking it down.

“Argh! Human, you were an Elementalist! You tricked me!” the lizard scolded me.

“I said I was a spearman, I never said I wasn’t an Elementalist!”

“Kuhaaaap!”

It let out a rough shout as it swung forward with its spear. None of that was a surprise to me. I ducked in a hurry, and ran forward into him. At the same time, my spear glowed brightly with white light.

I struck out my spear as I yelled, “Heroic Strike!”

“Gaahhhhh!”

Parts of its armor broke off and flew into the air. The Lizard Knight itself also flew back and hit the wall. When I was about to run after him to follow up, it ignored the shock from hitting the wall as it stood tall and spit out blood. At least it knew how to look cool.

“Kukuku, not bad. To think you could drive me into a corner like this…”

“Stop blabbering and come! I’ll show you my strength!”

[You have used Orc Lord’s Warcry! All party members have been cleansed of negative status effects. All party members’ attack power has increased by 50 percent for the duration. All party members have become super-armored and are unfazed by enemy attacks.]

“Argh, what is this loud noise!?” the lizard exclaimed.

“Good question.”

As I approached him, I shouted, “Dark Thunder Explosion!”

“Ehhhh!?”

Black lightning shot out from my body and struck the Lizard Knight. Although it tried to jump back in surprise, it could no longer dodge the attack after being paralyzed by the initial sparks.

“Die!”

Although I did not think it would immediately die from this, I shouted out in hopes that it would. Immediately afterwards, countless bolts of lightning shot out from my body, dazzling my eyes. The Lizard Knight screamed out in pain as it took my attack head on. It seemed impossible for even a Floor Master to endure an attack on this scale.

“Kuaaak! W-What’s this!?”

I announced proudly, “It’s my skill. Eat up!”

Even though I had never lost a formal match on Earth, this was the dungeon. It was natural to fight the explorer’s way!

Dark Thunder Explosion was truly powerful. I couldn’t tell whether the skill itself was that exceptional or whether it was because I had the 50 percent attack boost from Orc Lord’s Warcry, but when the Lizard Knight emerged after being swept by the flood of lightning, its armor was almost entirely worn out. In addition, I could see blood spurting out from wounds all over its body.

“Kuk, Human! I won’t forgive you!”

Eh? It’s already using it?

The Lizard Knight raised its spear up high and struck down. I remembered from Ello’s description that this was the earthquake attack. After that would be Dragon Skin, and I recalled that Ellos said I just had to endure for 5 minutes.

You’re wrong about one thing, Ellos.

“Tempest!”

I shot out Tempest, aiming at its spear. Almost in an anticlimactic way, Tempest forced the Lizard Knight to drop its spear. In an instant, the Lizard Knight made a panicked expression.

This was my opportunity. A chance to beat it to death.

“Die!”

I did not need to use any skills. While the boss stood blankly in place, I stabbed forward with my lightning clad spear. I first destroyed the armor that was barely hanging onto its body. Then, I crushed its knees and its right arm before it could snap out of its daze.

As I swung my spear at its left arm, it cried out in pain and used Dragon Skin, blocking my attack. However, the boss had acted too late. Three out of its four limbs were no longer usable in the fight.

See, Ellos, it’s as I thought.

If he knew the Lizard Knight would use Dragon Skin after the earthquake attack, why would he allow it the opportunity to use it freely? From my personal experience, I knew that before every skill activation, there was a clear opening that could be targeted.

Since this was inevitable, before I used any of my skills, I made some preparations to avoid enemies taking advantage of those spots. Sometimes I put myself in the super-armor state with Orc Lord’s Warcry, while other times I immobilized the enemies with Vengeful Spirit’s Wail. There was also the tactic of being a good distance away from the enemies. If I could not do any of the above, I made sure to mix in my skill with my normal attacks as well as possible to ensure I was safe from counterattacks. Of course, even with all that, I could not say I was 100 percent safe. That was the nature of using skills.

Although the skills Floor Masters used were extremely powerful, they all had their moments of weakness. As long as there was even a single weakness, I could find a way to exploit it. In truth, it was shocking that someone like Ellos failed to see through something like this. Apparently, I needed to discuss this with him later.

“Argh, you! I will kill you! Try attacking me!”

After activating Dragon Skin, the Lizard Knight flashed its crooked teeth and provoked me. With a snort, I picked up its spear and threw it far away. Then, I deactivated Spirit Aura and threw my spear down.

“Human?”

I smiled. “I’m a martial artist. I don’t just know spearmanship.”

Of course, I didn’t tell it that I learned martial arts because I liked the feeling of beating people up with my bare hands!