Chapter 39: Twenty-Sided Die: Equal Dueling Arena

"Gurgle gurgle gurgle."

It was a twenty-sided die, its faces black like a starry sky, the pips white, inlaid with gold and silver edges, looking utterly mysterious.

After Tuls threw the die, he kept praying to Taimora in his heart.

Hoping for some good luck this time.

"Random event in progress…"

"Event selected: Equal Dueling Arena."

"Equal Dueling Arena: Drag your most-hated enemy into the Equal Dueling Arena for a duel; it ends when one side dies."

"The detailed rules of the Equal Dueling Arena are as follows…"

Tuls carefully read through a long list of arena rules and finally understood what this dueling arena was.

The Equal Dueling Arena, as the name suggests, emphasized equality.

No matter what the two sides' attribute panels had been before, once they entered the Equal Dueling Arena, everything became identical.

Whether it was the six basic attributes, skills, feats, saving throws, or creature level—all exactly the same.

Especially since all of these were decided by the arena's activator.

At first glance this seemed useless—everyone was the same, seemingly six of one, half a dozen of the other.

But in reality it was a heaven-defying thing.

There is a saying that goes well: never argue with an idiot.

Because he will drag your IQ down to his level, then beat you with his rich experience.

The Equal Dueling Arena was exactly that kind of thing.

For example, a demon had an enemy who was an angel; the angel's level was higher, and the demon couldn't beat him.

But with the Equal Dueling Arena, the levels were equal, and the skills and feats were the demon's.

Even if the angel had the same attribute panel, he could never defeat a demon who had thoroughly mastered his own abilities.

This was the benefit of the Equal Dueling Arena.

However, Tuls didn't really care about any of this, because he was about to die.

Tuls racked his brain to drag the rules in his consciousness all the way to the bottom.

He finally saw a rule that made him happy.

"Supplementary Clause 1: When the duel begins, in the interest of fairness, both sides' HP will be at full, with no abnormal status effects."

Ha ha! Thanks to Your Majesty Taimora!

This was exactly what Tuls wanted. He carefully thought about whether he had any enemies.

The first, naturally, was Fang Shi, who had beaten him to near death.

But Tuls thought he was dead, so he ruled him out directly.

The second was the frenzied wolf in the mountains, from when Tuls had first sneaked out of the dragon's lair for a stroll.

It was that piece of trash that had scared him badly enough.

After that came a bunch of scattered things with no real combat power.

Bugs, kobolds, that sort of thing.

Tuls thought it over, and ultimately chose to use himself as the template for all attributes.

As the stat values for activating the Equal Dueling Arena.

That way, no matter what happened, he could rely on his rich dragon-life experience to defeat his opponent.

"Activate the Equal Dueling Arena?"

"Yes."

……

Fang Shi, who had his eyes closed recovering, suddenly saw a stream of data appear in his consciousness.

"Equal Dueling Arena activated. You have been selected as a participant."

"Teleport initiating."

"Teleporting…"

Fang Shi reacted quickly, opening his eyes in an instant.

The weapon at his side vanished.

The surrounding scenery also changed drastically—blue brick paving the ground, empty high platforms encircling them.

This was a place resembling an ancient Roman colosseum.

"Why is it you!"

Fang Shi turned toward the source of the voice.

The great dragon Tuls was flapping his wings, hovering in midair.

"I hadn't even come looking for you, and here you are, in such a rush to die?"

Fang Shi sneered—he was no greenhorn.

He was very familiar with attribute panels and the like, and in the blink of an eye he had skimmed through and understood the rules.

Moreover, there was one rule that set Fang Shi's heart ablaze.

"Rule 36: The victor of the Equal Dueling Arena will obtain one of the loser's abilities."

"Note: 'Abilities' refers to attribute points, skills, and feats."

Fang Shi had no idea how Tuls had gotten his hands on something like this, and couldn't be bothered to investigate.

Anyway, this kind of thing belonged to the domain of Law Force, basically inseparable from the gods.

The current him was not yet qualified to study it.

"Seeking death!" Tules laughed heartily, the low rumble unique to a stone dragon sounding so gloomy.

"Have you really read through the rules carefully?"

"Or are you dumbstruck because it's your first time witnessing such a miracle?"

"Feel it—feel the state of your body. This is the power of a divine artifact."

Fang Shi was a bit speechless; he had already felt it long ago, okay?

The exhaustion covering his body was swept clean, his injuries healed without treatment.

Most importantly, he now possessed a more surging vitality than before, as well as stronger defense.

Apart from the attribute points being slightly fewer, there was nothing to worry about.

Tules looked at the expressionless Fang Shi and suddenly felt a bit annoyed.

As if he were a fool, having just now stumbled upon a truth everyone already knew.

"Heh-heh, the reason you don't feel fear right now is because of your ignorance."

"In a moment I will use my dragon claws to tear you apart inch by inch, then slowly suck your fresh blood and gnaw your flesh and bone."

"This is the fate of those who offend the great King of the Earth and Mountains, Tules."

"Even if you kneel—"

Bang!

【Multi-Strike—Double Strike】

Fang Shi stomped the ground, and like a fierce tiger descending the mountain, crossed back to Tules's front in a few strides.

He landed a punch straight on Tules's jaw, shaking it until its head spun.

That wasn't the end—next came a storm-like barrage of blows, fists raining down on Tules's skull like raindrops.

Fang Shi couldn't be bothered to trade words with Tules.

This stone dragon looked at a glance like a newbie at fighting, not knowing what it meant to strike first and seize the initiative with a surprise attack.

"Unarmed attack launched."

"You deal 2.5 damage to the target."

"You deal 0.5 damage to the target."

"You deal 0.5 damage to the target."

Tules finally came to its senses and hurriedly invoked one of the privileges granted to the initiator of the duel arena.

"Whoosh!"

Tules vanished into thin air before Fang Shi.

It hovered ten meters up in the air and shouted, "How can you be so unsporting? I hadn't even finished speaking, and you already launched a sneak attack."

Tules's heart was now filled with regret; the one and only chance to teleport had been wasted just like that.

This was the preferential treatment the Equal Duel Arena gave its initiator, and also the key move that could decide victory.

Fang Shi said calmly, "Didn't you hear the countdown in your consciousness? It had already started; you just didn't move in yourself."

Tules was momentarily at a loss for words, then argued stubbornly, "You have no chivalry."

Fang Shi couldn't be bothered to retort and continued to let it feel the cruelty of reality.

"Tules, are you still hung up on chivalry?"

"Haven't you realized you've already lost?"

"Have you forgotten the rules of the Equal Duel Arena?"

"When time ends and neither side has died, the one with the lower vitality loses."

"And the consequence of losing is erasure."

"As you are now, you're no match for me; you can only silently await death."

These words jolted Tules awake, and also brought it the deepest despair.

"Why, why! Our attributes are clearly the same, so why is your strength so great and your speed so fast!"

As it spoke, it spat out stones from its mouth.

Fang Shi also opened his mouth to counter-fire; earth elements gathered at his lips, forming stones that blasted skyward.

Although he was not very skilled at using this ability, at least firing it out was no problem.

Moreover, even if he couldn't out-blast it, he could dodge in time.

This was the reason Fang Shi had pointed out that Tules was bound to lose.

Fang Shi made good use of the dragon race's innate defense specialty—only needing to meet force with force.

But the other specialties he wasn't familiar with.

To avoid the phenomenon of using one's own shortcoming to attack one's own shortcoming.

Fang Shi used a verbal trap to keep Tules from daring to fight him at close range.

To avoid a situation of fighting at close range while simultaneously spitting attacks.

Without the Fine Steel Sword, once such a thing happened—

For Fang Shi, who was unskilled at using the dragon race's specialties, he might very well lose.

Fang Shi had already discovered that the so-called Equal Duel Arena, though full of rules and seemingly ensuring fairness—

In reality still had many loopholes. For example, Tules had wings and would surely fly.

Fang Shi had no wings; no matter what, he couldn't fly.

Another example was the innate weapon specialty—Tules had it, and it was fierce.

But Fang Shi didn't, because this innate weapon was claws.

Fang Shi had fingernails, but they were useless; the specialty didn't recognize them.

This directly weakened Fang Shi's melee capabilities.

He was still flesh and blood for now and dared not so arrogantly clash head-on with the dragon clan's sharp claws.

After a hysterical exchange of blows, Tuls saw he could not harm Fang Shi at all.

Suddenly, he collapsed into hysterical weeping: "Why? Why?"

"I am still a child; why must you kill me?"

"Why slay dragons? What evil have I done?"

The youthful voice chilled Fang Shi; Tuls was indeed a young dragon.

He made up an excuse and said, "You killed humans, so you deserve to die."

Tuls sobbed, "If they had not disturbed my sleep, if they had not come to kill me, they would not have died."

"I killed them only because I wanted to live."

Fang Shi sighed, "Who does not want to live?"

His gaze pierced through Tuls, as if seeing some existence in the void, and he thought of many, many things.

The Fang Shi of the past had once been full of passion.

After the apocalypse arrived, he helped others and formed a self-rescue organization with survivors.

But abandonment, betrayal, the struggle to survive, and slaughter had worn away his heart.

Only cold-bloodedness and the will to survive remained.

"Tuls, do you not want to die?" Fang Shi suddenly shouted.

Tuls froze, temporarily stopping his sobbing: "If you do not kill me, do you want me to kill you?"

Tuls's mind could not process it for a moment; he thought Fang Shi had gone mad.

Fang Shi shook his head: "No, you must still die, but you will live again afterward."

As a great dragon possessing inherited knowledge, Tuls naturally understood what Fang Shi meant.

"You will resurrect me?"

"Of course."

"Why should I trust you?"

"You have no choice."

"..."

In the end, Tuls chose to trust Fang Shi and abandoned his final resistance.

He was still young and retained some innocent traits, such as a tendency to believe others.

Before his final moments, Tuls spoke with Fang Shi at length, including his unintentional departure from home and the twenty-sided magical die.

Fang Shi listened quietly and told him many stories as well.

"You must resurrect the Great King of Earth and Mountains, Tuls."

Tuls spoke in a low, youthful voice and flew toward the descending power of the laws of his own accord.

A flash of red light passed, and he was utterly annihilated.

Fang Shi said in a low voice, "I will, and not just you."