Chapter 39: 20-Sided Die: Equal Duel Arena

“Gurgle, gurgle.”

This was a twenty-sided die, its faces black like a starry sky, the numbers white with gold and silver edges, appearing mysterious and unfathomable.

After throwing the die, Turs kept praying to Thormora in his heart.

Hoping for good luck this time.

“Random event triggered…”

“Event selected: Equal Duel Arena”

“Equal Duel Arena: Pull your most hated enemy into the Equal Duel Arena for a duel; it ends when one side dies.”

“Detailed rules of the Equal Duel Arena as follows…”

Turs carefully read through the entire set of duel arena rules and finally understood what this arena was.

The Equal Duel Arena, as the name suggests, emphasizes equality.

Regardless of their previous attribute panels, once both combatants enter the Equal Duel Arena, everything becomes identical.

All six basic attributes, skills, proficiencies, saving throws, and creature levels are exactly the same.

Especially since all these are determined entirely by the arena’s initiator.

At first glance, this seems useless—everyone is equal, seemingly evenly matched.

But in reality, it is an extraordinary thing.

There’s a saying: Never argue with an idiot.

Because he’ll drag your intelligence down to his level, then defeat you with his vast experience.

The Equal Duel Arena is exactly this.

For example, a demon has an enemy who is an angel—the angel is of a higher level, and the demon cannot defeat him.

But with the Equal Duel Arena, their levels become equal, and all skills and proficiencies are the demon’s.

Even with the same attribute panel, the angel could never defeat the demon, who knows his own abilities inside and out.

This is the advantage of the Equal Duel Arena.

But Turs didn’t care much about any of this—he was nearly dead.

Turs strained every ounce of willpower to pull the rules down into his consciousness.

Finally, he saw a rule that delighted him.

“Supplementary Clause 1: At the start of the duel, for fairness, both sides begin with full health and no abnormal conditions.”

Ha! Thank you, Your Majesty Thormora!

This was exactly what Turs wanted. He carefully considered whether he had any enemies.

The first was Fang Shi, who had nearly killed him.

But Turs assumed he was dead and eliminated him immediately.

The second was the furious wolf in the mountains—the one that had terrified him when he first sneaked out of the dragon’s nest.

That piece of trash had scared him half to death.

After that came scattered, insignificant creatures with no combat power.

Like insects, kobolds, and such.

After thinking it over, Turs ultimately chose to set all attributes based on himself as the template.

As the initiating value option for the Equal Duel Arena.

That way, no matter what unexpected situation arose, he could still rely on his vast dragon experience to defeat his opponent.

“Initiate Equal Duel Arena?”

“Yes.”

…

Fang Shi, who had been closing his eyes to recover, suddenly saw a stream of data appear in his consciousness.

“Equal Duel Arena activated. You have been selected as a participant.”

“Teleportation initiated.”

“Teleporting…”

Fang Shi reacted instantly and opened his eyes.

His weapons vanished.

The surroundings changed drastically—green bricks paved the ground, surrounded by empty raised platforms.

This was a place resembling an ancient Roman amphitheater.

“How is it you?!”

Fang Shi turned toward the source of the voice.

The dragon Turs hovered midair, flapping its wings.

“I haven’t even come looking for you, and you’re already rushing here to die?”

Fang Shi sneered—he wasn’t some naive fool.

He was very familiar with attribute panels and quickly scanned and understood the rules.

And one rule filled Fang Shi with burning excitement.

“Rule 36: The winner of the Equal Duel Arena gains one ability from the loser.”

“Note: Ability refers to attribute points, skills, and proficiencies.”

Fang Shi didn’t care how Turs had obtained this, nor did he bother to investigate.

Such things always fell under the domain of the power of cosmic laws, fundamentally tied to deities.

He wasn’t qualified to study them yet.

“Die!” Turs laughed loudly, his deep, stone-dragon voice sounding grim.

“Have you truly read the rules carefully?”

“Or are you just stunned by this divine miracle for the first time?”

“Feel it—feel your body’s condition. This is the power of a divine artifact.”

Fang Shi was speechless—he’d already felt it, for heaven’s sake.

All his fatigue vanished; his wounds healed without treatment.

Most importantly, he now had more vigorous health and stronger defense.

Aside from slightly fewer attribute points, nothing significant had changed.

Turs, watching Fang Shi’s expressionless face, suddenly felt irritated.

It felt as if he were the fool, announcing a truth everyone already knew.

“Heh, you still feel no fear because of your ignorance.”

“I’ll tear you apart inch by inch with my claws, then slowly sip your blood, gnaw your flesh and bones.”

“This is the fate of those who dare offend the Great King of Earth and Mountains, Turs.”

“Even if you kneel—”

Boom!

【Multi-Force—Double Force】

Fang Shi stomped the ground, leaping like a tiger descending the mountain, closing the distance in a few bounds to stand before Turs.

He punched Turs squarely under the chin, dazing it.

That wasn’t the end—he unleashed a storm of blows, fists raining down on Turs’s skull.

Fang Shi had no interest in wasting words with Turs.

This stone dragon clearly had no combat experience—didn’t even know the meaning of striking first or ambushing.

“Melee attack initiated.”

“You deal 2.5 damage to the target.”

“You deal 0.5 damage to the target.”

“You deal 0.5 damage to the target.”

Turs finally snapped out of its daze and immediately used one of the arena initiator’s rights.

Swish!

Turs vanished from Fang Shi’s sight.

It hovered ten meters above, shouting: “How dishonorable! I hadn’t even finished speaking, and you attacked!”

Turs now felt deep regret—its only chance to teleport had been wasted.

This was the arena’s special privilege for the initiator, the key move that could decide victory.

Fang Shi said coolly: “Didn’t you hear the countdown in your consciousness? It already started—you just didn’t move.”

Turs was momentarily speechless, retorting: “You have no knightly spirit!”

Fang Shi didn’t bother to argue—he let Turs feel the cruelty of reality.

“Turs, are you still obsessed with knightly spirit?”

“Don’t you realize you’ve already lost?”

“Have you forgotten the rules of the Equal Duel Arena?”

“When time ends, if neither side is dead, the one with lower health loses.”

“And the consequence of losing is erasure.”

“You’re no match for me now—you can only wait silently for death.”

These words jolted Turis awake and plunged it into its deepest despair.

“Why? Why!? Our attributes are identical—why is your strength so great, your speed so fast!”

As it spoke, it spat out chunks of stone.

Fang Shi opened his mouth and retaliated, gathering earth elements around his lips to form stones that shot upward.

Though he was unskilled in using this ability, at least launching the stones was no problem.

And even if he missed, he could dodge in time.

This was why Fang Shi was certain Turis would lose.

He used the dragon’s innate defensive ability well—just meet force with force.

But he was unfamiliar with other specialties.

To avoid using his weaknesses to attack his own weaknesses.

Fang Shi used verbal traps to make Turis afraid of close combat.

To prevent the scenario of fighting at close range while simultaneously spitting attacks.

Without a steel sword, if such a thing happened,

Fang Shi, who was unskilled in dragon-specific abilities, might lose.

Fang Shi had realized: the so-called equal duel arena, though filled with complex rules that seemed to guarantee fairness,

actually had many loopholes—for example, Turis had wings and could definitely fly.

Fang Shi had no wings and could never fly.

Another example: the innate weapon specialty—Turis had it, and it was powerful.

But Fang Shi did not, because the innate weapon was claws.

Fang Shi had nails, but they were useless—the specialty did not recognize them.

It directly weakened Fang Shi’s close-combat ability.

He was still flesh and blood; he dared not boldly clash with a dragon’s sharp claws.

Turis raged with frantic attacks for a while, realizing it could not harm Fang Shi at all.

Suddenly, it broke down and wept: “Why? Why?”

“I’m still a child—why must you kill me?”

“Why must you slay dragons? What evil have I done?”

The voice of a child sent a chill through Fang Shi—Turis was indeed a young dragon.

He quickly made up an excuse: “You killed humans, so you deserve to die.”

Turis sobbed: “They didn’t come to disturb my sleep—they wouldn’t have died if they hadn’t tried to kill me.”

“I killed them only to survive.”

Fang Shi sighed: “Who doesn’t want to live?”

His gaze pierced through Turis, as if seeing something beyond, and he thought of many things.

Once, Fang Shi himself had been full of passion.

After the apocalypse, people helped each other and formed a self-rescue organization with survivors.

But abandonment, betrayal, survival, and killing wore away his heart.

All that remained was cold-bloodedness and the will to live.

“Turis, don’t you want to live?” Fang Shi suddenly shouted.

Turis froze, pausing its sobs: “If you won’t kill me, are you asking me to kill you?”

Turis’s mind couldn’t process it—it thought Fang Shi had gone mad.

Fang Shi shook his head: “No, you will die—but you will come back to life later.”

As a dragon with inherited knowledge, Turis naturally understood what Fang Shi meant.

“You’ll resurrect me?”

“Of course.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“You have no choice.”

“….”

In the end, Turis chose to trust Fang Shi and gave up its final resistance.

After all, it was still young and retained some childish traits—like believing in others.

Before death, Turis spoke at length with Fang Shi, including its accidental departure from home and the twenty-faced magical dice.

Fang Shi listened quietly and told it many stories.

“You must resurrect the great King of Earth and Mountains, Turis.”

Turis said in a low, youthful voice, flying willingly toward the descending force of law.

A flash of red light—and it turned to ash.

Fang Shi murmured: “I will. And not just you.”