Chapter 69
69. Duel
The first thing I asked after hearing Eleanor was whether the duel she meant was the kind I knew.
“Yes, a normal duel.”
Eleanor thinks I'm an adventurer who crosses dimensions, so she also knows I'm ignorant of this world's common sense.
If Eleanor says it's just a normal duel, then it must be the duel I know.
A public fight with observers, held to decide victory and defeat while staking honor.
Eleanor then explained the duel with a few examples, and it all sounded perfectly ordinary.
I had wondered if there might be some distinctive elf-style duel rules, but apparently not.
No, but isn't this a little too sudden?
A duel involving royalty from two hostile races isn't exactly ordinary. At the very least, they should have told me beforehand.
“That's not like you. Even if I had warned you, it wouldn't really have changed anything.”
“I could at least have prepared for the duel.”
“Prepare? When the opponent is that flimsy prince, what exactly would you have prepared for?”
Eleanor snorted as if I'd said something ridiculous. Come to think of it, she wasn't wrong.
That high elf prince had been completely shut down when I had just entered floor 7, unable to do anything to me.
At that level, he could never be my opponent now, after learning so much from Rizmel and Eleanor and growing stronger.
“Of course they'd try some tricks of their own, but this isn't a gap you can close with petty schemes.”
“True enough.”
“They'll probably make the rules to their liking or demand a handicap, but at your level, anything should be fine.”
No one knew my strength as well as Eleanor did, and she probably knew that prince's strength better than I did too.
If Eleanor says there won't be even the slightest variable, then I guess there probably won't be.
Still, if this is the final quest on floor 7, isn't it a little too easy?
But if you think about the average strength of a floor 7 challenger, it's not actually that strange.
Come to think of it, what floor of the Tower of Trials would my current strength be at?
Just going by raw stats I'm at the level of a challenger in the floor 20s, and if you factor in skill, you could even put me above a floor 25 ranker.
Of course, there's the question of whether Choi Gil-hyun, the Spear Technician, is a fair yardstick for a floor 25 ranker.
That guy's stats were high, but his actual skill was about goblin tier.
Even the rankers who bus low-floor users go into boss fights in a proper party.
That's because they have to blow the boss up fast, with no variables, so the newbies don't get hurt.
Choi Gil-hyun was probably the one soaking up all his party's buffs and dumping skills for burst damage.
Which is why the idiot couldn't do anything but thrust.
So he's not a suitable sample of what strength looks like. I can't jump to the conclusion that I'm above a floor 25 ranker.
Of course, it's certain that I'm well past floor 7 level, so there's nothing to worry about this time.
Still, I'm curious.
Exactly how strong am I?
**
The duel date, decided without my input, was a week later, so there was plenty of time.
Of course, it wasn't going to be some grand battle, so I didn't do any special training for the duel.
I just practiced swordsmanship as usual and kept working on meditation and mana manipulation, which were still giving me trouble.
Other than that, I would go around with Eleanor, spinning pointless tales of dimension-crossing adventures, or visit the queen.
The Dark Elf queen had a face very similar to Eleanor's, and an expression that looked rather exhausted.
I thought she'd probably look at me, the man trying to break off an engagement meant to secure peace, with a very sour expression, but unexpectedly, she didn't.
Maybe she just didn't show it on the outside, but she only treated me with a blank, businesslike attitude.
To be honest, her crown made of World Tree roots, said to hold tremendous mana, drew more of my attention than the queen herself.
Anyway, a week passed like that.
Because of its nature, the path to the boss room on floor 7 is very straightforward.
There are even parts where the regular field is rougher than the labyrinth area. In practice, once you finish the faction quest, you can challenge the boss right away.
If I stay in the Dark Elf village too long, I'll let my guard down.
Finish the duel, take the reward, defeat the boss immediately, and head up to floor 8.
Floor 7's boss isn't a good matchup for a close-range fighter like me, but with the kind of stats expected at this floor, I should be able to beat it easily.
If I leave too abruptly, Eleanor will be disappointed, but I can't stay stuck on floor 7 for that reason.
Besides, we'll be meeting again once I get to floor 8 anyway.
Today, I'm leaving floor 7.
“Phew...”
After finishing the last training session, including mana manipulation, I took a moment to catch my breath.
I could feel an impressive presence outside. This unusually intense flow of mana was definitely Eleanor.
“It's about time, my dear.”
I answered that I understood and went outside. There was still some time before the duel, but Eleanor had deliberately called me out early.
She said that since this was a romantic occasion where two men duel over one woman, we should at least dress up a little.
“The king of those tree-huggers is observing too, apparently. We need to knock their pride down a peg.”
I didn't want to, but I accepted it for now.
Even if it's called dressing up, it's really just making the combat armor look a little fancier. It won't affect the duel.
“Good. Let's go.”
Because the side that accepts the duel decides the location and the rules, we had to go into the High Elf territory.
Of course, wary of the high elves pulling some trick, several dark elves besides Eleanor came along as observers.
And perhaps because this was an important duel, the Dark Elf queen and the High Elf king both came to observe.
-rustle, rustle.
Parting the bushes and going into the great forest, we soon met the other high elves.
My duel opponent himself, the prince, and a few escort knights had come to greet us.
It looked like only the knights were supposed to come, but even the prince came out.
“Heh.”
The moment Eleanor saw the prince's face, she deliberately clung to my arm.
“Ghk...!”
The prince ground his teeth and glared at me as if he wanted to kill me. He had plenty of fighting spirit.
I heard they had known each other well since childhood because of the engagement.
Who would've thought I'd ever play the role of a blond, tanned punk stealing someone else's childhood friend.
-tap!
As the brief standoff continued, one of the prince's escort knights suddenly sprang out.
He came charging with a dangerous air, a sharp sword in hand.
“Why are you here, vile human swordsman!”
The one charging at me while shouting was the same High Elf knight I'd beaten up last time.
**
The dark elf knights who came with us as observers tried to respond, but I moved first.
I didn't even think about saving strength for the duel.
-clang!
I blocked the knight's swinging sword with my own and casually glanced around.
Seeing that even the High Elf prince was badly flustered, it didn't seem like those pointy-eared bastards were pulling any tricks.
From the way he was shouting about why I was here, it looked like he'd charged in without realizing I was the prince's duel opponent.
Then if that's the case, even if I don't handle him myself, the people around here will sort the situation out.
But it'd be a little disappointing to just let him off like that.
“Perfect timing.”
He's the perfect opponent to test my skills against.
The high elf knight still hadn't figured out the situation and kept swinging his sword at me.
-clang, clang! Clang!
As before, his sword path was extremely sharp and changed in all sorts of ways. His swordsmanship really is quite good.
Before, I had only been able to deal with the combination of his swordsmanship and shield technique by using irregular moves with various weapons.
But now that I'd learned to expand and amplify my senses, those flashy techniques looked trivial.
Of course, this guy probably has sensory enhancement too.
-whoosh!
I read the shield attack, which came in one beat faster than usual, two beats ahead, and dodged it.
Perhaps not expecting me to dodge, the high elf knight's eyes went wide.
This guy had already been easily countered by my irregular tricks before, when he had sensory enhancement and I didn't.
Then what about now, when I'd reached the same realm of sensory enhancement?
I caught the knight's arm as he swung the shield.
Then I pulled him off balance and slammed him into the ground.
-boom!
“Ugh!”
It's a martial art I naturally trained alongside swordsmanship.
It's a technique that uses the opponent's force against them while adding my own, so the impact should be considerable.
I raised my fist, aiming for the face of the knight sprawled on the ground.
[Iron Wall]
Wreathed in [Iron Wall], which had grown even stronger as my spirit affinity increased, I brought my fist down.
-boom!
This guy wasn't much after all.