TDH Vol. 1 pt. 27

Fighting rats and goblos was even more effortless than before thanks to the speed boost I had. None of them were able to keep up with me. The only way for them to hit me was if I purposely let them.

Aside from that, the fourth floor was basically more of the same from the previous floors. Rats and goblos. Just… more of them.

Honestly, the dungeon was a pretty repetitive place so far. But maybe that was because it was just the first few floors? I had no idea.

The only variety that the fourth floor offered that the previous didn’t was that the goblos had a wider variety of weapons. Some of them had axes and swords, and a couple of the goblos I saw even had bows. But ultimately, between my speed and the dodging training with Elanah, they were no match for me.

Once I made it through the generic beasts I’d already killed plenty of times before, I came across a large, stone door that I had never seen before in the dungeon. All I ever saw were stairs and tunnels.

Guess this takes me to the boss? Problem… how am I supposed to open it?

I tilted my head at it before placing a single paw against it.

The door then slowly opened on its own without any further push from me needed.

Guess all that’s needed is a touch. Thanks for not making me look stupid by not being able to open the door.

Now, while the door might have opened, I wasn’t able to see what was actually in the room due to what looked like some sort of barrier in the doorway. It was a translucent barrier that let me see light on the other side, but it was warped enough that I couldn’t make any specific shapes out.

Keeping it secret?

I placed a paw on the barrier just to see how solid it was. I didn’t even know if I’d be able to go through it. Maybe there was something else I had to do first?

It turned out that there was nothing else I needed to do first. The moment my paw touched the barrier, the rest of my body was dragged in through it. It tossed me out on the other side of the barrier, allowing the door to close behind me to lock me in with the one who stood in the center of the room waiting for me.

I’m so tired of rats.

Standing in the center of the circular room was a massive rat about three times the size of the others. Meaning, the rat was about the size I was as a Chosen. Probably weighed a few times more, though, given how fat it was.

It even had a little crown on its head that I doubted it naturally had, meaning that the dungeon master probably put it there. How it stayed on whenever the oversized rat moved its head, I had no idea.

Everything was bigger about this rat, too. Its front teeth reached past its lower jaw and almost scraped against the floor with how long they were. They were seriously like swords instead of teeth! Both in size and how sharp they looked!

And unlike the other rats, I could tell that this one was fat. Seriously fat. The others were big, but their bodies were lean. It didn’t take much to get through their necks to the important parts. This rat, however, looked like I’d have to chew through layers of fat if I wanted to reach anything that would cause it to bleed out.

I don’t know if speed is going to help me here. With how fat this bastard is, I doubt I’d need to be as fast as I am to avoid its attacks, and being fast isn’t going to make biting into its neck any easier. Is there anything else I can try to go for? No… doesn’t look like it has any other weak spots. Other than… other than its eyes. Its head is big enough now that I could probably stand on top of it and scratch its eyes with my claws. Blinding it should make taking it out easier, but that doesn’t fix the problem of not being able to deal enough damage. Even if it’s blind, it’ll know where I am as soon as I bite it, and it wouldn’t be hard for it to fall over and crush me under it. Wait. If I get it to fall over…

I had an idea. I didn’t know if it was a good idea or if it would work, but it just might. The problem with it was that it involved putting myself in a risky position. If my plan didn’t work, I’d end up crushed underneath the rat and probably get a bone or five broken from its sheer weight. If it did work—well, then I’d potentially win the battle and defeat my first boss.

“And so, you have reached the first of my many bosses,” a certain somebody—the dungeon master, said. His voice sounded like it came from all around me. “Cheese. Cheese the Rat Queen. You see, she loves cheese so much that when I was trying to think of a name for her, she refused any name other than Cheese.”

Wait, she wanted it? Does that mean she’s—

“As you may have been able to guess, she is not a simple beast like all the others you have encountered within my domain. She is a soul beast, and the very first of my monsters to ever obtain the honor of bosshood. Ah, and do not worry about killing her. She enjoys a good fight and has been resurrected hundreds of times before, and so she will be again.”

Cheese nodded her head at me.

“Funny story about how she got her name, actually. An adventurer who carried nothing but cheese for food in his pack attempted to brave my dungeon in its early years. Cheese here killed him, discovered the abundant cheese in his pack, and helped herself to it rather than bring me the spoils of battle like she was supposed to. She has been horribly addicted ever since, which you may be able to tell by her size.”

Cheese looked up at the ceiling and screeched at it.

“If you do not want me to comment on your weight then you should consider watching it.”

Cheese turned her head the other way as if to turn it away from him in defiance.

I hated how relatable she felt because I didn’t want to find the enemy I had to kill relatable. She was an actual, living being. Beasts? Beasts act alive but aren’t. Feeling bad about killing a beast was the same as feeling bad about breaking a doll. But soul beasts… were truly alive. They had actual souls and were as intelligent as any Chosen or other person.

That meant Cheese was capable of actually thinking. Feeling. My attacks would cause real pain to her. She’d also be able to think and adapt to me during the fight, so I wouldn’t be able to exploit any repetitive behavior like with the normal beasts.

…

I had to fight somebody named Cheese.

I’m sorry, Cheese. Please don’t hate me for trying to kill you.

Thinking that, I was surprised by myself. Before being thrown into the dungeon, I never would have thought about casually killing somebody. But now… maybe it was because I knew we’d both get resurrected no matter what happened, but I didn’t feel opposed to fighting her to the death. I was worried, but I was worried about losing, not about killing her.

“Ah, by the way. Considering that Cheese here has lived countless more lifetimes than you—in fact, I would say that she is likely older than everybody in the city above by a considerable amount, it would be unfair of her to go against you at her full strength. Her overall capabilities have been reduced to but a tenth of what they truly are, and I have temporarily limited her memories so that she will only remember her first few battles. This should be more appropriate for a boss who comes after the enemies you have faced thus far.”

Only a tenth of her strength? And she won’t have all her memories of past battles? In that case, maybe this won’t be too bad after all.

“Anyways, I have talked enough. I will be resuming the normal flow of time in the room now so that you can put on a show for your audience, and I am sure that Cheese is itching to see if you are hiding any cheese underneath your fur.”

“There’s no cheese under there!” I barked. And what was that about the flow of time? Wait… the orb watching me isn’t moving at all. It’s always moving. Me and Cheese are moving around no problem though. Did he stop time or something to explain everything to me? I guess that’d make sense. If he explains this sort of thing to everybody the first time they come here, then the audience has probably heard all of that too many times already.

“Now then! Will you prevail over my boss on your first attempt? Let us see who is stronger!” the dungeon master announced once the orb was moving around again.

Alright, let’s—

Cheese charged straight at me with a speed that I never would have expected from her, dragging her fangs across the stone ground with enough friction to generate sparks.

I froze for a few seconds at the sight of her running at me. If it wasn’t for the lightning boosting my speed, I wouldn’t have gotten out of the way in time to avoid her thrusting her fangs down into where I was just standing.

And this is only a tenth?! How strong is this fat rat if this is only a fucking tenth of her strength?! And how am I supposed to kill her?! There’s no way that I can beat her! I’m barely fast enough to avoid her and there’s no way that I’ll be able to deal enough damage to kill her before I get tired!

I was screwed. Seriously screwed. The one plan I did have—I had no idea if it would even work anymore. I was confident it would work against a normal beast, but against a soul beast with actual intelligence, that was a different story.

I failed to see how the rat was any weaker than the hound I had to fight. If anything, the rat seemed even stronger!

I need a weapon to kill her, my fangs seriously aren’t going to cut it. Or her. But there’s nothing in here that I could use. The closest thing to a weapon in here is her teeth… her teeth.

Looking back at her to confirm, her teeth seriously were like swords.

She slammed her teeth against the ground like it was nothing to her. That probably means they’re sturdy enough to take some abuse. But if one of her teeth does break off… I might be able to use it. That sounds disgusting—using one of her teeth as a sword, but it could work. If it’s stupid but it works… or, I guess if it sounds disgusting but it works…

The problem was actually getting her to break her teeth. There was no guarantee that I’d even be able to get her to break them.

There was always my original plan, but it would be seriously hard to pull off with how strong I knew she was now.

But it was probably my best hope.

I kept on running until I reached the wall, jumped up, and sprung off of it toward her since she was following close behind me that whole time. I landed right on her back where I immediately tried taking a bite out of her, but I was proven right to doubt my fangs. Her skin was too loose and elastic for me to deal any serious damage. I made her bleed a little but that was it.

Next, I ran up her back toward her neck where I tried biting the back of it. But once again, I barely did anything. My teeth were just ineffective against her no matter what I tried. It was like trying to cut a roast using a slightly jagged fingernail.

I seriously need a weapon!

While Cheese tried shaking me off the back of her neck, the observing orb flew right next to me to get another close-up shot of the action. It was probably trying to show everybody how ineffective my fangs were against her rolls of fat.

And seeing the orb gave me an idea.

It was small enough to fit in my mouth and focused on the rat’s neck rather than me. So…

I bit it.

I held it between my jaws as tightly as I could. It was smooth and metallic which made it a bit difficult, but I kept a good enough grip to smash it down against the rat’s head. I was only able to get a single strike in considering I wasn’t using my fangs to hold onto her, but I did at least hit her once with a blunt object to the head. I didn’t expect it to do any serious damage to her, but I figured I could at least disorientate her a little with it. Give her a headache and make her dizzy. Something like that.

But that wasn’t all.

As soon as I landed on the ground, while she was recovering from being smashed in the head, I used the wall again to propel myself at full speed toward her teeth.

I smashed the orb directly into her right tooth and…

Cracked it.

I actually managed to crack it.

Her teeth might have been fine banging against the ground, but they weren’t designed to be smashed from the front.

Unfortunately, the orb managed to slip out of my mouth and made sure to maintain extra distance from me after that.

I wondered if I gave everybody a close-up of her teeth… or a close-up of the inside of my mouth. I had no idea what showed them.

But I did have another idea.

Once Cheese was fully recovered, the chase was back on as she tried her best to catch up to me. She dragged her teeth against the ground all the while. Looking back at her, I noticed the crack growing larger which I would have assumed was painful… but she didn’t seem bothered at all.

That meant she might not have even been aware of her cracked tooth.

And if she wasn’t even aware of it…

I stopped in my tracks to let her catch up. Surely enough, as soon as she was close, she raised her head before swinging it downward to thrust her teeth toward me.

My training with Elanah paid off since that helped me with dodging at the last possible second. I needed Cheese to commit to her attack, and commit she did.

Her teeth slammed into the ground.

And her right tooth broke off near the top.

I could tell she felt that going by how she squealed out in pain while shaking her head around.

While she was processing what just happened, I grabbed the tooth between my teeth and lifted it up.

Tried to, anyways.

She caught on to what I was doing and placed one of her fat paws down against the tooth, stopping me from picking it up as she swung her remaining tooth at me.

I was forced on the defensive again and wasn’t able to jump away fast enough. The bottom of her tooth grazed against my side, leaving a long but shallow cut in my torso.

If it was a beast who cut me, I would have been at least annoyed. Maybe pissed off.

But going up against another person? Another being with a soul?

I just tricked her into breaking one of her teeth. Considering that, I couldn’t bring myself to be mad at her for hurting me back.

Before doing anything else, Cheese swung her leg backward to push her broken tooth away. There was enough force in that swing to throw it all the way to the back side of the room, getting it as far away from me as possible.

“You’re not making this easy on me, are you?” I asked.

Cheese shook her head and… smiled.

“Wait, can you understand me?”

She nodded.

“Is it safe to assume that everybody in this place can understand me?”

Another nod.

“What about others like me? Like, everybody else sent in here?”

She shook her head that time.

“So, only those belonging to the dungeon can understand me?”

And another nod.

At least I figured that out.

But while I had her there…

“Can you let me kill you, please?”

She shook her head.

I figured that’d be the answer. “Then can you at least tell me how you keep that crown on top of your head? I seriously don’t get how it’s staying there. I didn’t see anything sticking it there while I was up there.”

Cheese looked up at the ceiling which gave me a feeling that the dungeon master was responsible for.

So, he basically had a fat, cheese-addicted rat who was practically immortal thanks to him, who could understand my barks, and he gave her a crown that somehow never left her head.

You’re one strange bastard.