"Dane," Shen whispered, his hands on Dane's shoulders. "Don't trust that thing. If it asks to come with us, refuse vehemently. It's too suspicious and more powerful than me. If something happens, I… I might not be able to protect you."
Dane's expression morphed. His eyes strayed downward before looking back at Shen and holding his hand with determination. "Don't worry, Shen bro." he said, looking at Shen's concerned face.
'Shen bro is right. How can we trust that guy? Shen bro had protected me all this time and kept me safe through the adversity. He's even thinking of how to protect me if something happens.'
Dane turned to the beast. Although he already decided what to do, the beast's power outmatched him. 'What if he gets mad and kills us both?' Dane slapped his cheeks. 'Focus.'
"Th-thanks for everything. We'll be on our way now."
Terasu looked at Dane evenly and bowed. "As you wish. Have a safe trip chosen one." he said and made way for Dane.
"Let's go Shen, bro!"
'Something is wrong. Would he let us go so easily?' Shen looked at Terasu and followed Dane. 'Don't tell me…'
Dane reached the end of the room. The floor tiles under him lit up. Shen followed him, his expression grave. He didn't feel at ease till he passed Terasu by, their eyes still on each other, neither giving an inch.
'It seems my worries were unfounded.'
The duo passed through the door and stepped on the stairs. The stairs stopped being diverse and took on a straight downward approach, like when they first entered the dungeon.
Even after he passed Terasu, Shen kept his eyes on him. Only when he stepped on the stairs did he let out a breath that he didn't know he held. 'This went well beyond what I predicted. I won't be careless like this again.'
The duo descended the stairs with Dane in the lead, like the previous floor. Dane's existence had become of utmost importance and very vital to continuing their dungeon exploration.
This time though, a whole fifteen minutes passed before finding an ending to their descent. Spotting a huge gate at the front, Dane hurried his pace.
The closer the two got, the better they could make out the gate. A weird shaped monster wearing glasses and wearing a robe painted the gate.
Like last time, Dane found writings on top of it.
'Brawns aren't the only path to power. To truly become powerful, comprehension and intelligence are of utmost need, just like energy. Come forth. To learn of true power, let the test determine your worthiness.'
This time the writing clearly stated what they are. There were no turn-rounds and riddles to confuse Dane.
"Shen bro, this door also has something written on its head."
Telling Shen what's written, Shen entered his deep thinking mode. Dane had seen how brilliant the ideas Shen came up with when he started pondering like this.
"I think I get the gist of it," Shen told Dane and pushed the door open.
"Shen Bro!"
Dane screamed. He remembered what happened last time. They entered fast, but as if mocking his expectations, nothing happened. No gigantic, unbeatable beast appeared. No incomprehensibly hard riddles. The only thing Dane saw was the long table in the middle of the room.
He watched as Shen semi-teleported in front of the table with a quick succession of steps. Shen picked up a scroll and Dane ran, catching up with him.
He looked at the scroll in Shen's hand. It had tiny words on them, barely made out. It's as if the writer tried fitting pages upon pages into one page. What surprised Dane, though, wasn't this. It was how easily Shen seemed to read the scroll.
His eyes traveled across the page in a fast pace, that Dane barely followed with his eyes.
Five minutes later, Shen sighed, putting the scroll down. He looked at Dane with an even expression. "Do you want the good or bad news first?" he asked.
"Umm, bad news."
"Then, you should know that this room won't let us out until we show the martial arts and magic written on the scroll. This isn't the bad news though, it's that we have 35 more minutes to finish that. I have read it all, but I need some time to comprehend it."
Shen spat one amazing thing after the other, and with each word Dane felt his heart fall the last word, his heart almost reached the ground.
"Wh-what's the good news?" he swallowed hard.
"The good news? I don't know if you can count it as good news, but I need ten to fifteen more minutes to completely grasp the writings. But, that would leave me with a compact time frame that I would need to demonstrate in. Problem is, I need to do that slowly and the amount of moves and words I need to say, probably won't be enough or barely fit it."
Dane, who had already hoped for a good outcome, felt his world shatter. If Shen wasn't here with him, he wouldn't know how anyone could survive or complete such tasks and floors as they did.
'Shen bro is really amazing. Simply too amazing,'
"I won't waste any more time. Try not to disturb." Shen turned around before remembering something. "Oh if we don't finish in time, we will get stuck here forever. A note at the end said so."
Dane immediately closed his mouth and with as little movement as possible, he sat faraway from Shen.
Shen closed his eyes and sat in a meditative pose. His breathing was even and calm, while his mind trailed on towards the words he read in the scroll. His mind worked the hardest it did since he came back.
He comprehended the martial arts slowly and in his mind various simulations ran to not waste time. Every martial art he understood got trained in his mind through different ways until he perfected it.
Shen had an impossibly high affinity to mastering and comprehending martial arts and spells. If he didn't have such abilities, he wouldn't have been able to finish in time
Thirteen minutes passed in silence before Shen opened his eyes. 'No more time to waste.' he stood up.