System Change

So, like that, Derek once again fell into a routine of sparring with Avery, watching Tyron work, chatting with Edgar, and focusing on his meditation skill.

In those days, Derek learned a bit more about the smith. Tyron didn’t seem to be as talented in making armor as he was in making weapons. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t talented, though. No, that was far from the truth. The giant of a man just happened to be extra talented when it came to the forging of weapons. He was also faster when forging weapons than armor.

Because of that, Derek didn’t believe he would be getting a new set of armor any time soon, but at least it would be some very high quality armor. It just wouldn’t be as high quality as his new weapon.

Unfortunately, even with the level difference, none of Derek’s skills leveled up when sparring against Avery, not even his freshly level 1 Polearm Specialty skill. He did manage to level his Telepathy skill up a couple of times to level 7 by chatting with Blitz. He was waiting for permission from Tyron to chat with Rocky, though, and the smith was pretty much always busy now.

There was, however, a skill that seemed to be leveling like crazy. That skill was his Time Prison. Since leaving the second trial, his Time Prison had already made it to level 14. Having a bunch of level 250 dragonkin locked away in the prison seemed to be just the thing needed for the skill.

He also slowly introduced Active Void Shift into his fighting repertoire. He and Avery had decided that he at least needed to use some skills to be able to keep up with the archer. Before adding Active Void Shift into the sparring sessions, Avery was beginning to lose interest, saying that it was like fighting a statue. So, with Silvi’s shared skill added to the mix, things got interesting once again.

Unfortunately, things didn’t stay casual and calm for very long. A handful of days after Asana Greenland entered the dueling trial, Edgar sent a communication to him and Avery to meet back up at the main camp. So, dropping what they were doing, they mounted Lyra and left Tyron alone with Rocky to continue his craft.

When they landed at the main camp, it was in an uproar. The biggest cause for the uproar was Victor Greenland, standing inches away from Edgar shouting at the prince. The elf’s usually pale face was red with fury.

“I’m telling you! There’s no way she’s dead. Your contracts must be wrong! I specifically gave her an escape scroll before she went into the trial. Besides, it was only an epic ranked trial. There’s no way she would lose her life to something in a trial like that,” Victor yelled.

Immediately, Derek knew what had happened, and his attitude changed to one of complete seriousness. The same thing that happened with Layne must have happened with Asana. The contract Edgar had with her must have been broken. And the fact that the trial orb was active once again didn’t bode well for the female elf.

“She must have broken the contract by using the escape scroll,” Victor continued.

“No, my contracts are solid. I’ve used the same ones dozens, if not hundreds, of times.” Edgar sighed, finally cutting in once he saw Avery and Derek arrive. “If she had used an escape scroll, I would have received a notification that the contract was broken. But I didn’t get that notification. I got one saying that the contract had ended. In the contract, there are only two ways to end it. The first is by completing the raid dungeon. The second… is by death.”

“Impossible!” Asana’s cousin yelled. Then he looked past Edgar at the trial orb and pushed the prince out of the way. “If she’s really gone, I have to see what did her in!” he rushed to the orb.

“Avery!” Edgar yelled. The next instant, Victor stopped in his tracks and stood stock still.

Derek noticed Lyra’s intense focus on the elf. Edgar must have already been communicating with Avery while doing his best to explain things and talk Victor down. Unfortunately, it seemed that he had failed.

Edgar sighed and grabbed the elf, tossing him over his shoulder, and moved away from the dungeon orbs. Everyone followed behind Edgar as he moved into the center of the camp. Once there, he nodded at Avery and Victor regained his senses.

“Wha-! What did you do to me!?” Victor yelled at the prince once he got his bearings.

“I just had to make sure you didn’t rush in and get yourself killed. You know I can’t lose two Greenlands in the same dungeon, much less the same trial. You need to calm down and think. Something about this trial was able to take Asana out in a matter of days. Your earth element may make you a bit stronger than your cousin, but she was no pushover,” Edgar explained calmly to the still seething Victor.

Finally, it seemed that the elf caught his breath and his brain once again began working. “So, what are you going to do?” His face was still blood red in anger and emotion, but at least he wasn’t running through Edgar to get to the trial orb again.

Edgar sighed and looked around, his gaze landing on both Derek and Avery for a few seconds, then shifting his eyes again to look over the rest of the party.

“I know we had a deal that we wouldn’t go into another trial unless absolutely needed after we gained the rewards from the dragon trial, but I think this may be the case where it is absolutely needed,” Edgar explained.

“I’ll go!” Avery quickly stepped forward with his eyes shining.

Derek couldn’t allow that, though. He had a new weapon that needed to be tested… plus… he was bored. “No, I’ll go!” He put his hand on Avery’s shoulder and pulled the archer back.

“I’ll fight you for it,” Avery said with a vicious tone in his voice.

“I don’t think you really want to do that,” Derek said. “Besides, I didn’t get anything from the dragon trial. I got a shitty skill. A single shitty skill that I’m not going to use. Everyone else other than Tara got actual dragon mounts. Plus, you got good skills along with that. If anything, I’d say I shouldn’t be on the list of people that shouldn’t be running dungeons.”

Derek could barely say what he just did with a straight face. Of course, nobody else knew that he had a stable full of dragonkin. They had all made a pact not to say anything to anyone but Tyron.

Edgar’s mouth twitched as the prince tried to keep his face from breaking into a smile. Avery’s eyes widened at Derek’s scheme, then he scrunched up his face. Derek could tell that the archer wanted to say something, but he knew he’d been beat. Besides, Derek wasn’t kidding when he said Avery didn’t want to fight him.

The archer may kick his ass every day when they spar, but Derek was quite sure if he used all his skills and abilities, it wouldn’t actually be that hard of a fight.

Derek patted Avery on the back. “Besides, we’re still going hunting once we get out of here, right?” He used his second card on the archer. The first thing he said was meant for the other raid members. They would be much less likely to object to Derek going into a trial if they thought about it like that. The second was to appease Avery.

“Fine,” Avery clicked his tongue. “You win. But next time something like this comes up, I’m going in.”

Derek shrugged.

Of course, Edgar looked at Derek and Avery with a furrowed brow. They hadn’t said anything about a hunt to him, so he had to be confused. But soon, the price shrugged it off.

“Is everyone okay with Derek going into the epic ranked trial? Or, is there someone else here, someone who thinks they are much stronger than Asana, that wants to give it a try?” Edgar stopped Victor as he began to say something. “Not you.”

Everyone mostly shifted their focus to Cain and Vanessa, but they all knew that Vanessa was under an entirely different contract than they were themselves, so they were all mostly looking at Cain.

“I’m fine with Mr. Hunt going in,” Cain said. “I think it may be for the best. After experiencing that last trial, I can’t even imagine what happened that got Ms. Greenland killed. I’ve never seen him fight, but I know that Mr. Hunt is quite the tank, and he should have a great deal of offense as well. He’s a good choice.”

With Cain’s backing, nobody else spoke up to object. Edgar nodded at Cain.

“Follow me,” Edgar said to Derek, and led him off to the side, away from everyone else. “Are you sure you want to do this? Avery may actually be better suited for a duel than you. He gets to go in with Lyra, after all.”

“Do we even know if we’re able to use contracted beasts, even bonded ones, in a duel like this?” he asked. “Besides, I doubt there’s anything in this dungeon that I can’t outlast.”

“Very well,” Edgar sighed. Then, a scroll appeared in his hand and he passed it over to Derek. “This is one of my escape scrolls. Use it if things go sideways. I would hate it if we lost all of your… items because you died.” Of course, the ‘items’ Edgar was talking about were all the dragonkin and dragonkin materials he held.

Derek was going to object, but he thought it would actually be good to have an escape scroll. He didn’t know how his Void Travel skill would affect the dragons inside his Time Prison if he used it, but at least with an escape scroll, he would be able to get them out safely… if he could use an escape scroll with his prison active. So, he put the scroll away, inside his storage bracelet.

“Thanks,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll be fine, though.”

“Me too.” Edgar nodded. “I guess we’ll see you when you get back. Try to be quick about it. Asana’s death has taken a toll on both our morale and clearing speed.”

“Will do,” Derek said before they walked back to the gathered team members.

“Alright, looks like I’m headed in,” Derek said to Avery. “You’re going to have to find yourself another sparring partner for a while.”

“Don’t die,” Avery said.

“Don’t worry,” Derek replied. Then, he walked out of the middle of the camp and to the dueling trial’s orb. Next, he put his hand on it and viewed the trial information.

Dungeon Trial

Trial Type

Duel

Participants

1

Trial Difficulty

Epic

Participant 1/1

He then went back to the previous screen and selected ‘enter trial.’

Participants Ready: 1/1

Derek Hunt: Ready

Another notification came in next.

Entering Trial in 3… 2… 1…

With that, a blinding light flashed, and Derek was gone.