System Change

Chapter 289: Casualty

Derek patiently waited for Tyron to recover, the whole time wondering if Brandis style of crafting was going to be as arduous mentally for her as it seemed to be for Tyron. Then again, Derek didnt pretend to have not heard Tyron call him a monster. He guessed that the person the smith was crafting for usually ran out of mana to infuse into their weapon well before Tyron tired out mentally.

Unfortunately for Tyron, and fortunately for Derek and his almost complete glaive, Dereks mentality was tested against the void for all those years, and his willpower was pretty extreme, at least according to Alanah. That, plus his wisdom being even better now than it used to be, made Derek terrifyingly proficient for the task.

And thus, two days passed as the smith recovered, and Derek waited. He never once thought that the raid dungeon would have such long bouts of boredom for himself, but at least he was well prepared with beverages, food from Silvi, and Greater Meditation if he ever needed to pass the time quickly.

Finally, Tyron stood from his sitting position and nodded at Derek, who had noticed the smiths movement out of the corner of his eyes. With a twinge of excitement, Derek watched the smith head back over to his temporary workshop. The man would be finished soon, and he would finally have a weapon suitable for his fighting style. At least, he hoped.

A few hours passed, and Edgar showed up and seated himself across the table from Derek. The young prince had a grim and contemplative look on his face as he stared down at his hands.

What is it? Derek finally broke the silence. It wasnt like Edgar to act this way.

Weve had our first casualty, the prince said sullenly.

What? Derek blurted. Someone died in the puzzle dungeon? Derek felt his heart fall to his stomach. Not because they lost someone, but because someone he considered a friend had gone into the trial.

The trial had been a seven-person, rare puzzle-type trial. Along with Elena Webb, the groups number one healer, Cain Ibarra, the Adventurers Guild Master from the capital, had led the trial. With the two of them, they took Timothy Nash, a low level, by raid team numbers, support-type class, Scarlet Mason, a level 230 archer-type class, Louise Bonilla, another archer who had leveled up greatly from the first trial, Layne Marshall, a level 232 sword wielder and Shae Holmes.

Shae was another that had leveled greatly from the first trial. It also made sense why Cain had chosen him to go along, as the two had a good level of trust and respect for each other. So, when Cain asked, Shae agreed. Of course, he would agree. The rewards were just too good to pass up.

It was also in agreement that whatever the next trial was, the Greenland cousins would take charge of it, as they still hadnt had a chance to go into any trial, and neither one of them was that keen on a puzzle trial.

So, when Derek heard that someone had been killed in the trial, he instantly thought about Shae.

The contract I have with Layne Marshall has disappeared. That he died is just about the only explanation for that, based on how the contracts are, the prince explained.

Derek let out an audible sigh of relief, which caused Edgar to flinch slightly. Sorry, he said. Not to take the death lightly, but I didnt know the guy. I do, however, know Shae. So I was relieved when you didnt say his name.

I know, Edgar said. I just hate losing a party member in a dungeon. I especially hate it because of the fact that I wasnt there to prevent it.

Yeah, but there was nothing you could do about it. Everyone made up their own mind to join, and they all made their own decision to go into that trial. Besides, the Guild Master of the Adventurers Guild in the capital, and Elena went with them. Plus, it was only a rare trial. Who would have thought something like this would have happened?

So, we rested up, got to one hundred percent, and began. We moved fast. With Scarlet and Louise. The second part of the trial wasnt too bad. At least until the maze started collapsing onto us. The floors all around us fell, leaving nothing but giant holes of nothingness below. With a single misstep, Layne fell. I dove to try to get to him, but Im not fast enough with my flight skill. Unfortunately, it didnt seem like Layne had such a skill.

We werent even sure he was dead until we made it to the end of the trial. As a warrior, he would have been able to survive any such fall, as long as he didnt land on a trap or something. Unfortunately, when we activated the orb, it verified that the entire party was there. And when we warped back here, he didnt come with us Cain sighed and looked deeply at Edgar. I am sorry.

Edgar stepped forward and put his hand on Cains shoulder. It seems like an accident, on top of the trial not being what any expected. Dont blame yourself. Ultimately, it falls on me.

Still for a puzzle trial to be like that. To have such a random possibility of death Derek muttered. What he didnt say was that if he, Edgar, or Avery had been inside the trial with them, even if someone had fallen, based on what Cain said, they could have easily caught them. Vanessa would have been able to, too. Apparently, flying-type skills were quite rare.

Well have to rethink our lineups, Edgar said. Put someone like Vanessa in to cover more weaknesses. We also know that we cant trust the description of the trial.

Everyone nodded. The crowd seemed much less enthusiastic about going into a trial now that they had their first casualty. Edgar should be able to use this, even as morose as it may be, as an excuse to send those powerful back in, even if they have already gotten great rewards.

What about the rewards? Derek asked. If you dont mind sharing. If you want to keep them to yourself, thats fine.

Cain snorted and flicked his hand, causing a small pile of potions to appear on the ground. Edgar whistled. Derek just looked at the potions, he was disappointed for them, but they didnt seem all that disappointed.

They were pretty much random, but are all the highest quality Ive ever seen. No permanent stat increases, but plenty that could get someone out of a bind, along with high-quality resurrection potions, experience and skill increase potions, and much more. Its quite the haul. They will work as great mission rewards at the guild.

Experience and skill increasing potion? Derek asked. Hed never seen or heard of one of those, at least not in anything other than games he used to play. But a potion that increased the rate of skill increases would be worth a pretty penny.

Yes, Cain said. The experience potions are great and all, but the skill increasing potion can be considered rarer than rare. Other than something that permanently boosts stats for someone who is already at max level, I cant think of another potion that could compete with it.

I cant either, Derek thought. He was currently considering doing some trading now.

We can talk about all that later, Edgar said. We need to see whats next and prepare for it. A lot of time was spent on that trial. Weve been in here for almost a month now, which is a year outside, yet we arent even halfway finished.

With that, Edgar walked over to the newly active trial orb and placed his hand on it. Fuck! he said.

What is it? somebody asked.

Its a duel. One person, epic trial