System Change

Derek moved over to the camp and looked at the surroundings. In the short time that he was dealing with everyone inside the Time Prison, everyone else had begun loading up all of their belongings. For a group of what was twenty-five people, they had brought much more than they could have ever possibly needed.

But, now that they were closing in on the end of the dungeon, everyone was ready to leave. Only a few of the essentials weren’t yet loaded. Things like Tristan’s tent where he still worked on growing Ciera’s limbs back had yet to be packed.

Derek nodded as he took in the view. It looked like he wouldn’t actually need to go forward and make them pack up. He guessed that since they were all veterans; they knew better than to leave important things out before a boss fight. Stuff like that would probably be part of adventuring 101, after all.

So, instead of going over and interacting, Derek found a nice, quiet area and waited. He planned to slip into a light meditation and relaxed—preparing himself for the upcoming fight. He needed to be ready for anything that the system decided to throw at him. And looking at everything that had already happened, he had a feeling that the final boss was going to be much more difficult than all the previous trials.

It didn’t take Derek long at all to slip into a light meditation. He made sure to keep alert enough to notice any changes in the surrounding atmosphere so he wouldn’t be surprised by anything or anyone. And like this, Derek let the time drift by.

Derek opened his eyes with only a single hour left before the scheduled boss fight. During his meditation, he had felt Avery and Lyra move close to him before meditating themselves. After checking the dungeon time, Derek nodded and stood.

“Wake up.” Derek walked over to Avery and said, causing the man to open one eye and look back at Derek. “It’s about time. I need you to help me gather everyone.”

Without saying a word, Avery stood and brushed off his leather pants with his hands. He gave Derek a slight smile and a nod, then took off. Derek shook his head. It was easy to see the twinkle in the man’s eyes—he was looking forward to the boss fight more than Derek was.

Almost everyone was already waiting near the trial orbs. Doing a quick head count, Derek counted seventeen people—eighteen, if he included himself. They were missing Avery, Vanessa, and Tyron. Soon, that was remedied as Avery brought the two back with him.

Finally, all twenty-one people in the raid party were gathered. They had started as a full team of twenty-five, but Asana Greenland and Layne Marshall had fallen, while Edgar and Louise Bonilla had left using escape scrolls. Derek inspected everyone one last time before speaking.

The entire party was antsy—whether they were itching for a fight or just ready to get out of the dungeon, Derek didn’t know. It’s probably both, Derek thought. Next, his eyes fell on Tristan Allister and Ciera Cook, who were standing very close to one another. The fact that Ciera was able to stand at all after having her legs bit off at the knees by a group of wolves in the first trial said something about Tristan’s healing skills.

Though Derek could see that the woman was still a bit wobbly on her new feet, so she most likely either wasn’t used to them, or she wasn’t completely healed yet. Tristan’s eyes locked onto Derek’s when he looked their way, and the healer nodded. Derek nodded back and continued scanning the crowd.

Victor Greenland was in the middle of everyone, yet alone. People tended to give the elven man with a short fuse—at least after Asana Greenland died—a wide berth. Derek hadn’t gotten to know the man much before his cousin died, so he didn’t know how much of an asshole he really was. Still, he suspected that his normal behavior wasn’t far off from what he’d shown in their time together.

John Doyle and Ray Fergus—wind and earth mages respectively—were the two people who had been left out of the entire dungeon thus far. Looking at them, Derek felt… nothing, really. They were both under level 230, and no chances had really come up for lower-level people after the first trial. They would still get rewarded with something for the full dungeon completion, so he wouldn’t worry about them.

Finally, his eyes drifted over everyone else, one by one. Most of the people who had taken part in the dungeon had already hit level 250 or came very close, and they had been rewarded with something great—whether it was rare potions or just extra stat points. This group of twenty-one should be stronger than the group of twenty-five that entered the dungeon at the beginning at this point. Well… maybe not, Derek thought. I’d take Edgar and Blitz over the freshly leveled up people in the group any day.

“I see that you’re all raring to fight this dungeon boss, and get the hell out of here,” Derek said, causing anyone who was chatting to stop and look his way. “So am I.” Seeing that everyone was quiet and now paying attention to him, Derek continued. “Our plan for this boss is going to be pretty simple.”

“Myself, Avery, and Vanessa are going to take point and everyone else can join in the fight once we all figure out what we’re dealing with. The boss’s difficulty level is unknown, which means that there’s a good chance that it will be legendary rank or even higher.”

“Higher than legendary?” Someone muttered loudly from the crowd.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past the system to throw us all something we’ve never seen before. That’s kind of been the theme of this raid dungeon so far. I mean, we were fighting dragons in the second trial, so anything could happen. But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that we receive no more casualties during this raid,” Derek explained.

“So, while Avery, Vanessa, and me start the fight first, you all need to look out for the boss’s mechanics—study its skills and movement. I don’t want anyone getting hurt if we can’t help it. And, speaking to that, I will be opening my Time Prison up near the battle area. If you get injured or if the fight becomes too much for you, nobody will fault you for retreating into it.”

“What happens if you die while we’re inside?” This time, he knew the voice that spoke. It was Victor.

“I have no clue,” Derek said. “But I can tell you that if I’m dead, everyone else will either already be inside my Time Prison or would have already been dead much longer than me.”

“You’re that confident?” someone else said.

“In my ability to survive? Yes,” Derek replied. “Anyway, let’s get back on topic. If you retreat inside the Time Prison, it may look a little different from before. Also, I have a couple guests inside, and would rather you not attack them. I promise, they will not try to attack you, either. They just have a bit of a… reputation, and I’m sure some of you may recognize them.”

Seeing that nobody asked another question about it, Derek continued. “So, when the boss appears, I want all the support classes to hit everyone with all the buffs they have and to hit the boss with all the debuffs in their arsenal. I want the healer with the highest level health regeneration skill to cast it over the party. It’s all pretty basic and a bit cautious, but it’s better than being reckless.”

“Archers and mages, you know the drill. You are ranged damage. Don’t blow all your cooldowns all at once in the beginning. You’re all veterans. I’ll trust that you all know how to fight.” Derek looked over the group. He had felt a slight tension in the air ever since things went quiet. “Are there any questions?”

“How are we going to split the loot?” Avery asked, still with that gleam in his eyes. “The boss’s corpse, that is.” Avery’s eyes weren’t the only ones with a gleam in them. When he talked about looting the corpse, Tyron, as the party blacksmith, also perked his ears up.

“That’s something we’ll find out once the fight’s over,” Derek said. “We don’t even know what the boss will be, so there’s no sense in even talking about it. It could be a specter or something and leave no body behind when killed. It’s pointless to talk about that until we know what we’re fighting?”

“Any other questions?” Derek asked. He was in a good mood now that it was the final day of the dungeon, so he was extra nice in allowing questions. However, it seemed like there was nothing else. “No? Good! In less than an hour, we will be heading into the final fight of this raid. Be ready!”

With that, Derek left everyone to their own devices to prepare. He went to where his Time Prison was erected and took it down. It was currently too far away from the trial orbs to be useful in the fight, so he needed to move it closer. He probably should have stuck his head in and said he was moving the prison, but he shrugged—Bones and Ogre would get over it.

Back close to the camp, Derek focused and opened the door to the Time Prison where everyone could see it and rush to it in time if needed. This time, he made the door a bit bigger than he would need for a single person—he hoped nobody would need to use it, but he would hate for people to die because they got stuck on the outside because it was too small.

The Time Prison drew some more looks from the group, but since everyone already knew about it from the beginning of the dungeon, nobody bothered asking any questions or moving to check it out. Derek would still prefer that nobody ended having to use it—he didn’t really want people meeting Bones and Ogre inside or seeing the giant cells holding the dragons. However, he was more than confident enough in his own powers now, so if they did end up learning of the captive dragonkin, it wouldn’t cause too much of a problem for him.

Every minute that passed felt like hours, but finally, the preparation timer the dungeon had given to them finally reached zero. Derek was going to move to the dungeon orb to activate it, but before he got a chance to, each one of the trial orbs shot to the air, then down and into the main dungeon orb. One by one the trial orb vanished and the dungeon orb grew larger.

Finally, after the final trial orb was consumed by the dungeon orb, Derek received a notification.

Preparation Timer Depleted…

Summoning Dungeon Boss…

Summoning Dungeon Boss…

Error…

System Interference Detected…

Derek’s eyes widened, and he felt a chill go down his spine. Quickly, he looked over at Avery, who was still standing there, calm. “Avery! Do you have a notification? What does it say?”

Avery looked back at him with a frown, but shrugged. “It’s summoning the dungeon boss.”

As countless thoughts were running through Derek’s head, they were interrupted again by a notification.

System Assistance Detected…

Please Stand By…

The same message appeared in front of him, but was quickly followed up by another—one he hadn’t expected.

Summoning Dungeon Boss…

Summoning Successful…

Prepare For Battle…

“Fuck!” Derek yelled. “Support! Cast your buffs! Healers! Cast regeneration!” His roar drew everyone’s attention. Why the fuck would the system need assistance from that other system?! Seeing how serious he was being, everyone did as told and the buffs soon fell upon him.

“Support and healers!” he shouted again. “Retreat into the Time Prison! Anyone with an epic or lower rarity class at a lever below 250, retreat to the Time Prison!” Most of the support and healers reacted, but the battle classes looked around, confused. “I said fucking retreat! Now!” He unleashed every ounce of his aura as Silvi landed on his shoulder.

‘What is it?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know, but I think we’re fucked!’